Posts Tagged monika kalan

This is another story of Monika, but as an experiment I'm going to write it in Swiss German. Apologies to literally everyone else who might read this as I doubt you'll ever be able to. I'd love it if you could, though! The title means ‘Summer days’.

Please read Of Sun and Rain (latter) first.

Monika hesitated for a moment before she knocked on Florian's door. Maybe it wasn't right to meddle with his affairs after all. Much to the chagrin of her consciousness boredom won over the conflict and so she proceeded. After knocking she heard some things tumble over and Florian cursing. He then seemed to stomp towards the door and practically ripped it open. He didn't look particularly pleased. Upon seeing Monika he let out a short sigh and asked “What is it?” “Well, you see, I was just wondering if everything was ok with you since…” “Since what”, he interrupted her and raised an eyebrow questioningly. Monika blushed and avoided his gaze. She went on to stammer “To be honest I don't know, but you seemed to act kinda strange and I was thinking you weren't quite being really completely honest earlier at dinner and so I thought I might ask if… if there was anything going on?” Florian didn't say anything for a while, but Monika noticed him breathing in deeply. He was most likely considering how to answer to that. She hadn't been completely wrong with her suspicion after all, Monika thought to herself with no lack of joy. Florian coughed briefly and looked back into his room to say “I'm just… really busy right now, so I might just be stressed out, alright?” He looked her in the face again and went on “So really, don't worry about it.” Monika didn't answer. She intensely studied his face for any clues on what he might be hiding. Feeling that all that could be said had been said, Florian sent her off with “I need to get back to work” and closed the door in front of her face.

Quiet dinners like these were not an odd occurrence for Monika at all. In fact, both of her parents were rather quiet types, which was carried over to their children as well. Out of all four of them, Florian was probably the most talkative; eventually trying to liven things up a little by initiating a conversation, but it usually never went all too far. While to outsiders this lack of communication might seem strange, Monika hardly ever lost any thoughts on the matter as it seemed perfectly natural to her. After all, there usually wasn't anything exciting to talk about anyway, so why bother.

Lost in the world of words, time passed quickly. Before Monika could notice, dinner was served and the darkness had reclaimed the streets outside. Both of her parents were already seated as Monika hurried into the living room to eat. She hastily threw a greeting towards her father who grunted in response and just as she was about to sit down the front door crashed open and Florian rushed in. Anja immediately shouted “clean yourself off or you'll have to do the dishes today!” The door closed and after a while Florian came in again, this time without taking a ton of snow with him.

Hearing the bell for the last time was a great relief for Monika. She could finally put school out of her mind for the day and head home to read some books. Immediately she got excited to continue reading “The Judge and His Hangman”, intrigued to find out how commissar Bärlach would continue his case against Gastmann. Eager to get home she quickly copied down the homework from the blackboard and packed her things.

But who entered the room was not Mr Zaugg at all, neither was it a secretary as Monika didn't recognize him. The man wore a raggedy, gray suit with a bleached-blue tie. His hair matched his clothes in colour and was accompanied by thick eyebrows and a large moustache. Generally the impression he gave was that of a moving dust-cloud. He look round the class for a while, grumbled and turned around to face the blackboard. He slowly wrote “Latin” in rather large block-letters and finally spoke with a chuntering voice “Good morning, class. I'm Mr Montavon. As Mr Zaugg probably told you already I'll be stepping in for him for the coming two weeks.” Monika didn't recall any such thing and by the looks of the rest of the class neither did anyone else. Mr Montavon either didn't notice or didn't care and went on to continue with their material.

The bell finally put an end to the terror regime of the history lesson and Mr Denzler quickly hurried out without declaring the homework for next week. All the better, thought Monika and looked out of the wide classroom windows. A heavy snowstorm wailed outside, making it impossible to see anything except for a flurry of snowflakes. Mesmerised by the dance of the particles, Monika got lost in thought. Meanwhile the rest of the class was occupied with preparing for the next lesson in Biology, some of them hastily discussing the exercises they had to solve for today, others re-reading some of the chapters in the textbook.

Monika stomped ahead through the freezing morning cold. She progressed slowly as the snow lay thick on the streets and the cold was gnawing on her bones. Luckily the way to school wasn't all too long and the thought of napping for a bit before the first lesson motivated her to hurry ahead.

I don't think it's wrong to assume that everyone has experienced days that in retrospect seemed to be rather peculiar. When things don't go according to plan and slightly trail off course, a feeling of uncertainty starts to build up. What follows is going to be a recounting of one such day in Monika's life.