story
Volume 23, Number 4

The Vision

K. Farr

translated by Kai—J. Melcher


Homeless and without even one penny I went astray in Rastatt, a small town in Southern Germany. Its nightlife appears strange to me. It was freezing, and icy wind swept through the roads. I put my hands in the pocket of my parka, but I felt the wind even at my hands. Running and running, I tried to stay warm and didn’t know where to go. It drove me along the shopping boulevard. Nobody was to be seen. Only an empty beer can, driven by the wind too, was my companion. But here was light!

It appeared to be a main road; cars were passing by, the headlights seemed to be looking at me without souls. The howling wind was everywhere. People were appearing, passing me by. I got the feeling they were without souls and home, like the wind. I got tired. There was a small wall where I sat down tired. Suddenly I saw a picture; it couldn’t be real: A wooden fence for creepers, which you find in houses and sometimes in coffee houses. It was crazy, this vision, but I had the illusion it would shelter me from the wind. The howling of the wind surrounded me, and I felt in a strange way hidden. The illusion became more and more reality.

There was a bookshelf, a bed with a quilt beneath it. I wished to lie down on the bed. That can’t be possible, I thought, and so I was drawn back a little to reality. But then, only a moment later, I felt very well and warm, like at home.

That I could freeze to death didn’t come to my mind. Surely I would have sat there till early morning, so nice was the vision. But the yelling horn of an ambulance destroyed my fence, my bookshelf and the bed. Only for a moment the horn was louder than the wind. Then there was the ice wind again, without pardon, so very cold, creeping into the bones.

I stood up, my complete body shaking. Even to become a little bit warm, I started to run, my hands buried deeply in my pockets. To wait for the morning, I looked for a place in where I could stay safe from the terrible wind while waiting for the morning.

~