Last revised: February 04, 2008

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ANNA'S CHILD

Marc Lensly

A warm, blinding winter sun was trying its utmost to penetrate the little wooden hut which was enfolded in a shroud of tranquillity on the hillside leading down into the valley. Everything was covered in the purest snow ever imaginable.

Exactly the way Anna liked it.

She was busy preparing a little breakfast for herself and treasured the morning quiet as she was going about her normal morning routine.

Not time to let the sun in yet, she said to herself.

Still a bit of privacy and then she would be able to allow the outside into her little kingdom.

For the umpteenth time she realised how much she liked her little hut here in Litzirüti, situated on the hillside. Approximately one kilometre from the roadside, she overlooked the tremendous valley with all its slopes and trees that grew all the way down to the bottom. The mountain on the opposite side was just as impressive as the one on her side of the valley. When she opened her backdoor in the mornings, she could always appreciate the greatness of this giant that started escalating directly after the break that the small main road caused in this magnificent part of the world.

The tiny village of Litzirüti was more-or-less twenty-five kilometres from the city of Chur. Anna was wondering when was the last time that she actually took the train down the mountain to the city.

She couldn't really remember.

As a matter of fact, she preferred not to go to a big city at all.

At times, when she needed something important and she couldn't find it at the village's local store, she would take a slow walk up the mountain to go do her shopping in Arosa. She found the five kilometre walk quite pleasant and usually made a whole outing of it.

The articles and short stories that she wrote for the local newspaper of Arosa were normally given to the storekeeper (who went up to Arosa on a daily basis), who then handed them in at the offices whenever they were completed.

Shortly after she moved here, she invested in an electric typewriter. Fortunately there was electricity in the hut. After years of living and working in München, she managed to save up a lot of money and thus came to live here in Switzerland, shortly after her misfortune a few years ago.

It was with utmost reluctance that her mind went back to her birthday in 1990.

Her friends still teased her that she was hitting the big 30. A special evening was organised for her and after a wonderful evening of wining and dining in the city centre, they all decided to go dance away all the calories in a nightclub.

It was here that she had met HIM. She never even asked what HIM was called. Surely he must have introduced himself through the course of the night, but she always used to refer to him afterwards as merely HIM, seeing that she couldn't remember his name.

It was an evening of pure bliss as they made love until the sun came up. As much as she treasured those moments of sexual pleasure and emotional intensity, she still recalled with horror what happened afterwards.

The fact that she fell pregnant because of the handsome stranger didn't bother her in itself. As a matter of fact - she was overjoyed. No responsibilities to anyone except herself and the little one who was growing inside of her.

Then the whole dream came crushing down. A miscarriage at 7 weeks (only a few weeks after she was informed that she was pregnant) left her totally devastated and absolutely empty. With vivid images and emotions she could still remember the pain and the blood.

Her friends were so supportive, but nothing could substitute the feeling that a part of her life was torn from her body and it would never be replaced.

It was with a friend that she came over here for a week or so to recover and she immediately fell in love with the area. Her resignation was handed in after her return to work and a few weeks later she moved into her wooden hut, which she purchased over the phone from a retired couple who decided to move into an old-age home.

Her first priority was the typewriter.

She didn't want to go work in an office again and seeing that she worked for a publisher in München, decided to apply her skills in the privacy of her hut.

At first she just wrote insignificant pieces regarding the area and tried to sell them to the local paper. Her talent was spotted immediately and the initial assignments by the paper soon turned into her working full-time as a journalist for the paper. Nothing extreme, but she enjoyed what she was doing. Approximately two years ago she bought her own PC and straight away started writing a children's book.

Much time and effort were put into this work. For Anna it was like nurturing a child and not just writing some nonsense that she could eventually make same money with.

A sudden meow from the backdoor shook her out of her thoughts.

“Poor thing”, she said.

It was the stray cat that wanted to come inside. Anna's only real companion for quite some time. She opened the back door to let him in.

Another "him", she smiled.

I really have a problem putting a name to a face, she mused.

The cat's bowl seemed to be missing as Anna looked around in the kitchen. The kitchen was actually situated in one corner of the hut, as was the lounge (in the other corner) and her bedroom in the third corner. A small partition cornered off the bathroom and toilet.

As she reached for a clean bowl on the cupboard above the stove, she accidentally dragged a plate underneath it with the bowl that came down with an enormous speed. The side of the plate crushed down on her foot with such a force that tears came to her eyes instantaneously.

The cat decided that it was much safer underneath the table and was in his place of safety in a second. "Scheisse!" Anna exclaimed.

The throbbing set in straight away. She tried to ignore this and started dishing up some food for the big, grey cat. Miraculously the plate wasn't broken and she just put it on top of the stove. She was thinking that maybe she should put some cream or lotion on her foot before it started swelling up.

On her way to the small bathroom in the corner she all of a sudden realised that a strange, chanting kind of noise was coming from outside. Or maybe it was a high-pitched wining from an animal that was hurt. With a (very) sore foot she went to the door to go have a look.

The tiny bundled-up baby did not make her yell out in surprise. There wasn't a gasp of breath or anything likewise. Just absolute peace and an intense feeling of pure love.

Anna picked up the infant and had a quick look around if there was anyone in the vicinity. But there was nobody. She also didn't notice that there were no footprints in the snow. None at all around the house or in the little footpath, which was clearly marked with green painted poles leading to the main road.

There was a sensation of immense tranquillity as she was holding the baby with utmost care.

“This just can not be!” she said out loud. “What am I going to do?”

One thing was for sure: This baby was there for a purpose. She knew that instinctively. And no-one was going to take this bundle of joy (a concept that was only natural to her) away from her. Maybe it was the proper thing to inform the right authorities, but Anna knew that she couldn't and wouldn't do that.

This baby was hers!

But what am I to do? She questioned herself.

“Just say that I am the son of a relative who passed away.”

The thought jumped into her head and with surprise she realised that she didn't even know whether it was a boy or a girl.

Unwrapping the baby was an unnecessary process, because she knew already that it was a boy. She just knew.

All of a sudden she remembered that the thought that came to her was in the first person.

Strange.

It was as if the idea was spoken into her head by the child himself.

With a shake of her head she discarded this silly idea and started looking for something to make the baby lie down in. The sudden thought that she had a nativity in her stable, adjacent to the hut, last Christmas, made her go to the stable in a flash.

There it was. A little wooden crib just perfect for her baby.

In no time it was cleaned and nicely arranged with linen and blankets to make the child comfortable and to keep him warm.

While she was busy with the crib, Anna, by then totally lost in thought, had a fleeting feeling that there was something out of the ordinary ever since she picked up the little baby boy.

The realisation that her foot didn't hurt at all anymore only dawned on her when she went up the road a little later to go buy some milk and baby food for her “cousin from Salzburg's” baby.

** Everybody in the neighbourhood knew Anna and nobody hesitated for a moment to believe that she was now the official mother of her cousin's baby, seeing that the cousin died in an unfortunate car accident. Anna was her only living relative and also the godmother of little Luke.

This name was chosen with great care by Anna.

It was absolute “glück” that the baby was left on her doorstep. More fortune, luck and happiness were nowhere else to be found like those in the heart of Anna. Luke was the closest she could come to express what she felt.

Since the child entered her life, she has been so ecstatic in everything she did. In conversations with others, her work, her book which was coming along nicely. For the first time in years she went to bed at night feeling totally fulfilled.

There was, all of a sudden, a lot of visitors each day at the little wooden hut. Normally Anna wouldn't like to be bothered too much in her little kingdom, but she found all those visits quite pleasant. It was after a few weeks that she caught herself thinking how everybody left her hut in good cheer and always with a smile on their faces.

The days and weeks passed and Anna carried on with her weekly articles and she also started spending all her free time with her book. An ex-colleague in München was prepared to do the illustrations for her book, should it eventually go for publishing. She realised how much easier it was to come up with new ideas. Luke was a very good baby and she never had any problems with him at all.

This in itself brought the realisation to mind that something might be wrong.

He never cried, never got sick, slept when he was supposed to and ate very well for such a small baby. With a sudden impulse Anna got up to take him for a full check-up at Doctor Einfeld.

The old doctor, who also acted as unofficial paediatrician, assured Anna that the boy was in perfect health. Immensely relieved, she relaxed and started to inquire about Frau Einfeld, the doctor's wife. It was quite a shock when she found out that the old lady was lying in the local hospital with a malignant brain tumour that couldn't be cured.

She hadn't been to the doctor since the first time she brought Luke in for a check-up, which was the very day after she found him. Since then, she hadn't been to the doctor at all.

As a matter of fact, she herself had never felt so healthy in her whole life. The headaches that used to bother her after working long hours in front of the computer seemed to have ceased altogether as well. After a quick goodbye, Anna took her baby boy and straight away headed for the community hospital five blocks up the road.

Frau Einfeld hardly recognised her as she stood at the end of the bed with a bunch of flowers that she bought at the entrance of the building. After a few minutes, some recognition entered the fatigued eyes and a slight smile turned the corners of the cracked lips slightly upwards.

Anna didn't really know what to say.

All she felt was utter dismay as she looked at the withering figure of the doctor's wife.

Luke was relocated onto her left hip as she reached out to take the sick woman's hand.

She gave it a light squeeze, but their was almost no response. The old lady's eyes were fixed on the little human being on Anna's hip.

With immense effort the old woman lifted her hands, indicating that she would like to take Luke into her arms.

Anna hesitated for a moment, but then handed the baby over with tears in her eyes.

This time there was a definite smile on the old, wrinkled face. One single tear slid down her left cheek. A feeling of sublime peace came over both the women and Anna knew that the old lady was crying with heavenly bliss and not with earthly pain or unhappiness.

Anna went home with a feeling that made her a bit uneasy. It wasn't as much the visit to the hospital, inasmuch the feeling of urgency that she's had for a couple of days already.

A quick dinner had to suffice that night and afterwards she worked on her book until early hours of the morning. There was a sudden urge to complete this book that she had been working on for so long that she couldn't comprehend.

A lot of time, thinking and even a bit of research had been put into this storybook for children and a sudden rush to finish it would be catastrophic. Nevertheless, she carried on with an assurance and ease that didn't influence her creativity and dedication.

The news of Frau Einfeld's remarkable recovery sent a chill up her spine and utterly speechless as she sat down with a touch of fear in her heart.

Martine, the shopkeeper's daughter came to her with the news. The old lady had to go for a brain scan the day after Anna visited her. There was no chance of recovery from this tumour and yet the scan made it very clear that the tumour was diminishing in size. It was merely disintegrating and the old woman wasn't complaining of pain at all anymore.

When Martine left, Anna went over to her baby with a concerned look on her face.

“You have got something to do with this, don't you?” she said.

Of course Luke didn't answer, but she saw a definite look of satisfaction on the baby's face.

A revelation dawned on Anna all of a sudden.

It was as if a movie just started with an incredible opening scene.

She remembered the day the big, grey cat came in from outside, bleeding from one ear. While she was looking for some disinfectant, the animal made himself comfortable on the baby's feet in his crib, much to Annals horror.

With a screech she frightened the animal away and he fled out the back door.

A couple of hours later he came back and it was then that she had noticed that there was no blood on his ear anymore. At that stage she sort of forgot about the incident, but it was as if this played a significant part in the discovery of Frau Einfeld's remarkable recovery.

Then there was the incident with one of the local young girls. The child apparently climbed onto the attic in the barn. Her foot slipped and she fell off the ladder, breaking her arm.

She too held the baby once.

Shortly after that she complained to her mother that the plaster on her arm was irritating her and that her arm didn't hurt anymore. The plaster came off two weeks before it was due and her arm was perfectly healed.

The doctor ascribed this to her age and that she must have looked after herself very well.

Anna now knew differently.

It was because of her baby.

Her Luke with his intelligent, dark eyes and understanding look.

A feeling of fear overcame her that made the hair on her neck stand up. This horrible feeling subsided after one glance at the boy, lying so peaceful in his crib.

What was going on? She wondered.

Then a thought struck her between the eyes as if she were hit by a professional boxer. The boy must have been given to her to fulfil some kind of purpose. It was her duty to look after and take care of him until his mission was fulfilled.

Was she being neurotic? She knew that she wasn't and also that the last thought wasn't her own, but yet another thought projected into her mind. More thoughts like those had suddenly popped into her mind on previous occasions and now she knew that they came from the little boy.

What was she to do?

The fear crept back into her heart as she realised that she didn't want to lose the child. Anna picked Luke up as a comfort and that well-known feeling of absolute peace washed all over her. The boy was given a gentle hug and then put down in his crib again. There was work to be done and Anna knew instinctively that there wasn't much time left.

She just started typing on the PC when the child cried out in a small voice. Startled by this first ever cry, she jumped up and rushed over to his crib.

“Please”, she said to no-one in particular, “don't let anything go wrong with my child now!”

The baby stopped crying, though, as soon as he was picked up.

He turned his head toward the screen of the computer and Anna advanced in that direction immediately.

Two spaces below the last sentence that she had typed, an image started appearing.

At first it was all scrambled, but soon developed into a pattern most legible.

It was a date. 03 July.

That was all.

But it was enough for her to know that that was the date. The final chapter of something that was inevitable, was going to happen then.

The image disappeared and she put the child back into his crib and resumed typing her book. There wasn't much time until July. The snow has been gone for a week or so already and because of the early Spring, a lot of wild flowers are already a few centimetres out of the ground.

** Nobody knew of the turmoil in Anna's mind as the weeks progressed towards the sunny month of July. She decided to keep all of it to herself as she knew that it was something she just couldn't share with anyone.

Her book came along nicely as she work on it now on a daily basis. It just had to be finished by then, she kept reminding herself.

In the meantime she took her baby to the hospital as often as she could. Nobody knew her secret and therefore she decided to do as much good as she possibly could. This, of course, left a lot of doctors with a lot of explaining to do. Not only to the patients and their families, but also to colleagues and, most importantly, to themselves.

It was a very strange phenomena and they were looking for answers everywhere.

Anna, on the other hand, occupied most of her time (when she wasn't writing her book, that is) with Luke. Apart from the regular hospital visits, she tried to spend a lot of quality time with him. Just the two of them in her little, wooden hut in the Alps.

*****

It was the morning of the third of July.

Anna had been awake the whole night waiting for another message to appear on her computer. The fact was that she knew there was going to be no message. She started making preparations as if she were going on a picnic. There was a strange, almost telepathic communication between her and Luke now. It was due to this that she knew that they would embark on a short, but tiring journey at five o'clock that afternoon.

The day dragged for her as she sat alone in the little hut.

She told everybody that she was going to spend some time in Church and that she might spend the night at a friend's house in the city. This white lie made her feel a bit guilty, as it was the second time that she had lied to the villagers. It was not due to the fact that she didn't trust anybody, but merely decided that it was for the best.

Anna packed a small back-pack with some sandwiches and water.

A quick look at her watch made her heart miss a beat.

16-56.

They had to go. There was no itinerary. Just instincts. Her intuition would lead her and her baby to the venue where this final part of her life would act itself out.

She wasn't afraid, strangely enough. More curious. Oddly relieved that this strange situation in her life was finally coming to an end.

The thought of losing her baby saddened her to the extent that she almost didn't open the backdoor and leave everything behind. Anna made sure that the hut was in impeccable order and that there were instructions for someone to follow whenever they came to her door.

As soon as they reached the beginning of the seclusion of the trees on the other side of the little stream that flowed at the bottom of the valley, she tied Luke on her back with a blanket, just like the black women do in Africa with their little infants.

The back-pack was hanging reversed in front of her chest. Up to then she had only rested once to have a drink of water and to give the child some drink as well. As the sun started descending she started feeling quite exhausted. But she had to push on. Something was pushing her. Something that made her forget her sore limbs and to ignore the scratches in her face caused by all the branches of the undergrowth slapping her from time to time.

After about another forty minutes, Anna decided to take a rest.

She untied Luke and put him down on a bed of pine-needles. Time for a sandwich or two, just to get her strength back, and then she would resume this strenuous journey. She tended to the baby and after another ten minutes of rest, she tied everything up where it belonged.

A sudden rush of energy filled her being. Anna was well-prepared for another couple of hundred kilometres. That was what she felt, anyway.

After what felt to her like an eternity, she had a quick look at her watch.

It was already dark, but she could still make out the time.

It was 23-37.

Even with her preparations of days in advance, she stupidly forgot to pack the flashlight when they left that morning. This didn't seem to be a problem, though. Something or someone was guiding them to their destination.

All of a sudden Anna stopped dead in her tracks.

The journey was quite intense up to then and she had been wondering how far they still had to go. Then there it was. A clearing in the middle of all those thousands of trees. Not very big. Approximately the size of two tennis courts.

Immediately she knew it was the end of the road. Whilst looking around, she untied Luke and the back-pack. She wiped her face with her sleeve to get rid of the beads of sweat running down her forehead. Disappointment came over her, accompanied with a big sigh.

She didn't exactly know what she expected to find. One thing, however, was for sure. She was, at least, expecting someone or something.

The brightness of the night impressed her immensely and with that she looked up at the stars. It was with a shock that she realised that she was on top of the mountain. It had always been one of her dreams to climb up there one day. This part of the mountain wasn't that high, but she was always intrigued by the beauty of it. Now it was time to sit down and relax, she thought.

A sudden, bright light illuminated the clearing. This was so sudden that Anna almost lost her balance. The first thing she did was to reach out for Luke.

With blood-curdling horror she noticed that he was gone.

“NO!!!”, she cried out.

Not exactly realising what was going on and why the flash of lightning (that was what she thought it was) didn't subside, Anna started moving closer to the trees.

Then she heard what she thought was music. Indescribable, sweet tunes came from within the blinding light, and as a tremendous feeling of absolute peace and tranquillity filled her, Anna finally realised why she was there.

All fear had disappeared. She wiped the tears from her eyes and walked into the now diminishing light except for one single beam in the middle.

The realisation of what the situation entailed, made her put up her arms in the air in a welcoming gesture.

With that, Anna ascended with the light beam to meet her destiny.

*****

The completed book of Anna was found the following afternoon by a friend of hers. It was neatly stacked on the coffee table with a note on top in her own hand-writing, which explained what was to be done with her manuscript.

There was a brief explanation that she had to leave the valley and that she didn't know if she were ever to return. The hut was to be given to the storekeeper with a request that he also took care of her cat. On the cover page of the book, underneath the title and her name, was a dedication in bold letters:

IN LOVING MEMORY OF ANNA AND HER CHILD

*****

THE END

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