Distant+Whispers

Chapter 5
“MIKELL, COME HOME! You are wasting your time over there.”
“Tina! Don’t start. It’s only Sunday! I’ve been here just four days.”
“That’s almost a week!”
“It’s just four days. More like three because I’ve been sleeping.”
“And that’s another thing, Mikell, you’re accepting charity? You?”
“It’s not charity, Tina.”
“You’re staying in someone’s home, and you don’t have to pay. What is that called?”
“I offered to pay but they won’t accept my money. They tell me I have to offer it to the church.”
“The church? Mikell. Be for real. When was the last time you’ve been inside of a church?”
Toni fell silent. She wished she could have pulled back those words. Her eyes watered as she
remembered her father’s body in a casket in a small Lutheran church in Kreuzberg.
“I don’t know, Toni,” Mikell’s voice showed no reaction to his sister’s imprudence. “I guess I
have to find the church of this woman. This Evangelist Pat. I…I don’t know! Really! That was the
deal. I would give an offering to her church.”
“It’s silly,” his sister said.
Mikell pressed the phone receiver tightly against his face. He would give anything to see his
sister at that moment.
“I know, Tina. But it’s not charity. They do things, differently here.”
“Fine, Mikell. So what will you do today?”
“I will think.”
“That means that you will paint! Did you carry your materials.”
“Yes! Of course. It is so beautiful here, Tina. The trees, the flowers, the singing birds. Even the
air is sweet. Remember, in Germany, when we went south, past Tuebingen, to see the ancient castle of
Friedrich. Remember, Tina? You went crazy. You ran up that steep hill, zigzagging through the tall
trees, falling and laughing.” He heard his sister chuckle on the phone.
“It was so beautiful, there, Mikell. Hah! You were a coward and wouldn’t climb the hills with
me. You took the steps, along with the other old people, that led to the castle.”
“That’s not fair, Tina. You know that papa always had to walk slowly because of his leg. I stayed
with him. But, Tina, it is just as beautiful here. Just as beautiful.”
Tina laughed. “As beautiful as Germany’s Black forest, Mikell?”
It felt good to hear his sister’s laughter over the phone. “You have to be here, Tina. The air is