Lonely and forgotten by time, as if the earth had opened up and swallowed the little monastery for centuries, so it lay, its silhouette rising timidly out of the mist.
Schönthal... in crooked and smudged letters , so it was written on the letter, the date
2 April 1525.
Dear Albrik,
with dismay I have heard your bitter lamentation over the death of our beloved parents.
How cruel the superiors can be, just to meet your demands for power and profit.
What was left for our parents and you?
To live a life less than a common rat?
Working themselves to death with no prospect of a better life?
How well I can understand our parents when the news came from Württemberg to join the uprisings.
Who could have guessed that from a spark, a fire would break out over us?
I hope the letter reaches you before your escape...please come to me beloved brother...
Everything else then.
Benjas
Albrik, at the end of his rope, was glad...
Glad to forget for a moment the past and the painful memories of those he had been forced to leave behind...
Glad to place his own life in the hands of God, averting fate, and knowing henceforth to lead a virtuous life, in harmony with himself.
Although he was aware that the penance he would have to do would be hard to make up in a lifetime....
With the last of his strength, and in the protective mist, he reached the monastery wall; slowly inching his way until a small side door caught his attention.
The three short fist bumps on the wooden gate restrained in the misty grey..
Suddenly something stirred behind the door...footsteps could be heard, frantic activity.
All at once the door fell open and Albrik stumbled inside.
Immediately a thick, warm smoke hit him...a smoke he remembered from his uncle.
Cooper was his trade and he loved, since childhood, to watch his uncle burn out the barrels.
Childhood...he had long forgotten that term.
His eyes watered, but he could make out a shadow through his tired pupils, which, becoming more and more distinct, was coming towards him.
"My dear brother, you made it"
Benajs, all clad in animal fur and leather, stood before him...
Smaller he had become his brother and thinner, where once a monastic robe covered his belly, only a penitent shirt peeked out, flapping loosely beneath the leather robe.
"Let me look at you brother"
..Albrik too had changed, his cheerful and benevolent eyes had wandered almost all the way into his skull, the wrinkles on his forehead deep, his hair only in a few places.
Benjas shuddered:
"Come brother sit down, you must be thirsty, drink"
Benjas handed him a bottle with with a thick substance.
"This will give you new strength, our monastery's own liqueur with a little honey and all sorts of spices added, that awakens the spirits"
Taking a large sip, Albrik immediately felt a pleasant warmth rise within him.
How long had it been since he had slept, let alone drank or eaten anything...
All tension drained from his face.... there he was again his brother, for a brief moment just as he remembered him before Benjas had moved to the monastery, only to find, the bottle not yet quite touching the table, his face again in deep wrinkles.
"You must be tired and exhausted, you'll be safe here....come I'll show you to your room, you can rest there, we'll talk tomorrow"
Benajs led his brother through a narrow corridor into a small room, sparsely furnished with a table, a chair and a bed.
The air in the room was a bit stale and smoky, but that didn't matter much to Albrik, he just liked the comforting warmth, probably in part because he hadn't felt it in a long time.
"I'll let you get some rest if anything is, my parlor is right across the street"
"Thank you Benajs"...these were the first 2 words Albrik had said since his arrival...
"You don't have to thank me, you are my brother...never forget that"
Through the liquor and the deprived weeks, Albrik fell into a deep sleep...
Nightmares gnawed, like ominous shadows, at his soul....
There he stood at night, his spirit rapt from his body, alone in the middle of the village square...
the houses around him were on fire, unable to do anything he looked down at himself...
warm resin ran around his feet, from the distance the voices of the damned...
rising more and more shrilly, 2 dark figures came towards him, arm in arm...
emerging from the smoke, they were now clearly visible...
it was father and mother..
but where once their faces had been, hogsheads adorned their countenances..
a black, hot mass they poured from your mouths...
"Father, mother....forgive me..... i could not save you"...
falling to his knees, more and more of the black liquid poured over him until only his head protruded...
everything had become still, almost peaceful...
just a black sea...
"I just need to submerge myself and let go"
fully he sank into the darkness and...
awoke!
Bathed in sweat and gasping for breath, he awoke...
It dawned on the horizon...
Drowsy and the night still in his limbs he strode down the aisle....
Where were the other monastic brothers, anyway...
He knocked on his brother's door, no one opened..
Cautiously he crept further along the long narrow corridor, suddenly coming upon a large, sooty door..
He slowly felt for a round doorknob and gave it a spirited tug..
With a loud creak, the door flew open..
Albrik, somewhat surprised by his strength himself, was immediately blinded by the rising sun!
As his eyes become somewhat accustomed to the light conditions, he stands in the courtyard of the monastery,
many of the monastic brothers are in the monastery garden, tending to the vegetables and perennials that grow there.
The sun's rays warm his face and from the reflection of the stones shining in the sun, his brother emerges.
He puts his arm around his shoulder
"I may not be able to take away your pain, but together it is possible for us to find a new home here"
Tears fill Albrik's eyes...
He knows it will be a long road for Him....
but now....
now he can let go....
Rachelg
Georgeman
