The Perfectionist

Chapter Seventeen

Sitting by the cherub fountain, as promised by himself, was Brother Karl, along with Brothers Johann, Adelmo, and Pieter. Thomas, smoking his pipe, waited by the door of the tower with the doctor, with whom he was engaged in a tranquil conversation.
''Is it amusing- the business world?'' asked the doctor.
''Not as much as you would think, doctor. I've spent myself with meetings in Berlin. Though I wouldn't surround myself with blood and sickness either, to be honest. If I saw a corpse I might take fright, and something tells me you've seen your share of corpses.''
''Why, yes.''
''Did you serve?''
''No, I had a bad knee. But I stayed in the hospital in Wurzburg. Did you?''
''Yes.''
''Where are you from, however?''
''Hamburg.''
''Hamburg! But what could bring you here?''

At that moment the door was unclosed by Katarina, and the two men moved out of her way. The brothers at the fountain rushed to her, and all present surrounded her, much to her irritation.
''He'll be fine,'' she said with a sad smile, with her shining eyes lowered to the ground, ''Brother Karl, if you could only watch over him for now... Thank you, Brother Karl. As for the rest of you, I regret to say that I must speak to the doctor before all else.''
''Yes, of course,'' the desired answered, and they retreated a short distance away from the present company, just as Dieter and Frau Marta had done the previous evening.

Only whispers, quick and awfully inquisitive on the doctor's side, could be discerned from their long discourse, and so long it was, that Brother Pieter went back to the fountain and sat on it along with Brother Adelmo. The former remembered with a frown how only a few weeks before his current situation, his dear young novice, in that exact spot, had implored him that his worries were of no import, and that they should be credited as things for which outward worry was unmerited; and how he, Brother Pieter, had with candour yielded to Dieter's self-neglect, not bothering to delve deeper in, and discover the sickly, writhing 'worry' that had tortured his young friend. He thought of how Dieter had hastily buried the 'worry' deep inside into him, and how, irritated with its fantastical submersion, the mischievous 'worry' had poked him time and time again, and, finally spent, it had climbed and struggled its way up, resistant to effacing, and there activated its cruelest pestering. How, as Dieter smiled and laughed like the rest, he was subtly tormented by something no one could see, and which he himself could not understand, until it had possessed him with an irresistible command, and led his trembling hands to the knife. As Brother Pieter sat in his little cell that afternoon, he deliberated over all that had happened, and it seemed that only now everything became clear to him. He raised his tired eyes to the black sky polka dotted with white stars, just as Dieter had done a few weeks back, and heaved a deep sigh. At that moment his sole desire was to see his dear novice again, his regrets were made all the more painful by Dieter's absence.

When Katarina and the doctor had finished, the latter rushed to the door and rapidly climbed the steps to Dieter's cell, honestly forgetting to inform the hosts where he was going or what he was doing. Katarina, however, explained his motives almost immediately, after handing the mantilla to Brother Johann, and hastening the reunion with her jewels and pearls:
''He is checking on Dieter, gentlemen.'' she exclaimed, so that the monks on the fountain could hear her, ''We believe something else is happening here. I want to talk with him more- my brother- but I would rather he sleep now... We will return first thing in the morning, if you do not mind, of course, gentlemen. And anyway, it would be an outrageous disrespect if we had stayed here until morning...''
''Oh, nonsense!'' Brother Johann said, ''We've people of all sorts spending the night here. And surely we cannot send you away at such an hour, in the states you are in. Brother Adelmo, do tell, do we have any extra rooms?''
''Only one, some weary travellers took the others. It's the one right above the launderer's. Mr and Mrs Müller, the room is yours.''
''I will show you to it,'' Brother Johann concluded, ''You don't have suitcases, do you? That's fine. God will sustain you, like He sustains us all. Yes, God will sustain us all!''