The Dark Meadow Read Online Free PDF Page B

Afra?’
    â€˜I couldn’t tell, she was just lying there.’
    The old man sat where he was, and from then on said no more. He only thought of Afra, and how she had been standing at the door of the house again in the summer of 1944. He had taken her in then, had simply taken her in. And when she said, later, that she was pregnant, he didn’t ask any questions then, either, but he knew she had sinson her conscience, sins before God. Only later did he find out the whole truth.
    He looked at his hands, and whatever else the man asked him he did not reply.
    When the man put a piece of paper in front of him and told him to sign it, he signed his name. Then he put the pen down, looked at the man, and asked in a firm voice, ‘Can I go now?’
    â€˜Not yet.’

Upper Palatinate Daily
    Saturday, 26 July 1947
    Local News
Double Murder in Finsterau
    On the morning of 22 July, the Einhausen police were informed that two persons had been killed at a property in the village of Finsterau. The police immediately informed the public prosecutor’s office, and called in the murder squad. At 1600 hours an investigating committee led by public prosecutor Dr Augustin went to the scene of the crime and ascertained that Afra Zauner, unmarried, aged 24 years, and her illegitimate child Albert, aged about two years, had been killed by means of blows to the head inflicted by an axe or similar instrument. Afra Zauner died at once, the child died of his injuries in hospital ten hours later.The former railway worker Johann Zauner, aged 59, father and grandfather respectively of the two victims, is suspected of their murder and was taken into custody. He has now confessed to the crime. An autopsy of the bodies performed on Tuesday in the presence of the investigating judge confirmed beyond any doubt that the cause of death in both cases was a number of heavy blows to the skull.
    Just the sort of thing, thought the reporter who wrote the story, that you might expect to happen in a place with a name literally meaning dark meadow.

Afra
    Afra picks up the basket, puts the hoe into it. She pushes the washing on the line aside with her hand and slips past the sheets. She can hear the little boy crying and hurries back to the house to see to him. She puts the basket down on the bench beside the door. Albert is already coming into the corridor inside the doorway to meet her, his face wet and smeared with tears and the snot running from his nose. She picks the little boy up and carries him into the kitchen, where she puts him down on the kitchen table, takes her handkerchief out of her apron pocket and wipes his face with it.
    â€˜Don’t be scared, Albert, I’m here. I only popped outside for a minute to hang the washing on the line. I won’t leave you alone.’ She speaks comfortingly to him, andhugs him tightly. She feels his little body trembling with his tears.
    â€˜I’m here, darling, Mama is here, do you hear me? Did you have a bad dream?’
    Slowly, the child in her arms calms down.
    Afra hears a knock at the kitchen door, and next moment the door is opened and the visitor comes in. She lets go of the child and turns round.
    â€˜What are you after this time?’ Afra snaps at the visitor. Albert is still standing on the table; she feels him clutching her arm with both hands.
    â€˜The door wasn’t locked, so I came in. I thought I’d be welcome,’ he tells her.
    â€˜My father isn’t here, if it’s him you want.’
    â€˜I know he isn’t here, I saw him go out to mow the meadow by the railway embankment.’
    â€˜Then what do you want here, Hetsch?’
    Afra can’t stand him; as long as she can remember she’s felt uneasy in his presence. She can’t say why, he’s never given her any cause for it, at least none that would account for her dislike, but she has this oppressive sense of fear when he’s in the same room. It is here now, it’s