Anders Wäppling

With a heavy sigh the young man sat down on the seat. Already he felt panic creeping up on him like a thief in the night. This train was now separating him from his love with an ever-increasing pace. The emergency brake sang to him with an alluring voice: "Just pull me and Camilla will be yours again!" There might also still be time to make a dash toward the exit doors and jump out but luckily he still possessed some composure. He did, however, quickly glance out through the train window desperately trying to catch one last glimpse of his one love before the train left the station but sadly it was too late. All he could see was the end of the platform at the Remagen train station which just as well could have been the end of the world for all he cared.
After about a half an hour the train entered Bonn train station and the young man, having heard a strange message through the loudspeakers about all inbound trains to Cologne being cancelled, proceeded to the underground station in order to reach Deutz Station, from where the metropolitan train bound for Hamburg was departing. In the underground he met a woman in a grey cloak, who left him entirely without impression. He would probably not have noticed her at all if she hadn’t all of a sudden started screaming at the top of her voice. She seemed to be having serious nightmares and the young man had to wake her up and calm her down.

"Poor girl!", he thought, "she must have had a rough night, falling asleep in the subway.."

Eventually the train entered Deutz station. The young man, having managed to board the right train, sat down in the restaurant car to order some breakfast. Even the expensive (but rather tasteless) food in some way reminded him of the lovely Camilla, whom he had had to leave in Remagen.
Emotionally drained, the young man descended into thoughts even darker than his hair, which bore the colour of the night. He absentmindedly muttered "We loved with a love that was more than love" and sank deeper into his depression. Eventually he drifted off to sleep but after a while some voices brought him back to consciousness:

"Ahem, excuse me but could I perhaps read you a part of a love letter that I have written to a former girlfriend of mine so that you can tell me what you think?"
"What? No, of course not!"

"A letter to an old girlfriend, eh?", the young man thought. "Perhaps this man suffers like I do." The man who had spoken first was tall and skinny and had a sort of light brownish hair. His complexion was at the moment turning into a distinct shade of crimson and his embarrassment was quite evident.

Klick to read the words

"My goodness" thought the young man, "this woman must have spent an awful lot of time in the theatre". She certainly appeared to go out of her way to make the man feel awkward. She was playing him like a fiddle as she gathered momentum. This was apparently her grand scene. She played the role in such a convincing fashion that the young man was instantly reminded of a young Meryl Streep. Her golden curls shook like the branches of a tree in a storm as she accentuated each sentence with a dramatic toss of the head. Feeling rather embarrassed himself to be within earshot of this discussion the young man stealthily sidled out of the restaurant car without arousing much commotion. Finding solitude in the space between two of the cars his thoughts once again turned to Camilla. How he missed her! Mere words were simply inadequate to describe the anguish he felt when he pondered her unimaginable beauty, her sharp wit and the way she always made him feel just by being in his presence. As many a time before the young man lost himself in poetry, whispering to himself "My darling, my darling, my life and my bride". Somehow, however the knowledge that the tall thin man probably also was going through heartache was soothing to the young lover. For a second he considered going back to talk to the poor man, but the severity of the woman’s tantrum repelled him for he did not want to risk being exposed to any further skirmishes between the two combatants. The young man remained between the cars for a while but the thought about the older man lingers on. Why was he trying to get his old girlfriend back? Why would he ask strangers for advice on his love letters? Why would he just sit there and take the abuse from that ill-mannered woman? The young man was becoming more and more intrigued by the older man and his story that he actually contemplated going back to the restaurant car, but finally decided not to. He did, however, decide to take a look at the other cars in the train and proceeded to push open the door to the next car almost knocking over a young woman in the process.

"Would you be careful you little dork!" she exclaimed in an angry voice.

The young man stammered a few well-chosen apologies and squeezed past her, entering the car. This car appeared to be quite full so the young man hurried onward trying to ignore the woman’s hard stare that he knew must be searing his back. He exited the car and entered the next one which turned out to be more lightly populated.. He sat down on an unoccupied seat opposite an elderly man and what appeared to be his daughter. The old man had a long white beard which made him look a bit like Gandalf of the book Lord of the Rings. His supposed daughter wore a white hat which did a good job of obscuring her hair. She did, however, appear to have a pretty face for a middle-aged woman. There was something about the way in which she looked at him which made him feel very uneasy. She had a sort of demonic stare which made the alarm bells go off in his head. "My god, this woman looks like she could jump onto my lap at any time and strangle me with her bare hands" thought the young man and quickly looked around to see if any potential weapon was in the vicinity but this was not the case.

"Good morning" said the young man trying desperately to strike up a conversation, "My name is Andrew Wappling".
"Pleased to meet you Mr. Wappling." replied the woman with a strong hint of hostility in her voice, "My name is Renate Maier and this is my father Guido. Are you the sleazy con artist who just tried to pick up my daughter?"
"Why, certainly not!" said the young man sternly "I would never think of doing such a thing."
The woman seemed to relax a little and went on "I am sorry that I reacted in this way but she said that it was a skinny good-looking man and I found that you fit that description well."
"Well, thank you I guess." said the young man not quite being able to decide whether he was flattered or insulted.
He did, however, swiftly excuse himself and went off to the bathroom but just as he was about to close the door behind him he saw a shadow in the corner of his eye. He tried to turn around but before he had time to move he felt a sharp blow to the back of the neck and then everything turned black.