A Battle of Minds Ch. 01

All these thoughts drove tears to Laura's eyes. She just couldn't stand sitting there any longer, Laura eventually realized. She didn't want to remember at every moment that a person had died; someone that she had known. Last time this happened she had been five years old. That had been one of her grandfathers, her other grandparents were still alive and well. Death had not been part of her quiet little world yet, and thinking about her teacher being gone caused turmoil in her that she couldn't quite grasp. She didn't want to listen to speeches reminding her of his death anymore. And anyway, she had to use the bathroom.

*

After leaving the rest rooms, Laura wandered along the empty hallways back towards the assembly hall. The school building had been renovated just a few years earlier, and so far the students hadn't managed to destroy the impression of clinical cleanliness of the white walls, gray doors and yellowish linoleum floors. Of course graffiti, or more commonly the scribblings of a thick pen, appeared on the walls occasionally, but the perpetrators were always quickly found and had to paint over the evidence of their wrong-doing themselves.

Laura stopped at a window and looked out into the school yard. She gazed at the bike stands that never seemed to provide enough space for all the bicycles. All around them, standing bikes and bikes that had been knocked over were assembled in a chaos of wheels and colorful frames. Behind them, in between the green of some trees, she could make out the dark waters of Lake Leskow. The forest was on the other side of the lake, its lush greenness calling out to anyone stuck in school. Despite the rather sad occasion, it was a beautiful day, the sun was shining down onto the forest, and the lake, and the school. The sky was still blue; it was a glorious September this year. The weather certainly took no consideration for the sadness that had gripped the school.

Again Laura had the impression she was being watched. She turned around, but the hallway behind her was empty, and the silence wasn't broken even by the sound of footsteps. Her eyes fell upon the big clock hanging on the wall at the end of the hallway. Almost 12 o'clock. She couldn't believe that much time had passed. Hadn't she left the assembly hall just shortly after the gathering had started? How could she have spent over an hour in the rest room without noticing? This was strange... Maybe the clock was wrong? Or maybe it had been later than she thought when she had left the assembly? Well, either way, she decided that it wasn't worthwhile going back. Instead, she should rather go up to the second floor and get a coke from the machine there. Then she could wait for the others to come back out of the assembly hall, mix in with the crowd, and go back to class unnoticed.

Yes, a coke seemed a good idea. She was thirsty, and felt a strangely bitter taste in her mouth.

*

Within a few days, the everyday rhythm of the school year had caught up with Leskow's students, and the traumatic message of that first day of school seemed forgotten. A short notice in the local newspaper informed the readers that the mathematics teacher Frank Seger had been buried on Wednesday with only his closest friends and relatives present. None of them lived in town -- Mr. Seger's parents, the only part of his family that had lived in Leskow, had passed away several years earlier -- so firsthand accounts of the burial were hard to come by. His classes were temporarily taken over by an elderly lady who had already spent a few years enjoying her pension. Once she had been feared for being a particularly strict teacher, but by now she was more noted by being a bit confused. She welcomed her return to the school as a nice distraction from her quiet, lonely life as a pensioner and quickly agreed to fill Mr. Seger's post until the regional school administration board would send an appropriate replacement.

In the meantime, as the new school year went on, Laura realized to her surprise that she was sitting next to Martin in almost all of her classes. She wasn't sure how this had come about, she never remembered choosing that particular seat. Whenever she noticed, however, all the other seats in the classroom were taken and the seating already approved by the teacher, so it was too late for her to choose a different place to sit.

She did not spent too much time worrying about this, however, as she had other, more urging problems: Even though she had decided that life must go on and that she shouldn't waste her time crying about the end of her relationship -- it somehow didn't fit the image she had of herself, that she would suffer too much about a boy -- her eyes were constantly wandering across the school yard and the meadow next to the school building in search of Daniel. However, she rarely ever actually saw him; sometimes she even wondered whether he spent the breaks indoors in order to avoid her.

Also, the breakup seemed to affect not only her general mental wellbeing, but even her performance at school. At least that was the only explanation Laura could come up with for why she often could not even remember specific topics ever being discussed in class. Whenever she was asked a question by the teacher or had to write a test, it seemed to her like this was the first time she ever even heard of the things she was asked about. There were bits and pieces missing in her memory, and as much as Laura tried to concentrate on the tasks at hand, it seemed her thoughts were always wandering off during class, making her forget where she was. She was regularly surprised when the bell rang, indicating the end of a school day, since it seemed to her as if she had entered the school building just a few minutes earlier.

Also, she was almost always tired. Once she even fell asleep during a school break, sitting underneath a tree right next to the lake. Her sleep was deep enough for her to miss two hours of history class. All students who were eighteen or older were allowed to leave the school building during breaks and free periods, as long as they returned in time for their next class. Once they had reached the appropriate age, during those last warm summer days most students thus preferred to spend their breaks on a small meadow at the shores of Lake Leskow, right next to the school yard, in the shade of a few tall trees. Here they sat in little groups, smoking and discussing their homework, or playing cards.

Since Laura had only turned eighteen shortly before starting twelfth grade, she had so far not belonged to any of these groups. However, even now she preferred solitude over the company of the other students, and liked sitting by herself under one of the trees right next to the lake, looking out over the water. Usually she had a book in her hand and spent her school breaks reading, a habit dating back to the time before she had started spending most of her free time with Daniel.

On that particular day, she dozed off doing just that, and when she woke up again, she had found the meadow to be completely empty, all students had returned to their classes. A look onto her watch told her that she had slept for almost two hours, but instead of feeling rested, she was more tired than ever. From the slight pain walking back to the school building caused her -- what in the world would her teacher say? -- she deduced, that she must have been lying in a quite uncomfortable manner. In the following class however, mathematics with the new substitute teacher, she was able to concentrate well, her thoughts did not wander off one single time.

*

As every year, the month of September ended with the celebration of the Leskow Castle Festival.

Outsiders often had difficulties understanding why this small town called its yearly medieval spectacle a "Castle Festival". After all, in the area of Lake Leskow not even the ruin of a castle could be found, nor did any of the old documents mention the existence of the ominous castle. As every year, History and German teachers at all of Leskow's schools gave their best to wake their students' interest in the legends of a castle that had disappeared into the lake because of the acts of an evil wizard. Their explanations, however, were usually greeted with bored sighs; the students of Leskow had heard the same stories every year since the start of their education and could not find anything particularly interesting in them anymore.

Despite this, however, they all looked forward to the celebrations, the highlight of which was the diving competition for Leskow's young men. Considering it was the end of September, the divers would have to expect considerably cold water, making their participation a proof of how tough they were. In fact, the diving competition was not only the central event of the Festival, but also the official end of the bathing season. After the diving festival, the beach would usually be deserted and the shower and changing stalls locked.

Laura was one of the few students not planning on going to the festival this year. She knew it all by heart: the medieval looking costumes, the vast amounts of bratwurst and beer, the speeches, the stages on which children presented small theatre performances and local bands tried to win the audience's interest in their music. Apart from somehow not finding all of this interesting anymore, she couldn't help remembering how she had visited the festival together with Daniel in the previous year. And she knew that Daniel had signed up for the diving competition. When he had signed up, a few months ago, he had promised her that he would win "for her". Would he still participate? In any case, she surely did not want to see him dive.

However, she could not stay at home either. Her parents had started noticing her strange behavior of the last few weeks. They had also realized that Daniel was not coming to visit her anymore. While they did not ask questions about what had happened between them, they thought their daughter needed distraction and insisted on her going to the festival. They were planning to go there themselves, sometime later in the evening, and promised to take their daughter along, should she still be sitting in her room at that time.

Laura was not in the mood for arguing, and so she left the house sometime in the afternoon of the 30th of September and, once out of sight of her parents' house, started wandering the streets aimlessly. She met families and groups of young people, all going in the opposite direction, towards the lake and the festival site. The further on she went, however, the lonelier the streets got. Laura liked this; she enjoyed the quiet and let her thoughts wander. For once, it felt like she really had some peace and quiet.

And then, suddenly, having no recollection whatsoever of going there, she was standing in front of the festival site. On a small stage some children were just presenting a play about the legend of the princess in the castle of Leskow, who had fallen in love with a wizard. While a little girl in a pink dress sang the love song of the princess, a little boy in blue wizard robes did his best to show the evil snarl of the wizard, who was already secretly plotting to let the castle disappear into the lake with the princess in it. He would follow her into the lake then, never to be seen again, so he could have the princess only to himself. At the Beach, a group of young men was getting ready for the diving contest.

Laura's heart started beating wildly when she discovered Daniel in the group. He was facing away from her, looking out over the lake, which gave Laura the opportunity to stare at him unnoticed. His dark hair was messed up from the wind; his upper body was still as tanned as during the summer. Something was sparkling at his wrist, and with a little start Laura recognized the bracelet he had wanted to give her on her birthday.

The bulky and pale figure next to Daniel surprised Laura -- it was Martin. Well, Martin was nineteen years old and had thus reached the minimum age for participating in Leskow's diving contest. However, neither Laura nor anyone else would ever have expected Martin to voluntarily participate in something as exhausting, especially when it was to take place under the eyes of the whole town. But there he was. He was wearing only his shorts, and a necklace. When he turned around for a moment to scan the crowds, Laura could see a heavy locket hanging from it. This almost free view of his formless body made him seem even less likeable to Laura, though she reprimanded herself for being so superficial. However, even though he was not particularly heavy, he reminded her of a pile of pudding. Just as she thought this, Martin discovered her and smiled and waved. Laura felt heat rising up to her cheeks and after an exaggeratedly friendly smile back she quickly turned away.

She hesitated for another moment, and then Laura approached the lake, stepping into the crowd of onlookers. Now that she was here anyway she could just as well watch the contest. That way, she would be able to answer any questions by her parents to prove she really had gone to the festival. And somehow, she realized, she still wanted Daniel to win.

The mayor's voice swept from the loud speakers out over the festival site, explaining the diving contest's rules both for visitors and for locals, who might have forgotten everything since the last year. A little box containing the winner's price, the voice said, had been hidden in a marked off area of the lake, on the ground, in a depth of about three meters. The contestants were to look for it underwater and "free the castle", which was symbolized by said little box. The lucky winner was allowed to keep the box and whatever he found inside it, and additionally he would receive a kiss from the "princess". The princess was the winner of a beauty contest that took place every year just before the festival. This year a tall and slender eleventh grader with long blond hair and a somewhat strained smile, dressed up in a medieval looking red-and-gold dress, was standing on the stage next to the mayor, awaiting the happy winner.

Finally, the mayor gave the long-awaited signal to start the contest and eight young men left their spots by the shore on which they had been told to wait. They ran into the lake and threw their muscular bodies into the chilly water. While they quickly swam towards the area that had been marked with brightly orange buoys, the ninth boy, Martin, needed a few moments to splash water against his arms and stomach, before he dared to let his body sink into the cold lake. Once he started to swim as well, with calm strokes, the onlookers' attention was averted back to the other contestants, several of which seemed to have problems coordinating their swimming movements. They either slowed down considerably or inexplicably changed the direction they swam into, so that in the end only three men reached the area in which the box was to be found somewhere on the bottom of the lake. Both Martin and Daniel belonged to these three boys. The other contestants, in the meantime, were too far away now to stand a chance, and thus decided to give up.

All three disappeared underneath the lake's surface at the same moment, as if following a command only they could hear. Now it was a matter of skill, who of them would reach the ground first, and a matter of luck, which boy would end up finding the box in the dark waters of the lake. The people at the beach cheered them on, shouting the name of their favorite, if they knew one of the three young men, or else just uttering general encouragements.

After a while, the cheers subsided and were replaced by a growing murmur. People were starting to get worried. Shouldn't the three divers long ago have surfaced again, one of them with the little box in his hand? Or at least come up for a quick new lungful of air? No one had checked the time, but they seemed to have been gone awfully. Laura couldn't help thinking of Daniel, drifting down there, somewhere in the dark water. She held her breath, worried.

Then, finally, one head appeared above the surface: To Laura's surprise it was Martin, and a moment later he lifted his hand from the water, tightly clutching the little box. It sparkled in the sunshine. He lifted it up into the air triumphantly. Some people started cheering; a certain relief in their voices, and the cheers grew in volume as a few seconds later Daniel's head surfaced from the lake. Both young men now started swimming towards the shore.

But one diver was still missing, and as the seconds passed without him joining the other two, all relief and cheer disappeared from the voices and was replaced by more worried murmuring. Minute after minute went by, however, the third diver did not return.

*

The third diver's name was Peter Grabow, he was twenty years old and had been planning to start university in October to study P.E. and Geography, and become a teacher. Swimming and diving had been his passion ever since he had been a little boy; he was a member of the local swim team and quite likely the best diver in town. In tears, his mother told this again and again, to the reporters of various newspapers, to friends that had come to console her. Sobs interrupted her words, but speaking about Peter was the only way she felt she could cling on to a last bit of sanity.

Daniel and Martin both said they had not as much as touched Peter. He had been with them, under water, but when they dived down, he reached the ground at a place too far away from the little box. When they both got ready to emerge from the water again it had looked -- as much as you could see anything in the murky waters of Lake Leskow -- as if he was still searching the ground of the lake. Daniel added something else: It had looked as if Peter didn't want to swim back to the surface. This kind of comment caused a small amount of suspicion, but a lot of people in town knew Daniel, and no one who knew him could agree with that kind of accusation.

Finally, after the corpse had been pulled out of the water, the story of the two boys was confirmed -- there was not the slightest indication that Peter had suffered through any kind of struggle or had been hurt in any way. It seemed as if he had just swum along the lake's ground until he had drowned.

There were no victory celebrations; the remainder of the festival was canceled. Martin, however, still looked satisfied with his victory. He did not seem to mind that he did not receive his kiss from the blonde princess in the mediaeval dress, but he held on to his little box and refused to show its contents to anyone -- though barely anyone asked to see it anyway. They were all too busy speculating about the cause of Peter's death. The word suicide hung over the little town like a dark curse, but no one dared to utter it directly.

When the first shock started wearing of, Laura searched for Daniel in between the crowd, and finally she found him as he was leaving the changing rooms that had been reserved for the contesters that day. He did not see her, his eyes were fixed on the ground, his expression like a dark mask.

*

Two weeks had passed since the festival. The month of October brought cold wind and plenty of rain to Leskow, the surface of the lake rippled in little waves, the grass turned brown, and the trees lost their leafs almost overnight.

As the weather grew worse, Laura found that she could concentrate better in class now. However, she still was often tired, but now her parents at least found a satisfactory explanation for this: The shock of seeing someone drown -- someone, who once had gone to the same school as her, someone who she had seen in the hallways and on the school yard and even once or twice spoken to -- could not go by without leaving traces in her young mind. Especially when it happened in such short succession after another death of someone she had known. Most people in the small town were shaken, and so was Laura, probably it caused her nightmares and thus made her night's sleep less restful, they concluded. In fact, the girl often awoke sweaty and with a racing heart, and for a few moments she was disoriented. She never screamed when she woke up, nor could she remember her dreams, yet Laura was almost as sure as her parents that nightmares were the reason of her strange condition.