The vanished village E-Book

Markus Seidel

• Herausgeber: neobooks
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Sprache: Deutsch

Seitenzahl: 142

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

Max is eleven when he disappears while playing in the garden and suddenly finds himself somewhere else - in the house of the mysterious woman Frau SCHIMPERGLANZ, who tells him about a vanished village. Max is supposed to bring back its inhabitants, who have made themselves guilty and therefore live in exile in the land of shadows and in the desert. He is supposed to remind them of the good things they have done so that they can finally return to their village. So Max sets off on his journey, meets the fish in the puddle and strange shadowy creatures, becomes quite small in between and fortunately grows up again quickly, and also meets Frau SCHIMPERGLANZ again and again, who helps him with everything...

Leseprobe

Markus Seidel

The vanished village

The story of Max, Frau Schimperglanz and all the others

Dieses ebook wurde erstellt bei

Inhaltsverzeichnis

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Impressum neobooks

1

At the end of the whole trip, which I will tell you about here, I was homesick and looked forward to my parents, to mum and dad and of course to Marie and Maya, my sisters. And soon it will happen, soon I will stand in front of our front door and see them all again.

I was away for quite a long time, at least three weeks or maybe even longer, I don't know for sure. I'm about to say: "Hi everybody, I'm back!" And they'll say, "Finally, you're back, Max. Where have you been all this time?" or something like that, and everyone will be really excited when they see me again. Probably mom and dad had called the police after they didn't know where else to look for me. I hope they didn't worry too much. But everything's all right now, I'm back now.

I'm sure they want to know where all the sand in my hair, my ears and my clothes came from, and then I'll tell them everything that happened.

One thing's for sure: They'll be amazed when they hear what I've been through...

2

How it all began

The day when I suddenly disappeared one afternoon and the adventure began

It was a beautiful day, a Saturday, the sun was shining and it was quite hot. We soon had big holidays, summer holidays; Marie and Maya, my siblings, and I were looking forward to it, because we wanted to camp in France on the Atlantic coast with our parents. Maya is still in kindergarten, Marie is in the sixth grade and I am in the fifth grade. I had recently celebrated my eleventh birthday, and the colorful Happy Birthday banner from the party was still hanging on the terrace.

Mom sent us outside. Dad was sitting at his desk upstairs writing his book the day I suddenly disappeared. He'd been writing it for a couple of weeks. He's a writer. He also works for a newspaper and writes articles. I don't know exactly what they're about, but every now and then he reads something to me. I like the way he writes. Once I asked him if he would like to read me something from the book he was typing, but he said it wasn't for me, I was too young for that, but later, when I was older, he would give it to me to read. At least that's what he promised me.

My mum is at an insurance company; I don't know what she does there exactly, but she has quite a lot to do.

So it was a Saturday, mum had the day off and dad was typing at the top of his book, as I said. We asked him once again to read us something, but he just shook his head and told us a story he made up at that moment. Marie found the story boring (but I liked it), she told it to him directly, but Daddy didn't hold it against her and said that he would definitely make up a story she would like to hear some day. Then he took her in his arms and whirled her through the air until mum laughed and said that they would both get a spinning worm if he continued like this. Then Maya also wanted to be twirled around by him, finally also me, and in the end of course Mama was supposed to twirl us through the air as well.

That day Mama had sent us outside because the weather was so nice and she wanted to prepare lunch. At first we painted a little with chalk on the sidewalk, but Marie soon didn't feel like it anymore, and then suggested we play hide and seek. Although she is already twelve, she still loves to play hide-and-seek. I should look for her and Maya, Maya was still too small to hide alone at the age of four, that's what mummy had told us over and over again: One always has to stay with Maya. So we agreed that I should look for them both first. Who knows what would have happened if we hadn't gone outside and played hide and seek. Then I wouldn't have disappeared, I guess. Then maybe everything would have stayed the same.

Anyway, I found them both pretty soon, even though Marie had chosen a good hiding place, but Maya couldn't keep still, something kept calling her, so I just had to follow her voice to find them. Marie scolded Maya a little bit and said that playing hide and seek with her was not possible at all, and then it was my turn. Marie would count to twenty, I had already chosen a hiding place, namely the shed in the garden where daddy keeps his wheelbarrow and spade and so on. I ran there, opened the door and hid in the back of the shed, between the shelf and the lawnmower. It was quite dark in there, it smelled of earth and lawn and a bit of petrol. Marie and Maya called for me, their voices became quieter and quieter at some point and I wondered why they didn't get the idea to look for me in that shed.

I don't remember how long I sat there, but it must have been five minutes. Then I got up, because I no longer believed that they were still looking for me, and also because my legs hurt from sitting there for so long.

I opened the door and stepped out carefully, after all it was possible that they were both still around. But they were not, simply because there was nothing here that I knew of. I mean, my parents' house was gone, the garden, the street, and Marie and Maya were gone, too. I called for them, but of course it was useless, because I was sure that they were no longer there. Or maybe I should better say: It was me who was no longer there.

I was somewhere else, in another garden that was much bigger than ours, that belonged to a house, a house that didn't have the slightest resemblance to ours. I turned around and looked into the shed, which was exactly the same as the one I had been hiding in. But everything else had changed.

3

At first I stood around for a while trying to make sense of it all, but how was I supposed to understand what was incomprehensible? So I gave it up and walked through the big garden towards the house. I was thirsty and hoped that there was someone in the house who would give me something to drink and tell me how to get back to my parents.

Finally I stood in front of the front door, on the bell sign was a name I didn't know and it sounded quite funny: SCHIMPERGLANZ. I didn't know anybody with that name, and if I hadn't been so confused and also a bit scared, I might have laughed. But I did not necessarily feel like laughing. What I noticed was that it smelled very pleasant of vanilla, and strangely enough, it took away some of my fear right away.

I rang the bell. No one answered. Then I saw that the door was ajar and entered the house. Apparently it was empty, at least not a person could be seen or heard. I went through the rooms that were on the lower floor - living room, kitchen, dining room, storage room (I didn't dare go down to the basement) - but I didn't find anyone anywhere. Then, suddenly, I heard someone singing. It came from one of the upstairs rooms. I went up the stairs, step by step. The singing got louder. At the top, I turned left and stood in the doorway to the room where the boy was sitting and singing.

He was about my age, about eleven years old, had short blond hair and wore small, round, red glasses. His jeans had quite a lot of patches, not only on his knees, and they seemed a bit too small for him. At first he didn't even notice me; he was sitting on the floor and drawing something on a piece of paper, singing to himself. But then he looked up and looked at me in wonder.

"Where did you suddenly come from?", he asked. "I didn't hear you. Who are you?"

"I'm Max," I said.

"Tom," he said, putting the pen down.

"Do you live here?", I asked.

"No. Do you?"

I shook my head.

"So what are you doing here?" Tom wanted to know.

"I don't know," I said, "I've never been here before."

"Me neither."

I told him how I got here. Tom was amazed. And then he told his story, and it was at least as strange as mine: That morning he had been playing in his room with a school friend when he wanted to pull out a puzzle from under his bed. So he crawled under it, he couldn't get at the puzzle any other way, and when he finally had it and had crawled out again, he was no longer at home, but here in this room. It's a really crazy story.

The whole thing was less than two hours ago, and I wondered why he sat so calmly on the floor, singing and painting.

"Aren't you afraid?" I asked him.

"Of what?" Tom looked at me in wonder.

"Well, I mean, you're not at home anymore, you're somewhere else where you don't know anybody."

Tom didn't say anything, he just looked at me like he was thinking, then he said:

"Well, I'm not alone, if that's what you're thinking. The whole house is full of children, there are children in every room playing. I know them all. Let me show you around." We went through the huge house, from one door to the other. In each of the rooms there were indeed several children, and all seemed to be comfortable, not a single one of them cried, all laughed and played.

"Where are you all from?" I asked Tom.

"Well, where do you think?" he shouted. "But suddenly we were here, with Frau SCHIMPERGLANZ. We have it good here."

SCHIMPERGLANZ - I had just read this strange name on the bell!

"And your parents? Where are they?", I wanted to know.

Tom shrugged his shoulders. "No idea."

"Don't you miss her at all?"

"Frau SCHIMPERGLANZ is here. She'll take care of everything."

"Is she here all alone, this woman SCHIMPERGLANZ?", I asked.

"Yes", Tom replied. "She has everything under control, if that's what you mean. She is the best person in the world."

That sounded funny to me. She's the best person in the world. I mean, he barely knew her, how could he be convinced she was the best person in the world? Just when I was about to ask this, a bell rang out.

"Dinner is served," cried Tom, beaming. "Spaghetti, I think."

"Did Frau SCHIMPERGLANZ cook this too?"

"Of course, who else?!" he exclaimed. "Frau SCHIMPERGLANZ is downstairs in the kitchen. Haven't you seen her yet?"

He ran to the stairs leading down. Suddenly the doors opened everywhere and the children came streaming out.

"Are you coming?" Tom asked me. I nodded; of course I wanted to, above all I wanted to see that woman SCHIMPERGLANZ who was always being talked about. Together we went down the wide stairs, Tom opened the kitchen door and there she stood: Frau SCHIMPERGLANZ.

She was wearing a green apron, which went over her knees, her white hair had been tied in a braid. She was quite small, perhaps only a head taller than me, a bit chubby, and she had friendly eyes and a friendly face. I liked her right away, she reminded me a little of my own grandmother, daddy's mummy, who we always call "Granny Poma". But of course it wasn't her, even though the first moment I saw Mrs. SCHIMPERGLANZ I thought it was Oma Poma. When I saw her, I knew that she would mean well with us. She was up to no harm and nothing would happen to us here. I also noticed that it was her who smelled of vanilla. Why didn't I see her standing in the kitchen earlier? I did see her standing in the kitchen.

"Well, my dears," she greeted us, as if she was expecting not only Tom, but also me, but that could not be possible, because we didn't know each other at all. "Are you hungry, too?"

Tom nodded and shouted, "And how!"

"And what about you, Max?"

"How did you know my name?" I wanted to know. I was quite taken aback. Frau SCHIMPERGLANZ laughed.

"You're amazed, aren't you?" she said. "Well, sit down then, you two. We're having spaghetti. You like that, don't you?"

Oh yes, we did! And even though I would have liked to know how she knew me, I didn't ask any more questions. Maybe she'd tell me yet.

Together with Frau SCHIMPERGLANZ we went into the dining room. There was a huge table here, it was at least fifteen metres long, and at this table the children sat in front of their plates and looked up expectantly.

We ate mountains of spaghetti; I had not known that my hunger had been so great. Had I ever eaten so delicious? Mrs. SCHIMPERGLANZ was really a wonderful cook, I must say. I forgot everything around me, forgot that I was sitting in a house I didn't know and that my parents and siblings would be looking for me. I forgot all that.

Frau SCHIMPERGLANZ gave us as much lemonade as we wanted, and after dinner we were allowed to eat chocolate pudding as much as we wanted. Afterwards we all cleared the table, the mountains of dishes piled up in the kitchen were impressive. Finally everybody ran back to the rooms. Only Tom and I stayed behind. We stood in the kitchen, Mrs. SCHIMPERGLANZ put all the dishes in a dishwasher, which didn't seem to get full until the very last plate had disappeared.

After the meal Tom and I played all kinds of games with Frau SCHIMPERGLANZ for half an eternity, games that she thought up. Frau SCHIMPERGLANZ was really a strange woman, by which I don't mean that she was somehow strange, no, she was very nice and always had great ideas for games, she always thought up something new; Tom and I felt quite comfortable with her (otherwise I would have been homesick immediately). Besides, there were a lot of toys here, you didn't know what to play with first.

4

We had played for at least two hours when Frau SCHIMPERGLANZ looked at us both and spoke in a serious voice:

"Max and Tom, I have something to tell you now. You must have asked yourselves why you are here, with me, in this house. ...you and the other children." I nodded. Frau SCHIMPERGLANZ made a mysterious face: "I will now tell you what this is all about." She took a short break and looked out of the window; I had the feeling that she was far away at that moment, thinking somewhere else. Then she continued: "I'll tell you about the vanished village."

The vanished village - what was that?

"In the vanished village," Frau SCHIMPERGLANZ continued, "87 people lived, there were 27 houses. One day the first house disappeared and nobody knew what had happened to it. Suddenly there was an empty spot where it had stood. And then one house after another disappeared. One of the last houses left is this one, the house we are now in."

"What do you mean they're gone?" I asked. "Where did they go?"

"I cannot tell you that," replied Frau SCHIMPERGLANZ. "They simply disappeared. One only knows: they are gone."

"And the residents? Where are they?", I asked.

"Most of them have disappeared, along with their homes. The others soon moved away, fearing they would disappear just like the first inhabitants. They packed their things and moved away."

A shiver ran down my spine. It sounded so incredible, like a fairy tale, like a made-up story. Could it really be true?

"Where are all these children from?" I asked her. "Are they from the village too?"

Mrs. SCHIMPERGLANZ nodded: "Yes, that's how it is. So is Tom. They are well, they miss nothing. They are with me too!" Frau SCHIMPERGLANZ laughed. "Right, Tom?" He smiled and nodded eagerly.