William & Abby E-Book

Jasmin Skubacz

• Herausgeber: novum publishing
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 190

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

William and Abigail live in a castle in Gladbeki, where coal—the so-called "black gold"—is considered the key to prosperity. But their homeland harbors dark secrets. A mysterious friend from a distant land takes them on a journey that leads them deep into their country's past and future. In their search for answers, the siblings ask themselves whether coal can really bring the prosperity they hope for, or whether it casts a dangerous shadow. The historical background of the coal industry, coupled with a captivating adventure, makes this novel a thrilling reading experience.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Imprint

Foreword

Dedication

Acknowledgements

William & Abby

On a personal note

Imprint

Any inconsistencies in the text are due to the fact that it was translated using computer-aided technology for a company-wide study.

© 2025 novum publishing gmbh

Rathausgasse 73, A-7311 Neckenmarkt

[email protected]

Foreword

Siblings William and Abigail live with their family and a mysterious friend from a distant land in the beautiful moated castle of Wittringen, in the small village of Gladbeki. At this point, the children do not yet know that this place and its surroundings are about to undergo a major change. Their parents often talk about it, repeatedly mentioning the "black gold" that will one day make the country rich. The siblings doubt this, as coal is anything but gold. Abigail decides to find out exactly that with her brother William:

is it really possible that dusty, black coal can make an entire country rich? And is it also possible that you can really achieve anything solely through the power of your thoughts? Just as their mysterious friend always claims?

Dedication

For:

My sons Mario and Fabio Hörbe

Thank you for all the big and small wonders of this world that you have shared with me—including the two of you. You have taught me what it means to love unconditionally.

My husband Norbert Skubacz,

who lovingly supports every one of my ideas, no matter how crazy they may be. I love you.

My parents

You are amazing.

My parents-in-law Elisabeth and Gerhard Skubacz

Two wonderful people.

Acknowledgements

With this book, I would like to express my sincere and heartfelt thanks to all miners, past and present, around the world for their tireless efforts. This includes, in particular, my two grandfathers, Joseph Hörbe and Herrmann Mohrbacher. Like all miners, they risked their health and lives every day to feed their families. There is no doubt that "black gold" made this country great and contributed to the prosperity of all its people. Where would we be today without them: coal and the people who mined it?

"Good luck!"

Thanks to my grandfathers' extensive knowledge of our city and its surroundings, I was able to pass on city names, legends, and other stories in this book. I always enjoyed listening to their stories.

William & Abby

In search of black gold

William is sitting once again at one of the three bay windows in the hunting room of his ancestral castle, his home. Originally, it was a fortress, but in Gladbeki it is known as Wittringen moated castle. William is doing what he always does when his daily lessons are over and he has done his homework as expected. He listens to the crackling fire in the fireplace and lets his gaze wander over the land that his family lives on and farms. This room is located on the upper floor in a tower-like extension. At the other end of the castle is another extension of identical construction. It contains the fireplace room with the same bay windows. This is his mother's favorite room. Here she invites friends for tea, reads a book, or simply enjoys the sunbeams shining through the window. William, however, prefers the hunting room. From here he has the best view of the world, the people outside, and the castle courtyard.

The furnishings are kept quite simple. In the middle stands a heavy square wooden table with four chairs. The chairs have armrests carved with dragon heads at the ends, but there is no backrest. The seats form a semicircle, while the legs of the chairs are arranged in an X shape. In one corner of the room stands a suit of knight's armor, in the other a huge floor vase. It is so large that a child could hide in it and is decorated all around with hunting motifs. Nothing in this room reminds us of what it was once called— —because the hunting trophies on the walls and above the fireplace were removed on his mother's instructions. She could no longer bear the sight of the antlers and stuffed animal heads. "Hideous, just hideous," she always said when she looked at this room. William has never been interested in the furnishings of this room. For him, only the windows are of great importance. That's where he found his favorite spot, because each of the three windows has fifteen rectangular stained glass panes in a wide variety of colors: three rectangular panes across and five rectangular panes up. The same windows also adorn the fireplace room, but here he has his peace and quiet, and from here he can best choose the colors in which the world should appear. When he looks through the green stained glass window, people look as if they have eaten something rotten, and when he looks through the red one, you might think that everyone has been out in the sun too long.

But this year, all the colors in the world cannot help him overlook how relentless winter is this year. The wind whips the falling snowflakes across the land at high speed. Everywhere, snowdrifts pile up toward the sky, and most of the branches on the bare trees bend toward the ground under the weight of the snow. Some almost touch it, and a few have been unable to withstand the weight of the now un ly pleasing masses of snow and have broken. When will it stop snowing? The sky is not clearing up today, just as it has not on many other days before. No sooner has a new morning dawned than it is already getting dark again. Except for a few crows in the castle courtyard and on the roofs of the adjacent buildings, no other animals can be found. Yet there are countless species of animals here on this 450-acre estate. In the water, in the air, on the ground, and even below it. Nothing. Simply nothing. No tracks in the snow and no typical calls from various animal species. It seems as if the snow wants to suffocate all life. Even the moat, which was very generously laid out around the castle, and the lake adjacent to the north side have long since frozen over and are no longer recognizable as such.

"I always thought I lived in a moated castle, not an ice palace." William grimaces a little in annoyance.

He doesn't like this time of year at all. In fact, he doesn't really enjoy any season. Why should he? Really enjoying himself like other children his age can is just a dream for him anyway. He can't throw himself into the snow like his twin sister Abigail and leave the imprint of a snow angel in the fresh powder snow. Nor is he there when the other children divide into two camps, prepare a multitude of snowballs, and then fight for victory in an extensive snowball fight, ultimately falling into each other's arms laughing and agreeing to have another snowball fight. Sometimes William waves to them, and then one of them may shyly wave back. When the children feel unobserved, they sometimes throw a few snowballs at the window. Not to annoy him, but to let him participate in their game as best they can. Although he is safe from the snowballs thanks to the huge windows, he pretends to have to dodge them. Then he leans from left to right or from top to bottom. What fun! They are the children of the servants, maids, cooks, laundresses, and other staff of this castle. They all live in an adjoining half-timbered house, the original part of the castle. How he would love to join the others. Oh yes, he would. Even if Professor Pillwein, the tutor of him and his sister, would not approve. He constantly lectures them, wagging his finger, that they should never associate with the rabble. "They are not worthy of your company," the professor admonishes them almost daily. Abigail constantly rolls her eyes at this statement and makes faces behind his back. "They are children who have much less than I do and yet are so much happier," William sulks to himself, looking down at himself and immediately realizing the reason why. It's his legs. His legs, which are unable to carry him. Which don't allow him to walk, run, or jump. The only way he can get from one place to another is in his wheelchair. That damn wheelchair. It's not as if William can't take a few steps. Yes, he can. He can do that very well. With his walking aids under his armpits, he laboriously makes his way forward. Even if he's just dragging his legs across the floor, for a brief moment it feels as if he can walk. As if he were a normal boy. A great feeling. But that must remain a secret forever. Except for Abby, no one knows about it. After all, she's the one who got him the walking aids, and she's also the one who always has to stand guard so he can enjoy that brief moment of happiness. No one must ever find out about their little secret. Never—and certainly not his mother, because she would forbid him immediately and keep an even closer eye on him than she already does. Abby would certainly get into big trouble too. He's not allowed to do anything. Nothing at all. She has even forbidden him from moving his unloved wheelchair on his own.

No one has an explanation for why he has been so weak since birth. His twin sister is in excellent health. It seems as if she got the best of everything, because she has beautiful long, thick hair, a rosy complexion, and is full of tireless vitality. She is always in a good mood. William, on the other hand, has only a few light-colored wisps of hair on his head and a face as white as the snow, which he is slowly but surely getting more than enough of, and at the same time he feels anything but alive. That is probably the reason why, at just eleven years of age, he has encountered more doctors and scholars than he can bear. Everyone knows better, everyone has a solution to the problem, and not a single one of them has been able to really help. Once, he was prescribed stinking steam baths. These smelled so disgusting that flies fell off the walls, and even long after, the foul odor could still be detected on his body—so strong that he had to eat his meals separately from the others. Even today, William doesn't want to think about what was in those baths.

Another time, two doctors who claimed to be true experts in human anatomy took him on. Once again full of hope for recovery, his mother agreed to an extremely questionable treatment. What did the two actually hope to achieve by grabbing him by his arms and legs, bending and twisting them, bending and stretching them? What do you hope to achieve by tying up a small and weak boy until he can't breathe, only to realize that this is not the solution to the problem? After that, he saw everything double and triple for some time, and it took a very, very long time before William could see his surroundings clearly again. What misery. Since then, there have been no further attempts at healing. However, this could also be because Maamuni has been living with you for a year. Maamuni comes from a faraway country on another continent: Africa. He calls this country Tanzania. It is always very hot there . There are wild animals, lots of sand, and no snow. Both men and women wear colorful wrap-around robes with even more colorful, huge collars around their necks. William saw this for himself when his father introduced Maamuni to them for the first time. Abigail found him a little scary at first because his skin is almost as dark as the blackboard in her classroom, and Professor Pillwein was completely horrified when he saw our new guest's robe. A man in a colorful dress? But what horrified him even more was the fact that the stranger was not wearing shoes. Which, incidentally, is still the case today. He himself was so fascinated by him that he was unable to look away.

's father Alwin is a true adventurer and has traveled almost halfway around the world. Unfortunately, he is always away for long periods of time on his explorations, and no one knows if he will return home unharmed. This is a circumstance that causes her mother to look worried all the time, but trying to stop him from his adventures would be futile anyway. "You can't clip a bird's wings and expect it to continue singing happily," she always tells the children with a tentative smile when their father sets off on his next adventure with his bags packed.

Mother is an extremely loving and peace-loving person. She hates conflict and believes that all people are equal. Whether poor or rich, young or old, healthy or sick. "Everyone deserves to be treated with respect," she constantly reminds the professor. That is exactly what Father—he affectionately calls her Lizzy—loves so much about her, and the children do too. She is probably also the reason why Maamuni settled into the castle so quickly. He let Lizzy dress him in a kind of pajama without resistance to prevent Professor Pillwein from quitting his job with immediate effect. Abigail thinks Maamuni's new look is quite chic. He now wears long yellow leggings and a yellow shirt that reaches to his knees, held in place by a red belt made of fine silk, among other things. A few of Maamuni's belongings that he brought with him from his country dangle from the belt, including a small leather bag whose contents no one knows. Abby likes it when Maamuni is around. Because he is always surrounded by a sweet scent. It reminds her of Irma's delicious cookies. Abby suspects that it can only be vanilla. Yummy. "Except for the missing shoes, the professor should have no further objections," Lizzy hoped at the time, looking forward to a happy time together. As I said: hoped.

A new and still cold winter day has dawned. It is still quite quiet inside and outside the castle. William and Abby are already sitting in their specially furnished classroom when the professor enters the room visibly annoyed and immediately starts ranting. "I don't know why your father brought this stranger back from his latest adventure. Isn't it enough that we all have to share this beautiful castle with all the other souvenirs from his travels? Wooden, creepy masks, horribly patterned fabrics, disgusting-smelling oils, and ill-fitting hats? Not to mention the foul-tasting spices." Professor Pillwein is currently venting everything that has been bothering him since his first lesson with us. Lizzy won't be thrilled if she ever finds out that her children's teacher still calls Maamuni a stranger or even compares him to a souvenir. Why does Mother insist on keeping him as a teacher? Surely there are a thousand others?

Whenever the professor makes presumptuous and derogatory remarks about other people, Abigail wonders if he has ever looked in the mirror at . "If he is as smart as he always pretends to be, he'd better not, because otherwise he might be shocked by his own reflection," the little girl thinks aloud and has to laugh at the mere thought of it. Does he know that he reminds her more of a gravedigger than a teacher? Pillwein is very tall and very thin. The skin on his hands and face is wrinkled and gray. As gray as the ashes in the fireplace. "That's probably what happens when you're always so grumpy," Abby concludes. You can never see more than his face and hands, because the rest of his body is covered by an excessively starched white shirt. Over this he wears a black tailcoat and a black top hat. She couldn't even tell if he had any hair, because she had never seen him without that top hat. But the most striking thing about him are his piercing, protruding, and equally colorless eyes. Maybe he's a ghost? That would explain why you can only see him but not hear him, no matter what movements he makes. Besides, he looks like he's already two hundred years old. At least.

"Don't be silly," William scolds her. "There are no ghosts, and the only thing we have to fear is Rupert, the new cook Mom hired. I heard that he was told to cook more vegetables for us and less pudding." He grimaces in disgust.

The professor overhears their conversation. A loud and indignant clearing of his throat fills the room. "Oh dear. Warning level one," Abby whispers to her brother. They both giggle. They know only too well what it means if they provoke their tutor any further. There won't be another clearing of his throat. To demand even more attention, Pillwein will bang the long wooden ruler on the desk so hard that it can be heard halfway across the castle. For a brief moment, he actually manages to change the color of his face. His head turns bright red. So bright red that one fears he might explode. That would be alert level two. Alarm level three is the most dangerous warning level for the children, because it has no warning signs and means a lot of punishment work for the two of them. Memorizing an endless and boring poem overnight is the lesser evil. The two are smart enough to obediently get through the rest of the lesson. Maybe there won't be too many vegetables for lunch after all?

After several seemingly endless lessons, the professor finally looks at his pocket watch, nods benevolently to the children, and leaves the room. No school for today.

Abby runs off to sample Rupert's culinary skills. "She forgot me. She really forgot me and left me here alone," William grumbles to himself. Let her. After all, she has no problem with having to eat only vegetables. Not because she knows that vegetables are healthy, but because his sister likes everything that is served to her. She is welcome to have his portion as well.

Against his mother's instructions, William tries to move his wheelchair on his own to get to the large table where his father has collected numerous objects from his many travels. Among them are a telescope and two globes. There is also a microscope, several maps, old books, and an elephant carved from very dark wood. Maamu ni has explained to them that this is an elephant from his homeland. This can be recognized by its large ears. Elephants from other continents have much smaller ears, he insists again and again. Furthermore, in the middle of the table, next to the globes, stands an Egyptian pyramid made of sandstone and a huge hourglass. William estimates that it is at least as big as one of his arms. The glass bulb inside the hourglass is held by a frame made of pure brass. Abby still believes that it is pure gold, because the metal shines so brightly. William has already given up trying to convince her otherwise.

Father believes that lessons should be fun, because that's the only way to stay curious. "Curiosity is an eager researcher," he hears his father Alwin say in his mind. Once again, he tries to move forward on his own, but this proves more difficult than expected, because the heavy and bulky wheelchair is made of extremely hard wood from a faraway country and is not designed to be moved or steered independently. All his efforts to get even a single centimeter closer to his goal are unsuccessful. Anger wells up inside him and he tries once again to give the wooden wheels the necessary momentum, again and again. Unfortunately, to no avail. William slumps down, sad and exhausted. He asks himself why he should learn so much when his world will never extend beyond the edges of his city.

"Wait a moment, little king." Maamuni rushes through the open double doors of the room to help William with his endeavor. "Just because I live in a castle doesn't make me a king. Strictly speaking, this isn't even a castle, but a fortress, and has been for 587 years now. I don't know why all the have to keep calling my prison a castle!" he barks at him. Startled by his own outburst, he pauses. Tears well up in his eyes. For a brief moment, the world seems to stand still. Silence spreads. Now the tears roll uncontrollably down his face. He is desperate and angry. Desperate because his situation will probably never change, and angry that life has apparently not been kind to him. But much worse is the fact that he has taken out his pent-up anger on an innocent person. What was he thinking? What would Mom say if she found out?

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," William sobs.

Maamuni silently grabs the wheelchair and pushes the crying boy to the table he had been trying so hard to reach. "What are you looking for, little friend?" Two big, bright eyes look at him questioningly. William points to the two globes right in front of him, next to the Egyptian pyramid. One is a globe of the Earth, the other a celestial globe. The celestial globe is equipped with a few planets such as Jupiter and Venus, as well as the starry sky, but it is of little interest to him at the moment. It is the terrestrial globe that fascinates William. He knows exactly the significance of this object, with its lines of longitude and latitude, which his father once brought back from a trip to Italy. With a trembling voice and a stuffy nose, he says, "I want to find out if I can discover our castle on the globe."

What happened next left William looking completely distraught, because suddenly Maamuni grabbed his stomach with both hands, bent forward and backward, and laughed so loudly that one feared the ceiling beams might come loose and fall on one's head . His mouth was open so wide that William thought he could see the whitest teeth that had ever existed in this world.