Rosenmarie

There were only few days left until the first of december. Although there was no christmasy-feeling in Auschwitz the soldiers did seem a bit more upbeat, and once in a while Werner would catch someone whistling an old christmas tune. Everyone was thinking of their loved ones back home, either looking forwards to going back to see them for a few days or caught in a spell of wishfull thinking that they might be sent home on short-notice too.

Werner was also in a good-mood. The fourteen days were up, he was even two days late, that meant he could give Marie a call. He'd studied her number until he knew it by heart and he hoped that he hadn't mixed up any of the numbers in the last two weeks. There was already a soldier in the telephone box so Werner waited on the chair outside of it. The soldier was smiling and laughing. He was too young to be phoning a wife, it must have either been a lover, sister or mother at the other end of the line. He didn't take too long and when he left he smiled and greeted Werner who returned his 'Guten Abend'.

Werner stepped inside the little telephone box. He wasn't surprised to find a dial phone but he was surprised that he didn't know how to use it. He stared at the round circle with the numbers then just shrugged. It couldn't be that hard could it? So he stuck his finger in the hole of the first number and pulled the circle around, it clicked which seemed like a good thing. He dialed the whole number in this fashion and by the fourth digit he was laughing. It was so much funner to call someone this way. He clamped the receiver under his ear. He could hear ringing; another good sign. He must have done something right.

"Guten Abend, hier spricht Anneliese Plattner. (Good evening, here is Anneliese Plattner)."

"Guten Abend Frau Plattner. I hope I dialed the right number, I'm looking for Marie." Werner said. He thought it funny that he was calling a girl and her mother picked up. Those kinds of things didn't happen in 2023. It was more romantic somehow. 

"I'll go and get her, who may I say is on the other line?"

"Killian Werner." He could almost hear her nodd. He imagined a thin, blonde woman with a square German face. It went quiet on the other end. He waited impatientently, but the waiting made it all the better. He heard someone grab the phone again. "Hallo Marie?"

"Hallo Killian." Hearing her soft voice made his heart melt. She sounded even more desirable to him then she had sounded when they'd met. "Wie gehts dir? (how are you?)

"I'm doing well, thank you. What about you? How was it at your grandfathers?"

"I'm doing well, thank you. It was fun and I'm going back for Christmas day...My grandma died a few years ago and I can't let him celebrate Christmas alone, it's too sad." 

"Ich verstehe (I understand). My grandmother always came to our place for every holiday, we didn't want her to be alone either." 

"Das ist ja süss. (that's cute)." She answered. There was something different about her tone, but Werner couldn't place what it was. After a short pause she asked him the question he knew she was dying to ask. "So how is it there?"

"It's very bleak and cold, but I'm lucky! I'm working with the doctors so I'm not out much."

"Are you a doctor?" She said in surprise.

"No, no I'm not. But I do have some medical experience and they were short on assistants." 

"Oh. So you're a nurse." She said with a giggle. 

"I am not a nurse. I am an assistant." Werner said but he was laughing. Marie laughed too. When she talked it sounded as if she was out of a movie from the 1950s because of the crackling sound in the background of the call and because some of the tones simply got lost in the long line. It made her all the more attractive. Werner realized that his voice must also sound like a voice from the movies or an old vinyl to her. No wonder people used to love to call other people, it sounded and felt much more romantic. 

There was a short pause. But even when both were quiet there was no silence in the call. The crackling of the line reminded them that there was somebody on the other end; somebody they liked. It sounded liked electricity, it sounded like young love, and it made them feel closer to each other than they were. 

"Well I'm glad you're alright, Killian." 

"Call me Killy." Werner interrupted. He could almost hear her blush on the other end. 

"Alright, Killy. I'm afraid I can't be on the phone much longer. My mother's been staring at me angrily for the past two minutes. I'd promised to help her clear the table. Do you want to call me again tomorrow? Only if you'd like too, of course."

"I'd love too. It will probably be this late again, or later even."

"Great. Thank you for calling me, I'd almost thought you'd forgot..."

"I couldn't forget you Marie..." He answered. He hadn't meant his voice to sound so sexual but it had. Werner felt as if his voice had gotten deeper and more manly since he'd first arrived at Auschwitz. He leaned his back against the back wall of the box and let out a tired but happy sigh. 

"Alright, Killy. I have to go now."

"Alright, Marie. Have a nice night, and sleep well."

"Thank you. Dream about me." She added after a second of silence. Werner's face broke into a smile. 

"I hope I will." 

"Auf Wiedersehen." 

"Wiedersehen." Werner waited to hear the click as she hung up the phone, then he lay his back on the receiver. She was such a sweet girl. Truely. He stayed there for a second, staring at the wall across from him. But he didn't see the black phone and the greyish background, he saw Marie helping her mother wash the dishes. She was smiling slightly and when Anneliese asked her what was up she just gently shook her head.

He was almost gratefull for the fact that he couldn't tell her about the horrors of Auschwitz, about his freshly-kindled fear of Nikolai and of the plans to free the polish doctor. Of course he would have liked to discuss all these things with her; she was a smart woman and she might have good ideas. But it gave him one time a day that he could talk about anything else, and it gave him the oppertunity to almost forget that he was in the KZ. He left the phone booth smiling. He couldn't wait for tomorrow.