Hansel Und Gretel
For days they were together, left alone, not in
a forest but in a waste land beneath a tree of a hospital. They were so thin,
so small. How they managed to eat, drink and sleep, I don’t know. Every day
when on duty in the hospital I took some food and milk for them, How eagerly
they ate and drank.
I wish I could take them home but we already
had a foundling. But when I decided to take them home, they were gone. I, we
all who went together felt bad in the car. Before driving for home we suggested
to just try again almost with no hope. How we rejoiced as we found them still
there.
I tried to find some one who would take care of
them. But when I told them that Hansel is crippled and about Gretel’s itch and
asthma they refused to take them, perhaps they’re business people. “What if
they couldn’t be sold?” they thought. As I now think I’m so glad that they were
rejected, otherwise … What if they took Gretel only or Hansel only. It would be
cruel to separate them as they so love each other and always huddle, play,
sleep together in my bed.
And I thought of the orphans of wars, brothers
and sisters separated from each other or from a mother when taken in families
abroad and of slaves in former times when they were captured and sold. Hansel
isn’t crippled anymore and walks, runs, jumps on all four, though sees with
squinting eyes. Perhaps he’s got a violent beating on his head before and
Gretel –she was near death, yet, thanks God, survived, three, four times
revived by artificial respiration during a surgery – is a funny, lively
creature. I’ll never give them away, even when I have to go abroad.
That’s Upik her story.
And this is my
recording of them.
Gretel And Her
Boyfriend
Gretel was proud
having Hansel as her boyfriend. When she peed, it was so funny, she also lifts her
hind leg up as Hansel does and she also runs, walked limping imitating him.
But I couldn't capture this.
She is so cute. I am
lucky to have recorded them. This is the only recording I have of Gretel. Gone now, yet they live forever in You Tube.
February 2009
March 2013
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