#Anny Ahlers | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dandelionthoughts · 6 years

Text

On your way home you always pass a cemetery. One day you hear a lovely voice singing a song as you pass by but you think nothing of it. However after five consecutive days of hearing it sing you decide to find out who it belongs to.

Ottomar worked at Jacques' Wein-Depot, on the outskirts of Wellingsbüttel, and Ohlsdorf, north of Hamburg. Every day, on his way home, he passed the Ohlsdorf Cemetery, in fact, his street was directly across from one of the entrances to the cemetery. There were a number of entrances, with it being the largest rural cemetery in the world, but Ottomar lived at number 8 Lisenkamp.

Ottomar, or Otto as he preferred to be called, had lived in Ohlsdorf all of his life, and the houses he'd lived in, had all been around the cemetery. His parents originally came from Hamburg, but moved out of the city as they wanted a quiet life.

Otto's life had been pretty mundane though for the past few years, he'd go to work, sell the fine wines in the shop, and then take the 5 minute walk home via the cemetery, then he'd feed his cat, a scraggly old little Norwegian Forest cat, who had fur missing from one of it's ears, and it had started to get cataracts in it's eyes. Otto would then make his evening meal, pour himself a glass of wine, light a cigarette, eat the meal, and then sit by the fire, while he would read his book. He would do that for an hour or so, then practice the piano for another hour or so, have another cigarette, and then make his way to bed.

It had been that way for the past few years, the same lack lustre life, until, one evening, when Otto was walking home, past the cemetery, he heard the most beautiful operatic singing voice he'd ever heard. He thought nothing of it, and continued on home, and proceeded on with his daily routine. But the day after, the same thing happened, he heard the voice again, and the day after that. In fact, he heard it for 5 consecutive days, until he decided to investigate.

The cemetery was incredibly large, and at first Otto was a little daunted by the task at hand, but his curiosity was peaked, and he had been wanting something to break him out of the mundane cycle of life he had been living in for the pas few years, and so he had to find where the voice came from. He spent a good half an hour or so, walking around the grave sites, and trying to pinpoint the location of the voice, trying carefully to be respectful, and not disturb any graves. Some were in a terrible state, stone work crumbling, statues malformed from the beauty they once were, grave slabs cracked, and headstones barely being supported at all, and some, had been tended to with love and care. Most of the ones with flowers, and trinkets, like teddies, and belongings one would presume were once in possession of the deceased, were the newer graves, the less cared for, were the graves belonging to those who died in the 1800's, and the early 1900's.

Otto was walking through some trees, when he stopped still. The voice was as clear as if the owner was stood across from him, and as it happened, they were. He saw a beautiful young woman, Otto guessed she was in her early to mid twenties, she hard short dark hair styled into a bob, very thin eyebrows, very expressive eyes, plump cheeks, and her thin lips were adorned with a very dark red lipstick.

'Entschuldigen Sie mich' Otto spoke timidly, he didn't want to frighten the poor young lady.

She turned, surprised that someone was there, and she smiled,

'Du hast mich singen gehört?' Her speaking voice was completely different to her singing voice, her singing voice was loud, powerful, with grace and beauty, her speaking voice however was quiet, and shy, and after she spoke, she had a rather horrid cough, one that seemed to shake her to her bones, she was only a slight young thing, and with each cough, she seemed like she would break herself in two. She folded her hands together, unsure where to look, it'd had been a long time since anyone had heard her sing, but inside, she was bursting with joy, how she'd missed performing, and longed for someone to hear her.

'Ja, es war sehr schön! Ich habe dich in den letzten 5 Tagen gehört.' Otto moved closer to the woman, she was quite short, about 5ft 3, and wearing a white floral gown, which came to her knees.

'Danke schön!' Her eyes light up as she spoke, and smiled.

'Bitte schön!' Otto replied;

'Warst du lange hier?' He asked.

'Ja, das könnte man sagen.' She replied, and the smile faded, she looked around, and back to Otto, who was looking rather worried that he might have offended the young lady.

'Entschuldige, ich wollte dich nicht aufregen.' Otto tried to give an apologetic smile, and the lady took his hand, and took him to a tree nearby, where they sat.

'Wie heisst du?' She asked,

'Mein Name ist Ottomar, aber, ich bevorzuge den Namen Otto.'

'Ahh, hallo Otto, Mein Name ist Anny.' She smiled, and asked Otto if he wouldn't mind if she sung again,

'Es ist so lange her, dass ich für irgendjemanden gesungen habe.' She explained.

Otto nodded, and she started to sing, her voice filling the air, Otto laid back against the tree, and closed his eyes. He could envision Anny being on stage, in a beautiful evening gown, with the audience completely full, all in awe of her beautiful voice. Otto sat there for what felt like half an hour, just listening to her sing, and then, he felt the air change, as Anny got up, and said,

'Auf Wiedersehen, und danke Otto.'

Before he could get up and open his eyes, she had gone, and the space where she had been sat, was as if she hadn't been there at all. He hadn't noticed, but by where they had been sat, was a vertical column like grave stone, with the name;

'Anny Ahlers,

21.12.1902,

14.03.1933'

Under Anny's name was a 'Mia Ahlers'. Though Otto couldn't really make out the dates, her could see she was born in 1900, and died in 1986, he assumed that Mia, must have been Anny's older sister. He was a little confused though, as to how the woman had the same name as Anny, and appeared to be around the same age.

When he got home, his old cat sprung into life, he looked at his watch, and saw he'd been out for at least two hours, and the poor creature was missing it's evening meal. After he fed the cat, he decided to look up Anny Ahlers, and found that she was an opera singer, who died in suspicious circumstances in London, it seemed that she had committed suicide, from jumping out of her flat window, while she was performing in London. He read in the article, that morphine for tuberculosis, and sleeping pills for her insomnia, were to blame for her death. On the article, there was a photograph of Anny, one year before her death, and to Otto's surprise, she looked just like the Anny he had been speaking to. Otto was a man of logic, sound reason, and he couldn't believe the lady he had been speaking to, just mere hours ago, could be a spectre.

The next day, coming home from work, he decided to stop by the cemetery again, but the voice was no where to be heard, he came to Anny's grave, and there in front of the grave, were some mixed carnations, and a card with them, Otto picked up the card, and read it,

'Lieber Otto,

Mein Liebster, danke für die letzte Nacht, es ist so lange her, dass jemand meine Stimme gehört hat, du warst da, als niemand sonst war, und dafür bin ich für immer in deiner Schuld.

Danke, meine Liebe!

Anny'

Otto stared at the note for a long while, dumbfounded, and in total shock, that last night did happen, and that he did in fact meet the spectre of Anny Ahlers, the tragic German opera singer, who took her own life so many years ago.

He put the note in his pocket, and headed home, on his way home, he bought a vase, and some mixed carnations of his own, and placed them on his fireplace when he got back, with the note, and every time the carnations wilted away, he replaced them, as his own tribute to Anny.

Every evening, before bed, he would stop by the flowers, and note, and look at them, and say;

'Gut nacht, mein süße.'

He would hear back, in a quiet and shy feminine voice,

'Gut nacht Otto, meine lieber.'

#writing #writing prompts #completed prompts #featured prompts

1 note · View note