Darius Düsterwald's Lucky Medicine

Tom rang the round button next to the door and was startled by the shrill sound of the doorbell, which rang through the quiet neighbourhood. As they stood waiting, Tom could feel his mother’s growing apprehension behind him. She had never talked much about her hometown or her father. In fact, Tom knew as good as nothing about one half of his family.

He examined the old wooden door in front of him and saw that it had a name carved in its wood. ‘Darius Düsterwald’, he said aloud and realised that his mother had never told him his grandfather’s name. Just as he was about to ask her about it – the door opened abruptly, but there was no one to welcome them in. Instead, they heard a great amount of frantic mumbling coming from inside. 

‘Not a good time. Not a good time, I tell you! I have run out of it. I am doomed, do you hear? Doomed!’

They stepped inside the old, bleak house and were greeted with a thick, unmoving air that smelled of rotten wood and fresh grass at the same time. Darius had disappeared in another room, but his constant mumbling could still be heard faintly. Tom had never seen a house like this one and was fascinated by all the curious things scattered about. The first thing he noticed were the many things hanging from the ceiling, like the various plants that had already grown out of their pots and padded birds that looked like they were still in flight. Curious pictures were plastered on the walls, but Tom could not identify them, except some oriental style images depicting animals like fish and elephants. On the wall to his left hung, among other things, thirteen horseshoes, of which one looked like it was about to fall.

 Leaving his bags near the door, he walked towards the massive wooden table close to the window. Like the rest of the room, it was full of curious things, but this messiness had a charm that fascinated Tom unlike anything he had ever seen. In the centre of the table stood a big jar with lots of little coins. There must have been at least a thousand inside, but Tom could only count until 23 before his grandpa stormed back into the room. 

‘It is a catastrophe, Anna! A catastrophe! I have almost nothing left, nothing. Only three more days. Three... I have already reduced it to half a cup per day. What am I supposed to do now? Drink a quarter cup? One-fifth? No, no, no, no. It won’t do. It is over. I am over!’. 

The old man said all this in a single breath while running from corner to corner, opening cabinets, pots, bags, boxes, but it seemed as though he already knew that he wouldn’t find what he was looking for.

‘Could you please stop running around and greet us properly!’, Anna said with a shrill voice. Her tense shoulders and plucked mouth signaled Tom that she was about to lose her patience. At this the old man stopped moving entirely for a moment and then recovered. 

‘Anna. Anna, my dear. I am so glad to see you.’ He took her hands for a moment and gave her a crooked smile. ‘But it is not a good time. It is the worst time, in fact. The worst! You see, I have run out of my–‘

‘Glücksmedizin?’, Anna said with all the disappointment she had tried to forget in England. She had married an Englishman and moved to London 30 years ago but visited her old father only a handful of times. Anna let her shoulders down and turned towards her son. ‘Tom, I’m so sorry, but I’m going to leave you with grandpa and go over to my sister.’ She slung the bag over her shoulder and disappeared before Tom could say anything. Little Tom actually did not know what had been said. The two had spoken in German, and he had not the slightest knowledge of that strange language. 

In the meantime, his grandfather was looking about the room confusedly until he spotted his little grandson. It seems like he had only just noticed he was there.

‘Tom? Tom?’ He said with a low voice full of astonishment. ‘The little Tom? Is it you? Heavens above! You have grown so much. Has it really been so long?’ He slowly approached the boy. ‘Say, Tom, how old are you? How old?’

‘I’m almost twelve’, he said timidly, although he was not a timid person at all. 

‘Twelve already! That means, that means that I am ... Oh dear.’

To anyone who didn’t know Darius, it came as a stark surprise to find out that he was 87 years old. For this old man was known to be always hurrying around with lots of agility. With the same agility he turned away from Tom and continued his nervous pondering. 

‘Say, Tom, would you consider yourself a Glückskind? I mean a, er, lucky child?’

Tom had never really thought of it but now that he did, he realised that he was not. He was clumsy and forgetful, and he often found himself in situations where the outcome could be considered anything but lucky. So, he said, ‘I don’t think so. I think I’m rather unlucky actually.’

 Darius thought about it for a moment and then regained all of his previous energy. ‘Aha! Good, good. That is good. Very good, indeed. We shall begin at once. At once! And loose no time now. There really is no time. Come on, come here, I have something to show you, Tom.’

Tom had to follow his grandfather with quick steps into the corridor and into another room, which was even darker than the first. The air in this room was moist and a little fishy; Tom found it difficult to breath. His grandfather motioned him to come closer to a kitchen unit, on top of which stood a big vase made of jade. 

‘This’, he paused and made a gesture towards the jade vase, ‘is what my life depends on, you see. My life depends on it because like you’, he pressed a wrinkled finger onto Tom’s chest, ‘I am a very unlucky fellow. Very unlucky. So, I have spent most of my waking hours perfecting this, er – I call it medicine.’ His features turned anxious as he opened the lid of the vase. ‘But as you can see, little Tom’ – Tom actually couldn’t see for the vase was too big and he was too small to see the inside even on his tiptoes – ‘it is as good as empty.’ He closed the lid again and looked at the boy. ‘I need your help to make new lucky medicine, Tom. Could you help me?

‘Of course’, the boy said. ‘But I’m not sure whether I can be of any help.’

‘Don’t worry, Tom, don’t worry’, Darius said with a newfound hope shining in his yellowed eyes. He rushed out of the room and back into the living room. ‘I will tell you exactly what to do. I have a list, you see, a short list. It is not so very much. I’m just missing a few ingredients.’

He opened a drawer and grabbed an old, shabby book, of which he took a page that was already torn off. He scanned the list quickly with narrow, concentrated eyes and then gave Tom a cheeky grin. He crossed out some things and then handed Tom the paper. It read:

7 rabbit claws, 7 crickets (dried), 7 four-leaved clovers (fresh if possible), one pig’s ear, one bird’s eye chili (or scorpion), 7 acorn seeds, 7 grams of camomile flowers, carp scales

‘See, only 3 ingredients are missing, only three. I can substitute some with other things, yes, like the fresh clovers with dried ones and the bird’s eye chili with another chili, preferably scorpion, although the result is not as good, then. But we’ll have to compromise, yes compromise.’ He took another page from the book, an empty one, and started writing something.

Tom felt sick at the thought of drinking something that was made from all of these things. He considered the three missing ingredients and could genuinely not imagine where he would find seven rabbit claws, a pig’s ear and a chili. The thought of ripping off a bunny’s claws and cutting off a pig’s ear flashed through his mind and this time the nauseous feeling returned with a churn of his stomach.

‘But where am I supposed to find these things?’

‘Don’t worry, Tom. Here, I have written down all the addresses.’ Darius handed him the other paper. ‘At the first one, you’ll find the rabbit claws. I haven’t been there in quite a while. You see, I prefer the claws of Chinese rabbits, yes, Chinese ones, but because of this virus thing going on I couldn’t get any for a while, real shame. Second is the butcher’s shop. I’m sorry, Tom, to send you there but you eat meat don’t you? Yes, I thought so, you’ll be alright. You’ll find a pig’s ear there, but maybe don’t mention it’s for me. The lady there does not like me very much. Third is the chili. In this neighbourhood lives a Venezuelan family, they make very delicious Arepas, and I know, as I have been over for dinner a few times, that they grow scorpion chilis in their garden. That’s all. Not that much, is it? 

Tom looked at his grandfather with suspicion. Although he was still fascinated by the old man, he was beginning to wonder whether he was crazy.

‘I’ll try my best to get them all’ is what he said at last.

‘Go on, go on, then. We shan’t lose any more time, we have no more time.’ Darius became frantic again and started looking around for something. When he found it in a shoe, he threw Tom a key. ‘Take the bike outside. And now go, go on!’

Tom took the bike and went as fast as he could to the address, but he had to stop a few times to ask for directions. On the way, he was picturing the poor bunny, he was about to torture and decided that if he had to hurt a bunny, he would return without the claws. He was surprised when he arrived as he was standing in front of an animal shelter for rabbits. He secured the bike and entered the house. A woman behind a desk greeted him and then he remembered that he could not speak any German. He wondered why his grandfather was so good at it. 

‘Hello, madam. I came to ask for rabbit claws’, he said in English. He half expected them to throw out such a strange kid with such a strange request but to his surprise, the lady made a face of adoration and told him something before she disappeared somewhere. He guessed that she told him to wait. After a few minutes, she came back and made a gesture to follow her. They came to the garden, where lots of bunnies were hopping about on the grass. Tom instantly began smiling. The lady seemed to have expected this reaction and told him that he can play with the bunnies while she looks for the claws. Although Tom did not understand, he immediately ran after a brown bunny. 

After about twenty minutes, she came back with a small plastic bag and gave it to Tom. He took it disbelievingly and saw that there were at least ten claws inside. He looked at the lady with a curious expression and she told him something of which he only understood ‘Darius Düsterwald’. She must have known that he came because of his grandpa. Since the first ingredient was so easy to gather, and because he could play with bunnies, Tom had become excited to find the others. He put the claws into his backpack, which he had grabbed before leaving and made his way to the next address. 

Again, he had to ask a few people for directions but then found a sign leading him to the village centre, where he found the butcher’s shop. When he walked inside, he was shocked at the huge chunks of meat displayed everywhere, some even hanging from the ceiling. Directing his eyes to the floor, he approached the sturdy man standing behind the counter. The man asked him something gruffly, so Tom just said: ‘Pig ear?’ The man looked at him curiously and then called to someone in the back. A big woman came, and Tom knew that she was the one his grandpa warned him about. They said something to each other, and it seemed as if the woman understood that Tom spoke no German. She repeated ‘Pig ear?’ and put her hands to her head to imitate pig ears. Tom yelled ‘Yes!’ and then recognised a suspicious look in her eyes. 

‘It’s for my dog!’, he said and mimed giving food to an imaginary dog. People who saw them through the window might as well have thought that they were playing activity. The butcher woman did not seem wholly convinced, but like the lady from the animal shelter, she was charmed by the sight of such a lovely young boy that she eventually nodded her head in agreement.

‘You clean se kitschn, I give you ear’, she said.

Tom contemplated shortly. Cleaning a butcher’s kitchen was not exactly an attractive activity, but he told his grandfather that he would try his best. So, he agreed and followed the lady to the kitchen. The smell was nauseating to Tom but stirred no reaction in the woman. She gave him a mop and gestured how to use it to clean the floor. Then she pointed at three huge bags of rubbish that were almost the size of him. He hurriedly completed his tasks and went to collect his reward, which the butcher woman gave to him only reluctantly after examining everything meticulously.

With two of three ingredients in his backpack, he cycled to the next address. He came to a house that looked not much different from his grandfather’s and rang the bell with the name ‘Gonzalez’. He spotted a pair of eyes looking at him through the window. Suddenly, a woman who looked about his mother’s age opened the door. Mrs Gonzalez’ initial kind smile disappeared when she realised who he was.

‘Düsterwald?’, she asked him, rolling the ‘r’ aggressively.

‘Yes, I’m sorry to bother you. May I come in?’ 

She stepped aside reluctantly and welcomed him inside. Tom had the feeling that this woman wasn’t angry because of his grandfather. She reminded him of his mother. The house was furnished nicely and despite the owner’s obvious hostility, he felt weirdly comfortable. Through the living room window, he could see the chili plants in the garden. Mrs Gonzalez noticed his gaze and realised why he was here.

‘No, no, no’, she said and started speaking in Spanish about what Tom guessed was an issue she had with his mother, because she repeatedly mentioned ‘Anna’. 

While Mrs Gonzalez let out her suppressed anger towards his mother, Tom spotted the pair of eyes again, who belonged to a girl about his age. When her mother turned away from him, the girl dashed through the living room into the kitchen, where the door to the garden was. Tom followed her quick moves with amazement and was elated when he saw her pick five chilis from the plant. With the same swiftness, she ran past her mother unnoticed and took his hand to guide him out of the house. They stopped in front of the entrance door, where she pressed the chilis into his hands and gave him a toothy smile. Tom wanted to spend more time with her, but Mrs Gonzalez was coming towards them with absolute fury in her steps. So, Tom jumped out of the house and onto his bicycle to return to his grandfather.

When he came back, his grandfather had already prepared everything to brew his lucky medicine. He put fresh bamboo under the jade vase, managed a steady flame and added all the other ingredients. Upon seeing the missing things, he was beyond ecstatic and engulfed the boy in a deep hug.

‘Oh, you are not an unlucky fellow at all, not at all, dear boy. Well done, Tom. I am so glad that you have come, really glad.’

Darius insisted that Tom should add the last ingredients and lifted him so he could reach the opening of the vase. While the lucky medicine had to be cooked and stirred for another 15 minutes, Tom excitedly told his grandfather about what had happened. When the cooking was done, Darius prepared the distillation process, which took the whole night.

On the next morning, Tom was given his first cup of lucky medicine and he had been so nervous that he had slept little the night before. When he finally drank the whole cup in one go, he excitedly waited for its effects but discovered that nothing changed.

‘Of course, nothing changes. Did you think you would grow wings and start flying? Ha!’ Darius said mockingly. ‘Being lucky is not something you feel, Tom. Luck is in all the big and small things that happen throughout your day.’

Tom was not convinced and was disappointed for a long time, but after a few years, he started making his own lucky medicine and eventually taught his own children the recipe for Darius Düsterwald’s lucky medicine.