St. Antonius

"Abbey of the Silent Hills - health resort, conference centre, silent retreat"

The wooden sign with the stylised mandala stood rather inconspicuously at the side of the road. The entrance might have been difficult to find without Google Maps, but with current navigation, even remote places like this were no longer a test in map reading.

Lost in thought, Dennis nodded to a person standing just behind the signpost and only woke up from his car-fuelled stupor when they started waving their arms. The abrupt braking dislodged his coffee cup from the cup holder and the pitiful remains of the morning covered the centre console navigation panel for a blink of an eye. "Bloody..."

Before he could finish swearing or even begin to roll down the window, the door was opened.

"Oops," was the comment the young woman had ready for him as she climbed onto the seat and grabbed a cloth from some bag to wipe up the mess. With a blink and an implied shake of the head, Dennis tried to regain control of the situation. "Erm..."

The smile on the face of the person sitting next to him completely threw him for a loop, so he simply watched her as she finished cleaning up, put the cloth back in its place and held out her left hand to him. "Hi, I'm Jackie. Sorry for the scare, I've just been waiting here for half an hour for a lift." When he didn't grab her hand quickly enough, she fastened her seatbelt and looked expectantly into his confused eyes: "Or aren't you going to the Silent Retreat? That's the only place you can get to on the road."

"Dennis. Silent Retreat. Yes. The only one. Go ahead and get in. How do you do? No. No problem at all, make yourself at home."

She laughed. It was a pleasant sound, if a little loud. It resonated in his ears, bright and bubbly. When she held out her left hand to him again, he grasped it somewhat awkwardly with his right and thought for a moment about how strange it felt. He hadn't felt like this for about twenty years, ever since he had walked to school hand in hand with Elena from across the street in third grade.

"Sorry, I'm a bit hasty sometimes. But I didn't want to risk you ditching me either. The walk here was exhausting enough, I didn't want to arrive at the top all sweaty."

"It's all right. Sometimes I get really tunnelled when I'm driving, that's why I didn't react until so late. I can give you a lift. Do you have any more luggage?" He looked outside, at the sign, but there was nothing there. Turning back to her, he used the moment of questioning to really look at who had got into his car for the first time. Jackie it was. She was still smiling, which seemed to be the norm, as the laugh lines around her eyes were clearly visible.

Her auburn hair was just long enough to hang a little down her forehead and, together with her intense brown eyes, gave her an energetic look. Somehow fresh and lively. And now that he thought about it, she actually reminded him of Elena, his first girlfriend. He also felt he had seen the denim jacket she was wearing before.

She shook her head and pointed to the bag she had on her lap. "That's all."

Dennis nodded and restarted the car, which he had stalled during the braking manoeuvre earlier. "So you want to go to the silent retreat too? No disrespect intended, but you don't strike me as someone who likes to sit still and keep quiet."

The laughter again: "You do."

He had to grin. Yes, he'd heard that before. "What gives me away? The belly, the unshaven beard?"

"Oh come on, you can hardly see the belly. I was thinking more about the melancholy eyes."

"Okay, that's probably the first time I've heard that."

"You're welcome. How long have you booked for?"

"Two weeks. You?"

"Three days, the short programme. You're right, that's probably all I can take, but I wanted to give it a try. You read a lot of good things about the centre."

"That's right. I'm very excited. In my mind, the surroundings here in the Black Forest alone make it quieter than anywhere else. The trees somehow absorb noise well."

They spent the next fifteen minutes making small talk and gazing in awe at the landscape, as there were always small gaps in the spruce slopes and for a few moments they had views that made the journey to the higher altitudes worthwhile. Jackie had probably come from Nancy and had travelled by train, hitchhiking and finally by bus to where he had picked her up. On enquiring, Dennis also learnt that she was half-French but spoke fluent German through her German mother.

After a final bend, the view of the abbey opened up. Neo-baroque residential buildings with an old cloister that was lost behind some trees. The forest paths of the last few minutes were replaced by a gravel driveway.

It crunched under the tyres as they parked the car right in front of the main entrance. Jackie was already restless and had got out faster than Dennis could say any final words. Outside, he took a few deep breaths.

"It's so crazy how different the air is once you're out of the cities. Cooler, stronger."

She nodded: "You can smell the trees and the mountains."

The two of them, she with her bag, he with a large hiking rucksack that he had taken out of the boot, looked at the large entrance door, which was separated from the courtyard by a few steps. "St Antonius" was written above it. And "MDCCCLIX"

Dennis tried to make out any noise, but everything was silent. Not even a bird or the wind could be heard. Just their footsteps on the gravel.

"It certainly sounds very quiet."

Jackie listened too: "That's right. Like it's extinct. I hope we didn't get the house number wrong."

They both had to grin.

With a few crunching steps, they reached the stairs and Dennis pressed the bell button on the intercom, which seemed out of place due to its modernity. Nothing happened for a while, then there was a crackle on the line: "Who is this?" The voice sounded hollow and tinny. "Hello, my name is Dennis Bräuer, I've paid for a silent retreat."

It was quiet for a moment. Then another crackle, the voice now whispered: "You don't pay for silence, you pay for..." There was a crackle. Then the system was silent.

"Mysterious," was all Jackie could think of. "Maybe there's a reception desk inside?" The large wrought iron handle was surprisingly easy to operate, the door swung inwards and the two new arrivals stepped into a reception hall with a large staircase leading to either side of a gallery. There was a reception desk directly to the left. However, it was unmanned.

Dennis was confused. Something was strange. The door closed quietly behind them and he had the impression of being wrapped in cotton wool. Not an entirely unpleasant feeling, but definitely strange. He continued to look around until he recognised a panicked movement in the corner of his eye.

Jackie was standing next to him with her eyes wide open and both hands on her neck. What was wrong with her? It almost looked as if she was trying to scream, but he couldn't hear anything. "Are you OK?" he wanted to ask, but somewhere on the way from his brain to his mouth, the sentence got lost and he stared back, startled. He tried again, but this time he couldn't manage to say anything. What had happened?