Something in the Sea by Yves Bonavero

Author:Yves Bonavero
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781408807194
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-11-23T00:00:00+00:00

'So you knew where to find her?' I asked as soon as Kurt fell silent, hoping he wouldn't notice the tears silently running down Cathy's cheeks.

'Alas - I only discovered these letters some six years after they had been written - by which time Katharina had long left the Lagos orphanage. So I found myself in an identical quandary to hers, trying to locate her all over Africa, but with even more limited means. I had no money to travel, and, like her, had to contact all possible officials, organisations and charities. My quest was as unsuccessful as hers had been. The trail was not only cold: it had vanished.

'After six months in Hamburg, largely spent expediting my inheritance business, I was at a loose end. The Kurt who, in his mid-forties, had come back from ten years of war had nothing in common with the boy named Werther who'd grown up in this city. I had no family, no place of my own, and no desire to seek out those few acquaintances of old who might still be around. When people addressed me as Werther I tended to ignore them - not intentionally, but because I was Kurt. I was on my own, free-floating and insecure. My mother's death had deprived me of both women in my life: she'd been my only hope of finding the thread that might lead me to Katharina. Yes, after all these years, my whole being was still aspiring to one thing and one thing only: to be reunited with my wife. For Katharina was still my wife. Not only legally, since we'd never even discussed divorce, but also physically and spiritually. For some thirteen years I had not looked at another woman, let alone touched one - much to the bewilderment of my fellow Legionnaires, for whose gratification entire bordellos operated in the vicinity of our barracks. There had been nothing heroic, no abnegation or sacrifice involved in my reticence: I was in love with my wife. I guess it makes no sense to you?'

Cathy, who had listened to Katharina's letters almost in a trance, finally seemed to come back to life. Though shivering, instead of snuggling up to me on the cockpit bench she inched away from me again and, bringing her knees up, curled up almost into a foetal position.

'Why should it not make sense?' she murmured.

Not wishing to delay Kurt's narrative, I remained silent. If truth be told, I harboured some doubts about the possibility of remaining chaste for decades simply because one's wife has walked out on one. The man's libido had probably been suppressed by the onset of depression. I was also beginning to feel suspicious about the truth of this whole story. At any rate I couldn't see how my views were relevant. Thankfully Kurt did not wait for them before resuming:

'I never doubted that Katharina still loved me, and that as soon as we found each other she would realise that it was safe for her to come back to me.

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