Kafka and the traveling doll by Jordi Sierra i Fabra

Author:Jordi Sierra i Fabra
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-84-120751-6-8
Publisher: Editorial SiF
Published: 2019-07-24T00:00:00+00:00

Illusion No. 3: the long journey of the travelling doll

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Two weeks.

Fourteen letters.

Brigitte travelled the world at a giddy pace, and her adventures became ever more extraordinary and wonderful, more the stuff of a fascinating doll’s odyssey and a writer’s fantasy than an exotic reflection of the real world. The most amazing thing about it all, what most intrigued Franz Kafka, was the way Elsi listened to him recounting Brigitte’s experiences – completely spell-bound, identifying more and more with what she heard, increasingly taking delight in her darling Brigitte’s extraordinary exploits.

Brigitte had crossed the vast Sahara desert in a camel caravan, explored India, walked the Great Wall of China, swum in the Dead Sea, scaled the heights of the Himalayas, gone up in a balloon... Brigitte had been to Peking, Tokyo, New York, Bogota, Mexico, Havana and Hong Kong... Brigitte was famous. She hopped from continent to continent in the twinkling of an eye. Her travels were no longer bound by logic. Thanks to his sleight of hand and imagination, the world had become the doll’s oyster. Not even Jules Verne could have created a more fabulous character, and in his hands she would have taken at least eighty days to conquer the world.

Two weeks.

Fourteen letters.

Franz Kafka was impressed.

He had had to visit an antiques dealer and buy used stamps at a philatelist’s to ensure that Brigitte could continue her long journey in style. His philosophy was ‘do things properly or not at all.’ Dora was half fascinated and half exasperated. Ever since Elsi had entered his life, he had done nothing except write those letters, and he lavished an enthusiasm and dedication on them that he didn’t always manage to put into his novels and short stories. Dora was exasperated by his all-consuming concentration on this one-sided correspondence. But she was fascinated by the determination with which he carried out the task. That was a quality for which she had great respect.

At night, when they were in bed, she put her arms around him and whispered, “Only you could have had such an idea, my darling. I love you.”

Wasn’t saving a little girl as important as saving the world?

Our first encounter with grief in life is usually hard and painful. Our first head-on clash with reality is a rude awakening. Elsi would never have forgotten losing her doll, but at least now she was beginning to experience that enduring sense of pride...

Or was she?

Because, unexpectedly, that morning...

Franz Kafka looked at his watch again, and then at the clock tower.

There was no mistaking it. It was ten minutes after the time that Elsi usually came running through the park from his left. Ten minutes. She was very late. Did it mean that she had suddenly lost interest? What if she was unwell? What should Brigitte do in such a case? Should she go on writing day after day while the little girl recovered?

Two weeks, fourteen letters... In those ten minutes a stark reality dawned on him for the first time.

How long

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