The Chosen Ones by Steve Sem-Sandberg Page B

woman is. Anyway, with a laugh, a small affected giggle, the woman gets into the car. They drive pastAnna but neither one pays any attention to her. As she walks back to the Alser Strasse tram stop, she doesn’t feel disappointed, only empty. Her mother doesn’t ask where she has been. She knows that her daughter doesn’t have any friends and especially not anyone whom she might like to visit at this time of night.
    *
    Mother and Daughter    Only a few days later, she meets Mrs Althofer in the office in pavilion 1. Sophie’s mother wants to speak to Doctor Jekelius and, when she learns that he is away, asks to see Doctor Hübsch. Mrs Althofer is in many ways the spitting image of her dwarf child. The same reddish-blonde hair springing from the same perfect hairline. Their curving eyelids are similar, too, but the mother’s eyes look so heavy that she can’t lift them enough to see Anna Katschenka’s face. A meeting was arranged for today at nine o’clock but it would appear that Doctor Hübsch has preferred to be unavailable , she says as her gaze slides past Katschenka to follow the stair rail. Sister Katschenka says that this is not a matter she can deal with and suggests that the office staff could set up a new appointment. But Mrs Althofer insists that the agreed meeting should take place and eventually becomes very loud on her daughter’s behalf. Apparently Doctor Hübsch had personally assured her that her daughter would get well and now, what’s happened to that promise? You’re keeping my little girl locked up day and night! You don’t give her anything to eat or drink! You treat her worse than a base animal! Next, Anna Katschenka is baffled to find herself holding Mrs Althofer’s small, clenched fists in her hands. For a brief moment, the surprise they both feel at the prevented exchange of blows dampens the underlying fury and the two of them, the ward sister and the mother, stand on the stairs with their faces close together. Then a door slams a little further upstairs and a white-coated Doctor Gross bends over the railing to speak to them:
    Doctor Hübsch is off sick today,
    but if you wish, Mrs Althofer, you can speak with me …!
    Later that day, Doctor Gross will enlighten Katschenka and her new colleagues about exactly what type of woman they are dealing with in Mrs Althofer and, particularly, what kind of mother. One of those who can’t make up her mind: will she or won’t she let go of her child? And because she is incapable of squaring her conscience, she continues to haunt the periphery of the institution where her child is being cared for, all the while complaining loudly about how appallingly the little girl is looked after and how unpleasant the staff are to her mother. Nothing but a charade, from beginning to end, Doctor Gross emphasises, because in her rational moments, Mrs Althofer knows that she can have her child back any time she so decides. Against medical advice, that goes without saying, but no matter. That right belongs to her in this situation, as it would to all mothers. The problem is that, in her heart of hearts, Mrs Althofer doesn’t want to. She is aware that if she ever were to hug Sophie’s shrunken, malformed body to her breast again, she would be at an utter loss as to how to handle this new burden. It is a fact that she doesn’t have the time to look after her child. She has to work. Food is hard to come by. Who would look after little Sophie while her mother carries out her office duties? As Mrs Althofer has repeatedly pointed out herself, she has a responsible post as the trusted secretary of a large legal firm. And Mrs Althofer’s own mother, who selflessly used to care for her granddaughter while her daughter was at work; well, the old lady has spent the last few weeks in hospital with an attack of gallstones. And Mr Althofer has been called up. So typical of how families live nowadays. There’s a war on, after all. Each and every one of us must be prepared