The Master Butchers Singing Club-Chapter 9-SPOILERS
Sorry this took so long----it was much nicer to be outside reading than typing on the computer. But I will have a lot to post quickly now.
Chapter 9 – The Room in the Earth
A year after Eva’s death, Markus is still having problems with the loss. Markus becomes intrigued with construction and excavation, and finds a construction site where a house to going to be built, the basement was dug out and the dirt put in a huge pile. Then the money ran out and the site was abandoned. He climbs the pile and lays at the top, and finds himself crying again. He feels as if the hill moved from within, and goes down to the bottom and starts digging into it. The further he dug, the more a vision formed in his head of what was at the middle. Since there was a drought at the time, the dirt was easy to move out. As he dug in further, he found that he was enjoying this and the smell of earth around him. It reminds him of the time at the grave site when he threw a handful of dirt into the hole onto Eva’s coffin.
After the funeral, Eva was never spoken of again, and all her things were removed from the house, as if she had never existed. Markus had a problem getting over his grief.
He told the twins, Emil and Erich about the hill, and also kids at school, and they all started to work at digging to the middle. They got boards to brace the tunnel as they dug. Fidelis didn’t know anything about this, and Delphine only had a suspicion that they were up to something.
Franz brought Mazarine to the store one day. Fidelis did not acknowledge her, but he introduced her to Delphine. Delphine knew her family, the Shimeks, were dirt poor, her father is abusive and her mother is extremely fat and lazy, and knew that she wore boy’s shoes and only had one dress. She could see that Mazarine was in love with Franz, and he felt the same. Mazarine helped with chores while Franz did his work, and does a good job. Delphine offered her something to eat, and she refused, but with hesitation. So she does the same thing with her that Eva had done with her---invited Mazarine into the kitchen----and the way she reacts is the same Delphine remembers she had. She softens to her. She puts together a meal and tells Mazarine to eat anyways. They went back to work, and at the end of the day, Delphine sends food home with her.
Roy stayed sober, but he seemed to whither and get thinner. He lost the boldness he had when he was drinking. But he was staying busy, and sometimes went out with Step-and-a-Half to help her. This bothered Delphine since she believed that she did not like her. They never really spoke, but one day, when Step-and-a-Half was in to get her meat scraps, she started a conversation. Then she told her “they’re making a tunnel down to China”. Delphine thought she was talking crazy. She continued “They’re digging their own graves. You better stop them.” Delphine had no idea what she was talking about and just agreed that she would stop them. Step-and-a-Half then told her to watch out for Cyprian, that his family was no good, and to hang onto her money.
Cyprian was at the store every evening to wait for Delphine to finish up. Usually there were several of the men in the singing club there too. One day, it was just the two of them. There was tension and silence. They had nothing to talk about that didn’t feel like it was too difficult a subject. Cyprian finally asked about if there was much game from hunting coming into the shop, and Fidelis starts a store about a hunter almost shooting an Indian guide. Cyprian bristled and they started a staring contest. Delphine walked in on them, and they broke the stare, but Cyprian started to talk about the war and denigrating the Germans.
When Delphine and Cyprian get home, she asks what they were arguing about. He says “you”. He knew it was stupid to be jealous, since he didn’t have any reason to claim her, but there it was.
Business was bad, and Fidelis was distracted with all the bills. He was not paying any attention to the boys, partly from exhaustion of working so many hours, and partly because this was how he was raised with his own father. He was also distracted by the bad feelings he had for Cyprian.
The excavation of the hill was well underway. They were to the center of the hill and were making the hole bigger so that they could all fit in.
Finally the drought broke. It poured for days. When it finally stopped, the boys met back up at the hill to see if the tunnel was damaged. Since it was dug upward, there was no problem. The interior room was still dry. Markus was doing the last of the reinforcing boards when WHOMPH, the hill collapsed.
Cyprian was waiting for Delphine out at the car. Fidelis wanted to make up for the story about the Indian and went out, offered him a beer, and invited him to come in. Cyprian said he preferred to stay outside. Fidelis didn’t back away, and Cyprian took a swig of the beer, then poured the rest on the ground. They started to fight. Just as they started, the boys were running through the field yelling for help. Cyprian said grab shovels and told Delphine to get the doctor and they ran to the hill.
Markus wasn’t hurting, and could breathe, but was not able to move. He felt good, he felt tired, he felt like Eva was holding him and he fell asleep.
Cyprian was the one who evaluated how to dig into the hill to keep it from collapsing more. Cyprian agreed to go in through the collapsed tunnel to try to get Markus out. With much difficulty, he got him out, and he was unhurt except for a broken arm.
Franz and Mazarine had been in their secret hiding place under the pine tree this whole time. When Franz finally got home, no one was there. He was panicky. He didn’t know what was wrong, but he felt like it was his fault for not doing his duty. And then he saw lights coming through the field and ran to them.
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