Since last sleep, the hours have been slow and the walk long, but Black
Passage remains the same. Doctor Dorn thinks there may be no change for
many awakes and sleeps.
To walk in silence except for the sound of our steps becomes a fearsome
thing, so we talk much. Doctor Dorn tells us interesting things that
have happened while he was Physician to the Supreme Council. When he
does this, we do not think so much of what may be ahead for us.
There is something of a strangeness about Bruno, the ore-miner who
killed his foreman. Although he rests when we rest, and sleeps when we
sleep, the feeling comes that he is not with us. He walks always first
with Doctor Dorn, and says nothing.
Sometimes Mari and Nina walk together and talk about woman things. Mari
is twenty-two, three years older than Nina, and even though she has been
married to Ralf for only five years, she has almost borne life once.
Nina said it must be wonderful to bear life, and Doctor Dorn heard her
and said she had the look of one who might bear life herself some day,
perhaps even before she was twenty-five. Nina was very thrilled.
But it is strange to talk of a time so far ahead. The mind forgets
sometimes there may be only a few awakes and sleeps left to all our
lives.
One feels a great sorrow for Theodor. He does not have someone who is a
part of him the way I have Nina and Ralf has Mari, and he does not have
the strength of heart of Doctor Dorn or Bruno. Fear seems to hold his
mind more than any of us. Many times Nina or Mari, or Ralf or I, walk
beside him so he will not have to walk alone always. But when we speak
to him he almost never answers.
* * * * *