Unexplained Communication
“Finally, I feel like I’m in control of this!” Kate whispered after a long night of meditating. It was late Friday night heading into Saturday morning as she removed the back support pillows off her bed and prepared to climb in for a restful sleep. “And to think, I’d be melted out of my mind finishing the DVD in a few hours or listening to Nightfall or Crimson King or… hey wait! I can say those now! No more avoiding!” She crawled into bed, pulling the covers over her and curling up while staring for a few last moments at her lava lamp.
Sunlight poured through the spaces in-between Kate’s beaded curtains as she awoke to prepare for her morning meditation, but her actions were soon interrupted by a frantically jumping dog in the hallway and the familiar heavy steps of tired feet falling behind. She took her earplugs out to greet her father, but before she could get a word in, he held up a letter asking, “Do you know an Andrea from Germany? Andrea ‘Curse’ or something with that umlaut in it?”
“Andrea Kürsch!” Kate replied, nearly jumping off the edge of her bed. “But… what would she want with me?” Phil handed Kate the letter and watched her open it carefully, making sure not to tear the address. It read:
Kate,
I got your letter last Monday, the one you wrote Sunday night. I thank you for your openness and your compassion and also your honesty with your feelings toward me and toward my husband. Mathias tells me that you had been emailing him and trying to set up a call, and the other Andrea… she gave us all your number. It’s too bad her reply mail couldn’t be delivered. I guess you have changed email accounts or something. Just watch your phone. I don’t know when you’ll get this, but it’s my time to thank you for your sincerity.
All the best,
Andrea Kürsch
Kate sat there slack-jawed, her hands quivering and attracting Lacy to the noise of the paper moving. “No, no, girl! That’s not to play with, it’s…” her voice trailed off as she tried her best to stand up straight and place the letter where it wouldn’t get ruined.
“What’s this about?”
“Oh, Dad, didn’t I tell you about the time I had the friend Andrea who knew Blind Guardian’s ex-manager? Well, this isn’t the same Andrea, this is Hansi’s wife, you know… Hansi, the one I…”
“I thought you and Mom just talked about how you were over him!” Phil leaned on Kate’s doorframe while reaching down to scratch Lacy and give her some attention.
“I am, at least I’m over the craziest parts of it, I’m not the way I was a few years ago.”
“So, this Andrea…?” Phil was interrupted by Connie nudging her way into the doorway.
“Kate, you have a phone call, I didn’t recognize the name on the caller ID.”
She took the phone from her mom and calmly greeted the caller. “Hello, um… this is Kate, who may I ask is calling?”
“Kate, it’s Mat, you know, Mathias? I’m here with Hansi and both people named Andrea, did you get Andrea’s letter?”
“I just… I read… I… hold on…” she stammered nervously. “Mom, it’s OK, it’s not… a creep or anything, it’s…” she lowered her voice to an excited whisper. “It’s Hansi!”
Connie silently left the room, tapping Phil on the shoulder to make sure he wouldn’t be too protective and hang around. “I know it’s been a long time,” Mathias continued. “I’m sorry, but with the new album and the single and all…”
“I think I can continue that, Mat,” Hansi chimed in, followed by a soft chuckle at the nervous squeak that resounded in his ear. “I read that part of your letter to my wife about the bad English… about the ‘I promise! I promise! I promise!” repeating on and on to everyone. I’m sorry, it’s just a thing I do when I am in front of the crowd, something to keep them happy, you know?”
Kate took a deep breath to center herself. All the old feelings she had worked so hard to resolve from years past had returned in a single moment of Hansi acknowledging her. “I understand, but… how did Andrea get that letter? I have a journal here and I wrote it only to…” she stopped again as she had opened her journal and fumbled through it with one hand, finding four bits of torn paper where four full pieces had once been bound in the book.
Hansi laughed brightly, “Don’t you think the fans are all right about how I am like the wizard in the fantasies? You know how Demons & Wizards got their name, don’t you?”
“I read the interview ages ago, or did I hear you on Metal Meltdown? I don’t know! I’m… I’m hearing you now! The pages, they’re…”
“They’re right here on my desk, and again I thank you for your honesty!” Andrea replied before Kate could finish.
“And it’s not me pretending,” Andrea Schulz added before her and Mathias both laughed.
“Well, spaking… no, um… speaking of things I have read, there are some lyric emails here on my computer, a file that Mat sent me some time ago, something called ‘Magic Within’ I think. Do you remember he wrote back and I had wanted to talk about the music for the lyrics?” Hansi prompted, not knowing that Kate remembered everything completely and was in such a euphoric state at the moment.
“I have my keyboard here. I worked a bit on some keyboard and rhythm guitar parts, though I’m no lead guitar player, so there’s no solo… and I have a melody for all the verses and the chorus.”
“That’s wonderful! Take your time getting your keyboard out, I’ve set apart the time to hear you today, and so has everyone else. The bards won’t be joining us, they’re finishing things up for the new album and spending time with their families, but we’re all here to hear you.”
Kate turned on her keyboard and found the guitar selection she often used before pressing the split key and choosing the Crystal Synthesizer for the top notes. She stumbled on the chords and the intro at first and let out a nervous, “Oh, shit!” before taking another breath.
“Take your time, go ahead…” Hansi assured gently. Kate then found her place and played the intro and guitar chords flawlessly before stopping to undo the split and leave the keyboard on the guitar synthesizer so that she could play the rhythm chords and sing the melody at the same time.
When she reached the more complex bridge and the higher notes, Mathias let out a faint, “Wow!” She finished and could hear everyone’s breath on the phone line and faint clapping from Andrea Kürsch and Nany Schulz in the background.
Hansi coughed a couple of times and cleared his throat before he could let out a response. “I’m… speechless, I’m honored, I’m… Kate, that was… it’s the most impressive act of a fan I’ve ever known! You sat there and you wrote a song all for me? You put your energy into that? I know what you’re going to think, you’re going to think bad on yourself for what you posted on the forum. My wife and I read that letter and we understand. You know I lost my father, right, and wrote about it in ‘Ashes to Ashes’ on Somewhere Far Beyond?”
“Yes, I just learned about that recently. I’m… I’m sorry, I don’t know what I’d do if I… if I lost… anyone!”
“I know what you’d do, I went on my computer after coming home from the end of the 2002 tour and read the forum, all your posts… and you know something, Curufin needs to get his head checked! I think he put a bigger strain on you by not understanding, by… not supporting you like some others did. Do you still have Maarten’s tourbook?”
“Yes, it’s… well, it’s packed away. See, I’ve tried everything in the book to not be so… so obsessed with you and so… so… well, here’s an example. I know you guys aren’t planned for Wacken, so I was thinking of how I could take a trip to Krefeld and see you… that Nany could help with that…”
“And I would have gone there to get you, of course that’s how crazy I am!” Nany interrupted.
“Nany snuck into my Yahoo mail when I had not logged out and found Hansi’s address, she was going to email you everything, but you must have changed because the mail failed to deliver,” Mathias added.
“Your mails always failed to get through, on every account!” Kate snapped.
“I know, I know… Yahoo is shit sometimes, and I have many friends trying to mail me and filling up my sister’s mail too.”
“This is even better than a mail or… anything!” Kate concluded, settling back down to her euphoria.
“Anything?” Hansi asked before laughing evilly. “How about January 12, 2007?” Kate screamed so loudly that her parents rushed back to see what was going on and Lacy jumped on her, knocking her keyboard halfway off its stand.
“January 12, 2007! San Francisco! My show! Blind Guardian! Hansi! Hansi! Hansi!” Kate screamed. Connie took the phone from her daughter’s flailing arms and grinned from ear to ear.
“Hello, this is Kate’s mom, and I guess this is the famous Hansi!”
Hansi laughed and greeted her. “Yes, it’s me and I know this seems weird and totally… unprepared for by our parts, but I hope you don’t mind.”
“Oh, no, this is just what she needed! I never got to read the letter she sent your wife… what’s her name… Andrea? I never read it, but she told me about writing it. So, how did it get to you? Kate didn’t give it to me to mail or anything.”
“I don’t know if you believe in magic or dream travel or astral projection or things of that nature, but you could say I was there as Kate was writing the letter. I watched her from my spirit and while she was asleep, I simply tore the pages out from her journal. I concentrated on them and recited a spell to materialize them here and we read them with our physical human selves,” Hansi explained.
Connie was about to say something to the effect that Hansi was out of his mind and she didn’t want Kate associating with such phoniness, but Kate could sense it and threw a stare in her direction before pointing out the journal and it’s torn pages. Connie just simply shook her head and shrugged her shoulders, handing the phone back to her daughter. “You finish up, OK, I’m going to need the phone in a bit.”
Kate nodded and could do nothing but laugh in disbelief. “I should let you go as well, for it’s almost suppertime here in Germany and Jonas needs to get a bath in tonight after playing,” Hansi commented.
“Don’t forget that you two are on page 15 of The Hobbit!” Andrea added.
“This is just so… so… unglaublich!” Kate exclaimed.
“Mat, Kate spricht Deutsch sehr schön, ja?” Hansi laughed to his friend.
“Ich lernt das… um… an ein DVD… um… mit ihre band… uh… im Coburg in… um… zwei-tausend-drei…?” Kate continued, hesitating with nervousness.
“Ihre Grammatik ist nicht schlecht! Ich verstehe dich! Phantastisch!” Hansi complimented.
“Oh, but now I must say… auf wiedersehen und bis zum nächsten mal und… oh, I forget… um… take care, Hansi and… everyone!” Kate wiped a small tear away from her eye quickly and moved her hand to the end button on the phone to prepare to end the call.
“I’ll tell you something? Email feanor@gmx.de and we can talk about possibly having you sing my tribute song at the San Francisco show, or I do think I remember reading something on the forum about the choir company for the next album!” Hansi suggested happily.
“I knew it! I knew that had to be your email, though it was only in my crazy mind!” Kate laughed. “I’ll email you and I’ll be sure not to fill your box like I did Mat’s.”
“Oh, it was nothing, Kate, it was everyone else who did it,” Mat reminded her.
“Well, I wish a good evening to you or a good rest of your day and I will say it for you in English, your German is wonderful and you keep practicing it! Goodbye and I will see you when I am in San Francisco with the bards!” Hansi concluded. Kate said goodbye one last time before turning the phone off and skipping down the hallway to put the phone back on the cradle. Connie and Phil said nothing, only hugging their daughter before heading out the door with Lacy and leaving Kate some quiet time to take in such a wonderful occasion.
Sunlight poured through the spaces in-between Kate’s beaded curtains as she awoke to prepare for her morning meditation, but her actions were soon interrupted by a frantically jumping dog in the hallway and the familiar heavy steps of tired feet falling behind. She took her earplugs out to greet her father, but before she could get a word in, he held up a letter asking, “Do you know an Andrea from Germany? Andrea ‘Curse’ or something with that umlaut in it?”
“Andrea Kürsch!” Kate replied, nearly jumping off the edge of her bed. “But… what would she want with me?” Phil handed Kate the letter and watched her open it carefully, making sure not to tear the address. It read:
Kate,
I got your letter last Monday, the one you wrote Sunday night. I thank you for your openness and your compassion and also your honesty with your feelings toward me and toward my husband. Mathias tells me that you had been emailing him and trying to set up a call, and the other Andrea… she gave us all your number. It’s too bad her reply mail couldn’t be delivered. I guess you have changed email accounts or something. Just watch your phone. I don’t know when you’ll get this, but it’s my time to thank you for your sincerity.
All the best,
Andrea Kürsch
Kate sat there slack-jawed, her hands quivering and attracting Lacy to the noise of the paper moving. “No, no, girl! That’s not to play with, it’s…” her voice trailed off as she tried her best to stand up straight and place the letter where it wouldn’t get ruined.
“What’s this about?”
“Oh, Dad, didn’t I tell you about the time I had the friend Andrea who knew Blind Guardian’s ex-manager? Well, this isn’t the same Andrea, this is Hansi’s wife, you know… Hansi, the one I…”
“I thought you and Mom just talked about how you were over him!” Phil leaned on Kate’s doorframe while reaching down to scratch Lacy and give her some attention.
“I am, at least I’m over the craziest parts of it, I’m not the way I was a few years ago.”
“So, this Andrea…?” Phil was interrupted by Connie nudging her way into the doorway.
“Kate, you have a phone call, I didn’t recognize the name on the caller ID.”
She took the phone from her mom and calmly greeted the caller. “Hello, um… this is Kate, who may I ask is calling?”
“Kate, it’s Mat, you know, Mathias? I’m here with Hansi and both people named Andrea, did you get Andrea’s letter?”
“I just… I read… I… hold on…” she stammered nervously. “Mom, it’s OK, it’s not… a creep or anything, it’s…” she lowered her voice to an excited whisper. “It’s Hansi!”
Connie silently left the room, tapping Phil on the shoulder to make sure he wouldn’t be too protective and hang around. “I know it’s been a long time,” Mathias continued. “I’m sorry, but with the new album and the single and all…”
“I think I can continue that, Mat,” Hansi chimed in, followed by a soft chuckle at the nervous squeak that resounded in his ear. “I read that part of your letter to my wife about the bad English… about the ‘I promise! I promise! I promise!” repeating on and on to everyone. I’m sorry, it’s just a thing I do when I am in front of the crowd, something to keep them happy, you know?”
Kate took a deep breath to center herself. All the old feelings she had worked so hard to resolve from years past had returned in a single moment of Hansi acknowledging her. “I understand, but… how did Andrea get that letter? I have a journal here and I wrote it only to…” she stopped again as she had opened her journal and fumbled through it with one hand, finding four bits of torn paper where four full pieces had once been bound in the book.
Hansi laughed brightly, “Don’t you think the fans are all right about how I am like the wizard in the fantasies? You know how Demons & Wizards got their name, don’t you?”
“I read the interview ages ago, or did I hear you on Metal Meltdown? I don’t know! I’m… I’m hearing you now! The pages, they’re…”
“They’re right here on my desk, and again I thank you for your honesty!” Andrea replied before Kate could finish.
“And it’s not me pretending,” Andrea Schulz added before her and Mathias both laughed.
“Well, spaking… no, um… speaking of things I have read, there are some lyric emails here on my computer, a file that Mat sent me some time ago, something called ‘Magic Within’ I think. Do you remember he wrote back and I had wanted to talk about the music for the lyrics?” Hansi prompted, not knowing that Kate remembered everything completely and was in such a euphoric state at the moment.
“I have my keyboard here. I worked a bit on some keyboard and rhythm guitar parts, though I’m no lead guitar player, so there’s no solo… and I have a melody for all the verses and the chorus.”
“That’s wonderful! Take your time getting your keyboard out, I’ve set apart the time to hear you today, and so has everyone else. The bards won’t be joining us, they’re finishing things up for the new album and spending time with their families, but we’re all here to hear you.”
Kate turned on her keyboard and found the guitar selection she often used before pressing the split key and choosing the Crystal Synthesizer for the top notes. She stumbled on the chords and the intro at first and let out a nervous, “Oh, shit!” before taking another breath.
“Take your time, go ahead…” Hansi assured gently. Kate then found her place and played the intro and guitar chords flawlessly before stopping to undo the split and leave the keyboard on the guitar synthesizer so that she could play the rhythm chords and sing the melody at the same time.
When she reached the more complex bridge and the higher notes, Mathias let out a faint, “Wow!” She finished and could hear everyone’s breath on the phone line and faint clapping from Andrea Kürsch and Nany Schulz in the background.
Hansi coughed a couple of times and cleared his throat before he could let out a response. “I’m… speechless, I’m honored, I’m… Kate, that was… it’s the most impressive act of a fan I’ve ever known! You sat there and you wrote a song all for me? You put your energy into that? I know what you’re going to think, you’re going to think bad on yourself for what you posted on the forum. My wife and I read that letter and we understand. You know I lost my father, right, and wrote about it in ‘Ashes to Ashes’ on Somewhere Far Beyond?”
“Yes, I just learned about that recently. I’m… I’m sorry, I don’t know what I’d do if I… if I lost… anyone!”
“I know what you’d do, I went on my computer after coming home from the end of the 2002 tour and read the forum, all your posts… and you know something, Curufin needs to get his head checked! I think he put a bigger strain on you by not understanding, by… not supporting you like some others did. Do you still have Maarten’s tourbook?”
“Yes, it’s… well, it’s packed away. See, I’ve tried everything in the book to not be so… so obsessed with you and so… so… well, here’s an example. I know you guys aren’t planned for Wacken, so I was thinking of how I could take a trip to Krefeld and see you… that Nany could help with that…”
“And I would have gone there to get you, of course that’s how crazy I am!” Nany interrupted.
“Nany snuck into my Yahoo mail when I had not logged out and found Hansi’s address, she was going to email you everything, but you must have changed because the mail failed to deliver,” Mathias added.
“Your mails always failed to get through, on every account!” Kate snapped.
“I know, I know… Yahoo is shit sometimes, and I have many friends trying to mail me and filling up my sister’s mail too.”
“This is even better than a mail or… anything!” Kate concluded, settling back down to her euphoria.
“Anything?” Hansi asked before laughing evilly. “How about January 12, 2007?” Kate screamed so loudly that her parents rushed back to see what was going on and Lacy jumped on her, knocking her keyboard halfway off its stand.
“January 12, 2007! San Francisco! My show! Blind Guardian! Hansi! Hansi! Hansi!” Kate screamed. Connie took the phone from her daughter’s flailing arms and grinned from ear to ear.
“Hello, this is Kate’s mom, and I guess this is the famous Hansi!”
Hansi laughed and greeted her. “Yes, it’s me and I know this seems weird and totally… unprepared for by our parts, but I hope you don’t mind.”
“Oh, no, this is just what she needed! I never got to read the letter she sent your wife… what’s her name… Andrea? I never read it, but she told me about writing it. So, how did it get to you? Kate didn’t give it to me to mail or anything.”
“I don’t know if you believe in magic or dream travel or astral projection or things of that nature, but you could say I was there as Kate was writing the letter. I watched her from my spirit and while she was asleep, I simply tore the pages out from her journal. I concentrated on them and recited a spell to materialize them here and we read them with our physical human selves,” Hansi explained.
Connie was about to say something to the effect that Hansi was out of his mind and she didn’t want Kate associating with such phoniness, but Kate could sense it and threw a stare in her direction before pointing out the journal and it’s torn pages. Connie just simply shook her head and shrugged her shoulders, handing the phone back to her daughter. “You finish up, OK, I’m going to need the phone in a bit.”
Kate nodded and could do nothing but laugh in disbelief. “I should let you go as well, for it’s almost suppertime here in Germany and Jonas needs to get a bath in tonight after playing,” Hansi commented.
“Don’t forget that you two are on page 15 of The Hobbit!” Andrea added.
“This is just so… so… unglaublich!” Kate exclaimed.
“Mat, Kate spricht Deutsch sehr schön, ja?” Hansi laughed to his friend.
“Ich lernt das… um… an ein DVD… um… mit ihre band… uh… im Coburg in… um… zwei-tausend-drei…?” Kate continued, hesitating with nervousness.
“Ihre Grammatik ist nicht schlecht! Ich verstehe dich! Phantastisch!” Hansi complimented.
“Oh, but now I must say… auf wiedersehen und bis zum nächsten mal und… oh, I forget… um… take care, Hansi and… everyone!” Kate wiped a small tear away from her eye quickly and moved her hand to the end button on the phone to prepare to end the call.
“I’ll tell you something? Email feanor@gmx.de and we can talk about possibly having you sing my tribute song at the San Francisco show, or I do think I remember reading something on the forum about the choir company for the next album!” Hansi suggested happily.
“I knew it! I knew that had to be your email, though it was only in my crazy mind!” Kate laughed. “I’ll email you and I’ll be sure not to fill your box like I did Mat’s.”
“Oh, it was nothing, Kate, it was everyone else who did it,” Mat reminded her.
“Well, I wish a good evening to you or a good rest of your day and I will say it for you in English, your German is wonderful and you keep practicing it! Goodbye and I will see you when I am in San Francisco with the bards!” Hansi concluded. Kate said goodbye one last time before turning the phone off and skipping down the hallway to put the phone back on the cradle. Connie and Phil said nothing, only hugging their daughter before heading out the door with Lacy and leaving Kate some quiet time to take in such a wonderful occasion.