On account of the current events an episode of my life comes into my mind which happened more than twenty years ago. Like every Friday when the weather is fine in this season of the year I searched for mushrooms in the forest. Nobody is there save me and I am alone then what I prefer. Just strolling around, suddenly a young girl stood in front of me in rather ancient clothes in the middle of a clearing, nearby the ruins of a castle. She looked somewhat confused. “Hello”. She bent deeply and made no arrangements again to get up. „Please get up again.“ „Yes, Sire“. „Are you looking for mushrooms, too?“ „No Sire. I do not know how I came here.“ „So you do not know why you are here?“ „Sire, yes, eh, no I am not quite sure“. Except her ancient clothes she also spoke in a medieval kind of my language. But it was not so far away from today’s language, so we were able to make conversation. „You don’t need to say Sire, my name is Martin. What do you mean, you are not sure? What is your name?“ „Sire, eh, Martin, My name is Elisabeth. Some instants ago it looked different here.“ She pointed to the west. „ A castle stood in that direction. Now I can see only destroyed walls.“ „The castle was destroyed centuries ago“, I confirmed. „It is called Sharpstone. It is not a big one, but it isn’t destroyed“. „Elisabeth, you speak in a different manner and you wear clothes which nobody wears today. Tell me, which year do we have? „It is 1129 of Our Savior Jesus Christ.“ Even if I had already expected such a thing, I was, nevertheless, briefly speechless. „The current year is 1997.“ She frightened, turned away and screamed: „Ghosts. Holy virgin Maria, help me, take the evil from me.“ „Elisabeth, don’t be afraid.“ After a while she stopped screaming, however, she still trembled with the whole body. „Elisabeth, I want do you no harm.“ I talked to her in low words and slowly she calmed herself. Then she started to speak after some minutes. „Then it must be true“ „What must be true?“ „My wish must have become true.“ „Which wish?“ „This is a longer story. I am the only the daughter of a small squire and I am espoused to the first-born of the lord of this castle. Indeed, there is a condition on a marriage. The lord’s family is not rich and can’t afford too many employees. The condition is that the future lady of the castle can also read and write. I am the only child of my parents, my two brothers died as babies.“ She made the sign of the cross. „Jesus Christ takes care of her souls. Hence, my father has taught me reading and writing because I’m the only surviving child. I am not able to do it, however, any more.“ „What are you not able to do now?“ „I cannot read properly any more , just as trying to sew or weave.“ „Why not?“ „If I try this, then I get pains and after a short time it feels as if the devil tries to tear out my eyes. I am cursed. Hence I can’t become the lady of the castle.“ „You are not cursed. Where are these pains located?“ „In the head. And then I had the last night a dream. I prayed to the Holy virgin Maria and implored to her that I want be able to read and write again. And then the mother of God appeared to me and spoke to me: Virtuous Elisabeth, you have a lifestyle appealing to God and, hence, I would like to help you. Tomorrow you will meet a man who can help you in your grief. However, you will have only this one day until sunset. He speaks your language in a little bit different manner. Don’t forget to mention the word eyeglasses. Then I woke up.“ I knew immediately that I was the man from her dream. „I think, I am this man and I can help you.“ „The virgin would be promised.“ „Do you know the purpose of eyeglasses ?“ „No.“ „This is a tool to see better. I have a question to you.“ „Sire, Martin?“ „Can you see the castle over there and the trees near it with all details?“ „Yes, not will a details but nearly.“ I bent down and catched an ant and laid it in my hand. I held the hand in front of her face. „Look in my hand. What can you see?“ She started to focus intensely and also she started to squint slighty. „It is an ant, but the devil comes again.“ „Elisabeth, I think you are farsighted. But it is not necessary for you to remember this word. What I know, however, is that you will be able to see with eyeglasses again in such a way that the devil won’t appear again.“ „If this is possible. Can you release me from the curse?“ „Yes, I think so. I have to go home and grab a few things. It will be better, you wait here. Nothing will happen to you, there are neither robbers nor wild animals here. I will be back in one hour. “ I had to repeat this a few times, because she didn’t believe me. But, finally, she stayed at a place in the forest which I had shown to her and where she could hide. Arriving at home I took all glasses which I had collected in the last weeks. I had, and still have even now, usually many glasses stored at home. I do not collect them by fun or hobby, but I work in an honorary capacity for an association which has set itself the target to act socially for the poorer countries of this world. Amongst other things, we collect old glasses which are not needed any more and we send them to Africa and collecting them is my job. The girl had luck, the last delivery to Africa was months ago, so I had enough glasses to choose from. I took all available glasses with positive diopter values and the right size and as a precaution I also took two to three glasses for shortsighted people. I knew the exact prescription values, because all glasses were checked from an optician. When I returned to the place she had waited, I found Elisabeth singing and reciting alternately. I spoke to her cautiously: „Elisabeth, I am back. I have brought different glasses which you should try on now. Don’t be afraid, I explain you how this works. Basically glasses are made of two pieces of glass which are held in front of the eyes. There are earpieces, too, which have to be put on the ears, so you don’t have to hold it all the time. I will show you.“ I took one pair of glasses with a little prescription and put them on. „Look.“ „This is infernal stuff.“ „No, Elisabeth, this is only made of glass and metal and even the old Greeks, I assume you know who these were, knew this.“ „Virgin Maria, stand by me.“ „What you have to do now, put on different glasses, please. I haven’t touched them. I make proposals to you. You agree?“ „Yes.“ „I took the bible with me and you have to tell me whether you can read the letters better or worse and then we check for things which are farther away. Elisabeth, let’s start with this pair of glasses.“ I pointed to a pair of glasses with about +2 diopters. “How does it work? Help me, Maria.“ „You must open the earpieces and place them the on the ears.“ She touched the glasses quite carefully, but, finally, she unfolded the earpieces and put the glasses on. „Holy Maria and Josef, Holy Spirit, my eyes. Everything is different.“ She shivered and prayed. When she had calmed down again, I showed her the bible. „Can you read this?“ „In the beginning God created …“ „And is the devil in the eyes present still?“ „He is still around, but not so strong.“ „And the castle over there? Do you see it still clearly?“ „Yes.“ „Then let us try another pair of glasses“, and I pointed at a pair of glasses with a higher prescription. She put those glasses on and we repeated the simple eye tests. Finally we reached a point when she could read still, but distance got blurry. Hence these glasses were too strong and they had a prescription of of +5.5 diopters. Finally, I decided she should take the glasses with +4.75, these should probably fit best of all. „Elisabeth if you wear these glasses all the times the devil should vanish.“ „Can I be the lady of the castle with this thing on my nose? What does the future lord of the castle may think?“ „The future lord and hopefully your then-husband wants to have a wife who can fulfil her duties, may it be reading, sewing, weaving and what else you can think of. And that does not work without glasses. And I advise you to wear the at any time besides sleeping. The devil will appear never ever. You also wear earrings as pieces of jewellery. In the same manner glasses can be the same. Explain this to your lord.“ „I will try it. Maria, help me.“ „And something else. Take these two pair glasses with you, too. It is possible that your vision gets blurry again. Then try out these glasses.“ I gave her glasses with a prescription of +5.5 and +6 each. She took those quite carefully in her hands. Meanwhile the sun was disappearing behind the castle and it began to darken. And suddenly Elisabeth disappeared, just so. I could not even say in which direction.
Though it was a strange episode in my life, but I forgot over the years.
Why does it come to my mind now? Quite simple. This morning I have read an article in our local newspaper that the earth excavation works for the new building area on the foot of the ruin were interrupted. They had found a medieval cemetery whose existence was forgotten. The cemetery was presumably destroyed and covered with earth during the fight in 1224. Since then the ruins were of no interest. They found several skeletons and also some gravestones. Archeologists were sent then and they found a bigger grave with five skeletons. Those skeletons had an age of about 800 years proved the C13-method, two of the skeletons were a male one and female some 70 years of age, the other three were child skeletons. Probably these were the children of the older couple. The skeleton of the older woman wore glasses. The archeologists still puzzle about it. I don’t know yet whether I should enlighten them. I fear nobody will believe me.
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