the heart of thomas preview

7/30/2019 The Heart of Thomas Preview

1/23

Ive beenthinking fornearly sixmonths.

Thinking aboutmy life andmy death,And abouta certainfriend--Spring

was closeat hand.

The snowmade awatery

sound andmelted

beneathhis shoes.

That morning,Thomas Werner

deposited asingle letter atthe post office.


2/23


3/23

Juli!


4/23

Ive been thinking for nearly six months.Thinking about my life and my death,

And about a certain friend.

Im well aware that I am but an adolescent child.And so I know that this boyhood love

Will be flung against Some sexless,unknown, transparent something.

This is not some simple gamble.And the problem is not that I loved him.

He must love me.He must.

Right now, for all intents and purposes, he is dead.And if it means bringing him to life,

I think nothing of having my own body shattered.

They say a person dies twice.

First comes the death of the self.Then, later, comes the death of being forgotten by friends.

if that is so,I shall never know that second death.

(Even if he should die, he will never forget me.)in this way,

I shall always be alivein his eyes.


5/23


6/23

look!itsJuli!

Juli!

Juli!

Gu-tenMor-gen.

GutenMor-

gen!?

Havent youheard!? its

awful! Thomasis dead!

Dead?

Dontcry,Ante.

There,there.

ThomasWerner! Thecute littleFrulein inthe gradebelow us!


7/23

Theteachers

say hemust haveslipped inthe snow.

Justthe daybefore

yesterday!Saturday!

inthe

morn-

ing.

But

Wereall in

shock!

He fellfrom the

bridge thatcrosses the

railway!

...just asEastervacation

wasending.

is thereanything

else Ishouldknow

about?

Nothing.Everyoneis backsafely.

So--

ThomasWerner

loved you,Juli.

I thoughteveryone wasalready awarehow that little

farce hadplayed out!

!

Imean

why


8/23

Farce?

But

But

is Massat theusualhour?

Therellbe a

memorial.Ill see

you there.

Yeah.

Thom-as--!

stopit,

Ante!

itsnot

fair toJuli.

Crocodiletears,if you

ask me.

NowAntesrival isout of

the way.

Juli.

Hey,Oskar!

Good tosee you.Have youheard?

AboutThomas?

its quite acommotion.

Hm.Look

atyourdesk.Theres

a littlesome-thingforyou.


9/23

Poor,

poor

Thomas

Werner.

Dead.

Aletter?

Hmph.it

cameyes-

terday.

I was

here whenit arrived.

Closethe

window.

itsfreezing!

See thepost-mark?

He sentit onSat-urdaymorn-

ing. Theday of

the ac-cident.

Did youknow

Thomashome ishere in

the city?

No, Ididnt.

10


10/23

Youregoing

toreadit?

Butyouvealwaysjust

torn themup.

Hes

gonenow.

Hes...gonenow.

Theseare hislast

thoughts.

Ihave

a dutyto

readit.

And itonlycost

him hislife!

Not that hehad any idea

hed be passingthrough thepearly gates

the day before

last.

Perhapshe asksfor a

response.

To Juli,one last time.

To Juli, onelast time.

ThomasWerner! Thecute littleFrulein inthe gradebelow us!

Tho

mas

fell

is

de

Ad

the

bridge

de

ad

His lastwords.


11/23

ThomasWerner

How didhe die?

Hm!?Juli,

WHATSWRONG

WiTHYOUR

VOiCE?

is itsuch a

passionateletter?

.

WASiT ANACCi-DENT!?

Juli,

whatswrong?

it...

itcantbe

This is asuicidenote

...addressed

toyou.

sui-

cide

note

HOWDiDHEDiE!?

12


12/23

No...

Irefuseto

acceptthis.

Timeformass.

Illbe

rightthere.

Juli!

Mor-gen!

a suicide

note

addressedto you

Morgen!

Mor-

gen!

13


13/23

Did youhear

aboutThomas?

Yeah, all theupperclassmenknow about it

already.

Really?

PoorThomas.

And hewas sucha sweet

boy.

it wasjust bad

luck.

Someonewas saying

its the greatesttragedy in

the history ofSchlotterbach-

Gymnasium.

Such a waste.He was such apretty little

Frulein.

ebe,iebe

be

I know thatcrossing

bridge. itsreally high.

His facemusthavebeen

crushed.Cut itout.

it wasprobablysnowing.its so

shocking.

Juli.

14


14/23

I havesome verysad news

today.Here

itcomes.

Shh!

Shh!

ThomasWerner,

an eighthgrader, haspassed away.

ithappenedtwo days

ago,on

Saturday.

Whilecrossing an

overheadbridge

near RehmStation,

heapparently

fell

...through

a gapin thechain-link

fence.

itwas

atruly

UNFOR-TUNATEacci-dent.

He wasone of

Schlotter-bachs

...finest

students.

Oneof the

best.

To Juli, one last time.

He wasthirteen.

15


15/23

This is my love.

Ive heard thisstory before.

in the Old Testament.

This is the sound of my heart.

A man of great faith who boundhis own son to an alter and

stood ready to slit his throatin place of a lamb.

surely you mustunderstand.

is this asacrifice?

You must know.

To me? Ending his own life?

Juli.

16


16/23

ThomasWernerkilled

himself!

Andleft youa suicide

note.

What areyou going

to do?

Tell theteachers?

Tell themThomas

would havefalleneven if

there hadbeen no

gap in thefence?

.

Stoptalk-inglikethat.

Andthathedidso

...becausehe could

no longerbear hislove fora black-

hairedupper-

classman?

Getahold

of

your-self.

Didyoulove

Thomas?

Even alittle?

NO!

The priest?

His friends?His family?

17


17/23

No

Are yougoing toclass,

Prefect?

Yes.

Are

yousureyoureup toit?

.

Comeon.

Wereskipping.

Icantdo

that!

Wait,Juli.

Soyouhave

nothingto

say?

itsmy

prob-lem!Not

yours!

.

I still dontunderstand

whatshappened.

What do youwant me to

say?

And whatcan yousay tome?THOMAS

WERNER

KiLLEDiMSELF!


18/23

Theweather

wasbeautiful

foryester-days

funeral.19


19/23

Yeah,it was the

nicestweatherweve hadin days.

And theflowerswere sopretty.

Hehadtwo

older

brothers.Theyrebothgraduates

ofSchlotter-

bach.

Thomasmother looked

just likeThomas.

Even her voice wassimilar.

Sheseems

sokind.

But I felt sobad for her.

She was

crying thewhole time.

Juli,why

werentyou at the

funeral?

Why?He wasnt in

the same gradeas us.

Huh?Yeah, butwere in

the sameschool!

And yourea prefect!

Besides,you knewThomas.

He was in a

different class.

20


20/23

Ididntlikehim.

And Imsorry, but

I stilldont like

him.

Guess whoreceived

the White-

FeatheredArrow!

Thesame

invitationThomas had

to attendthe upper-classmens

weeklytea

partyat

JacobHaus!

Ill betits Ante!Bingo!Thatcheekylittleminx!

So Thomasdeath is

good newsfor Ante!

We should dosomething tocompete withJacob Haus.

Maybe wecould have aMarch HareTea Party.

Hmm.LewisCar-roll

Say, do youthink Julisstill angryabout the

business withthe farce?

Beatsme.

Idbe happy to haveThomas tell me helikes me whether itwas true or not.

But hesdead now.

Youd thinkhe could

forgive him.


21/23

Thatbusinessprobablystarted

as agame.

Ante andThomas

...trying to seewho would be

first to seducethat stuffy,black-haired

upperclassman.

Prefect.

ibrarian.

Topstudent.

Juli. Abovereproach,with nary

a blemishnor a

scandalto hisname.

Thosetwo were

greatfriends.

And they werethe apples of the

upperclassmenseyes.

He alwaysfound some

excuse tohang around

me.

I justthoughthe was astrangeboy, butthen

Juli!


22/23

Do youknowaboutAnteand

Thomasbet?

I dontknow ifyouveheard,but

The wholeschool iswaiting to

see if youllfall forThomas.

Im afraid Imissed the last

scene. I just heardthat you blew

off Thomas quite

brutally in frontof everyone.

Blew him off!?I just put anend to theirlittle farce!

This is

ridiculous!

But,still

Besides, thatwas some sixmonths ago!

That couldntpossibly be thereason he killed

himself.

23


23/23

Yes, it wasprobablya game toyou and toeveryone

and to Ante.

But after that,Thomas sentyou several

letters.

You threwthem all

awaywithoutreadingthem

...butsurely

youguessedwhat wasin them,

Juli.

How can a personlove so much as

to die?

Thats nosimple thing.

Ibelieve

...thatThomastrulylovedyou.

Juli

Juli...This

is mylove.

Not that theresanything to bedone about it

now.

Except to

shed a fewtears for

him

...and

forgetabout

it.

But Idontunder-stand !

This is thesound of my

heart.

Surelyyou

mustunder-stand.

the heart of thomas preview

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