‘The Oldness’ by Anne Klapperstück
I am worried about The Oldness. It seems to be everywhere. I open the paper and there it is: we will be very poor when we are old. That’s what they say. The Oldness will get us with coats in grey and lavender and ugly hats, weak legs and welfare money. We will live in shared houses like we used to when we were young and starving students at the Faculty of Arts or Philosophy, and show our tattoos from our trip to India, little dragons and religious symbols, and read the poems we wrote in high school at community nights in the kitchen. We will share vegan recipes and the assortment of pills – well, if we can afford them. And we will assure each other how fit and healthy we still are, healthy as horses. The Oldness will get me like it got my aunt Anne who not only shared her name with me, but also her interest in travels, English-speaking men and Edgar Allen Poe. The Oldness got her good and now she goes to bed at 8pm on Christmas and her voice sounds drunk all the time and frequently she cannot remember her name and so also not mine.
When will The Oldness get us? I read an article about old people in Japan. The Oldness turns them into criminals, so that they can go to prison and have a warm meal and a bed and some company. At first they are shy and they steal something small like a CD player or a vacuum cleaner, but soon they realise that this isn’t paying off. It’s only a few months of rent-free living like that. They need to think bigger. Think Mercedes-Benz, think Statue of Liberty, think the Holy Grail.
I am worried about The Oldness, but maybe let’s not think about it too much. Because maybe things go well and we get dementia like my grandmother did and we might even say: The Oldness? What the hell is that? I am feeling just fine.
From issue #4: spring/summer 2017
About the Author
Anne Klapperstück lives in Dublin. Originally from Halle, Germany, she studied at the German Institute for Literature in Leipzig and published short stories in German literary journals and anthologies.
