Jule stood on the banks of the Rhine River and watched the sparkling lanterns float downstream. She held her brother’s hand as tight as she could, mostly because she was his eyes. Tonight, she would see the Christmas Lantern Festival for both of them. It felt like the whole town was bringing light into the world. The paper lanterns twinkled like bright stars in the universe.
“Killian, I just placed our lantern into the river,” said 10-year-old Jule Schmidt to her 7-year-old brother. He held her hand so tight that sometimes she didn’t know how he would ever let go. “The whole river is lit up like a Festival of Lights. It’s so bright it’s almost blinding!”
Every year during Advent, a nighttime procession of families and children gathered with lanterns on the riverbank at the Rüdesheim Christmas Market and sang songs. The Schmidt children and their parents stood bundled in gloves, hats, and scarves.
Since Killian had been blind from birth, he could only imagine what things looked like from Jule’s descriptions. The river was lined with snow-covered firs, a large German castle, rocks, and a sharp cliff. Jule loved Killian so much and wished he could see everything. The lights on the river looked like floating lamps, which could be seen for miles.
“The lanterns must be as bright as the angels,” Killian said. “I’ve never met an angel, but I’d like to meet one. Until then, I have you.”
Killian kissed his sister on the cheek. His lips felt cold, and Jule kissed him back. Over the years, Jule and her parents tried to celebrate Killian for everything good that he brought to the world. Even if he couldn’t see, he had an acute sense of taste and smell. He enjoyed feeling the hand-carved Christmas tree decorations. He also loved music and joined in singing whenever he knew the song. Every now and then, he fiddled with playing the family guitar.
“Stille Nacht! Heil'ge Nacht!” Killian sang at the top of his lungs. Jule always let him sing louder than her. She figured it was a way to let him shine.
“Let’s go sit on the bridge,” Jule said to her brother. They wandered from their parents to a rickety old bridge at a narrow part of the river. The bridge had been hardly used in recent years, but at times, people still crossed it after they had said a special prayer to the angels for blessings.
Jule liked to make prayers to the angels for her brother and had insisted that she had met a large angel by the bridge on the river. Of course, her parents never believed her, and it hurt her feelings, but she knew she was telling the truth.
As they sat down on the bridge that night, it creaked a little more than normal, but Jule ignored it because she was having so much fun. Killian swung his feet back and forth with joy.
“I met an angel who told me that you would be healed of blindness,” Jule said to Killian. She had full faith that the miracle would one day happen.
“You like to tell this story,” Killian said with a giggle. Jule decided to tell the story again in hopes that maybe what the angel said would finally come to pass.
“Now tell me if you see her,” Jule said to Killian. “She had long golden hair and a pink dress with a blue flowing jacket.”
“She must have wings. Does she have wings?” Killian said. “Like the wings on the bird in mother’s garden that I held.”
“Of course, she has wings, silly,” Jule said. “She likes to visit this bridge. That’s where I saw her before . . .”
“Well, I’ve never seen her,” Killian said. “I’d like to meet her though. You’ve been telling me about her for so long.”
When Jule spoke to the angel, she said that at certain seasons she descends into the river and stirs up the water. After she stirs up the water, whoever steps into the river first is made well from whatever disease is in their body. Jule didn’t understand how exactly it all worked, but she believed the angel anyhow. She was determined that Killian would be first in the river at some point. A few other people in town had been visited by the angel, so this gave Jule extra hope that what the angel said was true.
“When the angel stirs up the water, you’re going to have to jump in to get healed,” Jule insisted. “Even if it seems a bit scary.”
“I can’t swim, and I might drown,” Killian said in a soft voice. “I can’t see anything. It’s too dangerous.”
“Well, just don’t let go of my hand,” Jule said, as a mighty wind blew the lanterns across the river in a squall. She watched as her parents placed their lanterns into the river.
With that, the side of the bridge where Killian and Jule sat broke into two, and the brother and sister fell into the river.
“Help!” Killian screamed. Although he fell into the river first before his sister, Jule felt the ice-cold water overtake her body. She held his hand as tight as she could. “Somebody, help!”
“Oh, no!” Jule yelled. She kicked her legs extra hard and paddled for her and her brother. “Save us! Angel, come and save us.”
Although Jule kicked as hard as she could, she and her brother were caught in the current. They were sucked into a fasting-moving tide. Jule flailed her free arm and heard screaming from the banks of the river.
Her father jumped into the dark river, swimming madly, trying to find the children, who were hidden in the night. Jule made eye contact with her mother with a nod.
“Lisa! Look! Over there!” a man on the riverbank said, as she shined his flashlight.
“Christoph! The children are more to the right!” Lisa, her mother, called.
“The angel said my brother would be healed,” Jule cried out in the turbulent current.
As Jule looked at her brother with fear, a bright light shone on them from above the river. A loud voice boomed throughout the rippling water: “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened.”
Suddenly, the angel with long golden hair, and a pink dress with a blue flowing jacket stood on the water before the children. She was twice as big as their father, who struggled to swim in their direction. Jule wondered if her father could see the angel.
Then, Jule started to sink along with her brother. It was the most hideous feeling. Even if she kicked as hard as she could, she could not kick hard enough to get back to the surface. She looked at Killian with complete despair as bubbles floated around his head. One last time, she prayed for the angel to save her and her brother.
In the nick of time, Mr. Schmidt grabbed both children by the arms and pulled them to the surface. Jule had never felt such relief. Then, she felt a second pair of large hands on her forearms from the angel in the pink dress. Both she and her brother could now breathe again.
The crowd of people on the riverbank had thrown a scarf into the river, which Christoph grabbed. The father and his two children were pulled to shore as the angel did more than her share of towing the family to the bank. Their mother threw her arms around her wet family and sobbed with joy.
“Daddy, I can see!” Killian said as he landed in the freezing snow. “Oh, my eyes! That’s what it must mean if something is bright.”
Jule looked at her brother in silence. She heard what he had said but wondered if it was too good to be true. She gave it a moment to see if his new sight was real and lasting.
Killian covered his eyes from the shining lights of the Christmas lanterns. He buried his head in his father’s shoulder. The cold wind blew against the father and his children. The crowd shared their dry coats, hats, and gloves.
“Killian! My baby,” Mrs. Schmidt cried. She held her child in her arms and rubbed his skin to make him warm again. “I hope the two of you and your father don’t get pneumonia! Ring out your clothes before they freeze!”
Jule had a sneaking suspicion that the miracle she had prayed for had happened in the most unusual way. Because Killian was too afraid to jump in the water, God had solved that problem for him with a broken bridge.
“Did you see the angel in pink, Killian?” Jule said. She buried her head in her mother’s coat. “Did you hear the voice?”
“Oh, the two of you almost died!” Christoph said. “Look at me, son! Can you really see? Is it actually true?”
“I can see you, Daddy!” Killian said. “There was a lady in the river with you that grabbed me and Jule, but it wasn’t Mom. She’s still standing over there and singing a beautiful song. Is she an angel? She has beautiful wings!”
Killian pointed to the middle of the river, where no one could stand without sinking.
Jule knew it was the angel that she had met, who promised her brother’s healing. She had large wings, and a bright light surrounded her. Despite her radiance, Jule realized that the rest of the townspeople were unable to see her appearance.
“Lisa, our boy can see! How can this be?” Christoph said to his wife. He huddled around his son with his family among the onlookers.
Mr. Schmidt moved his fingers in front of Killian’s face and watched the boy’s eyes follow his hand. Jule had waited for this day for so long and could not believe it was finally happening. From the first moment the angel told her that her brother would be healed, she believed her. Then, Killian looked across the river, and a large smile filled his face.
“I’m not sure who he’s seeing over the river though,” Mr. Schmidt said with a worried expression. Jule knew that Killian saw the angel but decided not to try to convince everyone else. Maybe only Jule and Killian were supposed to see her.
When Killian’s father turned around, Jule no longer saw The Angel that Troubled the Waters. She had vanished into the winter night’s air. It was almost like she had never been there, except that Killian could now see.
“She’s gone now, Dad,” Killian said. “She disappeared. She must be a good swimmer.”
“I’m freezing,” Jule said. “Let’s run home and make a fire with lots of logs and eat fruitcake and gingerbread. I’m going to teach you the name of everything that you never saw before. The whole world is new! All because the bridge broke!”
As Jule looked over her shoulder, she saw one more momentary glimpse of the angel that had saved her and her brother. As the angel reappeared for a second, she waved and smiled at Jule, as if to say that she had kept her promise. All the trouble had somehow been turned to good, because her brother could finally see.
Copyright 2016 Jennifer Waters
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