…and natives and visitors have always wondered how Gottschee got its name. Since the language, Gottscheer, was a medieval form of German presently spoken by only about 26,000, linguists returned to the Middle Ages to find its source but found no certain conclusion.

Some thought it came from “hoja,” a type of fir tree. Others thought it was from “koca” which is a hut or cottage. Some thought it come from “klunka” which is the vertical valley betwixt the nose and the upper lip, but most thought it came from “God’s Sea” the problem being that there was no actual sea, Godly or otherwise, in all of Gottschee.

Photo from Wendell’s Spiral Bound courtesy of the Gottscheer Relief Association.

Photos from Wendell’s Spiral Bound courtesy of the Gottscheer Relief Association.

…and time and space melt way,” urged Jacqueline von Masern. “Transcend borders and your near-death experience becomes a near-life experience and the Medium, the Message and the Messenger are one. Das ist Alles.”  She grew her own herbs, plucked her own fowl and made her own vestments in the vestibule of St. Oswalds.

Wendell was raised by his uncle Frank and aunt Tilly. They owned one of the little grocery stores where they sold bread, cheese and wine and worked very hard for a very long time. The shop was a focal point of the community and was where everyone would sooner or later see and be scene. That was great for Wendell for he did not have to venture out much but just sit and wait and wait and sit and would all come to Wendell, and Frank and Tilly.

Wendell was never lonely. He only had to look upon the sun and the moon and the stars to realize he was part of something wonderous. On his 10th birthday, he had been given an older Siamese cat from his Uncle Alois and this was a very expensive and unusual thing to have in Masern. He named the cat Sherry which to him sounded very foreign and sophisticated. Wendell and Sherry would spend hours together looking into the sky both in the day and, more often, in the night but the time they enjoyed most was basking in the moon when the sky was clear and the moon was full and high. They did this so often that it became a regular and natural thing… Wendell would whisper a song and Sherry would purr-it along.

One month, when the moon was at it’s fullest, Wendell thought it would be even better if they were joined in some way and they could enjoy their magical evenings forever. So ever so gently, he removed the string holding up his pajamas and tied it around his right wrist and then, even more gently, around Sherry’s waist. They then drifted off under the glow of a full, bright moon.

Sometime later, Wendell was awakened by a slight tug on his arm. Then a bigger yank on his wrist and, suddenly, a ripping tearing at his hand. In a grog, he wasn’t quite sure what was going on until he saw Sherry’s back-end trying to jump off the bed and in the process pulling the string tighter and tighter. The more she pulled the tighter it got until Sherry paniced and was about to break the tie that bound. And break it did but not until she had pulled Wendell off the bed and into the tight space between the bed and the wall and then under the bed and out the other side. In the mayhem, one cat suddenly became 10 and, in a matter of seconds, did hours worth of monsterous damage by scratching and biting to free herself from the rope, the moon and Wendell.

Sherry was finally free and Wendell was finally free and now he had lots of new opportunities to contemplate the wonderousness of it all.