A Kafka Story

Some­one sent this sto­ry to me. I don’t know if it’s true (I hope it is) but in any case it’s a won­der­ful sto­ry about stories.

At 40, Franz Kaf­ka (1883–1924), who nev­er mar­ried and had no chil­dren, was walk­ing through a park in Berlin when he met a girl who was cry­ing because she had lost her favorite doll. She and Kaf­ka searched for the doll unsuccessfully.

Kaf­ka told her to meet him there the next day and they would con­tin­ue to look for her doll.

The next day, when they had not yet found the doll, Kaf­ka gave the girl a let­ter “writ­ten” by the doll say­ing “Please don’t cry. I took a trip to see the world. I will write to you about my adventures.”

Thus began a sto­ry which con­tin­ued with each meeting.

Dur­ing their meet­ings, Kaf­ka read the doll’s let­ters which relat­ed her adven­tures and con­ver­sa­tions that the girl found adorable.

Final­ly, Kaf­ka brought back the doll (he bought one) that he said had returned to Berlin.

“It does­n’t look like my doll at all,” said the girl.

Kaf­ka hand­ed her anoth­er let­ter in which the doll wrote: “My trav­els have changed me.” The lit­tle girl hugged the new doll and with much joy, brought her home.

She did not meet Kaf­ka again.

A year lat­er Kaf­ka died.

Many years lat­er, the now-adult girl found a let­ter inside the doll. In the tiny let­ter signed by Kaf­ka it was written:

“Every­thing you love will prob­a­bly be lost, but in the end, love will return in anoth­er way.”