H. Adler - The Wall

“Now tell me, how are you all?”

“We’re fine, thank you!” Oswald assured me. “Of course good, very good!”

“Yes, I’m doing well!” Otto also announced. “I’ve completely settled in here. I have a little pharmaceutical lab that produces a couple of special concoctions of my own, while I also analyze blood and urine samples, whatever comes along. Stool and sputum samples, should you need something. I do it gratis for old friends, cosmetics as well, though there’s too much competition in that, but I have a modest apartment with a native wife who is called Sylvia. We are happily married and have a child, who is called Sidney Keith. Sylvia passes on her regrets that she didn’t come along. She doesn’t speak any German, though she understands a bit and is a good cook, because she comes from the north. They cook better there than in the south. You will have to meet her, for she will be wildly pleased. She is musical and gives a few piano lessons. Otherwise she helps me a bit in the lab when Sidney is in kindergarten. I bet you’re still as musical as you used to be in school. Do you remember? You both have something in common.”

“That’s wonderful,” I said, feeling quite happy that I could carry on a conversation, no matter how little Otto’s family history interested me. “And all of you are friends?”

“Not really! I just met Mr. Birch and Miss Bergmann here today for the first time. It was just a lucky coincidence that I had heard something about your arrival and could be here. Just imagine, only a couple of days ago I met So-and-So on the street, and he told me you were coming. What a surprise! I didn’t know anything more about you. It’s been such a long time. Someone claimed that you had emigrated to Peru or Brazil. I don’t even know who it was, nor did I believe it, for someone also said, more authoritatively, that you had remained behind, and therefore I couldn’t help but think that you were dead. My God, how many are dead! My brother, for one, and his wife and two little children. I believe you knew him. He was two classes behind us at the gymnasium. Do you remember? And many in my family are dead.”

“Herr Schallinger is right!” Inge said with intense anger. “Dead, dead, dead — there’s no end to it, so much that I prefer not to ask after anyone I knew. And there are too many who are still alive, all of them having no right to be!”

“Inge, you can’t say that! No one has the right to wish anyone dead!”

“Really? And the murderers? Perverse. Oswald, you are perverse!”

“Let it go, Inge! You know my views. You must know, Arthur, that I’ve considered this subject. You can judge the murderer, but you must not wish him dead. He is a human being, certainly a horrid human being, but his life is also sacred, unique, and irreplaceable!”

“Nothing but the disengaged morals of an archaeologist!”

“Inge, now stop!”

“You and your squeamishness!” she said, dismissing her brother. “You have your sympathy for them, fine, but also with the murderers. Mine is for those murdered, only with the murdered, and even then not with all of them. You should just know, Landau, three of our aunts were killed — my and Oswald’s aunts! I loved one of them as if she were my own mother, and I loved my mother very much, that you can believe. But this aunt did everything for us, and really helped to raise us.”

Oswald was uncomfortable with Inge’s outburst.

“Why do you have to say the same thing to everyone? It’s not at all interesting, especially for Arthur. He’s experienced enough horrible things already.”

“Experienced, experienced — that’s a big difference. He experienced what he did, but our aunts and all the dead experienced much more, for they’re all dead. So he should be happy that he experienced only what he did. He’s lucky to be in the world and to be able to laugh about it.”

“Inge, enough already! That’s so offensive! You’ll have to forgive her, Arthur! Inge is sometimes so harsh. It’s her nerves, which really are bad. In actuality, she doesn’t mean it so.”

“I do indeed mean what I say. He should just know it.”

“Now cease this instant, Inge, or I’m leaving!”

Inge shook with laughter. Her brother looked at her angrily and then said something to her quietly, such that she finally reined in her extravagantly hysterical behavior and appeared a bit more measured. So-and-So, who until now had hardly said a word, smiled with annoyance at the controversy between the Bergmann siblings and turned to me.

“Did you see Dr. Blecha? Will something finally come of it?”

“He is a crook, and the government is even worse.”

“But my parents’ assets must be restored. The state can’t simply gobble them up!”

“The state can do anything it wants, and Blecha can do nothing but accept his honorarium.”

“Unbelievable! Am I entitled to nothing?”

“The question is too hard for me to answer.”

“What.… Well, let’s talk about something else. You look amazingly well, Arthur.”

“You, too!” I replied.

“Sharp as ever. The years haven’t changed you at all.”

“That’s much too flattering.”

“Don’t worry, I don’t flatter anyone. I just didn’t expect it. But, to switch topics yet again, you can’t stay with us. Karin is sorry.”

“Really? I had been so looking forward to it!”

“Me as well. But it just won’t work. You can come over often. We have all pitched in — Birch, myself, Haarburger, and a few others — and have arranged for a nice room in a cheap guesthouse. We’ve already paid for fourteen days—”

“Yes, but the expense?”

“No worries. That’s all taken care of.”

“I mean, how will I pay you back?”

“It’s all taken care of. I told you, we all pitched in together.”

“Many thanks!”

“You don’t have to thank us. It’s the obvious thing to do. But you can’t move in right away. The room is still occupied.”

“That’s too bad.”

“For sure. But it doesn’t matter. You can move in the day after tomorrow. Maybe even tomorrow. We’ll check by calling them.”

“And in the meantime?”

“You’re not letting me finish. Everything has been taken care of. You can stay with Birch.”

“As well as with Inge?”

“No, not with Fräulein Bergmann. Just with Birch.”

“Naturally, Arthur, only if it’s all right with you. It would be my pleasure.”

“If it’s not a bother.”

“No, no, no bother at all. Naturally, but really, when it’s all right with you, Arthur. Otherwise, you could stay in the hotel. A room is already reserved. But it would be a real delight if you’d like to stay with me, for we could talk a great deal.”

“I’d be delighted if it’s not too much of a burden for you for one or two nights.”

“Of course, you’re welcome. Otherwise I wouldn’t have said anything. Three nights, a week — you can stay as long as you wish.”

“Shall I accept the offer, Fräulein Bergmann?”

“When my brother invites someone, then he must be fond of him, which is a distinction one must accept. It’s a great honor for you, a great honor. That’s what I say. For days Oswald has almost lost his head over you. Nothing but Landau. He’s totally smitten.”

“Inge, please!”

“Well, it’s only true!”

“I’m very touched, Oswald. I’m so pleased.”

“Not another word about it. But I have to to tell you, my place is extremely modest.”

“It’s lovely at Birch’s!” said So-and-So emphatically. “You could not possibly feel better or more comfortable.”

“Don’t believe a word Kauders says,” warned Inge. “But in this case he’s actually telling the truth.”