H. Adler - Panorama

Sitting under the stairs with his eyes closed, Josef thinks that he knows what it’s like to have your eyes shot out. That’s why it’s good that the father demonstrates how to cut paper leather, how one weaves it and glues it in order to make a bag. Everywhere, people help with the war effort, such as in school, where they gather lint twice a week, which Josef likes to do. They are given bright rags, which they unravel with their fingers, taking a little piece and with two fingers pulling out thread after thread until a little pile lies on the desk, after which it’s all gathered up in a big bag, which the custodian takes away as the teacher says, “The lint is used for pillows and blankets for our wounded heroes in the hospital, since proper feathers are in such short supply.” Lint is also gathered at home, Anna happy to help out, after which it’s taken away, though Bubi doesn’t like to and says, “Gathering lint is stupid, that’s girls’ work.” But Tata says, “Bubi, you have no heart. Just imagine if you were wounded and had to lie on some awful straw mattress without ever having a pillow or a proper blanket.” Nonetheless, Bubi still says it’s for girls or little boys, it being ridiculous when he has to do it, at which Tata says, “Fine, Bubi, we can switch jobs. You can knit pulse warmers for the poor soldiers, and I’ll gather lint.” To this Bubi says nothing and leaves the room, Josef following him, the two of them ending up outside on the balcony, where Bubi has a large pickle jar full of tadpoles that someone gave him, and he takes one tadpole after another and lets it fall and smash on the street below, but only when no one is coming along who might be hit, for he’s very careful, since one time when he threw down a pot that nearly killed someone a terrible ruckus followed, Bubi’s mother having to calm down the strange man because he was so upset that he threatened to call the police, after which Bubi got a spanking and was sent to his room for the entire afternoon, where he screamed loudly and cried that he would never do it again. For a long while afterward, he was not allowed on the balcony alone, having done worse things than Josef ever had, though when Josef points that out, his mother says, “You shouldn’t just focus on the bad side of Bubi, especially when there are so many good things about him.”

Meanwhile Josef has a nanny, the mother unable to watch over him as much because of all the time she must spend at the hospital, and because Aunt Betti can barely get by on her war relief she has to help Josef’s father in the store and thus has less time for Josef, though this makes it easier for the father to run around, busy as he is, everyone having to work hard, which causes a lot of stress. It’s become so hard to get essentials that Anna has to stand in long lines, and Aunt Gusti, too, which one cannot expect of the mother, since she’s on her feet the entire day, though the father has connections and brings home flour or potatoes, all of which is incredibly expensive and just burns through their money.

The nanny’s name is Jedlitschka, and she’s thin and scrawny, the grandmother saying, “She doesn’t even have enough strength to properly knead dough.” The nanny’s neckline reveals how much the bones in her chest stick out. Bubi doesn’t like this, and says, “If that were my nanny I would simply throw her out.” When Josef tells this to the mother, she replies, “You are an ungrateful child. Bubi and Kitti have Tata. They don’t need a nanny. Their mother can shop. Why do I have to explain it all to you? Things are one way for them and another way for us.” Josef likes the nanny very much, because she lets him do what he wants and he doesn’t have to watch out what he does in the park, for she hardly keeps an eye on him as she talks with others or darns stockings, and whenever the weather is bad she plays fleas or fish with Josef at home. Fleas involves colorful buttons divided into six different colors so that six can play, though everyone plays alone, each person taking three different colors totaling eighteen buttons in all. There is also a large button that you use to flip the smaller buttons, the game requiring that you shoot your button accurately enough to land it on the other player’s button, which you then take away, while whoever ends up with some buttons left is the winner. The game of fish is different. On the table you place a box made of cardboard that has four sides and is painted with fish, and you throw a bunch of paper fish into it, though old shoes, drowned cats, and other things are also thrown in to annoy the fisherman, while written on each fish is how much it weighs, with a little metal ring attached. The players get a pole, which is a wooden bar with a thread attached that is the line, from which hangs a magnet, which is the hook, whereupon each player dips his line into the pond, only one being allowed to do so at a time. Swishing around in the water, but without looking within, whoever is lucky pulls out a fish or several fish, though the unfortunate get nothing or a shoe or something else, the players continuing until the pond is empty, while whoever has caught the heaviest fish wins.

Fräulein Jedlitschka is very good at it, she has a lot of patience, but the grandmother is not pleased and says to the mother, “Mella, in my day it was different. Then the nanny would do some knitting or sewing while the child played on his own, and she just kept an eye on him.” The mother replies, “Mama, please, let me worry about it. If you have something to say to me, please don’t say it in front of Josef!” Then Josef responds, “The nanny plays really well. She doesn’t just let me win at fishing, because she likes to win herself.” Then the mother and the grandmother are angry with each other, the mother looking hard at the grandmother and sending Josef away and into the kitchen. Outside is Anna, who speaks warmly of her previous position, where she had spent eight years, the people there having been very good to her, there being no son to take care of, but rather a little girl named Angela, who is already grown, Anna still having a picture of her when she was very little, with two thick braids. She didn’t have short hair like Kitti, who always cried when someone pulled her hair. “I’m gonna tell Tata! Bubi, you’re so mean!” But Angela had been so well behaved, Anna always says, even to the mother, and she still gets letters from her, as well as colorful postcards at Christmas and Easter that are even more beautiful than those in Aunt Betti’s collection, the mother saying, “Nothing is so precious as gratitude. See, Josef, you should take after Angela.” But then Anna says, “Josef is also a sweet child, madam. God willing, he will also be a fine man.”

The father also has a garden plot, because there is always less and less to eat. It’s a large garden located on the edge of the city next to a brickworks, the father hacking away at the earth, though it takes too much out of him, and so he takes along Wenzel, a helper from the store, who also stays there the whole day through, the father also bringing along Josef and Bubi. The two of them have a large bed to themselves. There they grow pumpkins and radishes, potatoes and kohlrabi, lettuce and tomatoes, as well as poppies and strawberries and pretty flowers, though just a few, both of them liking to be out in the garden, because they like Wenzel, who is nice and lets them do what pleases them. They water the beds with a little watering can, then they yank out weeds, then Wenzel brings them coffee and something to eat, though they don’t have to wash their hands.

Lots of people come to the garden on Sundays, Aunt Gusti saying, “There’s hardly anywhere to go anymore. It’s a blessing to be in God’s nature and breathe a bit of fresh air. Josef, your father is so handy. We have him to thank for such splendor.” Only the mother rarely comes, because she has to work, after which she’s tired and needs rest, and she’s happy to be home alone, though everyone else is there, sometimes Bubi’s family as well, Wenzel, too, even though he doesn’t have to be on Sundays, but he’s gotten so used to being there that he wants to, yet Aunt Gusti says, “He only comes because he gets something from it as well, but your father takes good care of his people.” Aunt Betti adds, “Wenzel also does most of the work, he deserves at least a couple of potatoes.” This upsets Aunt Gusti, who says, “You never think of the family’s interests, Betti. You’re so strange.” And when Bubi’s father hears this he says, “Now let’s not fight on such a beautiful Sunday. We should just enjoy the lovely sun instead. Who knows what next year will bring?” Then the grandmother says, “I agree completely. One never knows what will happen. Times change. In 1866, war was everywhere, and yet it wasn’t as bad as it is today. Back then the Prussians invaded, yet there were far fewer dead than now, when the battlefields are much farther off.” Bubi’s father replies, “Yes, yes, that was quite a little war back then. Yet everything came out all right.” But Aunt Gusti adds, “No, there’s no way it was that pleasant. War is war.” But Bubi’s father counters, “We mustn’t fight. What I once heard in Vienna is true. Whenever we’ve had enough of peace, then it’s war, and that’s a horror.”