Jáchym Topol - City, Sister, Silver

NO! we roared in unison, and we turned to make a run for it, why didn’t we think of that sooner, I wondered in those first moments of elation as we pulled away from that raspy needling voice, just run off an hide somewhere, that’s what I thought, pardners and chiefs, but as you surely realize by now, that was naive of us … because the only place to hide in that sea of skeletons … was underneath them … and we weren’t about to do that … and the second we got out of range of that voice we started breaking through an getting speared again … an I was crawlin along next to Bohler an he turned his sooty face to me an the ashes looked like mud … with trickles runnin through it … from tears … an maybe vomit … but my face looked the same, I guess, an Bohler said to me: Brother, I fear that that skeleton is none other than the Devil himself. An I too felt great fear, O skippers an slingsmen, but I just started cacklin away like some scary old witch, cause, as I told Bohler … anything’s possible an possibly we’re already damned. An so we kept crawlin an fallin through an lookin for wedged-in bones … an we ended up crawlin right back to Josef Novák the skeleton.

He spread his jaws wide in a smile an started rattling on again, an at last we could get back on our feet like human beings.

Wull then, my spooked little laddies, I’ll leave the gals for another time, seein as yer such nosewipes, touchy types, heh, just start snifflin again, wouldn’t cha? Wull then about that fix, pardners, see the pieces I herded in straight from the station, those fellas … an gals, now easy there, creampuffs, an kids too, see the oberst started fellin them too later on, yeh? Kapisch? An those kids can take a lot, you gents’d be surprised … an they got diffrent responses, yeh? Oberst Prochaska an Dochtor Mengele were fascinated, yes siree … an the oberst was a bit of a perv, like, yeh? Kina sweet on the red stuff, if ya know what I mean … heh? Pardners? No time for alla the happenstances, let’s jus say the oberst duhveloped a taste … sometimes he’d treat um like they did somethin wrong, like reeeeal reeeal nasty, an sometimes he’d treat um reeeal reeeal nice, heh. Like rewards an punishments, yeh? An when an who, he knew that, but never the tots, yeh? Kina like a big Parent, kapisch? See, down there in that cellar, gentlemen, down there in that bunker, he thought he was God! Yep, that was the thing … that was it, that’s what he loved. Lived for it! An whenever I’d bring some fresh nipper in for his first innerview, Prochaska’s peepers’d be like saucers … he’d be tremblin! Wull an the nippers were tremblin too! An Prochaska says: Vot are you starink at, you idiot! Couldn’t stand it when anyone else was aroun. An I’d clear out da go sweep the roll call square or whatever, I mean I was a kapo! An that, boyos, right there, direkly in fronna ya, the skeleton waved toward the sea of bones … now those’re storees, boyz, heh. Stiffs galore! Wull an these pieces here that didn’t make it through the gate, ess-ess called em Prochaska’s kindergarten, heh, an they weren’t even tattooed, yeh? Kapisch? An if they weren’t tattooed, they weren’t what? On the list, yeh? An if they weren’t on the list, they didn’t exist, gentlemen. Meanin they didn’t get marked down till they were dead! Heh? An so what’d this lil noggin right here come up with? The skeleton tapped his skull with what once had been a finger.

Wull, even if they aren’t marked down, they still got what … teeth, right! An some of um’re gold! Get it, pardners? An those aren’t marked down in the paypers either! Kapisch? Wull an then it was paradise. An sometimes, sokols, it boggled me alla the gold teeth those nippers had! The oberst he picked out the healthiest ones, goes without sayin! An most a them were what? From the finest rollin-in-dough famblies, right? I tell ya, pardners, it jus boggled my mind, bustin my buns for ole Rouba at my age … playing escort ta nasty ole biddies … workin like a dog … for a couple a peanuts! An here were these nippers wid gold teeth! An Broněk … he hadda box like hell … an when they ran oudda fellas for im da knock down … he hadda work in the slaughterhouse … bust his balls! An these nippers here … they had it all … till they got to Prochaska, that’s right. Whimperin … bleatin … alla those Moisheles an Itziksheles an Paisheles an Basheles … an I’d take their teeth … heh! … but before they went to the innerview wid the oberst! He’da noticed, yes sir! He knew bedder n anyone what he did to em! I covered my butt! But when he’d see a piece for the first time an he’d notice the nipper was missin a chomper, wull, it was a milk tooth, kapisch? Or an accident on the ramp, yeh? The shovin, the pushin, the hubbub, got it, pardners? Smart thinkin, right? An the teeth’d go da Broněk an he’d plug um to the Polaks … an we got … pardners … one day we got meat! Honest-to-goodness dog meat! An it was dee-licious, I mean I’m tellin ya! How da ya think you’d measure up, pardners, you edjumucated scouties, heh?

I didn’t know, O brothers and skippers, because I’d been trying to lose consciousness, but unfortunately, O bosses and entrepreneurs, it was working just like the horror, all at once it was like independent … like there was something just forcing my consciousness to be … and take it all in. That skeleton’s voice and that sea of skeletons and those skulls watching us … maybe they were just lying there, but my consciousness told me: Nope, they’re lookin at you.

Mr. Novák sir, David spoke up, excuse me, but how come you’re in heaven now if …

Ya mean like, what I did da those nippers, yeh? Wull I got tortured too, so what. It was … pardners, this life a mine, even wid that golden soup it was … it was hard, don’t go thinkin it wasn’t! Hell, boyz! When they brought Broněk inda the oberst … an he was still a strong fella … a boxer, I mean I told ja, fellas, goddammit! Wull Broněk didn’t know what he was in for yet! No sir! I knew … an those dead folks that went inda the oven … they knew, elsewise though nobody else in the lager … an Prochaska, that goes without sayin! An I’m takin Broněk oudda his first innerview … he’s on all fours, boyz! He’s crawlin! So I get im back ta the cell an I’m goin lockity lockity lock! an he says: Kill me, Josef! Kill me … I beg you! … but I knew he still wasn’t brutalized enough … ta die … an Prochaska could tell! I mean he was an expert … in pain … yes sir, I mean it’s like I told ja, boyz! An I says: Broněk, pardner, stick it out another round or two … an then I’ll kill ya … an he starts sobbin an says: It’s no good, Josef … I can’t take it … it’s too awful … do it now or I’ll turn you in. Wull an what was I sposda do, pardners? Figgered if I strangled im maybe the oberst wouldn’t be able da tell, but he was a real strong fella … I mean he couldn’t stand up … but he was thrashin all over … an I was a boy! An I don’t ever wanna be a boy again! I mean I’m tellin ya straight! So I stuck im … an I’m thinkin I’ll talk my way oudda it … like he put up a fight or somethin … an I go da Prochaska an there’s these two other ess-ess in there besides, Wagner … an Bauch … jus my luck! I mean my nerves were totally jimjammed … I was up shit creek, gents! An instead a askin me bout the little mother like the oberst awways did … he was fond a her … an he’d smile an say … vot about Praque! Zat stepmuzza hass some clawss! An … finish op zis shtroodle, I kent stant zat hunkry look uf yours, you idiot … awways treated me good, yes sir! I gotta tell ya! An I told ja! An he’d speak Czech wid me, that way a his, he’d say: Uf course vee are Cheks, Herr Novák, bot nobotty hass to know! Herr, that’s how the krauts say Mister, Oberst Prochaska called me Mister! an he didn’t hafda, I mean I was a heftlink … an there were milliyons a them, I don’t hafda tell ya! Wull an when I see he’s got company … a meetin … I back on oudda there, but Bauch gets a load a me … an next thing I know he’s got ahold a me … an slap! slap! Boyz, an me wid my nerves in a tizzy … from back there wid Broněk … my pocket rips open an sparklin in there … two gold teeth! An when my oberst sees it, my Oberst Prochaska, who I betrayed, don’t think I don’t know it, pardners! Wull he stood up … an then it started … the whimperin an the bleatin … the tortures … an the ess-ess makin bets … wull nowadays I’m above it all, my sokolites.