ARNO SCHMIDT
79
head thoughtfully: "'LEARNED WIND, slightly risque'" I heard him
murmur considering; "Hm. - Well, hand it over." / "2 kinds of alien
spirits can, in the opinion of the rabbis, invade the bodies of living
men; either those of the babylonian tower-builders or those of the
wicked folk who perished in the flood." - "Well, maybe." / But now
at last I had touched his heart of stone; and it was indeed a fine item,
"THE AUTOMOBILE'S FATAL PROGRESS IN 1908" : "During the past
year, in the entire German Reich 141 persons were killed by
automobiles; of these 12 were drivers, 22 persons riding as pas–
sengers , and 107 third parties. One can see from this that it is less
dangerous to ride in an automobile than to walk a street populated
with them ." (41,727 cars and trucks registered at the time . And with
1 smiling moment of silence we honored the good-old-days, when
grandpa ran down grandma : 141, tut-tut !).
: "Is A-1 SAUCE permitted on Fridays ?" - "Are you crazy?!" he
asked in astonishment. I fell into simple, sublime silence; and then he
too grew more serious, having recognized the gordian nature of this
seemingly harmless question. And moved his shoulders with increas–
ing uneasiness: "Oh-oh . - Pfffff: listen, don't
me~s
with
that
!". He
formed one hand as an orator's claw, looked into it, and shaped his
pronouncement - :
"If
a coward wants to prove his courage
nowadays, then he protests against the atom-bomb-in-general.
That's so chic
&
safe that you can ask in the most casual small-talky
tone of voice : "Ah, so you're against the bomb
too
?". But it's best to
say nothin' - nohow when it comes to "religion" - or to
"christianity," that is" he added more precisely. And, fully out of
sorts now : "Besides, on independent papers there are special
chaplains for that sort of thing: no sir." He raised himself up pon–
derously, (was the elderberry jam starting to work ? Hardly this
soon.); stretched his elbows unaesthetically, and pointed with his
chin, above it a yawn, toward the corner of the house, around which
there now .....
"Girls, you can't go like
that
- ",
Ernst
&
I, in anxious chorus.
"At least take a sweater along, the sky's turning overcast." (Quite
apart from the fact that they really were exposing a great deal : if
Paula took cold afterwards, I could make a tea again.) They cast a
confused look upwards. Then at themselves. And had seen through
us. Paula replied simply: "You'll still have to do that mowing." -
