The Lost Writings by Franz Kafka

Author:Franz Kafka
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780811228022
Publisher: New Directions
Published: 2020-09-16T16:59:18+00:00

I arrived out of breath. There was a pole jammed into the ground, a little askew, bearing a sign with the legend hollow. I had arrived, I said to myself, and I looked around. A few steps away was a discreet and rather overgrown arbor, from where I could hear a sound of clattering plates. I went there, poked my head through the low opening, saw next to nothing in the dark interior, but said hello anyway and inquired: “Would you happen know who is looking after the hollow?” “At your service, I am,” came the friendly reply, “I’ll be along in a moment.” Gradually I was able to make out the small group within, there was a young couple, three small children who were barely the height of the table, and a babe in arms. The man, who was sitting at the back of the arbor, was on the point of getting up and going out, but his wife told him sweetly to finish his dinner first, at which he gestured in my direction, and she remarked that I would surely have the goodness to wait a little and do them the honor of sharing their frugal lunch with them, till finally, very annoyed with myself for having disturbed their Sunday quiet, I felt compelled to say: “Sadly, sadly, madam, I am unable to comply, because I must immediately, and I mean immediately, have myself lowered into the hollow.” “Oh, dear,” said the woman, “on a Sunday of all days, and at lunchtime too. People and their whims. They are such slave drivers.” “Don’t be cross with me,” I said, “I’m not asking your husband just for the sake of it, and if I knew how it was done, I would long since have done it by myself.” “Don’t listen to her,” said the man, now standing at my side and drawing me away. “Don’t expect a woman to understand anything.”

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