The Orphanage by Hubert Fichte

Author:Hubert Fichte [Fichte, Hubert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1852421614
Published: 2019-02-05T13:00:00+00:00

— And the father of your father and the mother of your father?

— That’s not my grandad and it isn’t my granny either.

— Because you don’t have a father. Was your father a Jew?

— What is a Jew ? You don’t have a father yourself. Y ou don’t even have a mother.

— What was in the letter?

The veterinary surgeon called his mother. She went downstairs. Detlev took the letter out of the yellow envelope.

His grandfather wrote in Latin.

— Grandad is Protestant and writes in Latin, in which the parish priest sings and in which the sisters pray in their enclosure.

Detlev read the first sheet once again. He read the second sheet.

— You won’t be interested in that. It’s only figures. They’ll go in one ear and out the other again. They’re just something for me to refer to.

Detlev remembered everything:

A Roman one, then five thousand six hundred, large R, large M, below it four thousand one hundred and fifty, a stroke.

— That means: equals

Nine thousand seven hundred and fifty a curved line to the side of all three numbers.

— Only grandad can draw such a nice curved line.

Along the edges of the documents in his grandfather’s desk behind the enamel windows there were many long, curved lines, also headings twice underlined, three exclamation marks one after the other, two snakes that had tied themselves together.

— What does that mean?

— It means law.

After the curved line was a five, then came something like the two round glass eyes of the gas masks, which lay in their shoe boxes for anyone, for any emergency. Between the round eyes of the gas mask was an oblique stroke.

A one, a gas mask, the word repayment, four, a comma, five, a gas mask, from, one, full stop, seven, full stop, forty-two, then: four, eight, seven, five, zero, three, nine, zero, zero, zero, stroke, four hundred and thirty-eight, dash, comma, dash,

— Chimney sweep, gas mask, coal man, stealing coal, ane hoose afore dwells the butcher, ane hoose efter dwells the tailor, ane hoose further dwells the murtherer.

Settlement, two full stops, Emil.

— When I’m in Hamburg, I’ll visit my uncle Emil, if he hasn’t been bombed out yet. Uncle Emil and Aunty Hilde live near the Catholic church in Hamburg, Grandad showed me the Catholic church. Uncle Emil worked for the customs too. Aunty Hilde has very elegant mahogany chairs.

— You’re mad to buy mahogany chairs with the world the way it is at the moment.

Emil pays thirty-two Reichsmarks rent a month, period, inclusive of mortgage repayment I pay thirty-eight, comma, twenty-one Reichsmarks, full stop, in the end Emil has nothing, dash, I, or my heirs after thirty-eight years have an unencumbered plot of land, semi colon, perhaps you’ll still live to see it, comma, Detlev certainly will I hope, period. I hope he’ll be grateful, period, the charges are further considerably reduced by the produce from the garden, period, I would like Detlev to take up a profession, comma, that makes it possible for him, comma to look after house and garden.

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