Agnes by Peter Stamm

Author:Peter Stamm [Stamm, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-59051-812-0
Publisher: Other Press
Published: 2016-10-25T04:00:00+00:00

18

Every year, the university stages a big parade on Halloween, which is the last night of October. Agnes had often told me about it, the costumes she’d worn in previous years, and the wild party that took place afterward in the big hall of the university. Weeks before, she and the other members of her quartet had begun sewing their costumes. They were going to go as elves. I’ve always had an aversion to everything to do with masks and dressing up, and so I was relieved when I got an invitation to go to another Halloween party, given by Amtrak, the American railroad company, which would get me out of taking part in the parade. Agnes was disappointed.

“I’m relying on the cooperation of Amtrak for my work,” I explained, “and if they invite me to something, I can’t really refuse.”

“But I invited you months ago,” said Agnes.

“We can be together all the rest of the time,” I said. “I’ll only stay as long as I have to. I can go on to the party at the university afterward.”

“You’ll never find me there. And if you think I’m going to show you my costume ahead of time, you’ve got another think coming.”

Agnes was still angry with me when she left the apartment on the evening of Halloween. She’d stuffed her costume into a gym bag. I told her to put some warm things on underneath, it was going to be cold that night. But she didn’t reply, not even when I said I was sure I could get to the party at the university before midnight.

Amtrak’s Halloween party was nothing special. But when I heard the parade going by outside, I felt I was well out of it. I went out onto the balcony, and tried to guess what costume Agnes was in. There were innumerable witches and skeletons and monsters and scarecrows. A few had luminous paint on them, and one or two were even on stilts.

“Is that really their notion of evil,” said a woman who was standing next to me on the balcony. She had a faint French accent, and she added, sarcastically: “Those spirits don’t come from the underworld, but out of the children’s channel.”

“You aren’t from here, are you?”

“Certainly not,” she said, laughing, “look at the way they’re carrying on.”

On the street below, a group of skeletons had begun a wild polonaise, and was rushing in and out of the spectators, who screamed as they tried to get out of the way. Then I saw a group of women wearing costumes made of white gauze and golden ribbons. They had small golden half masks over their upper faces. Even though I couldn’t say for sure in all that confusion, I imagined that one of them moved a little like Agnes, with the same stiff gait.

“Even as a child, I didn’t like masks,” I said, taking a step backward.

“Look at those beauties down there,” said the woman, “woolly tights and white gauze, every bridegroom’s dream.”

“I think they’re elves,” I said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.