Guignol's Band by Louis-Ferdinand Céline

Author:Louis-Ferdinand Céline [Céline, Louis-Ferdinand]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: Literature
ISBN: 9781847491992
Publisher: Alma Books
Published: 1944-01-01T16:11:25+00:00

So now I’m free… I drag around like that for two… three days… I sleep here and there… I spend time in the movies… I keep out of sight pretty much… I avoid the centre of town… I watch out for meeting the wrong people! I keep track of my money… all the same, it’s running out… When I’ve got around two or three shillings left, I say to myself that I’ve got to stay in the stations… It’s warm, you sleep well, you wait…

I had no definite ideas… I couldn’t make up my mind… I decided on Waterloo… It’s got the nicest waiting room… It’s certainly the most upholstered… I knew a particular bench on the other side of the heaters that was as inconspicuous as possible… back behind the exit… from which you could see people passing… the whole crowd… all the main lines… A real torrent in those days… all the men in the services… a continuous stream of soldiers… khaki!… More khaki!… At the gate there’d be waiting… swarms of hustlers!… They’d cross inside!… I know you!… At random… high-heeled shoes!… Boas! Yellow stockings!… Red stockings… purple stockings!… The styles of the time… on the attack… a hot chase!… Day and night!… They’d carry off Tommy Atkins with his wad! Mohamed Jouglou! Gorgovitch! Whatever came along! Soldiers on a spree! The dominions! The natives! The dear allies! At top speed!… Tearing off a piece not a hundred yards away… in the alley to the left, first floor… Tudor Commons… I shouldn’t have sat down there… After all it wasn’t playing safe! But I was pretty bored, got to admit!… That was my excuse… I didn’t know anyone… I dozed awhile on the upholstered seat… I even had a rather long sleep… Suddenly… someone’s disturbing me… shaking me…

“It’s you!… Ah! It’s you, pretty boy!”

I jump up with a start…

“Ah! It’s you, Finette?… Ah! That’s nice!…”

“What the hell are you doing here?…” She’s questioning me… “They’re all asking about you at the Leicester!”

I’d rather not talk much… I mumble something… that I’d taken a little trip… She was the one who gave me the news… that things were fine at the “boarding house”… that there were no more arguments… that everyone had made up… on the go again for a time… That Cascade had taken back all his women… that Joconde was back, cured, from the London Hospital… with her mashed-up arse… was down in the kitchen again… that Angèle was back with her bad boy… that she was breaking in the new girls… but that Cascade’s sore about my breezing out on him!… Ah! He doesn’t like that one bit!…

“All right, Finette! All right!” I answer… “You still haven’t got me!… I can see you coming a mile off!”

Suddenly I feel anxious again…

“Who?… Who sent you?…” I ask… “Spit it out! Right now!… Cascade or Matthew?”

Ah! No monkey business!

“Me?” she exclaims… “Ah! It’s a crime! I swear to you!…”

“Well?” I said, dropping my voice… “It must be

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