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Then detective Blum in Stettin said: ‘Where do you know the man from? How did you come to recognize him?’ ‘He’s me stepfather, inne.’ ‘Well, then let’s you and me go out to Gorke. And if you’re right, I’ll book him straight away.’
A key turns in the door. And Franz in the corridor: ‘Surprise, Mitzi! It’s me, sweetheart. Come on in. Don’t go in the bedroom though. There’s a little surprise for you there.’ ‘Oh, I’d better go and have a look right away.’ ‘Hold on a minute. First I want you to swear, cross your heart, stand up, say after me: I swear.’ ‘I swear.’ ‘I swear not to go in the bedroom.’ ‘Not to go in the bedroom.’ ‘Until I say.’ ‘Until I run in there.’ ‘You stay right here. Now swear properly: I swear.’ ‘I swear I won’t go in the bedroom.’ ‘Until I drag you in there myself.’
Then she comes over all serious, drapes herself round his neck and hangs there for a long time. He can tell something’s up with her, and he wants to push her out the door into the corridor, today’s not a good day for this thing he’s planned. But she stays right where she is. ‘I won’t go in the bedroom, let me go.’ ‘What’s the matter with my little Mitzi, Mitzi cat, Mitzi babes?’
She barges onto the sofa, and there they sit side by side, arms round each other, she not saying anything. Then she murmurs something under him, and tugs at his tie, and then it all begins. ‘Franz, can I talk to you?’ ‘Of course you can, Mitzikitten.’ ‘Something happened with my feller.’ ‘Well?’ ‘There.’ ‘Well, tell me, Mitzi babes.’ Working away at his tie, what’s the matter with the girl today of all days, with Reinhold laying there.
The detective says: ‘So your name’s Finke, is it? Any papers?’ ‘You just need to ask in the registry.’ ‘I don’t care what they’ve got in the registry.’ ‘Well, I got papers too.’ ‘Very good. We’ll take those for a start. And outside there’s an officer from Neugard who used to have someone called Bornemann on his wing, let me introduce the pair of you.’
‘You see, Franz, my feller always had his nephew there the last few times we met, that is, he never invited him, he just came.’ Franz mumbles something and feels a chill: ‘I see.’ She doesn’t take her eyes off his: ‘Do you know him, Franz?’ ‘How could I?’ ‘I just wondered. Well, he was always around, and then he would go out with us too.’ Franz trembles, his eyes go dark: ‘Why din’t you say anything. Jesus.’ ‘I thought I’d manage to get rid of him. And why the trouble, if all he’s doing is just keeping us company.’ ‘So now. . .’ The quivering of her mouth at his throat is getting stronger, then suddenly something’s wet, she’s clasped onto him, the girl’s holding onto me, that’s her stubborn way, she doesn’t say a word, and now why’s she in floods of tears, and with him laying there, I feel like grabbing a stick and whacking the bed so hard he never gets up again, fucking bitch, showing me up in front of him. But he’s still trembling. ‘So wassa matter?’ ‘Nothing, Franzeken, don’t worry, but please don’t hurt me, it wasn’t nothing. He came along this last time, hung around all morning, till I leave the old geezer, and then I have to ride with him, and he keeps insisting.’ ‘And of course you have to do it, don’t you.’ ‘Yes, I do, what else am I to do? Franz, imagine a feller coming onto you like that. And he’s such a young man. And then . . .’ ‘Where was this?’ ‘We were in Berlin, Grunewald somewhere, I don’t know, then we walked, and I keep telling him to go. And he’s crying and pleading like a baby, he’s so young, engineer I think he is.’ ‘Well then, why doesn’t he work, the lazy sod, instead of running around the whole time.’ ‘I don’t know. Oh Franz, don’t be angry.’ ‘I still don’t know what’s going on. Why are you even crying?’ She doesn’t reply, just presses herself against him, and plays with his tie. ‘Don’t be cross, Franz.’ ‘Are you in love with him, is that it?’ No answer. How frightened he feels, a chill down to his toes. He whispers into her hair, he’s forgotten all about Reinhold: ‘Are you in love with him then?’ She is pressed against him body to body, he can feel all of her, out of her mouth it comes: ‘Yes.’ Ah, but he’s heard it. He should let her go, I oughtta smack her, Ida and the Breslau boy, here it comes, but his arm feels feeble, he is lamed, she is clutching hold of him like an animal, what does she want, doesn’t speak, holds onto him, her face against his throat, he looks stonily past her out the window.
Franz shakes her, yells: ‘What is it? Put me out of my misery.’ What am I doing with the bitch. ‘I’m here, Franzeken. I haven’t left you, I’m still here.’ ‘Why don’t you go then, I don’t want you.’ ‘Please don’t shout, oh God, what have I done.’ ‘Run off to the man you love, bitch.’ ‘Don’t call me that, oh Franz, be nice to me, won’t you, I’ve told him I can’t and that I belong to you.’ ‘I don’t want you. I don’t want anyone like you.’ ‘But I belong to you I said, and then I left him, and I want you to comfort me.’ ‘I can’t believe it. Let go of me. You’re mad. I’m to comfort you because you’re in love with him.’ ‘Yes, you should and all, Franzeken, I’m your Mitzi, inni, and you loves me, oh dear, and now the lad’s running around . . .’ ‘Give over, Mitzi! Go to your man, he’s yours.’ At that Mitzi screeches, and he can’t shake her of: ‘Yes, go to him, and leave me alone.’ ‘No, I won’t do that. You don’t love me, you don’t want me, what have I done.’
Franz manages to free his arm and break away, she runs after him, at that moment Franz spins round, hits her in the face, sending her reeling, then he smashes her on the shoulder. She falls down, him on top of her, hitting her with his one hand anywhere he can. She whimpers and writhes, oh oh, he’s hitting her, he’s hitting her, she rolls over onto her front. When he stops to draw breath the room is spinning round him, she turns round and gets to her feet: ‘No stick, Franz, this’ll do, please no stick.’
She’s sitting there with her blouse ripped, one eye sealed, blood from her nose smeared across her chin and left cheek.
But Franz Biberkopf – Beaverhead, Thieverhead, Leverhead, who has no name – the room is spinning round him, there are the beds, he grabs hold of one of them to stop himself. There’s Reinhold lying in it, the fellow laying there in his boots, dirtying up his sheets. What’s he doing there? He’s got his own room and all. I’m going to get him out, turf him out, if it’s the last thing. And Franz Biberkopf, Beaver-head, Heaverhead, Reaverhead hops up to the bed, reaches through the covers for the head, it moves, the sheets come off, Reinhold sits up.
‘Get outta here, Reinhold, take a look at her, and then get lost.’
Mitzi’s ripped mouth, earthquake, lightning, thunder, the rails broken, warped, the station, the stationmaster’s hut all thrown hither and yon, roaring, crashing, smoke, zero visibility, everything busted to smithereens, broke.
‘What is it, is something broken?’
Screams, incessant screams from her mouth, through the smoke screams of anguish at the thing in the bed, a wall of cries, lance of cries against it, higher, stones of screams.
‘Shut yer mouth, what’s the matter, ssh, everyone’ll think something’s the matter.’
Gurgling screams, massed screams, against the thing. No time, no hour, no year.
And now Franz is gripped by the wave of screaming. An epileptic. From the side of the bed he grabs at a chair that slips from his grasp. Then across to Mitzi who is sitting upright and screaming without interruption, screaming and wailing and howling, and he holds his hand across her mouth from behind, spills her onto her back, kneels across her, presses his chest against her face. I’m going to fucking kill her.
The screeching stops, she’s still kicking out with both feet. Reinhold drags Franz aside: ‘Christ, man, you’re strangling her.’ ‘Get lost, you.’ ‘Get up. Up.’ He succeeds in hauling Franz off, the girl is lying on her front, tossing her head from side to side, whimpering and gurgling, thrashing her arms. Franz stammers: ‘Look at the bitch. The bitch. Who is it you want to hit, bitch.’ ?
??Take a walk, Franz, get your coat on, and don’t come back till you’ve cleared your head.’ Mitzi is whimpering on the floor, opens her eyes, the right eyelid is swollen shut and red. ‘Push off, mate, you’re killing her. Get yer coat on. Here.’
Franz snorts, gasps, allows himself to be helped into his coat.
Then Mitzi picks herself up, spits mucus, tries to speak, pulls herself up, sits, gurgles: ‘Franz.’ He’s got his coat on. ‘Your hat.’
‘Franz . . .’ she’s not screaming any more, she has a voice, she spits. ‘Lemme . . . go with you.’ ‘No, no, you stay here, miss, I’ll help you.’ ‘Franz, please, lemme . . . go with you.’
He’s upright, crushes his hat on his head, smacks his lips, hawks and spits, walks reeling to the door. Crash. Shut.
Mitzi moans, stands up, pushes Reinhold away, struggles through the bedroom door. She gets as far as the front door. Franz is already down the stairs. Reinhold drags her back inside. As soon as he lays her out on the bed she gurgles, struggles to get upright, spits blood, tries to get her feet down. ‘Out, out.’ She persists: ‘Go away, go away.’ Her one open eye is fixed on him. Her legs are hanging down. The drool. The drool disgusts him, I’m not hanging around here, people will think I did this. What’s this got to do with me. Good day, miss. Hat on, exit.
Downstairs he wipes the blood off his left hand, that drool, laughs harshly to himself: that’s what he took me up for, to put on a show like that, the wretch. Lays me in his bed wi’ me boots on, to watch. Then he gets stir-crazy. He’s not got a full deck, where’s he running around now.
And saunters off. Enamel signs, enamel wares of every kind. It was fun up there. The wretch. You did well, my son, carry on, in your own time. I could laugh.
Thereupon Bornemann found himself back in police hands in Stettin. They produced his wife, the real one. Detective, leave my wife out of it, I made her help. Put another couple years on my sentence, I don’t care.
•
And then there’s an evening up in Franz’s room. They laugh, they hug, they kiss, they are spoony on each other. ‘I almost killed yer, Mitzi. What have I done to you, oh my god.’ ‘Never mind that. Just having you back is all I mind about.’ ‘Did Reinhold skedaddle right away?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘You didn’t even ask me what he was doing up there.’ ‘No.’ ‘Aren’t you curious?’ ‘No.’ ‘Oh, Mitzi.’ ‘It’s not true anyway.’ ‘What’s not true?’ ‘That you want to sell me to him.’ ‘What?’ ‘It’s not true, is it?’ ‘But Mitzi.’ ‘I know it’s not, so that’s fine.’ ‘He’s my friend, Mitzi, but he’s a pig around women. I wanted to show him what a decent woman was like. That’s what I brought him up to see.’ ‘Well then.’ ‘Do you still love me then. Or just that new geezer.’ ‘I’m yours, Franz.’
Wednesday, 29 August
And she leaves her put of a patron without her for two whole days, and does nothing but be with her beloved Franz, take trips with him out to Erkner and Potsdam, and be spoony with him. She’s all lovey-dovey with him, even more than before, the little wretch, and she’s not the least bit worried about what her beloved Franz will do with Pums’s people: she’s doing something herself. She’s decided she’s going to take a good look around herself and see what’s what, at a dance or a bowling evening. Franz never takes her along to those, Herbert takes his Eva, but Franz says: that’s no place for you, I don’t want you mingling with filth like that.
But Sonia – Mitzi – wants to do something for Franz, our little pusspuss wants to do something that’s nicer than just earning money for him. She wants to find out about everything, and protect him.
The next time the Pums boys and their significant others have a ball out Rahnsdorf way, private party, there’s a lady in attendance that none of them know, the plumber brought her along, she’s his bird, she’s masked, and one time she even dances with Franz, but just the once, he can smell the perfume afterwards. This is in Müggelhort, in the evening the fairy lights come on in the garden, a paddle-wheel steamer sets off, full to bursting, the band plays a farewell tune as it sets off, but they carry on drinking and dancing till three.
And there’s Mitzi bobbing about with her plumber who’s showing off to everyone what a nice bird he’s got; she sees Pums and his lady, and Reinhold sitting there in a mood – something always seems to get his goat – the sharp geezer. At two in the morning she and the plumber get in the car; she lets him snog her in the car, why not, she knows more already, it’s not the first time. So what is it Mitzi knows? What all the Pums boys look like, that by itself buys snogging rights, she is and remains Franz’s bird, it’s gotten late, it was on a night like this that the boys threw Franz out of the car, and now he’s going to get his own back, he’ll know who it was all right, and they’re all terrified of him, why else would Reinhold have agreed to go up, he’s a cheekie chappie all right, my Franz is a golden boy, I could kiss the plumber to death, oh, I love Franz so, yes, go on, snog me, I’ll swallow your tongue, Jesus, where’s he going, we’ll both end up in the ditch, hurrah, it was so lovely the evening with your mob, do I go right or left, drive, just drive, you’re a sweet thing, you know, Mitzi, like the taste do you, sugar, then you should take me out more regularly, whoopsie, the idiot, he must have had a skinful, he’ll drive us into the river.
That can’t be, because then I’d drown, and I’ve a lot of plans yet, I want to follow my dear Franz, I don’t know what’s on his mind, he don’t know what’s on my mind, and that’s the way it should remain between the two of us, as long as he wants and as long as I want, we both want the same thing, oh that feels good, kissamme more, hold me, boy, I’m melting, can you feel me melt.
Karl, Karl, you’re to be my fancy boy, on the avenue the black oaks shoot by, I’ll give you 128 days a year, each of them with a morning, and a noon, and a night.
But in the cemetery two blue policemen were walking. They sat down on a tombstone and asked passers-by if they happened to have seen a certain Kasimir Brodowicz. He had done something some thirty years before, but they couldn’t exactly say what it was, and something will probably have to be done about it, you never know with the criminal fraternity, and now they want to take his fingerprints and measure his collar, and ideally they would nab him for that, show us who he is, trari trara.
Reinhold hitches up his trousers, prowls back and forth in his pad, too much peace and quiet don’t seem to agree with him, let alone having all that spending money. He sent his last bird packing, and he doesn’t like the new toffee-nosed one any more.
It’s time for a change. He wants to do something involving Franz. The old camel is doing the rounds and beaming and showing off his dolly bird; as if there was anything to it. Maybe I will take her of him after all. Though the scene with all that slobber and crying turned his stomach.
The plumber, right name Matter, though known to the police as Oskar Fischer, don’t half look bemused when Reinhold asks him about Sonia. He asks right out about Sonia, and Matter concedes, well, if you know then you know. At that, Reinhold puts his arm round Matter and asks whether Matter would mind loaning her to him for a little outing. Then it turns out that Sonia’s Franz’s bird, and not Matter’s to dispose of at all. Well, maybe Matter could bring the girl round for a little drive to Freienwalde.
‘You need to ask Franz that, not me.’ ‘I can’t ask Franz, there’s bad blood between us, and I don’t think she likes me. I think I’m right in saying!’ ‘Well, but I don’t see why I should. What if I want to keep her for myself.’ ‘Well, you can. It’s just for a little drive.’ ‘You can have all the women you want, Reinhold, so far as I care, including her, but where do you get them without stealing.’ ‘Well, she goes around with you. If you want a brown note, I’m good for one.’ ‘Let’s have it then.’
Two blue policemen sat down on a stone and asked everyone who went by, and stopped every car: if they hadn’t happened to see someone with a yellow face and black hair. They were looking for him. They don’t know what he’s supposed to have done or i
s about to do, it’s all in the files. But no one has seen him or admits to having seen him. So the two policemen have to start walking along the avenue, and a couple more policemen join them.
•
On Wednesday, 29 August 1928, by which time the year has already shed 242 days and has precious few left to lose – and they are irrevocably gone, along with the ride to Magdeburg, the operation and the convalescence, with Reinhold’s new brandy habit, Mitzi’s appearance on the scene, and they are doing their first job of the year, and Franz is all serenity again and fullest peaceableness – on that day the plumber cruises off into the green belt with little Mitzi. She’s told him, which is to say Franz, that she’s out with her fancy man. She doesn’t know what it’s about. She just wants to help Franz, but doesn’t know how. That night she dreamt: her bed and Franz’s are in their landlady’s living room under the lamp, and the curtain by the door starts to move, and something grey and ghostly slowly unwraps itself and moves into the room. Oh, she sighed, and she sat up in bed, with Franz fast asleep by her side. I’ll help him, nothing bad’s going to happen to him. And with that she lay down again, funny, the way our beds trundled into her living room.
Then hup they’re out in Freienwalde, beautiful Freienwalde, it’s a resort, has a pretty spa garden laid out on yellow gravel, with people strolling up and down on it. Who will they run into there after they’ve lunched, on the terrace beside the spa garden.