Panorama (22 page)

Whoever among the pupils wants to be sick simply has to eat some soap, for it causes a fever, but the head nurse knows this and simply takes away all your soap if she suspects someone in the infirmary is doing this, making sure that you have some only when it comes time to wash up. Some hide a second bar of soap and chew away on it when the head nurse is not looking. Once Josef also wanted to get sick in order to escape the torments of The Box, slicing off a piece of his soap that evening and swallowing it, so that the next morning he felt terrible and feverish, then on an empty stomach he swallowed another piece of soap, after which he didn’t want any breakfast. After study hall he was so miserable that he could hardly stand it, at which Inspector Schuster came up to him and asked, “Are you feeling sick?” Josef answered, “Yes, I think I’m really sick!” The inspector replied, “Go straight to Head Nurse Marta! It also looks to me that you’re not well. You’re as pale as milk!” Yet because Josef could hardly walk the inspector
sent along an older pupil, who had to almost carry him up the two sets of stairs to the infirmary, but, sick as he was, the head nurse was angry at being disturbed that early, though as soon as she looked at Josef she said right away that it looked to be the flu, and as she took his temperature it climbed above 104, so she kept him there, while the older pupil had to take Josef’s key and go back downstairs to get his things. Josef felt so miserable that he never wanted to eat soap again, and when the doctor arrived he explained that it looked like a bad stomach flu. It took ten days for Josef to feel better, although he no longer wanted to be sick at all, for he was indeed very sick, dreaming the first night that he needed to march in the courtyard, but there the courtyard was endless, going on and on, The Bull then showing up and asking loudly whether Josef knew who he was, at which he yelled so loudly in his sleep that even Head Nurse Marta was kind to him and sat up with him for a while. He got better after that, but the fever lasted an entire week, Herr Lindenbaum having twice sent him up a piece of cake that had been baked by Frau Lindenbaum rather than coming from the bakery, Inspector Schuster also sending along a couple of apples with the hope that he would soon feel better. Then Josef was once again healthy, and he felt a bit chagrined for having deceived others, for the flu had certainly been caused by the soap, even if the head nurse and the doctor had not figured that out.

When school gets out at midday, you have to return to The Box, and Josef doesn’t know if it’s better to be in The Box or at school, but he likes Dr. Wagenseil’s natural-history class, for he’s an actual scientist, and he writes down good marks in his notebook if you raise your hand and say something worthwhile, and that counts toward the final grade. He had also once shown how cocoa, cocoa butter, and sugar could be combined to make chocolate, after which he asked the class if they wanted praline or bar chocolate, everyone shouting “Praline!,” and so he formed clumps that were meant to be praline, each student getting a piece, though Josef was a little disappointed, for it was actually only chocolate that wasn’t filled with anything. Nonetheless, Dr. Wagenseil’s class is often wonderful. Sometimes you get to look into the microscope when he demonstrates how quickly pollen from the stamen grows in a sugar solution, or he shows them infusorian and other tiny creatures or algae. Sometimes he turns the lights off and projects films onto a screen, once even showing them live water fleas, such that you could
see their hearts beating, as he explained that his dissertation had been on the auditory canal of the water flea, for he had been the first to discover it.

Josef does well in Dr. Wagenseil’s class, and he is also one of the best students in his entire class, even though he is not that good at math, Scheck the head teacher having assured him that he would never be a success, though Scheck is not even a mathematician but teaches chorus for the most part, being short and fat and very strict, for he carries a stick that he smacks people with, yet he’s not all that bad, Josef even enjoying chorus with him, for he’s good at chorales and canons, and can play the piano surprisingly well. Toward the end of the school year Scheck always assigns a song that begins with the words “Now for the last time,” it being a crucial piece that every class except the highest practices, since it is sung to those students as goodbye, which is why it must be sung especially well, no one allowed to sing along who doesn’t have a good voice or whose voice has recently broken. Scheck practices it for weeks during class and even more during extra hours on the days when those in the highest class are taking their final exams. Whoever wants to sing comes to the chorus room and is put into one of several groups labeled sopranos, altos, tenors, and bass, though hardly any of the students can sing bass and even fewer can sing tenor, as Scheck beats time with the stick, gesticulating so wildly and criticizing and praising, working on it until it is finally perfect. Finally the graduation ceremony is there, everything in The Box astir, everyone donning his best suit, the pupils leaving The Box wearing dark-blue suits, happy that they will soon be allowed to smoke, since that is strictly forbidden in The Box and actually rarely occurs. Now the graduates are quite nervous and run around the entire Box, all the rooms open all the way up to the dormitory, since the graduates need to pack their bags before ten in the morning, when all the adults and all the pupils enter the assembly hall, strangers also attending, be it relatives of the graduates or members of the society of alumni, who immediately begin appealing to the new graduates to join by having them fill out applications. Soon everyone sits in the assembly hall, the graduates in the first three rows, the faculty on the platform at a long table, the inspectors there as well, The Bull sitting in the middle, while behind them stand the pupils who sing “Now for the Last Time.”

Then The Bull gives a long speech, which is touching but also stern, as
he tells the graduates that they must make The Box proud and not forget it, that they should be grateful because so many had worked so hard to give them a good education in order to turn them into brave men who will serve the fatherland whenever it calls upon them, at which everyone pulls out his handkerchief, for on this occasion no one is a wimp if he cries, the wildest ones often being the most moved and blubbering uncontrollably as a result. When The Bull is done, the president of the class begins to deliver a speech from memory, saying how wonderful The Box is, that no one will forget it, and how thankful they all are to everyone for having given them so much, which is why the graduates honor them by carrying the banner for The Box onward in their lives, and that it will be an honor to do so, the class president then thanking The Bull for working so assiduously on behalf of the pupils, and if now and then they had disappointed him it was only because they were young, though they still knew his inexhaustible goodness, the class president then thanking all the teachers and calling out their names, as well as the names of the inspectors and everyone else who had contributed their time and effort in making The Box such a wonderful place. After this talk the graduates move to the platform, and the speaker extends his hand to The Bull and loudly clicks his heels, then he goes to one teacher after another, to the inspectors and especially all those who have squeezed onto the platform, and clicks his heels to each of them, all of the graduates now on the platform, each of them clicking his heels in turn, after which they return to their seats. Then everyone sits, only Head Teacher Scheck doesn’t sit, but instead goes to the back and blows the proper tone on a little pipe, followed by a sign that tells the pupils to begin singing “Now for the Last Time.” Then everyone begins blubbering, even those who didn’t howl earlier, some on the platform blubbering as well, only The Bull not crying, today looking doubly dignified, providing a powerful sight, as if sitting on a throne and looking like a rear admiral, holding up his massive head with its white hair like a candle as the song comes to an end. Then everything is finally over, everyone leaves the assembly hall, the graduates stop sobbing, most of them staying for the midday meal, gazing at everything in The Box as if they had never really appreciated it before, then one by one the group of students begins to dwindle, their empty desks standing open, everything else open and empty as well, the entire Box looking strange.

In the school not all teachers enjoy as much respect as Head Teacher Scheck or Dr. Wagenseil, who is the student adviser. There is also Professor Gelbke, who often cannot seem to prevent chaos from breaking out in his class, the pupils competing in odd races in which they use the benches that are not attached to the floor, each row scraping forward more and more, the first row reaching the podium the one that wins, at which Professor Gelbke notices for the first time, though he still doesn’t understand what has just happened. Once they locked Professor Wolkraut out of his room by placing a bench against the door, so that he could barely open the door and couldn’t move a step farther because he couldn’t shove the bench away, he cursing and hissing as always, and then he ran off to get Director Winkler, who was standing in for The Bull, who was ill, but as soon as Winkler arrived with the sick Bull there was nothing blocking the door, Winkler puzzled as he threw a questioning look toward Wolkraut, who could do nothing but look dumbfounded. Meanwhile Lampe taught French, there always being lots of noise in his class, everyone saying whatever he wanted to, but even though he didn’t get much respect he wasn’t afraid to smack a few heads, for whoever didn’t speak French got his ear pinched by Lampe, which could certainly hurt, even though he was quite old. Lampe complains that hardly anyone has a good French accent, he having explained a thousand times the difference between saying
ils ont
and
ils sont
, though it always gets mixed up nonetheless, even when he stamps his foot and says, “The ‘s’ in
ils ont is
like that in ‘soap,’ and in
ils sont
it’s like that in ‘zephyr.’ ” Nonetheless it’s said wrong again, and Lampe takes his grade book and slaps everyone on the ear who doesn’t get it right.

The most remarkable of all is Professor Felger, the old man who teaches German and botany. He has beautiful white hair and yellow hornrimmed glasses, which he constantly takes off and puts on again, often looking stern and yet sympathetic as he gazes out over them. In his class it’s quiet as a mouse, no one daring to make a peep, nor had he ever had to give anyone a crack on the head, as during the period he hardly ever gets up from his seat, his skin white and delicate and full of wrinkles, his hands bony. Josef had been in his German class, where he talked about poems and demonstrated how they should be said in order to recognize their meter, Felger
saying them slowly and clearly, drawing out each stressed syllable to its fullest, saying whoever
rides
through
night
and
wind
, his head nodding to the beat and beating time on his desk with a pencil, after which he lifts his head and looks out at the class. Professor Felger is not happy with the state of things these days, especially at The Box, he often saying that everything today is rotten, the old ways are gone, and thus the war had been lost, though he still remembers how it was in 1870, when there was unity under Bismarck, but now all governments are a mess, no one can just go about his business, for the neighboring countries never will allow it, and the miserable German language is full of nonsense, everyone having spoken flawlessly when Goethe and Schiller were around, as well as having made sure to protect the language from corruption, while whoever cannot speak or write the language correctly has allowed his soul to be corrupted.

When Professor Felger was young, about as old as those in Josef’s class, Uhland died, he having, after Goethe and Schiller, composed the best German ballads, though now there are no longer any good poets who have the power to write a good ballad, perhaps the last being Baron von Strachwitz, who wrote “A Savage Song,” though it’s not really a ballad but rather a pronouncement on our times:

Such verse can no longer be written today, for the language has been corrupted, it being good enough only for bad novels that one shouldn’t read, since their style is ruinous, and no new book ever touches the heart. Professor Felger loves to talk about his villa outside the city, there he tolerates no new-fangled contraptions and no silly luxuries, instead wanting nothing but simple nourishment, for elderberry soup was healthy, while Uhland had written such a lovely poem about how the poet had stopped for a bite at a wonderful inn, that being The Apple Tree, the best inn of all, nothing tastes better than a fresh apple, from which you can press apple cider, no need for
any nasty-smelling beer. In fact, when his mother wanted to buy something special for the children there had been pineapple or numerous sweets, which only rotted your teeth, but the mother had roasted apples that came sizzling out of the oven, after which she read fairy tales aloud, which Ludwig Richter had illustrated so beautifully, it being the kind of simple life that everyone needed to return to. Professor Felger hopes that it’s not already too late, though he knows he’s an old man, which is why he changes nothing in his house or garden, where there is also a pump that has long been out of service, it having a tin roof over it, under which singing birds build their nests. Yet the pump is falling apart, its brittle handiwork having collapsed during a late-winter storm, though Professor Felger couldn’t bring himself to clear it all away and throw it out, the rest of the pump still standing there today, reminding him of the birds that had raised their broods there. What has happened to the pump is the same as what happens to people, they are brought down by a storm, which is why it’s good for children to revere their parents and be grateful to them, after which Professor Felger says something about his fallen son, though not much, the students laughing after the class is over, since they didn’t dare do so during it, for if one so much as cracks the slightest smile at the corner of his mouth the professor looks at him so earnestly over his glasses that all laughter disappears.