Panorama (23 page)

Professor Felger also talks about the blossoming of cars and soccer, as they were blossoms that really grew on their own. Cars have blossomed most of all, creating dust and an awful lot of noise that rattles the window-panes, it also being a blossom that stinks and is nurtured with gasoline instead of water, its flower not the rose but a blaring horn that scares both people and animals and causes them to run, especially the poor dogs and geese and chickens, which don’t notice the cars blossoming everywhere that run over them, as well as swallowing up children at play, though people love the blossoming cars, because they speed along, such that no one has to remain stuck on a farm or in a pasture, while
whoosh! whoosh!
everything races by, no one thinking about the sanctity of nature. The blossoming of soccer, however, is even worse, for it infects children as well and holds them in thrall, twenty-two men running after the soccer blossom in order to try to press it into the goal, but it is the people who press against one another and
become brutal, because soccer is not an innocent game that encourages good manners or simply passes the time, instead it represents at its core the ruin of Germany, and in addition one has to inflate the soccer blossom just like the egos of those that run after it, though there is nothing worse than the countless idiots who show up to watch twenty-two clowns scramble around the soccer patch. Having finished, Profesor Felger looks earnestly at the class, for he knows that the pupils have their own soccer patch growing in the courtyard of The Box, though he doesn’t say another word about it.

Those who finish school at twelve, that being the younger pupils for the most part, run across to The Box and for an hour can do what they want, followed by the washing of hands and the midday meal, after which they gather in front of Classroom V, where an inspector hands out the mail and reads from a card who has received a package, which you can then pick up in the front office from the bookkeeper, which he then must record. If no one answers right away to his name being called, the inspector calls it out again, but when a pupil at last answers the inspector yells “Sleepyhead!,” followed by everyone yelling “Sleepyhead!,” after which they get a smack or a shove, but when someone doesn’t show up for mail call, he then receives his mail during study hall, though he has to wait until afterward to read it. After the mail is handed out nothing happens until three, and if it’s not raining it’s fun to run out to the courtyard, where you romp about and chase after the soccer ball, which most like to do, it being lucky for Professor Felger that, except for teaching, he never spends time at The Box, abstaining even from attending the fall festival, and so he doesn’t see what couldn’t help but sadden him even more, namely how no one cares what he preaches to the students, no one takes his teaching seriously, for no one wants to be a wimp who still pees in his pants. Inspector Faber has never joined in on the soccer, he says, because he is already too old, but he does like it, because he says it keeps the body limber, and sometimes he helps with inflating the soccer ball, for especially when one is busted he knows how to fix it, knowing how to use glue to patch a ball and working hard at it, as he says that when one can’t do proper exercises soccer is a good substitute. Indeed, soccer is a war game, you have to overcome your opponent and beat him, though you also have to remain sportsmanlike and nobly extend your hand in conciliation,
because the inspector also serves as the referee. If a shot is fired that’s especially strong, it’s called a bomb, and Inspector Faber loves to see such bombs fly halfway across the yard, the other inspectors also liking to watch for a while, The Bull rarely showing up in the courtyard, but when he does he also has a look at the soccer game, though most often he watches from a window in his apartment while smoking a cigar, taking in nothing much of what’s happening below.

Recently the dead inspector has finally been replaced by someone new who has to be told by the three older ones how to do the job, himself watching how everything goes as he follows like a dog at the heels of the other inspectors, though he likes best to shadow Faber, since no one is as strapping as he is, for Kunze, who is the new inspector, is a former officer who is tall and thin, such that he looks straight as a ruler, and no doubt he will make for a good inspector, since Josef heard Inspector Faber tell Inspector Löschhorn that one can rely on Kunze, and that he will work out fine. Soon it gets around The Box that Kunze is a straight-as-an-arrow nationalist who has real marrow in his bones and a genuine sense of duty, the others soon turning over to Kunze the pupils who used to belong to Bemmchen, Kunze quick to take charge and handle things even better than Faber. A number of pupils like Kunze because he likes sports and enjoys soccer, even wanting to play along with the pupils, at which they discovered that perhaps Inspector Faber had not told the truth when he said why he couldn’t play, for when The Bull happened to see the new inspector kicking the ball he called Kunze over and told him that as a grown-up he had to maintain his distance from the pupils. Yet no one had any problem if you independently went to Kunze and asked to do some gymnastics and exercises, there being no requirement that one does, for it’s all voluntary, but many pupils appreciate the chance to do so, it not being a daily requirement or anything military, as some say it is, but rather something that has more to do with physical development, which now Kunze often leads in the courtyard.

At three the bell sounds for study hall, which lasts until five. It’s the same as that which occurs in the morning, except now is when you do your written homework, everything needing to remain quiet as one of the teachers, who is the head of the family for a number of pupils, walks back and forth among the nine classrooms, along with an inspector and The Paster,
checking whether everyone is really working, though no one sloughs off or secretly does something else. But Josef knows how easily you can be distracted if you have something in your desk that is not allowed. Josef loves to make little drawings that are imaginary maps of realms that don’t exist, beginning with the borders, after which he fills in squares, circles, and points for the cities, all of it outlined with ink, then with a pencil he draws lines for the railroads that run between the cities. Very slowly he does it all, it taking almost a week to complete such a map, himself enjoying how the web of railroads grows ever more thick, no one discovering Josef’s little hobby, for he has good ears and his seat is in a good location such that no one can sneak up on him from behind, which the monitors so like to do, suddenly popping up behind one’s desk without notice in order to see what the pupils are really up to. Josef doesn’t mind study hall, for no one bothers him there, he’s never bored, and he likes the quiet, as he enjoys a good number of his studies, though nonetheless he makes only a show of studying by staring into an open book as he dreams of what’s going on in the world outside The Box. At four o’clock there’s a break when everyone runs out of the classroom and storms the toilets, the afternoon snack handed out in the hall outside, all of it proceeding exactly as it does during the second breakfast.

Then at the sound of the bell the second study hall begins, which is just like the first, after which the bell rings once more, everyone free and sending up a great noise, each wanting to go out and play, soccer starting up again, everyone doing something, some yelling, and so on until seven, when it’s time to wash your hands for dinner, after which you head off to eat, shoving your way into the dining hall, sitting down with your school group, the meal soon over, and off you go again, the evening study hall run on a volunteer basis from seven-thirty until eight-thirty, complete quiet also having to be maintained during it, though there is not the same strenuous oversight as in the regular study hall. Whoever doesn’t want to visit can do what he pleases, be it walk along the halls or stand around, or even head to the game room or go out into the courtyard lit up by the sharp cold light of streetlights one usually sees. There has to be good light everywhere in The Box, in order that the pupils don’t get into trouble anywhere, and the evenings go by so fast that before long everyone is tired, the bell sounding for bedtime as everyone climbs the stairs to the dormitory, another day done, just like
every other weekday at The Box, Saturday and Sunday providing the only diversion available.

On Saturday there is no regular study hall after breakfast, since many are not present because of having received a weekend pass, the main activity on Saturday being the bath, which is horrible. You go downstairs to the cellar, which is incredibly packed, because the baths are much too small, there being some tubs that usually are not used by the pupils if they have not been assigned extra tubs, and so all bathing takes place in the showers. Inspector Löschorn once said that the baths were the only thing terrible at The Box, since there were so few showers, two pupils always having to share each one, the bigger one bathing first, followed by the smaller one. Then there’s a wild press as one shoves the other in, it getting louder as they do, some lashing out and hitting others and pushing, as well as defending themselves, though the weak suffer and are helpless. There is also an inspector below, but always just one, who does his duty and turns the handle for the shower, since there’s not much else he can do, while out in the front room where the pupils undress everything goes to hell as they put down their things, though it’s best not to bring along anything valuable, no watch and no money, it being better to lock all of that up in your desk beforehand so that it doesn’t get stolen down below. When during undressing or dressing the others find something funny about someone because there’s something odd, such as silly underpants or something else, then everyone laughs or makes fun, and because Josef has the kind of underwear that buttons, some continually razz him, since no one else in The Box wears such a thing, it being for a baby or someone who shits his pants, nothing that a boy would wear, and so Josef had to ask that he be sent different underwear. Everyone has to undress in such a way that no one sees anything, for in The Box that always causes immediate shame, as someone immediately points a finger at your forbidden parts and says something awful if you are inadvertently naked for a moment or show too much, which is why each boy has bathing trunks that he pulls on before he takes off his shirt, while when getting dressed he does the same thing, taking first the fresh shirt and then dropping the bathing trunks and drying off underneath, after which he finishes dressing, though he has to wash and wring out the bathing trunks, so that
they don’t drip all over his locker. When you want to take a shower, there have to be sixteen pupils in order to save water, the inspector turning it on, though he purposely makes it too hot or too cold, only Inspector Schuster taking some measure of care, the water turned off after two minutes, during which time you soap yourself and then go back under the shower in order to rinse off, and then bathing is over, for there’s a shortage of coal, which is why the swimming pool in the baths is most often empty, now and then it being opened up for a little while, the cool water only ankle deep.

After bathing there’s nothing else special on Saturday, except that the school groups are not maintained that evening or on Sunday, each pupil sitting down to eat wherever he wishes, ad hoc groups forming, though otherwise Sunday is the worst day in The Box, especially when there’s a hike. This is required of all healthy pupils and lasts four hours, when the weather allows. On Sunday there is no schedule to keep, since there is no school, and so from breakfast until the midday meal there is nothing at all, only a couple of pious pupils attending Protestant and Catholic services with their parents, which during the war had been held in the chapel, though those who do go to church say that it’s no big deal. Inside The Box the hours barely creep by, as you write your weekly letter home, or at best read a book. But how can Josef settle in to read if he’s constantly wondering if the weather is bad enough to prevent a hike from taking place? Most of the pupils don’t like the hike, though at lunch it’s always said that there will be a hike, although if one cannot be entirely sure what the weather will be like at two o’clock, then most likely there will be a hike, and if the sun shines most are sad that the hike is on for sure.

Five minutes before two the bell rings, “Let’s hike!” is yelled throughout The Box, everyone heads out to the courtyard, where you form two lines, though you can decide whom you want to have as a partner on the hike, but before you head off you have to quickly get your school cap from the clothes room if you don’t have it in your desk, and if it’s not warm enough or it’s raining you also have to take your coat, for no one should catch cold. There are always a couple of pupils who have a reason not to go on the hike, be it the sniffles or some kind of leg wound, though the inspector decides if it’s a good enough reason to miss the hike, he telling most that
it will do them no harm to go along for the hike, and that it’s best to be off. Then the only hope is that at the last moment the weather will turn bad, everyone looking up at the sky to see if it will finally rain, the inspectors also looking up and saying that these are only passing clouds that won’t amount to anything, the hike can proceed, though a couple of pupils call out that they have felt a couple of drops, it being better not to go for a hike. Then the two inspectors confer with each other and finally decide whether or not the hike will happen, it being a rare good bit of luck if the hike is canceled at the last minute, after which everyone can head back into The Box and do what he likes, be it play in the yard or in the hallways, in the classrooms or in the game room, while it can also occur that around two-thirty someone yells that the hike is back on, that they need to leave quickly in order to have enough time for a hike. The upper classes form the head of the line, the lower ones following, and at the end the inspector places a couple of older boys, who make sure that no one stays behind, the two inspectors seeing to it that everyone has a partner in order that the spirit of The Box is honored as they leave it, after which they hand out the afternoon snack wrapped in paper.