Read Online A Small Death in lisbon by Robert Wilson - Free Book Online Page B

the Hohenzollerndamm and Felsen mentioned her.
    'She's lucky she didn't meet someone more severe,' said Lehrer, whacking his gloved hands together. 'Perhaps
you
should have been more severe. You'll need to be.'
    'Not with old ladies in the street, Herr Gruppenführer.'
    'Selective severity weakens the whole,' he replied, and wiped the window with the back of his fat black finger.

    They headed south-west out of Berlin to Leipzig and then across the whitened countryside to Weimar, Eisenach and Frankfurt. Lehrer worked out of a briefcase all the way, reading documents and
drafting memos in a spidery unreadable hand. Felsen was left to think about Eva but couldn't find any discernible change in the pattern of things—long nights drinking and laughing and listening to jazz—bouts of lovemaking in which she couldn't seem to wrap her arms around enough of his body—terrible arguments which started because he wanted to have more of her but she wouldn't give it, and which only stopped when she threw things at him, normally her shoes, never the china unless she was in his apartment and there was some Meissen available.
    There was nothing ... except for the incident with the Jewish girls. For days after she'd found out about them, she'd been like the sole survivor from a direct hit—pale, vacant and fluttery. But it had passed, and anyway it didn't have anything to do with him, with them. He looked across at Lehrer who was humming to himself now and staring out of the window.
    They arrived at a
Gasthaus
on the other side of Karlsruhe just as the light was failing. Felsen lay down in his room while Lehrer borrowed the manager's office and made telephone calls. At dinner they were alone but Lehrer was distracted until he was called to the telephone. He came back in an expansive mood and demanded brandy in front of the fire.
    'And coffee!' he roared. 'The real stuff, none of this nigger sweat.'
    He rubbed his thighs and warmed his arse. He took in his surroundings as if it had been far too long since he'd been in a simple roadside inn.
    'I've never seen you in the
Rote Katze
before,' said Felsen, testing some untrodden ground.
    'I've seen you,' said Lehrer.
    'Have you known Eva long?'
    'Why do you ask?'
    'I just wondered how you knew about my old girlfriends. She introduced me to all of them ... including the poker player.'
    'Who was that?'
    'Sally Parker.'
    'She didn't mention her.'
    'If she had you wouldn't have proposed the game.'
    'Yes, well ... I've known Eva for some time. Since she had that first club. Where was it now,
Der Blaue Affe?
'
    'I've never heard of it.'
    'Back in the twenties when she first started out.'
    Felsen shook his head.
    'Anyway. Your name came up. I recognized you. I asked Eva, who spoke very highly of you which she knew very well was not what I wanted. Then, of course, she was as discreet as she could be but, I'm an SS-Gruppenführer and ... and that's it,' he said, taking the brandy off the tray. 'You weren't...?'
    'What?'
    'Fräulein Brücke wasn't one of the reasons you didn't want to leave Berlin, was she?'
    'No, no,' said Felsen, annoyed at himself for snatching at it.
    'I was going to say...'
    The wood hissed in the fire. Lehrer moved his hands over his buttocks to warm them.
    'What were you going to say, sir?' asked Felsen, unable to stop himself.
    'Well, you know, Berlin clubs ... the women ... it's not...'
    'She wasn't a hostess,' said Felsen, tamping his anger.
    'No, no, I know that, but ... it's the culture. It's not conducive to...' he waited to see if Felsen would fill in the word for him and reveal some more of himself, but he didn't, '...stability. Very artistic. Very free. Very easy. Permanent attachments are rare in a night-time culture.'
    'Wasn't the most famous Party rally of all time held at night?'
    'Touché
,' roared Lehrer, throwing himself into an armchair, 'but that was just so the camera wouldn't pick up the fat sods in the
Amtswalter
and make the Party look like a bunch of