The Officers [1]
Peter Bichsel [2]
Translated by xia23
At 12 o’clock they come out of the portal, each one holds door for the next, all in coats and hats and always at the same time, always at 12 o’clock. They wish each other a good lunch, they greet each other, they all wear their hats.
Now they walk quickly, because the street seems suspicious to them. They move homewards and fear that the desk has not been closed. They think of the next payday, the lottery, the sport bet, the coat for the wife and as they do so they move their feet here and there, one thinks that it is strange, that the feet move.
At lunch time they are afraid of going back, because it seems suspicious to them, because they don’t love their work, but it has to be done, because people stand at the counter, because people have to come and because people have to ask. Then nothing seems suspicious to them, and they are happy about their knowledge, and they pass it on sparingly. They have stamps and forms in their desks, and they have people in front of the counters. And there are officers, who love children and those who love radish salad, and those who go fishing after work and those who smoke, preferring perfumed tabacos to the bitter ones, and there are also officers, who do not wear hats.
And at 12 o’clock they all come out of the portal.
[1]. p. 42. Die Beamten. Eigentlich möchte Frau Blum den Milchmann kennenlernen. Suhrkamp Verlag Frankfurt am Main, Walter-Verlag AG, Germany. 1996.
[2]. Peter Bichsel. 3/24/1935 - . Swiss writer and journalist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Bichsel
