The knife [1]
Peter Bichsel [2]
Translated by xia23
The man was arrested, convicted. Then he stood before a prison officer and emptied his pocket. The officer wrote: “A red pocket knife with two blades, a corkscrew and a screw driver.”
The man said: “A bad summer.” He was used to talk with people. “In the punishment book there is no tariff for summer”, the officer could have said. He said nothing. He knew that the new ones would speak. The rule does not forbit to answer, but all the new ones want to speak.
In front of the prison a brass band played that melody, which sounds familiar. The melody came, threw some tone directly into the window, became quiet and disappeared. Then the man smiled.
For the officer that was totally different. He worked from 7 to 12 and from 2 to 6, a long working hour.
“Also a summer can apologize for everything”, now the man probably thought. He smiled again.
The officer spoke softly to himself: “A red pocket knife with two blades, a corkscrew and a screw driver.” He looked up at the man.
“Right”, that man said, perhaps he should not have said that. He should not have said that. He should not have done anything, he should not have gotten caught.
Many others have done nothing.
Then the marching music band also has something embarrassing. The only thing one could do would be standing still, then go without thinking, go to a bar. The others were noticed so or so, the others also wanted to stop, man can not stop being noticed.
The officer worked from 7 to 12 and from 2 to 6, new hours are a long time.
The officer was friendly and had a family, out in front of the prison, and a son, who played the trumpet in the village music, and mainly was something else for him. It is not pleasant, for someone to take up a knife, that knife on a list to register and to deposit in the box number 834.
The officer knew that and that man knew. And the man said: “A bad summer”, he wanted the officer not to be annoyed.
[1]. p. 47. Das Messer. 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
