MORNING SERIAL
NO one said a word, yet the air was alive with competing signals. Unnatural stillness and strain gave way to shufflings and coughs. Joachim yawned convulsively; held and kneaded his stubbly jaw, still yawning.
‘Scheisse,’ said a young farmer, and made a motion of spitting. Eyes met eyes; glanced away. ‘Pity about those beans,’ murmured Michael to Heini.
Heini shook his head mournfully. ‘Tragic,’ he agreed and they drank to the slaughter of the admiral’s beans. ‘It was for you he suffered in Spandau,’ a voice rebuked them, high and nasal, raw with righteous indignation. ‘You Judases. Yes, that’s right, go on, mock. Martyrs are mocked.’
‘Where would martyrs be without mockers?’ inquired Michael.
‘What?’
‘Never mind.’
‘Karl Donitz was a simple sailor,’ said the older farmer. ‘He did his duty.’
‘Scheisse,’ repeated the younger farmer, as if he acknowledged himself to be master of one single word, but in the application of that word claimed infallibility. There was sudden, deafening uproar. Men were on their feet, bellowing.
‘That old sh*t,’ bawled Heini, ‘him and his Jagdkommandos. Hanged my best mate from a tree. If you want to know about martyrs: Gunther was a martyr.’
‘Pity they didn’t string you up too, you filthy queer.’
Heini took a pensive mouthful of beer. It confirmed his reputation as a quietist committed to the turning of the other cheek. He looked down, swilling beer around his mouth, then spat straight into the red face of his accuser. A small, muscular figure in late middle age, the older man went for him. He took Heini by the lapels, rushed him against a wall, and smashed punches, right, left, into his nose.
The landlady shouted for her husband and let forth a torrent of Plattdeutsch. Joachim and the young farmer were on their feet. Michael lunged for Heini’s assailant. Glasses smashed; a table was upended. Under Michael’s stagger, the floor keeled like a deck.
> The Element of Water by Stevie Davies is published by Parthian in the Library of Wales series www.parthianbooks.com
CONTINUES TOMORROW