Did Mengele do penance? Tell me! Bohler roared.
C’mon, the guy’s fulla shit, Micka barked.
I kept my mouth shut, my buddies had said it all.
What’s it now, boyz, awways mumblin! What’s alla this racist talk … I worked the bar, never played in no orkestra, I told ja loud an clear! Wull an how’re they sposda find the cure when the fella got stabbed! I mean I tell ya! An how bout chou, preacher? Penance, yeah, did he do it, did he not, like how’d he get ta heaven afder what he did ta alla those boyz … an dames an kids … yep, I dunno, preacher, I’m a little man an anyways, guesser guesser guess away guess, wull ya know the rest by now, sokolites … sit cherselfs down! C’mon, yer tired!
He was right. With great relief, friends and flag-bearers, we flopped down next to the nearest oven and leaned our backs against the grate.
Wull now, my weary sokols … rub-a-dub-dub, five ducks in a tub, till one sank down an blub blub blub … Heh heh, boyz! Spose I’d better be …
So long! said Micka.
Thank you very much! Bohler said for the rest of us.
That is … wull jus one more, know this one, boyz? Hitler’s meetin wid Chamberlain an Stalin, an Hácha* walks in an says: Hey, fellas …
Yeah, Mr. Novák, we know it, only with a different cast, Micka said.
On a different set, I clarified.
Wull all right, boyz, yeh! An hey, pardners, heh heh, I mean we’re all men here … how bout this one? This lady goes ta the dochtor an says: Hey, boss …
Yeah, yeah, Mr. Novák, we know it, we assured the skeleton in unison.
An how bout chou, boyz, know any? Somethin I might pass along ta Poláček … that ole Hebe …
Well, maybe, if … I cleared my throat … and said: Hey, Mr. Novák, ya know the one about the nun?
Heh heh, the skeleton shuffled eagerly, heh heh, guess not, try me, young fella, give it a go, my silvery sokol, speak an tell!
Well there’s this nun walkin down the street, an she’s goin past this doorway, an this guy jumps out with this metal rod an biffs her in the head. She goes down, an the guy biffs the nun again, an she’s gone, she’s history. An the guy spits an goes: Huh, I thought you could take more than that … BATMAN!!!
Micka and Bohler collapsed in a laughing fit, I just wheezed, David howled, and Sharky went into hysterics, falling flat on his back on the skeletons.
Wull now, boyoz, boyoz, Josef Novák the skeleton shook his skull … I sorta didn’t … whatchamacallit … what’s wid all the hee-haws … I mean that nun musta … pardners?
Guesser guesser guess away guess, with all the strength that you possess!!! Bohler shrieked and, O my brothers, maybe it was strange, out there with that sea of skulls and the ovens and … Josef Novák! … but we couldn’t stop laughing.
Wull, pardners, if I could like, yeh? Cause I got a riddle too, boyoz, so like what cha gonna do now then, heh?
We stopped dead.
Wull then, pardners, yep, this here … all the best, sokolites … guess I’d better be, I mean I was advised … an maybe I’ll be seein ya … up there … wull it all depends on you … arrivaderchee!
And next thing we knew, the skeleton fell to pieces, bone by bone, the skull first, then the arms and legs, and a few seconds later Josef Novák the skeleton was just another one in the sea of millions.
And it was quiet again.
An I was chosen, brothers, an I realized after a while why I’m the bearer of the dream … in all modesty, blood brothers an industrialists … maybe the reason the Face singled me out was cause I’m a dancer an an actor an therefore an artist, an as such’ve already got within me the proper dose of insanity, an maybe that’s why I was able to take what I saw an now I can share it with you. It started inconspicuously.
See, I sat down on a bad skeleton an it slipped out from under me an without even thinkin, just on instinct, I did a dance, a little elbow here an a hand or two there, an suddenly I was flying, soaring, an from way up high I saw you down there, relaxing or dying, an I was down there too, an I saw the skeletons in the ovens, from the last ones killed I guess, they were shattered an cracked from the heat, an then all I could see was ashes, an lying there among them in one of the ovens, brothers, was a little piece of melted metal, it was there under the grate that we’d been leaning on the whole time. An all of a sudden, O my brothers, the Face was there in front of me, an it was kind … an up there in the air I did a little skip for joy, cause I was convinced this had to be Bog, but I didn’t know what to do … so all I said was: Hello.
Hey there, fella, the Face rumbled back.
An I was totally devastated, cause when I realized it could be Bog himself I had hoped to hear his speech, thinking his words would be old an beautiful, splendid objects, like rare wood … but for him to talk like some arrogant city hooligan … that I hadn’t expected.
You get what you deserve, said the Face. Watch closely now!
An that metal lump in the oven was a key … I saw it via the same technology a satellite up in space I guess uses to size up a sneaker … an ordinary key, an all at once I knew it was the same key you see around the necks of the scamps that live in those ratty tenements where their moms an pops don’t trust the neighbors … an with good reason, they’re all the same beasts … an they can’t hide the key in the hallway cause everyone knows all the tricks already, every hallway’s the same … so they put the key around their scamp’s neck so he can get in when they aren’t home cause they’re too busy chasin cash an vitamins … boozin it up … writin poems … gettin laid … keepin appointments … always on the go an they don’t have time, an city perverts, all sortsa Chikatilos,* have known it for a century at least … so they single out the brats with the keys around their necks, an when the right time comes along they say: Can I help you, son? Little girl? Your folks aren’t home anyway, an what grade’re you in, princess? C’mon now, you can tell me, I’m consumed with curiosity, an here’s some candy … an next thing you know they got their foot in the door … an the brats’re defenseless … cause some muffled scream, neighbors don’t give a fuck … all neighbors’re idiots.
An then, O my brothers an free lancers, I realized, or more like the Face put the thought in my brain, that that Jewish boy or girl … that used to lug that key around on his or her neck back in his or her time, that Moishele or that Bashele, wasn’t gonna come … the Child’s not gonna make it cause they burned him in that oven. An that was the Messiach. An all that awaits us till the day we die is the hopeless, meaningless life of a worm.
An as I hung there powerless, O my brothers, I started to wring my hands, which as an actor of some standing I’ve always considered bad form … but then an there I realized that even that can be appropriate at the right time in the right place.
An I screamed at and into the Face: How come? An what’re we sposta do … it’s not our fault!
An the Face didn’t answer, but suddenly I felt somethin push on my neck an I started fallin down … an I was back at the ovens with you.
An we started running, O my brothers, over that field of bones, an though we weren’t breaking through anymore, every skull we stepped on screamed in pain, an we’d jump aside in horror but we’d always just land on another an then its jaws too would open wide an let out a scream, an there was no way to stop because wherever we stepped or tried to stand still the skeletons would pitch an scream, an wherever we tripped or stumbled an fell there were cracking sounds an moans of pain … an some of the skulls’ empty eye sockets had tears rolling out of them, an some of the skulls in front of us kind of like tried to get out of the way but just sort of twitched an we had to jump onto them, an whenever we slowed down, in the blink of an eye we saw flesh an blood … an so we kept running, hoping to find a spot where we wouldn’t wound anyone an the horrible moaning would stop, but there were skeletons an skulls all over the place, an all of a sudden I heard what it was that all those skulls were screaming, an it was like thunder, slow, rhythmic, an rolling: Our blood on you and your children! And again: Our blood on you and your children! An then I went flying back up, an the Face was there before me.