Read The Wall for Free Online Page B

here. You’ve seen what my intent was—that’s all I need, so I want to leave straightaway!”
    “All I can say is good luck with that!” Prenzel replied in a strangely excited voice, adding more heatedly, “Landau, if you managed to …”
    My teacher said nothing more. He pulled himself together, as we were approached by a uniformed youth, and politely addressed him.
    “Comrade Assessor, I present you with a dangerous enemy of the state, along with his suitcase. I suggest you assess his political sympathies.”
    The Assessor of Sympathies waved mildly for my teacher to step back. As Prenzel bowed deeply to the young man, I saw for the first time how gray and thin the old man’s hair had become. Without the slightest concern for me, he lowered his head and slipped out of the station guardhouse. The Assessor signaled to me to take my suitcase and follow him. I listened without a word and—despite all my distress—with no small hope that it was all a misunderstanding, that after an interrogation everything would become clear, and afterward there would be nothing to prevent my immediate departure. The Assessor prodded me down a badly lit stairway, though there were not many steps, then I was pushed into a garishly lit room, where a woman sat waiting in front of a typewriter. The Assessor sat down behind a conference table and indicated that I should put down my suitcase and sit on a low round stool. I noticed that it was a turn stool, like the ones you used to see in front of a piano. The stool was way too low for me, which is why I started to turn it so that it would go higher—a tiresome business, for the thing was not oiled and squeaked miserably.
    “Man alive,” yelled the Assessor of Sympathies. “Are you mad? Leave the witness chair alone for just a minute and sit yourself down!”
    “Sorry, the stool is much too low. I’ll almost disappear in front of your table.”
    “Just sit down there and be so nice as to not turn around. Understood? Later, we’ll see if you can raise it any higher.”
    I gave in and sat down all scrunched up, no higher than the stool, with my legs crossed, since I couldn’t stretch them out. It was exceptionally uncomfortable. The young man took no notice of how I sat there shrunkenand only asked me to pull my legs in farther. There was nothing to do but cross them all the more tightly, such that the joints cracked. When I had finally attained the proper position demanded of me, the Assessor just took a cigarette out of his case and tossed a second one to the secretary, which she adroitly caught while saying thanks. There was nothing for me to do but shove my fingers into my pocket in order to fetch my own cigarette, though a sharp look told me immediately that I needed permission to do that. For a long time I was asked nothing, and I observed the Assessor carefully, but without fathoming the thoughts of my opponent. As soon as I moved, the Assessor tapped indignantly on the desktop with a pencil. The Assessor and the secretary stubbed out the glowing ends of their cigarettes, and, finally, the interrogation began.
    “Arthur Landau, what is your mission in entering the country?”
    “There is no mission—”
    “We know there is. You can’t deny it, though it’s all part of the game played between the police and every criminal. But we have little time for such pleasant foolishness. Therefore, for both our sakes, make it short! Who hired you?”
    “I came for my own reasons—”
    “We know about that, too, a journey made for idealistic reasons. Who sent you here?”
    “Who? No one? I only came to visit someone. I just wanted to satisfy the wishes of my old teacher.”
    “Fine! But you, of course, knew that Prenzel works for us?”
    “I had no idea of that. You mean … No, an old teacher wouldn’t serve as a snitch!”
    “Snitch? That’s a bit rude.”
    “Okay, then, a policeman.”
    “Of course he’s a policeman. It’s obvious that as a teacher he is also a