StudienVerlag - Oapen

236
I said: I am one of them.
Gosh, he said. Daft. Fucking daft that’s what you are.
I said: That’s the broadening flow of the generations. My legs adangle. High Wye;
West Wycombe. Forty-six, including this here private soldier of His British Majesty.
Me, and forty-five cousins.
Where, he yelled at me through the din; there was a lorry in front of us carrying
iron rails. What, I yelled
Where, he yelled. Them cousins. Where are they?
One is in the British Army, I said: that’s me. One is in the Czech Army. Two are
in the Polish Army, one killed, one a prisoner. One, my uncle Michael’s boy, in the
Soviet Army if he is still alive. One with the French.
French Army, he said.
Used to be, said I. Volunteer. Foreign Legion. Weeded out. Sahara. Road building
concentration camp. Hanged himself. Hanged himself in Casa-Casablanca, hanged
himself in Casa-Casablanca.
Ha, he said, haha.
I said: But one, George, father’s aunt Sophie’s grandson, from Chicago, is an
American Ranger killing Japs. Guadalcanal. Last heard of. And one in the British
Army. That’s me
Daft, he said.
I said: And the seven nephews of the second husband of my aunt Viola are in the
Wehrmacht. Were. Are. Were. Last heard of. Counts. They kill Counts, themselves.
Why, he said.
I said: Dunno. And this other George my cousin left behind in Vienna. Dead.
Dead, he said, in Vienna?
No, said I. Left in Vienna, dead in Poland. Gas. Majdanek. Along with four who
stayed behind in Slovakia. Maybe met and shook lianas before they. Do you know
they have a conveyor belt system from the gas chambers right into the crematorium
at Majdanek camp? That’s four plus one, five little cousins, five little niggers at one
stroke. And one disappeared in Manila. Manila Philippines we know. Last heard
of Japs. Pity because he was likely to become President of the Philippines within
two generations. Otto is likely to become President of Haiti. His grandchildren, I
mean. Don Ottonio Neumann – Haitian Jingo Nationalist, the one who’ll issue the
decrees of foreign immigration.
And, he said. We overlook a convoy, just where the branch inches off to Thame.
Feet dangling. He said: And.
I said: The others are ladies.
And, he said.
I said: Raped.
Ha, he said. Raped?
I said: Gassed, some.
Gassed, he said, raped, all?
I said: No. Four are in the domestic services of the British Isles.
Haha, he said. Raped.