Amerika by Franz Kafka Read Free Book Online

that person is still looking after it, in which case he’s an idiot and should keep on looking after it, or else he’s just an honest man who has left the trunk there, and it’ll be easier to find if we wait till the ship has emptied out completely. The same goes for your umbrella.” “Do you know your way around the ship?” Karl asked suspiciously, for he believed there must be some hidden flaw in the otherwise convincing notion that his belongings could be more easily found when the ship was empty. “But I’m a stoker,” said the man. “You are a stoker,” Karl cried with delight, as if this announcement surpassed all his expectations, and propping up on his elbows, he took a closer look at the man. “One could see into the engine room through a hatch next to the cabin in which I slept in with the Slovaks.” “Yes, that’s where I worked,” said the stoker. “I’ve always been very interested in technology,” said Karl, following his own train of thought, “and would no doubt have eventually become an engineer if I hadn’t had to go away to America.” “But why did you have to go away?” “Ah well!” said Karl, dismissing the entire affair with a wave of his hand. At the same time he smiled at the stoker as though seeking indulgence concerning matters that he had not disclosed. “But there must have been a reason,” said the stoker, and one could not tell whether he was requesting an explanation or attempting to forestall one. “I too could become a stoker,” said Karl, “my parents no longer care what I do.” “There’ll be an opening for my job,” said the stoker, and basking in this knowledge, he put his hands in his trouser pockets and stretched out by swinging his legs, which were clad in creased leatherlike iron-gray trousers, onto the bed. Karl had to move closer to the wall. “You’re leaving ship?” “Oh yes, we’re marching off today.” “But why? Don’t you like it here?” “Well, that’s just how it is; one’s own preferences aren’t always taken into account. Besides, you’re right, I don’t like it here. In any case, you’re probably not completely set on becoming a stoker, though that’s actually when it’s most likely to happen. So I strongly advise against it. If you wanted to study in Europe, why wouldn’t you want to study here? The American universities are, of course, incomparably better.” “That may well be so,” said Karl, “but I’ve barely any money to pay for my studies. I once read about someone who worked for a business by day and studied at night till he became a doctor and then, I believe, a mayor. But that takes great perseverance, doesn’t it? And that’s something I’m afraid I lack. Besides, I wasn’t an especially good student, and it wasn’t that hard for me to leave school. And the schools over here may be even stricter. I know hardly any English. In any case people here are often very prejudiced against foreigners.” “So you’ve already run into this too? In that case everything is fine. Then you’re my man. You see, we’re on a German ship, it belongs to the Hamburg Amerika Line, so why aren’t all of us here Germans? Why is the chief machinist a Romanian? His name is Schubal. It’s really incredible. And that scoundrel mistreats us Germans on a German ship. Now I don’t want you to get the idea”—he was out of breath now and fanned himself with his hand—“that I’m complaining for the sake of complaining. I know you’ve no influence and are only a poor little fellow. But this is too awful.” And he pounded several times on the table, keeping his eyes on his fist as he did so. “I’ve served on so many ships”—he reeled off twenty names as if they were a