The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain Read Free Book Online Page B

worked only three days a week. On the days when she had nothing to do, she walked around Matzlingen looking for new employment.
    But light seemed to be arriving once again in Gustav’s life. It was the bright, glittery light that had fallen on the Elysian Fields of the ice rink.
    By the end of April, he was able to say to Anton, ‘I can come skating on Sundays again.’
    ‘Oh,’ said Anton. ‘Well, it doesn’t matter now.’
    ‘What?’ said Gustav.
    ‘It doesn’t matter any more.’
    ‘What d’you mean?’
    ‘Well. We take Rudi Herens skating with us now.’
    ‘Who’s Rudi Herens?’
    ‘He’s a boy in our apartment building. He’s a really good skater. He can do double-toe loops.’
    ‘You mean you don’t want me to come?’
    ‘I do, Gustav. But three boys would be too many for Mother. She said that to me the other day: three would be too many.’
    They were in a school passageway when this conversation took place. Gustav left Anton and walked away. He didn’t know where he was walking to. It was time for a geography lesson, but it was not towards this that Gustav was going.
    When he reached the end of the long passage, he went into the lavatories, a high barn of a room, which always felt cold, even in summer. He opened a cubicle and locked the door. He sat, not on one of the toilets, but on the tiled ground, with his knees drawn up to his chest. He thought about the things Max Hodler had said about coconuts – their hard outer shell protecting the flesh inside. He tried to imagine such a shell growing round him, an impenetrable shield. He examined his soft, white arms.
    ___________________
    * The first English version of
Struwwelpeter
by Heinrich Hoffmann was published in Leipzig in 1848 . This very free translation, by Alexander Platt, has remained the most popular. Here, these lines are rendered as follows:
    Snip! Snap! Snip! The scissors go;
    And Conrad cries out ‘Oh! Oh! Oh!’
    Snip! Snap! Snip! They go so fast,
    That both his thumbs are off at last.

Views of Davos
Matzlingen,
1950
–
51
    SOMETIME AFTER THIS, when Adriana Zwiebel came to pick up Anton from school, she saw Gustav on the school steps, playing with some jacks, given to him by Max Hodler. She got out of her car and came, smiling, towards him. She was wearing a summer dress, patterned with coral-coloured tulips. Her hair was loose and shone in the sun.
    Gustav gathered up the jacks and ran towards Adriana and she bent down and hugged him. ‘How are you, Gustav?’ she asked.
    ‘All right, thank you, Frau Zwiebel,’ said Gustav.
    ‘Good,’ said Adriana. ‘But Anton told me about your mother losing some of her hours at the cheese factory. That’s most unfortunate.’
    ‘Yes,’ said Gustav.
    ‘I would like to help.’
    Gustav wasn’t sure what Adriana Zwiebel expected him to say. It was difficult for him to imagine how she could ‘help’ Emilie. Perhaps she didn’t know how she could, either, because she abruptly changed the subject and said, ‘How is your tuition going?’
    ‘It’s finished,’ said Gustav. ‘I’m better at writing now. And I can draw the men at the Rütli Meadow. Herr Hodler gave me these jacks as a present for my work.’
    He held out the jacks, still shiny and new-looking, despite the dust from the schoolyard.
    ‘Oh,’ said Adriana, ‘what fun! They say, in the old bad times, when Switzerland was a poor country, children used to play this game with knuckle bones.’
    Anton came running out then and embraced his mother. Gustav watched them cling together. He expected that, now, something might be said about the skating, but the two of them were silent, just sweetly hugging each other. Gustav stared at them. What he wanted was to leave with them and go back to the apartment on Fribourgstrasse and eat cherry tart and listen to Anton’s playing. But Anton was now tugging his mother away towards the car.
    ‘Wait a moment, Anton,’ said Adriana. ‘I was saying to Gustav, we must try to find new