A Necessary Action Read Free Page A

down to the harbour, perhaps several miles, and you wait. In the end a boat always comes, and then it goes again and you go on waiting. If anyone asks what you are waiting for—then you are still waiting for the boat, perhaps the next boat, perhaps another boat. Some don’t even go to the harbour, but they are waiting all the same, for the boat, or something else. It’s difficult for a stranger at first, but gradually you learn to wait. Sometimes—and in certain situations—it has its advantages.’
    Silence. Sergeant Tornilla had stopped smiling.
    ‘That’s what it’s like. Here and in many other parts of our country. People here are good and simple people. They demand nothing, but they earn their living in calm and order. Perhaps they are poor, many of them, but they are happy or will be happy when all the unpleasant and worrying things they’ve gone through have vanished from their memories. When they’ve been taught to learn what is right. They’re already well on the way. What they need is firm faith, an orderly rhythm of life and sufficient work so that they can live. They only want to live, likemost people. They have already got or are going to get what they need. All other influences, all alien influences, only do them harm. Once many of these people were led into disaster, by leaders who weren’t leaders—but criminals. Not all of them were criminals, it is true, for some of them were fools. They weren’t any good at taking responsibility; they were only any good at dying. It takes courage to take responsibility. It doesn’t take any courage to die, but it takes courage to kill, just as it takes courage to take responsibility. By the grace of God, there were some courageous people at that time.’
    Silence.
    Cigarette.
    Smile.
    The lighter and its blue gas flame.
    Willi Mohr made a discovery. He had understood what the man had said, all the time, except at the beginning. Suddenly he knew why he had understood. Sergeant Tornilla was not speaking one language, but two. Into a framework of everyday Spanish he had woven a number of German expressions. The linguistic effect was not awkward or bizarre, but fluently comprehensible.
    ‘You speak German.’
    ‘Yes, some. And where did I learn it? In Russia. During the war. Division Azul—The Blue Division. The Vitebsk pocket … encirclement … everything. Very instructive, in many ways.’
    He smiled.
    ‘I learnt German there. I can even carry on a conversation in German, I think. But why should I do that here, in Spain? For your sake? No, you would never learn our language, Spanish, Castellano, if everyone spoke something else to you. The people here speak very badly, a dialect, a mixed language, very impure.’
    He pressed his hands together again, almost laughing now.
    Willi Mohr thought: What is this, a language lesson? The direct method? Aloud he said: ‘Why have you had me brought here?’
    ‘Give me your passport.’
    Willi Mohr took his passport out of his hip pocket. It was buckled with the damp. The man behind the desk leafed thoughtfully through it. Then he smiled again, apologetically.
    ‘You live here in the town, in my district. You are the onlyforeigner here. I want to get to know the people in my district. You live in …’
    ‘Barrio Son Jofre.’
    ‘B-a-r-r-i-o- S-o-n J-o-f-r-e, yes, B-a-r-r-i-o S-o-n- J-o-f-r-e, you live there. Don’t kid yourself. People here can’t even pronounce their own names.’
    He repeated the address twice, with very clear diction.
    Language lesson, thought Willi Mohr obstinately.
    Sergeant Tornilla went on smiling.
    ‘Just a few minor points,’ he said. ‘When you live here you have to register, for example. Although you get a renewal of your visa to stay here from the Governor General’s office every third month, you must report here at the police station. You have neglected to do so. You have no money. You’ve debts in several places.’
    Pause.
    ‘Yes, I know. That’s not necessarily a crime.