The Artificial Silk Girl Read Online Free PDF Page A

might have to rewrite those letters after all — I wouldn’t put it beyond him, being an attorney — so I figured, enough of it. So I said very calmly: “How dare you wrinkle my dress like this, when I don’t have anything to wear already!” And that was a hint and a test, and whether I would rebuff him gently and politely or get mean all depended on his response. Naturally, I got just the answer I had expected: “My child, how can you think about this now, and I like you best naked and without any clothes on anyway.”
    That really blew my mind. I kicked his shin so he would let go of me and said: “Now tell me one thing, you stupid attorney, what on earth are you thinking? How can a highly educated man like yourself be so dumb to think that a pretty young girl like myself would be crazy about him? Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror? I’m asking you, what sex appeal could you possibly have?”
    It would have been very interesting to hear a logical response, because a man has to be thinking something after all. But instead he just said: “So that’s the kind you are!”
    And he draws out the “that” as if it were
gum arabica
. And so I go: “That kind or not that kind — I consider it a wonder of nature to see you turn blue in the face withanger, and I never would have thought that you could get even meaner than you already are — and your wife dyes her hair yellow like egg yolks and is into expensive cosmetics and cruising around in her car all day and doing nothing in terms of honest work — and I’m supposed to do it with you for nothing, just for love. And I slap his pimply face with that letter about Blasewitz and his molars; since I had nothing more to lose, at least I wanted to give my temperament full rein. Of course he gave me notice effective the first of the month. I just said: “I’ve also had it with you. Just give me one month’s salary and I won’t be back again.”
    And I made cheeky threats — that the guys in court would only have to look at his miserable face and would believe me immediately that I had never given him any sensual looks and I would win my case — or if he wanted me to tell the girls in the office tomorrow, particularly since he used vulgar words like naked and that my blood was longing for him. And when I get really excited about something, I just have to tell somebody. And now I’m sitting here with my 120 marks and am trying to figure out my future. And I’m waiting for Therese, whom I called, so she can come and comfort me and calm me down, since after all, I’ve just lived through a sensational event.
       I told my mother everything, but only mentioned 60 marks of which I kept 20 which makes a total of 80 formyself. Because you have to appreciate money, and you learn that when you’re working. And I have to hand it to my mother; she’s quite a woman. She still has a certain something from the old days, even though she’s working the cloakroom at the theater these days. She may be a bit overweight, but not too bad and she wears her hats in an old-fashioned kind of way — kind of like a dot on the i — but that’s becoming fashionable again. In any case, she carries herself like a really expensive lady, and that’s because she used to have a life. Unfortunately, she married my father, which was a mistake, I think, because he’s completely uneducated and as lazy as a dead body and only shouts every once in a while to show off his big mouth — we all know about that sort of thing. Only when he’s not at home does he have manners, including elegant gestures with his arms, pulling up his eyebrows, and wiping the sweat off his forehead — particularly in the company of women who weigh more than 500 pounds and aren’t married to him.
    To make a long story short, I don’t have much of an opinion of the man and the only reason I’m scared now is because my nerves can’t take it when he loses his temper — and when he talks to me about