The Weekend Read Online Free PDF Page B

exploded.
    Ulrich raised his arms in resignation and let them fall again. “OK, OK. If you think …”
    Henner realized that he didn’t know what to think, and when he looked around at the others he read in theirfaces that they didn’t know either. He admired Ulrich for being so direct, so straightforward. Jörg’s life was Jörg’s life, just as their lives were their lives—perhaps Ulrich was right. At any rate, Ulrich could have an interested and engaged conversation with Jörg. He, Henner, could manage nothing but small talk.
    After dessert Jörg got to his feet. “It’s been years—what am I saying—it’s been more than two decades since I had such a long, full day. Please forgive me for going to bed. We’ll see one another again at breakfast tomorrow—many thanks to you all for coming, and sleep well.” He walked around the table and shook hands with each of them. To the astonished Henner he said, “I think it was brave of you to come.”
    As he left the room, Christiane was about to stand up and go with him. Beneath Ulrich’s scornful gaze she thought better of it.

Seven
    Andreas had got to his feet when Jörg had said good-bye to him, and paused. “I think I should be …”
    “Please, I don’t want everyone leaving!” Christiane jumped to her feet and waved her hands around as if to press Andreas back down into his chair and keep the others in theirs. “It’s ten o’clock, far too early for bed. Andreas, I’m so glad that you’ve finally met our old friends and they’ve met you—I’m sure you’ve had a hard day, but do stay awhile.”
    As if she were an officer whose soldiers wanted to desert, Henner thought. Why the fear that we would slip away?
    Ingeborg was still bickering with her husband. “You can’t talk to Jörg like that! Can’t you see that he’s exhausted? He’s just got out of jail after twenty-something years, and instead of letting him pull himself together, you’re wearing him out.” She looked around as if expecting agreement.
    Karin tried to be conciliatory. “Wearing him out—I didn’t think that was what Ulrich was trying to do. But I also think that at the moment we should leave Jörg in peace with the past and give him courage for the future. Christiane, what are his plans?”
    Ulrich didn’t let Christiane answer. “In peace? If he’s had an excess of anything over the past few years,it’s peace. He’s in his mid- or late fifties, as we all are, and his life was … What would you call it? Robbing banks and killing people, terrorism, revolution and prison—that was the life he chose for himself. And I’m not supposed to ask him what it was like? That’s what old friends’ reunions are for—you talk about the old days and tell one another what you’ve been doing since then.”
    “You know just as well as I do that it isn’t a normal old friends’ reunion. We’re here to help Jörg find his way in life. And show him that life and people are glad to have him back.”
    “Karin, that’s part of your job. But I’m not on a therapeutic mission. I’m happy to give Jörg a job. I also want to help him find one somewhere else. I would do that for any old friend, so it’s the same for Jörg. The fact that he killed four people … If it isn’t a reason to terminate the friendship, neither is it a reason to coddle him like a sensitive little soul.”
    “Therapeutic mission? I think my memory’s a bit better than yours. No violence against individuals, and if there was, it wasn’t hard missiles, just soft ones, tomatoes and eggs, but in the people’s liberation struggle against imperialism and colonialism of course there were guns and bombs as well, and we, in the metropolitan centers of imperialism and capitalism, owe our solidarity to the liberation struggle, and solidarity means taking part in that combat—have you forgotten that we all used to talk like that? Not just Jörg, these people too.” Karin pointed at the gathering. “And