Panorama (16 page)

Up in Purtscher’s fields, Josef thinks about Praxel. He thinks about everything that goes on in Umlowitz, as one day runs into another, everything that he has seen and heard, though he doesn’t know that many people, just those who come to Herr Neumann’s house and yard, Josef knowing as well the people he is sent to on errands, and the folks in the neighborhood, such as Sekora the butcher, though many of them he doesn’t know at all. Sometimes he sees how Poldi chats with one of Sekora’s assistants, and sometimes he sees Toni and how he talks about horses with the elder Sekora, who no longer works. Josef also knows Herr Schwinghammer and Frau Schwinghammer, who run the inn where the local theater troupe plays, as well as the orchestra, and the Schwinghammers’ huge dog, which is even bigger than Cappi, though the dog is a good-natured beast and suits the Schwinghammers well, for they are also huge. Herr Schwinghammer in fact resembles Rübezahl, the old man of the mountains, though he doesn’t have a beard, and Frau Schwinghammer is tall and much heavier than Herr Neumann.

Josef knows Herr Dechant, the priest, by sight, he being the one who performs the service in the church, as well as funerals and weddings, which Josef can hear when the horn music plays that is normally played at Herr Schwinghammer’s for people to dance to. When it’s a funeral, Josef rushes out of the store, as well as Otto and whoever else wants to, as the funeral procession leaves the church, the altar boy in front in black and white, carrying a cross, followed by the musicians, who play only a chorale at funerals, sometimes Fritz singing a text that Josef doesn’t understand very well, since it’s all in dialect, he knowing only a part of it, understanding just the bit that goes:

But Poldi says it’s a great sin when Fritz sings this, nor does Herma like it, but Fritz sings it nonetheless, even if no one wants to hear it, yet Otto loves to hear it and sings along as well. The musicians are followed by the funeral wagon with the coffin, loads of flowers and wreaths upon it, after which there often follows the volunteer firemen, Herr Dechant bringing up the rear with a cross in his hand, followed by two more altar boys and the mourners and sometimes other groups, all of them marching from the church and past Herr Neumann’s store to the cemetery, which is not very far away.

Josef also knows the family of Herr Bilina, the dental technician, who once worked on one of his teeth and took care of it quite easily and without all the fuss normal for a dentist. Herr Bilina is also a photographer, and though he does it mostly for his own pleasure, he is willing to do it for a fee. Once Herma went with Josef to Herr Bilina, for Josef really wanted a photograph taken of the two of them together so that he could give the picture to his mother for her birthday. Herr Bilina was quite happy to do so as Herma chatted away with Frau Bilina, the two of them talking about everything that was going on in Umlowitz, after which Herr Bilina came in and said that he had prepared the plates, and that Herma and Josef should come into the garden, since in such weather he could take a better picture outside than in the office, at which everyone moved out to the garden. There the dental technician had set up a backdrop that belonged to the theater troupe in which Frau Bilina acted, Herr Bilina having allowed the troupe to use a shed in the garden, Herr Bilina’s younger brother, who worked as an assistant to the dental technician, also helping out by painting the backdrops in his free time, most of the time through his own inspiration, though mostly using models, Frau Bilina claiming that the younger Bilina was a great artist as she said, “My brother-in-law should really live in the city, where he could earn a great deal with his paintings. However, my husband thinks it better that he remain here and help him.”

Everything was ready for the photograph, Josef stood with Herma in front of the backdrop that depicted Italy with the great volcano that was there, as well as the sea and the palm trees, ships appearing on the water, as Frau Bilina proudly said to Josef that his mother would be very pleased if the scenery also appeared in the photograph, for that is the panorama that one sees from Naples. But Josef already knew this backdrop, for it had been used as scenery in
William Tell
, although
William Tell
takes place in Switzerland and not in Italy. Herma said that such a thing could happen only in Umlowitz, but not in a regular theater, there one would be able to paint another backdrop if one thought of it in time, and that Principal Bolek had discovered it too late, just in time for the dress rehearsal, and though he complained a great deal that such a backdrop wasn’t right for
William Tell
, and that another one should quickly be painted, on which there should appear the Alps, the younger Bilina didn’t have time, because the elder Bilina had too much to do, at which the members of the troupe told Herr Bolek that it was already too late, there was nothing that could be done, and that Vesuvius is also a mountain like the Alps, and that it doesn’t matter if it spews forth fire, for people won’t notice, and not everyone knows that Vesuvius is in Italy, or even that this mountain was supposed to be Vesuvius, and hardly anyone knows that
William Tell
takes place in Switzerland, while Herr Bolek remained against using it, though there was nothing more he could do about it. That’s how the backdrop ended up in
William Tell
, even though no one made anything of it, since people found the play much too serious anyway, yet now Josef was glad to have it as background.

Frau Bilina gave Herma and Josef plenty of good advice on how to arrange themselves and what kind of expressions they should make, as well as how to place their feet and hands so that they didn’t look posed. Josef had wanted Herma to place a hand on his shoulder, and Frau Bilina showed her how to do that in a way that made for a nice effect. When Frau Bilina was finally done, Herr Bilina began to speak, for before he had been hidden under the black cloth at the back of the camera, but then Herr Bilina’s maid ran down to the garden to say that Fräulein Leirer had arrived, while Frau Bilina said that her husband wasn’t seeing any patients now, but instead was taking photographs. But the maid claimed that she had told Fräulein Leirer all of that already, but the Fräulein had nonetheless said that she had a
toothache, otherwise she wouldn’t have come, at which Frau Bilina yelled up to the maid that once Herr Bilina was done with the photograph he would come up and look at Fräulein Leirer’s tooth. But Herr Bilina said nothing and simply remained under his black cloth, while Frau Bilina told Herma that Fräulein Leirer always did this when Herr Bilina wished to make a photograph, for in fact she had no toothache at all, there being nothing wrong with her teeth, she only had a touch of rheumatism in her teeth and all it took was an aspirin and for her to lie down for an hour, for there was nothing Herr Bilina could do for her, since one couldn’t take out all of her teeth just because they were sensitive. All the while Herr Bilina said nothing, but Frau Bilina remarked that around Umlowitz it was said that Principal Bolek was courting Fräulein Leirer, and though Frau Bilina didn’t want to say anything herself, it certainly could be. Then Herr Bilina announced that he was ready to take the photograph, at which he bent forward a little and shoved the camera closer and called out, “Please now, hold still, just for a moment!” Then at last Herr Bilina snapped the picture and it was finally done. He then said that he would develop it right away in order to see how it came out, and that Josef could pick it up on Saturday. Then Herr Bilina said a quick goodbye and was off to have a look at Fräulein Leirer’s sore tooth, Frau Bilina saying goodbye as well, but only after accompanying Herma and Josef to the front gate. The photograph, meanwhile, was a great success and they ordered a bunch of copies to pass along as gifts, Herma keeping one on her nightstand, as did Josef.

These are the people that Josef really knows in Umlowitz, some of them only by sight, while in school he really knows only Principal Bolek, his teacher, Lopatka, and Kreissel, the leader of the chorus who does the concerts at Schwinghammer’s. As for the other teachers, he barely knows their names, nor does he even know the children in his class, for he is rarely there, Lopatka noting as an excuse that Josef is always so pale, though whatever question the teacher asks him Josef knows the answer, and knows it much better than all the other children in Umlowitz. But whenever Josef needs something explained he always asks Rudolf, who is happy to help him, or even Arthur, though he has little time, Herma and Fritz and even Herr Neumann also helping out now and then, while Leopold is happy to explain how to handle the customers in a way that satisfies them. Thus Josef learns
wherever he goes, asking anyone in the house or even Toni, who says he knows only about horses, coaches, hay carts, and the barouche, though Josef loves to listen to it all, while Poldi shows him how to milk a cow, even though she never lets him do it on his own, despite his pleading that at least he’d like to milk a goat. Praxel also knows a great deal, telling Josef old stories about what Umlowitz looked like a hundred years ago, fifty years ago, and before there were any oil lamps, or before there were any doctors in Umlowitz, when one had to travel to Krumau or farther, people preferring instead to simply let the Reverend come in order to administer final rites. When Praxel’s children came down with scarlet fever there was already a doctor in Umlowitz, but there was nothing he could do, and so Praxel also had to call the Reverend in order to have her children receive their last rites before they died. Since then, Praxel had trusted no doctor and wouldn’t think of calling one, even if she were a hundred years old, that time with the children being the only time she had done so. If it involved an everyday ailment, no one knew better than Praxel how to take care of it, she knew all the herbs, and if the good Lord could not help there was no help to be had from either a doctor or Praxel.

Up in Purtscher’s fields, Josef is happy and thinks that, if he were ever rich he would build a house here and live like others in Umlowitz or, better yet, he would see that the railroad came to Umlowitz, that a new power station was built down near the river, and that his own house stood at the edge of Umlowitz so that he could avoid all the smells from the cow barns, as well as all the flies. He’d like to return to the fields, as well as find a woman as good as Praxel who would bring him bread and milk and cheese, and he would light a big fire that would smell so sweet, and allow children to pick blackberries and strawberries in the woods, himself going into the woods in order to admire the swarms of red fly agaric in all their splendor, there being nothing finer, while he would own a barouche and travel about the district, climbing the high mountains at the border in order to see across Bohemia and Austria.

Meanwhile, yesterday Herma told Josef that maybe Herr Neumann would marry again, for he had placed an ad in the newspaper saying that he was looking for a nice woman of the same age who doesn’t have to have any money, since he needs none, though she must be hardworking, as there’s so
much to do, though all she needs is to be in good health, the ad in the newspaper thus providing Herr Neumann with a slew of opportunities to meet another woman, since he had no time to do so on his own. Herma had said it was a good thing, for Herr Neumann was also getting older, Rudolf would most likely soon go off on his own, for he’d been offered a good position in a sugar factory, while the store should be handed on to Fritz, Adolf having already opened his own business, and Erwin wants to study, Arthur has no plans, since he wants to maybe buy his own farmyard and store in Kalsching, for which his father would have to pass his inheritance on to him now. Josef then asked Herma what she would do, to which she replied that perhaps she would marry as well and take Otto along with her, Herma adding at the end that, indeed, the new Frau Neumann would be arriving with her brother tomorrow in order to have a look at the farmyard and Herr Neumann. The next day Toni hitched up the barouche at four in the morning in order to be on time for the first train into the station and pick up the new Frau Neumann and her brother. Herr Neumann didn’t yet know the new Frau Neumann, but her letter had pleased him more than all the other letters he had received in response to his ad, which was why he had written her and sent a photograph of himself. The woman had then written him back and sent her own photo, after which the two had written each other again, and Herr Neumann had invited her to come visit, to which she responded that she would come with her brother.

Until now no one had known about Herr Neumann’s plans, but now everyone knew, there being a lot to get ready, at first someone suggesting that they slaughter a pig, but someone else said that slaughtering a pig was too much work, and it was also better that the new Frau Neumann got to know how things usually are, though everything was cleaned, Leopold clearing out the store and washing all the counters, Toni grooming the horses, Poldi checking on all the livestock, choosing two hens to slaughter and roast, Herma having already made a cake. Someone suggested that dinner be served on the second floor, where no one spent any time except to sleep, Praxel arriving to help out and clean the large room above, the apples swept up from the floor and a table placed in the middle of the room. Meanwhile Herma had made new curtains, since the others had hung there for many years, all the bedrooms above also being cleaned, including Herma’s
room and the beautiful bedroom that was Herr Neumann’s, another for Rudolf and Arthur, then that which belonged to Erwin and Fritz, and where Josef now slept. No one really lived in these rooms but instead only slept in them, while in winter they weren’t even heated unless someone was sick and had to stay in bed, only Rudolf sometimes having spent time up there when he wanted to study, though now Herma covered each bed with a beautiful bedspread, everything spruced up for the visit. Even the hayloft and the granary were tidied up, as well as the barn in back, while the garden was raked clean where only some apple and plum trees grew, as well as an old wild apple tree, there being nothing else but jasmine, hydrangeas and lilacs, and grass. Herr Neumann even said that he had not even thought about flowers since the first Frau Neumann died, but Praxel said that she had plenty in her garden, and so she brought some along, Herma coming up with three vases, one for the kitchen table and two for the big table on the second floor. Herma set everything up the night before, Josef helping her, the good silver taken out, the plates and cups from the good china, as well as everything anyone could need, Josef very careful not to break anything, for Herma had said that some pieces had already been broken, the kitchen meanwhile filling with the smell of wonderful delicacies. That night everyone gathered, Herr Neumann had a few schnapps, the others drinking as well, even Josef and Otto, though Herma and Praxel, Poldi, and two maids had their hands full, Praxel even staying overnight to help.