Once upon a time Nancy gave her third press conference
of the week not only proclaiming her innocence, but explaining indeed that she
was untouched by human hand, as white as snow and as virginal as the most pious
nun.
When she returned home to Udderston, there was no longer the possibility of milking the udders and the food bill had increased not because of inflation but because now not only was Nancy eating as if Bad Kissingen had never happened, she was eating as if Bad Fükingen had been Gut Fükingen all those years ago on their honeymoon tour through Germany.
Paul sat on some crates now because the ermine fur
sofa had been taken away after he spilled some beans on it. So too had the
twenty foot wide television that previously covered the whole of the opposite
wall. Now there was nothing to do but to talk to Nancy.
“Why didn’t you say I was innocent too?”
Nancy glared and went to get another plate of krispy
kreme doughnuts. She only wished it were possible to buy a krapfen that
wonderful jam filled ball of dough that indeed made you krapfen quite regularly
if you eat enough of them.
“Well, you are not innocent. It was your stupid idea
to go on the honeymoon to Bad Kissingen,” said Nancy.
“Was it my fault that it was Bad Kissingen?” It was
you that bit my tongue, because you wouldn’t open your mouth”.
“And I suppose it was my fault in Bad Fükingen too?”
“Well, it would have helped if you had opened your
legs. We’d just returned from Dickhardtstraße if you recall, but I was reduced
to going up the Wankbahn until I got to the top and how do you expect someone
to maintain his Knoblauch when I could but you könnt nicht and I didn’t even
get to see your könnt.”
“How could you expect anyone to be in the mood when
all you did was fahrt. There were Einfahrts, Ausfahrts and even a Schifffahrt,
but every time someone in the hotel told you to have a Gute Fahrt! Did you take
him at his word. You had Gute Fahrts all day and all night too.”
“Well there was no need for what you said on
Fürkhofstrasse when I suggested some Rimsting, that hurt”
“It hurt rather less than what you were suggesting. If
you wanted to spend your time on Schittgablerstraße you really should have
found someone with a Koch rather than a könnt. I had no wish to spend my
honeymoon Poing just because you preferred the aß to the könnt.”
“I would have been happy with Büsum or Titting but
when we got to Titisee not a Titisaw not once not during the whole honeyemoon”
“Well you were always Großhadern and you paraded
around the room every morning with your Großhadern and it was gross indeed”
“Not quite as gross as you my dear with your Theresa
May have Jowells. You have them like a Salmon going round die Ecke and it’s not
only MacHeath that has a Messer. It’s us that are in a Messer too.”
“Do you not think I still look good in red?”
“You would look better in a black bin bag. You might
be allowed eye holes and a mouth hole to proclaim your continual innocence. Not
that you would proclaim mine.”
“That’s because you saw me as simply a Kochhaus, but I
was not going to spend my whole life cooking and I was not going to be the Haus
where your Koch could live whenever and wherever it wished.”
“Goodness I would have been pleased merely with a
little Petting or even just some Suckfüll when I felt full and needed sechs
damit what is a man to do when his Knoblauch, his Mannschaft needs Dickmilched.
But you were never part of the team never willing to lend a hand.
“I’d rather Muckefuck where you left the Kampfwagen.
I’d prefer to drink Horlicks than lend you a hand. Gott was mit Uns, but now
come winter we will be lucky if we have gloves let alone mittens.”
“But why go on honeymoon at all if you don’t want to
Fach? You promised to love mich”
“I did love dich, but your dich smelled of garlic. Was
I going to spend my whole life eating Knoblauch? Better as I am. I am as innocent as the day when I was born?”
“But they are not talking about that kind of innocence
Liebling”.
Und die einen
sind im Dunkeln
Und die anderen sind im Licht
Doch man sieht nur die im Lichte
Die im Dunklen sieht man nicht
[And some are in the darkness
And the others in the light
But you only see those in the light
Those in the darkness you don't see]
For a long time, we were in darkness thought Paul as
he whistled the Kurt Weill Song about Macheath. No one knew what we did, what
we bought, what we spent. No one was allowed even to ask. Perhaps it was the
colour of the envelopes that had given them away. White. White. White. If only
they had been a little more camouflaged. Brown. Brown. Brown. If only there had
not been that little slip over a Frau who wanted to be a Mann and a Mann who
wanted to be a Frau (this it was that brought the Valkyries down upon them), but
that was the story of their honeymoon and it had meant that it was not merely
Bad Kissingen it was bad everything else and everything bad including the bath
with its solid gold taps, which had now been taken away had followed on from
that.
He had thought
that he and Nancy could make up for their disappointments in other ways and
that no one would so to speak see the knife. He thought that he could always
say I know nothing about this. If he were ever asked “welches war dein Preis?”
[what was your price?] he would not have to answer, and he would not have to
pay.
For now, he kept silent, but as he watched Nancy getting fatter and telling everyone about her innocence, he told himself, if I go down, she will pay. That will be the price of Bad Kissingen.
