Beware of the Dog (2) Cuidado con el perro (2) Attention au chien (2) 개를 조심하세요 (2) Strzeż się psa (2)

'You're looking fine this evening,' she said. 'They operated on you as soon as you came in. They did a marvelous job. You'll be all right. I've got a brother in the RAF,' she added. 'Flying bombers.'

He said, 'I went to school in Brighton.'

She looked up quickly. 'Well, that's fine,' she said. 'I expect you'll know some people in the town.'

'Yes,' he said, 'I know quite a few.'

She had finished washing his chest and arms. Now she turned back the bedclothes so that his left leg was uncovered. She did it in such a way that the rest of his injured leg remained under the sheets. Вона зробила це так, що решта його пораненої ноги залишилася під простирадлом. She took his pyjama trousers off and now began to wash his left leg and the rest of his body. This was the first time that he had had a bed-bath and he was embarrassed. She laid a towel under his leg and began washing his foot. She said, 'This soap is awful to use. It's the water. It's so hard.'

He said, 'None of the soap is very good now and, of course, with hard water it's hopeless.' As he said it he remembered something. He remembered the baths which he used to take at school in Brighton. He remembered how the water was so soft that you had to take a shower afterwards to get all the soap off your body. He remembered that sometimes the school doctor used to say that soft water was bad for your teeth.

'In Brighton,' he said, 'the water isn't...'

He did not finish the sentence. He had thought of something; something so unbelievable that for a moment he felt like telling the nurse about it and having a good laugh. Ihm war etwas eingefallen, etwas so Unglaubliches, dass er einen Moment lang Lust hatte, es der Krankenschwester zu erzählen und sich kaputt zu lachen.

She looked up. 'The water isn't what?' she said.

'Nothing,' he answered. 'I was dreaming.'

She wiped the soap off his leg and dried him with a towel.

'It's nice to be washed,' he said. 'I feel better.'

That night he could not sleep. He lay awake thinking of the German aircraft and of the hardness of the water. He could think of nothing else. Er konnte an nichts anderes denken. They were German, he said to himself. I know they were. But it is not possible, because they would not be flying around so low over here in daylight. Aber das ist nicht möglich, weil sie bei Tageslicht nicht so tief über uns fliegen würden. I know that it is true, and at the same time I know that it is impossible. Perhaps I am ill.

Perhaps I am imagining all this. For a long time he lay awake thinking these things, and once he sat up in bed and said aloud, 'I will prove that I am not crazy,' but before he had time to think any more, he was asleep. Lange lag er wach und dachte über diese Dinge nach, und einmal setzte er sich im Bett auf und sagte laut: "Ich werde beweisen, dass ich nicht verrückt bin", aber bevor er Zeit hatte, weiter zu denken, war er eingeschlafen.

He woke just as the first light of day was showing through the gap in the curtains at the window. Er wachte gerade auf, als das erste Licht des Tages durch den Spalt in den Vorhängen am Fenster fiel. He remembered the Junkers 88 and the hardness of the water; he remembered the large pleasant nurse and the kind doctor, and now the doubt in his mind began to grow. Er erinnerte sich an die Junkers 88 und die Härte des Wassers; er erinnerte sich an die große, nette Krankenschwester und den freundlichen Arzt, und nun begannen die Zweifel in seinem Kopf zu wachsen.

He looked around the room. The nurse had taken the roses out the night before. There was nothing except the table with a packet of cigarettes and a box of matches. Außer dem Tisch mit einer Zigarettenschachtel und einer Streichholzschachtel gab es nichts. The room was bare. Das Zimmer war kahl. It was no longer warm or friendly. It was not even comfortable. It was cold and empty and very quiet.

His doubt and fear grew so that he became restless and angry. Seine Zweifel und Ängste wuchsen, so dass er unruhig und wütend wurde. It was the kind of fear one gets not because one is afraid but because one feels that there is something wrong. Es war die Art von Angst, die man nicht bekommt, weil man Angst hat, sondern weil man spürt, dass etwas nicht stimmt. He knew that he must do something; that he must find some way of proving to himself that he was either right or wrong, and he looked up and saw again the window and the green curtains. Er wusste, dass er etwas tun musste, dass er einen Weg finden musste, um sich selbst zu beweisen, dass er entweder Recht hatte oder nicht, und er sah auf und sah wieder das Fenster und die grünen Vorhänge. From where he lay, that window was right in front of him, but it was ten meters away. Von dort, wo er lag, war das Fenster direkt vor ihm, aber es war zehn Meter entfernt. Somehow he must reach it and look out. The idea took hold of him and soon he could think of nothing except the window. Die Idee ergriff ihn, und bald konnte er an nichts anderes mehr denken als an das Fenster. But what about his leg? He put his hand underneath the bedclothes and felt the bandages around what remained of his right leg. Er schob seine Hand unter die Bettdecke und fühlte die Verbände um das, was von seinem rechten Bein übrig geblieben war. It seemed all right. It didn't hurt. But it would not be easy.

He sat up. Then he pushed the bedclothes away and put his left leg on the floor. Slowly, carefully, he swung his body over until he had both hands on the floor as well; then he was out of bed, kneeling on the carpet. Langsam und vorsichtig schwang er seinen Körper hinüber, bis er beide Hände auf dem Boden hatte; dann war er aus dem Bett und kniete auf dem Teppich. He looked at what remained of his right leg, wrapped in bandages. Er betrachtete das, was von seinem rechten Bein übrig geblieben war, das mit Verbänden umwickelt war. It was beginning to hurt. He wanted to lie down on the carpet and do nothing, but he knew that he must go on.

With two arms and one leg, he crawled over towards the window. He would reach forward as far as he could with his arms, then he would jump and slide his left leg along after them. Er streckte die Arme so weit wie möglich nach vorne, dann sprang er und schob sein linkes Bein hinterher. It was painful but he continued to crawl across the floor on two hands and one knee. Es war schmerzhaft, aber er kroch weiter auf zwei Händen und einem Knie über den Boden. When he got to the window he reached up, and one at a time he placed both hands on the sill. Als er am Fenster ankam, griff er nach oben und legte beide Hände nacheinander auf das Fensterbrett. Slowly he raised himself up until he was standing on his left leg. Then quickly he opened the curtains and looked out.

He saw a small house standing alone beside a narrow lane, and behind it there was a field. Er sah ein kleines Haus, das allein an einer schmalen Gasse stand, und dahinter ein Feld. In front of the house there was an untidy garden, and there was a green hedge separating the garden from the lane. Vor dem Haus befand sich ein unaufgeräumter Garten, der durch eine grüne Hecke von der Straße getrennt war. He was looking at the hedge when he saw the sign. Er schaute auf die Hecke, als er das Schild sah. It was just a piece of board nailed to the top of a short pole, and because the hedge had not been cut for a long time the branches had grown out around the sign so that it seemed almost as if it had been placed in the middle of the hedge. Es war nur ein Stück Brett, das an einen kurzen Pfahl genagelt war, und da die Hecke schon lange nicht mehr geschnitten worden war, waren die Äste um das Schild herum gewachsen, so dass es fast so aussah, als sei es mitten in der Hecke angebracht worden. There was something written on the board with white paint. He pressed his head against the glass of the window, trying to read what it said. The first letter was a G, he could see that. The second was an A, and the third was an R. One after another he managed to see what the letters were. There were three words, and slowly he spelled the letters out aloud to himself as he managed to read them. Es waren drei Wörter, und langsam buchstabierte er die Buchstaben laut vor sich hin, als er sie zu lesen vermochte. G-A-R-D-E A-U C-H-I-E-N, Garde au chien. G-A-R-D-E A-U C-H-I-E-N, Garde au chien. That is what it said.

He stood there balancing on one leg and holding tightly to the edges of the window sill with his hands, staring at the sign and the letters of the words. Er stand auf einem Bein, hielt sich mit den Händen am Rand der Fensterbank fest und starrte auf das Schild und die Buchstaben der Worte. For a moment he could think of nothing at all. Einen Moment lang konnte er an gar nichts denken. He stood there looking at the sign, repeating the words to himself. Slowly he began to realize the full meaning of the thing. Langsam begann er, die volle Bedeutung der Sache zu erkennen. He looked at the cottage and the field and he looked at the green countryside beyond. Er schaute auf die Hütte und das Feld und er schaute auf die grüne Landschaft dahinter. 'So this is France,' he said. 'I am in France.'

Now the pain in his right side was very great. It felt as if someone was hitting the end of his missing leg with a hammer and suddenly the pain became so bad that it affected his head. Es fühlte sich an, als ob jemand mit einem Hammer auf das Ende seines fehlenden Beins schlug, und plötzlich wurde der Schmerz so stark, dass er auf seinen Kopf übergriff. For a moment he thought he was going to fall. Quickly he knelt down again, crawled back to the bed and got in. Schnell kniete er sich wieder hin, kroch zurück zum Bett und legte sich hinein. He pulled the bedclothes over himself and lay back on the pillow, exhausted. Er zog die Bettdecke über sich und legte sich erschöpft auf das Kissen zurück. He could not forget the words on the sign.

It was some time before the nurse came in, with a basin of hot water. Es dauerte eine Weile, bis die Krankenschwester mit einer Schüssel mit heißem Wasser hereinkam. She said, 'Good morning, how are you today?'

He said, 'Good morning, nurse.'

The pain was still great under the bandages, but he did not wish to tell this woman anything. Der Schmerz unter den Verbänden war immer noch groß, aber er wollte dieser Frau nichts sagen. He looked at her more carefully now. Er betrachtete sie jetzt genauer. Her hair was very fair. Ihr Haar war sehr hell. She was tall and big-boned and her face seemed pleasant. Sie war groß und kräftig und ihr Gesicht wirkte angenehm. But there was something a little nervous about her eyes. They were never still. Sie waren nie still. There was something about her movements also. Auch an ihren Bewegungen war etwas dran. They were too sharp to go well with the relaxed manner in which she spoke. Sie waren zu scharf, als dass sie zu der entspannten Art, in der sie sprach, gepasst hätten.

She put down the basin, took off his pyjama top and began to wash him. Sie stellte die Schüssel ab, zog sein Pyjamaoberteil aus und begann ihn zu waschen.

'Did you sleep well?'

'Yes.'

'Good,' she said. She was washing his chest. 'Someone's coming to see you from the Air Ministry after breakfast,' she went on. 'They want a report. How you got shot down and all that. Wie Sie abgeschossen wurden und so weiter. I won't let him stay long, so don't worry.' Ich werde ihn nicht lange bleiben lassen, also keine Sorge.

Later she brought him his breakfast but he did not want to eat. He was still feeling weak and sick and he wished only to lie still and think about what had happened. Er fühlte sich immer noch schwach und krank und wünschte sich nur, still zu liegen und über das Geschehene nachzudenken. And there was a sentence running through his head. It was a sentence which Johnny, his commanding officer, always repeated to the pilots every day before they went out. Es war ein Satz, den Johnny, sein kommandierender Offizier, den Piloten jeden Tag vor dem Ausfliegen sagte. He could see Johnny now saying, 'And if they get you, don't forget, only give your name and number. Er konnte sehen, wie Johnny jetzt sagte: "Und wenn sie dich kriegen, vergiss nicht, nur deinen Namen und deine Nummer zu nennen. Nothing else. For God's sake, say nothing else.' Um Himmels willen, sagen Sie nichts weiter.'

'There you are,' she said. Da bist du ja", sagte sie. — Ось ти, — сказала вона. 'I've got you an egg. Ich habe dir ein Ei besorgt. «Я приніс тобі яйце. Can you manage all right?' Kommst du zurecht?

'Yes.'

'Good. If you want another egg, I might be able to get you one.'

'This is all right.'

'Well, just ring the bell if you want any more.' And she went out.

He had just finished eating when the nurse came in again.

She said, 'Wing Commander Roberts is here. I've told him that he can only stay for a few minutes.' She signaled with her hand and the Wing Commander came in.

'Sorry to bother you like this,' he said. Entschuldigen Sie, dass ich Sie so störe", sagte er.

He was an ordinary RAF officer, dressed in a rather badly fitting uniform. Er war ein gewöhnlicher RAF-Offizier in einer eher schlecht sitzenden Uniform. Це був звичайний офіцер RAF, одягнений у досить погану форму. As he spoke he took a printed form and a pencil from his pocket and he pulled up a chair and sat down. Während er sprach, holte er einen Vordruck und einen Bleistift aus seiner Tasche, zog einen Stuhl heran und setzte sich.

'How are you feeling?'

There was no answer.

'Pity about your leg. 'Schade um dein Bein. I know how you feel. I hear you fought well before they got you.' Ich habe gehört, du hast gut gekämpft, bevor sie dich erwischt haben.'

The man in the bed was lying quite still, watching the man in the chair.

The man in the chair said, 'Well, let's finish this quickly. I'm afraid you'll have to answer a few questions so that I can fill in my report. Ich fürchte, Sie müssen mir ein paar Fragen beantworten, damit ich meinen Bericht ausfüllen kann. Let me see now, first of all, where had you flown from?'

The man in the bed did not move. He looked straight at the Wing Commander and he said, 'My name is Peter Williamson and my number is nine seven two four five seven.'

- THE END -