"OFF SEASON" "I normally have an undisturbed relationship to the past:" "I leave it alone, and it leaves me alone." "But an unexpected call in a weak moment changed this." "Do you remember Annie Gabriel?" "Annie Gabriel?" "She often talks about you." "Oh yes, from the "Alpina Palace"." "Miss Gabriel." "Would you mind visiting her?" "She'd be very pleased." "Miss Gabriel is still alive?" "How is she?" "Well, she's very old." "Can I tell her you'll be coming?" "I said no." "And the following day I went there." "After so many years." "Come in." "I've brought you some flowers." "How kind of you, Valentin." "Flowers are beautiful." "Water." "They need water." "I'll be right back." "My little Valentin has come." "He must have grown, your little Valentin." "Look at the nice flowers he brought." "We're talking about the past." "But you don't remember anything." "Yes, I remember everything." "Even things that you didn't see." "But I saw everything, everything." "The "Sahara Night"?" "Max and Lilo, the duo at the bar?" "Professor Malini?" "And Mr. Caprez at the reception." "You didn't know about all that." "You know nothing about it." "I have a visitor." "I'll leave you alone." "Miss Gabriel ran the kiosk in my family's hotel." "As long as I knew her she was surrounded by smiling beauties belonging to the European aristocracy and the American cinema." "I was surprised that Miss Gabriel survived old age." "Excuse me, I have another guest." "My best friend." "She's nice, but too old for me." "Oh, do sit down." " Did you see the people outside?" " Yes." "Your grandma would never have accepted such guests." "Probably not." "All our guests had much more class." "But there were some I found dubious- looking at the time." "Strange somehow." " Would you like some?" " No, thank you." "There were some, yes." "Some of them ..." "Do you remember ... the Mickey Mouse comics ... the Mickey Mouse comics I bought off you." "I imagined you wrote them yourself at night." "Only half of them." "My best friend wrote the other half." "But you had a collection covering 20 years." "35 years in the end." "Yes, 35 years of Mickey Mouse." "The complete collection." "including the special copies." "A fortune!" "The comics?" "Of course, for a collector." "I'd like you to get them for me." "Before the hotel is demolished." "The "Alpina Palace" is going to be demolished?" "They're in the room with a view of the sea." "But you remember, there was a room with a view of the sea." "So I landed here once more." "Looking for 35 years of Mickey Mouse comics." "In the room with a view of the sea of a hotel in the Swiss mountains." "Didn't you forget anything, Ernesto?" "Not so fast, Valentin, you'll fall." "Mena?" " Did you switch off the coffee machine?" " Yes." "Did you bring the fish down?" "And the photographs?" "Did you leave them in the right order?" "One has to think of everything oneself." "Domenico, what are you doing?" "It's unlucky to open an umbrella in the house." " It's stuck." " Then throw it away." "I need it." "In this weather!" "Here, high up under the domes and roofs, was my favourite place." "Here the hotel was even more peculiar and more mysterious." "Chock-a-block with all the things Grandma couldn't throw away." "And she couldn't throw anything away." "Thank you." "Have you changed your hairstyle?" "Looks very natural." "Young man!" "Not bad." "Professor Malini honoured us twice a season, in June and in September." "He was our regular magician ever since the hotel was opened." "They say that the Tsar gave him the title of professor." "This did not seem absurd to us children because of his stunning magic tricks." "At that time the corridors were long and frightening." "Like eternity." "This is where I met up with Pulli, Pexi and John, my best friends." "They led an adventurous life, much more exciting than mine." "But in fact, apart from me nobody had ever seen them." "Pulli, Pexi and John only existed in my imagination." " Miss Gabriel." " Good evening." "Oh yes ... of course." " See you." " See you." "Mrs. Anita Studer had been a regular guest for years and was no doubt the most beautiful woman in the world." "She Led a turbulent life, marked by scandals, which didn't mean very much to me, however hard" "I tried to understand." "Max and Lilo were the legendary bar duo." "They worked for board and lodging and received a percentage for drinks sold, creating an "atmosphere at any price"!" "Max regarded his stay at the hotel merely as a stopgap while hoping to get an engagement on a luxury liner." "But every year they arrived with a trunk full of the latest dance music scores and bravely confronted constant changes in the taste of music." "Keep going, Domenico." "Valentin, come!" "Ernesto, be careful with the radio!" "Grandpa had no age, like all grown-ups." "He smelt of cigars and eau de Cologne and was a kind of God to me." "Grandma did not want people to know that he was blind." "Because of the pity and the gossip." "To please her, he sometimes pretended to be reading the newspaper." " Just when the barometer is rising." " I don't believe in your barometer." " But it's just been repaired." " Goodbye." " We haven't been lucky with the weather." " The room with a view of the sea?" "No, that one is closed." "It can't be had." "Give No. 504." "Ah, there you are." "Did you have a nice walk?" "No. 504 on the third floor." "Over there please." "The clearing will take another week." "Until then the Maggia Valley will be cut off from the world." "Don't Dr. Seifferts always go to the Maggia Valley?" "The Verzasca Valley." "Here." "Another plane has crashed." "I need an electric stove." "I can't help it if I'm cold." " What's the matter?" " He isn't cold, he's young." "I came to this hotel to rest and not to freeze to death." "None of our other guests has complained about being cold." "Here come the Ammanns." "Oh yes, the Ammanns." "I'll be right back." "We'll do our utmost ..." "Is No. 118 ready?" "Fine." "The Ammanns from Buenos Aires were what Grandma called "good guests"." "They sailed to Europe every year and disembarked at Venice." "Mr. Ammann went to the casino there and his luck at cards determined how long they would stay with us." "The worst journey in my life." "Ill-smelling sleepers, cheeky staff, my husband with his whims, the nurse was behaving idiotically." "Calm down, my dear, calm down." " Champagne, madame?" " Thank you." "Come, champagne will do you good." " Thank you." " Travelling always makes her nervous." "She's completely nuts." "She's impulsive." "All women from Buenos Aires are impulsive." "Didn't you only go to North America?" "In principle, it's one continent." "I feel better." "I don't want to catch pneumonia." "You want to separate me from my son?" "The travel-book writer came every year at the same time as the Warburg-Smiths." "He told them his stories, but I don't think they listened to him." "The Warburg-Smiths lived in California, where during the war he belonged to the closer circle of the German movie colony." "She was his fourth wife." "They lived in hotels all the year round, always together, yet each one to himself." "And hop ... the ball has disappeared." "Why didn't you bring the cups?" "Olga, coffee is served after the performance." "No, I said during the performance." "I am here tonight to give you my heart and my soul." "And all that I ask of you ..." "is your thoughts." "...the highlight of this magic evening:" "thought-reading." "In the lower Congo basin I once met a very famous Makenge." "From Philadelphia to Trieste ... from Riga to Shanghai." "An art, ladies and gentlemen, which I only master thanks to my medial gift combined with regular, intensive meditation." "Do you know what a Makenge is?" "I will now collect your slips of paper and you will see ..." "Not a thought - not a wish - will remain concealed." "Please." "Fold it well, please, fold it several times." "What shall I write?" "Write anything, whatever comes to your mind." "He's right, it's only a game." "Write anything." "What did you write?" "Anything." "Anything." "That's right." "Write anything." "In the evening, Professor Malini gave his gala performance only for grown-ups." "The word "gala" evoked a world of greatness, something I'd never seen." "What must the gala be like if the after- noon performance was so breathtaking?" "I ask you to be absolutely silent, ladies and gentlemen." "This exercise requires my utmost concentration." "Silence please." "Now I shall try, with my third eye, to read the thoughts on this paper ... I can see flowers." "Roses and tulips." "Yes, carnations, too." ""Roses, tulips, carnations alike, all three droop at first sight." "Just the one drooped not, and it's called ... forget-me-not"." " That's from her." " That's from me." "That's very pretty." "Unbelievable!" "Water ... a cloudless sky ... a blue lake." ""lf the weather is fine tomorrow, I may go bathing."" "He really can do it." "He can read thoughts." "I wrote that." "That was me!" "I wrote that." "I wanted to become neither a train driver nor a football player later on, but "an expert on special effects", an expression Malini taught me." "I was allowed to assist the magician." "I held the handkerchiefs and the old rabbit that came out of the hat." "And I collected the thoughts of the audience." "Now I shall try, with my third eye ... to read the thoughts that have been confided to this slip of paper ..." "My third eye sees crowned heads ... blue blood and a wedding coach." "Does it say here:" ""Long live the Shah and his charming fiancee ..." "Soraya"?" ""Long live the Shah ... and his charming and tender fiancee Soraya."" "Bravo!" "That's just what I wrote." "That was her." "That was her." "Long live the Shah!" "Long live the Shah!" "What Shah?" "For decades my blind grandpa had memorized the rhythm and the steps of all the hotel guests." "To their surprise he greeted them by their name when they came into the entrance hall, even if they hadn't been here for a long time." "Has No. 242 arrived?" "Is all well, Miss Berta?" " It keeps raining." " The weather will improve." "Good evening, Valentin." "I'm hungry." "Let's eat then." "Mr. Schmid, you're staying until the 15th, aren't you?" ""Lobster Thermidor" on seaweed with parsley." "Is it from the sea?" "Yes, where it is at its deepest." "And then?" "Then a tipsy frog dance." "Frog?" "At the Savoy." "French cuisine." " And then?" " Then ..." ""Capon a la Perigord" ... and peasants' peas." "What is a capon?" "A capon is a cock fowl that has been castrated, so that it can be fattened." "This is good." "Keep enough room for the sweet." "Rum baba with whipped cream." "Westminster pudding with English sauce, peach Melba." "Peach Melba - what's that?" "Peach Melba." "There's a fault." "I shan't come to this hotel ever again." "There's a fault, and you won't repair it." "Now please listen to me, Sir." "All night." "What's that?" "There's a fault!" "It has to be repaired." "I beg you, please have it repaired." "My son didn't sleep a wink." "Did you?" "Go on, say something." "Tell him!" "Two die in a burning room." "Cigarette?" "Cause of fire unknown." "Most likely cigarette." "Miss Fluckiger and Mrs. Hug were experts at catastrophes." "Miss Gabriel, who sat enthroned in the entrance hall and knew everything, kept them supplied." "To me she had something of an Egyptian high priest." ""The new special copy will be out soon", she announced promisingly." ""Special copy" sounded like "gala night", the call from distant, mysterious worlds." "Miss Gabriel had once emigrated to America and then returned again." "What had gone wrong, only Grandma knew." "It had something to do with a man." "This is for you." "Valentin!" "Post from Duck Town." "On Wednesday the new special copy is out." "The hairdresser's was for me the place of forbidden information." "I liked to sit there, absorb in the good scents and listen to conversations of a world unfortunately inaccessible to me." "Mr. Ammann is a real Swiss, 20 years in Buenos Aires haven't changed that." "They say he's a dream of a tango dancer." "I once knew a real dream of a tango dancer." " In Argentina?" " No, in St. Gallen, Switzerland." "A tennis teacher?" "Tennis teachers are terrible dancers." "But they have to move about a lot ..." "Moving is by no means dancing." " Do you need more rhythm?" " Rhythm?" "No, you don't need rhythm but ..." "And Mr. Ammann's got that?" "No, because ... come here ..." "it's like in lovemaking." "It depends ..." "Stop it!" "Be careful, Valentin." " What time is it?" " Did you hurt yourself?" "Our life was divided into pre-season, low season, high season and off season." "In June, when the first guests came, we lived on the third floor, in July and August at the top under the roof." "In September followed our ritual descent to the better rooms on the first floor, in which we spent the winter." "When at Capri the red sun settles over the sea" "And in the sky the pale crescent of the moon is wee" "The fishermen to sea in their little boats will go" "Putting their big nets out in circles or in a row..." "Do you know that the emperor Tiberius had young boys thrown from a cliff on the isle of Capri?" "Good Lord!" "Whatever for?" "Tiberius was a homosexual." "I see!" "And from boat to boat you can hear the old song" "Hear from far how it sounds:" "Bella, bella, bella Marie, remain true I'II be back tomorrow morn" "Bella, bella, bella Marie, forget me not!" "See the lights so bright shining out at sea" "Restless and so small, what can that be?" "What is out so late at night?" "You know what it is, what's cutting the tide?" "Countless fishermen whose songs from afar you can hear:" "When at Capri the red sun settles over the sea ..." "They could learn a lot here from the hotel Quisisana on Capri." " Yes, Mama." " Not a day without sun." "Yes, Mama." "All rooms with a view of the sea." "But there is no sea here, Mama." "That's what I say, they could learn a lot from Capri." "Ernesto, put the cases away." "Then call someone to repair the typewriter." "The "R" jumps." "Nona, tell me a story." " You want me to tell you a story?" " The gardener's here." "Can't you see I'm busy?" "I'll come later." "Well, I'll tell you a story, but it isn't very pleasant." "Grandma was the big storyteller of my childhood." "Her stories always started with "in the past"." "In the past there were Russians who threw china about, there were coaches and governesses." "And the Empress of Austria skied behind the hotel." "Mostly they were the same stories, but by telling them so many times they never were quite the same." "This anarchistic baroness had come from St. Petersburg." "And she had prepared a terrible plot." "And he was dead." "This anarchist had destroyed two lives in one go, his and hers." "But the tragic thing is that he wasn't the man she was looking for." "He wasn't the Russian foreign minister, but an unfortunate manufacturer of lingerie from Paris." "Forget about the job on the Queen Mary." "Ted Everding says he'll do what he can." "Good evening." "Good evening." "A great success tonight." "A fantastic atmosphere." "Even the Warburg-Smiths loosened up." "They kept clapping." "Tomorrow is Saturday." "The dansant." "But not too modern, please." "The young ones like it modern." "Yes, but the young ones don't come here." "Good night." "Domenico, we have to have the outside pipes checked." "They're riddled with holes, leaking all over." "Have you got the photographs?" "I'm dead tired today." "When all this is ..." "Fine, Ernesto, put the stove there." "I'll take this." "Over there, I said." "Then move these cases to room 12." "I don't want any of them standing around." "Thank you." "Put that in the drawer." "Valentin, please, I said I was tired." "I have a headache." "Do something else." " Nona, tell me a story." " A story?" "What story?" "The story about Sarah Bernhardt and Grandpa." "What, again?" "What a scandal that was!" "The divine Sarah was the most famous actress of her time." "In London she always stayed at the Savoy, which at the time was run by Cesar Ritz personally." "Your grandpa was still very young and worked there as a waiter." "I don't wish to spend my time looking for things on the table." "Therefore I would like the table always to be set in the same way." "So that I can eat blindly." "I ask for the same service at all the tables of this world." " Do you understand?" " Yes, madame." "Remember well what I'm going to say:" "The water glass to the right of the tip of the knife, the wine glass the width of three fingers to the right of it." "The mustard goes there." "The cheese goes here." "No, no, no, here." "That's it." "Pepper and salt here, the cream there." "Put that there!" "Here." "Right by the middle of the plate edge." "When I lift my left hand you can serve, fill my glass or clear the table." "Otherwise I don't wish to be disturbed when eating." " Thank you." " Very well, madame." "You may go." "And then?" "All went well and your grandpa soon became her personal waiter." "But one day, because of a silly incident, there was a catastrophe." "What's going on here?" "Come here." "I want people to work." "Out you go!" " Who are you?" " The waiter." "Where am I?" "Where is my waiter?" "Where is the headwaiter?" "Where is he?" "Nothing is in its place!" "Where is Mr. Ritz?" "Can't anybody tell me where Mr. Ritz is?" "This is an intolerable scandal!" "Everything's wrong." "Where is Mr. Ritz?" "He's to come right now and look at this!" "This is outrageous!" "Where's my waiter?" "What kind of hotel is this?" "Domenico!" "Quick, get dressed!" " But I ..." " Hurry up!" "Mr. Ritz fired me." "Never mind." "There's a scandal with Sarah Bernhardt." "Come immediately!" "The divine Sarah regained her composure after this crisis ... and Grandpa became her personal waiter." "And then?" "And then?" "That was all." "Then nothing more happened." "Ask your Nono." "He was there." "And then?" "Then I met your Nona." "And then?" "And then ... she died." "That's how things end." "This was my favourite story." "And I dreamt that one day someone like Sarah Bernhardt... would wake me up with a kiss." "But Professor ..." "Madame, I'll explain it all to you." " Professore!" " This is the first time ..." "What are you doing?" "This place has a magical attraction ..." "You're stealing the wine!" "Unbelievable." "This is unbelievable." "Papa had died." "He had been ill for a long time and had spent the last years in hospital." "I didn't remember him." "There was something embarrassing about his death, because of the black birds, the countless aunts on my mother's side, who haunted me with their pity." "Valentin, come along." "Papa's death wasn't painful to me." "I was still too small, and Grandma often spoke about the forthcoming reunion." "But eternity frightened me." "Your papa is in heaven." "One day we'll go there, too." "Grandma, what's it like in heaven?" "It's like here in the hotel." "Only much, much bigger." "How long will we stay in heaven?" "Forever." "How long is forever?" "When does it stop?" "Never." "It never stops." "That's eternity." "For weeks I was exposed to the tormenting thought of an unimaginable eternity and of the endless reunions with my family in heaven." "I wanted to know if you always remained the same age or forever small like Lily, the neighbours' child who got run over by the postal coach the year before." "Look, Valentin, this is your little girlfriend who died two years ago." "Ah, here you are at last!" "You're smoking?" "That's bad for you." "There is nothing bad here." "Good evening, madame." "Hello, my dear." "How are you?" "Good evening, Mrs. Ammann." "Look, Mrs. Studer is here, too." "The same as usual." "Mena!" "You're here, too!" "You left so suddenly at the time that I can't remember why." " Miss Gabriel!" " Good evening, madame." " The special copy has come." " Say thank you." "Jekami evenings were events that took place several times in a season." "Jekami means ..." "everybody can take part." "Everybody but me." "I could only indulge in the frenzy of preparations." " Mena!" " Yes?" "The green garland more to the left." "It makes no difference." "Yes, it does make a difference." "The bill for No. 140 ..." "It's a question of aesthetics." "The case to No. 110." "Mr. Caprez, look." "Put it on." "There are breakables in it." " Please, Mama." " You're ridiculous." "Put it on." "Looks good." "If it weren't so, he'd put it on." "What did I say!" "A bit more to the right ..." "Apple cheeks." "I prefer apple-blossom cheeks." "Pink." "The complexion base pink, Sylvia." "Do you think I look common?" "Not at all." "But I have to look common." "I'm going as Jenny, the pirate's fiancee." "The pirate's fiancee?" " In "The Threepenny Opera"." " Oh yes, of course." "And you?" " Me?" " Yes, what will you go as?" "I'm going as a sugarbaby." "Aren't I, Sylvia?" "Yes, madame is going as a sugarbaby." "What is a sugarbaby?" "With lots of pink." "Yes, I understood that, but is it a character or what?" "A sugarbaby is a sugarbaby." "Like in movies ... and all that." "I see." "A sugarbaby is pure sugar." "Isn't it, Mrs. Ammann?" "What's going on here?" "I asked you what was going on here!" "I thought we were going as babies." " Do I look like a baby?" " You look very pretty." "You said you were going as a baby." "As a sugarbaby!" "I said I was going as a sugarbaby." " What is a sugarbaby?" " Look at me!" "This is a sugarbaby." "I don't want to be made a fool of again." "Never again." "But a baby isn't foolish." "Like at the jungle ball in St. Moritz when you rolled around on the floor." "The jungle's swarming with snakes." "You were the only snake in St. Moritz!" "I'd never have thought that in this tropical delight the fortune of love would call me in the glow of night." "That I'd be followed lovesick for hours on end by the beau;" "this the Amazon will certainly not tolerate," "I beg you: not me!" "You have persecution mania!" "Oh, Peruvian girl, who on earth is going to be as prudish as a fifth-form girl!" "Behind my back I am being followed, my dear, this is no Peruvian coastal strip!" "I am tempted by your exotic gait, I am tempted by your erotic demeanour, you're the prettiest fairy on Titi, on Tata, on Lake Titicaca!" "Come, be my wife, how I would like to be your old man!" "Now I know very well, you've got tropical frenzy." "I know not who you are, know not from where you are, from which town then have you come here?" "I am from Bebra here and hunt the zebra here." "Well say, am I a zebra, eh?" "Oh, you Peruvian girl, come and sit with me in the shade of the banana tree!" "What I cannot bear is that despotic air, in your eyes so dark that hypnotic stare." "Go on." "Take part if it pleases you." "But it doesn't please me, Mama." "What are you doing with your leg?" " What do you mean with my leg?" " You can go." "I'm used to being alone." "There are no palm trees, but coconut butter on bread." "Honourable cavalier, what do you think of me, have I got such a stupid face?" "It is true, I'm crazy about Germany, but I don't drink black coffee ..." "Germany ... again and again." "Who knows ..." "I like whatever is exotic, I'm disturbed by your phallic character." "Sir, the Peruvian girl may later on in Berlin work as a tramway driver." "Come, or I'II end my sorrow in Titi, in Tata, in Lake Titicaca!" "Forever this applauding." "One is here to listen to the music, not this endless clapping." "They need that!" "What?" "The artistes." "They need that." "It's like humus to them." "They need the clapping." "You think so?" "I never looked at it from that angle." "Ladies and gentlemen, the Paul Jones." "Ladies on the outside, gentlemen on the inside ... turn in countermotion." "Come forward, ladies and gentlemen!" "Everybody come to the middle!" "Gentlemen inside, ladies outside." "Go on, keep dancing, don't stand still, only the music stops you." "Turn, keep on turning!" "In Hinduism, for example," "Shiva is considered as the god of dance, and Krishna ..." "Oh, India ..." "In Indian temples the dance is the existential sense of the Bayaderes ..." "Pardon?" "They're playing: "Tipi-tipi-tipso  with the calypso all will be well again, yes, that is Mexican."" "Dancing, you know, used to be a purely religious act." "This way, ladies and gentlemen." "Madame Ammann, over here please." "A little lower, Ernesto." "Look towards the camera!" "Madame, come quickly!" "No, no, I don't want to." "I never look good in photographs." "Look out for the little bird." "Something's bound to happen." "Like six years ago, with Mr. Nipelius." "He just sat there and was suddenly dead." "Afterwards, in the photo, you could see he was dead." "The gentleman is feeling sick." "Quick, a doctor!" "Got you!" "That was only a joke." "Another one." "Now I'll take one." " Do you find that amusing?" " Revolting!" "That day I achieved a decisive breakthrough with my investigation into the facts of life." "It turned out that women are partly covered with fur under their clothes." "This discovery and some contradictory information from the world of anatomy and eroticism, however, didn't fall into place and form a clear picture." "Shall I show you how to make yourself feel good?" " Feel good?" " Shall I show you?" "Try it, you'll see." "Perhaps it's only known to us in Buenos Aires." "Ladies and gentlemen, at last it is here - the longed for, begged for ..." "Sahara Night with Professor Malini!" "Follow me ... into the Sahara." "It is hot in the desert." "It is hot, very hot in the Sahara, hotter and hotter." "Very deep in the Sahara desert, hotter and hotter." "It is scorching." "Professor Malini's "Sahara Night" was taboo for me." "I never even managed to steal a glance of it." "Later on, this gala was cancelled because of a scandal, the details of which were left entirely to my imagination." "Follow me, follow me into the hot desert." "Deep in the desert it is hot, hotter and hotter." "It is so hot in the desert, in the immense desert." "I have never felt so cold before." "They'll never see us here again." "But, Mama, you say that every year." "I won't get on your nerves much longer." "Relax." "It is hot." "And hotter, hotter still." "Another lady's taking her clothes off." "Good Lord, what's going on here?" "Sahara." "Hotter and hotter." "Follow me." "Hot." "Very hot." "Good Lord, but madame, please ..." "But ..." "Malini ..." "Professor ..." "what are you doing, in my hotel?" "You've gone crazy." "Shocking." "I've never seen anything like it." "Look at Mr. Ammann." "It's unbelievable." "Madame, please ..." "What are you doing, doctor?" "I beseech you!" "A scandal." "Good Lord, ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry, this has never happened before." "Forgive me!" "Malini, what are you doing?" "You're out of your mind, Malini!" "Shocking." "Why did you do this?" "Prof. Malini is said to have hypnotised people who never regained their identity." "Uncle Paul was most likely such a case." "He had to be "put away"." "He lived in the mental home, in the "asylum", as they said." " Clara!" " My dear Paul!" "Clara, Clara." "How pleased I am to see you here." "How are you?" "Wonderful that you've come." "Wonderful." "How are you?" "We're fine." "Valentin, give your uncle a kiss and give him his present." " Who's this?" " The little boy." "You'll give me the double room with a view of the sea, won't you?" "We're having a great season." "I know, and the weather forecast is excellent." "No vacancies." "We're full up." "You see to the luggage." "Fully booked." "I'll introduce you." "My dear friends, may I introduce you to the guests who have just arrived." "My very, very dear sister Clara, her husband Valentin, including staff." "Mrs. Yersin, is your heating working again?" "It isn't working." "The lady is from Piedmont." "That's why." "Tonight a little aperitif will be served at the bar, at seven thirty sharp, if I may say so." "Madame de Morsier ..." "my sister, her cousin." "Madame Pochon, you confuse me." "Clara, I'll have to leave you alone now, I have work to do, on the other side." " I'll wait for you." " I'll be right back." "Kalaka, Salasa, beware of the flies." "Let's go." "I don't want to go to heaven, Mena." "Be glad if you don't go to hell." "What's it like in hell?" "Hotter than in the Sahara?" "Much, much hotter." "Do children also go to hell?" "Only heathen children." "Am I a heathen child?" "Take me to your church, Mena." "You know that's impossible." "Your grandma would never allow it." "But she isn't here tomorrow." "She's going shopping." "It could remain our secret." "Mena was Grandma's old maid, and the most loyal soul in the world." "She also kept talking about heaven and angels and Rome, that is near the sea." "Mena was a Catholic, which to my grand- parents was even worse than communist, although during my entire childhood no communist ever stayed with us." "The Catholic church was near the hotel." "Sometimes mysterious singing could be heard through the half-open door, and the smell of incense intoxicated me." "Then came the disastrous day, when I talked Mena into taking me with her." "I had decided to become a Catholic." "Mena was fired on the spot." "She started to drink and was filled with unquenchable hatred towards Grandma." "It is Mena, it is Mena who utters this curse." "A curse on the whole family." "Evil ... the devil ... hell!" "For the whole family, for everybody!" "You shall burn miserably in hell!" "This is my curse!" "Listen to me!" "You will burn, you will roast in hell, for an eternity." "Lex Lindbergh?" "Kidnapping." "Did you have a bad dream?" "Come on, won't you tell it to me?" "It's hard being a child, isn't it?" "Were you a child, too?" "No." "I never was a child." "I was an ice princess." "At the age of ten I was a champion in figure skating." "At twenty I danced on Broadway." "I lived in a big house on Long Island, I had servants and a gardener." "Have you still got the house?" "No, that was a long time ago." "It happened on a boat to America." "Professor Rosenfeld's orchestra of artistes was playing in the big ballroom." "I fell in love with him and gave up everything." "Is he in heaven?" "No, he's here." "He's sitting at the bar with a Scotch." "Yes, it's Max." "Max is Professor Rosenfeld." "Valentin ... come along."