I Served the King of England Page #5

Finally sad letters came

from east Prussia.

The German's victorious advance

became a victorious retreat.

And Lise came home because she

got no more pleasure from the fighting.

She did not however

return empty-handed.

I found these stamps

in Warsaw and other places

While inspecting the houses

of deported Jews.

According to

the Zumstein catalogue,

just these four stamps alone

make us millionaires.

Deported Jews?

Sure. Who knows

where they are now?

We'll buy a hotel after the war.

A big hotel!

These stamps will bring such a price

that we'll be able to buy

a hotel anywhere. Hotel Ditie.

With just this you could buy

the Hotel Ritz in Paris.

The war went on and they stopped

breeding people for a new Europe.

It made way for those who were still

alive and might again hold a weapon.

They might even be made ready to

go to war lacking an arm or a leg.

And I saw that the Germans

had lost the war.

Their faces betrayed how

things stood on the battlefield.

Looking at them I could tell

it would soon be over.

And I looked forward

to buying a hotel with Lise.

I look at myself, and the more

I look the more alarmed I become.

I am alarmed as if I were a stranger

whom I accuse and fail to defend.

I look at myself and I am

sickened by what I see.

The unbelievable became reality.

My goal had been to buy a hotel

and become a millionaire,

and I bought a hotel

and became a millionaire.

After the war I sold the stamps.

Lise had found

in the homes of deported Jews.

Mr. Tichota never returned

and I had enough money

to buy this hotel

and open it for millionaires.

And when I no longer knew

how to spend my money,

I bought securities

and foreign currency.

Mr. Walden had made a carpet of

cash but I used mine as wallpaper.

Every guest would see

the extend of my fortune.

Millionaires would gawk

and envy me.

But three years later

millionaires disappeared.

The triumphant February

putsch had come.

- So none of this is mine anymore?

- No, it isn't.

Like I said, the People's Committee

is confiscating this hotel;

all of your property rights have

been transferred to the people.

- Even this chair isn't mine?

- No.

Not even the expensive furnishings

I bought?

Not even the food in the fridge?

All of it belongs to the people

it belongs to all of us.

For now you'll be the manager.

We're through

with exploitative capitalists,

and we're locking up

all the millionaires.

Hey, hold on,

I'm a millionaire too.

- Not anymore.

- But I am!

Look at the millions

I have in the bank.

- How much do you have?

- Fifteen million.

Then you'll do 15 years.

I concluded that the money

from the stamps wasn't lucky.

And I was actually glad

it turned out this way.

Because even though in jail,

I'd be where I'd always wanted to be.

I'd be among millionaires.

I'd be one of them.

A person becomes most human,

often against his own will,

when he begin to founder, when he

is derailed or deprived of order.

I'm hungry.

And there's the change

back from your hundred.

The beer's good here.

This is where I'll be coming.

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