Chapter 8 memories of adventure

For a long time, "hanging out together" has not changed much. Bruno still had to put up with Gretel's unfriendliness, especially when she was in a bad mood, and she was often in a bad mood. She was a hopeless person. Bruno still hopes to return to Berlin one day, although the memory of that place is starting to fade.Although he had intended to, he had actually lived there for several weeks and had never thought of writing to his grandparents, let alone actually sitting down to write. Soldiers came and went every day, meeting in my father's office, the "no entry, no exceptions" office.Lieutenant Kotler still paced up and down in his black boots, as if he was the most important thing in the world.If he wasn't with his father, he'd be talking to Gretel on the side of the road while Gretel kept laughing silly and twirling her hair with his fingers, or he'd be in the room Whisper with mother.

The servants come to the house every day to wash, dust, cook, etc. If they don't talk to them, they don't say a word.Maria spends almost all of her time organizing things, neatly stacking all the clothes Bruno is not wearing now in the closet.Pavel came every afternoon to peel potatoes and carrots, and served dinner at the table in his white jacket. (Bruno often catches him glancing at his knee now and then, where there's a small scar from the swing set incident, but the two of them never speak.) But then, things changed.The father decided to send the two children back to school.Bruno felt that this was a ridiculous thing, because there is no school with only two students.But both father and mother thought it necessary to have a priest, and so there were lessons for both of them every morning and afternoon.A few days later, a man named Mr. Ritz came rattling up in his cracked car, and the lessons started again.For Bruno, Mr. Ritz is an enigmatic figure.Although most of the time he was friendly and never slapped Bruno like Bruno's old teacher in Berlin did, but there was a kind of anger in his eyes, as if he was about to explode at any time.

Mr. Ritz has a soft spot for history and geography, but Bruno has a special preference for literature and art. "Those things are of no use to you," insisted the teacher, "in this day and age, a deep understanding of the social sciences is very important." "When we were in Berlin, my grandmother always made us do plays," Bruno points out. "But your grandmother wasn't your teacher, was she?" Mr. Leeds "she was your grandmother. And here, I am your teacher, so you should learn the important things I'm talking about, not just what you feel." Something of interest."

"Aren't books important?" Bruno asked. "Books about the objective world are important," Mr. Leeds explained, "but storybooks are not. Books about things that never happened. How much do you know about history, young man?" (Bruno on The title worked out, Mr. Leeds called him "Young Man," like Pavel, and not like Lieutenant Kotler called him a kid.) "Well, I know I was born in April 1934--" Bruno said. "I don't mean your history," interrupted Mr. Ritz, "not your personal history. I mean who you are, where you come from, your family tradition, your country of origin."

Bruno frowned, thinking about it.He is not very clear about how much land his father owns. Although the house in Berlin is large and comfortable, his own garden is not that big.Now that he's grown up, he also understands that "hanging out together" doesn't belong to them. "Not a lot," he admitted at last, "although I know a lot about the Middle Ages, and I like adventure stories." Mr. Leeds hissed through his teeth and shook his head angrily. "This is what I need to change when I come here," he said in a sinister tone. "Get your head out of the storybook. , teach you where you came from, and correct your misconceptions."

Bruno nodded, satisfied with that.He thought he might finally get an explanation of why they had been forced to leave the comfort of their home and come to such a ghostly place, the biggest mistake he'd ever made in his short life. A few days later, sitting alone in his room, Bruno began to think about things he had done at home in Berlin and hadn't done since "hanging out together".The main reason is that there are no friends here to play with him anymore, and Gretel ignores him.But one thing he can do alone, as he did in Berlin, is adventure. "When I was a child," Bruno said to himself, "I was fascinated by adventure. In Berlin I knew every corner and could find anything I wanted with my eyes closed. Here I never Haven't explored. Maybe it's time."

Then, before he could change his mind, Bruno jumped out of bed, dug out a coat and a pair of old boots from the wardrobe - that's how explorers should be dressed, he thought - and was ready to go exploring. There is nothing much to explore inside the house.After all, it wasn't like the house in Berlin, where Bruno remembered thousands of tiny bug dens and oddly small rooms, five floors up if you counted the basement and the small attic with the windows.Bruno could look out from the window of that small room on tiptoe.No, right now this house is not for exploration at all.If you want to explore, you can only go outside.

So many times now, Bruno has looked out of his bedroom window at the gardens, the benches with the nameplates, the high barbed wire walls, the wooden telephone poles, and other things mentioned in his recent letters to his grandmother.He was so used to all sorts of people in stripes that he never gave it a second thought. It's like another city, everyone lives and works next to each other.Are they really that different?All the tent-dwellers wore the same clothes--striped clothes and cloth hats; and those who went in and out of his house (except mother, Gretel, and himself) wore uniforms of various textures, trims, and hats, Wearing steel helmets, conspicuous red and black armbands, and carrying guns, they look like wooden men, as if everyone shoulders heavy responsibilities and is duty-bound.

How are they different?Bruno kept thinking.Who decides who wears the stripes and who wears the uniform? Sometimes, of course, these two types of people get mixed up.He often saw people from his side of the house on the other side of the wire, and he could tell they held power.Whenever soldiers approached people in striped clothes, these people would immediately stand at attention. Sometimes, these people would fall to the ground, and sometimes they could not even get up and had to be carried away by others. I never thought about those people, Bruno thought.And it's interesting that although the soldiers always go by -- and see my father go often -- they're never invited to the house.

Sometimes - but not often, but there were times when a few soldiers would eat at home, and when the frothy drink was served, when Gretel and Bruno put the last spoonful of food in their mouths, They were called upstairs to stay, and then they heard a lot of noise downstairs, as well as ugly singing.Father and mother enjoyed this gathering of soldiers - Bruno could tell.However, they never invited people in stripes to dinner. After leaving the house, Bruno walked around to the back of the house and looked up at the window of his bedroom. From the bottom up, the window was not that high.He thought he wouldn't hurt himself by jumping out of the window, though he didn't know the circumstances under which he would do such a foolish thing.Possibly he was trapped in his bedroom while the house was on fire, but it might still be a little risky.

He looked far to the right again, and the high wire fence stretched out in the sun, and he was happy about it because he didn't know what was ahead, so he could walk down the wire fence to see, how could it be It's an adventure too. (Mr. Leeds tells his history lessons about explorers like Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci, who are deeply imprinted with their legendary experiences and interesting lives. Bruno's mind. He wants to be like them when he grows up.) Before heading out, however, there is one last thing Bruno wants to investigate.That's the bench.For months, Bruno had been watching the bench from afar, calling it "the bench with the nameplate," but he never knew what the nameplate said.Look left, look right, sure there is no one, Bruno ran over, read the words on the nameplate while looking.This is a small bronze medal, Bruno read softly: "built upon the inauguration of" Bruno hesitated. "Let's go to camp," he continued, mispronouncing his usual, "June 1940." He stretched out his hand and touched the bronze medal, feeling cold, so he retracted his fingers, took a deep breath, and started his expedition.One thing he tried not to think about was the countless times his father and mother had warned him not to go in this direction, nor to get near the barbed wire fence and the campsite, and especially, that expeditions were forbidden during "Get Out Together"! Without exception.