Rigadoon by Louis-ferdinand & Manheim Celine Page A

. another good sign! . . . a whole pile of sandwiches! for us . . . bottles of beer! . . . like a pilgrimage to Chartres . . . or Lourdes . . . well, not exactly, but something like . . . Salvation! . . . everything we need! you couldn't call it anything else! . . . salvation for the coke engines and the O.K.W. staff!
    "Doctor!"
    The Captain wants a word with me . . . in private! . . . I follow him . . . we wade through the broken glass . . . the corridor . . . next car . . . and then another . . . here we are, the compartment he was looking for . . . empty . . .
    "Something to tell you, Doctor! . . . my comrades . . . the other officers wanted to throw you out, you and your friend the actor. . ."
    "I understand, Captain . . . I'm very grateful to you . . ."
    He wasn't telling me anything new . . . being a leper has its good side, you don't have to be polite to anybody, wherever you show yourself they throw you out, which suits you fine! . . . I'd seen the lepers in Rostock, how happy they were to be yanked out of their snow piles and sent . . . step lively now! . . . to other snow piles!
    "Captain Hoffmann, I'm very grateful to you . . ."
    "Yes, but . . . now I have a favor to ask you . . . in return . . ."
    "Why, of course! . . . only too glad!"
    "Splendid! . . . we, the whole staff, you see . . . we'll be getting out at Augsburg . . . two armies for the Ukraine . . . being reorganized in Augsburg . . . didn't you know?"
    "No, Captain! certainly not!"
    "The three of you and your cat will take the Ulm train . . . immediately! . . . sonderzug . . . understand? the one the Baltavians were supposed to take . . . you'll have plenty of room! . . . four cars! . . . empty! Augsburg hasn't been destroyed yet . . . listen carefully now! . . . about an hour to Ulm . . . you'll arrive in time for the funeral . . ."
    "Ah?"
    "A military funeral! . . . General Rommel . . . of no interest to you . . ."
    Rommel? . . . never heard of him!
    ". . . but somebody'll be there . . . pay close attention . . . a name I must ask you to remember . . . Marshal Rundstedt! . . . don't write it down, just remember it . . . Marshal Rundstedt! . . . and one more name: Lemmelrich . . . he's only a captain . . . a captain like me . . . he's on Rundstedt's staff . . . you'll remember? . . . Lemmelrich? . . . I can count on you? . . ."
    "Oh, certainly, Captain!"
    "Well, then . . . you'll find Lemmelrich . . . you'll recognize him . . . it's easy in church . . . a captain . . . my type . . . tall, lean, gray . . . just one sentence . . . 'your daughter in Berlin is better' . . . that's all . . . he won't answer . . . you'll say it in French: 'your daughter in Berlin is better' . . . he'll understand . . ."
    I wasn't going to show surprise . . . but even so . . . time to think it over . . . sitting there . . . he must have been watching me . . . the train was moving along just about normally . . . except that even out of the tunnel the whole car is so deep in soot . . . every window . . . that you'd better not try to look out . . . him with his special glasses, nothing to worry about . . .
    Hey! . . . we're here . . . the train stops . . . the station . . . Ulm! . . . signs . . . we can get out . . . nobody stops us . . .no police . . . we climb out of the cloud, the soot . . . this station is all in one piece . . . or seems to be, we'll see . . . chance to sit down and rest . . . rest? all we've been doing since Rostock . . . but not exactly easy in our minds . . . shunted from leper colony to fireworks to unbreathable tunnel . . . but now we're on the platform . . . we cross the waiting room . . . here's the peristyle, a bench, even a hundred percent fagged out this bench feels pretty good . . . Le Vig's sulking, I can see that . . . me and the Captain shutting ourselves up at the other end of the corridor . . . he hadn't liked that . . . the way he was looking at the sky . . . he was browned off! . . . really beautiful weather, lovely May morning . . . I'd