The Darkroom of Damocles by Willem Frederik Hermans Page B

documentation. But even when you’ve developed a film you’re not done yet, because you still have to thin it. You probably don’t have a clue about the technical side of photography, like most people who snap merrily away, so I’ll tell you how it works.’
    He shut the ebonite container and put it back on its shelf, then leaned back with his elbow resting on the same shelf to facilitate his standing delivery.
    â€˜A film, Melgers, consists of two things, mainly: a strip of celluloid which we call the emulsion base, and on top of that a thin layer of gelatine, which we call the emulsion. The emulsion is the photosensitive layer. Now, in thinning, we separate the emulsion from the base. The problem with that is the instability of the emulsion – once the gelatine falls apart the image is lost. So before we start thinning we have to toughen the gelatine layer.’
    He took a bottle from the shelf.
    â€˜This is used for washing the film. When that’s done we can start prying the emulsion off the base. We make sure the gelatine comes off in one piece, without tearing. That gelatine layer is extremely thin. Once it’s properly dry it can be rolled up so tight that it can easily be hidden, inside a propelling pencil for instance. Not that we have any of that romantic stuff going on here. We thin down films mainly to save space. I can’t abide romantic notions of any kind in this business.’
    To mark his switch from the technicalities of film processing to philosophy, Labare slid the bottles together on the shelf and rolled himself another cigarette.
    â€˜You must think of this as an ordinary job, you don’t want to get carried away thinking there’s a war on and you’re a hero or anything like that. Obviously, we have to make safety precautions and stick to them, but it’s the same in peacetime, too. Down mines, in chemical factories. That is how you should see our safety precautions, it’s as simple as that. We have no use for heroes. What is a hero? Someone who’s careless and gets away with it. We have no use for careless people. I don’t need men who keep shtum when they’re interrogated by the Germans, but men who’ll spill the beans – it’s a question of making sure they don’t have any beans to spill, that’s all. Because if someone does know something, try holding a burning cigar to his balls and nine times out of ten he’ll talk, and in the one case where he doesn’t, well, he’ll be stuck with burned balls for the rest of his life, which would be too bad.’
    Osewoudt cackled shrilly, Labare laughed too, but inaudibly, only moving his lips, and he said in a nasal tone: ‘Yes, my boy, that is how you must think of it.’
    He shook his head.
    â€˜If anything happens, the first thing you do is pocket the finished films and switch on the light to expose the rest: they’ll go black. You do that at the first signal. The second signal means it’s time to leg it. I’ll show you how it works.’
    Labare put out his cigarette under his shoe and walked off. Osewoudt went after him, this time through another passage, one wide enough to walk down normally. It ended at a door.
    â€˜This door opens into the neighbours’ house. Got that?’
    Labare took Osewoudt back to the small darkroom, and said: ‘You can start now. You know where everything is.’
    * * *
    Osewoudt switched the light off, opened one of the canisters, had no difficulty loading the film on to the reel. He put the reel in the ebonite container, closed the lid, switched the light on again and began the procedure as explained to him.
    While the successive baths took effect in the ebonite container, he sat waiting on a low packing case, elbows on knees, head bowed. Now and then he looked at his watch, undid the strap and fastened it again. It was very quiet, no sound from outside penetrated the darkroom, and there