Harry Turtledove - The Catcher in the Rhine

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The Catcher in the Rhine

Harry Turtledove

I don't know how I got here. Wait. That's not quite right. What I mean to say is, I know how I got to

Europe and everything, for Chrissake. They sent me over here to find myself or something after that

trouble I had. I'm sure you know about that. I'm certain you know about it. Practicallyev erybody knows

about it. Some of the biggest phonies in the world think they know more about it than I do. They really

think so. It's like they read it in English class or something.

So like I say, I know how I got to Europe. I don't know about this finding myself business, though. I

swear to God, if you can't find yourself, you've gotta be some kind of psycho. I mean, you're rightthere ,

for crying out loud. If you weren't right there, where the hell would you be?

And sending somebody to Europe to find himself has got to be the stupidest thing in the world. You have

to be a lousy moron to come up with something like that, you really do. You can't findany thing in

Europe. Honest to God, it's the truth. You really can't. All the streets go every which way, and they

change names every other block, or sometimes in the middle of the block.

Besides, the people don't speak English. Try to have an intellectual conversation with somebody who

doesn't know what the hell you're talking about. Go ahead and try. It's a goddam waste of time, that's

what it is.

Anyway, I went through France, and some of that was pretty neat, it really was, and all of it was

historical as hell—not that I was ever any good at history. What I mean is, every single stinking bit of it

happened a long time ago—some of it happened a goddam long time ago—so how am I supposed to get

all excited when some phony moron of a teacher stands there and goes on and on about it? It's not easy,

I tell you.

After I was done with old France, I went over to Germany because it's next door, you know—and I

took this boat trip up the Rhine. I don't know what the hell "Rhine" means in German, but it looks like it

oughta mean "sewer." The whole river smells like somebody laid a big old fart, too. It really does. I won't

ever complain about the Hudson when I get home, and you can walk across the Hudson, practically.

When I get home.If I get home. The boat stopped at this place called Isenstein. It's a real dump, I tell

you, but back of it there's a kind of a crag thing with a castle on top. I wasn't gonna get off the boat—I'd

paid the fare all the way up to Düsseldorf, wherever that is—but the river just smelled so bad I couldn't

stand it any more, so I left. Maybe they'd let me back on the next one. And if they didn't, who cares? I

had piles of money and traveler's checks and stuff.

Well, let me tell you, the streets in old Isenstein didn't smell so good, either. That was partly because it

was still rightnext to the Rhine, and it was partly because the people there had the most disgusting

personal habits in the world. I saw this one guy standing in the street taking a leak against the side of a

crumby old dirty brick building, and it wasn't even like he was drunk or anything. He was justdoing it.

And then he went on his way happy as you please. I wouldn't've believed it if I hadn't seen it with my

own eyes, and that's the truth.

They had a church there, so I went inside and looked around. I always tried to look at those cultural

things, because who knows when I was ever coming back again? Coming back to Europe, I mean—I

wouldn't've come back to Isenstein if youpaid me, you can bet your bottom dollar on that. But the church

was pretty dirty and crumby, too. By the time I got done looking at it, I was feeling pretty goddam

depressed. I really was. So I got the hell out of there.

I was feeling pretty goddamhungry , too. I was feeling hungry as a sonuvabitch, if you want to know the

truth. I didn't exactly want to eat in Isenstein—it really was a filthy place. You have no idea how filthy it

was. But I wasthere . Where else was I gonna eat, is what I want to know.

Getting something to eat when you don't speak the language is a royal pain in the ass. If you're not

careful, they're liable to give you horse manure on a bun. I'm not kidding. I'm really not. When I was in

France, I got a plateful ofsnails , for crying out loud. Real snails, like you step on in a garden somewhere

and they go crunch under your shoe. With butter. If you think I ate 'em, you're crazy. I sent 'em back

pretty toot sweet. That means goddam fast in French. But whatever they gave me instead didn't look

much better, so I got the hell out ofthat place toot sweet myself.

Over across the street from the church in old Isenstein was this joint where you could get beer and food.

Nobody in Germany cares if you're twenty-one. They don't give a damn, swear to God they don't.

They'd give beer to anine -year-old, they really would. If he asked for it, I mean.

So I got a beer, and the guy sitting next to me at the bar was eating a sandwich that didn't look too

lousy—it had some kind of sausage and pickles in it—so I pointed to that and told the bartender, "Give

me one of those, too." Maybe it was really chopped-up pigs' ears or something, but I didn'tknow it was,

so it was all right if I didn't think about it too much. The guy behind the bar figured out what I meant and

started making one for me.

I'd just taken a big old bite—it wasn't terrific but I could stand it, pigs' ears or not—when the fellow

sitting next to me on theother side spoke up and said to me in English, "You are an American, yes?"

If you want to know the truth, it made me kind of angry. Here I wasstarv ing to death, and this guy

wanted to strike up a conversation. I didn't want to talk. I wanted to eat, even if it didn't taste so good.

So with my mouth full, rude as anything, I said "Yeah" and then I took another bite, even bigger than the

first one.

He didn't get mad. I'd hoped he would, I really had, but no such luck. He was a very smooth, very polite

guy. He was a little flitty-looking, as a matter of fact—not too, but a little. Enough to make you wonder,

anyhow. He said, "We do not often Americans in Isenstein have." He talked that way on account of he

was foreign, I guess. I took another bite out of this sandwich—it probablywas pigs' ears, it sure tasted

like what you'd think pigs' ears'd taste like—and he asked me, "What is your name?"

So I told him, and he damn near—I meandamn near—fell off his chair. "Hagen Kriemhild?" he said. Boy,

he must've had cabbages in his ears or something, even if I was still kind of talking with my mouth full.

"HagenKriemhild ?"

"No," I said, and told him again, this time after I'd swallowed and everything, so he couldn't foul it up

even if he tried.

"Ah," he said. "Ach so," which I guess is like "okay" in German. "Never mind. It is close enough."

"Close enough for what?" I said, but he didn't answer me right away. He just sat there looking at me. He

looked veryintense , if you know what I mean, like he was thinking a mile a minute. I couldn't very well

ask him what the hell he was thinking about, either, because people always lie to you when you do that,

or else they get mad. So instead I said, "What'syour name?" You can't go wrong with that, hardly.

He blinked. He really did—his eyes went blink, blink. It was like he'd forgotten I was there, he'd been

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