Emil and Karl walked in silence. The stranger kept them moving at a quick pace.
“You’ll see, boys, you’ll be quite fine with me. You won’t have to worry about a thing.”
Karl looked up at her and smiled, but Emil looked at her with eyes full of tears.
“My name is Matilda. You can call me Aunt Matilda. I’m a good cook, and I’ll make you the nicest meals. In fact, we can already start thinking about lunch. What should we have as soon as we get home? You must be very hungry.”
“No,” the boys answered, “We aren’t hungry at all.”
“Not even a bit? Let’s close our eyes and think about a warm bowl of soup, some roast veal, a piece of fruit, and a nice slice of cake.”
Karl started to laugh, and Emil smiled weakly.
“That’s what Aunt Matilda likes. She loves happy children. In your new home you’ll be able to play as much as your heart desires.”
Suddenly Karl asked in a serious voice, “Will we go to school, too?”
“No-o,” Aunt Matilda answered slowly. “No going to school. But I’ll study with you every day, and you’ll learn much better than you would in school.”
Karl felt a little happier. He even began to swing Matilda’s hand back and forth as they walked along, faster than before.
“Emil, don’t slow down,” Karl called out. “Let’s keep the same pace.”
Emil, who also held Aunt Matilda by the hand, started imitating his friend. Now the two boys were leading Matilda, and she skipped along between them.
But all at once Emil became distracted. He slowed down, and Aunt Matilda noticed it right away.
“Emil,” she said, rousing him, “if you’re going to daydream instead of keeping up with us, then we’ll all fall down. We’re all linked together.”
Emil got back in step with them. Aunt Matilda laughed, and the boys began to sing a song that they’d learned in school.
Then Karl noticed that they were no longer on paved streets. They were now walking on sand that was black with coal dust. The path was dusty. Karl walked more slowly, because with each step he kicked up a lot of dust that tickled his nose and throat.
In the distance they heard chugging and whistling. A train with many cars rode by through the tall, dry grass, leaving a thick cloud of black smoke. Karl started counting. But the train moved too fast for him, and he wasn’t sure if it had sixteen or eighteen cars. By this time Emil had let go of Aunt Matilda’s hand as well. He stood, staring at the train, full of curiosity and fear.
Karl wanted to say something to Emil. A story had started to take shape inside his head. This Aunt Matilda was leading them astray, taking them into the woods somewhere. There they’d be sold to bandits, who would force them to be criminals, too. Later, when they were grown up, they would steal enough money to buy their freedom.
But even Karl didn’t find this story frightening. Aunt Matilda looked at both boys with a smile. She pointed at the tall grass. “The tracks run through the grass, and the train moves on its very own steel path. Now we’re outside the city. Do you see that hut? That’s where the signalman lives. A lot of trains stop there, and he waves them on with a little flag. See, not far from his hut”—she pointed to a small, dark house that stood a few dozen steps from the hut—“that’s where we live. We’ll be home very soon.”
The sand became deeper. Small, sharp pebbles got into their shoes, and the walk grew harder and harder. The smoke from the train began to disperse, leaving behind a heavy smell.
Aunt Matilda led them onto a smooth path. From there they could see the train tracks, which lay like long, sharp swords that sparkled in the sun.
“Before you cross the tracks you have to look carefully in both directions. Do you know why?” Matilda asked them.
“Because a train might be coming,” they both answered together.
“Yes, you have to be very careful, because a train can come by without warning.”
And just as they were standing there, they again heard a loud chugging. This time a train with an endless number of cars crawled slowly past. Hundreds of chickens and ducks looked out from some of the cars. The chickens blinked at them without making a sound, but the ducks made so much noise that they could be heard for miles. Emil and Karl laughed out loud. Even the sorry-looking chickens made them laugh. In the last few cars there were some horses. They held their heads stiffly, their eyes showing no sign of curiosity—they didn’t even look around to see where they were. Only one young pony neighed, as if it were sneezing because something got into its nostrils.
“It’s a freight train. That’s why it’s moving so slowly,” Matilda said. “Only passenger trains go fast; chickens and ducks and horses travel slowly.”
In front of the signal hut stood an old man with a cap pulled down over his eyes. He waved a flag up and down. People stuck their heads out from a few of the cars. They looked just as bored as the horses. They exchanged a few idle words with the signalman as the train moved slowly by. One of them laughed, but his laughter was dry and smoky, like the thick, heavy smoke from the locomotive.
Emil and Karl followed Aunt Matilda with tired footsteps and looked longingly at the freight train and its dingy cars.
The path to the second house went uphill a bit. From there the freight train looked like a contorted giant, doubled over with a stomachache.
Aunt Matilda knocked on the door several times. When it opened, Karl froze in place, unable to move. Emil gasped, his throat tightening with fear and surprise.
There in the doorway stood the very same man, the one with the scruffy red hair and the curly beard, who’d been in the crowd at the park laughing and shouting Heil. He no longer had on his jacket, but he was still wearing the same tight, short pants that came to the top of his knees.
When he saw Emil and Karl, he blinked his watery blue eyes. But straight away he puffed up his cheeks and yelled, “Heil! Heil!”
Emil was so terrified that he almost raised his hand in salute, but it wouldn’t budge. Karl held on to Aunt Matilda.
The red-haired man burst into his coarse laugh that ended in a shriek, but this time it lasted longer and sounded pleasant, like the laughter of a child.
“He’s harmless. He doesn’t bother anyone. He won’t do you any harm. He loves children very much. He’s a child himself, a grown-up child.”
The red-haired man puffed up his cheeks and popped them with his fists, as if they were balloons. He danced and sang and shouted, “This is good! This is good!”
The children began to get used to him, but each time that he puffed up his cheeks, squinted his eyes, and shouted “Heil,” they became sad. The Heil reminded Karl of the brown uniforms of the storm troopers. Emil became completely confused and didn’t know what to do. Meanwhile, Matilda began to set the table in the main room of the house. On the right was a narrow little room, and off to the left was another small room that had no windows and was completely dark.
The red-haired man lifted Karl all the way up to the ceiling, and as he held him up, he asked, “Name?”
“Karl,” Karl answered.
He took hold of Emil and lifted him up as well.
Emil didn’t wait for the question and said his name right away.
The red-haired man sat down and started repeating their names over and over again. When he said “Karl” he pointed his finger at Karl, and pointed at Emil when he said his name. Somewhere along the way he got mixed up and called Karl “Emil.” This made the boys laugh, and they taught him their names again. The red-haired man’s face grew serious, and he followed their instructions.
When at last he had repeated their names four or five times without making a mistake, he was so excited that he started dancing again and shouted, “This is good, this is good!” Then, in a blink of an eye the tall, heavy man stood on his head and began to kick with his feet, as if he were about to fall over, but he made a quick somersault and stood up.
Karl laughed loudly and tried to imitate him. Emil stood nearby, watching happily.
Aunt Matilda laughed along with them.
“Didn’t I tell you that you’d have a good time?”
At the table the red-haired man started to get their names mixed up again. He pronounced Karl’s name “Sharl,” and he kept calling Emil “Shlemil.” Suddenly, as he was eating, his mouth full of food, he banged on the table so hard that the plates rattled.
“My name! My name,” he shouted, “is Hans! Hans!”
“Uncle Hans!” Emil and Karl sang out.
“Uncle! Uncle!” The red-haired man danced with glee. “Uncle!”
It made him so happy to hear the boys call him Uncle that he flipped over and stood on his head again. Standing on his head, he let out a whistle like a locomotive. Emil and Karl really thought that a train had just passed by the house.