Dann kam sein Besucher doch noch. Nun liegt er da mit Sahne um den Mund, ich gehe schnell, bevor der Notarzt kommt, ich höre die Sirene schon.
Everyone rushed over quickly. The old man had collapsed, simply fallen off his chair. Today, I had been sitting at a small table opposite him in this café, where I had sought refuge from the afternoon heat. He had been there yesterday too, and I had to look away again and again because it disgusted me to watch him eat cake, but then I had to look again, fascinated, until the disgust made it impossible again. Today, he had ordered two éclairs with lots of cream and candied orange zest, along with two coffees and two sets of cutlery. He had been standing next to me at the cash register after I had already paid and was waiting for my cappuccino. The staff seemed to know him. I then watched from my seat, curious to see if another person would join him. He began to carefully arrange the éclairs and cutlery in an obviously well-rehearsed sequence in which he ate one piece of cake after another, very slowly, cutting it with a knife and fork, putting it in his mouth, chewing, a napkin tucked into his shirt collar, gradually smearing half his face with cream and dough, smiling, indulging in his little excess. Today, too, I was ashamed to have to watch him, to be a witness to his lust, on the verge of going to another table. Then his visitor arrived after all. Now he lies there with cream around his mouth, I´m leaving quickly before the emergency doctor arrives, I can already hear the siren. Ihre Aufmerksamkeit wurde auf ein Stück Papier auf dem Schreibtisch gelenkt. Es war unverkennbar seine Handschrift. Steil, elegant, filigran, unverkennbar zeugend von einem starken Willen, und entschlossen zur Schönheit. Geh weg, lass mich, schrie es in ihrem Inneren. Sie hatte das nicht erwartet.
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