Chapter 4 No.4

Then the stench from the hall became noticeable to him again and the fog of despair in his head swelled so strongly that the young man thought about killing himself.

He mused about operating the bad thoughts and concerns under his skullcap with a heavy-calibered shotgun which would completely spread his brain over the yellowed wallpaper behind his bedstead. And Frank Kohlhaas still thought about many other things in this terrible night.

He brooded over his so far senseless life, the isolation, the monotonousness and the gaping abyss that waited for him now. Frank came to no solution in this night and not even the smallest glimmer of hope seemed to shine somewhere. Nothing. Outside it was dark. In front of the house, Frank could recognize a few ripped garbage bags, which already lay there since several weeks. Then he was finally so tired, that he fell asleep with his head on the window sill.

Up to the end of the week, the search for a new job was unsuccessful – as he had already expected it. It seemed that there was no more work at all, in the periphery of several kilometers. Furthermore, a inquiry at the local administration had proven that Frank had meanwhile a negative entry in his Scanchip register, because of ?disturbance of peace at the workplace".

?Perhaps, the idea with the shotgun is not too bad at all! But before that, I will visit this Sasse!", grumbled Frank on Friday, when the short weekend for his former colleagues of the production complex 42-B began.

On Saturday and Sunday, he invested his last Globes in the cheap liquor from the kiosk at the corner. Alone in his small, modestly furnished apartment, in the dark block of flats, in a much darker time. His fate and his pain was not noticed by anyone else. Just like Frank Kohlhaas had never noticed the pain of the others who lifed their lives in their honeycombs, behind the shabby, gray walls of this plattenbau.

If he would drink himself to death or blew his head away, he would soon smell like the corridor on his floor, and it would probably not even been noticed by his neighbors. This thought was somehow so sick that it elecited Frank a tormented smile.

Hard alcohol had not the best reputation, but one thing was clear: It had already given millions of desperate people a good sleep. No concern could be so big, that it couldn`t be drowned in a wave of the good and, above all, cheap booze from the nearby kiosk. Frank checked this old truth in a "self-experiment".

?Beep! Beep! Beep!", it resounded on Monday at 6.30 o'clock in the morning from the kitchen, where the drunk man had forgotten his Scanchip. ?Beep! Beep! Beep!"

An electronic woman`s voice always repeated...

?Good morning, citizen 1-564398B-278843! You have a message of priority level alpha on your Scanchip!"

?Good morning, citizen 1-564398B-278843! You have a message of priority level alpha on your Scanchip!"

?Good morning, citizen 1-564398B-278843! You have a

Message of priority level alpha on your Scanchip!"

?Hmmm...", hummed Frank, still a bit dazed from the night before.

?Damn! What?", he muttered and rolled out of his bed which still smelled of alcohol.

?What the hell? Damn! Shut up!", he grunted and walked with a bad headache to the kitchen table.

It lasted a little eternity until Frank had remembered the pin code and had found his way through the message-menu of the Scanchip.

"What...?"

"Citation? What?", whispered citizen 1-564398B-278843. He had to read it twice, in order to believe it. Did somebody try to kid him?

?What the fuck is that?", he could only say.

Official citation:

Citizen 1-564398B-278843, You are officially cited to an automated trial on 14.08.2027 at 8.00 o'clock.

Accusations:

Massive disturbation at the workplace

Theoretical aggravated battery

Appear at the mentioned time in court cell 4/211, at your local juridical complex. In the case of nonappearance, you will be punished with the deletion of your Scanchip or arrest! (*§127b, ?Citizen Obligations and theoretical Sanctions")

Official document code: 257789000-0100567-2345441113-EGN-59900-4/211

Culprit number: 319444-556.77

Thank you for your cooperation!

Frank`s atomised brain began to hurt and to rotate. ?Citation? What do you want from me?"

He was totally confused and couldn`t remember any crimes in his past life.

?Just because I`ve yelled at this damned Sasse?", he thought. ?This can`t be true! I finally did not touch him. I have just lost control for some seconds. I don`t understand this. And what the hell do they mean with ?theoretical aggravated battery"?"

And there was no doubt. Frank Kohlhaas, the helping out citizen with the official code 1-564398B-278843, had never done something bad to another person. Except for the time in the kindergarten, back then, as he had given this stupid Kevin a little slap and his parents had been called to the authorithies. The local education officials had briefly become anxiously and had explanied that Frank would have some ?subliminal aggressions" and a ?precarious masculine behavior". Then they had suggested a therapy with tranquilizers.

But this was many years ago. Furthermore, the therapy could be avoided, after the child had repetend its "sins" in front of a committee of psychologists and social pedagogues, and his parents had insured, that they would immediately report Frank`s next "crimes", if he would become noticeable again in this context.