By now, all three children were in tears. The cameraman’s remarks had also caused uproar in the living room. The gap between the seven-year-old’s front teeth was clearly visible in close-up. He never stopped crying. This prompted the man behind the camera to warn the boys that they must not interrupt the proceedings by indulging in exaggerated emotional outbursts. In particular, it was imperative that they answer his questions. Their replies must not be impaired by sobbing or vocal distortions occasioned by despair.
A cut ensued. The clock in the top right corner of the screen now showed 0:48.
Eva helped herself to a heaped handful of chips. Some of them escaped from her fingers and cascaded down her white T-shirt, which bore the legend, “Morning Star.” Heinrich called her a greedy pig. Eva greeted this jocular rebuke expressionlessly and without looking at anyone.
The cameraman was just instructing the gap-toothed brother to climb a tree.
Oh no, said Eva, here it comes.
The boy jibbed. He complied only when the camera voice explained that having his abdominal cavity slit open and then salted would be an extremely unpleasant experience for his hog-tied brother to undergo and that this would be promptly put into effect in the event of further resistance on his part. Bawling, he climbed the tree with the second brother’s assistance. The camera also recorded his ascent.
Once he had reached the top of the tree and the other boy had returned to the ground, the camera voice instructed him to jump when ordered to. The resulting cries of anguish and protest from the treetop were graphically illustrated by a close-up. Then the camera panned to the hog-tied boy. The man asked him how it felt to know that his brother was about to rejoin them in free fall and what his chances of survival would be after a descent from approximately forty-five feet.
The hog-tied boy wept. He referred to the possibility of vengeance on the part of his father, whom he claimed to be extremely tall and strong. The cameraman took note of this with evident interest. He asked exactly what his father would do on receiving news of his brother’s death, not forgetting to add that this question possessed only theoretical importance. Why? Because his father would meet an even more terrible fate unless the brothers obeyed every order given them by him, the cameraman, to his complete satisfaction.
He also asked the long-haired boy how it felt to be about to lose a brother.
It felt quite awful, was the reply. Wasn’t there any way of preventing this adverse development? There was one, the cameraman responded: The going rate for a brother’s life was one eye. The long-haired boy must poke out his hog-tied brother’s eye with a stick — not with a single thrust, but by drilling it out good and proper. The boy thus addressed replied that he didn’t want to do this and made a renewed plea to be released from captivity, together with his brothers. This request was rejected.
The cameraman then asked the gap-toothed brother how he proposed to jump. Would he push off vigorously with his legs or simply fall? One should always opt for the elegant as opposed to the ungraceful, he said. Whimpers were the sole response.
The cameraman inquired about (a) the view from the tree and (b) the prospect of leaping to one’s death. For the umpteenth time, the boy up the tree screamed that he was feeling ill and would rather not jump. The man commanded him to do so and instructed him to perform a telemark, like a ski jumper.
Eva rose, saying she couldn’t watch this. Her statement was registered in silence by the rest of those present. She set off in the direction of the kitchen. A moment later, we heard the sound of running water.
Weeping, the gap-toothed brother shook his head. This the cameraman took as an occasion to mention the knife in his hand (it was not visible), compel the hog-tied brother to bare his stomach, and call to the boy in the tree that the unpleasant operation was imminent and the salt ready and that today would demand exceptional efforts on the cameraman’s part because, if the gap-toothed boy persisted in his refusal, he would have to operate on his mother’s stomach and spine as well.
After the order to jump had been repeated several times, a scream was heard from one of the children on the ground. The camera voice croaked that the operation would commence in ten seconds, so he must jump. Nothing would happen to him. If he didn’t, he would render everything still worse and more painful.
Five, four, three, two, one, counted the man.
Then we saw a shiny red sports car. After a moment’s surprise, we realized we were being treated to a commercial break.
I don’t believe this, Heinrich muttered.
My partner sighed and reached for the Soletti without a word.
We stared, unspeaking, at the screen for a good ten minutes. Eva came in and asked if it was over. On being told that the program would resume after the commercial break, she returned to the kitchen.
At last, we were back in the clearing. The man was counting: Five, four, three, two, one… On zero, the gap-toothed boy jumped, accompanied by the camera and his brothers’ cries of horror.
Suddenly, the screen went black. A dull thud was heard.
Some of those present in the living room groaned when the picture reappeared. The camera approached the gap-toothed boy, who was lying motionless on the ground. Before it went into close-up, there was another fade-out.
In the next scene, the clock in the corner of the screen said 1:31. The channel once more informed us by ticker that screening this video was not sensationalism, but a vain attempt to come to terms with an incomprehensible human tragedy.
The surviving boys were interviewed about their thoughts and feelings in respect of their brother’s demise. They did, however, display total passive resistance. This prompted Heinrich to remark that they might have been prepared to speak but were too traumatized to do so. My partner endorsed this view by slowly inclining her head.
We witnessed the long-haired brother vomiting.
My partner rose, saying she’d had quite enough of what we had seen so far and would sooner keep Eva company in the kitchen. She was feeling sick, she declared, and incapable of continuing to watch what was happening on the screen.
After she had left the room, Heinrich hurried over to some wooden shelves whose highest point was a half inch short of the ceiling and took out a videocassette. This he inserted in the appropriate video recorder, which was beneath the television set. He said he thought it fitting to respect the women’s sensitivity. Interested though he was in the subsequent course of events, he couldn’t disregard their desire for de-escalation. He would therefore record the rest of the program and we would watch it at a later stage, possibly with Eva and my partner, should they have recovered their mental equilibrium by then. I concurred with his assessment of the situation and expressed my approval of his course of action.
Once Heinrich had set the requisite controls, he turned the video machine on (the long-haired brother was still being sick) and the television off. I followed him into the kitchen. There he put his arms around Eva, who was crying. I took a green-and-red apple from the dresser and cut it in two. One half I sank my teeth in, the other I handed to my partner, who took my offering without a word. She directed some consoling remarks at Eva, then silence fell.
Heinrich broke it by suggesting a doubles at table tennis in order to steer our thoughts into different channels. Eva objected that she wasn’t currently capable of amusing herself in such a fashion. This prompted Heinrich to demand, in a peremptory tone of voice, that she cease to get worked up about the frightful things we’d seen and look on the bright side of life. My partner backed him up. After further influence had been brought to bear on Eva, whose nerves were shattered, she agreed to spend a few minutes in the table tennis room, whether in an active or passive capacity.