Black Ice (26 page)

He bowed his head and gave himself up to tears. He kneeled there for a long time, his hands in the damp cold sand, weeping quietly. His shoulders shook only now and then. He said, his chin on his chest: “You'll be ill, little boy.”

After a while he struggled up again. He tottered a few steps down the slope, stumbled and fell. He did
not try to break this fall. He fell with his face in the sand.

He raised his head and said: “Manny. Dear boy. Come along now. Let's go home.”

BITTER LEMON PRESS

 

First published in the United Kingdom in 2005 by
Bitter Lemon Press, 37 Arundel Gardens, London W11 2LW
Reprinted 2008

 

 

First published in German as
Glatteis
by Bastei Verlag Gustav H. Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach, 1982

© Diogenes Verlag AG Zurich, 2001 English translation © Anthea Bell, 2005

 

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced in any form or by any means without written
permission of the publisher

 

The moral right of Anthea Bell has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988

 

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

 

eISBN : 978-1-904-73890-9

 

Typeset by RefineCatch Limited, Broad Street, Bungay, Suffolk
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
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