The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
-
Day05
The Boy in the Striped
Pajamas
Chapter Four (2)
What They Saw Through the Window
There
wasn't
any
grass
after
the
fence;
in
fact
there
was
no
greenery
anywhere
to
be
seen
in
the
distance.
Instead
the
ground
was
made
of
a
sand-like
substance, and as far as she could make out there
was nothing but
low
huts
and
large
square
buildings
dotted
around
and
one
or
two
smoke
stacks in the distance.
She opened her mouth to say
something, but when she did she realized that
she couldn't find any words to express
her surprise, and so she did the only
sensible thing she could think of and
closed it again.
'You see?' said Bruno
from the corner of the room, feeling quietly
pleased with
himself
because
whatever
it
was
that
was
out
there
—
and
whoever
they
were
—
he had seen
it first and he could see it whenever he wanted
because
they
were
outside
his
bedroom
window
and
not
hers
and
therefore
they
belonged to him and he
was the king of everything they surveyed and she
was
his lowly subject.
'I don't understand,' said Gretel. 'Who
would build such a nasty-looking place?'
'It is a nasty-looking place, isn't
it?' agreed Bruno.
'I think those huts
have only one floor too. Look how low they are.'
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'They
must
be
modern
types
of
houses,'
said
Gretel.
'Father
hates
modern
things.' 'Then he
won't like them very much,' said Bruno.
'No,' replied
Gretel.
She
stood
still
for a
long
time
staring
at
them.
She
was
twelve
years
old
and
was
considered
to
be
one
of
the
brightest
girls
in
her
class, so she squeezed her lips
together and narrowed her eyes and forced
her brain to understand what she was
looking at. Finally she could think of only
one explanation.
'This must be the countryside,' said
Gretel, turning round to look at her brother
triumphantly.
'The countryside?'
'Yes,
it's the only explanation, don't you see? When
we're at home, in Berlin,
we're in the
city. That's why there are so many people and so
many houses
and the schools are full
and you can't make your way through the centre of
town on a Saturday afternoon without
getting pushed from pillar to post.'
'Yes…' said Bruno, nodding his head,
trying to keep up.
'But
we
learned
in
geography
class
that
in
the
countryside,
where
all
the
farmers are and the animals, and they
grow all the food, there are huge areas
like
this
where
people
live
and
work
and
send
all
the
food
to
feed
us.'
She
looked out of the window
again at the huge area spread out before her and
the
distances
that
existed
between
each
of
the
huts.
'This
must
be
it.
It's
the
countryside. Perhaps
this is our holiday home,' she added hopefully.
Bruno thought about it and shook his
head. 'I don't think so,' he said with great
conviction.
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'You're nine,' countered
Gretel. 'How
would you know? When you
get to my
age you'll understand these
things a lot better.'
'That might be
so,' said Bruno, who knew that he was younger but
didn't agree
that that made him less
likely to be right, 'but if this is the
countryside like you
say it is, then
where are all the animals you're talking about?'
Gretel opened her mouth to answer him
but couldn't think of a suitable reply,
so she looked out of the window again
instead and peered around for them,
but
they were nowhere to be seen.
'There should be cows and pigs and
sheep and horses,' said Bruno. 'If it was a
farm, I mean. Not to mention chickens
and ducks.'
'And there aren't any,'
admitted Gretel quietly.
'And
if
they
grew
food
here,
like
you
suggested,'
continued
Bruno,
enjoying
himself
enormously,
'then
I
think
the
ground
would
have
to
look
a
lot
better
than
that, don't you? I don't think you could grow
anything in all that dirt.'
Gretel
looked at it again and nodded, because she was not
so silly as to insist
on being in the
right all the time when it was clear the argument
stood against
her.
'Perhaps it's not a farm then,' she
said.
'It's not,' agreed Bruno.
'Which means this mightn't be the
countryside,' she continued.
'No, I
don't think it is,' he replied.
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