Ben asks a question
"Don't pick your nose, you Indian," Mother says. She always says that when he picks his nose. And every time Ben thinks that he has never read a story where an Indian picks his nose. Mother has quite the wrong idea about Indians. When he's thinking, he sometimes thinks with his nose. Mother knows that too. Now she's got him all mixed up.
"Now I've forgotten what I was thinking," he grumbles.
"Then it won't have been so important," says Mother. "Besides, a guy who's about to turn ten shouldn't be picking his nose."
"I even know fifty-year-olds who do that."
"Oh, now you listen."
"Uncle Gerhard!"
Mother turns away from him and Ben knows she is laughing. But in a moment she plays the stern one again. But she finds it so difficult that she knocks over the salt shaker on the table.
"You can't just say that," she says.
"Yes, Grete," Ben answers. He and Holger call Mother Grete. Father calls her Gretel.
"Always you have to argue," Mother says.
...
After they have finished, Ben asks quietly, "Hey, Holger, tell me, what's it like to have a crush?"
Holger, who is about to go to his room, stops, comes back, and gets excited. After a while he says: "Are you beeping, dwarf?" [translation note: I cannot figure out the German pun that's likely going on. Orig. »Du, Holger, sag mal, wie is’n das, wenn man verknallt ist?«
Holger, der gerade in sein Zimmer gehen will, bleibt stehn, kommt zurück, macht es spannend. Nach einer Weile sagt er: »Piept’s bei dir, Zwerg?« Possibly something with the verbs verknallt sein and piepen?]
Holger always calls him a dwarf when he can show off his age.
Ben presses his lips together.
Holger realizes he's made a mistake and puts his hand on Ben's shoulder.
"Didn't mean it that way. Real crush?" he asks.
Ben nods. He can't say anything more. Holger would only scoff, after all.
"Do I know her?" asks Holger.
"No!" Ben almost shouts.
"Well," Holger says, "when you have a crush, you think about the girl all the time. And it's like you have a stomachache. For real."
What Holger says was actually true. Ben feels his stomach tighten, or his chest. Or how everything hurts him a little in general. Maybe it was just his imagination.
Ben shoves the chair back against Holger's knees. "Ouch!" cries Holger. "You're a dumbass. First you almost cry and now..."
"Leave me alone," says Ben, hastily gathering up his notebook, book and writing materials, snatching the bag from the table and disappearing into his room. He turns his tape player up really loud. He bites back the crying.
He would love to go over to Holger. But he can't after the noise. He gets Trudi the guinea pig out of her crate and strokes her. When Trudi feels
particularly good, she starts to whistle. Now she whistles.
...
Anna had been new to the class at the beginning of the fourth year. Mr. Seibmann, the class teacher, had pushed her through the door in front of him one morning and said:
"This is your new classmate. Her name is Anna Mitschek. Be nice to her. She's only been in Germany for half a year. Before that she lived with her parents in Poland."
Everything was weird about Anna.
She wasn't wearing jeans, but a too long, old-fashioned dress. She had only one braid and even that was too long. She was pale and thin and sniffling.
Ben thought Anna was hideous. A few started giggling.
"Behave yourselves," said Mr. Seibmann. He sat Anna next to Katja at the table and Katja immediately moved a little away from Anna. Anna pretended not to notice all this.
Ben thought Anna didn't fit into the class. He looked at her again. Then she lifted her head and looked at him. He cringed. She had huge brown eyes, they were tremendously sad. He had never seen eyes like that before. He didn't know what made him think she was sad either. He thought, "You can't have eyes like that. They frighten you." He stopped looking.