Quote from All Instruments of Measurement as to why Johannes Deiter makes me headdesk on a regular basis
“They are both dead.” Mirek answers his unspoken question and Johannes tries not to sigh. He doesn’t want this conversation to go like this. “My father when I was small. My mother. I don’t know. I haven’t seen her. You killed her.”
Johannes feels a sort of kick in his stomach and his world shifts horribly under his feet, the prelude to real panic. He doesn’t think… He was always guarding the men’s section of the camp… But there was that woman, the one in the headscarf caught trying to steal soup. And the other, which he’d thought was a gypsy, trying to escape. Then the woman handing out the soup in Morowitz- more and more images dredged up from where he’d cast them away as useless. He hadn’t thought he’d killed so many females. “I don’t-““Not you.” And Johannes lets his breath out slowly. It’s a staggering relief. He wouldn’t have forgiven himself if he’d killed Mirek’s mother. “Just you. Nazis. SS. In the ghetto.”
*facepalm* *facepalm* *facepalm* Congratulation Johannes, you have won the gold medal at the 'Missing the point completely' olympics. I love the bastard, but grief.
Me and a friend, talking about our characters:
Friends: So, this Johannes, is he a good guy or bad guy?
Me:... Um... (so impossible to answer that one. It's hard to lable him a bad guy, but it's blinking IMPOSSIBLE to say he's a good guy!)... He's an idiot.
Never a truer word was spoken.
35051 / 50000 words. 70% done!