“Property and mastery: nothing else counts. Earth will be monetized until all trees grow in straight lines, three people own all seven continents, and every living organism is bred to be slaughtered.”
“One of the compensations for wearing a uniform and earning less money than an equally talented man can make in the real world is the off chance of being killed.”
Together, they flee by bicycle, because all the neighbours have already left. They meet chaos on the roads. Uli collapses with his bicycle and is run over by a car and killed. Janna-Berta, in shock, is taken to the station in Bad Hersfeld.
“Yes, I’m afraid it’s true, Amaryllis. Your father was killed. It happened in a timber accident, in New Guinea. It’s dangerous work, timber milling. I want you to know you have my deepest sympathy. I’ll be happy to do all I can for you. As a friend, you know, my dear, not just as a solicitor.”
″‘I was kidnapped by a huge octopus, whose prisoner I now am,’ said the king’s daughter. ‘Flee before it returns. But note that for three hours a day it changes into a red mullet and can be caught. But you have to kill the mullet at once, or it will change into a sea gull and fly away.‘”
“Nick’s always putting his foot in it. He’s not been awfully bright since the bomb fell. It killed his parents, and he was dug out of the ruins himself. So can you wonder? Still, we liked him all right. After all, it took guts to come and play on the very spot where it had happened.”
“By tonight,” Jokubas answered, “they will all be killed and cut up; and over there on the other side of the packing houses are more railroad tracks, where the cars come to take them away.”