C4 antho - Chamber Four

~290~ The Chamber Four Fiction Anthology
Not much happened during the meeting in terms of company
business. But several important psychological or interpersonal
things took place, and Joseph marveled at how
curious they were, and how lucky he was to be here to witness
these intimate workings of an executive office―without
having to suffer from any very significant attachment to the
questions being discussed. First, the railcar system went unmentioned.
Joseph felt fairly deep loyalty on this point and
scratched out a reminder to tell Herr Halsa about the project
as soon as the überboss left. Second, he noticed the obvious:
the disappointment that caused Herr Halsa’s eyes to shift
nervously just ten minutes into the meeting, after the anecdotes
and jokes and hellos. Charismatic Herr Doktor Hühne
began to ask questions and guide the conversation―no
guest-playing for him―and it became only too obvious that
the written agenda would go unfollowed. Herr Doktor Hühne
would have no chance to see, though tomorrow was another
day, how tightly his next-in-command ran this important
subsidiary.
Joseph, meantime, was smiling and nodding. He
couldn’t understand half of what was being said, the quick
Bavarian retorts, the irony-drenched allusions to who knows
what. But no matter. Joseph was the company translator
and, with that credential, a fully vested German speaker.
Even his mother said he wasn’t a very good listener―how
could anyone expect one hundred per cent comprehension
here, where the salesmen were discussing technical matters
foreign to Joseph even in English? Why should he squint or
shrug or ask the others to repeat themselves when silence
and a few well-timed laughs would carry him through?
Herr Doktor Hühne had worked himself into a bluster
over the notion of Handwerk. Joseph took a few disjointed
notes, hoping to record this fascinating paradox without
scrambling it. No matter how many “machines” assemble