Tuesday, September 20, 2016

An Everyday Occurence

Can anyone tell me who wrote this piece?
It is thought provoking.
Particularly certain parts.



AN everyday occurrence: the enduring of it a matter of everyday heroism. 

A has an important deal to conclude with B from the neighbouring village of H. 
He goes to H for the preliminary discussion, gets there and back in ten minutes each way, and at home boasts of this unusual rapidity. 

The next day he goes to H again, this time for the final settlement of the deal; since this is likely to take several hours, A sets out early in the morning; but although all the attendant circumstances, at least in A’s opinion, are exactly the same as on the previous day, this time it takes him ten hours to get to H. When he arrives there weary in the evening, he is told that B, annoyed at A’s failure to arrive, has gone across to A’s village half an hour ago, they ought to have met each other on the way. A is advised to wait, B is sure to be back soon. But A, anxious about the deal, at once sets out again and hurries home. 

This time, without particularly noticing the fact, he covers the distance in no more than an instant. At home he is informed that B had actually arrived there early in the day, even before A’s departure, indeed that he had met A on the doorstep and reminded him about the deal, but A had said he had no time just then, he had to go off at once on a matter of urgency. 

In spite of this incomprehensible behaviour on A’s part, however, B had nevertheless remained here to wait for A. It was true that he had already inquired many times whether A was not back yet, but he was still upstairs in A’s room. Happy at still being able to see B now and explain everything to him, A runs upstairs. He is almost at the top when he stumbles, strains a tendon, and, almost fainting with pain, incapable even of crying out, just whimpering there in the dark, he sees and hears how B – he is not sure whether a great distance off or just close to him – stamps down the stairs in a fury and disappears for good.

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