Peter Handke: The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick

He asked to have the change - in which there was not even one bill – put in an envelope and shoved the coins back under the partition. The official, in the same way he had lined up the piles earlier, stuffed the coins into an envelope and pushed the envelope back to Bloch.Bloch thought that if everybody asked to have their money put into envelopes, the savings bank would eventually go broke. They could do the same thing with everything they bought: maybe the heavy demand for packaging would slowly but surely drive businesses bankrupt? Anyway, it was fun to think about...

His ears were so sensitive that at times the cards didn’t fall but were slammed on the next table; and at the bar the sponge didn’t fall but slapped into the sink; and the landlady’s daughter, with clogs on her bare feet, didn’t walk through the barroom but clattered through the barroom; the wine didn’t flow but gurgled into the glasses; and the music didn’t play but boomed from the jukebox.