Beggarman, Thief [antikvár]

CHAPTER 1 m From Billy Abbott's notebook— I am worthless, Monika says. She says it only half-seriously. Monika, on the other hand, is not demonstrably worthless. Being in love with her undoubtedly clouds my vision of her. More about that later. She asked me once what I write in this notebook. I told her that the Colonel keeps saying we here in NATO are on the firing line of civilization. It is important for future generations, I told her, to know what it was like to be on the firing line of civilization in Brussels in the second half of the twentieth century. Maybe some dusty, irradiated scholar will dig around in the ruins of the city and come upon this notebook, charred a little around the edges and perhaps stiff with the rusty stains of my blood, and be grateful to Wm. Abbott, Junior, for his