32. On the edge

I went to see Markus in his office on the Monday. He had said he wanted to ask me a few questions about a translation I had done for him. They were straightforward — I just needed to clarify some of my word choices — and I was about to leave when he asked if I had a minute. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Sure,” I said, wondering what it could be and hoping that I wasn’t going to get fired — my first thought whenever anyone in a position of authority wanted to talk to me.

Markus got up and closed the door, making me more nervous. I had never seen the door to his office shut.

“It’s about the Professor,” he said wearily, sitting down in his chair. My first reaction was relief in that it wasn’t about me. But then I remembered my conversation with Jasmilla and felt irritated? Why was everyone suddenly obsessed with the Professor?

“I’m rather worried about him,” Markus continued, and my irritation was replaced with concern. Was the Professor ill?

“He’s been acting strangely later. I was wondering if you know anything about it. You’re quite close to him, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know, he keeps himself pretty much to himself,” I said. “What kind of strangely?”

“People have seen him around the office at all kinds of odd hours. We think he sleeps here sometimes” — I thought of the campbed in his office — “so he’s obviously putting in too many hours. That wouldn’t necessarily be a problem in itself, but his work is suffering. He’s been missing deadlines — something he never used to do — and handing in sloppy work, again something which is unusual for him. He’s also been rather irritable with the staff — not that he was ever very friendly, mind you. He snapped at Ana the other day and she came to me in tears, poor thing.”

“Do you think Henk might fire him?” I asked, half concerned about my author’s credit in the encyclopaedia, half hoping someone would take the Professor off my hands.

“God, no,” said Markus. “This is Germany, remember. Workers here have got so many rights that you practically have to murder someone before they can fire you. Apart from that, Henk needs the Professor. Without him, Wissenwelt wouldn’t exist. Mind you, the Professor needs Henk too. He would never be able to find such a good job elsewhere, what with his reputation being tainted by his past in the GDR. They might not like each other very much –”

“You can say that again,” I interjected.

“– but they both know they need each other to survive. Anyway, I’m worried that the Professor has over-stretched himself. What if he has a nervous breakdown? I like him and I don’t want to see that happen. Will you help me keep any eye on him?”

“Of course.” Now I felt worried too. The thought of the Professor getting ill made me realise just how much I liked him.

“Great. We may have to try to persuade him to go to the doctor, or at least take some time off, if things get any worse.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” I said.