"From here the carriages would pick the people up and there was always the same fragrance in the air, the fragrance of the transition from the town to the country, and from the station to the enchanted Badenheim. There were no carriages now, but the fragrance still lingered in the air, mingled with an intoxicating dampness.
And suddenly the sky opened and light broke out of the heavens. The valley in all its glory and the hills scattered about filled with the abundance, and even the trembling, leafless trees standing wrerchedly at the edge of the station seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.
(...)
The light poured from the low hills directly onto the station platform. There was nowhere to hide. 'Come and see, everybody!' Mitzi suddenly cried, in an affected feminine voice. A little distance away, as if on an illuminated tray, a man was walking with two armed policemen behind him. They came closer as if they were being borne on the light.
'Peter, Peter!' shouted the hotel owner in relief.
Peter.
But their amazement was cut short. An engine, an engine coupled to four filthy freight cars, emerged from the hills and stopped at the station. Its appearance was as sudden as if it had risen from a pit in the ground. 'Get in!' yelled invisible voices. And the people were sucked in. Even those who were standing with a bottle of lemonade in their hands, a bar of chocolate, the headwaiter with his dog - they were all sucked in as easily as grains of wheat poured into a funnel. Nevertheless Dr Pappenheim found time to make the following remark: 'If the coaches are so dirty it must mean that we have not far to go.'"
Appelfeld, Badenheim 39, (tr.) Penguin Modern Classics, 2005, pp. 146-148.
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