Buttons (from the Munich Tales)

BUTTONS
By Michael Kroetch

He was from a different place. He had not been here long and still had many of the ways of doing things from where he had been before. Even his clothes were different. They had many extra buttons on them and in places people from here would never put buttons. He also spoke louder than people were used to speaking and made gestures with his arms that frightened them. Their words were new to him as well, and came out of his mouth all lopsided and broken sounding. Sometimes he seemed not to have any idea what he was saying or even how to do the simplest of things. Because of this, people were often puzzled by his behavior and became nervous if he came near them. If they saw him out walking on the street, they would often try to avoid him by crossing to the other side or by quickly entering a store as refuge. It was not that they did not like him or wished him ill, it was just that his clothes had all those extra buttons and in such strange places. Someone said all the extra buttons sewn into his clothes must mean something. Perhaps he was hiding something. Could be something dangerous. They ended up discussing the possibilities of what was behind the buttons for many days. During this time none of them spoke to him or dared to look at the buttons on his clothes. They grew ever more afraid of him and what his intentions might be. It had become quite apparent to them that he was anything but a positive presence in their lives and that he was making it more and more difficult for them to get through their daily routines. Something had to be done about him. They had to think of the children. They had to think about a lot of things. But what they tried not to think about was how different he was with his buttons, because they had already agreed among themselves that thinking about him and the buttons was bad. Better to think about a nice sunny day and walking in the park and looking at the trees and enjoying the sounds of the birds. But of course when they tried to do this, they could not. Him and the buttons were ruining everything! Someone proposed the idea that they grab hold of him by force, the lot of them, and pluck the buttons off the extra places on his clothes where the buttons served no obvious purpose except to cause trouble. This course of action seemed radical and extreme at first, but when considered seriously came to be seen as the only realistic alternative. In the process of achieving their goal, things went differently than they had expected. They did not anticipate that they would lose control and begin to beat and kick him once they had him subdued on the ground. After it was over, they held his buttons in their hands while his body lay there motionless. Inert. They did not know whether to be happy to have the buttons or not. Some kept their button as a trophy and pinned it on the wall, others burned their button. His body was not touched.