A security guard feels slighted.
Promoting violence, I am told. When an unhoused woman asks me for a light and I grant her request, hotel security tells me that one cannot just do that. Well then, promoting violence, of course. It is apparently obvious. They say it is hotel property, even though I was actually standing on the sidewalk, around the corner from the hotel. Public place, I say. I was leaning against the hotel façade, he claims, he saw it, that makes it hotel property. A bold lie. I know I will not win this conflict. Rarely have I ever been this furious. Rarely this stunned. So now there exists a report somewhere in this hotel. The alleged offense: handing someone a lighter.No time for that anymore. The final reading is coming up. One last time we do it well and feel glad. Then we high‑five. I think we even high‑five a second time. A third time would have been justified, too. Then relief. Finally relief.
The views expressed in this text are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the Goethe-Institut.