#konundrum

It was very early in the morning, the streets were clean and deserted, I was on my way to the train station. When I compared the time on a clock tower with that on my pocket watch and realized that it was already much later than I thought, I really had to rush, the shock at this discovery made me suddenly uncertain as to the right direction, I didn’t yet know my way all that well in this city. Fortunately, spotting a policeman nearby, I ran up to him and breathlessly asked him the way.

He smiled and said: “You want me to tell you the way?”

“Yes,” I said, “since I can’t figure it out for myself.”

“Give it up, give it up,” he said, and turned away with a great swing of the body like people who want to be alone with their laughter.

from Konundrum - Selected-Prose by Franz-Kafka