My Best Friend…
- Campbell feels the need to explain about the motorcycle he stole. It belonged to his best bud in Germany, Heinz Schildlnecht. They played ping-pong, drank together, and shared their darkest secrets.
- Big secret shared by Heinz: I heart my motorbike more than my dead wife.
- Campbell: Say it ain't so.
- Heinz: It's so.
- The evidence? Heinz wouldn't quit smoking for his wife, and he even sold all of her stuff for cigarettes. When someone offered him 4,000 cigarettes for the bike, he quit smoking.
- Turns out Heinz's wife was kind of a grump who valorized Nazis and their success, so Campbell wasn't too fond of her.
- Anyway, Campbell asks Heinz if he can borrow the motorcycle to visit Noth.
- Heinz: What's mine is yours.
- Campbell zooms away, and Heinz never sees either Campbell or his bike again.
- We're not sure if this cleared anything up for us.
- Here's what's on the bonus track to this chapter:
- 1) Campbell lets us know he's asked the Haifa Institute for information about where Heinz ended up. Answer: Ireland.
- 2) Campbell gives a loving shout-out to his friend Heinz. (Recall that this novel is supposed to be Campbell writing his memoir.)