Proletarian Hearts: Part Two

Chapter One

"Hmm," Adolf said, "very interesting."

"What is it?" Otto asked immediately.

"Give me a second to understand it first; then I'll tell you."

"Alright, then."

Adolf was reading a letter that he got from their local Viennese Post, where the two friends rented a letter box as they waited for the results of the lawsuit with Reinhold. Otto was hoping that it was a letter of good news.

"Alright, I think I understand it, although the writing is somewhat . . . what's the appropriate word?" Adolf remarked as his mind searched for the word in question.

"Stale?"

"Something like that!" Adolf smirked as he handed Otto the letter.

Otto wasted no time in reading it. His friend was right; the prose was unnecessarily complicated, filled with strange sentence grammar and archaic words that are not commonly used in verbal speech: the hallmark of a letter written in legalese.

"Alright," Otto said after a few moments, "I think that I understand what it means."

"Does it mean that we are going to get some money?"