In Another Country, and Besides

by Maxwell Jacobs

  I waited on the steps of the church. The forefinger and thumb of my left hand were still damp from praying so I stretched them out and let them dry in the sun.

  That evening while preparing dinner, I found that Maria had taken a bath. She came into the living room smelling clean and wonderfully fresh and her hair was stringy and wet. She sat down.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, seeing a frown on her face.

  “Not really,” she sighed. “My parents sent a telegram, saying that Roberto found where we are and is on his way to Zurich.”

  She got up from the table and picked up her glass of wine. Her hair was tied up in a knot.

  “Join me for a cigarette?” she asked.

  “Sure,” we walked out onto the terrace.

  “I have to keep an eye out,” I said, “I’m cooking us spaghetti.”

  “I’m not really hungry.”

  “No problem.”

  “I guess the concierge called the investigator back?” she said.

  “I don’t think Frau Fischer would do that.”

  “He could have seen us at the café or at the park. Maybe he even knew already and was just testing me. We really don’t know,’ I said.

  “True.”

  “Can we go away for a few days?” she asked.

  “Running away is not going to help the situation, Maria.”

  “I’m not running away, I just can’t deal with this right now and neither can Liv. We are just starting to become balanced again. I don’t want to see Roberto.”

  “Well, to be honest, I’m also not such a fan of seeing your crazy husband and explaining myself.”

  “So let’s go away somewhere,” she said, turning to me with bright, eyes. “We could drive to Lago di Como? It’s only a few hours from here, no?”

  “No,” I said quickly. “Let’s stay in Switzerland. Listen, are you sure you want to leave? He will be annoyed as hell that you guys are not here.”

  “Please, Harry?”

  “Very well, I’ll arrange something.”

  CHAPTER XIV

  AT SEVEN O’CLOCK the next morning, I put the last of the baggage into the car and went back upstairs to get Liv and Maria. It was a lovely bright day and not too cold.

  We started up through the city and out onto the highway with Lake Zurich below us to our left. The country was beautiful from the start.

  As we started climbing, we crossed a small bridge and the road winded back and forth on itself at every corner. One really felt like this was Switzerland.

  Around us stood tall stretches of brown and green mountains with snow at their peaks, and beyond we could see the road we would follow running up the mountainside. There were many pine trees and far-off forests on the hills building up toward the mountains. As the road climbed higher, the snow appeared and gathered on the trees and along the roadside. We came down out of the headlands and through a dark pine forest until we reached pastures where cattle grazed in open fields and deep, clear blue streams. We crossed another wooden bridge and went through a small village and then started to climb again.

  For a while the countryside was much as it had been. We ate sandwiches and drank cold coffee from a flask and watched the country out of the window. The fruits were just beginning to ripen and the fields were full of small dark patches of snow. The pastureland was still green, and there were fine trees, and sometimes big rivers and chateaux off in the distance.

  We climbed high and after some time we came out of the mountains and onto a straight road were big pine trees lined both sides. As the road went on I turned to Maria, happy to see her there by my side.

  “We are almost there darling,” I said.

  “Darling?” she replied, turning to me with a strange look.

  “Sorry,” I said quickly. “I forgot myself for a moment.”

  “Darling,” she smiled. “I like that.”

  We came into the town on the other side of the plateau, the road was slanting up steeply with pine trees on both sides and then leveling out through the new part of the town. I could see the hotel high up on a small hill overlooking the town of Engelberg. We slowly climbed up and then stopped in front of the hotel.

  The Hotel Terrace was situated on a south-facing slope, and had stunning views of the village, Mount Titlis and the Swiss Alps.

  “How do you know this village?’ Maria asked surprisingly.

  “Thomas, my editor recommended it. He used to come here before the war with his family. He is always talking about the place.”

  The porter came out and helped us with our baggage and there were some kids playing in front of the hotel, their parents watching from above. The air felt cool, the trees were green and there were many different flags hanging from their poles above the hotel.

  It was a nice hotel, and the people at the desk were very cheerful, we both had a good small room and it was nice to get into the room after the drive. I had booked two separate rooms that were joined together by a connecting door. Both rooms looked out over the town and had a great view of the mountains and the valley. We washed and cleaned, then went downstairs to the dining room for a late breakfast.

  There were two dining rooms at the Hotel Terrace. The one upstairs on the second floor, was a very elegant room with Victorian charm. The other was down on the reception level and was built as the main attraction of the hotel. It had a glass-enclosed terrace with great views. The terrace was not so much of a dining room, more of a place to have cocktails and food, but the temperature was right and we ordered a large Swiss breakfast.

  Liv ate well at first but got bored after a while and asked Maria if she could go play in the games room at the end of the hall.

  “Go on, sweetheart,” she said, and then we were left alone.

  “Well,” I said. “What do you think?”

  “I think it’s a nice hotel with great views, but I have a feeling that it was once a really great hotel and over the years they have changed it too much and has lost its early century charm.”

  “I think you might be right. Still the rooms are comfortable.”

  “Don’t get me wrong, Harry, I’m really grateful and happy to be here with you and Liv,” reaching out to take my hand. She held it for a moment. “So what’s the plan?” she asked, in an upbeat tone.

  “Good question,” I reached for the map and unraveled it and spread it out across the table.

  “I believe there’s a good walk from here that goes through the town and up into a valley,” following the route with my finger. “At the end there is supposedly a restaurant we could go to for lunch. It’s called Ende der Welt.”

  “How long will it take us to walk there?”

  “Depends on Liv, I guess.”

  “Well, if she gets tired she can always go on your shoulders. You know how she loves that.”

  “True,” I grinned.

  “So?”

  “So what?”

  “How long?”

  “Oh, I don’t know exactly,” poring over the map for a moment. “Maybe one hour, maybe two?”

  “I was thinking it was going to be around four hours or something.”

  “For sure not.”

  “Okay, I’ll get Liv and let’s go.”

  “I’ll meet you outside in some minutes,” I said and went back up to the room to get my cigarettes and a flask that I had filled with rosé wine and had put in the icebox to cool. I placed them in my backpack along with my folded-up fishing rod and when I came outside Maria and Liv were playing and running around the courtyard, trying to catch one another.

  By noon, the sun was out and it felt quite warm. I took my jacket off and put on my sunglasses. We walked through the town and stopped in some shops, where we bought a pack of cards and a bottle of water. Getting tired, Liv said, “Shoulders, shoulders!” She was raising her hands while looking up at me. I swept down and pulled her up.

  We made one last stop in the town for fishing bait as I saw on the map there was a deep stream running parallel to the r
oute we would take. If Liv and Maria didn’t mind, we could stop off for thirty minutes to try and catch something. We then started on again, this time with Liv on my shoulders.

  At the edge of the town the road stopped and became a walkway over fields that raised up as the ground beneath our feet grew steeper. We were now walking through farm country with rocky hills that sloped down into fields. The pine trees went up sparsely on the hillside and as we climbed higher, there was a strong wind blowing against us.

  Out ahead, there were wide gaps cut through the pines, and you could look up at them like avenues and see wooded hills way off.

  In the pine forest it was all sandy pine country floor and heather. There were little clearings with houses in them, and once in a while we passed a sawmill.

  Hikers had made the walkway over the years, and it had brown grass around the sides that mixed into the fallen pines.

  The walkway cleared and opened up and we walked across a nice piece of land that was used as a ski run in the winter months. Past it, in the distance, above where the pine trees started again, there were three large gray mountains with patches of snow clinging to their tops and sides.

  We came around a curve and continued on. I saw the start of the stream and watched as it went off into the distance. After what seemed like an hour of walking we found a bench with a view of the three mountains and we sat down and had a cigarette. I had lost the motivation for fishing as I had become tired from the walk. Liv went off exploring in the long grass and Maria and I sat there, relaxing and talking. One thing I really appreciated about Maria was our conversations. I felt she was just so easy to talk to. At times I felt that I could tell her anything, well almost anything. So we sat there talking, overlooking the mountains and watching Liv chase little flies.

  We continued up the mountain path until we came to a sign that said Restaurant Ende der Welt, 1km. we were all pretty tired at this point and I could almost taste the cold, fresh beer that would await us. As we came up toward to the town, there was a little stream and a bridge.

  It looked like any typical Swiss or Austrian mountain towns. The pine wooden exteriors, the triangular shaped roofs, the wooden balconies with animal shapes carved into their fronts. There was a general store and inn on each side of the street. We walked over to the stream to see if there were any fish. It was clear and fast flowing. Liv, pointed with her finger, if there were any fish in the stream, and I said some, but not many.

  We turned up toward the inn and I could see a family walking down toward us. Something about the shape of the head made me look twice, and sure enough, as they came closer I could see it was David.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I whispered to myself.

  “What’s the matter?” Maria asked.

  “Oh, I just can’t believe it,” he saw me too and muttered something under his breath.

  “Harry!” he called over, with false jollity.

  “Hello, David,” I said, calling back.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked.

  “I guess Thomas also recommended this place to you?”

  “He did.” We all stood together.

  “Who is this?” he asked and looked at Maria. “Did you go and get yourself a family since I last saw you?”

  “This is Maria Moretti and her daughter Liv,” I said and watched with unease as he gave Maria a long hard stare. His wife was standing beside him.

  “I guess I should introduce myself, as David clearly won’t,” she said brusquely. “I’m Frances and this is our boy, Jonathan, and our girl, Zara.”

  “Hello, very pleased to meet you all,” I said. “It’s certainly a small world, isn’t it?”

  “Too small,” David said, continuing to stare at Maria. His wife eventually pinched him on his arm. He winced and looked back at me.

  “So, you’re going for lunch?” he asked.

  “Yes, can you recommend it?”

  “Yes. It has good local food and the beer is fresh.”

  “Great. Well we better shove off,” I said, forcing a smile.

  “Us too,” Frances said, eyeing her husband.

  “Nice to meet you,” Maria said.

  “Yes, nice seeing you David, and nice to meet you Frances,” I said. As they were walking away, Frances then turned and waved and then turned away.

  “Who is he?” Maria asked as soon as they were out of earshot.

  “He’s the owner of the publishing company I’m signed with.”

  “So you work with him?”

  “I work with Thomas mainly, who is my editor. Thomas works for him.”

  “So what does he do exactly?”

  “He’s the owner and just signs the cheques and drives everyone crazy.”

  “I see. So what’s he doing here if he’s based in London?”

  “They have an office in Zurich and one in Geneva,” I explained. “The Zurich office is new and Thomas told me David is in the process of moving his family here.”

  We continued up a stone path, past a few houses with families sitting in their doorways, watching us walk toward the inn. The large woman who ran the inn came out from the kitchen, which had a door on the side and as we passed said hello. She took off her wired spectacles, wiped them, smiled and put them on again.

  It was getting cold and the sun had disappeared behind thick clouds. The wind had started up too so we decided to eat inside. Soon the wind was blowing hard against the shutters, so we took a seat in the corner.

  The place didn’t have great light and we squinted at the menus. There was a stone floor, a low ceiling and the walls were all paneled with pinewood. There were pictures on the walls of hunters and a dozen or so stuffed animals on the walls, which fascinated Liv, and was not afraid by them, just curious. A piano stood in the far corner of the room beyond the tables and I asked Maria to go play us something. I knew she played well, but was too shy and refused. There were no other customers. I looked at the menu.

  “Are you okay, Harry?” she asked after a while. “You seem a little distant.”

  “Really?” I said, surprised. “I’m just annoyed that David is here in town, that’s all.”

  “Why?” she asked. “He seemed nice.”

  “He couldn’t keep his eyes of you,” I said, surprised by her response.

  “I hadn’t noticed. Plus, we are not together, Harry.”

  “Yes, but he doesn’t know that.”

  I sat at the table and looked again at the pictures and dead animals on the wall. There were stuffed rabbits, pheasants—even ducks. There was also a cupboard full of liquor bottles.

  The girl brought out three bowls of vegetable soup and a bottle of local red wine. Afterwards, we both had the salmon and some sort of stew. Liv had chicken with potatoes. The old woman looked on once or twice.

  “I can really see that he bothered you,” Maria said quietly, when we had finished eating. She took my hand.

  “Look, we were having a nice time before you saw him, just forget him.”

  “Of course, you’re right.”

  We got back to the hotel exhausted and went into Maria’s room with the intention of playing cards on the bed. We had great fun, mostly because Liv started to make up new rules as we went on and she always seemed to win. We ordered Irish coffees that were sent up to the room and took them out to the balcony, and smoked. When she was fast asleep, we went down to the bar for a quick nightcap.

  Together we walked down into the bar, and I quickly noticed that David was there with Frances in the corner. I had a feeling he would be at the same hotel. I should really not go on the advice of Thomas, I thought.

  They were not talking and he was smoking a cigar. It was part of his system of authority. It made him seem older and wiser. Maria hadn’t noticed them. We sat down at a table halfway down the room.

  The barman came over and we ordered an Irish coffee and a whiskey soda for me. We sat overlooking the town, but we could only see our reflections in the windows and the interior of the ba
r. The concierge came over with a telegram. It read.

  FORWARDED FROM:

  AMERICAN EXPRESS C/O HARRY HOFFMAN

  ZURICH

  HARRY STOP IN A SPOT OF BOTHER STOP CALL ME ON THIS NUMBER TILL TOMORROW STOP ZERO TWO FIVE ONE TWO FOUR FIVE TWO FOUR EIGHT STOP FINN

  I got up and excused myself and went over to the payphone and called the number. Finn answered.

  “Is that you, Harry?”

  “Finn, everything okay?” I asked.

  “I’m in Amsterdam at the moment,” he sounded drunk.

  “How is Amsterdam?”

  “Not so good to be honest, I’m here following up a story. Thought I’d be staying longer, but things haven’t really panned out.”

  “Sorry to hear that.”

  “Got into an awful mess. Really should leave soon.”

  “Go on. Tell me.”

  “Can’t remember a lot. Tell you anything I can remember.”

  “Take a drink and remember.”

  “Right,” I could hear the ice knock as he downed his drink.

  “Okay. Might now remember a little.”

  “Met a girl in a bar, cute girl, nice girl, wonderful legs that went all the way up to her shoulders.”

  “What’s wrong with that?”

  “Asked me back to her place she did, went inside and two rather large black gentlemen were there waiting for me. Took everything, they did. Wallet, watch, even my belt. Loved that belt. Tried to run, but one of the fellas knocked me clean out, he did. Woke up on the street, Harry. Horrible stuff. Still all a bit of a blur. Tight, Harry. I was pretty tight.”

  “Did you call the police?”

  “No. And this I remember clearly. They said that if I went to the police they would kill me. Or something. Maybe not kill. Can’t remember exactly. Did I mention I was tight?”

  “You did. Go on.”

  “Oh good, because I was,” he said. “I tell you.” He continued. “Wrote you a post-card. Remember that perfectly. Did you get it?”

  “No.”

  “You will.”

  “Anyway, was thinking of coming down to see you for a few days before heading back to the states. Thinking we could go hiking or something with that new car of yours.”