“But I want to go with you—”
Jacek watched Lenka bending over, how little you have in common with that illegal hard-currency whore Tina, she should have a traveling husband, one who brings home lovers and suitors to her apartment—but what do we really know about you, behind the wall the vacuum roared in the bedroom and Lenka was singing to its roar, in the bedroom our first carpet—Jacek was afraid to go into the bedroom after Lenka, I AM NO LONGER SURE WHOM I WOULD MEET THERE—
V — eighteen
Out of the thickening dusk stairs ran up to our bench in front of the pink house and on all the tiny platforms in front of the houses with their shining facades quiet couples, “Happiness is such a strong feeling,” whispered Hanicka Kohoutkova. “I’ve read many leading writers, Czech and foreign, but so far none of them has ever given an accurate description of… Jacek, which month will we hold the wedding?”
“Do you need the date this evening?”
“No. But soon. I have to have a white dress made and there’ll be lots of shopping to do. Dad would like to combine it with a slaughtering—”
“That would probably be best…”
On the meadow in front of the forest ranger’s Jacek pitched a tent with Arnostek, they snuck through the high grass to the garden, burst out with the battle cry of the Iroquois, and took Janicka captive, Lida tried to ransom her with a bilberry tart, Arnostek accepted the ransom but Jacek grabbed the little girl and ran off with her into the woods, she held on to him with her little arms and legs, “Cawwy me, Uncle, and we’ll build a gingebwead house in the woods and we won’t wet Mummy and Awnostek come—”
Jacek and Lida sat on the stump and the children’s faces in the window above them, “Go to bed, children—” Lida called, “or Uncle won’t come anymore,” and the little faces disappeared at once. In a minute, though, Janicka’s was looking out again, “Can Uncle come give me a kiss?” “You know he’ll come.” “And can Uncle tell a stowy?” “You know he will.”
“She’s so terribly attached to you,” Lida whispered, touched, “Arnostek too, but he’s a boy and doesn’t show it, but Janicka— Jacek, she’ll be going to school soon and I’d be so happy… if she had your name, Arnostek can keep the Adalsky name, but Janicka could have yours, at least one of them would…”
“Today we’ve got to go to the publisher’s,” the beaming Mojmira called out in the Brno Main Station cafeteria, “and you don’t know why, but I’ll spill it to you: we’re going to work together there, I’ll do translations and you’ll choose and edit them. Jacek, do you know what it’s like to earn money every month on the dot, precisely on the day? It must be a fantastic feeling…”
Jacek and Mojmira walked out of the station in the midst of a hurrying crowd, “… it’s fun to work for a publisher, you get to know a million terrific people,” Mojmira was ecstatic, “and together we’ll earn almost four thousand—month by month the whole year long and the next year and all the time—with our first paycheck we’ll buy a suckling pig, for New Year’s half a pig, and every summer we’ll go to the seashore—Jacek, let’s go get married right now—”
Right across the street the enormous airline building and out of its heavy chrome swinging doors came three officers in flight uniforms—friends, I’ve already sent out nine calls to mobilize and day after tomorrow I’ll deploy my paratroops, a blue-gray airline minibus pulled up in front and the captains rode off, I am ready to go with you—
Of the nine, only five paratroopers heeded the mobil- ization order and presented themselves in the Zdar Café at 4:00 P.M on the succeeding specified days, “And otherwise it’s quite simple,” Jacek repeated to Tuesday’s, Wednesday’s, Thursday’s, Friday’s (Saturday and Sunday were days of rest) and Monday’s paratroopers, “so let’s go around to the development right now, without obligation you can have a look at the mother and daughter from a distance, and if you’re interested I’ll take you up to the apartment as a friend from the train…”
“I had a hunch she didn’t know anything about it…” Tuesday’s whispered, a faded balding blond with fingers stained walnut-brown from nicotine, he drank up his Plzner beer and slunk away without paying or saying goodbye.
“So let’s go!” Wednesday’s said emphatically, a sweaty and smelly divorced guy with a large build and a forehead running straight back into a graying wire thicket, the whole endless trip on the streetcar he was doggedly silent and in mounting fear Jacek looked askance at his gloomy profile, wasn’t it a bit crazy to bring this brute home to Lenka… and Lenicka—
“Excuse me, I’ve changed my mind, this isn’t really the way to do it—” would have sufficed to call off the frightful deed, anyway it doesn’t have to be this one, we have three more in reserve, Jacek thought feverishly, but he said nothing and already they were standing at the observation post behind the substation, between the buildings with their delicate pastel shades where the broad road leads past the playground to our home—
“So which windows is it?—” the fellow growled.
“There, over the left entrance on the third floor…,” Jacek whispered in a choked voice.
“And when’s she get home?”
“She comes home every day around five…”
“What?!”
“Around five… she comes home then…”
But today it was half-past five, the two figures, large and small, along the walk in front of the wall as if for an firing squad, “There—” Jacek pointed with a concentration of his last efforts, Lenka was dragging two heavy bags and Lenicka, with her doll, was holding on to one of the handles of one of the bags.
“The one with the bags and the brat?”
All Jacek could do was nod, Lenka bent her head to wipe her forehead on her sleeve and Lenicka ran ahead home… “And now we’re supposed to go and pretend we’ve just come in from the train…,” the fellow grumbled, Jacek just stood there, “—for that I ain’t got the nerve,” the fellow whispered, he turned and cleared out, Jacek took a deep breath and ran across the grass in the opposite direction, “Lenka…,” he called from afar, “darling… wait for Daddy—”
A kiss for Lenka even before they were home, “You know what, let’s go to that new café for coffee with whipped cream—no, let’s make today a home day and not go anywhere…” “At least carry these bags upstairs,” said Lenka.
And today we’ll have a good romp with Lenicka, till evening or even later, she can go to bed an hour late for a change, “Darling, tell Daddy what you’d like and you’ll have it—”
“I want a wowwypop!”
“But we’d have to take the streetcar again…”
“I want a wowwypop!”
“You’ll have five of them, but now let’s go home…”
Jacek set the little girl down on a step, he bent over and tried to take off her little shoe, it was terribly tight, he jerked a little and Lenicka started screaming, “It’s too small for her…,” Jacek told Lenka, “No it isn’t, it’s just that you’ve gotten out of the habit,” Lenka sighed.
“So what do you want to play with Daddy tonight?”
“Opticle course and house.”
“First let’s do the obstacle course…,” and already Jacek had laid two mattresses down flat on the floor and a third one vertically between them, the little girl climbed over it, fell down, and again climbed up, just then the bell rang and in the foyer neighbor Mestek’s voice could be heard, he’s come to change the washer in the faucet, “Uncle gwab me—” cried Lenicka, and she ran off after him, “Little one, stay here with Daddy—,” but the little one was already off after Mestek and was working on the plumbing with him, “And now wet’s go see Punchinjudy—” “Where is it she wants to go?” asked Jacek. “Every Wednesday they have a children’s theater here,” said Lenka, “and Jarda Mestek has been good enough to take her when you’re away.” “We won’t go today, Lenicka,” Mestek said, “your Daddy’s here, see!” “I’ll give a show for you myself—” Jacek shouted, and already he w
as pulling out the puppets of the water-goblin, the princess, and the king, “I want to go with Uncle—” the little one screamed, and she smashed the poor puppets with her fist, the king’s head and his crown flew off and out of his neck popped a copper spring, pitifully Jacek stood over the beheaded monarch, “You’ll spend the evening with your Daddy,” Mestek said sharply, and he went away, Jacek caught the girl and carried her to the living room, “Don’t want opticle course!” she screamed, and she struck her Daddy on the face with her tiny fists, how strong she is for her age, she tore away from him and pushed with all her weight against the obstacle course until she’d demolished it, “—I want to go with Uncle!” “I’ll take the kitchen spoon to you—” Lenka threatened, and the squealing Lenicka rolled around on the floor as if in a fit, struck her head against the carpet, and turned the color of raw meat, “… that’s what happens when you’re away all the time,” said Lenka.
“Some jobs demand it, and what if I were a sailor or a pilot—”
“You’ve got it tough…,” Lenka remarked, and Jacek tried for the last time to lift his daughter up, she scratched him under the ear till the blood came and then administered what was almost a kick to the groin, “So go along with Uncle—” Jacek said decisively, and Lenicka jumped right up and was running off, Jacek rubbed his groin over the ruins of the obstacle course, thanks, my clever little one, for this warrior-like support.
“… and otherwise it’s quite simple,” Jacek repeated on Thursday at four o’clock in the Zdar Café, “so let’s go around to the development…”
“But it’s a real horror story what you’re telling me,” Thursday’s paratrooper said excitedly, curd white with goggly watery eyes (an interest in history and cultural monuments), “in essence you’re offering your wife to me, though you’re not even divorced yet and you’re still living with her even!”
“That’s only a question of time, you understand, I’ve been transferred to Brno and I’d like to leave everything in order here before I go.”
“Does your wife know anything about the ad?”
“Of course not, otherwise she would have placed it herself.”
“What makes you think she’d be interested in another husband?”
“What makes you think she won’t need one?”
“So this is what I came here from Teplice for! I hope you’ll at least pay for my round trip and for the waste of my time at the going rate for business travel. And my double coffee and the double cognac I’m about to order—I should have a whole bottle, tonight I won’t be able to sleep—”
CAPTAIN, THE PARATROOP RECRUITMENT DRIVE IS COLLAPSING, enough reason to abandon it, but when wasted chances torment you so painfully, and after them neurosis and depression, “… so then let’s go around to the development,” Jacek repeated mechanically on Friday at 4:00 in the Zdar Café, “so that without obligation you can have a look at the mother and daughter from a distance…”
“I’m a passionate adherent of psychoanalysis,” said Friday’s paratrooper, Tomas Roll, a dwarf with tousled black hair which seemed to be fleeing in horror from his strangely crumpled face, “and I find it a fascinating idea to penetrate through an intermediary who is an intimate friend, even a husband—”
As if hypnotized Jacek observed his eager counterpart, but when the kind and fatherly Mestek and the elegant and perfect N. Hradnik have failed us, what hope can there be with this bungled imp, “It’s awfully far away, it’s the last stop on the streetcar, so let’s let it go for another day…,” Jacek said, “No trouble, I’ve got my car here—,” the tiny man had a tiny bright red Fiat 600, he dragged Jacek into it and shortly before five they were standing at the observation post behind the substation.
“Sun, light, air…,” croaked the dwarf as he greedily looked the development over, “you know, I’ve spent my whole life in a basement with a window looking out on a row of trashcans—and which are the windows of your dwelling, please?”
“There, on the third floor,” Jacek pointed, now quite apathetically.
“It’s a fine habitation…,” Tomas Roll nodded.
“And here they are at last, the woman with two bags and the little girl running after her…”
“A beautiful, fascinating woman and a really charming little girl,” the midget grew excited, “you know, I like women with good, sturdy figures and I’d never— and I’m awfully fond of children and I couldn’t—”
Some of Lenicka’s friends were playing in the sandbox, so Lenka let her play outside, Lenicka climbed up onto the concrete rim and leaped down, “Look how the nimble little girl climbed up there all by herself—” Tomas Roll sentimentalized, “and now she’s going to jump, you’ll break your leg, you little rabbit, hop—did you see her? And now she’s climbing out again—hop! Boy, she’s a real ballet dancer—you’ve got to let me see her closer up, you’ve really got to!”
And the tiny paratrooper ran out of the hideout by himself, he limped, and Jacek had to run ahead of him to keep him from climbing into the sandbox, “Little girl—” he called to Lenicka, and she came, today charming to the letter of the ad, she had evidently taken a fancy to the midget as to a new toy, they made faces at one another, Lenicka made a curtsey and even sang a song “from kindagaden” The Wittle Fish Swims in the Water, Tomas Roll was thrilled and, “Come, little one, Uncle Roll will show you his car—”
Lenicka crawled through the red Fiat and sobbed with ecstasy, and she was even more ecstatic when the midget taught her to make honk-honk on the horn, “If you would be so kind, Mr. Jost, and show me how to pick the girl up safely and properly…” “Not that way, turn her face towards you, put one arm under her arm this way, the other under her bottom, you’ve got it, and there she is sitting in your arms…,” Lenicka was sitting in the midget’s arms, for his size he had surprisingly long, strong arms, like a gorilla’s, he pouted with his lips to make a horrifying grimace and Lenicka ran her finger over his mouth to see how Uncle Woll did that with his wips, they both liked it so much that Jacek had to tear them apart and by sheer force stuff the imp into his car, but its honk-honk was still to be heard when the Fiat was no more than a speeding red dot far off down the highway.
“…the mother and daughter from a distance,” Jacek repeated on Monday at 4:00 at the Zdar Café, rested and with new strength from the weekend, “and if you’re interested I’ll take you to the apartment as a friend from the train.”
“Why not,” said Monday’s paratrooper, the last of the five to be mobilized, an obsequious, snake-like fellow with cruel yellowish-gray eyes, evidently an experienced, ruthless bastard, and when he’d obtained detailed infor-mation concerning the apartment, its furnishings, Lenka’s salary, and Grandma’s pension, he stubbed out his cigarette and grinned, “So what’s keeping us?”
With mounting distaste, Jacek observed his so easily won-over counterpart, you’ve got the swing of it, you must be a real sharpie, too much so—
“It’s five already—” said the paratrooper, and he tapped on his watch as if impatient for the jump, but you’re in too much of a hurry to climb into my bed, to see you there with Lenka, with my love, and as Lenicka’s daddy—CAPTAIN, THE TASK IS BEYOND MY CAPABILITIES—
“So what’s doing, mister?”
“Nothing,” Jacek sighed. “Do you like cognac? Waiter!— A double cognac for this gentleman and for me soda and ice, and I’ll pay for everything.”
With Lenka to the new café on Strekov Hill for coffee with whipped cream and cake, the Josts exchanged news of the troubles that had befallen their two firms and their mutual acquaintances, of whom there were hardly more than five in all, and then they read the torn old magazines under the ugly, yellowed polyvinylchloride covers hung on the walls of this unsuccessful enterprise where you had to wait half an hour for coffee, they brought it cold and the icing on the cake was turning, “Daddy don’t go way—” Lenicka babbled automatically behind her netting like a wind-up toy, then she yawned and fell asleep.
In the
office a new plastic cover on the blue-gray Zeta and in addition to unanswered letters from Mojmira, Hanicka, and Lida, Anna had written:
Jacek,
You probably don’t know—I didn’t—what a certain man named Benoit did a hundred years ago with snails… He paired off fifty snails, left each pair together for some time so that they would get used to each other, then he painted identical letters on their shells and one of the pair he sent off to America, while the other one remained in Paris. After a certain time that devil Benoit exposed snail A in Paris to an electric shock—and snail B in America reacted the same way at the same moment… BE GLAD YOU’RE NOT A SNAIL!
Fists pressed to his temples and a tormented face, for three days now they walked through the technical division on tiptoe and better not to go there at all, “Jacek’s got neurosis,” and on the horizon the colorless prairie sky of depression, at 1:59 Jacek got up mechanically and at 2:00 the shriek of the siren propelled him out, right outside the gate a bright red Fiat gleamed and in a blue-gray waterproof jacket Tomas Roll leaped out of its little door, CAPTAIN—
“Climb in at once!” cried the dwarf, jumping around Jacek, and he shoved him into the door, resigned Jacek sank back in the cushioned seat behind the dashboard of the car sent for him, Fiat in Latin means let it happen and with fantastic acceleration the little car took off toward the highway to the mountains.
Lke a red beetle it went in and out of the mountainous dunes of yellowing late summer grass, while again and again the large man and the small one in agreement went in and then in disagreement went out of the waves of yellowing grass, “… we must know how to stimulate Lenka’s interest, her rebirth, her conceptions, her desire,” the importunate reader of ads insisted, “we must find someone who’s succeeded at it and find out how he did it, we need a model, an example, a precedent…”
“Vitenka Balvin failed,” Jacek whispered, “so did Mestek and Nora Hradnik…”
“Didn’t Lenka love anybody before she married you?”
Catapult Page 18