Battered, with glazed windows.
You don’t know this, little sister, but my great-great-greats came from Odessa, led by old Aladdin, or Apollo, or maybe Ahasver Potok, on that point the records in the family Bible differ. I never told anyone, it’s nobody else’s business, I keep my back covered! They were the only ones who settled in a village, cause Potok means something in the Bohemians’ tongue too an my ancestors wanted to drop out of sight a little, first thing they did was set up a tavern … the others crawled off into the ghettos, but mine opted for the disguise an the mask, taking their double-meaninged name as a sign from Him … when they crossed the border into Bohemia, they contentedly smacked their lips at the taste of the garlic balls, an delightedly tugged at their peyos, cause there wasn’t a Cossack in sight, nothing but good jovial folks … only my forefather was suspicious an careful, an that’s why I’m alive an here with you … he had flying dreams too, in Odessa he raised pigeons, an a certain bocher that used to shop there wrote a story about it, he was a journalist, hah, he was stupid an wrote about himself, so in the end the stalingos hunted him down an killed him … nobody knows that about me but you, I keep a lookout!
An here by this old wall I’ll let you in on somethin too, my friend … I first saw the sky at my grandma’s somewhere in Transylvania, I don’t even know what country it is now, things there change fast, an I don’t wanna know, an when my mom died the wolves tore her to pieces, she was out pickin blueberries … so she could buy me a primer to learn that foreign language … Sister broke down, crying uncontrollably … then that thug, my father, turned up, an the whole village went gaga when he drove up in his Zhigulik, an he stayed with us all summer, an the first time he did it to me I said so, but no one believed me … a champ like him, handin out chewin gum an pocket mirrors an lighters, an even if he did, it’s all in the family, their business … an all those boys that turned their heads at me … girls’re women there at fourteen, you know? … but I wasn’t even that … not one of em killed him, like anybody there woulda done to their own brother for a thing like that, no, the scum, on Sundays they went to church an at night they cast spells an everything was hunky-dory … an then he arranged for the papers an bought me dresses an cremes an candies … an the virgins an everyone congratulated me cause I was gettin outta there, to the West, to Czechoslovakia, an my grandma? She knew … an listen, I think she let me go so I’d sink all the way to the bottom … you know how I told you that time … about my feelings, the awfulest one?
An then Grandma sent me you, an gave me that pistol an the two of you for me to decide … an now I’m free an you’ll never order me around … unless I want you to. An I told it in school again, years later, cause sometimes … I couldn’t stand it, down in the cellar so the neighbors … but I’m not gonna tell it all right now … at school they called me Vampire because of where I’m from, they didn’t believe me either, the scumbag was a big shot, so they just made like nothin was goin on … and then Sister fell silent as an icy gust snatched at us from around the corner, and Sister, sobbing, began to tremble like an aspen leaf … I told her … like an aspen leaf, yeah, she said, an a stake, she clutched at her heart, good one, she caught hold of me, and then, continuing the chain of association, I guess, whispered: You’re probly gonna get older for what you do to my sweet little body. I didn’t have anything to say to that.
Heh … we walked on and the weather changed, it began to drizzle a little, we ducked into the first open door … it was an odd hall.
Dark. We tread cautiously, then I let out a scream. Curling off the wall was a rag, no, a piece of paper with a woman’s face on it, I donno why I crossed myself, the face was a sweet one … Černá wrinkled her brow critically, hey, it’s some broad, an actress no doubt, some big star … I went closer, yep, almost too sweet, and … blonde … next to her was another one, the walls in there were dripping … blech, that’s … Sister, that’s an electric chair, an that’d be the murderer … I think we started shaking, what kind of horror show is this, here in this bizarre land of enchantment … And then Sister whispered: An now I’ll tell you the last thing, it’s good an also real real bad … hold onto me, there … I think that guy wasn’t even my father, he just weaseled his way in … I’m really scared my grandma sold me to him an everyone there knew it, there’s a lot of poverty there. I’ve been thinkin about her ever since, but if I wanna know the truth, I might have to go an ask the old crow. Will you come with me?
Černá, I’ll go wherever you want, but … if it’s true we’d have to … we’d have to do it to her. I’d have to.
Maybe not, said Černá, maybe we’d find out she had to. For some reason. I’ve been thinkin! Those mountains back there, you’d like to see em, wouldn’t you? Things’re different there. They’ve got legends an fables, you’re into all that …
Do they have a legend there about a horseman from the barrow, a Prince?
How do you know? Did I tell you that?
I donno. Maybe you mighta mentioned … hey! Anyway, you can’t sell somebody. That’s forbidden as long as I’m with you. Forbidden! No selling. You shouldn’t keep in touch with certain people, you make phone calls, I donno who to, I’m gonna protect you … we’ll change.
Tsss, Černá hissed. No givin orders, you know that!
We had to yank off a sheet to see the next painting. A guy’s face, looked nice enough. Some Joseph somethin or other, charged with murder, I sounded out the words.
Mug shot, they got him, it’s obvious. We just looked at each other and grabbed each other’s hand.
Next … a hacked-up car … I remembered Viška, that was about how his face looked by the time I got Černá off of him, I kept that one to myself.
Some of the rags were canvas, but waterlogged and damaged by plaster didn’t look it anymore. None of the pictures was very uplifting.
Hey, the old butcher Kim II Sung, slaughtered his own people, I showed off my education in front of the politician in the field uniform.
Mug’s tight as a bitch, no doubt he’s watchin someone’s nuts get roasted, Černá appraised him. Whoever took his picture musta been a psycho too.
It’s a painting, I corrected her.
Whatever, she said.
Next act, and that got both of us: cash. The lunatic painted cash, somethin musta been eatin him.
No, actually he took it easy, Černá proposed.
The colors, if there had been sunlight … but here in the gloom, all sopping wet, the cash curled like worms, one minute ludicrous, the next almost triumphant … now we gotcha, you peepin Tom, you’re ours. When I explained to my woman how I saw it, she said: I think that chick, that blonde, is dead now, that’s why you got startled but you’re not afraid … the reason the cash is curlin, though, is cause it’s still alive. It lives, changes things. People.
Yeah, an how bout this one? Some cans of somethin, fancy labels, hadn’t seen that before, my mom never gave me snacks like that. Weird, I said. Actually, that’s how people look, nowadays.
Yeah, but not here. Luckily!
It won’t be long though, people’re already dressed mostly in stickers … they wanna be the same, shiny like tin … we cheerfully shouted back and forth, and when Sister gave a quick toss of her elbow I nodded back, I’d heard it too, behind the pillar … someone was there … we gabbed on about stupid stuff, casually drifting … around the corner, I let out my belt a little.