The two of us remained in silent meditation.
The same followed after my report on David.
Only then Micka tossed some … photos on the desk. A guy in a white frock down to his knees, with a long shepherd’s pipe and a hat on, his face, from the sun I guess, blurred … but in the background, that rock … it stuck in my head.
Well, fill er up, fill er up, Micka said.
When’s this from, I asked.
Hm … Micka scratched his forehead … I donno actually.
Uh-huh.
Forget it, let’s get to the crux of the matter, said Micka, puffing the diamonds on his fingers. What’re you doin?
I didn’t mention Sister. Just the studios.
Puhleeze … what for?
That I didn’t tell him.
By the way, Potok, that was a good gag with that Octopedes thing … if you’re interested …
Heh?
Well, said the byznysman, you went to school with a certain Spelner, if I recall the old list.
Yeah, kinuva pussyfoot.
Well that quiet little boy is now chair of the National Assembly. An Fiala, back in our times he was head of the Chamber of Commerce, but nowadays he covers the full spectrum of petroleum products, hey … an he’s the son-in-law of that MP Vašegis, a player, so if …
Micka.
Hm?
I’d rather not.
I thought so. Follow me.
He led me down a hallway … to the men’s room. Went to the sink, nodded, we bent our heads down, he turned on the water an the fan an the drier … I can’t hear a word! I hollered. He ran from stall to stall, flushin every one, hollerin at me … Helenka! … an whisperin frantically into my ear … that thing a yours with David, even if it wasn’t a dream, it doesn’t matter … Helenka! He hollered again, and … child … where? I hollered back … in a safe place, I understood … it’s taken care of, an the kid, the racket subsided … the kid, man, could be … there’s definite signs … for real? I forced out, and had to lean on the tiles … then that’d mean that everything, that all this, maybe after all it wasn’t … in vain … YES! said Micka, turning off the water and the machines, we strolled down the hallway … that’s fantastic, I shouted, hallelujah, so there’s hope that the child, that it might be the M. himself? An you’re keepin an eye on him? Rest assured, said Micka, matter of fact this building, this whole firm, an all the deals we got goin’re cause a him, but shhh! he pointed around the room in an obvious gesture.
But, Micka, I asked again, what does the possible and anticipated coming of the M. hafta do … with byznys?
What do you know what it might do … to oil prices for instance? An so on?
Aha.
And outside … the gray car again. Driving away. I shuddered, some kid asked me for an autograph, then burst out sobbing … not Potok, Mr. Popeye … I’d like to be sitting with her in that old coffeehouse with the mirrors, taking joy in our moment together … but the car had driven off.
And sometimes, sometimes you would come between us. I’d be kneeling in front of my girlfriend, clasped between her thighs, the two of us moving together, me stroking her breasts, circling my spread palms over her nipples, just the way she likes it, and we’d be rocking back and forth, and you would come between us. Suddenly you would be facing me, and not just your eyes, all of you, jealously lifting my hands off Lao and pressing them to your chest, you would be on top of her, her holding your waist, clinging to you with her lips and stroking you with her tongue, and we moved like a three-headed body, relaying tenderness to one another … me inside Lao, as far as I could be, and holding onto your hips, you would smile, Černá, as I kissed you, I could tell from your lips, feel you holding back a smile as we rocked back and forth, and we could hear each other, and it was beyond words, it was finally beyond words … and you know I don’t like to blaspheme unnecessarily … but there was grace in it. And it would always end with your eyes half shut, and you gasping out … only then, underneath you, Lao … would start to suffocate, gagging … with laughter … and you weren’t there. And something else happened.
That time … the rain drummed down on the roof of the shed, we stood there in that stuffy attic, Lao leaning her belly on me, sticking out already, me peering round at the shadows … her son playing around with ancient reject gadgets, twisting wire off or whatever, I was about to give him a moderate scolding, when Lao said: Bell … I thought maybe she’d bought a new phone, but then I heard it too … the wind was carrying the sound out of town in irregular gusts, it even caught Vojtěch’s attention, he came over to us, asked: What’s that … hey! he screamed at me as I stood, lapping up the sound. The bells! I told him … they’re ringin again … had to make him a drawing … and find it in a book … sometimes, when we’ve both got time and are in the mood, I teach him some of the old words, the ones I haven’t forgotten yet.
Now I knew you would come. In the attic, on your desk, I found a flower. It was a rose, the kind you like so much. Lying by the notes I’d left. I had one old box of soap, left over from my travels, ready on the edge of the tub, filled it up right away … it had been a while since I worked at the stand, but … and I heard quick steps and you opened the door and walked into the room. Černá. We were next to each other. All at once. You had your head next to mine and I hugged you.
Let’s not leave each other anymore.
Not anymore, you said.
And just then the doorbell rang. You jerked, I didn’t even ask … I could see in your eyes you didn’t know. The ringing wouldn’t let up. Whoever it was was holding his finger on the button. A little … just a little, I pushed you away an lifted my hands … but you took them, lightly, took my palms in yours, and laid them on your shoulders.
Let’s not open it, you said. Not anymore.
No. Not now.
Notes to City
19. German for “Hands up, Faster, swine, Look out, mines, Work will set you free [the slogan posted over the entrance to Auschwitz], Come fuck, my love.”
21. The Church of Our Lady Victorious, the first Baroque building in Prague; it houses the pražké Jezulatko, or Bambino di Praga, a wax effigy revered throughout the Catholic world and especially in South America.
22. Státni bezpečnost (State Security), Communist Czechoslovakia’s secret police.
23. German for “The Unknown,” as in “the unknown soldier.”
24. 1938 book by Bonn, who died in Terezín (see note for p. 63)
27. German for “I am a foreigner.”
34. With the disintegration of the Roman Empire, in the fifth century A.D. eastern tribes launched a series of raids into Central Europe. First came the Huns, followed by the Avars, who were then pushed out by Slavic tribes from east of the Carpathians.
36. A combination of Josef Stalin’s full name with the name of the main character of Jaroslav Hašek’s extremely popular humorous novel The Good Soldier Švejk (1923).
46. A play on My Sweet Little Village (1985), a film comedy about a village idiot, directed by Jiří Menzel and nominated for an Oscar. Libuše Šafránková was the female lead.
48. A statement released in January 1977 calling on the Communist government of Czechoslovakia to abide by the human rights provisions of the Helsinki Accords.
52. The Lučans, People of the Bow, were an ancient Slavic tribe that once inhabited the Czech Lands. Defeated in battle by the people we now know as Czechs.
Čech: The mythical original Czech. His name means “Czech” in Czech.
56. Karel Hynek Mácha (1810–1836), famed for his lyrical-epic work Máj (May, 1836), which scandalized his contemporaries but is now regarded as having been the starting point of a new direction in Czech poetry.