For our protagonist, however, there is no barbaric brother, no tribe, awaiting him at the end of the journey, no one but he himself. The forest, a nest of thorns, the harlot, and her honey. Good.
Well, to tell the truth, dear Jícha, I said to myself. But I decided not to say the rest … a little one-act maybe, some kina emotive-type thing, sort of like in remembrance … but.
I walked across town to the pharmacy. The neon. A diamond in my memory now. A fixed point swathed within the purplish, oozing flesh of my brain. The place where I first saw her.
I combed through all the buildings. Nothin. Feeling hungry, I walked into a greengrocer’s shop and rejoiced at the sight of unfamiliar fruits. They had the vitamins goin on decent here! Ate a couple bananas, that did the trick.
Cleared out. And it was night. A very frustrating one. Didn’t have the strength left to ride out to Chebků. I stretched my strides toward Gasworks, back to my hole. It can wait’ll tomorrow, I gotta sleep.
Walking up the stairs to my den, slowly I switched off again, absorbing the old building’s sounds. I was back in my refuge, this was where I’d come from. I knew the damp map of every wall here, traveled them many times. I kept my back to the windows as I went along the walkway. Learned that early on, couldn’t’ve lived here otherwise. I opened the door … and froze stiff. There was somebody in the chair at the table. The room was dim. No, it’s not her … a man stirred and switched on the lamp, it was Vohřecký. Side Pocket.
Come on in an close the door.
I did, it was a relief actually. I’ve always been a fan of fast cuts, but this Rudolf … the guy was a little too fast.
Makin yourself at home, huh?
That’s right, said Vohřecký.
Where’s your partner? You don’t look whole on your own.
You’ll get over the wisecracks soon enough, sit down.
I didn’t like his bossy tone, but I knew I’d get used to it.
So tomorra you go inda action, said Vohřecký. Vang’s got almost his full team a gooks together, just a couple missin he can’t find still. Tomorra you go see um, pay a visit to your old pals the Laosters. That’s what you guys call um, right, the Vietnamese? The ones that slope chick a your pal Bogler useda rub shoulders with. One of um works for us. Vang’ll be there too. You’re gonna offer im your services.
Fuck alla you.
That’s your business. By the way, bein the diligent guy that I am, I combed through all the leads on that girl a yours … Závorová … the one that emigrated. Or did she? Huh, Mr. Human Rights Activist? Or maybe she did somethin else? Somethin ugly an hadda pull a fast vanishing act? Didn’t even give her snookums a smooch?
Boring!
You punks, toss around a few flyers, thinkin it’s who knows what … human rights!
Baloney, cop … you’d never understand … that was real life, what’re we even talkin for.
You really think so, Vohřecký rocked forward in his chair. My chair. Lemme tell you somethin about real life … I was in Angola! You punks back here writin your petitions … we knew alla that … alla that was covered an I … you didn’t even vote, you chump, an you thought you had a life. Only fightin you ever did was with your weepy-eyed mama! Bitch was climbin the walls when we took you in.
It occurred to me maybe Vohřecký was liquored up. Why else would he be tellin me this? But actually … maybe I can pry somethin outta him.
Would you like a drink? I’ve got some Fernet.
Yeah. But listen da me, that whole time you were needlin me, you little punks … an those jackass philosophers, yappin away bout human rights … literati, they were just burned up they weren’t on TV! Only reason they worked in those boiler rooms was so somebody’d take their picture an send it to the West. They knew how da sell themselves. But you punks. You know I felt sorry for you? That guy Čáp, hadda bash him up good da get him da understand. That pal a yours, Hadraba … hah-hah, my pal now too, least he’s a man. You know he clocked me once? Human rights! So I laid offa him. Rights my ass. This Cuban down in Angola, Jesu Morales … walkin death, that guy, even the freedom fighters were scared a him … I’m down there, little buddy, drivin in my jeep, an I see this broad … I pull over an bang she hits the deck an spreads her legs, my first day, those Cubies had um trained all right. Morales dressed all in black, had a machine gun on the hood of his jeep … Baby Jesus, they called im … couldn’t stand priests, shot up a weddin one time cuz of it … people’d run for their lives when he came da their village: Okata, okata Chesito nagada! It’s Baby Jesus, everybody run! … first few nights it kept ringin in my ears, then I got used to it … he’d tear down the road, just honkin at people da get oudda his way … didn’t give a flyin fuck … he knew the freedom fighters wanted his ass like nobody else’s … you punks didn’t know jack about real life, as you put it … real! Real was when they caught im an we found his head afterwards … in the kitchen … strung his legs up on the gate so we’d find pieces all the way in … never knew who was who down there, what with some a the Cubies bein niggers an all … there were uniforms lyin all over the place, from all kindsa armies … didn’t strip um off the dead down there … an me an the rest were Czechoslovakia, wasn’t a lot of us, just specialists, special forces … the hell you starin at? Yeah people keep quiet bout it these days. But without our doctors those Cubies woulda been dancin on air! An who da you think built the bridges? I was proud to be Czech … real was when we were crossin the water an Franta Mázlů got picked off, hadda leave im there in the mud … that stuff a yours, that was just a game! An we let you play! An guess what we learned down there off the darkies … guess. Lectric current, that’s right, little buddy … those darkies can take it … Cubies droppin like flies an those darkies’d crawl right off through the mud an find those mines no problem, yep, always found just that one … one black girl … got stuck with a bayonet in the belly, our Doctor Rak sews her back up an next thing he knows her bed’s empty … found her over in the women’s barracks, eatin an apple! What were you punks doin then, writin petitions … Vohřecký started laughin his head off.
Y’know I got a doctorate, he said … in psychology, you know that? You all think we’re just a bunch a gunslingers … an know what socialism brought Angola? Sposedly women’s liberation. That’s what the feminists from the West wrote! Sontrag, you wouldna heard a her. Real cow. Down there women were slaves, an every man had five or ten of um tillin the fields … that all got ripped to shreds, those families were hidin freedom fighters anyway, then famine hit, men couldn’t handle it on their own, but an important step’d been taken, little buddy … there’s plenty a things I could tell ya …
You guys were on the Devil’s side though …
Oh gimme a break, how da you know? You peabrain fanatic. Alla you an that tego svego Polish Bog crap a yours, you idiots. We got the goods on alla you. Too bad you lost your boogeyman … Nobody can say what side we were on, you’d hafta be clairvoyant. Enough fun an games though. You got your instructions. You’ll stick with Vang as long as you can an then let us know where his team’s holed up. Our man can’t find out. We gotta shut these guys down before they head east. An don’t get any ideas, one of um’ll be watchin you! Rest assured!