The Ultimate Intimacy

Did she think she wouldn't come next time then?

Bára said she wasn't sure. She concealed the fact she had already spoken to the minister, that she had given him a lift. She didn't even tell her how he had caught her imagination not only by the urgency with which he preached about the need for love, but also by the tenor of his voice and his gestures, which she suspected concealed some deep sadness or suppressed passion.

5

Daniel had been having disc trouble all that morning. The pain ran from his hip right down to the big toe of his right foot. He had first slipped the disc when he was climbing a rock in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains; he had lost his footing slightly and only realized that something had happened to him the next morning when he found he could not bend to put on his boots. Jitka had helped him to his feet and supported him as they went along in spite of his protests.

It might have been the pain or the weather — a blanket of smog lay over the city more reminiscent of autumn — but he had the impression that everyone he had met that day was either cursing or complaining. First thing that morning Magda had announced to him that she would most likely fail maths because she hadn't the first idea what it was about, 'and nobody,' she added reproachfully, 'is capable of explaining it to me'. Then Masa Soukupová telephoned and wept over her ruined marriage.

He ought to go and lie down. But before he could make up his mind Dr Wagner appeared, ostensibly to borrow some books from the library. It took them only a moment to choose the books, but instead of leaving, his visitor started to complain about society being bogged down in the basest materialism, and how life was dominated by money, brutality and vulgar sex. 'Fewer and fewer people believe in

spiritual values — who has anything to offer now, apart from the church?'

Daniel could have pointed out that even the church was incapable of firing people s imaginations any longer. Only some crazy sect with a new saviour or at least Christ's Delegate at its head was likely to do that. For fanatics like these, people were prepared to give up all their property or even commit mass suicide. Instead, he merely said that the original church had expected Christ's coming and a pitiless judgment on all sinners. And were there so few sinners? But what people have a right to judge them?

Yes, that was his own view entirely, the lawyer agreed, particularly when they themselves were not judges and had simply stolen a list of names and printed them and thought that was enough to prove the guilt of those in question.

'I've been thinking about your father,' and Daniel finally realized the reason for his visit and why he was delaying his departure. 'In your situation I would let the matter rest. You'll never discover the truth after all these years anyway.'

'But there must be some files, some records, preserved still.'

'Not necessarily. And even if there were, what kind of truth do you expect to find in the sort of records they kept?'

'But I'd naturally like to find out something about the circumstances at least.'

'If you say so, Reverend.' In that case, Dr Wagner saw two options. Either to find someone in the Ministry and persuade them to look in the file — if it existed; this would probably not be free of charge. Alternatively, he could try to find some of the scoundrels who interrogated his father and had him on their books.

The idea of bribery was abhorrent to Daniel. And the thought of talking to such individuals even more so. But what he regarded as abhorrent was immaterial at this moment.

Dr Wagner was scarcely out the door when Alois burst into his office, still in his working clothes.

'Has something happened to you?'

'Me? No, not me!' He tried to brush the bits of lime off his overalls on to the carpet. 'But we had an accident at the building site. Fyodor, this young Russian guy, took a header off the scaffolding.'

'Was he killed?'

'No, not outright anyway, but he's in an awful mess.'

'Did you call an ambulance?'

'Of course, but they kicked up a stink about him having no insurance. He was working the way they do nowadays, on the black. A Russian nigger, know what I mean?'

'Which hospital did they take him to?'

'Your one. Where your wife works, I mean.'

'Do you want to phone there?'

Alois shrugged. 'The other fellows said they'll let him stew, seeing he isn't insured and he's a Russian anyway.'

'They wouldn't do that,' although Daniel wasn't entirely sure about this.

'He never spoiled anyone's fun. He didn't know Czech — that's true, apart from the sort of things you'd rather I didn't say here. And a few words he needed for the job. When he'd say words like "beer" or "buddy" it sounded Russian anyway. He said his father was here too, as a soldier.'

'When?'

'Couldn't tell you.'

'I think I can work it out.'

'I just thought it'd be better if you phoned, they'd just tell me to f—'

He wouldn't get to bed now. The lad wouldn't care about his back pain; he was waiting for him to do something. After all he'd preached to him about loving one's neighbour and the boy was now doing just that. He was showing concern even though he didn't have to.

He sent him to get changed while he limped off to get a painkiller.

They parked in front of the surgical block.

'What are you doing here?' Hana was always pleased when he dropped by unexpectedly. Then she led them to the ward where the injured fellow lay. Alois pulled a chair over to the bed and started to tell him something, more with gestures than words.

He looked at the foreigner whose father must have been one of those he had vainly told to go home twenty-six years before. It was better to come as a labourer than as a soldier; on the other hand the soldier had returned unscathed, whereas this lad lay here pale, covered in bandages, his lips drawn back with the pain, his blond hair soaked in sweat.

Was our fathers' iniquity truly visited on us after all? It certainly was a fact that here on earth we bore the consequences of their actions.

The orthopaedist that Hana took him to see, and that she had

talked to Daniel about previously, asked: 'Do you have some connection with the labourer, Reverend?'

'No. A lad in our congregation is a workmate of his. I promised I'd enquire how he was,' Daniel said. 'Apparently he wasn't insured; does that complicate things for you?'

'Most definitely. I've just had the scoundrel he works for here. He was in a bit of a panic and so he offered to make a contribution but when he heard what an operation would cost he backed down. He'd sooner pay him the plane fare back to Kiev where he came from.'

'So you won't be operating?'

'It would be a fairly complicated operation.'

'And costly?'

'With the post-operative care, Reverend, about a quarter of a million. That's all. Because in this country a doctor still gets paid less than a bricklayer. The Germans would charge you at least three times that.'

'So you don't intend to operate on him?'

'We can't afford to, Reverend. The fellow who hired him as slave-labour should be locked up. But in this country they spend time badgering doctors to keep their costs down while villains like him do what they like. OK, let him pay the air fare, at least. In a couple of days he could be in a hospital in Kiev.'

And can the operation be put off?'

'That's not the point; we've pinned his leg for the time being. It's more a question of what they'll do to him there. Have you any idea what medical care is like over there? Do you think they care whether or not he'll be a cripple for the rest of his days? They'll straighten it up a bit and slap it in plaster. And even then he'll be lucky.'

And here you would operate on him so he could walk normally afterwards?'