Adam and Evelyn (12 page)

“You can sleep in Pepi’s room, we can lay another mattress in there—”

“No, no,” Adam said. “Please don’t go to any trouble. I just wanted to ask if I could pitch a tent here in the garden, that had been the plan, that was how it was arranged with Pepi.”

Frau Angyal pulled a face and shook her head.

“Please, Frau Angyal,” Evelyn said. “I don’t want to leave Mona by herself, we came here together, we didn’t know if Adam would have the time. I can’t simply desert her …”

Frau Angyal first stared straight ahead and then filled her glass with liqueur. “You make as you like,” she said, “make as you like, Frau Evelyn, but as long as Pepi is not here—” With that she stood up and went into the house as if she didn’t want to hear another word.

“Shit,” Evelyn whispered, “and congratulations!”

“You just said that I should leave. What do you want?”

“I told her that you had a lot of work to do, that you wouldn’t be coming—presumably.”

Evelyn got up. She fetched the tent from the house. She unzipped the bag it came in and dumped the parts on the ground. “Your little scam is enough to make me puke!”

“We don’t have to turn this into a big spectacle,” Adam said.

“Then I don’t know what it is you’re after here.”

“You, only you.”

“Where’s Elfriede?”

“Can’t we at least talk?”

“Dinner’s at seven thirty, bathroom and toilet are shared by all. Did you leave Elfriede in the car? Is she still alive?”

Adam laid the car keys on the table.

When he had set up the tent, he unzipped the zipper and crept inside. In one corner he found a few pine needles. He brushed them up with his hands, smelled them, and stuck them in his shirt pocket.

THE NEXT MORNING
Adam found Katja’s tent closed and was about to head for the water, when he noticed a large pair of flip-flops out in front.

“Katja?” He heard a soft clearing of the throat. “Katja, are you in there?”

A hand or an elbow made a bulge in the tent roof—something rustled, and the zipper went down just far enough for her head to fit through.

“Hi. How late is it?”

“Half past ten.”

“Just a sec.” She vanished. Adam tried to see through the opening but caught only a quick glimpse of her naked shoulders. She kept her voice low. Adam stepped away just in time, as Katja, in a T-shirt and skirt, untwisted herself out of the tent. She stretched and made a sound somewhere between a yawn and a crow. The sky was blue, just a few clouds that looked more like white smoke drifting above the lake.

“Found your pills, did you?” Adam asked.

Katja pulled the straw hat out of the tent and put it on. “It was a late night. How’d it go?”

Adam shrugged. “Nothing special. And at this end?”

“Everybody wants to leave, almost everybody, but they don’t talk about it. Anyway, it’s like one big family.”

“Know one, know ’em all.”

“Want to have coffee? My treat. I looked after five kids yesterday evening, up at the front, they’re from Ulm—five Westmarks an hour. And for the whole week.”

“I don’t get it.”

“For a Westmark they’ll give you twenty-five forints, sometimes more.”

“I mean these Ulmers, they don’t even know you. And they leave you alone with their kids?”

“They’re real
easy
.”

“ ‘
Easy
’? That’s English, isn’t it?”

“Yep, they say ‘
easy
’ a lot. I don’t have to do a thing. The kids were already asleep, but just in case they wake up, I have to be there.”

“But they don’t know you.”

“We went swimming and had supper together.”

“And how are the rest managing? Are they all baby-sitting too?”

“No idea. We’ll just stick around here for as long as we can, and then—”

“Who’s we?”

“Everybody. Some of them have been here since June. They’re waiting to see what happens. And if they can’t manage here, they want to move to a Pioneer camp named Zánka, the Maltese Charity is there too. Tomorrow or the day after I can give you your money back.”

“No rush. The cans and the tank are full. I’ll get home on that.”

“You want to go back?”

“Why not?”

“And your wife?”

“I’ll take her along.”

“You’ll take her along?”

“Sure, what else?”

“So you’ve made up?”

“Almost.”

“Do you love her?”

“Wouldn’t be here otherwise.”

“I thought I might be able to persuade you.”

“You’ve already persuaded one guy.” Adam pointed a thumb at the tent.

“You mean Susanne? We wouldn’t let her drive, she was already tanked.”

“Those are a woman’s flip-flops?”

“Her flip-flops?”

“Must be one giant of a lady.”

They lined up at the kiosk.

“And how did it go with the Hungarian girl?”

“Pepi isn’t even there, but her mother keeps loading up the table, last night, this morning, and as I drove off she was back in the kitchen. The others even have their lunch there.”

“The bad company plus the cousin?”

“He spent half an hour on the john this morning and then fumigated himself. The whole house stinks of Mister Superbrain’s perfume and poop.”

“Is he a superbrain?”

“A researcher of some sort, even gives courses at the university.”

“Is he waiting it out too?”

“Not really. He’s gonna have to leave in a few days. Tomorrow they want to drive to the border, to the place where the others went across.”

“They can forget it, nobody’s getting across there now.”

“He thinks the Hungarians will look the other way.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure.”

“He claims to have heard it on the radio, that was all he could talk about last night.”

“About what?”

“About some woman who got across. ‘Is this Austria?’ she asked. The Austrians thought she was crazy. ‘No, it’s the moon,’ they told
her. And she starts screaming and jumping around like she really was nuts.”

“I would have done the same,” Katja said.

“Our turn.”

Adam carried the tray with the yogurt cups and the coffee to the same table beside the low wall where they had sat the day before.

“Think maybe the two kissin’ cousins will cut and run too?”

“Now wouldn’t that be something.”

“They keep telling stories like that here. You have no idea where you’ll end up, in Austria or a Stasi hotel.”

“Oh, get over it. Just try to enjoy a nice vacation here.”

“You’ll laugh, but part of me wouldn’t mind that at all,” Katja said.

“That’s not how you sound.”

“It really is bizarre, isn’t it?”

“I’m just trying to enjoy a nice vacation here too.”

Katja burst into laughter. “I thought that’s why you’re here!”

“How am I supposed to enjoy my vacation when I’m constantly having to assist ‘deserters of the republic’ in word and deed?”

“Prost!” Katja said and raised her yogurt cup.

“We forgot spoons.”

“Don’t need them.” Katja put the yogurt to her lips and drank. Then she said, “Vacation. Here’s to vacation!”

“It’s almost as good as the West, isn’t it?”

“I’ll tell you something, Adam. We’ll meet again on the other side, in Vienna or Berlin or Tokyo—I’ll bet you anything on it.”

“I don’t think so. I truly don’t think so.”

Katja extended a hand to him.

“Come on. Let’s shake on it.”

“Cut the crap. I’m not a betting man.”

“Come on, don’t be chicken. It’s not for money. But I’m damn sure we will.”

Adam shook his head. “Like I said, a lot of crap.” But he shook hands.

Katja kept a firm grasp on his hand. “Prost!” she said, raising her yogurt again.

“Prost!” Adam said. They looked each other in the eye and drank. Even after the cups were drained, she didn’t let go of Adam’s hand, and instead bent forward, laying her left hand on his, as if about to share a secret with him.

“HEY, DID YOU
hear me? We’re leaving.”

Adam was startled awake.

“Did you fall asleep?”

“Guess so.” He pulled on his pants and took his watch out of the pocket. “It’s only four o’clock, right?”

“Almost six thirty.”

“Wait just a sec, Evi, please.”

She stood there without looking at him but then waved the others on ahead.

Adam folded the blanket and slipped into his sandals.

“That skirt looks good on you. But it needs the headband.”

They walked across the meadow, where there was almost no one but couples, Adam staying half a step behind her. Simone and Michael were waiting beside the road.

“Could we have maybe ten minutes to ourselves?”

“What for?”

“I’d like to know whether we still belong together. When I have to watch you rubbing suntan lotion onto some other man’s back—”

“Adam, for the hundredth time. It’s not my fault. And I didn’t ask you to follow me.”

“Fine, it’s my fault, we’ve established that. I’ve said I’m sorry, more than once, over and over.”

Evelyn shook her head with a laugh and turned to go.

“Evi, please, why are you carrying on like this?”

“Do you know what’s the worst part?” She turned back to him. “That you don’t have a clue what this is all about. That you even dare to still look me in the eye. You behind the cupboard! What if it had been me standing there, with some fat guy in the tub? What would you do, would you still trust me?”

“I only know that I love you, you and no one else.”

“You found some quick consolation.”

“I helped her, that’s all. I got her over the border in my trunk. That is the truth.”

“And I’m supposed to buy that?”

“It’s how it is, ask her. If I didn’t love you I wouldn’t be here.”

“I wanted to get away from that nowhere town, and that nowhere job in the rathskeller, get away from you, period. And just be on my own for once.”

“With Mona and Michael?”

“That’s a whole different thing.”

“Am I keeping you from collecting your thoughts?”

“If you’re determined not to understand me—” Evelyn shrugged. She quickened her pace now. Simone and Michael had crossed the road and were taking a shortcut to Római út.

Adam ran after her, the blanket under his arm.

“So you’ve put on your big show—now what else can I expect?”

“You can leave anytime, Adam, anytime you like!”

“How about you? When are you leaving?”

They were standing side by side on the shoulder, but the line of traffic wouldn’t let up.

“I don’t know.”

“Why not?”

“It doesn’t matter when I get back. I quit my job, or did you forget already?”

“Are you planning to live off Pepi’s parents?”

“No.”

“You’ll all be chowing down again in just a bit.”

“Michael’s paying for all that. He paid for two weeks’ room and board, for him and Mona. I was invited to be their guest, and you invited yourself.”

“What?”

“You didn’t know?”

“I haven’t invited myself as anybody’s guest.”

“So I’ll be here two weeks anyway.”

“And then? How are you getting back?”

“Maybe I don’t want to go back?”

“Do you want to cut and run?”

“Louder! Why don’t you shout louder!”

“You can’t be serious?”

“Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer.”

Evelyn stepped into the road and waited on the median strip.

“Come on, come on.”

“I’m not coming along,” Adam said once he was across the road.

“Not coming along where?”

“To supper.”

“Don’t be childish, there’s too much food as it is.”

“And who’s financing this? Not you!”

“Pepi spent two weeks with us, look at it as the generosity of a host.”

“You mean of the Angyals?”

“You sewed for her for free.”

Together they walked up the narrow path between houses and gardens, took a left on Római út, and then followed the curve up to the house with the green door.

Simone and Michael were standing in the driveway, beside the shed. At first it looked as if they were in the middle of a conversation. But Simone was the only one talking. As Adam and Evelyn drew closer, she fell silent. Michael smiled at Evelyn. Suddenly Simone marched
off toward the road, without a word to Evelyn and Adam as she passed them, her handbag swinging.

“Mona?” Evelyn called. “What’s wrong? Mona?”

Simone halted as if she were about to turn around and say something. But she just fished out her sunglasses and walked on.

“Mona!”

“She doesn’t know herself what she wants,” Michael said and walked around to the back of the house.

“I’ve got something else for you,” Adam said softly, “something really nice.”

“I don’t want anything from you.”

“Sure you do, you just have to take a seat in the car.”

“I won’t do it.”

“Then you don’t get your present.”

“I told you I don’t want anything.”

Adam opened the trunk and took out the jewelry box.

“Last summer somebody broke in at the Findeisens’,” he said, sitting down on the backseat. “And I thought if our little place is standing empty and somebody happens by, this would be easy pickings. So I brought it along.”

“My jewelry?”

“Actually I shouldn’t give it to you just like that.”

“Are you crazy? It belongs to me!”

“Come here for a minute, just one minute.”

Adam opened the far door from the inside.

“So here you are—your treasure.”

Evelyn sat beside him, turned the little key, and opened the box.

“Take your time, make sure it’s all there.”

“You’re a gutsy guy, Adam, smuggling this across the border and then leaving it in the trunk of a car. More luck than sense.”

“And that’s all you have to say?”

“What were you thinking?”

“I thought it would be a way of luring you into my car.”

Evelyn lifted the top tray.

“It’s all there. No fear.”

She laid a short glittering gold chain around her neck and added a pair of ruby teardrop earrings.