A female's scream, a wave of translucent wings, her unif on the
platform! She caught the child, her lips clung to the fluffy pleat
of the baby's wrist; she moved the child to the middle of the
table and left the platform. The imprints were registering in
me: a pink crescent of a mouth, the horns downward! Eyes like
small blue saucers filled with liquid! It was O-90. And as if
reading a consequential formula, I suddenly felt the necessity, the
naturalness of that insignificant occurrence.
She sat down behind me, somewhat to my left. I looked back.
She quietly removed her gaze from the table and the child and
looked straight into me. Within again: She, I, the table on the
platform,--three points: and through those three points lines were
drawn, a projection of some as yet unforeseen events!
Then I went home through the green dusky street which seemed
many-eyed because of the electric lights. I heard myself
tick-tocking like a clock. And the hands of that clock seemed to be
about to pass a figure: I was going to do something, something that
would cut off every way of retreat. She wants somebody, whom I do
not know, to think she is with me. I want her; what do I care what
_she_ wants? I do not want to be alone behind the curtains and that
is all there is to it!
From behind came sounds of a familiar gait, like splashing in a
ditch. I did not need to look back, I knew it was S-. He would
follow me to the very door, probably. Then he would stay below on
the sidewalk, and he would try to drill upward into my room with his
boring eyes, until the curtains would fall, concealing something
criminal.
Was he my Guardian-Angel? No! My decision was made.
When I came into my room and turned on the light, I could not
believe my eyes! O-90 stood at my table, or to be more exact,
she was hanging like a creased empty dress. She seemed to have
no tensity, no spring beneath the dress; her arms and legs were
springless, her voice was hanging and springless.
"About my letter, did you receive it? Yes? I must know your answer,
I must--today."
I shrugged my shoulders. I enjoyed looking into her blue eyes which
were filled with tears as if she were the guilty one. I lingered
over my answer. With pleasure I pricked her:
"Answer? Well.... You are right. Undoubtedly. In everything."
"Then ..." (She tried to cover the minute tremor with a smile but
it did not escape me.) "Well, all right. I shall ... I shall leave
you at once."
Yet she remained drooping over the table. Drooping eyelids, drooping
arms and legs. The pink check of the other was still on the table. I
quickly opened this manuscript, "WE," and with its pages I covered
the check, trying to hide it from myself, rather than from O-.
"See, here, I am still busy writing. Already 101 pages! Something
quite unexpected comes out in this writing."
In a voice, in a shadow of a voice, "And do you remember ... how the
other day I ... on the _seventh_ page ... and it dropped...."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account