Chasing the King of Hearts (Peirene's Turning Point Series) Read Online Free Page B

into business. He started with the tenants who didn’t pay their rent and resolved to have a serious conversation with them. You see, he explained to them, above all else a man has to make sure his children have a roof over their heads, that’s what makes for a true man. You’re absolutely right, Mr Furman, the tenant agreed, but what if a man doesn’t have money for a roof? Then he should borrow it, Father advised. You’re absolutely right, the tenant agreed, could you lend me some moneyso my children can have a roof over their heads? Father lent the money, the tenant paid, Father gave him a receipt and Mother suggested that maybe he wasn’t cut out for business after all. So Father went to Sopot. From there he sent funny postcards assuring us that he was developing a new method of winning at roulette.)
    Izolda doesn’t hold it against Shayek that he allowed her father to leave.
    Nor is she surprised at how calmly he talks about it. Just like the tailors in the shop: he’s gone, too bad, but we’re still here.
    In the evening they meet up with Bolek.
    Before climbing down into the sewer she kneels on a pile of bricks. Ask her… she whispers to her husband. Ask who what? Get on your knees and pray… She reaches for the Mother of God medallion that Lilusia Szubert gave her (She’ll look after you, she said, as she draped the chain around Izolda’s neck). Pray that nothing bad happens to us… She would like to add: Today and until the end of the war – but she reconsiders, they shouldn’t ask for too much. Help us, she says out loud. Please be kind and help us. You won’t forget?
Hotel Terminus
    Things aren’t bad: she rents a room in Wesoła, a town on the outskirts of Warsaw, and fetches her mother. She becomes friends with her neighbour, who has a handicapped child. Mother and daughter spend the day riding the local trains. The daughter sings and themother collects handouts in a canvas sack. The little girl has a long, thin neck; she leans her small head to the side and sings Brahms’s Lullaby with Polish words:
Jutro znów, jak Bóg da, wstaniesz wesół i zdrów
… Her voice is high-pitched, perfectly clear, with a nice vibrato.
    Izolda returns to the ghetto for some bedding and carries the bundle back out via the theatre warehouse. Then she takes a rickshaw to the train station.
    A policeman standing at the corner of Świętokrzyska Street and Nowy Świat eyes her closely. He waves the rickshaw to the kerb, climbs in and says something to the driver… They turn on to Chmielna Street and stop at the Hotel Terminus. The policeman orders her inside. He takes a key at the reception. Inside the room he looks at her shrewdly and smiles: So what do we have here but a little Jew girl, am I right? Take off your clothes.
    She takes off her clothes.
    The policeman unbuckles his belt with the holster, takes off his uniform and shoves her to the bed. His breathing is hoarse, loud, long, he smells of cigarettes and sweat. She thinks: Will he demand money? Take me to the station? Ask for my address? The policeman stops moving. She thinks: Will he follow me to Wesoła? Will he find my mother? The policeman gets up and dresses. He stands in front of the mirror and combs his moustache and hair. Put your clothes on, he says. Now go outside and get back in your rickshaw. You see how lucky you are, running into a decent person… He salutes and heads back towards Nowy Świat. The rickshaw driver asks: To the station?
    Her neighbour is on the train, with her daughter. The girl is singing
Jutro znów, jak Bóg da
… Izolda tosses five whole zlotys into the canvas sack – she’s happy he didn’t demand money, didn’t take her to the station, didn’t ask…
    She starts to regret that she didn’t ask him for anything. At least for a place to stay. Since you are such a decent person, couldn’t you find me a safe address… Or even two. One for the people who can’t show themselves on the street and the other… As she