The Free World Read Online Free Page B

and his friend had met two girls at a café and invited them back to the dacha. Iza had arrived later with other friends and two girls. One of the girls had been very drunk and she had wedged herself at the kitchen table with a guy named Robik. Robik presumably held something in a closed fist and the girl kept whining, incessantly and mind-numbingly, for him to show her what it was.
Robik, show me. Come on, Robik, show me. Robik, show me.
At the same time Iza had been trying to make headway with the other girl. The girl was slight and dark. She wasn’t particularly pretty, but she had an idea of herself. Part of this idea included the belief that she was too good for Iza Judo. She was also sober. When she was no longer willing to tolerate Iza she tried to leave. Iza blocked her way and then, somehow, managed to catch her head in the door. That nearly ruined the evening. The girl threatened to call the police, but eventually she calmed down, accepted a drink, and spent the night with Alec’s friend. Alec spent the night with the girl he met at the café. He no longer remembered her name. Mainly what he remembered was that as a child she had owned eleven pet bunnies. Even then, when he spoke of her, he referred to her as Eleven Bunnies.
    Alec invited Iza in and cleared a place for him on the bed. Iza seemed to deliberate over the invitation. Hanging from his shoulderby a vinyl strap was a medium-size valise. Iza eyed this valise before he finally accepted the invitation and picked his way through the bags to take his seat.
    —I wish we had something to offer you, Emma said. But as you can see …
    —Don’t trouble yourself, Iza said.
    —I’m surprised you’re still here, Alec said.
    —Australia. Even the embassy is run by kangaroos. We’ve waited seven months.
    —Before you left, Syomka mentioned an uncle in New Jersey.
    —He lives in a home for geriatrics. We’ve never even seen a picture of him. If we’d gone to visit him and a nurse wheeled out the wrong old Yid we wouldn’t have known the difference.
    —So why Australia?
    —First, Syomka heard good things. Second, for America, they fly you out of Rome in about a month. But Syomka thought, We’re in Italy, what’s the hurry? So I thought, All right. New Jersey or Sydney: once we get there it will be all the same shit. Pardon my language, Emma Borisovna. And what about you?
    —Chicago.
    —You have relatives?
    —My mother’s cousin from Vilnius, Alec said. They settled two years ago.
    —Chicago’s a big city. I don’t know much about it. But people go there.
    The conversation then hit an uncomfortable lull. Iza sat on the bed, at something of a loss. Alec kept expecting him to give some indication as to why he had come to see them, but Iza offered nothing and looked instead as if he was hoping that someone would explain the same thing to him. Eventually, Emma eased the awkwardness and asked Iza about his parents.
    —Still there. My brother-in-law doesn’t want to leave. He’s the transport coordinator at the fruit and vegetable terminal. They live well. Everywhere he goes he carries a watermelon. My sister has thetwo kids. Our parents don’t want to leave without them. Me and Syomka, they’re happy to be rid of. They figure we’ll settle somewhere first and then it will be safer for the others to follow. We’re like the minesweepers.
    —I’m sure that’s not what they think, Emma said.
    —Maybe; maybe not. In any case, they didn’t want to be separated from the grandchildren. I don’t blame them.
    —Of course not. A family should stay together, said Emma, intoning what had effectively become her anthem.
    —And how do your parents feel about Australia? Samuil asked.
    —They are getting used to the idea.
    —You didn’t consult with them before you decided?
    —We are here, they are there, you understand. If the day comes when they are able to join us—and I hope it will—then they will have to come to Australia. Or, if they don’t