Wieslaw Mysliwski - Stone Upon Stone

“What for, he’s not going to be doing any reading.”

“Well, so we can at least close his eyes.”

“Maybe he’s not dead? Maybe he’s not dead.” Old Ambroży jumped up from the bed right in the corner. No one had come to visit him that day. He’d had his leg amputated at the knee. He grabbed his stick and hobbled over, close to tears, as if he were still trying to keep death back. “Maybe he’s not dead. Look closely. Having cold hands doesn’t necessarily mean he’s dead. Nor having cold feet. Death’s a whole lot more than that. It’s not enough to just say he’s dead. You can say all manner of things, it doesn’t make them so. You can say it’s day, but it’ll still be night. Just like Jesus, he was supposedly dead, but he hadn’t died at all. Give him a shake! Now how am I supposed to get Stolarek back for the wrong he did me? Stolarek, Stolarek. Half my land is gone almost. Skin and bones, that’s all my land is. A dried-up branch. Give him a shake. Lawyers don’t just up and die like that. Maybe he’s sleeping only? When death comes, your tongue has to die as well, and the things on your conscience have to die, everything has to die. When you’re dead you can’t even blow your nose. He promised. Sure as he’s lying there now, he promised. Some people just can’t catch a break. Why? Because they’re fools. Stolarek’s land is rich as you like, and he’s still filching other people’s, the crook. All he does is flick his whip at his horses, and they’re just horses, they’re not worried about whose land they’re plowing. His father used to steal land from my father. But what could my father do when his father was backed up by lawyers. All my father had was a head full of anger and a mouth full of prayers. So all he did was pray and curse, pray and curse in turn, while that guy took his land. Plus the other guy had a pair of horses, father only had the one horse, and with one horse there was no way he could have plowed back land that two horses had worked. He kept plowing his land back and his land kept getting smaller. Then one time he got riled up and took a whip to Stolarek. So Stolarek’s lawyers set on him like ravens, and it wasn’t long before he died. Besides, what kind of a life would it be anyway to live and watch your own land shrinking. I’ll leave it all to you, son, my father said, though you’ll need to take an ax with you one of these days. Me, I somehow didn’t have the strength to defend what was mine. You know, I let him have it with my whip, though I didn’t even hurt him that much cause he was wearing a thick cape, and now I have to die already. But you, don’t use a whip, take an ax. All a whip is, is anger and a strip of leather, and there’s nothing you can do against lawyers, it’s like beating a bull with a little twig. As for them, it’s not enough that they’re the law, they’re in with the devil to boot. And there’s no greater power on earth than the law and the devil in cahoots. All you can do then is grab an ax and kill the other guy. Even if you have to die in the slammer afterwards. It’s better to die than to live when you’re up against the law and the devil. God’ll forgive you, because when it’s about the land, he always forgives. He was born on the land, he lived on it and died on it, so he knows what it is. And God wasn’t one of the masters either, he was just a regular carpenter. Same as Kosiorek or Bzdęga in our village. Kosiorek built our cattle sheds, and Bzdęga made wagon wheels for us. And if God doesn’t forgive you, the land will. Because sometimes God doesn’t always see everything from up in his heights, but the land feels every hurt. Though even better than using an ax would be if you had enough to buy your own lawyers. Sell a few acres, sell the horse or a cow, go take a loan, but buy some lawyers. Then you can face Stolarek and his lawyers like an equal. Cause a guy like that, even if you cut him to death, his sons’ll rise up, their sons’ll rise up, their grandsons and great-grandsons, and they’ll be plowing your land over till kingdom come. But you need to find lawyers that are in with an even bigger devil than Stolarek’s. With devils it’s like with people, there’s bigger ones and smaller ones. Don’t keep with the small ones. A small devil is the same as a small calf, small boots. Not much of anything. Always keep with the big ones. However much they ask for. Even if you have to sell your soul. What do you need a soul for if you don’t have any land. A soul on its own, without land, it’s like its body didn’t want it and God’s driven it away. Take the religious pictures off the wall, smash the cross with a mallet and leave it there broken, pour the holy water into the night pail, then go get drunk and curse for all you’re worth, and the devil’ll come find you of his own accord. Prick your finger for him, he’ll do the same, and Stolarek’ll be quaking in his boots. Pity I won’t live to see it, we could have gone together. You’d knock at his window, hey there, Stolarek, I got my own lawyer now! Now we’ll see what’s what! Now we’ll see who’s stronger! We were like two brothers, our beds were next to each other in the hospital! He’s in with better devils than you are! He knows Lucifer! He knows Beelzebub! He knows the Antichrist! He knows all the important devils! He knows all of hell! Your devils are pisspots! He knows all the laws! A hundred times more than yours know! He knows every law there is! And he knows the right law for you, you thief! They cut my leg off, but I don’t care. I’d let them cut the other one off if it meant getting even with you. Come here, Stolarek, come outside, I’ve got more to tell you! He’s visiting Sunday! Come take a look through my window! You’ll see us drinking vodka, eating sausage together! My old lady’ll cook him some chicken! And we’ll laugh together. Ha, ha, ha! Hee, hee, hee! And it’s you we’ll be laughing at! It’s curtains for you, Stolarek! God is slow but just! And you know what he said to me? He said, there’s no reason we should lose against a guy like Stolarek. We don’t even need the devil on our side, Ambroży. All we need is regular justice. That’s what he said. He even laughed, he said those lawyers of Stolarek’s, they’re no more devils than fleas are wasps. When we’re done with them, all that’ll be left of them will be their farts. Ha, ha, ha! He laughed and laughed. Hee, hee, hee! He just kept laughing and laughing. You could see the devil flashing in his eyes. I asked if I should pay him, I said I could pay him, but please stop laughing like that. I can’t afford it, but I’d sell a few acres, the horse, a cow, take a loan, and I’d pay. If Stolarek could pay for a lawyer I could too. But he should stop laughing, cause it was frightening. The only thing left for Stolarek to do will be go hang himself. Pick your tree, Stolarek. And he asked me, Stolarek’s his name? Stolarek. Same as his father! And his father before him. As soon as we get out of here. He promised. But it looks like there’s no law for Stolarek, no God, no devil. That’s for sure.”

“Easy there now, don’t cry.”

Right off, two big brawny auxiliaries came in and took the lawyer away. Then Jadzia the orderly came in and changed his bed. She said, “So, the poor guy’s gone.” She checked around to make sure he hadn’t left anything behind. There were a few small things, like there always are after someone dies, so she gathered them in her apron. There was the glass of compote he’d not finished, she asked if anyone wanted it. But no one did so she poured it down the sink. She wiped the top of the bedside table with a cloth. She took down the old temperature chart and put up a new one. She was going to take the books as well but I told her to leave them, that maybe I’d read them.

At one point I even took the book he’d left open by his bed and started to read it. It was about this guy that went around asking about a carpenter. It wasn’t really a carpenter he was interested in, but he didn’t know what he ought to ask about so he asked about a carpenter. Was he nuts or what? You ask about a carpenter when you need someone to make a door or a table or a chest. If he’d come to our village any little child would have told him where the carpenter is. Józef Kalembasa, on the way to the mill, third house after the roadside shrine, the one with the acacia in the yard.