Arnon Grunberg - Tirza

Before he starts in the garden with the cutting of the grass, but if at eleven Tirza and her boyfriend still sleep, the insult both to him. He knocks at the door of the guest room. 'Tirza,' he calls. 'Solar Queen.'

He opens the door carefully.

His daughter still asleep. The blanket is only half on her. She is in so far as he can see completely naked. On the other side of the bed is Atta. Also completely naked.

Ship's steward remains in the door opening are watching his daughter. Tomorrow they fly to Africa. More than twenty-four hours he is on the airport of Frankfurt.

'Tirza,' he says, 'it is already eleven hours.'

Its only response is that they turn around. On the bedside table is the iPod, which they so happy, a black booklet, which they make notes about her life and in which they sometimes things such as jamming cinema tickets and train tickets, a single time also the account of a restaurant, a recipe for honey cake, but the label of a wine bottle.

He goes out of the room and close the door. Soft In the kitchen washes his hands. Then he in his Volvo. He puts his head on the steering wheel and if someone would have seen him, would certainly those have thought that ship's steward slept. After five minutes to have sat, start he the car and drive to the village. Although he has purchased already in Amsterdam, does he groceries. In the pastry shop he is recognized. We want a conversation about his parents start, but a ship's steward keeps the. Then he drinks still quick two glasses of white wine in the cafe for it to the outside house travels back.

Tirza and her friend are now awake. They sit down at the dining table. Tirza has a long T-shirt, nothing else. Atta wearing a jeans and a shirt that ship's steward can only be described as old.

He offers to eggs to cook for them or baking, but they want only fruit and a tea and coffee.

'Except what I have taken from Amsterdam,' he says, 'there are still grapes which i just bought in the village.'

He washes the grapes and brings them to a scale the living room.

Without that they say anything against takes a seat and sits down. Occasionally also eat he thought a grape. The pips He gulps.

If the bunch is eaten almost empty, he says: 'Let see him.'

'What?' requires Atta.

Not without satisfaction in the bubbler ship's steward notes the voice of the boy. The inconvenience. It is the inconvenience that the other human.

'You Koran,' says ship's steward, 'Let see him. You have him with you?'

'Top in my bag.'

Ship's steward shall examine the tros on a cool grape. 'I have my children agnostic raised, but I have read them or from the bible, like Tolstoy, and also from Turgenev. Do you know that beautiful meaning on the last page of Anna Karenina? "I will with my sense cannot understand why I pray and i will nevertheless continue to pray." You know what I am talking about?'

'I know Anna Karenina not.'

'Dat does not surprise me,' says ship's steward. 'Get him but also. Your koran.'

The Guy goes to the top.

Since they are sitting at the table. Father and daughter. 'You do a little hostile,' says they are soft.

'I? I keep the call is in progress. I show interest. I do my best.'

She shakes her head.

'Pap, do you think that you ever have a girlfriend, a real? I mean: do you think that you ever really good falls in love?'

He thinks of the wife, and to the worker from Ghana with whom he some time on a modest scale has had sexual relations. Nobody knows that further. Such things depends we are large clock. But the worker is him all those years girlfriend enough. In Love he was not on her. In Love. It is really something for Tirza to him to demand that he falls in love. As if it had all not difficult enough, it must also be in love. To whom? And furthermore: he has its yet? He has the solar queen. A real father, one that deserves that word is in love with his children. Life-long. To death. And even then.

'Must i a contact ad?' he asks. 'Is that what you say?'

'I do not know. I think that you know someone must search. That is surely mom continue. You just love again be, as I.'

Atta is downstairs. He has a green paper in his hands. What a ship's steward still wanted to say but He gulps.

'De bilingual edition,' says Atta. 'Special purchased for Tirza. In fact I am also agnostic.'

Browse the father also in, reads a piece. 'Nice,' he says, 'quite nice. But it is not a Tolstoy.'

And in an attempt to be less hostile he asks: "What can I do for you?'

'nothing' says Tirza. 'You can also nothing at all for us.'

He picks up his shoulders, then goes to the garden, starts again in its work. In any case it is dry. He picks up what browsing, pick weeds, retrieves the cutting out a few branches to pruning which he has seen over the head. The time goes quickly if you concentrated in the garden are at work.

Occasionally he thinks of the epilogue that his life is, to the worker from Ghana, which is naturally not as a friend can apply. A friend is someone with whom you have more than just what physical handling on a fixed date. But still.

It was gradually, unexpected and to everyone's satisfaction. On a day she was not only Hofmeesters lady, but also his mistress. It goes without saying that he had from that day also paid a little more. The woman from Ghana did not only Hofmeesters home clean, they also liked his body in order, they regul characterised the juices.

In addition he had her brought in contact with a lawyer who he knew from his students. The lawyer could mean anything from its. She was illegal, as all women in Ghana, but they made good clean. Ship's steward realized that there is a correlation between her willingness and its not completely legal status, but that didn't bother him not further. It is the illegality which people willing. Maybe it was he himself also called illegally, without knowing it. A certain willingness could not be denied him.

At sixes it starts to rain. He brings all the tool to the kitchen. He must tomorrow packing and travel. First to Frankfurt, then back to Amsterdam. This is also something that the garden maintenance. The grass, trees, shrubs.

He opens a bottle of wine and drinks a glass. 'Tirza,' he calls.

Ship's steward drinking his second glass. 'Tirza,' he calls again, 'Where are you?'

He runs to the living room. His daughter is now on the table.

A FRACTION OF A SECOND he needed to the scene. They have heard him nor given.

In the door opening tail to the animal, to the terrible, to the incomprehensible. The Koran is still on the table, and a bowl with the remnants of a bunch of grapes. The Monopoly game. He knows that he should go away, but he can not beveled, it seems as if he is highway hypnosis. He also understands why they cannot see him or hear, why are they not that there someone else in the room. It takes him effort in his daughter is still to see his daughter now with them as is, used, open is being torn. They Keep murmurs something.

He must hold. He is queasy as if he ate something wrong, a damaged oyster, a acute food poisoning. He is dizzy, he does a step backwards, is fixed to the gear lever next to the fireplace in its standard depends. Jörgen ship's steward pants as a cold dog.

The room is running him for the eyes, but they do not hear him. They do not see him. They go on to their game. So hot it yet? Love game.

Eventually he sneaks back to the kitchen, where he three glasses of wine and his face and hands.

Then he walks to the garden and despite the rain he begins to weed out the earth. Especially among the trees and along the edges of the lawn is a lot. He works as a madman, as though he were twenty. Without a pause to award contracts without wiping his hands. So he worked when his parents still lived, when he was still living at home, he worked as a dog, because his parents had taught him: only work makes happy. After a half hour he is wet of the rain and the sweat, everywhere is earth. Even in its ears.