Ivan Klima - The Ultimate Intimacy

'Life is like that, Máša,' he added. 'There are also moments when we are put to the test and we have to come to terms with that. Maybe it's better to separate than to live without love. Now your heart is too full of pain, but it will pass and you'll start to see that life's worth living.'

The piano fell silent.

Máša thanked him tearfully for his words of comfort, though he knew he had been no consolation. However, he shook her by the hand and stroked her hair as she was leaving.

Then he went down to the chapel, but his elder daughter was gone and he did not even find her in her room. She must have left a few moments before Máša.

He went all the way up to the attic and found his son with Alois as he expected, making improvements to their home-made telescope. 'Have you discovered anything yet?' he asked.

'You couldn't discover anything with this telescope,' Marek

explained. 'It's impossible to see anything that isn't in the Milky Way.'

'We're sort of learning to observe, that's all,' Alois added.

'What I'd be really interested to know,' said Marek, 'when I see all those stars — what I can see of them anyway — is how it was all created. The stars, the sun and the earth.'

'You don't think God created it?'

Marek shrugged. 'Our Principal says: Reason was more likely the outcome than the origin.'

'That's why everything is so rationally organized, I suppose?'

'I don't know, Dad. But it couldn't have been as simple as it's described in the Bible.'

He noticed that Alois was listening with expectant interest.

Of course the world we all live in is moving faster and faster away from the one inhabited by those who wrote down the Bible message, and the interest that people have in it will continue to wane. How much easier it was for preachers in the days when the earth was the centre of the universe and the moon and stars were there to rule the night, and the lamps of heaven had simply been kindly lit by God so that the night should not be so hopelessly dark.

'I understand what you're saying,' he said to Marek. 'The universe arose fifteen or maybe eighteen billion years ago. A billion either way doesn't matter, it's beyond our imagination anyway. It is expanding. The earth and the sun are somewhat younger. Stars are born and die. There are more stars in the universe than we can count. The Lord told Abraham: Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them. There are black holes and white dwarves. All those things can be determined. But what was at the beginning, whether it was divine intention or a big bang when all of that came into existence from a speck of matter, is purely a matter of belief

Unlike his companion, Marek continued to look sceptical. And Daniel wasn't pleased with his own speech either. In such a universe, a God who created it and at the same time assumed the form of a Jewish infant, who grew up, was baptized by John, preached, was arrested, condemned and shamefully executed, seems less and less likely, less and less possible, harder and harder to defend.

'Listen,' he said to Marek to cover up his uncertainty, 'you didn't deign to come to the service last Sunday? Or did I miss you?'

'No, I wasn't there,' his son reluctantly admitted.

'It's no fun listening to your dad on Sunday as well?'

'It's not that,' his son replied. 'I just didn't feel like it. If it wasn't you preaching I'd feel like it even less.'

'And what did you feel like doing?'

'I did some reading.'

'About black holes?'

'Why about them in particular? I read a novel.'

'About what?'

'It's hard to explain, Dad. Science fiction.'

A journey into space?'

'No. It was about another civilization. But they were ants, not humans.'

'You found that interesting?'

'Fairly. But it's made up, a civilization like that doesn't really exist. And even if it did, we'd never find out about it.'

'Are you sorry?'

About what?'

'That you'll never find out about the ant civilization?'

'If it existed, yes. It would be a pity if we never found out.'

'Fine, Marek, I'm glad you have an interest in those things, but perhaps you could spare me that hour on a Sunday?'

'The hour's not the point, Dad!'

'What is the point, then?'

'I just believe that everything was completely different from the way the Bible says and the way you preach it.'

'Its certain that nothing was literally the way it is written in the Bible.'

'Well, there you are.'

'But nor was it exactly the way it is described in scientific texts either.'

'That's possible, Dad. But what those books say is more likely.'

'Marek, it's not a question of what is more likely. The essence of the Bible message is not about how life developed, but how we ought to live it.'

'People don't live by it anyway,' Marek commented stubbornly, and suddenly Daniel had nothing to refute him with.

'So you won't be going to church on Sundays any more, then?'

'It's not that, I'll be coming all right,' Marek said, suddenly startled at his own defiance.

He had not managed to persuade Marek. Likewise, he was incapable of talking to his daughter or finding out what was troubling her. He had railed to comfort Máša or advise her how she ought to live. He had not managed to stay faithful to his wife. He wrote letters to Bára that were possibly tender and in which he spoke of his great love for her, but he couldn't bring himself to yield to her entirely.

He had been incapable of bringing anything to a satisfactory conclusion recently. His life was definitely out of kilter with the Bible message and even with ordinary human decency.

As he was coming downstairs, he caught sight of his wife who had just rushed out into the passage. 'Dan, where have you been? I've been looking for you everywhere. There's just been a call from the police in Plzeň. They've arrested Petr.'

4

Samuel

Samuel returns from a two-day business trip to Ostrava several hours earlier than he told Bára he would. Bára isn't home, of course. The flat is tidied and empty, and it doesn't appear to have been heated. There is just the musty smell of stale tobacco smoke in the air. Aleš must be at his grandmother s and Bára will be somewhere with some chap. He still suspects young Vondra, he's good-looking and he definitely has a better way with women than Samuel had at his age, not to mention now. When it was Bara's birthday he brought her a rose. And he's always looking in on her whenever he gets a chance. Not long ago, he offered to accompany her to Příbram on business. Bára refused, but that might only prove she's more cautious than he is. He calls his mother-in-law. Yes, Aleš is with her; Bára said she had something to attend to. No she didn't say what or with whom; she never gives her details. His mother-in-law wants to know whether she is to bring Aleš, or whether he is to sleep at her place.

That depends on when Bára will come home.

She's bound to be home soon, it's not six o'clock yet.

Sam tells his mother-in-law he'll call her later. He could have spoken to his son, but he didn't think about it in the surge of rage. He walks

nervously around the empty flat; he dislikes emptiness, it unnerves him. He tries phoning the office but there's no one there any more. What sort of business could Bára have to attend to?

She could have all sorts of business. Bára is almost unbearably active. She manages to do the housekeeping, work in the office, deal with clients and also act on television from time to time. When he comes home dog-tired in the evening, Bára is there teaching Aleš something, chatting to Saša, making phone calls, singing and she's even willing to talk to him until midnight about his ailments, his work or the political situation, and after all that she expects him to make love to her.