Ivan Klima - Lovers for a Day

(1962)

He thought it best to park two blocks from her building. When he got out he looked around carefully, but there was too much traffic to work out whether there had been a car tailing him.

He entered the building and stood waiting, hidden behind the front door. He noticed the thumping of his heart but what worried him more than the thought of being followed was how he would be received, half a year on, by the woman he had returned for. He had no idea, the last time they parted, that it would be for so long. And it could have been for ever if he'd made the same decision as most people in his situation. He should have phoned her beforehand, except that phones couldn't be trusted. He took a quick look into the street but there was no sign of anyone suspicious.

So he went up to the first floor, noticing the familiar odour of turpentine and thinner that escaped into the passage from inside the flat. There was the same painted plaque on the door:

a couple lying on a bed with Jan and Milada Kaska inscribed in copperplate. He rang the bell.

For a moment there was no sound. She couldn't be home, although — at least in the days when he'd had an interest in her timetable — she didn't usually leave the house until the afternoon. Then came the sound of familiar footsteps and the rattle of the lock. She was wearing make-up and an unfamiliar outfit, apparently on her way out somewhere.

'You're here?' To his surprise, she blushed. 'You're crazy, Doc! What if he was home?'

'He's got a job to go to.' He stepped inside and kissed her.

'You're crazy, you're crazy,' she repeated. 'What are you doing here? You were abroad!'

Yes, but you were here.'

'These days everyone's going in the opposite direction. Haven't you heard?'

'I couldn't care less what other people do.'

You're crazy. They'll put you in jail, sooner or later. And if they don't they'll sort you out, so you won't know where you are.'

'I'll be with you. There's no point in trying to get me to change my mind now I'm here. Can you spare a moment?'

'I had no idea you were corning. There's no way I could have known.'

He tried to put his arms round her, but she broke free of him. What do you think you're doing? How do you know I want you?'

'I can come some other time. I'll be able to now.'

'I would have thought that depended on me too — whether I feel like having you.'

'I came because of you. I came because I wanted you so much I couldn't bear it any longer.'

'What nonsense are you talking?' She finally retreated from the front hall into the living room and he followed her. The room was the same as when he was last there, apart from some new paintings on the walls which must have been her own work. She didn't sit down or offer him a seat. 'So you've come back for me?' she said with a shrug. 'It's your business why you've returned — I hope you don't think it's mine?' She was standing opposite him and staring at him as if he were a total stranger. As if she had forgotten all the days and nights they had spent together, when they'd exchanged endless protestations of love. 'I wasn't expecting you. You're crazy. You take me by surprise like this and immediately fling yourself at me. I'd already forgotten about you. After all there was no point waiting for you once I realized I'd never see you again.'

'I thought about you all the time!'

'It's your business if you thought about me.' She started. Someone was stamping up the stairs. A dog barked on the other side of the wall.

She came up close to him. 'You can't stay here!'

'Is he due back about now?'

'You act as though he was the only person in the world. It so happens he's gone off. He's far away. All he left me were these,' and she showed him two slim booklets. The green one was a savings book, the red one was clearly an identity card. 'Everyone's going off somewhere. I'm the only one hanging around.'

'Did he go in the same direction?'

'He went off on a business trip and it makes no difference what direction he went in. But a couple of dozen relatives have keys to this flat.'

'We'll take a trip somewhere. I've got my car here!'

'You're crazy, a complete nutcase. You've been away for about a hundred years and you turn up here expecting me to be ready and waiting with my nightdress and change of shoes in a suitcase. .'

'Yes,' he said, 'that's exactly what I expected. When's he getting back?'

'I've no idea. I didn't ask. And anyway, people can return unexpectedly — didn't you know?'

'I suppose so, if they're deeply in love,' he conceded.

'Or off their head. Just hang on for a moment. I have to make a phone call.'

The hotel had recently been renovated. The room was on the fifth floor at the very end of a corridor and was doing its best to look modern. The walls had been covered in blue wallpaper and the divans had been given colourful cretonne covers. The same material had been used to cover the armchairs and even the fixed-station radio receiver. On the glass-covered table top lay a bottle opener. However, instead of a bottle there was a telephone and a folder of writing paper.

'Can you see that neon sign?' she asked.

Immediately above their window shone a red and white fluorescent tube. The light from it came through the window onto their beds. 'We've a room with neon,' she laughed.

He put his arms round her. She let him kiss her and then pushed him away. 'Wait. I'm all sticky from that car ride.' She went into the bathroom, but as in the old days she left the door half open. Everything was like the old days, just as it ought to be. Up to this moment he still hadn't been sure it was wise to have returned, but now he knew he had made the right

decision. His place was here. His place was wherever he knew she was close by.

The window opened onto the square. In the centre was a church and a small park. Opposite was the bus station, without a single bus parked there. Instead two foreign military vehicles stood waiting. He wasn't used to them yet. He wiped the sweat from his forehead. 'It's hot here,' he said. 'Don't you think it's hot in here?'

She didn't reply; maybe she hadn't heard him. There were a few pensioners sitting in the little park as well as some man who happened to be staring into the hotel windows at that moment.

On his way back the frontier crossing had been conspicuously deserted, although it was only seven in the evening. 'Doctor Sláma,' a man in uniform read in his passport. 'Sláma.' The fellow checked through some list for a moment, while he himself looked to see where a Soviet soldier might be hiding or an enemy machine gun poking out. But neither of them found anything suspicious. Amazingly enough he wasn't on the list. Or more likely they hadn't received the proper list yet. The frontier guard returned his passport. 'Drive on.' It was quite easy to get in. But that was true about all traps. He had no doubt he was entering a trap, he even realized that he had set the bait himself. But he belonged here. He belonged where she was.

He wiped his forehead again.

'That guy at reception,' she said, behind him. 'I didn't like the way he looked at us.' She had already taken off her clothes and was wearing only a short nightdress and a lot of make-up. If her face had been as perfect as her figure she wouldn't have to use make-up at all. He gazed at her. He gazed at the woman for whom he had walked into the trap.

'He wasn't sitting there so you could like the way he looked at you.'

'I didn't like the way he looked at you .'

'Maybe he just envied me.'

'Maybe,' she conceded, 'but you know the way things are these days. I wouldn't 'want anybody particularly noticing that I've been here. That I've been here with you. Did you shout something at me when I was in the bathroom?'