Ivan Klima - Lovers for a Day

'Tereza, don't you love me any more?'

'Wellington here. Are you still talking, Prague?'

'Yes we are, but we're nearly finished.'

'We're nearly finished, Tereza?'

'But it's costing you a fortune.'

'No, I thought you meant finished with me. You haven't told me if you still love me.'

'I love you as much as ever.'

'Do you remember the first time we met?'

'Yes, but we can scarcely talk about it at such a distance, can we?'

'You told me I was the sort of man you could spend your life with.'

Yes, because you're calm and kind, and you love me. You were nice to my parents when I introduced you to them last time you were here. My husband quarrels with them. He

quarrels with everyone, in fact, because he only sees peoples bad sides. And I was very attracted to you. My sea captain. You'll take command at the manoeuvres.'

'I won't. I'll live over there in your country. That's what I need us to agree on.'

'But Bill, everything's different here. And there's no sea.'

'I've had enough of the sea. You're what's special for me.'

'Because you have the sea all around you, but you don't have me. If you come here, you'll have me right enough, but you'll start to miss the sea.'

'How can you compare yourself to the sea? The sea is water and you're fire.'

'Darling, you say such beautiful things to me, but we must finish. We'll never sort it out over the phone, anyway.'

'You haven't told me yet whether you want me to come over.'

'What I want isn't the point. It wouldn't be sensible.'

'Why wouldn't it be sensible? We miss each other so much and we have to take decisions about our future.'

'Because we have our families. After all, you said I have to be absolutely free to decide.'

'Of course. I can't make you do anything, can I?'

'How can I be free to decide if you come over here and tell me you'll leave your family and your country because of me, and then you'll ruin these manoeuvres. Are they important?'

'Who?'

'The manoeuvres.'

'The biggest for ten years.'

'There you are. And you'd go and miss them.'

'That's my affair.'

'No, it isn't just your affair. If you give up your job and

abandon everything on account of me how am I supposed to be free to decide? Don't you realize what a responsibility this places on me? After all, I can't even be sure that you'd be happy with me.'

'With you I'll be happy. And you yourself said how nice it would be if we could be together all the time.'

'I said it because I love you.'

'There you are, then.'

'But at the same time I knew you were a long way away and that it could never come true. If you 'were nearer everything would be easier, and we could get to know each other better as well. We've hardly known each other for more than a couple of weeks.'

'Times two.'

'Yes. But that first time, when we met at the seaside, we had no idea that we'd fall in love.'

'I knew it the first time I saw you.'

'We didn't know it for certain. We were both on holiday. And when you're on holiday everything seems different and special.'

'It was special. But I knew I could never meet another woman like you.'

'What sort of woman am I?'

'Remarkable. Beautiful. Delicate. Tender. Wise.'

'Bill, you wrote and told me all that before. Don't waste time now. We've been talking for so long already. This phone call will cost you more than the plane ticket.'

'Don't think about the cost of the call and tell me whether I ought to fly over.'

'This is the Wellington operator. Are you still speaking, Prague?'

'This is Bill Morgan here, also in Wellington. What the hell do you keep butting in like that for?'

'Excuse me, sir, but I had the feeling your call was a trifle long.'

'There's no need for you to worry yourself about the length of our call. You're not paying!'

'Bill, I don't think you should come. I'm not sure I'll have the time or the chance to meet you. My husband always wants to know what I do during the day. .'

'Tell him you're going to your parents'. We could meet there.'

'Oh, for Pete's sake, pack that in! Turn that tap off right away!'

'What's that?'

'Nothing. I wasn't talking to you.'

'Is someone there with you?'

'I told you already. My little boy. Now he's gone and tipped flour in the sink and is running the water. What were we saying?'

'That we could meet at your parents'.'

'I'm not sure I want to drag them into it. Oh Jesus, the flour's blocked the waste pipe. Bill, I'm sorry, I can't concentrate, the sink's overflowing. And anyway you promised me time to think it over! '

'Seven one zero eight one three? I have that gentleman from Wellington for you again.'

'Tereza, it's Friday here now. Are you there on your own?'

'Yes. My little boy has just gone to sleep.'

'That's good. At least we'll have a bit of peace and time for ourselves.'

'But Bill, what do you mean by time? You only called three hours ago.'

'Precisely. You've had a chance to think it over.'

'What can I have thought over?'

'Whether I'm to fly there. That's not a very tough decision, is it?'

'But Bill, I can't even be sure we'll be able to meet. I told you I didn't want to drag my parents into it.'

'How about some girlfriend?'

'I don't know, Bill. Girlfriends are out too.'

'Think up something else, then. Otherwise just tell him I've arrived and we need to talk to each other.'

'Do you think I ought to tell him everything about you?'

'It would be the honourable thing.'

'But he might kill you. Or me. Or himself. You don't know him.'

'You see the kind of life you have with him!'

'Would you put up with it if I was your wife and told you someone else — my lover — was flying in to see me?'

'I wouldn't kill anyone. At the most I'd chuck him in the sea and let him sink or swim.'

'But there's no sea here, Bill! '

'So I'd chuck him in any old water.'

'You're different, I know. That's why I fell in love with you.'

'And do you love him too, seeing that you're always so concerned about him?'

'I'm not talking about love. But he is still my husband after all.'

'I thought you didn't love him any more. That you didn't want to live with him. So why are you so concerned about him?'

'That's true. But he's terribly attached to the children.'

'But you wouldn't be taking them from him.'

'And the children are attached to him. He's their father.'

'You said you're always having terrible rows at home. That he yells at them needlessly. That he makes them neurotic.'

'We do have rows sometimes. Awful ones. We hurl the crockery at each other in the kitchen. Sometimes he yells at the boys. And twice he wanted to kill himself. Now I can hear some music on the line. What absurd kind of music is that anyway? Some Chinese thing or other. Can you hear me at all? It's enough to drive you mad.'

'There you are. It's enough to drive you mad.'

'What is?'

'Life with your husband.'

'That as well. But at this moment it's the telephone. I can hear you again. What was I talking about?'

'Your husband. How he wanted to kill you on two occasions.'

'Not me. He wanted to kill himself

'Sorry, I misheard you. There was some Maori band on the line. He wanted to kill himself on account of you?'

'He wanted to kill himself in a rage. Or from despair. Or maybe it was just a threat. He wants to bind me to him, to make me obedient and faithful.'

'Do you think that's good for the children?'

'It certainly isn't.'

'There you are.'

'But we don't quarrel all the time. Sometimes our home is quite peaceful. And he plays with them and reads them Bible stories and tries to bring them up as decent people.'