An Ermine in Czernopol by Gregor von Rezzori

Author:Gregor von Rezzori
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-1-59017-606-1
Publisher: New York Review Books
Published: 2012-01-09T16:00:00+00:00

Aunt Paulette reclined her bobbed hair against the seat back and stared up at the ceiling with arched eyebrows.

“You have very beautiful throat,” said Uncle Sergei.

“Are you tempted to sink your teeth into it?”

“Paulette!” said our mother. “If I might ask, would you help the children with their schoolwork this afternoon—or better yet, why don’t you go up right now, you’ll have the whole afternoon to yourselves.” She turned back to Herr Tarangolian: “It’s really a terrible shame that Miss Rappaport couldn’t come back …”

Aunt Paulette got up. “A terrible shame,” she said. “And no one has more cause to regret it than I do.”

She shooed us upstairs. “Incidentally, even when the dear departed Rappaport was with us the brood was always sent out only when it was too late.”

“An excellent educational method,” said Herr Tarangolian. “Children can never be corrupted early enough. On that matter I agree entirely with my friend Fiokla Aritonovich.”

“Paulette, please!” said Mama.

Aunt Paulette opened the door and let us out with an ironic bow. She didn’t exactly hate us, but she made no secret of her indifference toward us, and of the fact that recently we had become downright burdensome. It was also clear that it was only reluctantly that she undertook the task of helping us with our homework and otherwise standing in for the absent Miss Rappaport. But perhaps she was simply venting her general displeasure at us. She was twenty-five years old, very pretty, full of joie de vivre, and unspeakably bored in our household, which was anything but companionable. Apart from Herr Tarangolian and the occasional relative from the countryside, no one came to visit us, and it didn’t occur to anyone to pursue some social connections or visit friends in town. Although the household was large and busy—we were still a large family, including the help, and we did include them, a whole tribe—nothing could hide the fact that the empty space around us was expanding to the point where we felt entirely alone and utterly isolated.

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