Chasing the King of Hearts (Peirene's Turning Point Series) by Hanna Krall

Author:Hanna Krall
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781908670137
Publisher: Peirene Press
Published: 2013-09-20T00:00:00+00:00

The Count

Izolda is walking down the corridor to room 121.

And coming from the opposite direction, from the depths of the corridor, is the Count, led by two escorts.

They walk past each other. The Count has a calm, almost cheerful face, he doesn’t look at her, doesn’t betray her with the slightest gesture. Of course, she thinks – Vienna, Anders, northern Italy… it’s the Count. He was helping the resistance, not her husband. She feels a bitterness rising within her. The resistance has thousands of people, but she has only one husband, and now he’s alone and defenceless, robbed of all help.

That night she dreams about both men. They’re inside a church, she’s standing off to the side, while the Count leads her husband through all the holy icons, flowers and candles. She doesn’t know if she’s allowed to join them, so she stays where she is, and they pass by with indifferent, unseeing faces. Like the Count at the Gestapo headquarters. Like Izolda when she passed her husband’s mother… In her dream, her husband is very handsome, slender, his hair like a golden helmet. And his eyes so intensely blue that they can be seen right across the whole church.

On her way to the interrogation, she wonders what her dream might have meant.

She steps into room 121.

The Gestapo officer stands up from behind the desk, steps towards her – and does not put her in handcuffs.

He offers her a chair and says: Please sit down.

She sits.

The Gestapo officer gives a faint smile. We know the truth, he says. You are a Jew, or am I mistaken?

She says nothing.

A Jew. And then? They’ll shoot me. Within twenty-four hours, like the Jews at Pawiak. And then? There won’t be any stool. There won’t be any hook…

I think I’ve had enough, she says in Polish, and hears Halina’s voice.

The Gestapo officer doesn’t understand Polish.

I’m saying that you are right. I’m Jewish.

Something strange happens. The Gestapo officer’s face lights up and he leans towards her with the gallantry of a waiter: Would you like some tea? Coffee? A woman in a summer suit brings in a coffee pot, two cups and a plate with some cake. The Gestapo officer urges her to eat and starts to explain, in a normal, human voice.

If you were working for General Anders, you would be our enemy. Naturally you would die just like an enemy does. Since you are a Jew, naturally you’ll also die, but you aren’t guilty…

She doesn’t quite understand.

You can’t be guilty for the faith of your fathers, the Gestapo officer explains.

I can’t be guilty, she repeats. But naturally I will die…

That’s the law, Frau Maria. Good that we got things cleared up…

Frau Izolda, she corrects him.

What a beautiful name. But why, Isolde, are you admitting that you are a Jew?

Because I’ve had enough!

That’s what her husband’s sister Halina had said. Halina, who is no longer alive. Izolda thinks: And I won’t worry any more that I didn’t fetch her in time. I won’t worry about anyone any more.

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