Savage Coast by Muriel Rukeyser

Author:Muriel Rukeyser [Rukeyser, Muriel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781558618213
Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY

CHAPTER NINE

Official Welcome to Assembled Sportsmen

Boxing

Wrestling

Gymnastics

Addresses

Theatrical Performances

—Program, People’s Olympiad

Helen stayed in the train after the others had gone. She did not believe any of the talk about Mallorca, and the trolley-line that would take one all through Palma. It was grotesque to plan; there was no Mallorca.

She saw from the window the row of houses and the heavy carved doors softly shut; the palm swung in the private garden; there was a breeze now; it turned up the edge of one of the burnt óleos, shoved it a step or two along the dirt, and swung it around, facing the train. It was the gaudy drawing of the Ascension. The Englishwoman was hammered into the ground—she still stood there, her two long feet pointing at it, her long upper teeth hanging bare. One of the Spaniards, talking to the stationmaster, looked at her as her limp hand rose. She made a little catching motion when the wind swung the picture away from her, and then blew her nose and walked away. The Spaniard said something very funny to the stationmaster.

Helen picked up the old Gringoire again, and turned to the story about Nijinsky. His pictures goggled at her from the page—one worse than the other, a Hollywood version of a wealthy jeweler aging fast. She turned down the paper and got up. The train was assured, the town was real; that was all. She might never have lived a day before, she thought; and immediately realized how insane she was being. Everything contributed to this—if this was real, it was because it was nearer the sum of everything that had happened before it than anything had ever been.

Hans knew that, perfectly; he was complete, he moved surely, he was the only person here who was not swamped by strangeness. He knew, she was sure, that they were not engulfed, even though for the moment they might believe they were, but that nothing foreign had swallowed them; this was the logical stream.

She wanted to find Hans.

THE MOMENT SHE stepped down to the platform, she was part of a new crowd that had formed around the professor and the French delegate.

“No,” the professor said, definitively. He had never spoken so sharply before. “The mayor is doing all he can. He can’t get us in, and there’s no word from the Hungarians. A man came out this morning saying they hadn’t reached Barcelona.”

“Hadn’t reached!” said Drew indignantly. His hair fell loosely; his sweater was not tucked into his trousers; his morale had collapsed.

“But nothing is certain,” went on the professor, unperturbed. “A truck has been asked for to take the Swiss team in, as vehicle, messenger, sacrifice—what you will—and we hope to have a report after that.”

“And in the meantime? What about us?” The Englishman with the tall wife came stamping up. “We must stand together,” he declared, speaking to the crowd, but facing Drew. “We must look out for ourselves, since obviously no one else has the wish or the power. And poor Drew’s wife, with the hurt knee,” he continued.

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