The Minotaur's Head by Marek Krajewski

Author:Marek Krajewski [Krajewski, Marek]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-61219-343-4
Publisher: Melville House
Published: 2014-08-26T00:00:00+00:00

LWÓW, THAT SAME JANUARY 29TH, 1937 SIX O’CLOCK IN THE EVENING

The light was on in Szaniawski’s bathroom, which he grandiloquently called the “bathing room” or “Popielski’s little nest”. Kasprzak lay in the bathtub undressed down to his underwear; his clothes had been rolled into a bundle and shoved in a corner. Mock was sitting on a chair, Popielski on the closed water-closet. They sat in their shirtsleeves, cuffs rolled up and ties loosened, smoking and staring at Kasprzak with heavy, fixed eyes. It was stuffy, they found it hard to breathe, and a moment earlier they had almost been exposed. They glared darkly at the man in the tub, their eyes filled with an anger they did not have to feign.

“Kasprzak,” said Popielski slowly and emphatically, “you said you’d never seen me at the theatre. True, I rarely go. And do you know why? Because the actors shout too loud and stamp their feet too hard on stage. I’ve got a limited imagination and somehow can’t be persuaded I’m in Capuletti’s palace, for example, when some floorboard on the stage keeps creaking …”

Kasprzak seemed not to hear Popielski’s words. He sucked in air and groaned in pain, licked his finger and gingerly touched the wound on his thigh. Blood ran to the bottom of the tub in a little stream; his long johns hung in tatters on either side of his leg, revealing a thin, hairy shin. One none-too-clean sock had sagged down over his ankle and below his knee flapped a rubber garter. He shivered as if he were in an Eskimo’s igloo, not an overheated bathroom.

“You’re to write a letter which I’m going to dictate to you.” Popielski lifted the lid of the water-closet, threw in his cigarette butt and pressed the handle. “I’ll keep it as a souvenir. And if I hear that you’re talking to my daughter outside school hours, if I hear that you still want to use her in your plays, if I hear that you’re gushing about her acting talent, I’m going to go to Headmistress Madler with it. And if that doesn’t help I’m going to show the letter to the municipal authorities and Sprawiedliwosc will print it the following Saturday under the headline ‘Belated flirtations of a schoolteacher’. And the first thing you’re to do is dismiss my daughter from her role in Medea. Do you understand?”

Kasprzak did not respond. Popielski winked at Mock who got up heavily from the chair and leaned over the tub.

“Yes, I do!” yelled Kasprzak, looking at Mock. “I’ve understood everything!”

Popielski got to his feet and pushed his colleague’s chair towards the tub. From the pocket of Kasprzak’s jacket he pulled a visiting card and a fountain pen. He then passed him the jacket.

“Wipe your hands on this!” he muttered. “Or you’ll stain the card. Now write!”

“What am I supposed to write?” Kasprzak pushed himself up in the bath with a hiss of pain and uncapped the pen.

“I’m about to dictate.” Popielski was so astounded by how readily Kasprzak had agreed that for a moment he could not collect his thoughts.

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