Karol Efraim Sidon

Puzzle

2016 | Torst

Meanwhile Alexandra examined the picture that he was hiding from her in his study. Above all she was surprised to see herself in it. The figures, the red telephone kiosk and the blue horse did not arouse such anxiety in her. She could not recall when she had last reminded her husband to take Lidrunal. She immediately called the museum, but her husband was not there. She did get through to Filip, who often slept over at work there.

She found out that in the afternoon Moshe had run off to Casablanca for a meeting with the Rabbi. She threw a coat over herself and asked Leon to take care of the children. She wasn’t even sure how she made it from home to Na Příkopě. She ran through the halls of the Savarin Palace, outside which the Hebrew Casablanca sign was lit up, and from a distance she saw in the open courtyard two figures lit up by the neon, sitting behind a table with a bottle of wine.

She recognized the first as the Rabbi, but she did not know the second one. With feigned composure she sat down beside them, as if she were just stopping by by chance, and she asked: “Has my husband been here?”

The Rabbi nodded, pushed his glass in her direction and poured wine from the bottle.

“You must have passed each other on the street. He just left a few minutes ago. We’re on our way too.”

Větrovec had meanwhile taken off his Moroccan costume, but even without the make-up he did not make a good impression. She pinioned him with a hostile gaze, making it clear that he ought to leave. It surprised her how quickly he understood and blew away like a burning sheet of paper. She drank up the contents of the glass and looked at the Rabbi enquiringly. “What did my husband want with you?”

“I needed to talk to him about work. I’m looking for a replacement Mashgiach for this restaurant. I’m afraid the chap who was sitting here is useless.”

“I wouldn’t trust him with a hat, never mind supervision of a restaurant,” she said in a huff.

“Is something the matter?” Charlie asked.

“I don’t know,” Alexandra said. She hesitated to confide in the Rabbi but then asked:

“Did Moshe make any sense?”

“Sure,” Charlie pondered, averting his gaze, “until that phone call. And then he didn’t even say goodbye and just left.”

“Telephone call?” She was on her feet immediately, as she recalled the telephone kiosk in the picture. Telephone kiosks are not usually in forests. What’s more it was red, and they have red kiosks in Britain. “Who was calling him?” she blurted out.

“I have no idea,” said the Rabbi, but that was as she was leaving. “Is something the matter?” he called after her, but her rapidly receding little figure was lost in the dark underpass.

“Good Lord,” she prayed, “let him just be at home, let him be home, everything else is irrelevant.” She cursed herself out loud for not keeping a watch on him as she should have done, leaving him without his Lidrunal at the mercy of his delusions.

When she was hurrying out of her apartment, she had forgotten to take her keys, so she had to ring the front door bell. “Is dad home?” she blurted into the mouthpiece when Frederik answered.

“He’s home,” answered her son.

“Thank God! And where is Uncle Leon?”

“He’s left again.”

She climbed the dark staircase two steps at a time.

(Translated by Melvyn Clarke)