— But there are so few Hildas, said her husband. I don’t get much use out of your name.
— Stop it, you! she said.
She kissed her husband on the cheek.
The claimant looked away in embarrassment.
Then the examiner was tapping his chair. He looked up.
Martin repeated the question he had been asking.
— Do you like fishing?
— I don’t know.
— Doesn’t know if he likes fishing, well. Well. If you do, or if you want to find out — you can come along. I go out most weekends, early in the day — just in a rowboat on the lake. You’re welcome to come, be assured. Twenty-three Juniper Lane. Just knock on the door some day, Martin Rueger, and tell us you’d like to go fishing.
The claimant felt he was still looking at them. He was thinking about the conversation and what he would say next, but then he looked up and he realized they had gone. They had been gone for some time.
— Come now, Martin, said the examiner. Let’s go home.
~ ~ ~
THEY SAT ON THE STAIRS side by side looking down. Although they had moved houses, the house was the same. The same photographs ran down the left wall. He could close his eyes and see them.
The aviator with his goggles in his hand, standing by a plane.
The family with poodle partially hidden behind a tree.
The girl as if on her first day of school.
The long lawn where sun had blighted the grass and the edge of the photograph was burned.
He often thought about that one.
— We have many things to discuss, said the examiner.
The claimant moved his toes back and forth against the step.
— Have you begun to think of yourself as Martin? she asked.
— No. Not until today.
— And was it strange, did you feel it was strange, having that woman speak to you in that way?
— They are married — she and the man?
— They are married and live together. Do you know what that means?
— It means that they are for each other, they possess each other. It means people should leave them alone and not interfere?
— It does not mean that. Some people would like it to. It means that they have declared, that each has declared that the other is of great importance to him or her. Life is life. It is not the sets of rules people make. If someone were to fall in love with that man and he were to fall in love with her, he would very likely go off and leave that woman, Hilda. And the same is true of Hilda. All bonds are conditional. It is important to remember that. Why is it? Why is it important to remember that?
— I don’t know.
— It is important because if you expect that such bonds are permanent, then you can do yourself harm when it becomes true that the bonds are not. Do you see that? The most realistic view is the safest. That is the view we take here.
— But if I were to spend time with Hilda…
— Her husband might not like it. He would probably try to stop you, and stop her from doing that. But, what will happen will happen. You have to be calm about everything and understand — in this life all things that may happen do.
They sat for a while.
— It might be comfortable for you, said the examiner, to have a cover story of some sort, a way of talking about how you spend your time and why you are here. Would you like that? Should we prepare one?
The claimant nodded.
— All right, Martin. What is the story that includes Martin and Emma and speaks to why they live in this house and why they go about in this town? It should be the simplest possible explanation. Do you know that law? The simplest explanation is always the correct one?
The claimant shook his head.
They sat for a while.
— Maybe you are studying something and I am your assistant, he said.
— What could I be studying? she asked.
— These villages, he said. Maybe you are studying them. Maybe I am your helper. I am going through them and through studying me, you are studying them.
— Ha.
The examiner laughed.
— Don’t you think that is a bit too close to the truth? How about I am studying plants. I am drawing plants. We will set up a station in the house where we will lay out and press plants and we will draw them. You enjoy drawing. We can work together on this. You can take your book around and draw plants in other places. We can collect plants. It will be very useful to us.
— Can you draw a plant, Emma?
She smiled.
— We shall see.
— Now?
— All right.
~ ~ ~
THEY WENT DOWNSTAIRS and into the dining room. The examiner took out a large sheet of paper and laid it across the dining room table. She brought out some pencils of various thicknesses, and a sprig of thyme from the kitchen. She laid it on the paper and sat looking at it.
The claimant watched her. He held his hand as if he were holding the pencil she was holding.
She leaned over the table and began to draw. With quick, precise strokes, she sketched out the thyme plant. When she was partway through, she stood up and went outside. In a moment, she was back, and she was holding a whole thyme plant. She washed it in the sink, dried it with a cloth, and came and laid it on the table.
— Now, I can draw the roots, she said.
She went then to her task, switching pencils often, and pausing to sharpen them. The claimant watched in wonder as the plant emerged on the page, very delicately. So delicately!
And then she was done.
— How could you do that? asked the claimant. How is that? How could it be?
— Do you remember which one of us suggested that I draw plants?
He shook his head.
— Well, I suggested it. That makes it very plausible that it is something I could do. You see how it is now? I wouldn’t have suggested something I couldn’t do…isn’t that true?
The claimant smiled.
— And you will teach me.
— Yes, she said. It will be a good thing for us.
~ ~ ~
23 JUNIPER LANE
The claimant and the examiner approached the house. It was precisely the same as the house they lived in, so it was very comfortable to stand there in the doorway. Surprises — there never would be any!
The door opened, and Hilda was standing there. She was wearing a short yellow dress in honor of the springtime.
— Good evening, she said. Come in, come in!
Her eyes met Martin’s and traveled over them and into them. He wondered if it had really happened or if he was imagining it. I am imagining it, he decided. It is because of what I was told.
They went into the hall and passed between the pheasant painting and the painting of the angry woman. They went to a closet and hung their coats. They were led through the passage to the dining room, and sat at the same table where the claimant had spent so much time.
— Martin will be back in a moment, said Hilda. He just ran down to the market to get some salmon for the salad.
She set out on the table a tray with some drinks.
— Here you are, Emma, and this is for you, Martin.
She left the room, then popped her head back in.
— Oh, Martin, she said, could you help me with something?