— 19 —
Reconciliation
Anna Meller was a large, handsome woman with faded blonde hair. Her husband, Teo, was small and dark, with an expression at once winsome and observant. On his arm he had a tattoo acquired in a Nazi concentration camp. A professor of philosophy back in Poland, he was employed at the Sanger-Harris department store. His wife had a full-time job, too, as draftswoman for the Dallas Power and Light Company. Both were gone all day, and they invited Marina to stay in their apartment until she decided what she would do next. Marina was grateful to be alone and to rest. But the apartment was small, she and the baby were sleeping on makeshift beds in the living room, and once again she felt “in the way.”
The Mellers were anxious about her health. Marina was “skinny and undernourished and had pains all over her body.” Bouhe and Mrs. Meller took her to a gynecologist, Dr. Paul Wolff, who confirmed what they wanted to know, that she was not pregnant, but he added that she was “very undernourished” and needed to gain weight right away.[1]
It was soon decided among the Russians, probably after a request from Lee to George de Mohrenschildt, that Lee and Marina should meet and decide for themselves whether their separation would be permanent. Bouhe had given up on Lee. He sensed such “inner resistance” in him that it seemed useless to go on helping. He excoriated his treatment of Marina, considering it “crude and cruel,” and was eager to pry her away from him. But he did not want to be present at the meeting, did not want to confront Lee face to face. “He’s such a wild man,” Bouhe explained to Marina, “that I don’t want to listen to his threats. If he sticks his fists in my ears it will suit neither my age nor my health.” He was frankly afraid of Lee. He and the Mellers spoke of him among themselves as “megalomanic,” “unbalanced,” a “psychopath.”[2]
“I am scared of this man,” he said to de Mohrenschildt. “He is a lunatic.”[3]
De Mohrenschildt, possessor of a universally admired physique, replied: “Don’t be scared. He is just as small as you are.”[4]
Everyone knew that Lee stood in awe of the “size and weight and muscles”—Bouhe’s words—of George de Mohrenschildt. The meeting of husband and wife was accordingly set for Sunday morning, November 11, at the de Mohrenschildts’ apartment. “Don’t worry,” Bouhe reassured Marina as he drove her to the rendezvous. “George will be a good shield for you. He is big and strong. I’m not. He’ll protect you like a wall.” Bouhe escorted Marina inside, conferred a moment with de Mohrenschildt, and quickly left.
When Lee arrived, he was nervous, pale, and obviously embarrassed to be having such a scene in front of the de Mohrenschildts. George immediately started to lecture him. “Look,” he said, “do you think it’s heroic to beat a woman who is weaker than you? I’ve beaten women myself. I can see it once or twice, for something serious, but not all the time.” Lee was discomfited and did not answer.
Jeanne, who adored her husband, joined him in all his enthusiasms and backed him in everything. Now she was feeling parental. “You have to grow up,” she told Lee and Marina. “You cannot live like that. This is not a country that permits such things to happen. If you love each other, behave. If you cannot live with each other peacefully, without all this awful behavior, maybe you should separate, and see. Maybe you really don’t love each other after all.”[5] She was speaking Russian, although, Marina says, she had lived so many lives and knew so many languages that she now used all of them badly, speaking each as if it were English.
“You seem to love one another,” George added. “What I can’t figure out, God damn it all, is why you can’t find a common language?” Both the de Mohrenschildts used profanity a good deal, but they used it so naturally, it was so much the coin of their personalities (especially Jeanne’s), that it came out sounding like a caress.
Marina entered the conversation. “I’m tired of his brutality, George,” she said. “I can’t take it any more.”
“I’m not always in the wrong,” Lee spoke up at last. “Marina has such a long tongue, sometimes I can’t hold myself back.”
“The two of you talk,” de Mohrenschildt told them. “I don’t want to interfere.” He and Jeanne left them alone.
Lee was subdued and ready to make up. “I have nobody now,” he said. “I don’t know what I’ll do if you leave me. I don’t want to go on living.”
“No,” said Marina. “I don’t want to live with you. I want a divorce.” On one hand she was afraid Lee would believe her. On the other she wanted him to, wanted to hurt him for the hurt he had done her.
He pleaded with her to come back to him.
“No,” she answered a second time.
When the de Mohrenschildts returned, she told them that she was not going back and she wanted to take her clothing from the apartment. The de Mohrenschildts agreed that separation for a few months might be best until they could decide whether they really loved each other. As Jeanne said, it was “absolutely useless to continue the way they were.”
The four of them then drove to the Oswalds’ apartment on Elsbeth Street in George’s big gray convertible. Marina smoked cigarette after cigarette, nervous but triumphant, knowing Lee was powerless to stop her smoking now that she was under George’s protection. Nobody said a word. Lee made a perceptible effort to control himself. But he was unable to contain himself once they reached the apartment. He showed “real nastiness” and became “a little violent,” according to Jeanne; “a little bit uppity,” according to George. They later said that he swore he would “get even” and grew so ugly that de Mohrenschildt threatened to call the police.[6] He said, again according to the de Mohrenschildts, he would smash the baby’s toys and tear up all Marina’s dresses if they took her away.
“And where would that get you?” Jeanne inquired. “Then you lose her forever.” Lee was quiet, but Jeanne later said that he “boiled, and boiled.”[7]
Suddenly, to their surprise, he caved in and promised that he would do nothing violent. As George says, “He completely changed his mind.” He trotted obediently after George, who was loading the car, and helped carry out Marina’s and the baby’s belongings. “Lee did not interfere with me,” George said. “He was small, you know, a rather puny individual.”[8]
Marina denies that Lee grew violent and made threats. But as they packed up her belongings, his voice quavered and he was holding back tears. Marina was sorry for him, but she was afraid to show it.
Lee drew her into the kitchen. “I’m asking you one last time to stay.”
“No,” she answered a third time, feeling such pity that she longed to stay. “I was good to you,” she thought. “Now you can come after me.”
“Go this minute,” he said in a loud, angry voice. “I don’t want to see you another second.”