He had called the taxi for two o’clock and the taxi arrived right on the dot so he advised Korin to go now but first he checked the overcoat, regretting the fact that it was still a little damp, and looked in the pockets to see that the passport and ticket were there before giving him some final advice on how to get around JFK, then they were both on their way down to the ground floor, both silent, and so they left the house, the man embracing him before ushering him into the taxi which set off for Brooklyn and the expressway, leaving the man standing in front of the house to raise his hand and wave uncertainly for a while, though Korin was unaware of him for he never turned his head, not even to look through the side windows but sat quite bent over in the back seat, his eyes staring at the road over the driver’s shoulder, it being transparently clear that he was not in the least interested in the view but only in what lay ahead, meaning in what lay ahead over the driver’s shoulder.
VIII THEY’VE BEEN TO AMERICA
There are four of them in it, said Korin, turning to the elderly man in the rabbit-fur hat sitting next to him on the bench beside the lake at Zurich, four people most dear to his heart, and they have been traveling with him, so they’ve been to America but have now returned, not precisely where they had set out from, it was true, but not too far away, and now before their pursuers caught up with them, because they were being constantly pursued, he said, he was seeking a place — a place, he said in English — that was just right, some specific point, so that they should not have to keep running for ever and ever, because they could not accompany him where he was going since he was going on to Schaffhausen, but had to go alone, so the others had to get off, and in any case he felt it was possible for them to get off now, while he went on to Schaffhausen — at which the old gentleman’s face brightened and, ah, he said, having understood barely a word of what Korin had been saying, ah, he twisted his moustache, now he understood, and using his walking stick he drew two symbols in the slushy snow at their feet and pointed to one, saying America, then, smiling broadly, began to draw a line between it and the other symbol, saying, und Schaffhausen, prodding the other symbol, then, signaling that all was clear at last, pointed to Korin and moved his stick between the two marks in the snow, pronouncing with great satisfaction, Sie-Amerika-Schaffhausen, this is wonderful and Grüβ Gott, yes, nodded Korin, from America to Schaffhausen but what to do with the four of them, where to leave them, because this is where he should leave them, then he glanced up at the lake, and stared at it with a sudden intensity, shouting, ah, perhaps the Lake, in English, delighted to have found a solution, and was immediately on his feet, leaving the startled old gentleman who gazed for a while uncomprehendingly at the two points by his feet in the slushy snow then scratched them away with his stick, stood up, cleared his throat and putting a cheerful face on again strolled off between the trees toward the bridge, looking now right and now left.
The town was smaller, much smaller than the one he had left, yet it was the problem of finding his way around it that worried him most, for despite his anxiety to prevent his pursuers catching up with him he had got lost time and again at the airport, and then, after some kind people had helped him onto the express for Zürich, he had got off the train two stops too early, and so it went on, constantly going the wrong way, getting lost, having to ask people, and the citizens of Zürich were on the whole perfectly prepared to answer his queries, insofar as they understood what he wanted, but even after having arrived by tram at central Bellevue Platz he kept asking passersby where the city center was, and when they replied, go no further, this is the city center, he clearly did not believe them but went round and round in a high state of tension, rubbing his neck, turning his head this way and that, unable to decide on a direction, before finally taking the plunge and choosing one direction, constantly looking back over his shoulder to see if there was anyone following him, then ducked into a park, confronting people and asking them, where gun? where center? most of them not understanding the first enquiry but putting him right as regards the second, saying, this is it, right here, in answer to which Korin would give an irritated wave and walk on, until at the end of the park he spotted a a few figures wearing ragged clothes who were looking at him rather darkly, and seeing them he clearly relaxed, thinking yes, perhaps it’s them, quickly made his way over, stopped and said in English, I want to buy a revolver, to which they made no answer for a good while but examined him uncertainly, until eventually one shrugged, saying OK, OK and gestured for him to follow, but he was so nervous and walked so quickly that Korin found it hard to keep up, though he kept repeating come, come, practically running before him, then eventually stopped at a bench among some hedges where two people were sitting, or rather sitting on its back with their feet up on the seat, one of them about twenty, the other about thirty years of age, the pair of them wearing identical leather jackets, leather trousers, boots and earrings, looking for all the earth like twins, both of them extraordinarily nervous, their feet constantly tapping on the seat of the bench and their fingers constantly drumming on their knees, the pair of them discusssing something in German of which Korin did not understand a word, until eventually the younger one turned to him and said very slowly, in English, two hours here again, pointing at the bench, Korin repeating in English, two hours? here?, and OK, he said, it’s OK, aber cash, said the elder one leaning into his face, dollar, OK? and Korin took a step back while the other grinned, three hundred dollar, you get it, three hundred dollar, and Korin nodded to say that was all right, it’s all right, in two hours, here, and he too pointed at the bench, then left them and set off back through the park, soon to be joined by the man who had escorted him so far, constantly whispering pot, pot, pot, pot into his ear and drawing some mysterious diagram on his palm with his finger until they reached the end of the park where the escort gave up and left him, Korin still repeating to himself, two hours, as he walked down to the Bellevue Platz where, with great difficulty, he persuaded a vendor to sell him a sandwich and a cola for U.S. dollars, and he ate and drank and waited for a while, watching the trams as they arrived over the bridge, turned down a narrow side street and, still clanking and ringing, disappeared; so Korin set off along the bridge to the lake, walking for ages, occasionally looking back over his shoulder, the water on one side of him with a single boat on it, a row of trees on the other and behind them the houses of Bellerivestrasse as he read on a sign, though he came across fewer and fewer people as he walked out of town, arriving eventually at a kind of carnival full of colorful booths, tents, and a Big Wheel, but the place was closed up, so he turned back and retraced his steps, the water with the single boat on it now on his other side, and then again the trees, the houses and ever more people, and ever stronger gusts of wind as he neared Bellevue Platz, and soon he was back in the park receiving the gun and some ammunition packed into a plastic bag, and was shown how to load up, to operate the safety catch and to pull the trigger, and this brief course of instruction being completed the elder man grinned at him once, put the money away and the pair of them vanished as if by magic, as if the ground had swallowed them, thought Korin as he continued to Bellevue Platz, crossed the bridge and found a sheltered place on the other side of the lake where he sat down, feeling quite drained, as he told the elderly gentleman sitting at the other end of the bench, for he had no strength left in him, but he had to be strong because the four of them were still with him, he said, and he could not go on like this, while the old gentleman nodded and hummed to himself and gazed at the solitary boat on the lake directly opposite their bench with a cheerful expression on his face.