“Did you get your money?”
“Unfortunately, no, I have to go back tomorrow.”
She smiled. “So, you’re still going to be here tomorrow? Zena and I were talking about you the other day. She thinks you’re a rather decent fellow. I think she might even like you.”
Kulik laughed, embarrassed. He felt a twinge of guilt: he couldn’t deny that he had strong feelings for both women. At Luninetska Street, Marusia said cheerfully, “You must come to the house and say hello to my parents. Father will be delighted to see you. He’s so terribly fond of you.”
Opening the front door, she called out, “Father! I’ve brought a visitor with me. You’ll be pleased.”
As they entered the living room, Valentyn pulled himself up off the sofa, and came toward Kulik with open arms. “Young man, how nice that you’ve come for a visit! A pleasure, always a pleasure to see you. And you, Marusia, are you done with work already? Excellent. There’s nothing I want more than to see the two of you together.”
“Oh, Father, stop it,” Marusia said crossly; a touch of pink came to her cheeks.
While Valentyn and his daughter exchanged words, Kulik walked to the window and pulled back the curtains. All at once a dreadful chill took hold of him. “What have I done?” he murmured. “What have I done? It was a mistake my coming here today. I’m putting my life on the line.”
Marusia heard him. “Putting your life on the line? What on earth are you talking about? What’s wrong?”
“It’s Sobakin. He lives in the house next door. He’s always watching.”
Valentyn did not hesitate to jump in. “Yes, in the house next door. He’s settled there, in rooms on the top floor. He’s like a poisonous snake and he wants my daughter. He even got her to …”
“Father! Please! Stay out of it!”
Father and daughter went at each other again and Kulik regretted having stirred things up. He noticed the old man had shaved off his beard. Efrosinia had finally got her way. He tried to change the subject. “By the way, have you heard from Lonia?”
Valentyn shook his head grimly. “Lonia. Lonia. In his letters he promises to come home for the summer. So many letters arrive, one after the other, but no Lonia.”
“Where’s your wife?”
“Efrosinia’s at the train station. She’s there almost every day. She’s convinced herself that Lonia is coming home, and when he does she’ll be there to greet him with open arms, like when he was a little boy. Every day at five-forty-five the train arrives from Lvov, but never with our Lonia. Efrosinia just waits for the next train. But it’s always the same, no Lonia. My wife’s no longer able to perceive reality in the normal way and it frightens me. Yes, I believe she’s losing her mind.”
He lowered his voice and the words trembled on his lips. “Lonia won’t come today, or tomorrow or the day after. He’s not coming home at all. Ever.”
“Father, stop talking like that! You’re frightening me. Why don’t you go and get Mother? It’s late and she should have been back a long time ago. I hope she hasn’t had any trouble. Go and bring her home, please.”
Valentyn remained unmoving, staring at the floor. Finally he said, “I suppose you’re right. I suppose I should go and get her. She probably nodded off on one of the benches.”
As he took his hat and cane and made for the door, Kulik also got ready to leave, but Marusia was quick to take his arm. Looking a little piqued, she said, “Ivan, please don’t go. Stay and wait for Mother. As a matter of fact, just the other day she was asking about you, and she even said that the two of you had some kind of business to settle. It’s true, she never really liked you very much, but now somehow she’s warmed up to you. Isn’t that the truth, Father?”
“Yes, yes.” Valentyn looked at her vaguely. “I suppose it’s true if you say so, but to be honest, I don’t know anything about it. Well, in any case, it’s a good thing she’s asked for you, because then I’ll still get to see you when I come back.”
Descending the porch stairs, Valentyn pulled his pipe out of his pocket and lit it. He looked up at the sky and muttered, “Oh Lord, please don’t let her be in one of her moods.”
CHAPTER 28
Marusia and Kulik sat in the living room in awkward silence for a moment. Then she moved closer to him, her arm touched his. Her face was a little flushed. She smiled and said with a tremor in her voice, “At last we find ourselves alone and without witnesses.”
Looking uncertainly into her green eyes, his heart melted like hot wax. He knew she wanted something from him, and he wasn’t sure he could help her. She broke into sobs. “Ivan, I need your help. Please, don’t refuse me.”
Kulik wanted to hold her in his arms and comfort her, but he said hesitantly, “I don’t know that I can be of any use to you. What do you want me to do?”
She rushed out of the room, to return a few minutes later holding a small wooden box. Her voice breaking, she said, “Lonia, my brother Lonia … Oh, I don’t know what to make of anything anymore. Here, take a look at these letters. The box is full of them. Each and every one of them is signed ‘your loving brother’. But I don’t believe he wrote them. Something’s happened to him, something terrible, I can feel it with all my heart. Mother can’t bring herself to accept the truth, she’s made herself believe they’re from him, but I know they’re not. This isn’t even his handwriting.”
Kulik took the box from her and examined the letters. Some were written in pencil and hard to read, others were in bold blue ink. Most were two to three weeks old, with an address from a street in Lvov. Their style was the same — mechanical, detached, even strained. They didn’t read like letters from a young man to his loving family.
Marusia looked fearfully at Kulik. “What’s your impression of them?”
Looking through them again, he said at last, “Well, I’m not really sure. In most of the letters he says he’s fine and he’s spending most of his time studying. In this last one here, he promises to come home to Pinsk for the summer holidays. The second half of June is not that far off. Why don’t you just wait and see what happens?”
The girl flew at him in a frenzy. “I asked for your impression, not your interpretation!”
Kulik put the letters back in the box. “In all honesty, Marusia, I don’t know what to say about all this. The only thing that is clear to me is that someone has been tampering with these letters.”
She shrank back. “Oh, my God! It was Sobakin! I should have known. The entire time he’s been promising to bring Lonia home what he’s really been doing is stringing me along. I know it now! He doesn’t care if my brother lives or dies.”
“What do you want me to do? Do you want me to go to Lvov?”
Marusia’s face brightened and she clutched his arm. “Would you, please? I have no one else to turn to.”
When he met her desperate gaze, he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind. “You know I’d like to help you, but you have to realize this is a very difficult matter…. Well, I suppose I could go … but I definitely couldn’t go before the summer holidays because that would raise suspicion at the school. I wouldn’t only lose my position — I’d most likely be arrested by the NKVD and thrown into …”
Suddenly his throat ran dry and he could not go on. What was he saying? He was embroiling himself in a situation where he could easily be picked up by the secret police and convicted on some trumped-up charge. And her relationship with Sobakin certainly wouldn’t help his case. He decided at that moment that it would be best for him to leave the Bohdanovich house immediately, and not involve himself any further in their affairs.