Part 16 (1/2)
”Viktor Ipalyevich pointed him out to me from the kitchen window. A sweet boy.”
The preliminary banter was over. ”I couldn't call you last night,” Anna said. ”Petya was still awake, and Papa was working on his poems.”
When they reached the second floor, Rosa stopped. ”Where can we go?”
”I don't know. There isn't anyplace around here.”
Rosa pointed downstairs. At the turning between the ground floor and the cellar, there was a sort of niche, an element of fanciful building design left over from tsarist times. ”Let's sit down there. The place would appeal to Star-Eyes.” Rosa began to descend again. ”You know his fondness for architecture.”
The mention of Kamarovsky made it painfully clear to Anna that the time for her to reach a decision had arrived. Rosa's coming all the way to Filyovsky Park meant that the department must be particularly interested in Anna's report.
They came to the narrow recess, in which residents of the apartment building used to sit and chat during the summer months. The built-in wooden benches were worn smooth, and innumerable steps had scratched the stone floor.
Rosa sat down. ”Lyus.h.i.+n left the Ministry only a little while ago. The meeting lasted longer than expected.”
Anna dropped down onto the bench beside her.
”How was your evening?” Rosa asked. ”What was his reason for calling you up?”
”What you suspected. He wanted female company.” Anna was speaking softly, and yet she thought she could hear her whispered syllables wandering around in the stairwell like ghosts. She reported what the physicist had eaten and how much he'd drunk, and she even related the stupid incident of the fiddler who'd gotten something in his eye.
”Did Lyus.h.i.+n mention his work?” Rosa c.o.c.ked her head so that she could better see Anna's face. ”Did he talk about why he'd be paying the Minister a visit?”
”He wants increased funding for his research. I've already given Kamarovsky a report on that.”
”Considering Lyus.h.i.+n's vanity, I'm surprised he didn't try to impress you with his accomplishments. He made no reference-none at all-to his research project?”
I have brought the moment to a halt, Anna thought, remembering Lyus.h.i.+n's words. And I needed no Mephistopheles to help me. ”He probably didn't have time to bring it up before Alexey's unexpected arrival,” she answered.
Rosa Khleb nodded. ”The meeting was arranged between the two of them.”
”And you sent me to the Ukraina even though you knew that?”
”I didn't know it yesterday. We got a tip today from someone in the Ministry. How did Bulyagkov behave? Like a jealous bear?”
”He remained surprisingly calm.”
”He's a politician,” Rosa said with a little smile. ”Maintaining the facade-that's what the gentlemen on the Central Committee are best at.” She clasped Anna's hand. ”Wait until the next time you're alone with Alexey. I'm sure he won't be so calm then.”
A noise made the two women turn around. A few feet away, a door opened, and Avdotya started shuffling toward the mailboxes. She noticed the other two only when she was right in front of them. ”Good heavens! Who are you?” the old woman shouted.
”It's all right, little mother! It's me, Anna!”
”And who's with you? Come out of there or I'll call the police!”
”This is my friend Rosa,” Anna said. ”And this is Avdotya, the seamstress.”
”We were just chatting,” Rosa said to the old woman. ”Just chatting a little, that's all.”
”In the dark?” Avdotya shook her head and turned toward the mailboxes.
Rosa led Anna outside, where they spoke a few minutes longer. In the end, Rosa seemed satisfied and with a brief embrace bade Anna farewell.
”We should do things like this more often!” Viktor Ipalyevich was standing in a part of the apartment where Anna had never seen him before, namely, in front of the mirror. He'd taken off his cap-a rare occurrence in itself-and was occupied with arranging his hair. With the years, it had retreated from the crown to the back of his head, but Viktor Ipalyevich was running his finger through it as if it were a thick mane.
”Do what, Papa?” Anna ascertained that Petya wasn't back yet.
”People!” He twirled a pathetic little tuft sprouting from the middle of his bald spot and tried to give the strands a specific direction. ”We should surround ourselves with people again, the way we used to. This reclusive life isn't good for us.” He looked at his daughter in the mirror as though she were chiefly to blame for his hermitlike existence.
”Didn't you say you were going through a phase that made it impossible for you to put up with the outside world?”
”How can you take my gloomy nattering seriously?” He laughed, displaying his high spirits. ”It took a visit from your friend to remind me that Moscow is out there! What does she do, your friend?”
”She works for a newspaper.”
”A colleague! A fellow writer!” Viktor Ipalyevich shouted. ”And she didn't say a word about that! She talked about my work the whole time.” He turned his back to the mirror and twisted himself in an attempt to see how he looked from behind.
”Why isn't Petya here? Why didn't you go down and get him?”
”Do you know what I'm in the mood for? A party!” The poet pointed to his notebook. ”Don't I have a good reason to invite people over for a party?”
”What people?”
”Haven't they been wondering for a long time what their friend Viktor Ipalyevich is doing? And I'll tell them: He's working on a volume of poems, and it's almost finished! That's why he wants you all to gather around him and celebrate this great event!” Overheated, he pulled off his woolen jacket and hung it over the back of his chair. ”Of course, your lady friend will be among the invited guests.”
Anna interrupted his flight: ”What about Petya?”
”It won't hurt him to stay up a little later than usual one night.”
”I mean now!” She stepped in front of her father. ”Do you want him to stay outside until he catches cold?”
”Right, I have to fetch Petya,” the old man said, nodding absently. ”We'll invite everybody, all right? Uyvary and Madame Akhmadulina and good old Lebedinsky and Vagrich ...”
”Writers?” she asked, unable to believe her ears. ”You want writers to set foot in this apartment?”
”But that's what I've been talking about all this time.” He put his hands on his hips. ”Will you cook for us, Anna? Will you do that? I'll pay for everything.”
”With what?”