Stone Upon Stone

by Wieslaw Mysliwski

  “Come off it, Kaśka. You’re a shop assistant, you believe in that nonsense? If there was it’d be the same as this life.”

  “You’re a smart one, Szymuś. I’m glad you came today. Hee, hee! Just don’t make me a baby, so I don’t have to cry afterwards because of you. Though whatever you want. Oh, Szymuś. You’re a one, you really are. Dear Lord!”

  “I’ve got something for you, Kaśka,” I said. “Close up the store.”

  “Are you nuts?!” she snapped back. “It’s still early! Look how much bread I still have to sell. Almost two shelves’ worth. What, am I supposed to sell it stale tomorrow?”

  “If there’s nothing else, they’ll buy stale. Close up.”

  “What’s your hurry? Can’t it wait till the evening? It’ll be evening soon. Do you want them calling me a whore again? That bitch Karaska’s gonna come running and she’ll be all, you whore, you closed up shop again yesterday and I didn’t have any bread to give my man with his cabbage! Someone ought to report you, they ought to, it’s downright ungodly. Whenever her ass starts itching she closes up, like she didn’t have opening hours posted outside. So report me! I’ll tell you where you can stick your complaint. Come and work here yourself, you old witch. Stand here on those skinny legs of yours for two hours and your ass’d start itching too. She ought to have kicked the bucket years ago, the bitch. Same goes for her old man. He won’t eat his cabbage without bread, but that doesn’t stop him from coming to the store and being all, how about it, Kaśka, eh, how about it? How about what, spit it out! What’s under your dress. Buy some cigarettes, that’s all you’re getting. You think I don’t get enough of that sort of talk? Sometimes I think I must have a hole in my frock. The women are even worse than the men. You’ve put on weight, Kaśka. The hell do you care if I sleep around and put on weight? What do you need? Get on with your shopping. Don’t come hanging around here and complaining, it’s not a waiting room, it’s not a church. On top of that they’ll tell you you’re a lousy shop assistant. When the store’s out of something it’s your fault, because it says in the papers there’s plenty of everything. You’re screwing around instead of stocking up. How can there be no vinegar? How can there be no this, no that? Sometimes I just want to grab a broomstick and let them have it. I have to hand them such and such, measure something out, wrap it up. Or they take forever choosing, and all you can do is stand there waiting. Not this one, not that one, and inside you’re all furious. If it were my store I’d chuck the whole damn lot of them out, go choose on your own time. But as it is I even have to make suggestions. What do you think, Kaśka? Which one is better? Do I get paid for handing out advice? Beside, what is there to choose from? Take what there is, even that’s gonna be gone soon. With bread, one of them wants a well-baked loaf, the next one tells me to look for a lighter one. Sometimes they make me turn over every loaf in the place, because when they deliver it they’re either all well-done or all not. And God forbid you don’t have five groszes change, there’ll be a whole line of moaners standing there looking daggers, come on, give her the change. I’m not budging from here till you give her the change! What, am I trying to stop you? It’s not exactly a fortune. But am I supposed to give her the change from my own money? If I did that every time I’d be stone broke. And don’t think they don’t talk about me and you screwing. If you didn’t have things so easy with me you’d have gotten married long ago. As it is you come here, do your business, what do you need to get married for. About today, go have a drink at the pub, the time’ll pass quickly enough. I’ll close up once I’ve sold the bread. You’ll be even better if you’ve had a drink. Hee, hee! Not in such a hurry.”

  “Don’t be mad,” I said. “I brought you something.”

  “Me? Straight up? She must have really done a number on you. Or you’re just teasing me.”

  “I’m not teasing. Here. Nylon stockings.”

  “Seriously?” She wouldn’t believe me. “Oh my Lord! They’re lovely!”

  “The seller came by and I bought them for you. You can wear them to church.”

  She opened the packet and tried the stockings against her hair and her arms like they were ribbons. She hugged them and stroked them.

  “Some of them already wear these to church,” she said. “Plus in church there’s always a crowd, you can’t see people’s legs. I’m going to wear them here in the store. It’ll make those bastards’ eyes pop out. They’ll be all, hey, Kaśka, where d’you get them stockings? From my boyfriend. You have a boyfriend? Sure I do. Don’t you think wearing them in the store is a waste? Why would it be a waste. If they get torn he’ll buy me new ones. So he’s rich then? He sure is. When we get married I’m not going to work in the store anymore. Even the richest women don’t wear stockings like these every day, but I’m going to. To hell with the lot of them.”

  “But how are they going to see what’s on your legs when you’re behind the counter?”

  “That’s true. Silly me, I hadn’t thought of it. In that case I’ll come out and close the door each time, because hardly any of them close the door after themselves. All day long I’m yelling at them, close the door, close the door. My voice gets hoarse. Or I’ll come out to chase flies. I know we already have flypaper up, but the stuff on it must be crap. Whenever a fly sticks to one of those strips it just buzzes its wings and it’s off again. I think I’m going to shut up shop. You’re worth it. Oh, Szymek, Szymek, what would I not do for you. But what sign should I put up? I can’t say receiving new delivery, because next morning they’ll all come running to see what came in. I’ll say, gone to office.”

  With the other woman I went back to treating her like any other office worker. Good morning. Good morning. Nothing more. Till one day I’m leaving work at the end of the day and I see she’s moving away slowly, holding back, like she was waiting for someone. I was all set to walk past her when she suddenly came to a stop and turned to face me.

  “Are you mad at me by any chance, Mr. Szymek?” she asked, and her voice was soft as silk.

  “Me? Mad? Of course not. At you, Miss Małgorzata?” I answered a bit too eagerly.

  “Because it’s like you’ve been avoiding me. I’m sorry if I hurt you with what I said the other day. But that story about the king amused me so much I couldn’t help myself.”

  “There’s nothing to talk about. It’s forgotten already.” I walked with her all the way to the footbridge outside the village. And since that coming Sunday the fire brigade was holding a dance in a clearing in the woods, I asked her if she wouldn’t like to go with me. In the woods meant close to Łanów as well. I’d come pick her up and it went without saying I’d walk her home afterward. She agreed gladly, except that I shouldn’t pick her up, she’d come on her own and we’d find each other at the dance.

  I got hopeful again. I was a first-rate dancer and I’d won more than one girl over with my dancing alone. When it came to the polka and the oberek especially, no one else in the neighborhood danced them as well as I did. After the war there were a lot of younger dancers showed up at dances and they knew all kinds of fancy fox-trots and what have you, but when it came to polkas and obereks I was it. I was no slouch at the tango and the waltz either. My favorite was On Danube’s Waves. But if it was a matter of coming to an understanding with a girl as fast as possible, the best thing was a polka or an oberek. With tangos and waltzes there was too much talking and making stuff up, when it was obvious what you were after. And if you didn’t talk at all, she might think you were a dud.

  Turned out she didn’t like either polkas or obereks, so we danced nothing but slow numbers. On the other hand, she kind of held tight as we were dancing. Except what of it when there was some sort of strange force that wouldn’t let me move my hand an inch on her back. She even had an opening in her dress below the back of her neck, I could have accidentally on purpose tried to stroke her on that little bit of bare skin, maybe that would have made her hold me even tighter, because touching bare skin is always better than through
a dress. But it was like my hand was glued there on her back, stuck in the same place the whole time. As for the other hand, the one holding hers, it felt like I was holding a little baby bird, I was afraid I’d smother it.

  I thought to myself, I gotta get a drink, because otherwise nothing’s going to come of this. I was so distracted I even misstepped a couple of times, and that never happened to me. True, she told me she hadn’t imagined I was such a good dancer. She wasn’t bad herself. But what of it, when that wasn’t what I was after. I went to the buffet and brought back a bottle of vodka and some open sandwiches. I was counting on her drinking a quarter of the bottle or so. Not too much, not too little, just enough, from what I knew about girls. I’d have three-quarters of the bottle and we’d be even. But it turned out she didn’t drink vodka.

  “Just half a glass, Miss Małgorzata,” I said, trying to persuade her. “It’ll do you good. What sort of dance is it when you’ve not had anything to drink? You might as well be at evening mass. Look, everyone’s drinking. The girls too. Some of them because of their troubles, others for good health, plus everyone has their own reasons for having a drink. Vodka helps people get by. It makes you feel more like having a ball, and if it’s time to die, it makes you feel more like dying. Because when you’ve had a drink of vodka, dying and having a ball kind of join into one. If I hadn’t drunk in the resistance I doubt I’d be dancing here with you today. Once you’d had a drink you’d go out among the flying bullets like you were just walking through a stand of willow trees. Many a time, if you’d been sober your hand would have been shaking from your bad conscience. Once you had a drink your conscience did one thing and your hand another. See, you didn’t bring a sweater, in the evenings it can be chilly. It’d warm you up. And it never hurts to make your head spin a little bit. There’s no shame in having just the one glass. There’s more shame in not drinking. Well then, Małgosia?”

  But she dug her heels in, no. And right away she said she had to be going back because it was getting late, and I didn’t need to walk her home if I didn’t want to, she could go on her own. Let it be no, don’t think l’m going to beg. Wonder if Maślanka has to beg as well. But I will walk you back, I know the right thing to do. I tipped back the bottle and emptied it on my own. Then I tossed the bottle and the glasses and the rest of the sandwiches into the bushes. Normally a bottle was nothing for me. We’d usually drink two bottles each, it was only after two that your soul became like a wide-open barn, like a stream from a spring, and you felt you could grasp your whole life in your hand.

  One time, after two bottles I bet two more I could shave without cutting myself. We were drinking at Wicek Kudła’s place. I’d managed to get Kudła’s quota reduced, because by that time I was working in the quotas department. He didn’t have a decent mirror, just a broken piece of an old one. And no one would even hold it for me, they were all drunk and they were afraid of putting their hand to some misfortune. They were babbling on trying to talk me out of it, but I sharpened the razor on the strop and lathered up, and I was ready. Don’t be crazy, Szymek, no one shaves after a bottle of vodka, after two bottles all you’re going to do is cut your face up, you don’t mess with razors. Razors or scythes or God. God, you might be able to beg him to change his mind. But a razor, when your hand’s shaking and your eye’s iffy it’s all up and down, and your face is nothing but ups and downs, that’s just how it is. You’d think all you’d need would be an eye somewhere in the middle of your forehead, you could use it for seeing, drinking, eating, talking, sniffing, crying, whatever you needed. But you, on top of everything you’ve got a hole in your chin and your jaw sticks out. Just give him the other bottles, don’t let him shave, I’d rather drink than watch someone bleed, it’s okay watching a hog bleed but with a person every drop hurts. I was seeing double, at times I could hardly see myself at all, and the razor in that scrap of mirror was shaking like it was afraid as well. But I shaved myself and I didn’t cut myself once. Give those bottles here.

  But this time, that one stupid bottle went to my head and it was like I was walking up hill and down dale, and the ground under me was rocking into the bargain. At one point it must have rocked more than usual because I staggered and if she hadn’t caught me I would have hit the deck.

  “You’re drunk, Mr. Szymek,” she said. “I can get home on my own from here.”

  “It’s just my legs, Miss Małgosia,” I said. “My head’s as clear as the moon up there above us.”

  The moon was like a cow’s udder, if you’d pulled at its teats we’d have been covered in streams of moonlight.

  “I could go all the way to the edge of the world with you, Miss Małgosia, we’d never lose our way. Wherever you wanted to go, nearby or far away, it’d all be the same to me, I could walk through the woods, I could walk forever.”

  Then I started going on about the resistance and how I had seven wounds. All healed up long ago, of course. But sometimes, like today, it’s as if I can feel them bleeding. If she wanted I could show her and tell about each one. Then I tried to count how many Germans I’d killed. But for some reason I couldn’t get past five. I checked them off on the fingers of my left hand, but when I got to the fifth finger the list broke off like the earth had swallowed it up. I couldn’t make head or tail of it. All that shooting I’d done, and there were only five of them? Could they have risen from the dead?

  Aside from that I could feel anger welling up inside of me. I was walking and walking, and all for nothing. She wasn’t saying a word. It was probably the anger that made me think, so she’ll go with Maślanka but not with me. How is he better than me? He wasn’t even in the resistance, the loser, all he did was trade in hogs, other people spilled their blood for him. How do I know? People in the offices talk, you can’t hide anything there. Though the people that talk do the same things themselves, there’s nothing to get upset about. She wasn’t planning on being a saint, right? Why would she? She’d get old and then regret it. What pleasure was there in being a saint? All you’d do is be in a picture on the church wall, or they’d hand you out during the priest’s Christmastime visit or sell you at church fairs, or you’d have your name in the calendar. But you have to be a big-time saint for that. You’d have to kick another saint off, because there’s already four or five of them for every day. Even the most saintly ones are going to get squeezed out soon. It’s not worth the effort. On top of everything else, you never know if it’s only down here you’re considered a saint, but afterwards you’re actually going to go roast in hell. How can we know what happens afterwards? So then, Miss Małgosia, is it far yet? We’ll be through the woods soon. But I can keep going if you want. And if you want, I can marry you. It’s high time I got married. People go on and on at me about how I ought to be married. Tell me, Miss Małgosia, would you be my wife? I can’t promise you happiness because I don’t have happiness inside me. But we’d get by somehow or other. I could even marry you tomorrow. I’ll perform the ceremony myself. I’ll make such a speech they’ll remember us even after we’re dead. At Mayor Rożek’s funeral, the one that they shot, I gave this speech that had everyone in tears. The guy that came from the county offices, he just mumbled something, he didn’t say a word about Rożek, he just went on about enemies the whole time. In the end Rożek himself rose up out of his casket and said, you, piss off, I want Pietruszka to make the speech. And no blubbering, I want to be able to hear it clear. That’s how he was, he never minced his words, but he had a heart of gold. If you want, we can even get married in church. I don’t know if God exists. But if he exists for you, he’ll exist for me. The tailor could make me a suit and the dressmaker will sew a dress for you. What do you say, Miss Małgosia?

  She was walking along like a shadow, still not saying a thing. I even had the impression that it wasn’t her walking along but the woods, and I was talking any old nonsense to the trees. And maybe because of not knowing whether it was her or not, I suddenly put my arms around her and whispered:

  “Małgosia
.”

  She slapped me in the face, pulled free of my drunken embrace, and ran off.

  “Małgosia, don’t run away! I’d never do anything to hurt you! Don’t run away!” I shouted. I started after her. But she ran like a roe deer. And me, the ground swayed underneath me and began spinning around. My legs got all tangled up. I tried to follow her, but I was pulled in every direction at once. I bumped into something once and twice, then in the end the road threw me to one side. Goddammit!

  “Małgosia! Stop! Wait! I won’t touch you anymore! I thought you wanted it too! Wait!” I had the feeling it wasn’t just me shouting, but the whole woods were calling after her, and the moon over the trees, and the night. “Małgosia!”

  Her shadow was getting farther and farther away, growing more and more faint, till it disappeared completely. I stood still for a moment thinking the road might stop dancing in front of my eyes and I’d be able to see her again and call her, and then she’d have to stop. Or maybe she’d get tired from all that running, or suddenly be scared. The road was lit up like a ribbon in the moonlight, but it looked even emptier. I didn’t know if I should keep after her or not. I pushed on. You idiot, for a minute you thought she was Kaśka the shop assistant. With Kaśka you can talk any kind of nonsense you like and she’ll still tell you you’re smart. You’re a smart one, Szymuś. If I was half as smart as you I’d have had my own store long ago. I could sell anything I wanted. I wouldn’t sell bread or salt. They can go bake their own bread. Buy salt in town.

  “Małgosia!” I started yelling through the woods again. “Don’t be afraid of me! I’m not drunk anymore!”

  All of a sudden, to my right I heard something like a tree crying. I don’t know if it was an oak or a beech. I even reached out my hand, then I saw her pressed against the tree trunk.