AT THE EICHENAU S-Bahn stop, Evelyn got off the last car and walked toward the exit. Suddenly someone grabbed her hand, she whirled around.
“Adam! Has something happened?”
“You said you’d be back around noon.”
“I said I didn’t know when I’d be back. Your hand’s like ice!”
Evelyn pulled the scarf from her neck and tied it under Adam’s chin.
“I wanted to invite you to lunch,” Adam said. “Did you eat already?”
“We had a late breakfast.”
“Took longer than you expected.”
“Are you feeling any better?”
“When I’m out of the house, yes. I saw the doctor. I’m now officially certified as ill.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Ah, just the usual ‘emigration syndrome,’ ‘adaptation problems.’ They recognize it as an illness. He told me I’ll even get a little extra money.” Adam tried to take Evelyn’s hand. “I’m not doing anything awful, I’ve never played sick before. This is the first time. It doesn’t change anything, except a little more money. Why shouldn’t I have done it? In some way it’s actually the truth. And you, how did it go?”
“Not that great.”
“With Katja?”
“Oh, Katja mothered me from start to finish. She even sent along a little something.” Evelyn hooked her arm under Adam’s. They passed a boy who was rattling the lock on his bike and cursing softly to himself, then turned down the street leading into town.
“Katja’s apartment is a dream come true, in the entryway there are mirrors and a chandelier, all very elegant—the real West.”
“And how many rooms?”
“Just one, but it’s huge. There are two other students in the apartment, each with her own room. The kitchen is huge, they even throw their parties in there, and there’s an old-fashioned bathroom with a huge tub. Makes you realize just how dull and middle-class all this is. I bought some tissues, here.”
Adam stopped to blow his nose.
“Any problems?” Evelyn asked.
“Not really.”
“But really?”
“His latest maxim is ‘No pain, no gain.’ ”
“I’ve heard that one.”
“I can’t find my house key anywhere.”
“Adam …”
“I’m just saying that I can’t find it. I thought maybe you took it by mistake.”
“I did not take your key by mistake.”
“Eberhard wanted me to sign up at the supermarket, they’re looking for people to run the bottle return, part-time.”
“At the Tengelmann?”
“Something like that.”
“And?”
“ ‘And’ what?”
“Were you there?”
Adam stopped in his tracks. “You think I should be sorting bottles?”
“I’d do it.”
“That’s easy to say.”
“And I won’t. Were you at the university?”
“I first have to get a document notarized.”
“What?”
“My graduation exams.”
“Why would they need to be notarized?”
“I don’t know, but that’s the way it is. And then I’ll be majoring in art history and Romance languages.”
“And in the afternoons you’ll work the bottle return.”
“Everybody wants a security deposit. You can’t rent anything without a deposit. I was at the jeweler’s.”
Adam stopped in his tracks. “You promised me—”
“He didn’t want them.”
“What?”
“He flat-out didn’t want them.”
“What do you mean, ‘he didn’t want them’?”
“He says they’re not genuine.”
“Is he crazy?”
“He said none of the stones is real.”
“He just wanted to haggle.”
“No, not at all. He just shoved them back at me—no interest, period.”
“I told you you shouldn’t. And this is your punishment. You hold on to family things.”
“You sold Heinrich for the first offer that came along.”
“Family jewels are only for a very rainy day.”
“Well, it looks like it’s pouring down. I don’t want to be a beggar forever.”
“That’s one for Uncle Eberhard. ‘You don’t roll up your sleeves, you land in the garbage dump.’ ”
“Stop it now.”
“Did you show the jewelry to anyone else?”
“No, that was enough for me.”
“Well, they’re still beautiful. In my eyes it’s all genuine.”
“I wonder if she knew.”
“Of course she had to know.”
“My mother didn’t. She blew her top because I got them instead of her. I gave Katja one of the rings.”
“You’re a generous soul.”
“But how does that make me look now?”
“So you think she ran off to the pawnshop with it?”
“ ’Course not. But all the same—”
“How did she find a place to live so fast?”
“Through her relatives. They’re taking care of everything for her. Besides, she has a boyfriend, a Polish guy.”
“She could have come by one of those with a lot less trouble.”
“He’s been here a good while. He studied landscape gardening and something else, and is going to get his diploma soon. He and Katja are going to Zurich in two weeks, they’d like for us to come along.”
“Do you think that’s a good idea?”
“It would be nice. He has some business to take care of there, and we could take a look at the city. Leave in the morning, back the same evening.”
A bell rang behind them. The boy they’d seen before now went around them on his bike. Once he was past he called out something they couldn’t understand.
“I saw the doctor, too,” Evelyn said.
“The gynecologist?”
“Yes.”
“And? Everything okay?”
“Yes.”
“What was it Katja sent along?”
“Marble cake.”
Adam tugged at Evelyn to sit down on the bus-stop bench. “Come on, let’s have a little picnic.”
“Not here, it’s too cold. You’ve already got a cold.”
“You have something against picnics?”
“Are you trying to catch more cold?” Evelyn walked a few steps farther and then turned around to Adam. “Where’s your winter jacket?”
“It’s not my jacket, I won’t wear it.”
“Then we’ll buy you one, but you can’t go without one. Come on, let’s do it now.”
“No.”
“You put up with Eberhard’s little maxims, you can put up with his jacket.”
“Yesterday there were two hundred thousand people in Leipzig, and there’s to be a huge demonstration in Berlin, a legal one.”
“What does that have to do with your jacket?”
“Which means, we have to hope they don’t pull it off, right?”
“Cut that crap.”
“But we do, we hope they won’t pull it off, and Eberhard hopes they will—that’s how it looks to me.”
“Well, I in fact have other problems. Come on, please!”
“Saint Eberhard would be happy to give his jacket to our sisters and brothers in the East.”
“Come on now!”
Adam turned around. She watched him walk away. When he got to the bus stop, he pulled a newspaper from the trash can, spread it out on the bench, stretched out his legs, and pursed his lips as if he were about to start whistling.
Slowly, very slowly, Evelyn walked back to the bench. With each step she covered a vast distance. Just a few more breaths and she would be standing before him, look him in the eye, and say those familiar words, words so familiar that it suddenly seemed pointless to speak them.