TE15 Lithuanian Honey Cake

The Grand Piano Room

away from myself: probably for ever. That’s the reason I had betrayed them, and not because I did not love them. All of them. Of course they would be disappointed (they thought they knew me, they were waiting for me, for my hands, for my devotion, they trusted me). I would disappoint them, and they would be a little surprised, as if they had discovered something foreign and threatening under a familiar mask. * * * I stood up. Around me the May bees buzzed. Why hadn’t I come here earlier? How strange. While I had been fighting fate in my property (losing ground inch by inch), at the same time, here, in this pure sunny clearing, there was no sign that fate existed at all. It was like I was on an altogether different plane of existence. How was it that I hadn’t tried to cheat fate before, forcing my way to freedom? I couldn’t understand it. Clinging to the sparse bushes, I began to descend into the valley. I knew Verochka would be waiting for me – Verochka, my daughter Lora, my wife. They would be expecting me to turn up soon to sew the ripped school bag. Only I could do the sewing. Yes, they expected me back so that I could do many more things. And I could see, in my mind’s eye, their surprised faces growing longer as slowly their faith in

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