Marriage
Published in Issue #30 Translated from Czech by Melvyn Clarke(Excerpt of a novella)
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The meeting had ended a quarter of an hour earlier and the area between the People’s Council offices and the House of Culture slowly emptied. Now only little Podzimek and even littler Kynštekr were sliding down the railings there, while little Kynštekrová was thudding a ball alternately on the House of Culture wall and the ground. But all rather casually, without any real application. Jarda Fabián watched from the first floor corridor of the People’s Council. He was smoking at an open window, first with the postmistress and then on his own. He was just as bored as the children, but there was nothing else for it but to hang on and wait for Podzimek, if that was what Podzimekwanted. Both offices and the conference room gaped empty and the postmistress was closing up too. She just waved to him – they’d already said goodbye. He stubbed out his second cigarette and thumbed his chin. It was there again. He clearly felt its painful tautness and in his mind’s eye he saw the scarlet volcano with its sulphurously yellow peak. Damn it! He couldn’t do anything about it now;there wasn’t a single mirror in the entire stupid People’s Council. Not even in the toilets. As if the place were full of vampires. The reflection in the window panes was too indistinct for such a delicate operation. He would have to hold on.
After the meeting Podzimek had sent him upstairs to speak with him later. Nobody unauthorized was allowed to remain behind for a Party Cell, or whatever it was called. Only Podzimek as the Chairman, Secretary Fencl, a couple of other chaps that he didn’t know by name, and that fat Švejnohová, who they said was a teacher. Of course, he had to obey: hedidn’t have any work to do at all and he had read his book sometime before lunch. This was a really boring temp attachment– hisstepfather’s idea. Really stupid, like all his ideas. The worst part of it was the complete lack of activity. Everything they gave him to do was finished in a short while and they simply didn’t have any more work for him. In vain he asked for more. He soon understood that he was really getting on their nerves with his busyness, so he stopped. He was no model worker and he didn’t want to get into anybody’s good books...
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