Arrest me!'
'We have to do something!' said one woman, and another ran out into the corridor and started shouting. In a moment two colleagues of Ruzena's came running, followed by a physician in a white smock.
Only then did Olga realize that she was naked and that she was jostling and being jostled by other naked women in front of a young man and a man physician, and the situation suddenly appeared ridiculous to her. But she knew that this would not prevent her from staying here with the crowd and looking at death, which fascinated her.
The physician was holding the recumbent Ruzena's wrist, trying in vain to feel her pulse, and Frantisek kept repeating: 'I killed her! Call the police, arrest me!'
16
Jakub found his friend in his office at Karl Marx House just as he was returning from the clinic. He congratulated him on his performance on the drums the day before, and he excused himself for not having come to see him after the concert.
'It really frustrated me,' said the doctor. 'It's your
last day here, and God knows where you'll be hanging out this evening. We had a lot of things to discuss. And what's worse is that most likely you were with that skinny little thing. Gratitude is a dangerous feeling.'
'What gratitude? Why should I be grateful to her?'
'You wrote me that her father had done a lot for you.
That day Dr. Skreta had no office hours, and the gynecological examination table stood unoccupied in the back of the room. The two friends sat down in facing armchairs.
'No,' said Jakub. 'I only wanted you to take care of her, and it seemed simplest to tell you that I owed a debt of gratitude to her father. But in fact it wasn't that at all. Now that I'm bringing everything to an end, I can tell you about it. I was arrested with her father's total approval. Her father was sending me to my death. Six months later he ended up on the gallows, while I was lucky and escaped it.'
'In other words, she's the daughter of a bastard,' said the doctor.
Jakub shrugged: 'He believed I was an enemy of the revolution. Everybody was saying that, and he let himself be convinced.'
'Then why did you tell me he was your friend?'
'We were friends. And nothing was more important to him than to vote for my arrest. This proved that he placed ideals above friendship. When he denounced me as a traitor to the revolution, he felt that he was suppressing his personal interests for the sake of some-
thing more sublime, and he experienced it as the great act of his life.'
'And is that the reason you like that ugly girl?' 'She had nothing to do with it. She's innocent.' 'There are thousands of girls as innocent as she is. If you chose this one, it's probably because she's her father's daughter.'
Jakub shrugged, and Dr. Skreta went on: 'You're as perverted as he was. I believe that you consider your friendship with this girl the greatest act of your life. You suppressed your natural hatred, your natural loathing, to prove to yourself that you're magnanimous. It's beautiful, but at the same time it's unnatural and entirely pointless.'
'You're wrong,' Jakub protested. 'I wasn't suppressing anything in me, and I wasn't trying to look magnanimous. I was simply sorry for her. From the first time I saw her. She was still a child when they forced her out of her home and she went to live with her mother in some mountain village where the people were afraid to talk to them. For a long time she was unable to get authorization to study, even though she's a gifted girl. It's vile to persecute children because of their parents. Would you want me, too, to hate her because of her father? I was sorry for her. I was sorry for her because her father had been executed, and I was sorry for her because her father had sent a friend to his death.'
Just then the telephone rang. Skreta picked up the receiver and listened for a moment. His face darkened,
and he said: 'I'm busy here right now. Do you really need me?' After a pause he said: 'All right. Okay. I'm coming.' He hung up and cursed.
'If you've got to go, don't bother about me, I have to leave anyway,'' said Jakub, rising from his chair.
'No, you're not leaving! We haven't discussed anything yet. And there's something we have to discuss today, right? They made me lose the thread. It was about something important. I've been thinking about it since I woke up. Do you remember what it might be about?'
'No,' said Jakub.
'Good God, and now I have to run to the thermal building…'
'It's better to say goodbye like this. In the midst of a conversation,' said Jakub, and he pressed his friend's hand.
17
Ruzena's lifeless body was lying in a small room reserved for physicians on night duty. Several people were bustling around the room, and a police inspector was there and had already interrogated Frantisek and written down his statement. Frantisek once more expressed his desire to be arrested.
'Did you give her the tablet, yes or no?' asked the inspector.
'No!'
'Then stop saying you killed her.'
'She always told me she was going to kill herself,' said Frantisek.
'Did she tell you why she was going to kill herself? '
'She said she was going to kill herself if I kept spoiling her life. She said she didn't want a child. She'd rather kill herself than have a child!'
Dr. Skreta entered the room. He gave the inspector a friendly wave and went over to the deceased; he lifted her eyelid to examine the color of the conjunctiva.
'Doctor, were you this nurse's supervisor?' asked the inspector.
'Yes.'
'Do you think she might have used a poison available in your practice?'
Skreta turned once more to Ruzena's body to examine the particulars of her death. Then he said: 'It doesn't look to me like a drug or substance she could have gotten in our offices. It was probably an alkaloid. The autopsy will tell us which one.'
'But where did she get it?'
'It's hard to say.'
'At the moment, it's all very mysterious,' said the inspector. 'The motive too. This young man has just revealed that she was expecting a child by him and she wanted to have an abortion.'
'That character was forcing her to do it,' Frantisek shouted.
'What character?' asked the inspector.
'The trumpeter. He wanted to take her away from me and make her get rid of my child! I followed them! He was with her at the Abortion Committee.'
'I can confirm that,' said Dr. Skreta. 'It's true that this morning we took up her request for an abortion.'
'And the trumpeter was with her?' asked the inspector.
'Yes,' said Skreta. 'Ruzena declared that he was the child's father.'
'It's a lie! The child's mine!' Frantisek shouted.
'Nobody doubts that,' said Dr. Skreta, 'but Ruzena had to declare a married man as the father so the committee would authorize termination of the pregnancy.'
