same goes for that fool sergeant Jurriaans who disciplined me this morning. And to think that I've known Mm for years and respect him in a way. Another Aunt Coba, appearances mean nothing, a black soul in respectable dress. Arrrgh!' He lay down again.
'Aunt Coba?'
'She has been living on the Emperorscanal for several centuries now. As a child I used to spend time in her house; with her and Uncle Henry. A dignified-looking couple but their valor is lopsided. Only Uncle Henry will go to heaven.'
'You stayed with them? You're not Amsterdam born?'
'Of course I am, but my parents lived on the other side of the river and my mother was sickly. I would be sent to Aunt Coba. Aunt Coba would interfere with my mind. Would you like to have coffee?'
They went to the kitchen, finding Grijpstra observing an empty shelf. On the stone sink stood a hot plate and a box filled with groceries.
Fortune talked while he made the coffee. 'Never thought Rea could be that thorough. She even took the toilet paper, very bothersome if you notice its absence too late. Had to use the paper in my pocket diary, too thin and too slippery.
'Not that the experience isn't two-sided. Without obstructions one can see far. When the dizziness wore off I went shopping. It happened to be Thursday evening and the stores were open. I could even buy a mattress and lie down and think it out. I used to think in a circle, about the business, about money. More of this to get that, more of that to get this.'
'You publish books, we were told.'
'I certainly do, or did maybe. A good selection, if I say so myself, nothing but what the public wants. Books on how to grow tomatoes in water, and what the gurus say about coitus and meditation, illustrated. Today's subject today, for those who want to live free in the security of togetherness. The oozy seekers, Holland's hope.'
De Gier looked for a match. Grijpstra frowned.
'Coitus?' Grijpstra asked. 'Meditation? Separate or simultaneous?' He sipped his coffee, didn't like the taste, and continued to frown, studying miniature swells in his plastic cup.
'Both, the book is in two parts, but I don't know too much about the quality of what I sell. A publisher believes in sales and calculates in profit. There's no choice. Expenses increase and profit diminishes. Only more of this gives more of that, as I explained just now.'
Grijpstra's frown dissolved.
Fortune smiled. 'The endless circle, but not quite, as I found out on the mattress in the other room. To think that I quarreled with Rea because I refused to sell the circle. To consider that someone, a colleague who lives on the next canal, would buy my garbage on behalf of his company-a hundred times the size of mine, he doesn't own it but he's a director-would offer to free me, and I actually refused.' He shook his head.
'At the right price?'
'A little more.'
'Your wife wanted you to sell?'
'She did and I wouldn't agree. My colleague invited me to dinner at Beelema's, Rea was asked to come too. Borry Beelema likes to serve meals at request. He serves himself, and Zhaver and Titania dress up as cooks. Beelema believes in perfection. Caviar and champagne. Hyme, my colleague, must have discussed every detail of the party. It was meant as a trap, but I hadn't learned yet how to be caught in order to become free, FREE, damn it! They may not have known how to approach me. I'm a quiet man, or used to be. I worked, and that was all. Hyme sidled up along conventional lines and wined and dined me to soften up my resistance.'
'The price?' asked Grijpstra.
Fortune told him.
Grijpstra whistled. 'You could retire.'
'And I didn't want to.'
They had left the kitchen and stood alongside each other, gazing out of the windows. Below them a sea of irregular roof tops was contained by a row of warehouses. A thrush, perched on the head of a gargoyle, initiated a fairly complicated statement. The silver Mercedes with the German number plate that de Gier had seen before slithered to a stop before the striped awning of the Hotel Oberon and the same fat German slammed his car door and waddled across the street.
'You refused outright?'
'No, I asked for time to consider the offer. I was alone, under attack by a wicked monstrosity, horribly eager to rob me of my safe routine, or so I thought. I pretended to laugh a lot, became angry, and went home.'
'With your wife.'
'Yes, then we fought.'
'Did you hit her?' Grijpstra asked pleasantly.
'No. I repeated myself. We didn't sleep that night. She wanted to buy a car, a country house, furnish it in style. She said I could read books. I told her that I manufactured books.'
'You don't read?'
'I do, but not too often. I told her I was being useful to society. She tore me to pieces. She proved I wasn't, that the other company could publish my trash better than I.'
'Was she right?'
'Of course.'
Fortune thought.
'You would sell now?' Grijpstra asked.
Fortune grinned. 'Yes, I will. I've been looking at my products again. Goat-wool socks, hallucinating mushrooms, UFO wisdom, Mr. Hyme can have it.'
'UFOs may exist.'
'Sure, but what do my authors know? They know how to spread ignorance on two hundred pages. They fantasize or lie outright and connect nonsense with fabrication.'
The thrush sang on.
'Rea was right, but for the wrong reasons,' Fortune said. 'And she didn't care. I care now, and I disagree with her motivation. All she wanted was wealth, happiness, some short-range goal like that. She's a silly woman really.'
'You won't take her back?'
'No.'
'Divorce?'
'Yes.'
'What will the neighbors say?' Grijpstra asked solemnly.
Fortune lit another cigarette and puffed placidly.
'Mrs. Cabbage-Tonto? She's the only neighbor I know and she never liked Rea. Sure I'll divorce Rea, but she'll have to show up or write to me through her lawyer. 111 return her money to her; she brought a fair sum into the marriage. I invested it in the business. I'll pay her back with profits.'
'You're angry with her?'
Fortune dropped down on the mattress.
'No.'
'And what do you plan to do?'
Fortune yawned. 'Nothing much. Think more out of the circle, right here. This is a good place to think. Go on a trip afterward, find a quiet place, build my own cabin. I can't do that yet, but somebody may teach me.'
'Will you have a car?'
'I'll have to learn to drive again. I could when I was in the army, that's twenty years ago. I don't have a license.'
'Your wife can't drive either?'
'No.'
De Gier swirled his coffee. 'The dog, do you think it will come back again?'
'It did come back and I can't understand where it went. I'm sure I locked the door. It's Saturday today,
