Farewell Waltz

leaving, I think I won’t need it anymore, and I should give it back to you.”
“Keep it! The tablet could be just as useful elsewhere as it is here.”
“No, no. The tablet was part of this country. I want to leave in this country everything that belongs to it,” said Jakub.
“Doctor, I’m going to bring in the next one,” said the nurse.
“Send all those females home,” said Dr. Skreta. “I’ve done my work for today. You’ll see, that last one will surely have a child. That’s enough for a day, no?”
The nurse looked at the doctor tenderly and yet showed not the slightest intention of obeying him.
Dr. Skreta understood this look: “All right, don’t send them away; just tell them I’ll be back in half an hour.”
“Doctor, you said half an hour yesterday too, and I had to run after you in the street.”
“Don’t worry, my dear, I’ll be back in half an hour,” said Skreta, and he motioned his friend to return the white coat to the nurse. Then they left the building and went straight across the park to the Richmond.
2
They went up to the second floor and followed the long red carpet to the end of the corridor. Dr. Skreta opened a door and with his friend entered a cramped but pleasant room.
“It’s nice of you,” said Jakub, “always to have a room for me here.”
“I’ve got some rooms set aside now at this end of the corridor for my special patients. Next to your room is a beautiful corner suite where cabinet ministers and industrialists stayed in the old days. I’ve put up my prize patient there, a rich American whose family originated here. He’s become something of a friend.”
“And where does Olga live?”
“In Marx House, like me. Don’t worry, she’s all right there.”
“The main thing is that you’re looking after her. How is she doing?”
“She has the usual problems of women with fragile nerves.”
“I told you in my letter about the life she’s had.”
“Most women come here to gain fertility. In your ward’s case, it would be better if she didn’t take advantage of her fertility. Have you ever seen her naked?”
“My God! Certainly not!” said Jakub.
“Well, take a look at her! She has tiny breasts hanging from her chest like two little plums. You can see her ribs. From now on look more closely at rib cages. A real thorax should be aggressive, outgoing, it has to expand as if it wants to take up as much space as possible. On the other hand, there are rib cages that are on the defensive, that retreat from the outside world; it’s like a straitjacket getting tighter and tighter around someone and finally suffocating him. That’s the case with hers. Tell her to show it to you.”
“It’s the last thing I’d do,” said Jakub.
“You’re afraid that if you saw it you’d no longer regard her as your ward.”
“On the contrary,” said Jakub. “I’m afraid of feeling even more sorry for her.”
“Incidentally, old friend,” said Skreta, “that American is really an extremely odd type.”
“Where can I see her right now?” asked Jakub.
“Who?”
“Olga.”
“You can’t see her now. She’s having her treatment. She has to spend the whole morning in the pool.”
“I don’t want to miss her. Can I phone her?”
Dr. Skreta lifted the receiver and dialed a number without interrupting his conversation with his friend: “I’m going to introduce you, and I want you to study him thoroughly for me. You’re psychologically astute. You’re going to see right through him. I’ve got plans for him.”
“Like what?” asked Jakub, but Dr. Skreta was already talking into the receiver: “Is this Ruzena? How are you? …. Don’t worry, nausea is normal in your condition. I wanted to ask you if a patient of mine is in the pool right now, your neighbor in the room next door.… Yes? Good, tell her she’s got a visitor from the capital, above all tell her not to go anywhere.… Yes, he’ll be waiting for her at noon in front of the thermal building.”
Skreta hung up. “Well, you heard that. You’re going to see her again at noon. Damn, what were we just talking about?”
“About the American.”
“Yes,” said Skreta. “He’s an extremely odd type. I cured his wife. They’d been unable to have children.”
“And what’s he here for?”
“His heart.”
“You said you’ve got plans for him.”
“It’s humiliating,” said Skreta indignantly, “what a physician is forced to do in this country in order to make a decent living! Klima, the famous trumpeter, is coming here. I have to accompany him on the drums!”
Jakub didn’t think Skreta was being serious, but he pretended to be surprised: “What, you play the drums?”
“Yes, my friend! What can I do, now that I’m going to have a family?”
“What?” Jakub exclaimed, this time truly surprised. “A family? Are you telling me you’re married?”
“Yes,” said Skreta.
“To Suzy?”
Suzy was a doctor at the spa who had been Skreta’s girlfriend for years, but at the last moment he had always succeeded in avoiding marriage.
“Yes, to Suzy,” said Skreta. “You know that every Sunday I used to climb up to the scenic view with her.”
“So you’re really married,” said Jakub with melancholy.
“Every time we climbed up there,” Skreta went on, “Suzy tried to convince me we should get married. And I’d be so worn out by the climb that I felt old and that there was nothing left for me but to marry. But in the end I always controlled myself, and when we came back down from the scenic view my strength would come back and I’d no longer want to get married. But one day Suzy made us take a detour, and the climb took so long I agreed to get married even before we got to the top. And now we’re expecting a child, and I have to think a bit about money. The American also paints religious pictures. One could make a lot of money from that. What do you think?”
“Do you believe there’s a market for religious pictures?”
“A fantastic