B. Traven

ASLAN NORVAL

1.

“She hit that poor guy.”

“Probably one of those rich ladies who don’t even know what to do with their millions.”

“She’ll probably settle the whole matter with a few measly dollars.”

“And the poor man will be stuck a cripple for the rest of his life.”

“If he doesn’t die on the way to the hospital.”

“Hang or gas her. In my opinion, they should electrocute the murderers who race around in their cars like this.”

“You are speaking the truth, miss. A seemingly decent person gets behind the wheel—”

“Yes, and before you know it, they turn into a bloodthirsty monster.”

“They can’t go fast enough.”

“They don’t even care how many people are crushed beneath their wheels, if it means they can get to their cocktail or their round of canasta ten seconds earlier.”

Suddenly, two police officers interrupted theses outraged comments. They’d rushed to the scene to figure out why people were congregated there. At this time of day, the street was busier than normal, although it was never really calm. The people standing at the corner of Thirty-Fourth were usually in a hurry, afraid of being late. Now, however, their curiosity proved stronger than their fear.

Before they’d even managed to push through the crowd to find out why it had formed, the two officers in uniform swung their batons around threateningly, in order to let everyone know that the authorities had arrived to guarantee law and order as well as safety for all citizens.

These citizens, however, possessed certain rights delineated clearly in the Constitution.

One of these inalienable rights was the right to go and stand wherever they pleased, whenever they pleased. No one could take that from them.

The police officers, of course, did not care at all about such things.

Swinging their batons forcefully, they yelled: “Keep walking—no standing around—yes, you too, keep walking—don’t stop—actually, what happened here?—Keep going—do not stop traffic—keep walking—keep going—do not stop!”

They pushed their way to the center of the crowd, where a lady had supposedly crushed a man with her automobile.

The woman had gotten out of her elegant Cadillac. Her face was pale from the shock of having squashed a young man with her car. But the young man stood next to the right front wheel of the car and smiled in a friendly, intimate way, wiping some oil from his face with his handkerchief.

Still pale, the lady looked at him with her eyes wide, as if she had seen a ghost.

“You—you—you’re alive, young man?” she stammered. “You really are alive?”

“Of course, I’m alive, ma’am. At least for the moment. Why would I be dead?” He pulled out a pocket comb. Using the car’s windshield as his mirror, he combed his slightly disheveled hair and grinned.

“If you could finish me off that easily,” he said, sliding his comb back into his pocket, “I would never have made it back from Korea. You better believe it, ma’am.”

Then he set off to continue his interrupted errands.

“You’re really not hurt? Are you sure?” the lady asked again, finally regaining some of her composure.

“Not at all, ma’am. Don’t worry about me in the least. Goodbye, ma’am. It was a pleasure to meet you.”

“You there, stop. Sir, sir—your name?” called one of the police officers. He had finally managed to squeeze through the throng of curious people by pushing, shoving, and digging into people’s ribs.

He pulled out his notebook and licked the tip of his pencil, true to an old habit of his compatriots.

“What’s your name? Where do you live? How old are you? Where do you work?”

“That is private information and none of your business at all.”

“I am arresting you for disturbing traffic, do you understand?”

“Now listen here,” the lady interrupted. “If anyone is to be arrested for disturbing traffic, then it should be me.”

In the meantime, the second cop had finally arrived, using his baton to beat a path through the mass of people.

“Is that so?” he addressed the lady. “And who are you? You ran over this young man here. That will cost you quite a pretty penny. Where do you live?”

The first cop, who’d been ignoring her on purpose, suddenly remembered that she was there now that his partner had mustered the courage to ask for the name and address of such an elegant lady—the owner of a Cadillac Deluxe, after all.

“That’s right,” the first cop agreed. “What is your name?”

“I don’t stick my nose into your affairs, and you don’t stick yours in mine, all right?”

“That will cost you another pretty penny, just so you know.”

“Why don’t you add a few more, since we’re throwing pennies around?”

Just as the lady spoke, the deafening siren of an approaching ambulance sounded along Thirty-Fourth Street.

With a screech, it stopped next to the Cadillac Deluxe.

The back doors opened with a bang. Everything having to do with an ambulance has to be done with squealing, roaring, or screaming, since it would not leave any impression otherwise. Two orderlies jumped out with a folded stretcher.

“Where is the body?” a bespectacled medical student asked the police officer.

The student bent down and crawled halfway under the car to look for the victim.

“The body is standing over there,” answered the police officer, pointing to the young man. The two orderlies immediately pounced on the young man, who desperately fought them off. Invoking the Constitution, he violently resisted their attempt to load him into the ambulance.

“Good Lord,” he screamed, as if possessed. “Let me go, dammit! I’m not dead. I’m not even hurt.”

“We determine whether you are dead or dying. Not you. Understood?” yelled the resident. “In our eyes, you are dead until we have determined that you are alive. And now, no more arguments—or you really will be in trouble.”

That was the last thing the young man heard, as he was already lying on the stretcher in the back of the ambulance. The door slammed shut, and the ambulance raced through the streets with its siren wailing. It cut the corners so wildly that the young man was flung from the stretcher twice. The ambulance shot past several buses and trucks and almost hit them along the way. Later, he could truly claim how lucky he was because he had escaped death by a hair’s breadth at least ten times on this journey.

On the corner, where only a few minutes ago a poor unemployed man had been dismembered by an elegant car, the throng quickly dispersed. Everyone left convinced that their highly civilized city government would do everything to make life better and more comfortable for its stressed citizens, to heal the sick and wounded. So they all could get back to work.

Only a few people who had nothing better to do remained at the corner. They wanted to see what the two Irish police officers, who had called four more cops as backup, would do with the elegant lady and her even more elegant luxury car.

Two of the cops positioned themselves in front of the car, to stop its owner from deciding to jump boldly over them, like a circus acrobat. They feared she might race away, avoiding all responsibility. To make completely sure, all six cops wrote down the Cadillac’s license plate in their little notebooks, so that they could prove to their lieutenant where they had been during that half hour and that they had actually been part of the action.

One of the four police officers who had arrived later asked one of the original cops whether they had asked the lady for her name and address.

“I asked her,” he whispered to his companion, “but her answer made me think that it might be wise to treat her with kid gloves. Just look at her vehicle! If someone drives that kind of car—you have got to be careful. Damn, they must be loaded!”

“We have her license plate. We don’t need anything else,” said the second officer. “We innocently give her license plate to the old man at the station, and in ten minutes he will have her name, address, age, fingerprints, names and addresses of her lovers, favorite nightspots, the number of bottles of imported whiskey she consumes annually, and the amount of her insurance coverage.”

While the officers bumbled among themselves, the lady had calmly gotten into her car. She teased the gas pedal with the tip of her foot, and the motor quietly began to buzz, more discreetly than a bee. She was just about to move the gilded lever into first gear when she leaned her head out the window with the sweetest smile on her lips.

“Do you gentlemen”—she did indeed say gentlemen—“have anything else important to ask me, before I take my leave?”

“N-n-no, of course not,” the six stuttered. They looked at one another in surprise as if they weren’t sure what they were doing there in the first place.

She pressed down on the accelerator a little. The six saluted and in order to appear friendly showed their teeth, smiling exactly as they had learned to smile at the police academy, exactly as they practiced at home.

The lady returned their greeting with a slight nod and drove off. She stopped only four blocks away in front of a drugstore and disappeared for a few minutes into a musty phone booth, to find out to which hospital the young man had been taken.

The young man had been assigned a room, in which he was to wait until he could be transported to the operating room, where he was meant to give the medical residents a welcome opportunity to prod and cut up his body. In the course of this examination, they would probably break several of his ribs, glue them back together, and await the results.

As they informed him of this with a friendly smile, they added: “You see, mister, none of this will cost you a single cent. The Cadillac carries an uncommonly large insurance coverage. We are diagnosing you with terrible shock. With a diagnosis like that, you can live in this beautiful hospital for six months, like a general in fascist Spain. You will live wonderfully and happily without having to do anything at all. The insurance company will pay for everything. And—please keep this confidential—this hospital is in financial trouble.” In response, the young man said that he did not have the slightest intention to live happily on someone else’s dime and insisted on leaving the hospital immediately to pursue his own affairs.

“You can’t do that, and you’re not allowed to do that,” answered the resident. “We decide what happens here, not you. You had an accident on the street. It could cost you your life if the shock you suffered should have consequences, which is possible. Indeed, very probable. The health department and the insurance agency will hold us responsible for your health, and we cannot abdicate this responsibility. Since you have been brought here, you can’t leave just like that. No way. You see, they would sue the administration of this very prestigious institution for professional negligence. The suit would cost a lot of money and take a lot of time. Therefore, please be so kind as to lie in this bed, rest, and as soon as we have treated a dozen similar cases, it will be your turn.”

With those words, the residents disappeared. They had to complete two years of residency in the hospital before they could receive their certification and be let loose on the unsuspecting population.

A quarter of an hour later, someone knocked on the door.

“Come in,” the young man called somewhat angrily, since he thought that they were coming back to bother him.

The lady came in.

“Oh, there you are, young man,” she said. “I was looking all over for you in this labyrinth. There’s no one around anywhere.”

The young man moved the only chair in the room closer. “Please, sit down, ma’am.”

“Thank you.” She sat down, while the young man sat on the edge of the bed.

“So, this is where you ended up. Terrible. I predict you will probably have to stay awhile?”

“I don’t even have a scratch on me. No trace of the accident.”

“Of course not. However, according to everyone else, there is a trace. Because of the shock you suffered—”

“Shock? Me? Shock? In no way at all, not in the least did I suffer a shock. I was in Korea for five years. I forgot what shock was in the first three weeks I was there.”

“That’s all well and good. But you see, there is the insurance to consider. In a case like today’s, it’s best just to run away as fast as possible. Don’t let them catch you, my friend! Don’t let them catch you! Run as if the devil were chasing you!”

“If I understand correctly, I am a prisoner here. Even the windows are barred.”

“That’s correct. You are a prisoner here. A prisoner of the insurance agency. This agency acts in its own best interest and has to act that way to protect itself against the sky-high damages that you could sue for in a couple of months.”

“I wouldn’t dream of making any kind of claim. I’m not injured and I’m not even in shock.”

“No insurance agency can rely on that, though. Even if you signed a form today stating that you didn’t plan to make any kind of claim either today or later, it would not be enough for the insurance agency. You could fall into the hands of a lawyer, one of those lawyers who builds his existence on such shady affairs. This man would prove with the help of bought witnesses that you had signed the release while still under the influence of the accident, and only to be able to leave the hospital.”

“So they have robbed me of all freedom of movement.”

“That’s right, young man, until a careful medical evaluation has shown that you have not suffered any damage that could affect your health negatively. Only when three attending doctors have given you medical clearance and it has been notarized will the insurance agency be immune to blackmail.”

“I have other, more important things to do than to stare at the bare walls of this box that smells like carbolic acid.”

“Where do you work at the moment?”

“I don’t work, not in the way you are thinking, ma’am. I served for five years in the military. Marine Corps. When the drama—the high command really called it drama—was over and I expected to be released and finally sent home to heal my wounds in peace and quiet, my orders were to stay. I had to help organize and train the newly established South Korean army for future eventualities. Afterward, I received a veteran’s pension that will end in a few weeks.”

“Like all honorably discharged veterans, you surely had the right to receive an education for a new job paid by the government, right?”

“That is only applicable to veterans of the war of 1941–45. Not Korean War veterans. We only receive a monthly pension for about three years. Of course, they expressly told us when they released us that we should be smart about how we used this pension to prepare for a future job, which would facilitate reintegration into normal life.”

“And certainly you must have followed this, as I consider it, reasonable suggestion?”

“I had the best of intentions, ma’am. When asked which job interested me most, I remembered the terrible floods of my hometown during my schooldays, so I said construction of levees and canals. And I have to give it to the military administration, they helped me in all kinds of ways.”

“And do you now build levees?” asked the lady with great interest.

“I’m as far from that as I was on the day of my discharge.”

“That’s hard to imagine, since the training did not cost you a penny.”

“That’s not entirely true, ma’am. A large part of my pension goes to tuition, books, office supplies, transportation to the Institute of Technology, all kinds of educational needs. But that’s not the reason I’m dropping out. It’s not my budget, but my peace of mind that’s gone to pieces.”

“Well, how am I supposed to understand that?”

“It’s easy, ma’am, just like—oops, I apologize, ma’am. I almost said something one can never say in the presence of a lady. But you see I spent six weeks studying like crazy in the classroom. And in my naivete, I thought that afterward I would get to go into the field with engineers and other technical personnel, where the levees and canals were just waiting to be built with my help.”

“And that’s not what happened?”

“Not at all. In the military, I was in basic training for three months and six days. Four weeks later, I found myself in the middle of the fiercest battles in Korea. I learned more in one week than during three months of basic training. It’s all about practical application, ma’am. Practical experience is what it takes.”

“And you didn’t have the opportunity for practical application at the Institute of Technology?”

“Not in the least. I’ve been at the Institute for fourteen months. I was trying to learn how to build levees and canals, but I haven’t even heard the words ‘levee’ or ‘canal’ once during that time.”

“Nevertheless, you must have learned something during those long months?”

“Sure, I learned to be bored to death. Nothing but mathematical calculations, square and cubic roots, equations, numbers raised to all kinds of powers, specific weight of dry and wet earth, of cement and iron. We had to figure out the weight per square meter expressed in kilograms and grams, if the pressure comes directly from above, from below, and from this or that side. We also studied the influence of rain, snow, and comets. We had to determine how many seconds it would take for rain to fill, to the brim, a tin can with a height of ten centimeters and a diameter of six centimeters. But I never heard anything about levees, dikes, canals, and the prevention of floods. I’m afraid the teachers there will not think I am worthy of learning about dikes until I am seventy-five years old.”

The lady opened her purse and rummaged around in it. She only did so in order to not have to constantly look into the face of the young man as he grew increasingly interesting to her.

The young man, however, interpreted this in his own way.

Surely she is not going to give me a hundred-dollar bill, he thought. If she were to try that, I’d have to be rude. I don’t need her money. I still have my veteran’s pension for a few weeks and then—

He wanted to pursue those thoughts, but the lady stood up and closed her purse. Signaling regret with her hand, she remarked: “Unfortunately, I do not have my business card with me. No worries. You will have to be here for at least three days while you’re being thoroughly examined. May I have some books sent to you?”

The young man hesitated before answering: “As you wish, ma’am. If it is not a great bother, I would be glad to accept.”

“What kind of books would you like to read?”

“Well, since I have to abandon my studies so that I won’t be tempted to slay one or two of my professors, I would finally like to learn something about levees, dikes, and canals. Please send me some books about canals. Books that describe how they are built, not with charts of logarithms, but rather with steam shovels, bulldozers, and tons of dynamite.”

“I understand.” The lady laughed, and she walked to the door. “You will hear from me tomorrow.” With a glib “See you then, young man!” she left his cell, which smelled of carbolic acid.

2.

Twenty minutes later, you could not tell the hospital apart from a disturbed anthill. The only difference was that it was human beings and not ants who seemed to have suddenly gone crazy, and, from the perspective of an outsider, for no reason whatsoever. But the doctors, residents, nurses, orderlies, bedpan changers, cleaning ladies, and toilet cleaners, who were all running around with their heads cut off, screaming at each other, were well aware of the cause of this mayhem and of the ensuing consequences. The victim of a well-insured Cadillac had gotten away. The hospital was losing a patient who could have earned it at least two thousand dollars without much effort.

Instead, the director, the doctors, and the nursing manager were now very worried that this untreated “patient,” might turn up in half a year to score lifelong payments of three hundred dollars a month.

Anyone wearing a white coat or a white apron was sent on the manhunt by their superiors, also wearing white. They were dashing from one room to the other, from the attic to the basement, from the kitchen to the bathrooms, and from the laboratories to the bedrooms of the residents. But no matter how frantically these ants-in-white ran from place to place, and no matter how many secret torture chambers they crawled into, there was no trace of him. He had disappeared into thin air. There was just no other explanation. Perhaps he had snuck into one of the residents’ rooms, thrown on a white coat, and left the hospital in this disguise with a quick nod to the doorman.

“Where is the doorman?” yelled the hospital director, while a vein swelled on his forehead. “Where is that gangster? Find him! He is fired.”

Worried about his job, the doorman swore on the grave of his mother that no one had left the hospital except visitors, and there had only been three of them, since it wasn’t visiting hours at the moment. No one else, not even the cat, had left.

“But the patient can’t possibly have escaped through the window,” yelled the director. “He must have passed you.”

“No, he didn’t pass me. Not here. And I haven’t had the time yet to check all the windows.”

“I didn’t ask you about that. Send me the front door receptionist. I will decide tomorrow whether or not to fire you when this whole matter has been resolved. Understood?”

The receptionist appeared, also shaking with worry about her precious post. As she was getting married next year, she desperately needed the money that she planned to save from her wages.

“What is the man’s name? Where does he live? How old is he? How tall is he? What’s his weight?” the director asked, practically attacking her.

“I don’t know, sir.”

“You don’t know? What in the world do you do at this hospital if you don’t even know that?”

The vein on the director’s forehead had grown even larger and now it also turned bluish. “It’s your goddamned job to receive every new patient and to register their personal data.”

“I didn’t have enough time for that.”

“You didn’t have enough time? Not enough time? What do you have time for, then? Maybe an affair with one of these amateurs in white I keep getting stuck with. They can’t even do an appendectomy without removing half the liver or who knows what else at the same time. You’re probably busy having affairs instead of doing your job. Where is his personal information, I said?”

“I had neither the time nor the opportunity to get them. The patient arrived on a stretcher and was rushed upstairs so quickly that I assumed he would have to be operated on immediately.”

“Well, at least that’s an excuse. But don’t let anything like this happen again!”

The receptionist returned to her tiny cubicle while one of the older doctors entered the director’s office.

“In my opinion, this can be remedied easily, very easily. I will just write a report: ‘Unknown man, approximately twenty-six years old, supposedly hit by a car, admitted—here we insert the day and time—ran away immediately after being admitted, before personal information could be collected. His escape was only possible because he was not injured.’”

“‘Escape was possible since the patient was not injured in any way and was only brought in for a routine medical examination,’” supplemented the director. “It sounds better that way. And since he was able to run away on his own two legs, we are covered.”

“Covered for today and maybe for the next few weeks,” said Dr. Snyder, “and at least for now the insurance company is covered. But if the guy fakes it, of course, and wants to sue for a large sum, his lawyer and a ruthless doctor can say that the accident, minor as it was, confused him and that’s why he fled, and that the serious consequences only appeared later, after several months.”

“That may happen,” agreed the director, “it may happen. You know we have that other patient Merquer; every six hours, on the dot, he has a fit of screaming that lasts ten minutes. You know as well as I do that he is a malingerer. But one day, he will walk into a trap set by the insurance company and he will serve several years for his crime. That’s his problem, not ours. So, report the case as we agreed!”

Dr. Snyder was already at the door and wanted to leave.

“Snyder”—the director called him back—“did you personally examine the man?”

“Just briefly.”

“What did he look like?”

“Tall, about six feet, strong and muscular. Built like a wrestler. I would say, an athlete.”

“I pray to all the gods I have ever heard of,” said the director, “that he wasn’t a Korean War veteran.”

“Why?”

“You know, Snyder, hundreds of veterans who returned from Korea have gone a little bit crazy after serving several years there. The only thing wrong with them is that they received a nervous shock there—and now all kinds of things can happen.”

“For example?”

“They run amok and don’t mind at all raping women and girls and strangling them afterward—”

“You don’t need to worry about that. This guy who escaped may have served his time, but he is not the type to have lasted any amount of time in Korea.”

“I hope you are right, Snyder.”

The young man who had inadvertently caused such a ruckus in this very respectable hospital had only wanted to avoid having the residents mess with his body, examining every mole and drawing blood from every wart, just to have it examined by the apprentices of bacteriology in the labs. It seemed idiotic to him that finally, after weeks, he would probably just find out something he had already known for years. He had an ingrown toenail on his left toe that did not bother him in the least.

All of the above was completely unnecessary and a waste of time, even though he had plenty of time to waste ever since he had realized that he was wasting his youth calculating logarithms and cubic square roots and tangents.

By the way, the young athlete was twenty-eight years old and born in Texas, which was not his fault, of course. His name was Beckford and he was just as innocent of having this name as he was of being Methodist, the only religion that led to salvation. When he received this name and religion, he’d been completely defenseless and you could just as easily have labeled him Buddhist, Confucian, a sun or moon worshipper. At the moment, he would have preferred to be a Muslim.

He had been sent to Korea against his will to fight against Chinese volunteers and others in uniform who had not volunteered. His orders were to kill them with machine guns, hand grenades, and flamethrowers.

Otherwise, there was nothing special to report about Beckford, at least nothing about his personal information.

3.

Five weeks had passed since the fateful day that a rogue Cadillac had crushed Beckford to death. He could almost convince himself that this was what had happened, by reading the story that ran in The Manhattan News on the day of his successful flight from the hospital. To his surprise, the newspaper correctly reported that the accident had occurred on the corner of Thirty-Fourth Street. The truth had also been told about the time and day of the crash.

The Cadillac, however, had morphed into a Dodge. The license plate was from the state of Idaho. His name was reported as Earl Jones, from Saint Louis, Missouri. According to the media, the elderly, rather shabbily dressed driver of the Dodge had managed to escape before the police—dutiful as always—could catch him. The newspapers claimed that once again, it was a case of a contemptible “hit and run.” What had happened to the body, whether it had been left on the street or had been donated to science, could not be determined from the newspaper article. Not that the reader cared at all about that; he was only concerned with skimming the sports pages to find out whether Thin-as-a-Rake, the horse on which he had bet ten dollars, had won.

When Beckford crossed the street these days, he did so with the care of a mother who was holding one child in her arms, a second by the hand, and dragging a third attached to her skirt. But one day around noon, a car stopped right in front of his feet without the slightest sound of squealing brakes. He couldn’t say from where it had appeared so unexpectedly. It stopped so close to him that he immediately leaned back, thinking he might lose the tip of his nose.

It had all happened so fast that he had forgotten to run. He felt the shock sink in, once he realized how close he was to being turned back over to the medical residents waiting to probe and poke his body.

Then he heard the voice of a woman.

“Oh, there you are, young man. Finally. Looking for you is like looking for a gold coin in the sand at Atlantic City beach.”

Beckford was shocked when he recognized the lady. “Don’t take me to the emergency room, ma’am. If you do, I’ll commit suicide, or murder one of those phony residents, just so you know.”

“Nothing to do with the hospital, young man. I have collected a stack of books that deal with floods, dams, and canals for you. It’s an entire library, and it all has to do with water and how you can channel and control it.”

“That is all very nice, ma’am,” Beckford answered hesitantly, “but right now I’m not sure whether I have the peace and quiet and the right place to read those books.”

“I will get you a place where you can study the books in peace.”

Somewhere they could hear a police whistle. The lady did not know whom it was addressing. Since it was possible that it was meant for her, she said: “Get in my car! I know a quiet café with good food. We can discuss details there. I can’t stop traffic here any longer.” She gestured with her head to the left. “He’s already coming. Get in and let’s go, before he can read my license plate.”

Beckford got in the car sulking. What does this woman want from me? he wondered as he slammed the door and the car drove off. His thoughts were all over the place as the car found its way through the streets congested by lunchtime traffic.

Does she want an affair? I don’t think so. Too elegant. Too rich. Probably married. Though that may not be the greatest obstacle. Happens all the time. Probably bored to death. Could I fall in love with her? I don’t think so. Not really my type. She is beautiful. But probably most of it enhanced or just makeup. Very elegant perfume. But love? I don’t know. I don’t have the patience to worry about this kind of affair at the moment. I don’t want any headaches. She looks like she is two or three years older than I am. Maybe she’s not even older, just more run down. Maybe she has three or four kids. Where in the world is she taking me? Maybe she wants to use me to get her husband out of the way. His life insurance is probably worth a million or more. But she’s got the wrong guy. I’m not doing that. Maybe she is not even married. One of the arrogant guys from her circle miraculously got her pregnant and now she is looking for someone to marry. I’m not walking on that kind of tightrope with any woman, not even if she has enough money to drown in it. Maybe she snorts cocaine and thinks I can get it for her. After all, she knows that I was in Korea, where you can get snow on every street corner and in every teahouse at ten dollars for half a pound.

The car had trouble maneuvering the terrible traffic.

Or maybe she wants me to deal with levees and dams? Why levees and dams? Maybe she owns a ten-thousand-acre ranch that floods often, and the floods make her lose her cotton, her livestock or whatever. That’s a better explanation. And then, as an afterthought, when I’m on this farm in her beautiful house, in the middle of an environment that just screams lust, maybe she thinks I will finally agree to sleep with her—yeah, right! Sounds nice. She has a nice figure. But nevertheless, if she thinks that she can do whatever she wants with me … good grief, you’ve guessed wrong. You’d have to bat your eyes a little more, before I—and anyway, what do I know about her? And if I think about it all calmly, it is all rather bland and normal—

His circling thoughts were abruptly cut off when the elegant car, which was really more of a boudoir, stopped so suddenly that he was thrown forward.

At the green light, the lady crossed slowly, drove a few more blocks, stopped the car, pulled the hand brake, turned to him, and said with an inviting smile: “Here we are, young man. Lunch.”

Beckford followed her into the restaurant.

A waiter with billowing pants and a fez on his head that was two sizes too big invited them to sit at a particular table. The lady did not bother to acknowledge the man in the fez, ignoring his snarl, and walked toward a different table on which a card leaning against a vase indicated that it was reserved.

Beckford pulled out her chair and was just about to sit down himself when the waiter rushed over.

“This table is reserved, ma’am, please.”

The lady slowly pulled off her gloves and flicked the reservation card with her index finger so skillfully that the waiter was able to catch it. In the sweetest of voices, she said: “As you can see, dear sir, I am sitting here, or do you need a telescope?”

“Very well, ma’am,” answered the waiter, bowing slightly, which beautifully indicated that leaving less than a three-dollar tip would be an insult to his Arab dignity.

The lady pulled out a small mirror, smiled at herself, then hid it under her gloves in her purse and said, “I wanted to go to a teahouse, but then I remembered this café. It is Syrian or Turkish or maybe Lebanese—what do I know? The food isn’t boring unless you eat here every day. Have you ever had jocoque? Or have you ever eaten doneraki or quipe? You can get all of that here. And small almond cakes and coffee—you will dream of them.” She played with the menu as she was talking but barely looked at it.

“Should I choose for you, young man?”

“As you wish, ma’am.”

“The ‘young man’ sounds pretty deadly by now, don’t you think? Didn’t anyone give you a name at birth?”

“Of course, ma’am. But you haven’t asked my name yet.”

The lady laughed. “That’s right. It’s my fault. What is your name?”

“Beckford, ma’am. Clement Beckford.”

“Okay, Beckford,” she repeated slowly, as if she wanted to make sure to remember the name. “The name sounds good. Beckford.”

While she spoke, she rummaged in her purse, took out a small notebook and a very thin pencil, wrote something on a small piece of paper, tore it out, and gave it to Beckford.

“My name and address.”

Without looking at the paper, Beckford folded it and put it away carelessly. You could bet that later, when he actually wanted to read it, he would barely be able to remember where he had put it.

“Don’t you want to know my name and address?” the lady asked, surprised.

“I’ll have plenty of time for that, when I’m alone again.”

“In some ways, you interest me, Mr. Beckford. Not a lot, not a little, but you do interest me.”

“As you wish, ma’am.”

“As you wish, ma’am—just as you like, ma’am—can you say ‘I can’t stand this’ or something like that now and then? Just so you don’t agree with me all the time.”

“Why? It’s all the same.”

“Most of the time. Yes.”

Now she began studying the menu carefully, which gave him the opportunity to study her face more thoroughly.

When I really look at her, I have to say she is rather pretty, he thought. If I only knew what she wanted from me! Why was she so happy to run into me by coincidence? Is she really so desperate? Probably married to a nincompoop much older than her who bores her to death. I bet he only thinks about making money. Perhaps I should stay away after all. She’s the kind of woman who causes headaches if you get too involved, and terrible ones at that. And once you’re hooked and want to get away, she gets a gun out of her fat purse, blows out your brains, and claims that you tried to rape her. And then she cries a river for the jury, shows her beautiful legs, and the jury says: not guilty. And I haven’t even looked at her legs yet. “She’s probably one of those women who wants to be fed three times a night.”

Beckford was so caught up in his thoughts that he spoke the last one out loud. He bit hard on his lips. He blushed, thinking that perhaps he had said more than he remembered.

“Fed,” she repeated. “Fed. It’s good that you say that. You must be hungry as a—as a—”

“—as a lion.” He helped her finish the sentence.

“I don’t think I really wanted to say lion.” She laughed at him. “I don’t know a thing about lions. Well, not a lot at least. Of all the lions I’ve ever seen in a zoo, I’ve never seen one that was hungry.” The tone of her voice changed.

“Do you think, Mr. Beckford, that animals in a zoo or in any kind of captivity are happier than those who live in the wild?”

“I wouldn’t say they are happier but I think they must be more contented. They don’t have to worry about food, they always have water and a roof over their heads, and they’re protected from their enemies, even fleas, lice, and ticks, which can make life unbearable for an animal.”

No one had asked him what he wanted for lunch among the twenty different entrees on the menu. When the waiter brought pita bread, a large bowl filled with radishes, green onions, young yellow onions, and cress, and added two large glasses of jocoque, she smiled and said casually: “I think you will like what I chose for you.”

He was just about say: I am old enough to know what I want to eat and what I don’t like, when it occurred to him that the lady did not deserve such a rude response. He realized that he knew absolutely nothing about these Arabic dishes and would have embarrassed himself in front of the lady and the waiter in the fez.

The only thing he could think of saying at that moment was his usual: “As you wish, ma’am.”

Now it was she who came close to answering impolitely.

“You know, I could throw this onion in your face for that eternal ‘As you wish, ma’am’! At least use a different tone now and then and don’t always say it in that monotone. Why don’t you say ‘Go to hell’ or at least ‘Leave me alone!’ every once in a while? Even a wet dog couldn’t stand this.”

His breath caught in his throat.

She enjoyed his shocked expression. “See, now you don’t have anything to say anymore.”

Her tone changed again. “How do you like the food?”

“I’ve never eaten anything like this before. It’s very good. And in regard to the ‘As you wish, ma’am,’ I promise I’ll get better.”

“Good. But don’t improve too much. Too great of an improvement could hurt your character.”

They had eaten the tiny almond cakes and drunk the foamy coffee; the lady demanded the bill and paid. The waiter with the fez had miscalculated by one dollar. Although he considered himself a connoisseur of humankind, he had only received a two-dollar tip from the lady, which was still, as he reassured himself, four times the amount he usually received from guests at this restaurant. No one worried whether he was satisfied or not. After all, he was happy to be allowed to work here. He had no papers. He had remained in the port of New York, where he had arrived as a cook on a Turkish freighter. As long as he did not get in trouble with the police, it could be years before he was caught and deported to Lebanon or wherever he was from.

4.

When the lady was standing on the street with Beckford and opened the door of her Cadillac, she asked him: “Where would you like me to drop you off?”

“If you don’t mind, ma’am, at the Rockefeller Institute.”

“Okay. Rockefeller Institute.” She started the car, which purred to life. Beckford almost strained his neck as he was looking out the car all around them during the first half mile of the ride.

He said: “Excuse me, ma’am, but this is not the direction to the RI.”

“Of course not. But first I have to make a short visit in that building,” she said, pointing to an office building that was twenty floors high.

“I will wait here, ma’am.”

“It may take me too long, so if you’re in a hurry to get to the Rockefeller Institute, you can take the subway. There is a station just around the corner to the left and you would get there in just a few minutes.”

“That’s a great idea.”

“Would you do me a favor, Mr. Beckford?”

“I would do more than one favor for you. In any case, I owe you for the excellent Arabic meal.”

“Don’t say such impolite things.”

“Okay, what may I do for you?”

“Would it be possible for you to wait for me here at the entrance of this building at eleven thirty tomorrow morning?”

“Nothing easier than that.”

“The question is whether you’ll be here tomorrow at eleven thirty?”

“Yes, ma’am. I’ll be here on time.”

“Excellent. See you tomorrow then.”

Beckford walked to the subway station.

The next day, at exactly eleven thirty, he showed up in front of the office building. Ten seconds later the lady appeared. She had left her car in a nearby parking garage.

“I’m happy to see that you are so punctual, Mr. Beckford,” she greeted him.

“You learn that in the Marine Corps. It’s nothing new.”

They both entered the building. The elevator whisked them to the tenth floor.

Now they were standing in a hallway lined by office doors. On the glass panels of the doors, the names of their respective companies appeared in such obnoxious ways that you would think they were screaming for new customers. The lady walked along the hallway and stopped in front of one of these doors. Beckford had followed her. When he glanced at the glass panel, which took up the entire top half of the door, he exclaimed: “Wow! That’s not me, is it?”

“Who else?” said the lady. “Of course that’s you.”

On the glass panel, painted from the inside, were thick black letters, discreetly and tastefully framed in gold:

FLOOD REGULATIONS AND CANAL PROJECTS

CLEMENT BECKFORD

PRESIDENT

Beckford stared at the writing for a few seconds, and then he knew what the lady wanted from him. This office space was neutral territory, completely innocent and unsuspicious, where they would meet to please each other. No one visited this entirely unknown company. And to make totally sure, in case they did not want to be interrupted, all he had to do was hang a small cardboard sign saying CLOSED IN THE AFTERNOONS.

“Enter your office,” she said, without revealing in the least how much she was enjoying his surprise.

He opened the door and saw that the room was furnished as a functioning office. He said to himself: I guess I was wrong. This is not what a love nest looks like.

He thought so because an approximately twenty-three-year-old secretary sat behind a brand-new large typewriter at a brand-new metal desk. When the door opened, she slid the newest issue of True Confessions she’d been reading under the table. She blushed because they had caught her like this. But it wasn’t really her fault, since she had been sitting there for two weeks without a single person coming to bother her. She quickly stood up, politely stepped back from the typewriter like she had learned in vocational school, and waited to be addressed.

The lady said to Beckford, presenting the secretary: “Miss Amy Greengold, your temporary secretary.” And she looked from Miss Amy to Beckford: “Mr. Clement Beckford, president,” to which Amy responded dutifully: “How do you do, Mr. Beckford?”

He answered just as dutifully: “How are you, Miss Greengold?” to which she answered just as dutifully: “Call me Amy, Mr. Beckford.”

Beckford thought: I guessed wrong again. With this chaperone around, this wouldn’t be much of a love nest. I was really wrong. And now I’m even less sure what this deliciously smelling lady wants from me. When I look a little more closely at Amy, though, considering that we will be alone quite often, of course only for dictation, maybe it can turn into something more serious. And maybe the cardboard sign CLOSED IN THE AFTERNOONS can still serve its purpose after all. It’s a shame, truly a shame, that I can’t see her legs.

“How long should I hold the door open, Mr. Beckford, for you to come and get to know your personal office?” And it was true, there she stood in the open doorway, inviting him to enter the room with a gesture of her hand. He was confused, and he could have slapped himself there and then for always letting his thoughts wander.

“I’m sorry, ma’am. I was just thinking whether it might be beneficial to move those two file cabinets into that corner so Miss Greengold has more freedom to move about.”

“Good idea,” said the lady. “Really, a good idea on your part. The people who carry furniture don’t care much about where and how to place it, and it gets moved anyway, just like in a new apartment.”

When Beckford saw the second office, he could not suppress an exclamation of surprise.

“But this is—this is, but I don’t even know—”

There, spread on the large table, he found a model in high relief of the complete canal system of central Europe from the Rhône to the Vistula. Not even a museum could have possessed a more beautiful and accurately designed model.

The scale was indicated in the lower right corner, and although Beckford knew little about the geography of Europe, he recognized at first glance that the proportions had to be accurate, as accurate as is possible in such a model.

Now his gaze landed on the opposite wall, which was covered with maps of canals. The Suez Canal in all its details, the Panama Canal, the Kiel Canal. Canals in Holland, in Russia, in China, in the East Indies, in Africa, and in North America. Canals of which he had never heard and about which he had never read. Even the canals of the Americas, except for the Panama Canal, remained unknown to him.

The lady pointed to the table, which was covered in a mountain of rolled-up maps. “On these maps, you will find even more canals, and in addition, detailed drawings of all the canals you can see on the maps on the walls. Those drawings include the minutest explanations, all the difficulties that had to be overcome, and the repairs that have become necessary since the opening of those canals. And in those books, you will find the history of each canal from the day of its inception to the day of its first use by a ship.”

He approached the books. Without taking out a single one, he skimmed the spines of the vast number of books. They were organized in ceiling-to-floor shelving. Even in the Institute of Technology, where he sometimes spent several hours in the library, he had never seen so many works solely devoted to canals, dikes, dams, and river control.

He was speechless. He pushed a chair in front of the shelves and sat down to look at the books as he might look at a large painting in an art gallery. He was alone with himself and his thoughts, dreaming with open eyes while the hundreds of books disappeared behind a thin fog.

Beckford had been forced to participate in a war about which he was completely indifferent. It had only seemed to serve an excessively influential group of oil manufacturers, industrial magnates, and stock exchange speculators. As a result, he had not only lost interest in his own personality and any ambitious drive to make something useful out of his life, but he had also stopped caring over the last few months whether he was dead or alive. He could not even consider for a minute whether human beings had a reason for existing, or whether this reason was a delusion. Such a delusion served to help humans believe that they distinguished themselves from animals and that they had been created by a personal God in his own image. Therefore, humans could unscrupulously do with animals, birds, insects, and everything else they found on earth whatever they wanted. They did not have to worry that messing with the environment would eventually cause the extinction of humans, and that insects alone would remain as the invincible rulers of earth.

Beckford just vegetated. He daydreamed through life. What did you live for? Why exert yourself? Create offspring, so that one day they would have the same questions for the same reasons as he now faced? They would be as incapable of answering them as he was. Why work so hard, tear up your nerves, bear the burden of worries? For whom? Why? What did he care about the world? What did he care about people? Why should you have ideals? A new war, and he would be right back in the middle of it. Then it would all end for good anyway. Why should he worry about unsolvable equations? What use was it to be able to juggle cubic squares, parabolas, tangents, logarithms, powers, the square around a circle, and the circle around a square better than a trained sea lion could juggle plastic balls in the circus?

Why work so hard? The hydrogen bomb, a nuclear projectile remote-controlled from a safe underground chamber, would solve all problems and answer all questions human beings had ever had. And for good. Why put in so much effort if it all amounted to the same thing?

Beckford got up and began pulling out individual books. He read the titles, the names of the authors, the dates of the prefaces, and the publication dates. He did this with about a dozen books and again he was confused.

Now how does this make sense? he asked himself. Here is a book that was completed six weeks ago, and yet it was printed eight weeks ago. It’s meant for the next two generations. And here is another book printed a year ago. At the time, everyone, especially architects, knew that hydrogen bombs existed, in the West as well as in the East. And the engineer who wrote this book knew that remote-controlled planes could dump hydrogen bombs three thousand miles away from where they took off. That means these well-educated gentlemen hadn’t abandoned hope that the world would continue to exist. Otherwise, they would have saved themselves the effort of writing and publishing such hefty books. For whom were they writing? For the surviving insects? These serious men are unshakably convinced that humans will continue to exist. And if honestly working men believe in the continuation of the world, who am I to say that it’s worthless to work toward the future?

While Beckford philosophized in his head, the lady studied the maps on the walls more carefully than you would have expected from a woman in general.

“That door”—she suddenly interrupted Beckford’s thoughts, pointing to a second door in the room—“also leads to the outside hallway. So you can leave your personal office without being seen by visitors who are sitting in the front office, which I might add could be an advantage at times.”

How strange, thought Beckford. Very strange that she has rented an office with two entrances for me, so that people can come see me without being seen by Amy. What does this woman want from me? She doesn’t even seem to be considering an affair. That’s clear enough. Everything here looks very professional. Canals. Dikes, dams. What does she have to do with any of that? Those are all enterprises exclusively led by men. Maybe she wants a large irrigation system installed in her big farm in the west? And since I don’t have an engineering diploma, I am supposed to do it cheaply for her? But in that case, why this elegant office in this expensive business district of New York, where rent is in the thousands? She hasn’t mentioned the salary she plans to give me. I bet it’s all about her husband. He’s probably a millionaire five times over, and she wants to get rid of him. That’s why she has set up this trap so elegantly here. You can come in here and leave without being seen. Who knows what a woman will do to cash in on five million and simultaneously get rid of her old man? Something is not right here. I am sure something is not right.

“And over there in the corner”—she interrupted his thoughts again—“is the steel safe.” With a slight nod of her head, she pointed it out while fishing a small card out of her purse. “You will find the combination number on this card. Don’t lose it. I haven’t kept a copy for myself on purpose.”

Now look at that, thought Beckford. No copy? And I’m supposed to believe that? No way, my dear. He took the card, looked at it briefly, and put it in his breast pocket.

“If you need money, Mr. Beckford, you will find it in the safe. All the money you could need. Just leave a receipt.”

Then she walked to the desk with two telephones. “This one”—she indicated one of them—“is the business phone. The other one is your personal phone. That number is not in the phone book. Your secretary or whoever is sitting in the front office cannot listen to those calls. They can only listen to calls on the business phone.”

Very ingeniously planned to the last detail, said Beckford to himself. The perfect murder. But for now, I’ll stay far away from that, until I see what’s really going on with all this.

The lady picked up the personal phone. Beckford walked to the door to leave the room in order to give her some privacy.

“Thank you for your kindness,” said the lady with a smile, while she was dialing, “but please do stay. What I have to say concerns you too.”

He immediately thought, Now she will set the trap. Not so fast, doll. Papa has to be here.

“I would like to speak to my husband, please,” said the lady into the phone. “How are you, darling? Good? I’m glad. I just wanted to let you know that I’m bringing a guest for dinner tonight. A young, hopeful engineer. Yes, engineer—yes—where I found him?—Now listen here, I don’t go searching for my guests. We just crossed paths. That’s all. He knows how to tell wonderful stories about terrible floods and about logarithms and unsolvable equations and about parabolas, tangents, and Pythagoras. Yes, Pythagoras. You are asking about Pythagoras? No, I don’t know where he’s living currently. He must be some kind of schoolteacher who runs around with a lantern during daylight. Don’t say such silly things. Don’t let me mess with you so easily. You have known me long enough. So, dinner. No, no. Of course, he’s not coming in a tuxedo. He’ll come as he is so you don’t need to worry about your own tuxedo. Plus, I think that both your tails and your two tuxedos are at the dry cleaner’s. Bye-bye.”

She hung up the phone and looked at Beckford. “So, you are invited.”

“Without asking me?”

“Among old friends like us, you don’t have to ask. And just so you know: Our house is always open to you. You may consider it your own.”

Beckford really had no idea how to respond to the lady’s inexplicable invitation. Should he decline? It was a little late for that now. All he could say to himself was: The trap has been set, and I’m already sitting in it.

But while he was thinking that, he also realized that tonight, he would finally figure out what the woman wanted from him. He felt gratified that he had been right from the beginning. This mysterious conjuring of things for which he had not asked, the large office, all of it was only a cover. Under which she intended to get rid of the rich, unloved, incredibly boring husband, quietly and with perfect technique. No one would suspect the loyal and loving wife in the least. I may be sitting in the trap right now, but she will have miscalculated in the end, he said to himself.

5.

Unceasing and skillful propaganda had finally convinced flustered Americans to stick their noses in foreign affairs. The wise and farsighted forefathers of this great country had warned their people a hundred and fifty years ago never to entangle themselves in the affairs of other countries, least of all the European ones.

Americans, however, had an infuriating habit of forcing others to adopt their own beliefs and opinions, which they considered superior. Believing that they could heal the world, they considered it their duty to impose their ways on poor and ignorant nations. Their apostolic teachings spoke of genuine and unadulterated democracy and freedom à la U.S.A., a nation’s only path to salvation.

That was why Holved Suthers, a student of technical sciences, was forced to leave the Institute in his fourth year. Whether he wanted to or not, he was conscripted as a member of an artillery regiment. After ten weeks of grueling basic training, he was transported to France along with all the other defenseless lambs. As a sergeant, he was eternally stuck in mud and shit, hoping for an early end to the war so that he could continue his studies. Six days after his promotion to lieutenant, the muddy war ended with pomp and circumstance, as unexpectedly as it had begun.

Having been taken out of school without warning, Holved had to overcome countless obstacles before he was back on track with his studies. The professors whom he had gotten used to and whose explanations he had understood had been replaced with new ones, who dealt with the curriculum in a totally different manner. A new director had been installed who’d revised the entire curriculum, which made it difficult, if not impossible, for Holved to continue the courses he had originally been taking. Those classes were now scheduled at the same times as other classes he was required to take for his final exams. The latter, however, did not do much to round out his knowledge and left many gaps, which could only be filled with great difficulty, or not at all. Despite all these troubles, he passed his exams without any of the help usually accorded to veterans. He now held the title of engineer.

Friendships he had nurtured behind guns in the mud helped connect him with companies willing to take him on as a junior partner.

Thereafter, he made contacts with other companies, and at the age of thirty-five he was the vice president of a construction company in Pittsburgh. Before turning forty, he headed the Round Island Trans Globe Tunnel & Subway Corporation, New York, NY. Their board had elected him as president for two reasons. On the one hand, because of his name and his proven energy. On the other hand, because he owned a majority of company shares, so he could do what he wanted anyway.

By the time he turned fifty, two additional reputable companies listed him as president on their letterhead, and four others, as their vice president. In several others, he was a member of the board. Only his broker knew of all the other enterprises, companies, and corporations in which he owned shares.

During the twenty-five years of his economic ascent, Holved married and divorced twice. No kids. Neither marriage had given him anything other than hell. The divorce settlements were calculated based on the wealth of the husband, though neither wife had contributed anything to the maintenance and increase of such wealth.

Both women attributed the failure of their marriage to Holved alone. Both saw themselves as innocent victims, who had been treated without compassion and pushed almost to suicide.

His second marriage was to a stewardess. She was an extraordinarily beautiful, slender woman who looked like the goddess Diana. She would give passengers the sweetest smile, possessing the attention of a Swiss hotel doorman and the patience of a mother with thirteen children. After the wedding, however, Holved never saw that smile again; instead, she only scowled at him at every opportunity. The divorce cost him a cool quarter million. When it was all over, he breathed a sigh of relief and swore to himself that he would never marry again, no matter how sweet, eye-catching, and otherwise enticing the woman might be.

Holved was now fifty-five years old. However, those who saw him at work would have guessed he was forty-five. He had sealed a contract out west to build several very modern cross-country bus stations. On the plane back to New York, he chose a window seat. He was hoping to lean comfortably in the corner to read or just close his eyes, to relax and to forget about the acquisition of a new construction company for a few hours.

Next to him sat a young lady who ignored him as much as he ignored her. People who travel by plane from New York to Paris often do not speak a single word to each other. Why would they?

The stewardess served lunch. Holved lifted his cup of coffee just as the plane dropped into an air pocket and tipped right. Coffee spilled onto the light-colored dress of his neighbor. They looked at each other, startled. Holved blushed like a boy. Holding the empty cup in his hand, he stuttered: “P-p-pardon me, miss. I am so sorry. This is so regrettable!”

“It was most certainly not your fault. It could just as well have happened to me. We seem to be having a lot of turbulence, just look at those errant wisps of clouds.”

“That’s often the case when the plane crosses the Rockies.”

The stewardess had already rushed over with a wet towel to administer first aid for the beautiful and expensive dress.

“Please come with me to the lavatory and we will see what we can do,” the flight attendant invited the young lady.

They both disappeared.

Holved slid around in his seat restlessly. He wished to be rid of the tray with empty dishes as soon as possible, but the second stewardess appeared just then and filled his cup again. She showed him her beautiful, well-practiced smile. He could only see the satanic grin of his second wife behind her sweetly smiling mask. At times, when he thought of his ex and how she had managed to catch him, the powerful business tycoon, with nothing but a sweet smile, he would’ve liked to have murdered her.

The young lady took her seat next to Holved again.

“The stewardess tried her best. It doesn’t matter. I would’ve sent the dress to the dry cleaner’s right after my arrival in New York anyway.”

She’s being so gracious, thought Holved. Another person would’ve been scandalized and probably would’ve demanded that I pay for a new dress, and yet here she is, pretending she would’ve gone to the dry cleaner’s anyway.

He took the newly filled cup and held it tightly with both hands as he brought it to his mouth. He glanced at the lady over the rim of the cup drolly: “How quickly one can learn from an embarrassing incident. I’ll never let this happen again.”

She enjoyed his youthful gesture and laughed out loud. “Maybe not with coffee. Next time it will be red wine.”

“God forbid. I love red wine, but after this, I’ll never drink it on a plane again. Of course, please allow me to send you a new dress, if you would be so kind as to give me your address.”

“That’s very kind, but I doubt you or any other man could choose a dress that I might like, let alone would actually wear. Men have terrible taste. They can’t even choose an appropriate tie or the proper color for a suit.”

He smiled at her, you might say paternalistically. “And what do you think of me then? Do you think I’m as tastelessly dressed as all men are in your opinion?”

She looked him up and down as if assessing him: “I would say: so-so. Not very elegant and not terribly tasteless. So-so. Fifty-fifty. To judge properly, I would have to know whether your tailor, your wife, or your servant chose the material and cut.”

Holved meant to say that he was not married, but he swallowed his response. He also did not mention that he had a servant, a chauffeur, and a housekeeper. He said to himself: Why? In a few hours we’ll arrive in New York and I’ll never see her again. Plus, I’m not interested in seeing her again. Why? What would be the reason? A third wife? Not me. I’ve had plenty with two. And plus, she’s too young for me. She can’t be older than twenty-five.

“You talk so much about good taste, but when I see the scarecrows women wear on their heads, the words ‘ridiculous,’ ‘appalling,’ and ‘terrifying’ seem like an understatement.”

“You’re right. But for your information, a woman wants to be noticed and will stop at nothing, not even wearing the most monstrous hat, as long as she is the only one in the entire city wearing it. When she is walking down the street, she wants all eyes on her hat, especially those of other women seething with jealousy.”

As if she wanted to change the subject, she tipped her head and indicated the book that was peeking out from the seat pocket in front of him. “May I ask what you are reading on this trip?”

“I always carry two or three books with me. But usually just when I have finished the first chapter and want to start the second one, the announcement ‘Tighten your belts for landing’ comes on. Then I push the book back into my briefcase and it’s very rare that I find time later on to pick it back up.” He pulled out the book. “Toltec Architecture,” he said, looking at the title and handing the book to her.

“Are you an architect, if I may ask?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes. I do work in construction. And you know, the Toltec, a perished Indian people of Mexico, were great builders. We can learn a lot from them. If they had known how to melt and forge iron, and if they had known about the keystone and the wheel, they would have far surpassed Europeans and Asians as far as construction is concerned.”

She browsed through the book.

“Every once in a while, I have something to do with the Toltec, Maya, Aztec, Inca, and similar ancient civilizations,” she said, handing the book back to him.

“Are you a student of archaeology, anthropology, or history?”

“Far from it, very far.”

“Really, very far? How far, if I may ask?”

“Well,” she said, “you couldn’t measure the distance in feet, I would say.”

She ran her hands down her damaged dress while saying this, as if she wanted to smooth it out. Following the movement of her hands, he thought that she was really more of a girl than a woman.

“For three years,” she said without looking at him, “I’ve been the chief officer of the review body of the WWGLS Film Corporation. I have my own private office, two front offices with three secretaries, and five assistants. I can’t think of any other work that would satisfy me as much. I have a massive library at my fingertips. In addition, all expenses like hotel, per diem, taxis, drinks, and entertainment are paid for during every business trip, like this one. The company needs me more than I need them.”

“You said review body. What kind of research and examinations do you have to do? And what is the purpose? Do you mean to say for detective films?” he asked.

“Quite often for detective films. You are right. Mainly though, I am responsible for making sure that in a film, let’s say a film about the time period of Richard II, not only the costumes but also the weapons, the shape of the chairs, the beds and water bowls, as well as the baby cribs are historically accurate and authentic. I have to find out whether the Roman legions under Caesar marched in a closed column and in step, or whether it was an unorganized heap of soldiers. I spent a lot of effort—and the company a lot of dollars—to figure out exactly when, on what occasion, and in which locations forks, napkins, handkerchiefs, high heels, braids, wigs, and crinolines were used for the first time. Often, it’s not the public but the critics who jump on these incidental mistakes and they do so not so much as to criticize but rather to show off their knowledge.”

Holved laughed. “I have to say that you have a devilishly difficult responsibility. I assume every now and then you have to figure out how many tons of concrete and square feet of glass are needed for a building with twelve floors?”

“That’s right.”

“Have you ever had to answer those questions?”

“Not exactly those, but similar ones. Two months ago, I saw the first showing of a western in our screening room. It was about a gold digger who walks through a desert for three days before he comes upon a miserable farm. He has loaded his haul and tools onto a pony. According to the script, his haul was worth one hundred fifty thousand dollars. After the screening, I went into my office. Fifteen minutes later, I explained to the production director that you would need at least three, if not four ponies to carry that amount of gold dust. I also informed him that if a gold digger did not find water at least twice on his march through the Arizona desert, neither he nor his pony would reach the farm. The change did not hurt anyone and cost the company less than three hundred dollars. It seemed the only thing they needed to change was the dialogue, reducing the worth of the gold dust to eighteen thousand dollars and the duration of the march to two days and a night. It would be a ridiculously hard journey, but at least a possible one. If the company had not made the change, it would have received no less than two hundred letters calling us idiots. So, you see how important my work is. The question is not only how authentic the material looks, but also where to get it from.”

“What I don’t get,” said Holved, “is why the director doesn’t notice such glaring mistakes.”

“He can’t worry about such things. To him, the details are incidental. He receives the script and that’s what he uses to direct. He has to concentrate on the whole and can’t be interrupted every ten minutes to ask someone who happens to be standing around: ‘Listen, could you possibly tell me what the age of conscription is in Bosnia?’ As you can see, division of labor is as vital here as in any other prominent business.”

“Tell me about it. Division of labor. If division of labor did not exist, we would not be sitting in this airplane, which is transporting us from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast in just a few hours. I admit that it does so not without causing us some anxiety, since we’re human beings and not birds, but with quite a bit of comfort, ease, and almost one hundred percent safety. In the same way, if I understand correctly, no film could be produced without your work, your painstaking work.”

“That’s not entirely correct. If I didn’t have this job in the company, someone else would do my work, maybe even as well as I do it or maybe even better. Who knows?”

“My case is a little different, to talk about me for a change. I’m the sole ruler, with one caveat: only so long as the stock market is stable.”

“And when the stock market crashes, a shot to the head solves all problems?” she added.

“You’re totally mistaken, miss. I have plenty of reserves to remain on top, reserves other than stocks and money. Stocks are the preferred toys of those who think that they can get rich overnight without effort and work. I don’t play roulette with stocks I own. I let my stocks work as hard for me as I work myself. And when I said, ‘so long as the stock market is stable,’ I meant to imply that I would suffer great losses, but it would not ruin me financially.”

“Good to know,” said the young lady, “that there are people like you in the country.”

“And like you, miss. I am convinced you are traveling to New York to find out when and where a tailor sewed buttons on a piece of clothing for the first time.”

“You’re not far off. However, in a case like that, I make it easy on myself. When I’m not sure whether the Merovingians buttoned, hooked, or tied their uniform jackets, I just tell our costume designer to cover up the jacket so you can’t see buttons, hooks, or ties. I let the audience figure it out, which they love doing. People want to guess what the gangster said to his Molly at the exact moment the bullet struck him down at the end of the film. They also want to imagine with whom Molly will go now. People don’t like it when the director of a film treats them like idiots who need every thought expressed aloud so that they can understand the film.”

Holved interrupted her, laughing: “You have missed your calling. You should have pursued a career as a diplomat.”

“For now, I prefer my current career.”

“Unfortunately, there is no room for promotion, if I understand correctly. I think that you are already at the height of your career.”

“Are you at the height of your life?” she asked.

“Neither today, nor tomorrow. I don’t live in the past. Not even in the present. I live entirely in the future. What lies behind me, I have already forgotten, and I don’t waste my time remembering events that have already happened. It is a waste of time, it ages you fifty percent more than your real age. Only people who don’t see a future write their memoirs. When I leave this world one day, I want to leave it for good. I don’t want to be some ghost haunting others from my memoirs and biographies. When I’m dead, I want peace and quiet.”

“I like you,” she said. “Really, I like you. It’s a shame.”

“What’s a shame?”

“That I am not forty years old. I think I could get along with you extremely well.”

“Do you know how old I am? I’m fifty-five.”

“That’s about what I thought. I’m twenty-four.”

“You’re twenty-four and have so much responsibility and such a highly paid position in the film industry?”

“Why not? Twenty-four is also a very nice age. But not very enjoyable. You lack experience,” she said, tossing out a sigh like a fifteen-year-old with a crush.

She’s so young, thought Holved. I would love to know whether she is married, divorced, or widowed. If she were married she wouldn’t have to work, at least not such a stressful job.

Out loud he said: “It appears, miss, that you are constantly traveling to all corners of the country.”

“Not constantly but quite often. Almost as much as a businessman.”

She started to get up, tugged on her dress, and said in a changed tone: “I think I’ll walk around a little to stretch my legs. When you sit for such a long time you forget that you even have legs and can walk.”

He nodded. She got up and began walking up and down the length of the plane. When she returned about ten minutes later, to sit back down in her seat, Holved was sleeping restfully and seemingly without a worry in the world. His book on ancient Toltec architecture was lying open on his knees. Both his hands were covering the book as if to prevent someone from taking it while he slept. She studied his face for quite a while. It gave her a certain satisfaction that she could study him unobtrusively for such a long time.

It’s strange, she thought, you can recognize a person’s character on their sleeping face. When they’re awake they’re constantly hiding behind fake smiles, always frowning, squinting, pulling on their hair or earlobes.

As she watched him sleep so peacefully, she came to the conclusion that he looked much better, kinder, friendlier while sleeping than awake. He also looked younger without the tension in his face.

He is, she said to herself, completely different from all those worms that crawl around in the film industry. They’re constantly excited, constantly in a hurry, and everything has to be done that second. They always rush, swear, and stammer apologies. They can’t ever be sure that they will still have the same job twenty-four hours from now. That goes for me too. Everyone is your friend if the boss likes you. And everyone gets overlooked if the boss or one of his protégés looks at you funny. Constant fear that you might lose your daily bread or the house you bought a year ago … Of course, she continued to herself, as far as I’m concerned, they need me more than I need them.

Contentedly, she snuggled into the pillow that smelled of fresh detergent. The stewardess had pushed it behind her back. With one last glance at the calmly sleeping man next to her, she went to sleep, wishing that she could slumber as peacefully and without worry as he did.

She woke as the stewardess was passing from passenger to passenger with a trained glance, making sure that their seat belts had been tightened and that all cigarettes, cigars, and pipes had been extinguished. The loudspeaker squeaked something no one could understand, but every experienced traveler knew what was being announced. Not that it mattered whether they did or not, since they could not influence the plane or its movements at all. They were human beings, once again conscious of their dignity as they used both feet to walk to the exit across the hard concrete floor of the airport.

Each one of the travelers was now very happy that the journey was over.

Side by side, and clad in light spring coats, Holved and the young lady of the film company’s review board waited for their luggage at baggage claim.

“Honestly, miss, it was a pleasure to have such a kind and pretty passenger at my side,” said Holved suddenly.

“And I,” she answered, “could not have wished for a more interesting person as my travel companion than you, Mr.—Mr.—?”

“My name is Suthers, Holved Suthers. I never carry my cards with me. But—” He pulled out a notebook, tore out a page, wrote a few numbers on it, and gave her the page.

“My private address and my private phone, if I can ever be of service to you.”

“My name is Aslan Norval,” she said. “I am reachable at—please hand me your pen and a piece of paper.”

She hurried to write a few numbers on the piece of paper.

“The first number connects you through to my office and the second one to my apartment,” she said, giving Holved his pen and the paper she had written on. “You can’t find either of these numbers in the phone book. Strictly private.”

At that moment, they both received their luggage. Almost abruptly, two different porters separated them, hailing two different taxis that left in two different directions.

6.

Beckford had shaved just an hour ago and wore a well-brushed suit that he had bought more than a year ago. His shirt was stiff with starch, and he wore a long dark brown tie with it. His shoes were polished to perfection and had new rubber soles. He stood like that in front of the iron gate of a large villa surrounded by a huge parklike garden and a tall steep wall.

He pulled out a pocket comb and tiny mirror and carefully brushed his hair. Since he never wore a hat, it had gotten pretty messed up on the way from the bus stop. Again, he looked at the bronze number attached to the concrete post of the iron gate to verify for the fifth time that this was indeed the house to which he had been invited for an early dinner.

Next to the bronze number was a small yellow button. Underneath was a thin small arrow pointing to the right where a narrow iron door led to the front garden. Above the bronze arrow, he saw a small aristocratic-looking bronze sign with a name engraved in black letters.

“Suthers,” he read. Nothing else.

“So that is her name,” he said to himself. “It’s about time I figure it out. Suthers. That can mean all kinds of things. Maybe it’s her name. Maybe it’s the name of her rich impotent husband. The one she wants to get rid of with my help to cash in on his life insurance. Probably six or seven million. And then she’ll go have fun somewhere in Europe with gigolos or impoverished dukes. Who knows? Of course, I can still pull out. I will just say that I am not doing this. And go my merry way.”

He really did walk just then, venturing around the entire estate so as to plan an escape route in case the lady had her henchmen at the ready to get him to comply. He walked along the front of the estate, to the right and then to the left.

So, this is where the multimillionaires spend their nights. During the day, they can’t even enjoy this display of wealth. They have to hoard money so they don’t lose their precious castles. It’s some kind of life, I guess! he philosophized.

In the meantime, he had returned to the iron gate and stood there hesitating for quite a while before he finally decided to press the yellow button.

I would love to know whether this button is plastic or ivory. Probably ivory. Plastic is for the proletariat. I’m not even part of the proletariat. I’m nothing, I’m just hanging around. Who knows, the lady might be fun to play with after all. Why not? Nice curves. Dressed in velvet and silk. Sexy perfume.

To his right the buzzer sounded with a melody, as the thin arrow under the yellow button glowed.

Beckford noticed that the narrow iron door next to the wide gate had opened as if by a ghost. He entered the front garden. Three steps later, he turned and noticed that the door had already closed behind him.

For several seconds he looked at the door. Goddamn it, now I’m trapped. The door opens and closes automatically. Probably triggered by my own shadow.

He walked back toward the door, but it remained closed.

Okay, so now it’s electronic magic. They control it from inside the house.

He estimated the height of the iron gate and the tall, steep wall made of brownstone that surrounded the park. If she thinks this gate and wall can keep me here, well, my dear, you’ve got another think coming. In miserable, unforgettable Korea, where it was always a question of life or death, I jumped over walls twice as high as this one.

He crossed the large front garden and found the entrance door to the house wide open. A Negro dressed in black pants, a brown leather vest, and long green sleeves greeted him.

“This way, please, sir,” the servant said, inviting Beckford with a slight movement of his hand to follow him.

He opened a door in the back of the spacious entrance hall, allowed Beckford to enter, and closed the door soundlessly behind him.

“Excellent, wonderful that you’ve arrived so early, Mr. Beckford,” the lady said in greeting. She got up from an armchair by the large floor-to-ceiling window and walked toward him with an outstretched hand.

She is probably expecting that I kiss her hand like in the movies, he thought. As rudely as possible, he let her come toward him longer than any well-mannered man would have dared. But he had never claimed to be a man with good manners, let alone well educated, except for the education he had received in the Marine Corps.

He knew that such behavior was not proper, especially with regard to such an elegant lady and in such a fancy house, but he told himself: While I was rolling in dirt, mud, and blood in Korea for years, this little doll cuddled in silk beds and dedicated herself to all kinds of fun and entertainment. No one asked me about good manners and hand kisses when the Chinks attacked us, howling like wolves with a sound so piercing that it froze your spinal-cord fluid and burst your eardrums. Slaughter them, goddamn it, slaughter them or you will be slaughtered yourself! Good manners. Hand kisses. It’s all worth shit if you don’t know whether you’ll be breathing ten seconds later.”

In the meantime, the lady offered him an armchair, which she pushed closer to her own. She laughed at him intimately. Good God, he thought, she has beautiful teeth! They seem to be real. And with her open laugh she might get me after all, one day when I feel especially sentimental. But not so fast, my dear. First, let’s put all the cards on the table and let’s see who has the trump card.

“Finally, we can talk with more privacy,” she said, interrupting his thoughts.

The Negro rolled a small cart into the salon. Spread across three tiers were bottles and glasses, tongs, little bowls with ice cubes, nuts, and a large selection of tiny thin toast slices topped with caviar, anchovies, and Roquefort cheese.

With a somber expression, the Negro rolled the cart close to the lady’s side and then disappeared mysteriously through a side door, which Beckford had not noticed before. It opened and closed without a touch.

“Whiskey? Cognac? Bourbon? Napoleon? Tequila? Jamaica? Vodka? Aquavit? Gin? Bénédictine? Bols? Dubonnet? What would you like?” asked the lady with a smile.

She probably thinks she is captivating,” he thought. But she can’t captivate me.

“Scotch, please.”

She filled his glass halfway.

“With soda? Or with a chaser?”

“Neat, please.”

She filled a small glass with curaçao. Lifting her glass slightly, she said: “This is how it’s done.”

Laughing loudly, she added: “Mud in your eye. It’s a vulgar toast, but sometimes it feels good to use a vulgarity. It’s like a sigh of relief, like after a dance when you take off a pair of shoes one size too small.”

He drank half of his glass at once.

“I don’t see anything unusual in using vulgar words. It’s actually the only language I speak, with the exception of a few Korean phrases and the Greek alphabet, which I had to learn in the Technical Institute to understand the elements of mathematics. It can’t be taught in English but only in Greek.”

“Now wait a minute! This thing with the Greek alphabet is fantastic. You can show off with that, especially in the right circles, chimpanzees who want to invest millions but don’t know where and how to do it. I urge you to practice the Greek alphabet up and down and add a dozen Latin and French phrases, they won’t know the difference. You’ll leave a huge impression. You can wrap anyone around your little finger if you have a rich vocabulary. You don’t even need to know the exact meaning of the words you are rattling off. The effect is stunning. I’ve used this trick in Hollywood again and again. There’s no place where it works better than among the guys of the film industry.”

Surprised, Beckford looked up, taking the lady seriously for the first time.

“In the film industry, you say?”

“Yes, in the film industry.”

“I have never read your name anywhere. I have also never seen you in a movie,” he said, hemming and hawing.

“Of course you couldn’t have read my name anywhere because you don’t even know my name.”

“That’s right, very true. You have never told me your name.”

“Aslan Norval.”

“Aslan Norval?” he repeated, looking as if he were trying to remember whether he had ever heard the name and if so in which context. “Aslan Norval?” he said again. “I have really never heard it.”

“You couldn’t have. I belonged to the army of people who work behind the scenes and are therefore unknown. The public only knows about those who dance around in front of the camera. Nevertheless, in many cases, my work was more important to a good movie than that of the actress. You can make a film, even a very good film, without actors and especially without professional actors. But to date, not a single film has been made without the crew behind the scenes. They’re the ones who work so hard that they tear out their hair in despair and get nervous breakdowns. I belonged to that crowd.”

“Belonged? Not anymore?” asked Beckford, looking at her as if he were seeing a completely new person.

“No, not anymore. Since I got married, about three years ago. Sometimes, I feel nostalgic for the time I spent working in movies.”

“Unhappy marriage? Is that why?”

As soon as he asked, he realized again why he was in this house and what this woman expected of him.

“Unhappy marriage? Me? You guessed wrong. Completely wrong. I’m happily married. I’m blessed that I met this man, my husband, and that he married me.”

“So, then you are not planning to—”

He coughed then so he wouldn’t say anything wrong.

“Planning to what? What are you talking about?”

“I—I—I thought—that maybe you—um—wanted to get a divorce.”

“You thought I wanted a divorce? But my dear, you didn’t even know that I was married until a second ago. How could you think about a possible divorce?”

“Well, it’s not unheard of to guess something like that about a beautiful young woman like yourself, who always drives around alone in her car and invites a man her own age all over the place and gives him all kinds of presents.”

“Invites a man all over the place? Just once, to an Arab restaurant! And here today. In my house. And presents? Oh, you mean the office, right?”

“Exactly. The office. You might consider that a present, don’t you think?”

“The office! Oh, the office. If you only knew what that office means to me.”

“Well, what does it mean?”

“It’s hard to explain. It’s pretty complicated. If everything goes as planned, you might understand later tonight why I need that office.”

“Your husband is obviously very rich.”

“Very. He earned it all with his vision, energy, and enterprising spirit. Everything he touches turns to gold.”

“You too, when he touches you?” Beckford grinned, because he thought he had shown her he could be funny.

“Yes, me too, if you must know.”

“Is he good-looking?”

“Not particularly. To me he’s the best-looking man in the world, of course.”

“Young?”

“Depends what you consider young. To me, he’s young.”

“Okay, so he’s old. Just like I thought.”

“As you wish. But if you’re thinking that I’m planning an affair with you for whatever reason, then you’re way off, really way off.”

Indifferently, or at least in a tone that he thought would imply that he was not interested, he replied: “That may be. But admittedly, I thought I could compete for your love one day.”

“My love? And to you my love is probably just good enough to brighten your dreary daily life. My love is worth more than that, I think. Don’t try to get romantic. At least not with me. That’s not your role at all. You would do better playing a wrestler.”

“I never thought of being romantic. Believe me.”

“Maybe I’ll even believe that you seriously considered competing for my love. A second whiskey?”

“Yes, please, ma’am.”

He looked at his drink for a long time, turning the glass around in his hands without taking a sip. His eyes focused on the glass, he said quietly: “Yes, it’s true. I thought you were an easy conquest and that all I’d have to do is take your hand in mine as I am holding this glass right now. Given the way you were offering yourself to me—”

“Offering myself? Now, wait a minute! You’re saying I offered myself to you? I never considered doing that even for one second.”

“A misunderstanding again. It seems I express myself rather clumsily, since every time I say something you misunderstand me. When I said offering yourself, I meant the way you sought my friendship from day one and saddled me with that breathtaking office.”

“Saddled you! Good God, you really do use the weirdest expressions. The fact that I am interested in you and want to help you doesn’t mean that I expect you to start an affair with me out of gratitude. I may have my own reasons why I’m intensely interested in you, but it never had anything to do with love.”

Her own reasons, he thought. So, it’s the husband she wants to get rid of after all.

“And you know what, even if I had ever thought about an affair with you, which was never the case, it would definitely be too late now. If one day I were to get soft around you and some limited intimacy were to ensue—I’m not made of stone, you know—I assure you, it would not last very long. Less than three days.”

As she mentioned the remote possibility, he grew more brazen. He was not about to let this opportunity go by. It would probably never come again. Turning the glass in his hands, he looked at her sharply. He felt himself blushing slightly as he said: “So you would never allow me to love you?”

To buy time, she took a long slow sip of her curaçao. She did not want to scare him off because she still needed him for her purposes. She turned the glass around between her two index fingers, as if searching for the right words.

“You know, Mr. Beckford,” she finally said, lifting her glass, “you can do all kinds of chemical magic with this liqueur.”

“That may be true. However, I am not interested in this liquor at all at the moment. What I want to hear is your answer to my question.”

She put down her glass, nodded, and with a motherly smile said: “‘Never’ is a strong word in this case. You should not have used it. It’s hard to answer a question with that word in it. There’s no such thing as ‘never’ in life.”

“Don’t try to avoid the question,” said Beckford, getting impatient.

“Okay, then. Since you should only use the word ‘never’ in exceptional situations, I cannot say: never. It’s not the right answer in this case. I’m leaving you with a small, very small glimmer of hope. Maybe one day. Maybe. But never love.”

“If not love, then what might be a reason for an affair?”

“You might say for scientific purposes. I would not give myself entirely. I would only give a part of me, in order to discover new things, without sentimental side effects. I would do it without letting it turn into love, since that would be the most embarrassing situation. But a constant affair, or one that’s on and off—never. In this case, the word is the right one.”

“Maybe I have to wait for five years.”

“That may be,” she answered, “it’s very possible. Maybe ten years.”

He thought about getting up and kissing her hand now. However, he repressed his desire and only said: “Thank you for this answer.”

“You are welcome. It’s the only honest answer I can give without losing anything.”

He finished his whiskey in one gulp and slammed his glass onto the table between them, and as if she had offended him, he asked coldly: “How old is he?”

“Which ‘he’ do you mean?”

“Mr. Suthers. Who else?”

“Oh, Mr. Holved Suthers. My husband?”

“Yes, how old is he?”

“You mean, the age he gives when he gets a new passport issued?”

“Of course that is the age I mean. What else?”

“You can interpret young and old in all kinds of ways. I have known men and women in the industry of illusions—”

“Industry of illusions?”

“Film industry, I should say. I knew men and women there who looked so washed out, so tired and without any interest in life at age thirty-five, that they were useless to anyone, even to themselves. So what does the number of years really have to do with the age of a person?”

“Your husband still turns around to look at girls’ legs on the street.”

“That’s very possible. I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“Nevertheless, I am sure he is much older than you are.”

“I wouldn’t know what to do with a man of your age or even one who was five years younger.”

“So, he is five years older than you?”

“No, he is only thirty years older than I am, so that you finally may know for sure. Maybe even a little older.”

“Only thirty years older? Only? Only thirty years older! Only thirty years.”

Beckford nodded several times, without realizing why he was nodding. But then he thought: I knew it. She wants to get rid of him. No wonder. Thirty years older. And she’s young, beautiful, and full of life. Full of vitality. Maybe I’ll get soft after all. Of course, if he were to find out, it would get rather uncomfortable. However, I am sure she has organized everything to such an extent that it will remain our secret.

“Would you like another whiskey?” she asked, interrupting his thoughts and pointing to his empty glass.

“Half a glass, please.”

He looked at his glass while she was pouring the whiskey and followed her hand with his eyes as she was putting the bottle back onto the cart.

“You married him because of his money, of course?” he asked unexpectedly.

“I wish you would finally guess something correctly in our conversations. But you’re totally wrong, as usual.”

“Well, if a young, beautiful woman like you marries a man who is thirty years older—”

“Then she must be marrying him because of his money, of course.” She finished his sentence. “Do you think a man is only attractive for his money? Money is not a safe bet. One stock market crash, or one unsuccessful business venture can turn a millionaire into a pauper in the span of twenty-four hours. And then what would I do if I had married that man for his money?”

“Well, then you get a divorce and marry one who is more successful in his enterprises.”

“Sleazy. Not my style. But just so you know how wrong you were and how much you underestimate me, let me tell you that my own assets are worth fifty times his.”

“Hard to believe. You worked in the film industry to earn your living.”

“Wrong again. I didn’t work to earn a living, but to do something that interested me. If it hadn’t forced me to live a continent apart from my husband, I would’ve probably never given up my job. I admit, since I left Hollywood, well-paid jobs are slowly evaporating. The film industry suffers from a deadly disease, called television. There’s almost no hope for recovery.”

“That’s all well and good, ma’am. However, there’s still something I don’t understand.”

“And that is?”

“If you were as well paid in Hollywood as you say, and it was such an interesting job, why did you marry a man who is so much older? It appears you didn’t do it in order to play a—let’s say—distinguished role in society?”

“Have you never heard of a little thing called love?”

“What kind of question is that? Of course. Many times.”

“I doubt that.”

“Of course I have,” Beckford protested forcefully.

“What do you know about love? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. When I figured out that I loved my future husband, I had no earthly idea whether he was rich or not. I knew that he ran several construction companies, but that didn’t mean he was really rich. I love him, and he loves me.”

“And you’re still not satisfied?”

“Who told you I wasn’t satisfied? I’m sure I didn’t say anything remotely like that.”

She shrugged and frowned as she looked at him searchingly. “Sometimes I think you can read minds. ‘Not satisfied’ is not the right expression. The truth is I am never satisfied, except in my married life. But something is missing for me to be totally happy. It’s as if there were an emptiness, a vacuum inside of me. As if I were not fulfilled, there’s a drive in me to—to—how shall I say this, to—”

She balled up her fists as if that might help her find the right words.

“—to—to—to—well, in short, sometimes I explode with creativity—I want to create something truly magnificent, something that is visible from far away, something that remains for the ages. A bridge that is twenty miles long, a pyramid that is two thousand yards high, a highway from New York to Seattle, Washington, straight without a single curve. Oh, I don’t really know what I want.”

“What you need is a baby,” Beckford countered dryly and brutally. He probably thought he could find out what she was really missing in this way.

“A baby? That’s not much. Even though it seems like a lot. A baby. Every woman can have a baby. I need something more than a child to feel like a person.”

“Didn’t you just say a few seconds ago that your love fulfills you completely?”

“I did not say that; but it is true, where love is concerned.”

Why is she telling me all this? thought Beckford. Something is just not right with her. First, she lets me think that I am supposed to help her store her husband in a trash can. Then she tells me that she loves him to pieces. And finally, the bottom line is that she doesn’t know what she wants at all. Maybe she wants to be in theater and work in tragedies.

Beckford was thinking about mentioning this to her, when the Negro opened the door, ushering in Holved. After briefly glancing at Beckford, Holved walked over to his wife and kissed her lightly.

“How do you do, my love?” he greeted her.

“Fine, and you?” she said, laying her hand on his cheek.

Beckford had gotten up in the meantime. He had done so casually to indicate that Aslan’s husband did not intimidate him at all.

“My husband,” said Aslan, looking at Beckford and then at Holved. Then she looked back and forth between them again and presenting each to the other she said, “Clement Beckford.”

“Pleased to meet you,” said Holved.

“Pleasure’s mine,” Beckford answered rather coolly on purpose.

They shook hands lightly.

Beckford sat back down and Holved pushed a chair close to the others.

“Holved, I invited Mr. Beckford for dinner.”

“Good, that’s very good. You already told me on the phone.”

Aslan filled a glass halfway with ice cubes, poured whiskey over them and filled the rest with soda.

“And you, Mr. Beckford? A new drink?”

“Yes, please.”

“You know, Holved, Mr. Beckford drinks his whiskey neat. He doesn’t even wash it down with a chaser.”

“That’s the only way to do it. As devout as I am, though, I prefer to socialize while holding baptized whiskey.”

He took his glass, tipped it first toward Aslan, then at Beckford, and drank deeply.

Aslan laughed: “Religious? You? Since when?”

“Since when? Since long before I knew you. But ever since you came into my life, I don’t have time to practice my religion.” Now he turned to Beckford: “And you, Mr. Beckford, how do you see this matter?”

“Me?” Beckford shrugged lightly. “Me? I lost all that in Korea between heaps of shredded, whimpering human beings lying in dirt, mud, and pools of blood.”

“I understand, I understand very well. I was also stuck in dirt and mud with half a body or even a quarter of a body from human beings, horses, or dogs in front of and beside me. I only picked up binoculars if absolutely necessary because looking through them, I only saw more bodies struggling to their death in barbed wire—” He interrupted himself and said in a different tone: “Let’s talk about something more pleasant. My wife shudders upon hearing these horrors.”

“Not in the least. I love horror stories.”

“To read, yes. To have to see them with your own eyes without being able to run away is a different thing. Reading! If it gets too horrific, you close the book and the story is over. Not so easy when you are stuck in the middle of it.”

Holved emptied his glass and turned his head to the door, which opened at that exact moment.

“Dinner is served, sir,” said the Negro from the door, and then he disappeared like a shadow swallowed up by the sun.

The meal was incredibly simple. It was so plain indeed that Beckford asked himself: Are millionaires too stingy to serve a real meal that fills your belly? Or can their little bellies not stand anything better? They don’t even have a glass of wine or beer at table, these rich scrooges. In any cafeteria, I would eat better and more for a dollar and a half than in this princely palace. What is wrong with these people?

“You know, Holved,” said Aslan, skewering a few of the measly morsels of meat, “Mr. Beckford is the young hopeful man I supposedly crushed with my car, according to the police.”

“Yes, I remember.”

“He is an engineer, you know. The president of a recently founded construction company.

“A construction company?” Holved was all ears. This was his territory. “What kind of construction projects do you take on?”

Beckford poked around on his plate. “My—our—eh—” He swallowed and helplessly looked at Aslan.

“His company mainly deals with construction of canals and such things,” Aslan helped the stammering Beckford.

“Construction of canals? That’s interesting, young man. Very interesting.” Holved kept his eyes on his plate. Apparently, his thoughts were elsewhere.

“Yes and Mr. Beckford has a tremendous plan.”

“Really? What kind of plan?” Holved broke off a piece of bread, lightly dipped it into the sauce, and put it into his mouth.

“He wants to build a large canal for ships to cross North America.”

Beckford’s last bite got stuck in his throat. He had to cough so terribly that he thought for a minute he would have to leave the table.

“Really?” said Holved in a tone of disinterest. Apparently, his brain had not comprehended. Suddenly, her words registered.

“What did you just say? A canal? Across North America?”

“Yes, all the way across North America. That is Mr. Beckford’s plan.”

“That’s crazy. I’m telling you that’s crazy. Your plan is absolutely crazy in every way, young man.”

Aslan calmly maneuvered a bite into her mouth and, chewing, she said without a trace of excitement: “I don’t think the idea is so crazy. Stranger things have happened.”

“But never one that was crazy as this,” interjected Holved.

“Mr. Beckford and I know exactly what we want. We have completed all the plans. All we need is the funding.”

“So, it’s your plan and not Mr. Beckford’s! Only you could come up with such a crazy plan. It’s a plan totally fit for Hollywood. In reality, you could never build such a canal.”

“And why not?” asked Aslan as innocently as a little girl who has just been told that her doll cannot grow up to become a young lady.

Beckford forgot to eat, drank a sip of water, and sheepishly busied himself with his napkin. Holved slowly put down his fork and knife. “Young man, have you considered even for a second what it would cost to build such a canal? Many billions, I can’t even begin to imagine how many billions of dollars. Oh, what am I saying? Many trillions of dollars.”

“Costs, Holved?” asked Aslan as innocently as before. “According to preliminary estimates, such a canal would cost our country less than the two World Wars, the Korean War, and the financial support of European, Asian, and African nations that are constantly close to bankruptcy due to inept governments.”

Holved stared at his wife as if he did not know how she had arrived at his table and what she wanted.

“It was money thrown out the window,” Aslan continued, “for wars we had no business participating in. Those wars got us nothing, not even a single withered stalk of straw. They left in their wake nothing but national and international confusion, as well as material and moral destruction and corruption wherever you look.”

“Indeed, there’s some truth to what you are saying. I’m surprised how cleverly you’re defending your plan.” Holved looked above Aslan’s head as if searching for a new thought. “It might be possible to consider it. Maybe there’s something to your and Mr. Beckford’s idea after all. It might be worth examining more closely.”

“Yes, and as I said,” Aslan further explained, “none of these wars, costly as they were in terms of human life and in terms of money, brought us anything other than hatred, lack of gratitude, distrust, envy, and jealousy. Our canal would not only make back its initial cost, but eventually it would even bring in quite a considerable profit. Just so you know, I’m going to invest half of my assets in the company that I plan to found in the next few days to realize my idea.

She hesitated for a few seconds. Then she continued: “Holved, you are invited to participate.”

He drank his coffee, followed by a cognac, slowly and thoughtfully folded his napkin, put it down, and said: “Let’s talk this through in peace and quiet. How about right now, while you”—he turned to Beckford—“have time.”

“Mr. Beckford always has time, when it comes to the canal.”

“You know, darling, don’t you want to allow Mr. Beckford to say something, too, every now and then? You seem to know more about all this than he does.”

“Of course I know more about it. The whole idea is mine.”

Holved apparently knew his wife better than he thought, because he said: “I should have realized it from the beginning. But in the end, it doesn’t matter.”

A little later, the three were kneeling on the thick carpet covering the floor in the salon. They were looking at a map spread out in front of them.

“To think,” said Holved, while whisking a compass across the large map of North America, “to think that the distance between New York and San Francisco going through the Panama Canal is five thousand two hundred sixty-three nautical miles, and the distance between New York and San Francisco above land is two thousand five hundred seventy-one miles—” He stopped. “Now, wait a minute, what’s the difference between an international nautical mile and a mile on land? Let me look it up!”

“No need to look it up, Holved. I know it by heart. Converted into kilometers or rather meters, the length of an international nautical mile is one thousand eight hundred fifty-two meters, and the length of a mile on land is one thousand six hundred nine meters.”

“Now look at my wife! Where did you learn that?”

“If I want to build a canal, I have to know such details.”

“Details, ma’am?” interjected Beckford. “I haven’t even gotten to that in the curriculum at the Technical Institute yet. To learn that, I probably would’ve had to study two more years.”

In the meantime, Holved was writing some numbers on a piece of paper.

“So, there you have it: the distance between New York and San Francisco would be two thousand two hundred thirty-four nautical miles.”

He rapidly did the calculations on the paper: “Therefore, a ship traveling on such a canal would save three thousand twenty-nine nautical miles. My God, what you can save in time and transportation costs would go into the millions for a single shipping company alone. That’s unbelievable. Aslan, I have to admit, there’s something to be said for your plan. Congratulations!”

7.

One month later, they founded the company under the name Atlantic-Pacific Transit Corporation, or APTC for short. President: Aslan Norval. Vice president: Grayson Brady, an esteemed New York banker. Holved was part of the board. His name and that of the banker, Mr. Brady, assured the public that this was a serious company.

To his great surprise, Beckford had been named general manager upon Aslan’s recommendation. Three months ago, he had been nobody. Not even a student at the Technical Institute. He had been living off his veteran’s pension, which barely kept him alive and had been about to run out. And still he did not know what Aslan really wanted from him, and for what purpose she wanted to use him. He would have understood the situation if she had made him her lover. But it seemed an affair was further from her mind than ever.

In the world of finance, everyone knew that Aslan was an incredibly rich woman. In a country in which women outright owned or controlled through shares fifty-six percent of the entire national wealth and where more than one hundred women were bank presidents, it was hardly noteworthy that a woman, especially one as rich as Aslan, was the president of a company that had billions of dollars in capital.

Aslan had become a celebrity when she inherited twenty-eight million dollars at the age of eleven. Her name made the front page again a few years later when she inherited an additional nine million dollars. Up until the day she met Holved, she had received six inheritances and none of them had been contested. In the coming years, she could hope for further inheritances, since she belonged to one of the oldest and richest families in the country.

Only a few close friends knew that she had married Holved, since she had kept her maiden name, which was an advantage in the business world. Everyone knew that her unimaginable wealth was administered by the strongest and most reputable bank in America. It was only natural for venture capitalists to be interested in what her new company intended to do. It was certainly going to be something big. No wonder, then, that the shares of the APTC sold like hotcakes.

The company rented an entire floor in an office building in lower Manhattan. Beckford remained in his offices as president of his own company, where he was to await orders from above. And it was in Beckford’s office where Aslan was now studying a map of the Panama Canal, which she had found spread out on the table, likely because Beckford had been studying it for lack of anything better to do.

“You know, ma’am,” he said, standing at the table and pointing to the map, “I found out something very interesting today.”

“And what is that?”

“Although the Panama Canal is a hundred meters wide, wide enough to allow two or even three ships to pass simultaneously, large passenger ships like the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary cannot use the canal.”

“And why not?”

“Because of the locks. When they built the canal, they apparently did not think that there might be ships like the Queen Elizabeth, with a length of three hundred forty-four meters and a width of thirty-seven meters. The locks of the Panama Canal only have a length of three hundred thirty meters and a width of thirty-four meters. There are even oil tankers that are forty-two meters wide.”

“That’s news to me,” said Aslan, “but it proves that we have to build our canal so that two boats like the Queen Elizabeth can pass each other without scratching their paint.”

“It will be expensive, ma’am.”

“Forget the costs! We will leave the calculation of the costs to our accountants. We will begin the work as soon as we have the permit. Once we have started, none of the shareholders will want to lose money. Therefore, they will get the money necessary to continue the project one way or another.”

She glanced at another map. “The canal seems to cross lakes here.”

“That’s right,” affirmed Beckford, “those are lakes indeed.”

“Lakes can definitely make the construction of a canal easier and cheaper, don’t you think?”

“I’m not so sure about that. A lake or a swamp might pose more problems for the engineers than dry land or mountains.”

Aslan thoughtfully rolled up the maps. For a while she said nothing. Then she said: “We need data. Massive amounts of exact and convincing data. Numbers. Numbers that have anything to do at all with our canal. Numbers whose correctness can be verified, and that you are able to cite quickly and convincingly. Get going, Mr. Beckford, study as hard as you can. Accurate numbers! Memorize them. Recite a row of numbers as if you were being held responsible for all the sins of the world.”

“Ma’am, I am sorry, but I am not an actor,” interrupted Beckford.

“If you aren’t one yet, then try to become one. Get going, memorize as many numbers as you can.”

Aslan took her gloves, and then her purse, and left the office through the door that led directly into the hallway. Since she had come in that way, Amy could not know that Aslan had even visited the office. Amy probably did not even know whether Beckford was in his office. As long as he did not call her, politeness stopped her from bothering him in any way. Since there was still no business, she was bored to death during business hours.

After Aslan’s departure, Beckford did not know what to do with himself. While Aslan’s elegant perfume was still wafting around the room like an ephemeral cloud, he did not feel like memorizing numbers to recite at opportune moments, like a circus clown. The memorizing could wait until it was urgent, especially since if he started now, by then he would have forgotten the numbers, which did not interest him at all. He would then be forced to start all over with cramming or whatever Aslan called it.

He pulled out a hand mirror to brush his hair.

Then he studied his face, turning it from left to right. Then he lifted and lowered his nose. When that did not satisfy him, he pulled out a smaller mirror and held it at an angle toward the bigger one. He studied his profile intently.

He looked at his watch and, admiring himself in the mirror one last time, he said to himself: “Four thirty. What should I do?”

He pulled himself together and entered the front office where Amy was engrossed in her True Confessions.

Amy didn’t notice that Beckford had entered the office. At that moment, she was busy thinking about the rather delicate situation of a very young, very pretty, very innocent and inexperienced salesgirl who’d found herself in a large warehouse. This pitiful victim of brutal capitalist greed had received an ominous order to help the company’s interior decorator create a lovely, yet sexy bedroom for newlyweds in the display room. It was eleven at night and the salesgirl was alone with the brawny decorator in the spooky warehouse.

Beckford cleared his throat fairly loudly. With a start, Amy apologized while trying to slide the magazine under the table. She managed to do so without Beckford noticing, at least so she thought. She blushed terribly, on the one hand because of what she was just about to read: the incorrigible decorator was going to consummate the bridal bed with the pretty salesgirl. On the other hand, she blushed because it was now the sixth time that her boss had caught her reading erotica instead of sitting up straight behind her desk, waiting for his beck and call.

“Outrageous! You’re reading immoral love stories during the hours I pay you, and I pay you very well, I might add. Amy, I should really tan your hide, don’t you think?”

“If you seriously believe I deserve that, Mr. Beckford, then please be my guest.”

Her willingness changed the course of Beckford’s intentions. He had meant to say that since there was nothing in particular to do, she should go home and that she was to bring him all newspapers she could get ahold of the next day. From Aslan he had gathered that the first propaganda campaign of the new company would probably launch in the next few hours.

“How do you like it here?” he asked unexpectedly.

“I like it very much. Thank you.”

“At the moment, there is not much to do, as you might have noticed.”

“That’s to be expected with a newly founded company, Mr. Beckford. I’m sure your company will be well on its way shortly.”

Beckford leaned against the window, his eyes on Amy. She’s really cute when I look at her carefully, he said to himself. Soft curves. I would love to know how old she is. I can find out from her insurance card. Well, it’s not like I care. While filing his nails, he said out loud, ostensibly without thinking: “It won’t be long, I can tell you that, before you’ll have so much work that you won’t be able to do it all yourself.”

“I am used to hard work, Mr. Beckford. The more intense it is, the more I love it. I don’t mind overtime either. Not at all. Even if I have to work till eleven or midnight.”

“That will probably only happen rarely, Amy. As soon as business picks up, you’ll get all the help you need, especially with the menial work that a girl with little experience can do just as well. I need you here for the really important job of my private secretary, whom I can trust unconditionally with all business and personal affairs.”

“You can trust me absolutely, Mr. Beckford. I’ll consider it an honor to be allowed to serve as your preferred private secretary.”

Beckford walked a few steps back and forth but kept his distance from her.

“Now, I remember, I have to send an important letter,” he said, stopping in the middle of the room. At once, Amy had her shorthand pad in hand.

“It can wait till tomorrow,” he said, shrugging.

Suddenly remembering something, she got up from her chair a little, took a deep breath.

“Oh, Mr. Beckford, I almost forgot. I would like to thank you so much for the raise. You know, Mr. Beckford, money just runs through one’s fingers these days.”

“Who told you about the raise?” he asked, although he knew that the message could have come from one person only. “I had planned to tell you myself on Saturday afternoon to make your weekend a happy one.”

“Oh,” she exclaimed, covering her mouth with a girlish gesture of horror. “Oh, I shouldn’t have said anything. But Miss Norval called an hour ago and told me that the real work starts next week, and that you’re granting me a raise for that reason.”

“Well, as I said, I had planned to surprise you with this news myself. However, I can see that Miss Norval had the same idea. The main thing is that you are happy here, Amy.”

“I am very happy here. I couldn’t have a better situation,” she said as she gently smoothed down her hair.

He walked back over to the window and, bored, he looked at the street for a few seconds.

Amy was cleaning the type slugs of the typewriter. It was brand-new, and nothing had ever been written on it. Beckford thought: Unless Amy has typed a dozen love letters on it. It made him think of his impression when he had met Amy there for the first time.

“What are you doing tonight?” he asked, so suddenly that it took Amy’s breath away for a few seconds, since she thought she had misheard.

“Tonight?” she repeated, more to make sure she had heard right than to answer his question.

“Yes, tonight.”

“Oh—I—um—I have no plans in particular. Actually, I had planned to go to the movies. The only thing you can do on a weeknight when you have to work the next day.”

“So, the movies?”

“Yes, they are showing a new film, which seems to be very interesting. You know, juicy.”

“What’s it called?”

“Your Past—the Despair of Your Present. And the subtitle is: ‘Everything women and girls of marriageable age need to know to avoid such a fate.’ Sounds interesting, don’t you think, Mr. Beckford?”

“Sounds like real trash of the worst kind.”

“Well, in any case,” she said, looking for a lipstick in her purse, “in any case, it must be a very provocative film, don’t you think?”

“Do you need provocation, Amy?” he asked as if he were inquiring what she had eaten for breakfast that morning.

“I’m not sure whether I really need something provocative or not,” she answered coolly, holding the lipstick she had finally found and fishing in her purse for a small mirror with the other hand. “You know, sometimes I’m actually so aroused that I could commit the greatest nonsense.”

She doesn’t take this very seriously, Beckford thought as he watched her carefully color the full curves of her lips.

“And then there are times,” she continued, “when nothing at all can excite me.” Even the hottest film leaves me stone-cold and the wildest kisses on the screen bore me. And why do they bore me? Because they are so extremely dumb and silly and put on without any feelings at all, exactly like the director ordered, standing there with a stopwatch. Can you tell me how a girl could feel bone-dry one day and burning up inside the next?”

“Why are you asking me, Amy? I’ve never been a girl, and maybe not even a girl could answer this question in a satisfactory manner.”

“Of course you can’t, because a man has his profession, which occupies him so thoroughly that he has no time at all to consider any emotions.”

“But you also have a career, Amy.”

“But it doesn’t fulfill me. I just sit here and have nothing at all to do. All manner of thoughts occur to you in a situation like this.”

Suddenly she stopped talking, and an expression of shock crossed her face as she lowered the lipstick and mirror.

“Oh, I am so sorry that I let my guard down and did my makeup in front of you. It’s time for me to go home and I did it automatically. Please forgive me.”

Pure woman, Beckford thought. In any case, this is the woman I plan to get to know more intimately today.

Out loud he said: “Indeed, it is time for you to go home. And yet, you have only partially answered my question about your plans tonight.”

“Why partially?”

“You have not answered whether you are accepting my invitation?”

“Invitation? What invitation?” she asked, raising her eyebrows, picking her lipstick and mirror back up from her lap. “You didn’t say anything about an invitation. At least not until this very moment.”

“I mean the invitation to go out with me tonight,” said Beckford without approaching or looking at her.

“Now that sounds more explicit.” Again, she dropped her lipstick and mirror in her lap and turned toward him. “An invitation, then.”

“I’d like to get to know you a little more, Amy. Since we’re going to work closely together for some time, I’m sure that it’s mutually beneficial if we find out what we each think about this, that, and the other in daily life.”

“I agree. I’d also like to know how I have to behave to avoid misunderstanding, as much as that’s possible in such an office.”

Now, finally, Beckford turned toward her and laughed. “Whether we see the movie first or eat dinner first, let’s talk about when we should meet, okay?”

“You never said anything about dinner.”

Amy was starting to get playful now.

“Absolutely. Dinner is a given, Amy, whether we see the film or not. Where and when should we meet?”

“Eight o’clock, near the exit of the subway station in north Times Square.”

“Excellent, I will wait for you there,” said Beckford in a businesslike manner. “Okay. Eight o’clock. See you then.”

With those words he left the room through the main door.

Deep in thought, Amy looked after Beckford, holding the lipstick and tiny mirror in her lap. For several seconds she could see his contours through the frosted glass in the door as he was pushing it closed.

Is this really business? Amy asked herself, finishing her makeup with haste. I guess I’ll find out tonight.

She put the lipstick and mirror in her purse, pushed back her hair, got up, pulled on her gloves, threw her coat over her left arm, and left the office, closing the door carefully, gently humming a melody.

Wearing the same suit as he had worn to the office, Beckford arrived at the rendezvous spot two minutes before eight. At three minutes after eight, Amy appeared.

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Beckford, that you had to wait for me. The bus pulled away as I reached the bottom steps of the stairway.”

“It’s not a big deal,” said Beckford, “we won’t miss the movie.”

He was embarrassed and did not feel like her employer at all. Suddenly, he had lost the conviction that he could easily conquer Amy. Seeing her, he felt as if he were on the dance floor standing across from a row of pretty girls, like a youth who had lost the courage to ask even one to dance.

The Amy who was waiting for him was not his secretary. He hardly recognized her. Had she not addressed him and had she continued past him, he would have kept waiting for Amy. She was not dressed to kill, which he had expected. Amy was elegant in a quiet unassuming manner meant to impress both men and women but not to call attention to herself. In terms of dress and stance, she was not much different from Aslan now. At her side, Beckford felt not only homespun but rather shabby. He could have slapped himself for not having worn his best suit. He had not even shaved again. The only thing he had done was to have his shoes polished.

Now I understand, he said to himself, how it’s possible that just eighteen weeks after selling men’s cotton socks, a salesgirl at Macy’s or Gimbels can strut around on the silver screen as a princess or duchess, as if she had been born with a silver spoon in her mouth.

Amy took his arm and they set off toward Thirty-Fourth Street.

“Okay,” he said. “You win, Miss Amy.”

Suddenly he did not dare use her first name without the prefix.

“Yes, as I said, you win. First: Your Past—the Despair of Your Present—is that the correct title?”

“That’s correct.”

“And then dinner.”

“And then dinner,” she repeated.

He happened to glance at a big, brightly illuminated clock in the middle of a towering advertisement for nail-buffing cream.

“We have thirty minutes till the movie,” he said. “What about a cup of coffee?”

“Wonderful,” she agreed, “we might get thirsty, since the movie is at least an hour and forty-five minutes.”

In the café, as he was stirring in the sugar, he said without looking up, as if nothing in the world interested him more than his coffee: “Your Past—the Despair of Your Present. So, you think it will be a sexy film?”

“I’m sure. Two of my girlfriends who saw it told me that there were a couple of times during the film when just couldn’t contain themselves.”

Silently Beckford thought: Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to see this film with her, even if it’s terrible. Provocative. That’s exactly what she needs tonight.

This thought gave him back his aggressiveness from that afternoon. He felt his embarrassment waning slowly. In any case, I’m the boss, he assured himself, and as her boss I don’t need to let her intimidate me. I’m the one who’s meant to intimidate her. She lives off of me. I pay her salary. Then he realized that he also depended on Aslan’s money.

I don’t actually care where the money is coming from. I must be worth the money and the office to her, or else she wouldn’t spend it so easily on me. Therefore, I earn it honestly. I didn’t ask her to furnish an office for me and to leave such a large sum of cash in the safe. And I still don’t have a clue what she really wants from me. It’s possible that this new company in which I am apparently to play an important role is designed to be a gigantic haul in which five hundred idiotic honest men get robbed blind and left outside of the fence. And then I as the general manager will be saddled with the blame for the entire fraud. Then I’ll sit comfortably in prison for five years, and when I get out—

Suddenly he realized that Amy was looking critically at his face. “What are you thinking about, Mr. Beckford? Business worries? These days we all have worries, even if we don’t own a business and have to live off a salary instead. Forget your worries for a few hours.” She glanced at her watch. “It seems that it’s just about time to get to the theater.”

“You guessed right, Miss Amy. I do indeed have grave, very grave worries, fears, and sorrows. All right, let’s get to it. Maybe the past of a woman who is completely unknown to me will distract me from my own present.”

Amy laughed. “How cleverly you transfer the title of the movie to your personal circumstances!”

“If only you knew, dear Miss Amy, how I—”

He meant to say how I suffer, to spark and possibly keep her interest. He expected that such feelings would help overcome the resistance she was sure to put up against him. But he failed. She didn’t ask about what he had wanted her to know. For a few seconds he considered whether he should just leave, pretending that he did not feel well. However, his curiosity about how the evening would end outweighed his desire to get rid of her immediately.

Now they were sitting in the movie theater. Nestled into soft, deep armchairs. Surrounded by darkness. In front of them was the innocent screen, which a group of experienced and trained engineers had used to create an illusion. In a businesslike and coldhearted manner, they were attempting to uncover the background and internal discord of an utterly shattered human life. They uncovered it so brutally and nakedly that even a mentally disabled street sweeper would be forced to understand that life happened like this and in no other fashion.

The armchairs were incredibly comfortable. It felt good to sit there and watch those on-screen struggle fiercely.

But these comfortable armchairs had one disadvantage. Apparently, they had been created for people who had been married for more than forty years and who only remembered every three months that smoldering-hot love had gotten them into marriage in the first place.

Beckford had imagined everything beautifully. He had allowed Amy to convince him to go to the movies only because of the seats. The seats alone had convinced him. Usually seats in the movie theater allowed you to lightly touch your female neighbor’s knee to interest her in more after holding hands had lost its initial appeal. If she returned the pressure of the knee, at first only very gently and then as if by coincidence, you increased your own pressure. If the female knee did not retreat in a pout, then that was already proof of her thoroughly weakened resistance.

But clearly these chairs had been designed and enforced by some kind of anti-vice committee, who did not tolerate any kind of fun. They had designed these chairs so cleverly that it was difficult, if not impossible for Beckford to use his usual art of seduction. For that simple reason, the movie lost all appeal that it might have originally had for him. It was not even possible to whisper something into Amy’s ear. The distance was too far due to the ridiculously wide armrests.

No wonder Beckford was in a bad mood. Even the provocative scenes left him cold. Since Beckford had no interest in these steamy scenes, he observed Amy at his side and realized that she kept shifting in her seat. He remembered that she had told him that her girlfriends also had not been able to sit still during certain scenes of the movie.

It was not the movie that excited him but Amy’s continuous movements. Finally, earsplitting brass music announced the end with deafening noise.

“Well, how did you like the movie, Mr. Beckford,” asked Amy, pulling on her gloves and slowly ambling toward the exit.

“The movie wasn’t bad. Better than I expected. Especially the scene when he threw her across the bed, though he probably could’ve been gentler with her…”

“Don’t you think? That roughness was totally unnecessary. I thought the same thing when I saw that.”

In the meantime, they had reached the street and she took his arm. “Do you agree with many others and especially the clergy, who claim that it is one of the most immoral movies shown in New York in the last few years?”

“No, I don’t think so at all. On the contrary, I think it is a rather tame movie. Nothing immoral about the whole story. This is what life is like.”

“That’s what I say. The movie isn’t immoral at all. It’s rather educational. Every day you can read more about immorality and rape in the newspaper. Did you know, Mr. Beckford, that it is illegal to screen the movie in Massachusetts and Connecticut under penalty of six months’ imprisonment?”

“I really pity the people who are not allowed to partake in this educational film.”

Beckford tried to speak in the monotone of a preacher thinking it would most impress Amy. Though he had barely seen half of the movie and had only been interested in Amy’s restlessness, his suspicions had been confirmed: this film was trash of the cheapest and most miserable kind.

Nevertheless, he enthusiastically corroborated whatever positive thing Amy said about the movie. If you wish to conquer a woman, don’t argue with her, he thought. You will only lose precious time, and nothing will come of it. Your life is complicated enough. When it comes to women, agreeing with them will get you to your goal faster and with fewer detours.

However, he failed completely. In this particular case, his philosophy did not hold true. He did not know enough about the independent character of an intelligent girl like Amy, who stood on her own two feet and earned her daily bread honestly.

8.

After Beckford’s interminable years in Korea, where he had had to ask himself every hour whether he would live to see another day, he was living in a furious frenzy upon his return home. He imagined that a healthy, normal young man who was finally released from the tough discipline of his military service should live it up, so as to reassure himself that he had returned from hell. For him, his regained freedom meant that he should have his way with any and all women in uninhibited and uncritical fashion. An inexplicable urge drove him to regain his inner balance, which he thought he had lost in Korea. Without exception, the girls Beckford had been with since his return from Korea had been easy conquests. He did not choose carefully. Usually he did not choose at all, but took whichever girl crossed his path. Tall and short, fat and skinny, blond, brunette, and indeterminate, black and white, young and barely sober enough to remain standing. Nothing mattered to him as long as she possessed the only thing that mattered to him.

In the lecture halls of the Technological Institute, he had planned to become a useful member of society instead of a destructive one. But he found he could only concentrate on the lessons with great effort. His thoughts often digressed far away from the formulas and hieroglyphics written on the chalkboards. He saw instead the dismembered bodies of his compatriots and of others, who were not. He saw the long rows of miserable human beings: men, women, and children dressed in rags, collapsing from hunger, forced to flee their homelands.

To avoid these terrible images, his thoughts turned to sex. Thinking about sex was the only thing that gave him relief. Sometimes he looked for girls or met them randomly, and they’d smile invitingly at him. If such an evening proved successful, he felt that he had finally come back to life. It was not an anesthetic per se, nor a narcotic, but for him, it had become the only tranquilizer that freed him from his memories.

In the first weeks after his return, he had tried to use tobacco to self-medicate. But tobacco did not work at all for that purpose. It caused insomnia and affected his nerves to such an extent that he sometimes had to stop himself from screaming in the middle of the street. He swore never to touch tobacco again for he feared that he might irrevocably become its slave. He ran into a former comrade who invited him to get drunk. The comrade told Beckford that nightly blackout drunkenness was the only way he found he was able to resist committing suicide.

Beckford followed his advice and got drunk every day. Not in a bar. That was too expensive. He bought a bottle and drank all of it in his cheap hotel room in the evenings. The only thing this achieved was a terrible headache until about ten the next morning. But it did allow him to better focus on his studies.

Mostly, after half a bottle, he felt as if he were back in Korea and he’d begin to cry like a baby, grieving his fallen comrades. And again, he would endure the terrible images.

“No more! I can’t stand it anymore! Help me, Lord, help me!” he would scream in this state. Then he would down an entire glass and the nightmare would let up a little.

Religion could not save him, either, since he had lost his childhood faith in Sunday school, where they had hammered the catechism into his head. Whatever had remained in terms of faith, he had lost on the battlefields of Korea, where Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant men of faith blessed the soldiers, their machine guns, flamethrowers, hand grenades, and tanks before battle. Often, they blessed them all again after the battle to convince the farm boys from Minnesota, Idaho, Indiana, Nebraska, Dakota, and Wyoming that theirs was a holy war, and that God was on their side.

The only anesthesia that worked eventually was his exploits with women. A woman brought him relief and erased the memories of Korea without the side effects that tobacco and alcohol had. All the women he sought out and collected gave him what he needed. But nothing more than that. Nor did he ask for more.

He never spoke of love. Not even in his thoughts. “Love” was only a word to him. A mere word and nothing else.

And now Beckford and Amy were sitting in an elegant restaurant that he had chosen to impress her. He hoped it would make the conquest easier. She was supposed to think that he dined in restaurants of this caliber every day, as if he were at home here. The prices were high. They were purposely high to keep away a certain kind of undesirable guest since their patronage could damage the restaurant’s reputation significantly. Judging by the prices, the food had to be exquisite.

Back in the movie theater as they were watching the film about despair, Beckford had quietly calculated how much the evening with Amy would cost him. She was not the kind of girl one could tell in a pinch: Sorry, I don’t have a lot of money with me tonight. Two burgers and two beers are good enough.

Not Amy. Not her.

He had realized tonight that although she was a secretary, outside of work she was a lady. You had to treat her as a lady if you wanted to get anywhere with her.

The waiter bowed slightly when he handed Amy the menu, then seemed to remember suddenly that he was an American and stopped in the middle of the bow. Only his head remained slightly bowed, which made him look as if he were glancing at Amy’s hands.

Without reading the menu, Amy placed it back on the table, pulled off her gloves, and said with a gentle smile: “I’d just like a ham sandwich and a coffee.”

“Is that all you’d like, Miss Amy?” asked Beckford with surprise, as if he had expected she would buy the entire restaurant. He was disappointed as he increasingly realized that she would not be as easy as he’d thought that afternoon in the office. Suddenly he felt as if he were meeting her for the first time.

“Yes, that’s right, Mr. Beckford. That’s all I’d like you to order for me. I don’t usually eat a heavy dinner. I sleep better with a light stomach, you know?”

Beckford’s intention, however, had been to eat well and plenty this evening, as an excuse to extend the date as long as possible. He was hoping that with the help of some good wine he could maneuver the conversation to the only thing he was interested in, the only thing that had convinced him to suffer through the horrendous film.

Thinking of the movie, as Amy was slowly nibbling on her sandwich and he was poking at his steak, he said: “Do you have a past, Miss Amy?”

“A past? I have several, Mr. Beckford. And all of them with excellent references. You can check out each of my pasts easily. I could go back to any office where I have ever worked and I would be hired with a raise immediately.”

Checkmate, Beckford said to himself, miserable checkmate. Is she making fun of me or is she really so stupid that she does not understand what I mean with “past”? Aloud, he said: “I mean a different kind of past, Miss Amy.”

“Oh, now I understand. You want to know about my childhood and my family.”

She looked at him naively as she said this.

“My father owns a hardware store in Eldersville, Kansas, where I was born. And here in New York, I lived with my aunt at first while I was attending vocational school. Now I live in a small, modest apartment: it has a tiny comfortable living room, a bedroom, a small kitchen, and a bathroom. That’s about all I can report about my past and my present.”

“It appears then,” said Beckford with a fake laugh, “that you aren’t particularly troubled by your past.”

“That’s right, Mr. Beckford. I’m pretty happy with my life right now.”

How wrong you were, Beckford thought, but in the office this afternoon, when I invited her, she was talking as if she couldn’t wait for me to have her.

He said now: “Miss Amy, I hope we will work together for a long time. What we need in our business is a secretary like you.”

“Thank you, Mr. Beckford, thank you. Did you know that I am also studying French now? I already learned Spanish in high school.”

“Excellent. That is indeed excellent, Miss Amy. With those language skills you will be of great use in our business.”

“I hope so, Mr. Beckford.”

Half an hour later, Beckford took her home in a taxi. At her door, he made one last effort.

“Don’t you want to invite me up for a cup of coffee, since, as you said, your home is so comfortable, Miss Amy?”

“I am terribly sorry, Mr. Beckford, but it has gotten pretty late. I get up very early to be at the office at nine o’clock sharp, as you know.”

“Well, since I am your boss—okay, tomorrow you can come in at one o’clock—because you will invite me to coffee now, Miss Amy.”

“No to coffee and no to the coffee. My job starts at nine.”

“But you have noticed that nothing important is happening at the office, I assume?”

“My work begins at nine, Mr. Beckford,” Amy answered stubbornly, “and thank you for an enjoyable evening. It really was very entertaining, you know, because I go out so rarely. Again, thank you so much.”

She held out her hand. Beckford attempted a lukewarm hug so he could kiss her, but she pushed her key in firmly and slid through the door into the house like an eel. Then she pulled the door quickly and energetically shut.

Beckford hailed an approaching taxi and rode to a nightclub where he found what he urgently needed within half an hour.

When he got back to his hotel late that night and counted his money he said to himself: “Goddamn it, this was quite an expensive evening.”

Sitting down on his bed, he continued to make calculations, including taxis and tips.

Well, I have to admit that was almost a hundred dollars if I include all the little things. And whose fault is that, damn it? Amy’s, of course. If she had invited me for coffee into her virginal—well, let’s say more or less virginal—home, I would have probably, actually most certainly, saved a nice little heap of beautiful, kissable dollar bills. Of course: That is today. Only today. Because Amy’s cup of coffee from last night would have most certainly turned into the most expensive cup of coffee anyone had ever heard of. The moral of the story: The earlier you start saving, the more likely it is that you will die a rich man one day. You have to spend money at the right time, wherever it’s most useful and when it’s good for your soul at the same time. If I look at it from this perspective, I have to admit: Today’s expense, while it hurts, was my first step on the road to being more frugal. So help me God!

9.

Indonesia’s government was planning to build a wide network of modern airports, and they sought out well-known companies in Japan, England, Holland, and the United States for this purpose. Holved submitted plans and cost projections. His proposed budget was seven and a half percent higher than that presented by the Japanese firm. It was also higher than that of the companies from the other two countries. Nevertheless, Indonesia signed with his company. They did not do so because they loved the U.S. in particular, but simply because they hated the other countries more.

In addition, Holved was able to provide Indonesia with longer-term credit. He was also willing to offset a significant amount of the cost by accepting Indonesian products. Holved succeeded in convincing the Indonesian experts that his company had longer and better experience with such ventures. They would complete the entire project in a shorter time than any of the competing companies, and he would personally guarantee the excellent and durable quality of the building materials they would use.

However, this meant that he was several times forced to spend six or eight weeks on various Indonesian islands during construction. He personally supervised the execution of the work, which seemed necessary since he had promised to employ only local engineers, technicians, mechanics, and workers as much as possible.

He was in New York today, planning to fly to Jakarta on Wednesday. It was now Sunday afternoon. He wanted to spend this last Sunday before his departure in comfort with Aslan. He meant to talk to her in peace and quiet about the sorts of things that could occur while he was gone.

“In many ways it is regrettable,” he said during their conversation, “that I have to be so far away at this moment. I assure you, as soon as you announce—and you should do it earlier rather than later—that the APTC plans to build a canal across the North American continent, you will be caught in the worst kind of maelstrom.”

“I am prepared and don’t expect anything less,” said Aslan as she was drinking her coffee.

“Most likely you will have Congress and the Senate jumping down your throat. You better believe it!”

“I think I can handle the Senate, when things get really sticky.”

“I like that. Don’t let them get you. Hit them back every time if they try to wear you down. I’ve gone through stuff like this.”

“I believe you. Java, Kalimantan, Sumatra, Celebes, and who knows what all those islands are called—when you are on those islands, there will come a day when you are in so much trouble that you will be wishing you were dealing with the Senate in Washington.”

“That’s possible, very possible. I will be happy if I return with my nerves somewhat intact.”

“Indonesia is much more civilized than most Americans usually believe.”

“You are right. Their society is two or three thousand years old. And what the people have done since their independence is more than they could achieve in sixty years under Dutch colonial rule.”

“In any case, Holved, I wish you the best of luck.”

“And I wish you the same, Aslan. Oh—by the way, how did you ever come up with the idea of building this canal? Even if I am now involved, sometimes during a sleepless night I still consider it a crazy idea.”

“Maybe. Maybe it’s not so crazy. It depends how you look at it.”

“But someone must have whispered the idea in your ear? Beckford maybe?”

“Beckford? I could die laughing. Him? The ‘honorably discharged Marine Corps sergeant’ as he calls himself? Don’t be ridiculous, Holved. It was my idea. Without any help at all. It really was more of a rebellion against the calcified teachings I received from my female teachers. It was pretty simple. I was twelve and in geography class. The teacher was Miss Johnson. I remember her name perfectly. She showed us the great influence of the two most important canals, the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal, on the economy of many countries. On maps, she showed us how these canals saved the shipping business many thousands of nautical miles and therefore time and money. She pointed out that without the canals, many products would cost double or even triple in London, Paris, New York, and San Francisco. I got up from my seat and asked who owned the canals. Miss Johnson then explained that the canals belonged to the companies that had built and maintained them. Then I asked her whether the countries through which the canals were built, that is, Egypt and Panama in particular, did not have a greater right to the canals than foreign companies. Her response was: these countries receive part of the profit created by the canals and, in addition, certain predetermined sums of indemnization payments. I wasn’t satisfied with the answer. I wanted to know what would happen if one day these countries were to deny ships the right to use the canals to protect their sovereign property rights. Miss Johnson said that could never happen, since those countries were too weak in terms of military and economic power. They would never be able to defend themselves against the superpowers of the U.S., England, France, the Netherlands, Italy, and Belgium. She said that I was to sit down quietly and stop asking questions, as I was disrupting the regular lessons with completely useless questions.

When I got back to my room, I took out an atlas and studied the maps more carefully. I specifically looked at them in terms of existing canals—and canals that still could and should be built. And you know, Holved, since then, geography has been the subject that has interested me most.”

“And you never said a word about all this to me?” asked Holved.

“Why should I have? You never asked me what interested me in school. You’ve also never asked me what I do when I’m alone at home.”

“Sometimes, when I look at you, Aslan, I think I don’t really know you at all and that I don’t know in the least what goes on in your head,” said Holved, scrutinizing not only her face but her whole person.

“You see, my reasons for doing this project are much deeper. Right now, we are helplessly caught in a messed-up and terribly confused ideology that deals almost solely with the possibility of war. Maybe once it goes public, this plan will shake up people’s convictions and give them new ideas.”

“Aslan, you are wonderful, truly amazing. I don’t understand a single word of what you’re saying so eloquently. But I love listening to you. Go on, my dear. Continue. Your voice always enchants me. It’s so soft, such a melodious sound, like—just like—”

“I know. It sounds like a gong made from pure bronze mixed with plenty of gold and silver and with quite a bit of crystal included for good measure. I know. I know everything. Tell me something new! I would prefer that. Something absolutely new. For example, that you love me more than life.”

“That is nothing new. That’s been going on for three years.”

“But you know, Holved, a woman can’t hear it often enough. You say it five hundred times and then a woman will ask you to say it just one more time.”

“All right, then. I’ll say it just one more time: I love you more than ever.”

Holved used the same words as he said goodbye at Idlewild airport to fly to Indonesia. In the meantime, the Atlantic-Pacific Transit Corporation had been lawfully registered as the security act prescribed. Their shares could now be traded on the stock exchange. However, not many shares appeared on the market, since the initial public offering was largely taken. As long as nothing specific of the company’s plans was known you would not expect that the shares changed owners for purposes of speculation. Everyone waited in cases like this. For now, it was not necessary to have new shares registered to offer to the public.

Then a short article appeared in the business section of several newspapers in New York, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco. It said that the APTC planned to build a great canal, which was expected to make shipping easier and would, most important, contribute to keeping shipping costs low in spite of increasingly expensive logistics.

The people who read this article—mostly bankers and industrial executives—asked, for starters, who the APTC was, since the company was entirely unknown, and who its founders were. These people had little interest in the company’s plans. They were much more interested in finding out whether they could perhaps play the market with the shares of this new company.

Whoever else read the article, thought—if they thought anything at all—that it was a canal somewhere in the interior of the country, probably in the area of the Great Lakes up north. No one paid any attention to the article, since a canal was built every few weeks. Such a canal was often only of local importance and mainly served the interests of a group of industrial enterprises. The article received so little attention that no companies even asked to receive contracts for building materials for the canal.

Though Holved was well-known as a serious and trustworthy businessman in industry and banking circles, he never sought the spotlight. Neither in business nor in society did he try to be the center of attention. He had never been involved in a scandal. Even his divorces had not received any public attention.

Aslan’s case was very different. Several times she had commanded the spotlight; for example, when she had inherited yet another huge fortune and was dubbed “the American princess of inheritances.” It cost Aslan a lot of effort to escape reporters and photographers, but she was always successful. In fact, she was so adept at avoiding the newspaper columns filled with boring society gossip that even her marriage to Holved had remained and would continue to be a secret.

Therefore, it was understandable that more than seventy reporters showed up for a reception she had called in a small conference room of the Waldorf Hotel. The members of the press were greatly interested in the champagne cocktail, but far more excited to find out what Aslan would share with them. The reporters were betting among themselves—and they did not bother to whisper—that Aslan would finally announce the name of her fiancé, and that the lucky man must undoubtedly be one of the five hundred sons of deposed emperors, kings, dukes, counts, and earls offered for twenty thousand dollars on the open market. Not even ten reporters would have shown up had they known that her announcement merely concerned a business affair barely interesting enough to fill a hole in the general text of the newspaper. Meanwhile, the engagement of the “American princess of inheritances” would be enough for half a newspaper page.

The reporters downed their cocktails like water, barely setting down their empty glasses before grabbing another from the server, who looked as sad and serious as an undertaker. You don’t get champagne cocktails every day, especially not made with Madame Cliquot. Not to mention for free. You could hear the reporters clamoring from miles away. It was not ten minutes before the hotel detective appeared in the doorway.

As an answer, they offered him a cocktail, which convinced him immediately that he was dealing with decent human beings and not gangsters with drawn revolvers. Several of the relatively peaceful reporters began attacking each other with their fists under the increasing influence of the downright indescribably exquisite cocktails. They accused each other of having copied certain reports and articles and having sold them under their own names.

At that exact moment, Aslan appeared through a door that had been completely overlooked. A uniformed servant opened the door, bowing deeply. Aslan entered with a smile that two reporters—male, of course, not female—described as “otherworldly.”

To magnify the effect of her entrance, she remained standing in the open doorway for several seconds. Her large, dark eyes swept across those in attendance so cleverly that each reporter thought she had looked at them and no one else. As if everyone had turned to stone, deathly silence fell in the room. After the earsplitting clamor and chatter, its effect was uncanny.

Then thunderous applause exploded. Nodding to all sides and maintaining her veiled, secretive Mona Lisa smile, Aslan stepped into the room. She was surrounded by seventy sensationalist producers and libel inventors, who held their notebooks, pencils, and pens as if God had appeared in a cloud to declare new commandments.

Mr. Talker, of the gossip and smear column, moved so close to Aslan that he could cleverly press against her curves without her noticing, due to the pressure of the crowd.

Mr. Barker, however, observed this cheap move by Talker and later said to him when they were alone: “Your specialty is the touch maneuver?”

“We all do what we can,” Talker answered, “and if you wait too long to do things in life, you won’t ever be happy.”

“Talker, you are such a pig,” said Barker.

Talker pursed his lips and grunted: “Pig or not. That’s just a name. A pig is more decent than a human being if you ask me.”

Cruel fate had made a hotel waiter out of the dignified descendant of a count. The latter presented Aslan with a silver tray, bowing so gallantly that she had only to lift her fingertips slightly to take a glass.

Aslan lifted her filled glass and glanced around the room. She lightly toasted the reporter who stood closest and downed her entire drink. The aristocratic gentleman, who looked more dignified than all of the reporters present taken together, approached Aslan and passed her the tray in such a way that she had only to open her fingers this time and the glass slid onto the surface.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the press.” Aslan now addressed her guests in such a calm voice that it appeared as though she spoke in front of such crowds daily. “Ladies and gentlemen, the information I wish to pass on to you is short, clear, and definite. As some of you might know, I am president of the recently registered Atlantic-Pacific Transit Corporation. In addition, you might know that due to the number of shares I own, I have decision-making influence on the plans and activities of said corporation and intend to make more use of this than ever. Based on my proposal, the corporation has decided to build a canal that is to connect the Atlantic Ocean across the North American continent with the Pacific Ocean. This canal will make the Panama Canal redundant, at least where the United States is concerned. I would like to invite everyone interested in our project, whether they are Americans or not, to participate morally and financially by supporting this plan, which is necessary and useful for the common good. Ladies and gentlemen of the press, that is all I have to say. I thank you for your kind attention—please enjoy your cocktails. Thank you very much!”

With those words, Aslan disappeared soundlessly and unexpectedly. The reporters stared at one another in astonishment. The photographers grew antsy when they realized that they had forgotten to take photos of Aslan. Everything had happened too fast, because everyone had been busy thinking about whom Aslan would name as her fiancé.

Three men jumped acrobatically to the door, tore it open, and yelled after her: “And the engagement? When is the wedding? Who is the lucky guy, Miss Norval?”

Miss Norval was already sitting in a taxi that was driving away at that very moment.

10.

Aslan’s name and her canal project ran in capital letters across the front pages of the evening and morning papers. Several articles reported on Aslan’s project. Up until now only a great catastrophe with hundreds of victims would have managed to get as much attention from the media.

For six consecutive days, one could not read anything about a rebellion in the Ukraine, nothing about the impending overthrow of a man named Khrushchev, about a conspiracy against the Egyptian prime minister, nor about Mexican student unrest influenced by Russian spies. One could not find anything about a supposed sighting of a Russian submarine fifty miles off the coast of New York, nothing about workers’ unrest in Poland, Latvia, Hungary, and East Germany, artificially spurred on by fascist traitors, nothing about the unavoidable collapse of China, nor about the American president’s cold, which shook the New York Stock Exchange.

Instead, the newspapers had something incredibly important to report, something tangible, something utterly useful, even if it seemed quixotic at first, which excited the readers even more. For a week, the newspaper directors forgot to sling mud at other countries and their governments for daring to have different opinions and for cultivating their land as they saw fit.

Letters addressed to the very honorable editor flooded the newspaper agencies. Half of the letter writers declared Aslan’s idea crazy and demanded that the authorities commit her to a psychiatric institution immediately to prevent further spawning of her delusions. The other half praised Aslan as the twentieth century’s most notable genius, whose plan had to be implemented immediately, preferably tomorrow, even if it were to push the United States into bankruptcy. All week, the newspapers discussed the pros and cons as well as the feasibility of the project. The initial result was an increasing demand for APTC shares. While the canal project captured the public’s imagination, the daily reports prophesying the political and economic collapse of the U.S.S.R. stopped, as if they had died of old age.

During the next board meeting, Aslan proposed to increase capital by another billion dollars and to issue a second set of shares on the market. She was sure, she assured the board, that the shares would sell like hotcakes.

“Isn’t that a little risky, Miss Norval?” asked the banker, Mr. Brady.

“Not at all, Mr. Brady. If General Motors could successfully expand their program by a billion dollars six years ago, then we can do the same thing.”

“Don’t forget General Motors has immense assets, Miss Norval.”

“I am not forgetting that. However, you must admit that not all assets are material. An invention is also a real asset. We can realize our idea with energy and unshakable determination.”

The board approved Aslan’s proposal unanimously. The newspapers took note of the board’s decision, of course, and as Aslan had expected, the canal project again received much public attention.

Up to that point, no expert had determined with certainty whether building such a canal was even feasible. What’s more, it was unclear how the company was to obtain the many billions of dollars necessary for the construction of such a long and wide canal. Certain circles, motivated by envy and self-interest, tried to stop the project. They saw the lack of satisfactory answers to these questions as an opportunity to launch a smear campaign. In tactful but no uncertain terms, they accused the APTC of fraud against their shareholders.

But to their surprise, no one sold their shares. It is safe to say that this was proof of the shareholders’ belief in the feasibility of the project. Therefore, APTC’s enemies had to employ rougher methods for bringing down the company. An unscrupulous pack of lobbyists served their purposes. Usually they loitered in the antechambers, cafeterias, hallways, barbershops, and restrooms of the Senate and House, to whisper lies and rumors into the ears of representatives and senators. They managed to get the Senate to deal with the matter of the APTC, as the company had to request permission to issue a new series of shares in the amount of one billion dollars.

The Senate decided to constitute a senatorial subcommittee tasked with investigating the APTC. They reasoned that the public had an inalienable right to know the truth about the company’s intentions. The committee was to find out whether the company planned to commit fraud, including speculation in shares. In addition, they had to determine whether the company intended to break antitrust laws by attempting to establish a transport monopoly. Finally, it was imperative to ascertain whether this private project could endanger the country’s complicated defense system.

Aslan’s lawyers explained to her that it would be very difficult to rescue the company without fundamentally changing or abandoning the project. Since the company did not have the least bit of proof of its feasibility, Aslan especially would come under fire in front of the Senate committee. It would be easier than Aslan believed for the committee to decide that she was purposely trying to hide the company’s true intentions. In that case, they were setting themselves up for the Department of Justice to intervene. An indictment of fraud seemed inevitable.

It looked pretty bad. Aslan invited Beckford to a private discussion.

“Mr. Beckford,” she said to him without any introduction, “if things go badly in the committee, I will land in prison for several years. And you will, too, of course.”

“Me?” Mr. Beckford asked, surprised. “Me? What in the world do I have to do with this goddamned mess? I don’t own a single share.”

“You are registered as the general manager of the company. ‘Cling together, swing together,’ as horse thieves say.”

“No way, ma’am. No way, not with me. Tomorrow I’ll go immediately to the closest recruitment office and I’ll reenlist in the Marine Corps. I am always welcome there. They always need good sergeants. Then I’m rid of all these worries. In any case, I’m fed up with this life here, just so you know. I’m sick and tired of it. I’ll do my own thing. Good night!”

“So, in short, you want to let me face the music by myself? And I had such high hopes for you.”

“You know as well as I do that no one asked me, ma’am.”

“It’s not as easy as you think to get away. The Marine Corps doesn’t need you, they could get anyone to scream at new recruits. For now, I still need you here and I need you desperately. Before we get sent to prison for several years, there’ll be plenty of time for you to disappear. And once you’re back with your roughnecks, no district attorney can get you out of there, certainly not for this kind of affair.”

“All right then, ma’am, what do you want? What am I supposed to do for you? At some point, I guess I have to show some gratitude for all the favors I never asked for.”

“Now that sounds quite a bit better.” Aslan laughed.

It was easy for Aslan to smuggle certain nuggets of information to the newspapers. Now, the papers implied that the company’s directors and board members, who had allegedly taken money from honest, hardworking, trusting citizens, were planning to leave the country under the pretext of going on vacation. All their passports were ready and stamped with visas for countries that would not extradite. Another report claimed that the Senate committee had arrest warrants for fraud on their desks, ready to be served. Then news appeared that the Senate committee would be ordering a hearing in the next few days, which was not true as of yet. Allegedly, the hearing was due to a series of suspicious circumstances suggesting fraudulent activity.

At the perfect moment, just as Aslan had planned, another story hit the papers like a bomb. Facing pressure on all sides, the chair of the Senate committee announced that the accused had already been asked to appear and that public proceedings were to take place on the second Thursday of the following month. He added that since the hearing was of great significance for the entire American people, it would be aired on national television, to prove that the honorable Senate committee would not be influenced by Big Business. The average Joe could judge for himself.

Aslan could not have secured better national publicity for her plan. In the most diplomatic fashion, she had managed to interest the country’s major television networks. No one in the entire country would miss this sensational drama. The television broadcast now promised to eclipse the historic hearing of a group of Hollywood screenwriters and directors accused of being Communists, who, with their films, had allegedly imposed their anti-American ideas in a typically Bolshevik manner on a naive American audience.

As accusations against the company’s board accumulated, one would have thought its shareholders would finally be tempted to cut their losses and sell their shares. If the Senate committee were to prove attempted fraud, the shares would just barely be worth the profit from a final liquidation.

Strangely, not a single share was offered for sale. There were two explanations: either all shares were in the possession of one entity, or the shareholders were firmly convinced that the project would come to fruition. With absolute certainty, they expected amazingly high dividends, maybe not in the next few weeks but surely in the next twelve or fifteen years. Delayed gratification was nothing new for the founders of American companies. The longer you waited and the larger the company, the higher the dividends would be.

11.

On Tuesday afternoon, Aslan asked: “Are you done with everything, Mr. Beckford?”

“It’s all done, ma’am. Even my pants are buttoned up.”

“Do you know what will happen to you if something goes wrong due to your carelessness?”

“You’ll shoot me in cold blood or suddenly push me into a ravine while I’m busy admiring the magnificent landscape.”

“Not quite. I’m not a murderer. But it will be bad for you, very bad, I can promise you that. I do have my methods. I learned them in Hollywood. My paid goons will beat you to a pulp.”

“That’s what I figured. But you underestimate me. Let’s see who really gets beat up in that fight.”

“Oh, I’m just kidding.”

“Of course you’re only kidding. You are always kidding where I am concerned.”

“Don’t be tragicomic, Mr. Beckford. You have no reason for that. I hope you gave Amy her final instructions precisely.”

“She will appear and disappear like a ghost, with maps or without, with lists or without.”

“While we are talking about this … I hope you have not started anything with Amy. It is never good for business when the boss amuses himself with the secretary.”

“Don’t worry, ma’am. Amy says ‘Good night’ at the mere request of a cup of black coffee.”

“Aha, so you did try, then?”

“Why not, ma’am? She is a woman.”

“A woman? As far as I know she is neither married, nor widowed, nor divorced, and she comes from a good family.”

“Yes, hardware in Eldersville, Kansas.”

“It sounds as if you went pretty far with her?”

“Yes, ma’am, so far that her past has become the despair of my present.”

“Good God, don’t talk nonsense.”

“I’m referring to the title of a movie that caused the utter failure of the date.”

“Well, I’m glad it failed. Don’t seduce a first-class secretary just to turn her into a third-class lover. And just so you know, you’re getting a new secretary. A pretty young girl, who can run errands to the post office and office supply store. As of this morning, Amy is to be my personal secretary with a salary of three hundred dollars a week.”

“At that salary, I’ll marry her on the spot.”

“Amy knows you too well to let you marry her. You’ll be happy with the new female hire, much happier than with Amy. Amy is a lady. A lady of untouchable honesty and integrity.”

“You clearly know her very well, ma’am.”

“Of course I know her well. Now back on task. Have the five assistants received their instructions?”

“They’ll march around like tin soldiers. I wasn’t a sergeant in the Marine Corps for nothing.”

“Okay, good. I want to see the five in my hotel around six o’clock. Tell them that they should arrive in their street clothes and bring their uniforms for a final dress check. Two seamstresses will be present to do last looks and to make any necessary alterations. And by the way, Mr. Beckford, you have done more and better work in the last two weeks than I would have ever expected.”

“I only followed your orders and commands, ma’am.”

“That’s true, but you know as well as I do that it’s possible to follow orders in many ways. Some of your ideas were actually excellent and truly original.”

“It was a pleasure, ma’am. No reason for eternal gratitude on your part. It was a pleasure, and plus it’s my job, ever since you picked me up off the street.”

“‘Picked up off the street’ is probably not the right expression. But if that’s what you want to call it, fine. The truth is you crossed my path at the right moment.”

“Let’s say I crossed the path of your Cadillac, ma’am,” Beckford corrected her, and laughed.

12.

Aslan was glad that she had spent several years in the world of illusions. The Senate committee’s conference room would have made any film director green with envy. The gentlemen of the Senate looked very dignified. These terribly honorable senators were first and foremost men, and so an intelligent woman like Aslan knew she had to sate the hunger left by their boring wives at home.

Aslan wore a dark blue, excellently tailored dress. The dress discreetly accentuated her curves, and the suggestiveness only made her more seductive. Amy was also wearing a dress, but one that flattered her figure more explicitly, especially beneath her hips. Not too much and not too little.

The five female assistants, who wore tasteful, quasi-military uniforms, were constantly in motion. They played their roles marvelously. Each one was prettier than the last. Their lips wore an inviting smile, promised everything. Two blondes, a redhead, and two brunettes.

Beckford, who was wearing a simple suit, attempted to insinuate that he was the actual brains of the operation. No one believed him, however.

The whole scene looked more like a film production than a serious hearing in front of the most venerable Senate; a hearing that was to deal with the existence of a company worth billions on the stock market. The half dozen cameras reinforced this impression when they began to roll as soon as the honorable senators entered the room and took their seats.

The audience noticed immediately that the senators were intent on appearing like movie stars on television. They pulled on their ties, smoothed their hair, and pasted onto their faces the stereotypical, paternalistic grins of career politicians. Such politicians only took up the heavy burden of representing the people and sacrificing their health and life for the good of the nation and of the general public.

First, the committee posed the usual questions. How had they founded the company and for what purpose? Of course, this information had already been entered into the register, and yet the gentlemen of the Senate needed to be told as if they had never heard of the company before.

Beckford explained that he assumed full responsibility for everything that had happened since the founding of the company, since he was the general manager of the company as noted in the official registry. When a senator asked him to name the majority shareholders, two other senators immediately leaned over to whisper in his ear. Even those at home watching on television could hear their advice: the senators feared that one of their friends might be implicated and they would not serve him well by revealing his name to the public.

Of the eighty-two million television sets in the country, likely forty million were tuned in at that very moment. Aslan had calculated correctly. If it were not for her Hollywood orchestration, if it were not for the girls in their tasteful uniforms, with their beautiful legs and winning smiles, several million viewers would have soon lost interest in the hearing, dense with legal jargon.

Someone ordered a forty-five-minute break. After the intermission, the gentlemen of the Senate entered the chamber in a dignified manner. As soon as they realized that the cameras were rolling, they struggled to wear again the paternalistic smiles that their voters knew so well.

Now they asked Beckford whether he believed that such a cross-country canal was feasible and how construction was to be executed. He explained that it was feasible.

How did he plan to cut through the Rocky Mountains?

“That is not my job. It is a matter for the American engineers,” he answered. “I am merely the general manager of the company in charge of administering the company’s assets to benefit the shareholders and of managing the business side of things.”

“Mr. Beckford, do you know the distance between New York and San Francisco?”

“It is two thousand five hundred seventy-one miles overland, in so-called statute miles, or two thousand two hundred thirty-four nautical miles. Ships calculate distances in nautical miles, which have been a recognized unit of measure since July 1, 1954.”

The interrogating senator cleared his throat, apparently surprised by the precision of Beckford’s answer.

Aslan thought to herself: “I put great effort into getting him to memorize these numbers, but he does deserve praise for doing it so well.”

“Mr. Beckford, do you know the height of the highest point of the Rocky Mountains?”

“It is four thousand eight hundred thirty-two meters at its peak.”

“And you want to overcome a rock wall of that height?”

“Of course not, sir. However, since the lowest point of the country is at most eighty-five miles from the highest, our engineers will find the best middle ground; because the lowest point, of which I just spoke, is seventy-four meters below sea level and that may give our engineers more headaches than that highest point.”

Well said, thought Aslan.

The interrogating senators began to shift nervously in their seats. Senator Drake, who had neither said nor asked anything up to that point, thought it was about time to show his voters how important he was. He grinned, hoping it would rattle Beckford, and asked a question tricky enough that he hoped it would garner the admiration of the viewers at home.

“Are you trying to tell me, Mr. Beckford, that you will abort the canal project if the costs of breaking rock are too high or if it indeed proves to be impossible?”

“We have a simple solution for this problem, sir. We just lift the ships across the rocks. Very simple, really.”

“You lift the ships across the rocks,” repeated the most venerable senator, exploding into a rumbling laugh, joined by his colleagues when he nudged them in the ribs. “And you claim this is very simple?” He changed his tone: “We are not here to listen to fairy tales.”

“I apologize if the gentlemen misunderstood. I meant to add that this is already the case with the Panama Canal and many others. Ships are lifted by sluices where necessary to cross points of high elevation. Of course, it is costlier in terms of time than if a ship could go straight through the canal. However, I wanted to point out that if you disregard cost, you can build a canal anywhere on earth, no matter what its length and no matter what obstacles stand in the way.”

The senators put their heads together. After consulting the questionnaires in front of them, they decided how to continue the hearing.

“Mr. Beckford, let us say you build and actually complete this canal—let’s forget the cost for the moment—how much time would a ship going directly from New York to San Francisco save? Compare that to the time a ship needs to make its way via Panama. Can you answer this question for the committee with precision?”

“I apologize, sir, but if I may, that is the wrong question to ask.”

“The wrong question? What do you mean, Mr. Beckford?”

“The time it takes a ship to get from one harbor to the next depends on its speed, which is different for every ship. Some boats travel at more than eight knots, which means eight nautical miles per hour, while other ships, like the SS United States, for example, can and often have reached a speed of thirty-five and a half nautical miles per hour.”

“So, if it does not save time in some cases, Mr. Beckford, where do you see the advantage of such a costly enterprise like the construction of this canal?”

“At the end of the day, it is an immense gain in time if the distance of the journey is shorter. The distance between New York and San Francisco via Panama is five thousand two hundred sixty-three nautical miles. The distance between New York and San Francisco straight across the country is only two thousand two hundred thirty-four nautical miles. So each ship would save a distance of three thousand twenty-nine nautical miles. And since we are speaking of saving time: a ship that only travels at twenty nautical miles per hour would save approximately six days. Granted that a ship cannot travel down a canal at the same speed as on the open sea, the time saved might only be three or four days. For the ship owner, a savings of four days means a profit that is greater the larger the boat is.”

“So, you are completely convinced, Mr. Beckford, that it is possible to build such a canal?”

“Entirely convinced, sir.”

“Let us say the company of which you are the general manager and for the assets of which you are completely responsible, begins to build the canal, and for some reason, you cannot raise further funds. What happens with the shares of the company?”

This question, for Beckford, came out of left field. Aslan, however, immediately understood why they had asked this difficult question. Beckford looked helplessly at her but received only a vacant stare. He looked at each of the gentlemen in turn, shrugged, and said: “I don’t know what to tell you about what would happen with the shares. I have never thought of that.”

Senator Drake also looked at each of his colleagues and a satisfied grin swept across his face. Across the country, all those sitting in front of a television set saw the triumphant grin of the senator and thought: This is the turning point. From now on, true law and order will reign.

The senator’s satisfied grin grew even wider as he turned not toward Beckford but toward the cameras. He said in a sharp voice: “You have just said in front of this committee that if the construction of the canal were to fail, you, as the general manager of the company, do not know what will happen with the shares. Is that correct, Mr. Beckford?”

“That is correct, Mr. Senator,” answered Beckford, turning imploringly toward Aslan.

“In other words, Mr. Beckford, and to be perfectly clear, the shares would have no value at all in that case. That means that this constitutes purposeful, unconscientious, and shameless fraud against the shareholders.”

“No, it is not fraud, Mr. Senator.” Aslan’s full, sonorous voice rang out in the chamber. The cameras were not prepared for this sudden change of circumstances. With visible effort they swiveled to get Aslan, who was speaking from the background but slowly approaching the table at which the senators were seated.

“It was not fraud, nor will it ever be fraud against the shareholders,” Aslan repeated, standing close to the table. Up until this moment, none of the senators, nor the reporters, nor the few audience members in the so-called gallery, nor the cameramen had paid any attention to Aslan. It had looked as if she were only one of the helpers, supplying materials, maps, and books whenever they were requested.

“And who are you?” asked the chairman, Senator Clifford. “And I am warning you right here and now: Do not interrupt this hearing, or I will have you escorted out of the chamber.”

“Gentlemen,” Aslan said, hypnotizing the senators with a seductive smile, “I am here to defend my shares and simultaneously the company. I am the president and majority shareholder. In this moment, I could, if I wanted to, liquidate the entire company and pay out all shareholders, or with official permission I could issue a new series of shares for the stock market.”

The senators and Beckford were completely forgotten. Now, every camera was trained on Aslan. The cameras panned up and down her body. They missed nothing: her forehead, her hair, her eyes, nose, mouth, neck, breasts, her back, the curves of her rear, the shape of her thighs, her calves, her shoes, the cut of her perfectly fitting dress. Aslan offered, to them as well as the senators, ample opportunity to take in her elegant figure.

The senators were at a loss. Nothing like this had ever happened before in a committee hearing. There was no precedent to turn to for guidance.

After a short whispered discussion, the gentlemen decided to let Aslan participate in the hearing. The chairman ordered an adjournment and declared the hearing would continue the next day. Aslan was required to appear, since they were now summoning her as a witness. If she failed to do so, she would be subject to a large fine or even a prison sentence.

No one was happier about the postponement than the cameramen, who appeared exhausted. The television viewers’ enthusiasm reached a fever pitch as they took in Aslan’s theatrical, well-orchestrated performance, her dominant personality, her almost scary self-confidence, her elegance, and her full beautiful alto voice. Sitting in front of their televisions they had worried that the hearing would digress into a boring legal battle. Now, they were ready to pay for the next episode if necessary. Those who had missed today’s drama could not wait to see act 2.

The next day, the hearing was to begin again at one o’clock, but the cameras had been busy since twelve forty-five. In particular, they focused on Aslan’s pretty assistants, who were wearing different uniforms today, but were no less seductive. They left little to the imagination. At every opportunity, the cameras zoomed in as the women organized books, maps, lists, and newspaper clippings. The cameras presented their audience with the assistants’ beautiful legs and their shapely curves.

How the TV network had obtained the rights to air the Senate committee hearing and how much they had paid for these rights remained a secret. For the network, this prelude was more important than the actual hearing because it allowed them to screen the advertisements that were actually funding the broadcast. According to their contract, they were forbidden from running any ads during the hearing, or they would be removed from chambers immediately.

Just before one o’clock, Aslan appeared and all cameras turned to her. She was wearing a new dress, very different from yesterday’s.

“Just gorgeous,” exclaimed the cameramen when they saw Aslan, so loudly that she could hear it.

“Really?” she asked, shooting them her most beautiful smile, which the cameras in turn broadcast to viewers at home. Like the day before, the cameras sped around her as well as up and down her body. One camera was placed on a table, so that it captured Aslan from up high, almost directly above.

“This is a particularly effective angle, ma’am,” the camera team’s boss explained. “I wish you could see yourself like this. Please turn to the right, then to the left. Now move your lips as if you were giving your assistants an order. Good, excellent, ma’am. Thank you.”

A few minutes later, the gentlemen of the Senate walked into the chamber, as if to the Lohengrin “Wedding March,” their faces turned to the cameras. All present, including the crowd of reporters stood and scrambled to sit back down only after the gentlemen of the Senate had seated themselves with dignity and blown their noses loudly.

“Miss Norval,” the committee chair addressed Aslan, “are you willing to serve as a witness in front of this investigative committee?”

“I am ready to do so, sir.”

“Are you willing to testify under oath, Miss Norval?”

“Of course, sir.”

The office clerk rattled off the oath. Aslan lifted her hand and said, “I do, so help me God.”

Originally, they had only intended to question Beckford, since he was supposed to defend the management of the company. Beckford had declined to testify under oath, afraid of perjuring himself.

“Miss Aslan Norval, you are one and the same who is known colloquially as the ‘American princess of inheritances’?”

“Yes. It is an invention of the reporters.”

“So, would you say that your net worth is in the billions, Miss Norval? I emphasize that you’re not obliged to divulge specifics if you feel uncomfortable.”

“My net worth is many millions, sir. I have no reason to reason to hide that.”

“You are one of the founders”—the committee chair glanced at the paper in front of him—“of the Atlantic-Pacific Transit Corporation, in short, of the APTC. Is that correct, Miss Norval?”

“Correct.”

“Do you have significant influence over the activities, enterprises, and projects of the company, Miss Norval?”

“As the majority shareholder, I am able to control the company to the highest degree. I am also the presidentof the company and first chairperson of the board.”

“Mr. Beckford, who stood before us yesterday, is the general manager of the company? Is that correct, Miss Norval?”

“That is entirely correct, sir.”

“Can Mr. Beckford make any executive decisions on behalf of the company?”

“Mr. Beckford cannot make decisions of any importance without my approval, which the board also has to approve. The secretary of the board must present it on the agenda and has to sign off on any decisions.”

“Yesterday, you were present in these chambers during the entire hearing and heard all of Mr. Beckford’s statements. Do you admit that, Miss Norval?”

“Yes, I heard every word that Mr. Beckford said here.”

The chairman turned toward the law clerk:

“Clerk, please read back from the record what the witness has just stated.”

The law clerk repeated the words: “‘Yes, I heard every word that Mr. Beckford said here.’”

“Miss Norval”—the committee chair now turned to Aslan—“do you have anything to add to or change in your statement?”

“No, I don’t have any changes to make, and I repeat: I heard every word Mr. Beckford spoke in this room yesterday.”

Aslan knew that the reading out loud of her statement was a farce, since cleverly disguised microphones had been placed at twelve different locations in the chambers and would document everything she said for eternity. It was the chairman’s intention, however, to draw attention to this question. He nodded at his fellow senators as if to say: Now we’ve got her.

“Miss Norval, you indicated that you heard everything Mr. Beckford explained yesterday. Therefore, you also heard, of course, that Mr. Beckford, the general manager of the APTC, admitted that the company’s shares would be worthless if the canal were not to be completed due to lack of funds. Did you hear that, Miss Norval?”

“The words, sir, are not entirely accurate, but the gist is correct.”

“Miss Norval, you claim under oath that you are the founder of the company and furthermore that you are the president of the company, and that you control it in such a way that other shareholders only have a relatively limited influence on its activities. Is that correct, Miss Norval?”

“That is absolutely correct, sir.”

“Miss Norval, you built this company on the insecure, uncertain, and uncontrollable grounds that if the funds—which no doubt would amount to billions of dollars—were to dry up, the shares will be worthless. In other words, the shareholders would lose their investment. Did you inform the shareholders of this risk, Miss Norval?”

“I consider all people who buy shares of our company intelligent enough to figure that out themselves without getting a warning from me.”

“In my humble opinion, Miss Norval, that is not a valid excuse. Everyone can buy shares, whether they are intelligent or not. Shares are a commodity.”

“I admit that, Mr. Senator. However, no one buys shares without ascertaining prospects of profit and loss.”

“That might be the case, Miss Norval.”

The committee chairman slowly blew his nose, apparently to think about what question to ask next. His neighbor to the right took this opportunity to whisper something into his ear. The chairman leaned toward him to hear him better. He looked utterly satisfied, and this look of satisfaction was broadcast to the world. He cleared his throat loudly and looked left and right to ensure that everyone present, especially the reporters, understood that he was about to ask a question to devastate Aslan.

Squinting at her, he asked in an innocent tone, as if he were asking where she would vacation next: “Miss Norval, have you ever heard of the Panama Scandal?”

After asking his question, he turned to all sides as if expecting applause. Almost everyone present understood the significance of his question. A great similarity existed between the possible outcome of the Aslan project and that of the infamous Panama Scandal. The reporters were writing so feverishly that they did not even look up to see what effect this question had on Aslan. Two reporters ran to the phones. Huge letters on the front pages of the first evening papers would scream: “APTC project overshadows Panama Scandal, the senatorial committee decided today. They predict a billion-dollar crash.”

Aslan gave the cameras her sunniest smile as she answered calmly: “Mr. Senator, not only have I heard about the Panama Scandal, but I have studied it in detail, at least from whatever documents are available. The government keeps the most important documents hidden, inaccessible to the public. They are likely top secret.”

“Top secret, you say, Miss Norval? As far as I know, you can read the entire history of the construction of the Panama Canal in any textbook.”

“Mr. Senator, I am sure you can only read in textbooks what the government wants its citizens to know.”

“That’s for their own good. But to return to the matter at hand: Miss Norval, you don’t see any similarity between the possible collapse of your company and the well-known Panama Scandal?”

“Not even the slightest similarity, Mr. Chairman. The financial crash of the French canal construction company was well thought-out and artificially produced by external powers. It was neither in the interest of the British nor of our own country to have the Panama Canal in French possession. Clever propaganda convinced the world that it was impossible to build such a canal. How strange then that our government successfully purchased the rights, lands, and machines to build the canal for forty million dollars. Suddenly it was no longer considered a fantasy of French speculators.”

“It appears, Miss Norval, that we had a better understanding of that kind of business, don’t you think?” asked the chairman, looking around with a smile to see approval on the reporters’ faces.

“That is correct, Mr. Senator, we do have a better understanding of this kind of business. Consider the way in which our government gained possession of the canal zone through relatively dirty political maneuvers with regards to Colombia. This whole affair is not a very honorable or praiseworthy history on our part. We should be ashamed of ourselves, since we always talk about the rights of self-determination of other countries, except when such rights seem to infringe upon our own economic and political interests.”

The committee chair forcefully banged his gavel. In a threatening tone, he warned: “Miss Norval, it is my duty to inform you that we are not here to listen to your judgments on the acquisition of the Panama Canal, but rather to examine the APTC’s financial security.”

“With all due respect, I was not the one who brought up the Panama Canal and a possible repeat of a similar financial scandal, which my company might be planning, according to the most revered committee. As you just said, Mr. Senator, it is indeed the task of this highly respectable committee to examine the health of our company’s finances. Since you brought up the Panama Scandal, I was prompted to explain to the honorable gentlemen of the Senate the great extent to which the origins of the Panama Scandal differ from the circumstances in which our company wishes to build a canal.”

“All right, Miss Norval, I am inclined to admit that the situation in your case is fundamentally different. To have somewhat of a comparison by which we can abide, let’s focus on the actual Panama Canal, as it exists and functions today, and not its historical background. Can you tell us the length of the Panama Canal, Miss Norval?”

“From open water to open water a little less than fifty-one statute or overland miles, which means a little more than forty-four international nautical miles.”

“And how long did the construction of a canal spanning little more than forty-four nautical miles take, Miss Norval?”

“Ten years, sir.”

“Ten years? So, we are talking about four and a half nautical miles per year?”

“Approximately, Mr. Chairman. I do have to note however, that the difficulties that presented for the construction of the Panama Canal do not exist for us. Panama was one of the unhealthiest regions on earth. Workers, technicians, and engineers died in droves due to malaria and other tropical diseases. Today, the technical advances, the machines and explosives, would allow us to build fifty miles of canal per year with enough workers and excellent organization. We could possibly do it in even less time.”

“However, you have to admit, Miss Norval, that the Panama Canal might still not exist today if our government had not come to the rescue.”

“No, I won’t admit that, Mr. Senator. A private business would have bought the permit and completed the canal. Our government would not have hindered a private company.”

“Miss Norval, if a private company experienced such a far-reaching financial collapse while building the Panama Canal of only forty-four nautical miles in length, then how many financial crises do you think would result from building a canal of—how many nautical miles did Mr. Beckford say yesterday, clerk?”

The clerk turned the pages of the court record. “Two thousand two hundred thirty-four nautical miles, Mr. Senator.”

“Actually, Mr. Senator, the canal we plan to build will only be a little more than about half of that number, about one thousand two hundred thirty-seven nautical miles.”

The senators looked at one another incredulously.

Aslan waved to her assistants and immediately three large maps went up. Aslan stepped to the side to allow the committee a clear view of the maps. As she continued to speak, three of the assistants corroborated Aslan’s speech with long pointer sticks.

“Here is New York and here is San Francisco, with a distance in between of two thousand two hundred forty-three nautical miles, as Mr. Beckford indicated correctly yesterday.”

“But that is the canal route we have been talking about for two days,” interrupted Senator Shearer.

“The honorable gentlemen of the Senate and Mr. Beckford have indeed been discussing this route, but I have not.”

“When we first came up with the idea of a transnational canal, it’s true we imagined a direct route connecting New York and San Francisco. To my surprise, it seems that Mr. Beckford is still stuck on that original idea. Mr. Beckford is merely the general manager of our company. He has no knowledge of our technical plans. Therefore, he could not know about the new blueprints the board had approved by engineers and geographers just a few days ago. This is the project that the company plans to execute.”

The senators let Aslan speak without interrupting her.

“I now have the great honor of standing in front of this committee, which has been charged with determining whether our company’s plan is feasible or whether we knowingly sold shares in a worthless company. I am standing here accused of having knowingly founded a company that I knew would fail. But the project is feasible. The fact that our shareholders are not selling is proof that they believe it as much as we do.”

Aslan waved at her assistant, and the long pointer traced a line straight across from New York to San Francisco.

“What you see here, gentlemen, is the route Mr. Beckford indicated. However, the canal we plan and the one our engineers will build is only about half as long and will probably cost one-tenth of what this direct canal would cost.”

“Did we hear that correctly, Miss Norval?” Senator Drake interrupted her. “Your canal would cost less than a tenth of what the direct canal would cost?”

“Maybe even just a twelfth. And that is because our canal does not start in New York, but here.”

At her behest, the pointer flew from New York to Galveston, Texas.

“Our canal begins here in Galveston and ends at the Pacific Coast, somewhere between Los Angeles and San Diego, wherever it is most advantageous.”

On the map, the pointer raced across Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, and stopped north of San Diego.

“In this area between San Diego and Los Angeles, we will have the canal end in a bay that will give ships the most protection for anchoring before they continue into the Pacific Ocean.”

“Well, Miss Norval, that certainly moves the execution of your plan into the realm of possibility,” remarked Senator Shearer, as he continued doodling naked girls with large breasts on the paper in front of him.

“While the distance from New York to San Francisco”—the pointer mapped the distance—“as we have repeatedly explained to the honorable gentlemen, is two thousand two hundred thirty-four nautical miles, the distance from Galveston to the Pacific Coast is only about one thousand two hundred thirty-seven nautical miles. And, just as an aside, gentlemen, from Galveston, near Houston, a canal in the direction of the Pacific Coast has already been in existence since 1914, the Houston Canal.”

New maps appeared before their very eyes. The maps were large and the letters and numbers printed in bold so that the newspaper reporters and the few members of the audience in the chambers could read them without having to stand up. The committee had never seen such a well-led and cleverly organized performance. Every new map or table appeared as if by magic and seamlessly corroborated Aslan’s speech.

It had been Beckford’s idea to use the displays. It was a great idea, which she would never have thought possible, since she did not deem him very intelligent at all. Whenever Aslan turned around during her speech to see the assistants with their maps, she felt gratitude for Beckford’s input. She had never spoken in public before except during her studies, when she had sometimes given a speech in front of an invited audience or recited Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address during school ceremonies. The help and support she received from the maps and tables gave her an unexpected feeling of superiority. However, the greatest sense of confidence came from the knowledge that she was fighting for a project that she deemed good, feasible, and most beneficial for the general public.

To her surprise, she managed to sufficiently enthrall the interrogating senators: in part, with her personality, her beauty, and her elegance, but to a greater extent with her carefully chosen words. The committee was spellbound by her command of statistics. The data served to prove that her plans were feasible and that her company was healthy.

“Yes, gentlemen, as I said, this canal from Galveston to Houston takes the route we have chosen for our canal and has existed since 1914. You might be interested in the fact that it has the same length as the Panama Canal. You will be even more interested to hear that this Houston Canal has a width of sixty-seven meters, while the sluices of the Panama Canal are only thirty-six meters wide. The Panama Canal is therefore thirty-one meters narrower, and wide ships cannot pass. Even the Suez Canal, which causes so many headaches for certain governments, is only thirty-seven and a half miles longer than the Houston Canal, and you will be very surprised to hear that it is only one meter narrower and thirty centimeters deeper. A canal like the one that our company intends to build and will build, gentlemen, might appear impossible with its one thousand two hundred thirty-seven miles. However, you should take into consideration that the total length of all shipping canals built in the last one hundred years is almost four hundred fifty nautical miles. This distance does not include the canal that begins at the Rhône river in France and ends in the Vistula river in Poland, which therefore runs across all of Europe. Also not included is the Chicago Drainage Canal, one of the eight technological wonders of the Americas, which allows a ship to go from Chicago to New Orleans, granted, mainly using the Mississippi River. That is a distance of about eight hundred miles, and if the ship crosses Lake Michigan, the journey can begin in Canada. This long waterway would not be possible without connecting canals built by humans. We could not export grain, just to name one indispensable product, at the price at which we do now.

“Gentlemen, when I am talking about prices of products transported via waterway, and about the influence of low shipping costs on a country’s economy, I would like to name the Netherlands and Belgium as examples. Both countries are among the most densely populated nations in the world, and yet they are wealthy to an extent that you might never expect. However—and this might be the explanation for their prosperity—the Netherlands, which are so small that almost everyone steps on someone else’s toes, possess four thousand eight hundred seventeen miles of canals, and Belgium, nine hundred ninety-eight miles. Moving goods via waterway is still the cheapest mode of transportation. Shipping costs have a huge influence on the determination of product prices. The lower the shipping costs, the cheaper we can sell products to the consumer, which clearly reduces the danger of inflation. Gentlemen, I am sure you are aware that the state of Illinois is one of the most highly developed states in terms of industry, agriculture, and commerce. What has contributed more than anything else to this unique development of the state—which might appear more important—is the waterway system built by humans. Illinois possesses one thousand—”

At this point, the map of the state of Illinois unfurled, and a table full of numbers appeared next to it. The pointer swept across the map and stopped on the numbers that Aslan rattled off from memory.

“This state has one thousand one hundred seventy-eight miles of navigable waterways. There is no doubt that this circumstance has significantly contributed to the incredibly fast development of the state.”

“Miss Norval,” the chairman interrupted. “I admit that what you have just explained is new to me. You could be right that this system of canals explains to a large extent the state’s rapid development. I understand what you are trying to prove with your reference to the waterway system of the state of Illinois. Otherwise, I would have said that the price of grain for export has nothing to do with our task of determining the financial security of your company and your shares.”

“Mr. Senator, I only brought up Illinois, its connection via canal to the Gulf of Mexico, and the state’s length of navigable waterways, because the canal we plan to build is only a few miles longer than this canal system of only one of the fifty states of the Union.”

“That is what I suspected, Miss Norval. It was too obvious to be overlooked or more accurately, not to be heard.” Looking at his watch and comparing it to the clock on the wall, he banged his gavel and declared: “This hearing is adjourned until five o’clock.”

13.

Accompanied by her secretary, Aslan called a cab and drove to her hotel. She took a short hot bath, threw herself onto the bed, closed her eyes, and banished all thoughts having to do with the hearing.

As Aslan had wished, Amy appeared by her bedside forty minutes later: “Ma’am, it’s time. Your meal is served.”

Aslan picked out a new dress. When she entered the living room, she found Amy already sitting at the table with a platter of beef and four kinds of vegetables in front of her.

“It’s a shame, ma’am, that you can’t eat such a good meal as this. It is wonderful, and I am hungry as a wolf in northern Manitoba in the deepest winter.”

“Have you ever been to Manitoba, Amy?”

“Three years ago. But it was summer. It was lovely. Many lakes. Many mosquitoes. Friendly inhabitants. And the food! Every plate you got would have fed four people.”

Aslan looked at the slab of meat on Amy’s plate as she was cutting off a nice chunk dripping with red juice. Squinting at Amy’s meal with longing, Aslan said: “Order this dish for me later tonight, Amy. However, given the hot afternoon I am about to face in the hearing, I will stick to my normal daily lunch so as to keep it light on my stomach.”

It was indeed a modest meal for a healthy young woman like Aslan who had been on her feet since six o’clock in the morning: a soft-boiled egg, a sandwich with one slice of ham and one slice of cheese, three salad leaves, a pear, a banana, an apple, and a large glass of milk.

“Have you talked to Mr. Beckford on the phone, Amy?” asked Aslan, pulling the slice of cheese out of the sandwich and placing it back on the plate for fear of overeating.

“Yes, ma’am, while you were asleep. He said he would be here on time with the materials you put on the list for this afternoon.”

“Putting materials in order and having them ready at exactly the right second is something he knows how to do. It seems that’s the only thing he’s good for at all.”

“Maybe so. But do you know, ma’am, this Mr. Beckford really is incorrigible. He asked me again—and in the middle of the hearing—whether I would marry him, and if I didn’t want to get married whether I would at least go out to dinner with him.”

“And you, Amy, said yes, of course.”

“Me? I don’t think so. He’s not my type. Too heavy for me and my feelings.”

“Too heavy for you and your feelings?” Aslan gazed into her secretary’s face inquisitively, apparently trying to figure out the meaning of Amy’s words. But Amy was so busy with her steak at that moment that she was clearly not thinking about an answer. “He is,” said Aslan, “exactly the kind of guy to become a Marine Corps sergeant, and probably not even a good one at that. He has no idea what to do with a brain.”

“But, ma’am, he does have something boyish about him. He never feels responsible, no matter what he is doing or plans to do. He just lives in the moment. He doesn’t worry about the future.”

“That’s possible. I’ve never considered him from that perspective. I just haven’t had enough time. And no interest. He can be entertaining for a quarter of an hour. But then he really gets on your nerves. However, for me and my plans, he’s the most suitable man I’ve been able to find. Without a brain, without imagination, without the ability to think for himself. A drill sergeant.”

“I think that it’s time to go, ma’am,” said Amy, washing down her last bite with a sip of water.

Aslan got up and stretched. “I feel like new. The hardest part is over. The honorable pencil pushers listened to me and allowed me to explain what I had to clarify. And that, if I may say so myself, is a great success.”

When Aslan and Amy were sitting in the cab, Amy asked innocently: “Ma’am, do you think that you have convinced the gentlemen that your company is healthy and that there is not the slightest fraud at play?”

“Amy,” said Aslan, checking her freshly made-up face in a little hand mirror, “Amy, you little innocent lamb. Have you not realized that I am acting in the loveliest and most amusing comedy with these venerable gentlemen?”

“What do you mean, ma’am?”

“It’s a propaganda comedy, my little lamb. Oh, here we are. Pay the driver.”

A few minutes later, Aslan was back in the chamber. A few senators were loitering in order to listen to some of the lobbyists in the hallway and to figure out how much they might gain from this or that promise and what personal advantages such a half affirmation might bring them.

Dozens of attentive women watching from home had nothing better to do than to sketch the outlines of Aslan’s dress. They guessed that it must have been made in Paris; since nothing like it was available in New York. In fact, this heavenly creation came from Vienna.

Senator Drake chaired the committee now. He noticed Beckford, who was fiddling with maps, boards, and tables, and remembered how his victorious moment had been spoiled when Aslan came to Beckford’s rescue the day before. He said to himself: “I abhor this bear of a man. I can’t stand him. He hasn’t done anything to me, but I would hold him in contempt of this court if I could. What an unpleasant character! I wonder where she found him. He must be the errand boy of the company, even if they are presenting him here as the general manager. She took his place just in time, and now she’s running the show. And how well she does it. Instead of fearing us, now we are the ones who have started to fear her. One wrong word, and she’s got us. Thirty—oh, who am I kidding, sixty million people are watching and laughing at us as this heiress makes a mockery of us.”

“Miss Norval,” he started, “let us forget about other canals, and the prices of grain, cotton, sugarcane, and coffee! Let us also forget the state of Illinois and let us finally talk about your canal, which the company you founded plans to build.”

“If you misunderstood me, sir, then I apologize with all due respect. However, I cannot defend our project successfully if I’m not allowed to compare our allegedly unfeasible plan with others that are similar and were indeed successfully executed.”

“Would you not agree, Miss Norval, that the Panama Canal, which the U.S. already owns, fulfills its purpose and renders your project redundant?”

“Whether the Panama Canal fulfills its purpose is a question that has not been answered to date.”

“Now, how are we supposed to understand that, Miss Norval?”

“Since you’ve now brought up the Panama Canal again, it seems very important to return to this point, both for the purposes of this investigation and for the defense of our project. The question of the Panama Canal might in fact force our government to participate actively in our project.”

“Are you not exaggerating a little, Miss Norval?”

“Not at all, sir.”

Aslan moved her hand, and a map of Panama as well as three boards full of numbers appeared behind her.

“Gentlemen, I am not including the costs for the construction of the Panama Canal itself in the sum of money I will mention here. That amount constitutes the indemnity that we paid to the Republic of Panama to ensure their continued friendship.”

“An indemnity, Miss Norval?”

“That is right, an indemnity. Or rather, we should call it a bribe. Let us enumerate: In 1904, our government paid Panama ten million dollars for the right to use the canal zone. Between 1914 and 1936, our government paid Panama two hundred fifty thousand dollars annually. In gold, I might add. That already adds up to five million seven hundred fifty thousand dollars. The Panamanian government demanded an increase of the indemnity, and therefore our government paid four hundred thirty thousand dollars annually between 1937 and 1955, although no longer in gold. In 1955, our government pledged to pay one million nine hundred thirty thousand dollars each year. And please note that Panama demanded an annual payment of five million dollars before the signing of the agreement in 1955. Currently, Panama insists on a yearly indemnity of fifty percent of net earnings.

“Gentlemen, if you add it all up, our government has paid about thirty million dollars to the Panamanian government since 1904. That sum does not include the twenty-five million dollars in gold that our government paid Colombia in 1921 as compensation for the loss of Panama, which had been a province of Colombia before our government took over. By the end of 1960, we will have paid approximately sixty-four million dollars for the right to use the canal zone. That is a truly gigantic sum for a strip of relatively infertile land, ten miles wide and fifty miles long, half of which is water.

“And now, gentlemen, if you think about the enormous sums of money that we pay Panama, which will probably increase considerably in the future, I ask you: Does our government have any guarantee that Panama will not demand the return of the canal zone one day, unexpectedly and without warning? Demand its return on the basis that the zone is an integral part of Panama—and therefore, ‘Foreigners, get out of Panama, especially Yankees.’”

“Miss Norval, I assure you that this will not happen.”

“Oh, it will not? Are you sure, Mr. Senator? Is it not a mistake to deny that the possibility exists? We do not have a permanent guarantee for our supposed rights in Panama. No guarantee and no security. What happened in Egypt a few years ago can happen in Panama any day.”

“Never, Miss Norval. Never. The circumstances are completely different and cannot be compared in any way, shape, or form with those of the Suez Canal.”

“I apologize, Mr. Chairman, I disagree. The circumstances are not as different as they might seem upon superficial examination.”

“Different or the same, Miss Norval. We will know how to defend rights that we obtained legally and through mutual agreement.”

“Of course, Mr. Chairman. Of course. We will send our Marine Corps troops to Panama, like we sent them to Nicaragua when we planned to build a canal through that country. Honorable committee, the growth of our neighbor, Latin America, is downright eerie. It is not the weak, helpless, economically dependent Latin America that existed when our government committed the irresponsible error of bombing the Mexican port of Veracruz. Nor is it the Latin America of thirteen years later, when we committed a similarly embarrassing error by occupying Nicaragua for six years, supporting a dictator and tyrant of the worst kind until the day of his assassination.

“Gentlemen, today, Latin America is a power of approximately two hundred million very enterprising people, full of nationalism of the kind that our country does not even see during wartime. If the republic of Panama were to announce an end to our friendship—a friendship forced upon them—and our government attempted to deal with the termination of our relationship by sending the Marine Corps, we would have all of Latin America against us. We would have a much larger force against us than the British and French, who stood against the entire Arab world when they attempted to take back the Suez Canal with the help of airplanes, warships, and tanks. We should not get the wrong impression about the peoples of Latin America. They do not hate us. That is true. Nevertheless, they do not like us regardless of the number of beautiful speeches or mutual visits. One of the reasons why they distrust us is that our government supports every dictator morally and economically, no matter how bloodthirsty and tyrannical he may be. We keep those tyrants in power as long as they serve certain powerful circles in our country in political and financial terms. Our government is cleverly attempting to prevent a unification of the Latin American peoples, like the Arab peoples are doing at the moment. You might think that the motto of our government is to keep those countries apart to make them more amenable to our wishes and interests. And I doubt that we could count on Canada in a serious conflict with Latin America.

“The time of solving political errors with weapons is over—absolutely over. It is doubtful that weapons have ever resolved anything of a lasting character anywhere in the world. I personally cannot remember a single case in history when a war, a military occupation, or a dictator’s decree achieved something that was not lost within a generation due to rebellions, uprisings, or clever abuse of political and economic entanglements. Gentlemen, look at India, Indonesia, Indochina, Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Cyprus, and Algeria. You may also rest assured that the vassal states of the Soviet Union will not remain where they are today. Not a single one will remain. None of the political or economic systems in existence today will continue to exist. It is a matter of root causes and their consequences based on human character. The history of humanity tries to make us understand this fact. However, we do not seem willing to pay enough attention to the lessons of history. The dignified men in power are as stubborn and obstinate as a roulette player who claims to be following his lucky star. They continue to commit the same errors over and over in their blind belief that this time, in their one particular case, the final advantage will be on their side despite ten-thousand-year-old lessons of history.” The chairman’s neighbor, Senator Clifford, lightly tapped him on the shoulder to catch his attention. Understanding, the chairman nodded at Senator Clifford, picked up his mallet, and energetically pounded the table several times.

“Miss Norval, why are you telling us all this? It really does not have anything, absolutely anything, to do with the matter at hand.”

“Mr. Chairman, with all due respect, I honestly thought that the honorable gentlemen of the committee would have guessed my intention by now. Allow me to explain it briefly: Let us look at the Republic of Panama, and not only their government, but the people of Panama, who have never had any say in any negotiations or treaties since the abundantly dark circumstances of the founding of the Republic of Panama. Let us assume that the people remember that they have an inalienable right to their homeland: a right that a government installed by one foreign power cannot sell to another foreign power. And suppose that the people of Panama insist on the return of their native land, then what, Mr. Chairman? Will we honor the right of the Panamanian to self-determination? Or will our Marines teach the Panameños the necessary respect for the so-called holy treaties with machine guns, bayonets, and if they must, with atom bombs? I am not a prophet, gentlemen, but I am convinced that our government will be in hot water about the Panama Canal much sooner than we might think, given current global developments.”

“Miss Norval,” the chairman interrupted her, “I think that it is not our job here to worry about complications and difficulties that will probably never occur.”

“As you say, Mr. Senator, they will probably never happen. However, your choice of the word ‘probably’ allows for the possibility that such a complication might occur, even in your own mind.”

The chairman looked at Aslan blankly. Apparently, he did not know how to reply. He looked at his watch, compared it to the clock on the wall, glanced at his colleagues, rapped his gavel, and announced: “The committee has decided to adjourn the hearing until Monday at eleven o’clock in the morning. At that time, the questioning will continue.”

He rapped the gavel again. All those present rose, and the senators disappeared in order to come up with questions for the next interrogation, while the cameras followed their every movement.

“Good grief, I am so happy,” said Aslan to Beckford. “I am so glad that they adjourned the meeting. I was so caught up that I did not know how to get back to our canal. I can deal better with direct questions.”

“What do you need on Monday, ma’am?” asked Beckford.

“Every statistic that might possibly come up.”

Beckford was also glad that they had adjourned the hearing. He was pretty sure that one of the assistants in uniform who kept cavorting around him would not be opposed to a dinner invitation. He figured he could bribe her and make her more willing by offering her a job in his office. Assistant secretary or something like that. After all, her salary would not come out of his own pocket.

She accepted the invitation. However, when they arrived at her hotel, she said a quick “Good night!” and disappeared inside. That was all.

14.

On Monday morning, the cameras were once more already rolling twenty minutes before the actual show began. The patient television audience had to endure advice on the following: the only toothpaste that would truly keep their teeth healthy; the only carburetor in the world that could guarantee a savings in gasoline of 43.29 percent; the only mattress in the world that guaranteed healthy and normal sleep; the only ground coffee in sealed tin cans that fully retained its aroma until the very last cup of coffee; and the face cream that “gives you the fresh face of a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl—or your money back.”

Aslan appeared a few minutes before the beginning of the hearing. Once again, she was wearing a new dress. The cameras slid along the garment as if they wanted to undress her. Although this dress was also made in Vienna, they announced it as “le dernier cri,” manufactured by a famous company on Fifth Avenue. The next morning, the company received a bill for an advertisement they had not ordered. Of course, the company could refuse to pay for the advertisement, but then the advertiser would use the first opportunity to announce that they had erred, and that the company had not made the dress after all, since they did not have the latest models yet. The retraction would cause more damage than paying the large sum requested for the unwanted advertisement.

Senator Clifford assumed the position of chair this morning. Without any introductory niceties, he immediately began shooting questions at Aslan: “Miss Norval, the committee members and I are now convinced that it is indeed a possibility—even if it is a very remote one—that a conflict about the Panama Canal Zone might arise, just as it did in the unfortunate case of the Suez Canal several years ago. In the meantime, my colleagues and I have researched the possibility of building a new canal through Nicaragua or the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Have you heard or read about that, Miss Norval?”

“I am familiar with the literature about these plans. Both projects are feasible. Even combined, both projects would barely cost a twentieth of the canal that our company is intending to build. However, both canals would go through land that we do not own. Even if one or both of those countries were to sell or lease the land to us, we would not have any guarantee at all that we would not face the same problems someday that we might unexpectedly confront with regard to Panama. The only solution is to build a canal that runs through land we own in its entire length.”

“Miss Norval, do you admit that a canal directly from New York to San Francisco is not feasible?”

“No, I do not admit that at all. Such a canal is feasible. However, it would go through rich and very expensive areas. You would have to circumvent large cities and important industrial centers, which would make the canal unnecessarily long. The cost of such a canal would be excessively high. However, it is a feasible project. I am convinced of that. I do admit, however, that a trip through that canal would not save a lot of time due to the many sluices.”

“Can the canal that your company intends to build become reality more easily, Miss Norval?”

“It can indeed become reality, and taking all circumstances into consideration, it will only cost about a tenth of the total for a direct canal. Probably a lot less. This canal from Galveston via Houston to the Pacific Coast goes through land that is mostly flat and infertile and partly desert. One would only have to cross a few insignificant rivers, and none of the mountain ranges present difficulties of the kind that we could not overcome relatively easily today.”

“How many nautical miles would a ship save traveling from New York, let us say, to Los Angeles if we assumed that your planned canal was open for traffic?”

Maps and tables appeared behind Aslan.

“From New York to Los Angeles, the distance is four thousand nine hundred thirty-one nautical miles. From New York to Los Angeles via the canal we have planned, it would be approximately three thousand one hundred twenty-five nautical miles. So the canal will shorten the ship’s trip from New York to the Pacific Coast by one thousand eight hundred six nautical miles. That is about half the distance of the sea route from New York to Hamburg, Germany. We can cut this distance by another one hundred fifty nautical miles.”

“How is that, Miss Norval?” interrupted Senator Clifford.

“In order to save another one hundred fifty nautical miles, it would only become necessary to cut through the peninsula of Florida at its narrowest point and to build a canal that would be merely double the length of the Kiel Canal in northern Germany. This canal would also cut the distance of travel from New York to New Orleans by one hundred fifty nautical miles. Let us add these hundred and fifty nautical miles that the Florida Canal saves us to the total savings in nautical miles from New York to the Pacific Coast, and we get approximately one thousand nine hundred fifty-six nautical miles, so about two thousand nautical miles. Without a doubt, you can see how much this would save in terms of time, fuel, delivery times, and wages under normal circumstances. However, every intelligent person can imagine what this enormous shortening of the sea route would mean in times of trouble, catastrophes, and war.”

“You mention wartime, Miss Norval. And what happens if enemies bomb your canal in a war?”

“I will ask you right back, Mr. Senator. What happens if they bomb the Panama Canal? Or what do we do if they sink a few big cargo ships to block the canal? I have an answer to those questions. We can repair a canal that goes through our own country in a time span of twenty-four hours because we can transport ten thousand workers with the best machines to the damaged areas within six hours. However, a similar repair of the Panama Canal would take two weeks, if not much longer.”

Aslan looked from one senator to the other, as if she wanted to read a ruling or decision on their faces. After a few moments of silence, she smiled warmly at them, and the gentlemen could not refrain from smiling back. They felt that Aslan’s smile did not intend to bribe them, nor to influence their judgment; this apparently well-meaning smile hid quite a bit of irony. It gave the impression that Aslan had won and the senators had lost. They could not come up with any argument that would dismiss Aslan’s project as quixotic.

Aslan was exceedingly well prepared, better indeed than the committee, which did not know most of the facts she presented. She had managed to divert the hearing from its original focus—an investigation—to an area that the committee only followed with difficulty.

The numbers, which Aslan juggled so easily as if it were a game, confused the gentlemen. They were used to the slow-thinking processes of career politicians, who never gave a concrete answer and did not have anything better to say than: In some ways, yes—but then in other ways, no.

Numbers can sometimes wield truly crushing power, since they do not seem to have a shape you can attack. In and of themselves, they mean nothing. However, a demagogue or a car salesman can more easily hide his intentions by rattling off numbers than by giving beautiful speeches. Sometimes—not always, but definitely occasionally—you can even conquer a woman just as easily with numbers as with pearls.

The gentlemen of the committee were convinced that Aslan’s numbers were authentic. And you cannot drown out authentic numbers with words. The silence in the chambers began to weigh heavily on those present. With the sure instinct of a woman, Aslan understood the moment correctly: “Gentlemen, I have said what I felt it my duty to say in order to prove that the canal we are discussing here is not only feasible, but that we must build it. I assure you, most honorable gentlemen of the Senate, our company will raise the funds necessary to complete the project.”

The senators put their heads together and began conferring with one another fervently. The cameramen were happy because it finally gave them the long-awaited opportunity to present an interesting new scene to their audience.

Aslan signaled Beckford and her assistants to prepare for a turn in the hearing.

The chairman, Senator Clifford, rapped the gavel. “Miss Norval, you have convinced the committee members and myself that it could be possible to realize your project under certain circumstances and with help from the government. However, that is not the committee’s last word. We will communicate our final decision in a few weeks’ time. However, I have a few important questions for you.”

At this point he blew his nose awkwardly and noisily. Then he continued: “Your company is an entirely capitalist, private enterprise. Its shareholders hope for more or less high profits, or let us call them dividends. Is that correct, Miss Norval?”

“Entirely correct, Mr. Senator.”

“To build such a canal through land that is partially private but also partially owned by Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, you need permission from state governments. Have you begun the process of obtaining said permits?”

“Not yet, Mr. Senator.”

“And why not, Miss Norval?”

“Up until now, we have only worked on obtaining an approximate budget for the cost of construction.”

“I understand virtually nothing of canals and their construction costs. However, common sense tells me that this canal will not cost less than fifty billion dollars.”

“Fifty billion dollars, Mr. Senator? The canal would practically be free of charge if its construction cost amounted to a mere five hundred billion dollars.”

“I am afraid I misunderstood, Miss Norval. Did you really say that the canal would be practically free if it cost five hundred billion dollars?”

“That’s exactly right, Mr. Senator. Five hundred billion.”

“Do you have any idea, Miss Norval, how much money that is?”

“I do have an idea, actually a very exact idea how much money that is. It is five hundred thousand million dollars.”

“Does that kind of sum not make you dizzy, Miss Norval?”

“Not at all, Mr. Senator. I have dealt with much higher numbers for months now. And what is a sum of five hundred thousand million dollars if our country’s budget for one year alone, in 1960, was more than seventy-seven thousand million dollars. Taxes not only covered that huge sum but even exceeded it!”

“Well, you have to admit, Miss Norval, that you cannot compare the budget of a large country such as ours to that of a private enterprise you are preparing.”

“I do not see any difference, Mr. Senator. My project is of equal importance to our country as its defense, which devours approximately one-third of the budget.”

“But how do you think you can get a sum of such astronomical proportions? There is not that much money to be had in the country.”

Aslan discreetly played with her right earring and behind her, tables appeared. The television cameras jumped on this opportunity to show their audience something new.

“Mr. Chairman, we have more money than we need for ourselves and our well-being. After World War I, not only did we forgive the war debts of England, France, Italy, and even Germany, which we conquered, but we also forced millions of dollars on those nations to get their devastated economies back on track, which created stiff economic competition for us. We supported czarist generals, white guards, and dissolute insurgents with millions of dollars, since they promised to get rid of Bolshevism overnight.

“Gentlemen of the Senate, we did the same thing after World War II. We gave away our taxpayers’ money to all parties, whether they had asked for it or not; because we did not know what to do with all our money. Without the money that we gave them, England, France, Italy, Greece, Germany, Turkey, Portugal, and Spain would probably not exist as independent countries today. Of course, no honest person in the world would have a right to accuse us of wrongdoing for that.

“Approved by Congress in its session of July 13, 1946, we forgave England a debt of twenty-five thousand million dollars, and on the same day, we gave England a new loan of four thousand four hundred million dollars, without the slightest hope of repayment on their part given that England cannot even pay the interest on current debts and is constantly forced to request extensions. As if that were not enough, on January 1, 1951, we forgave England another two thousand six hundred ninety-four million and three hundred thirty-nine thousand dollars in order to save the crumbling British Empire from collapse, although there is nothing to save anymore.

“And you are asking me, Mr. Senator, where we should obtain the money for the construction of our canal? Honorable committee, our country lost all of that money I have been talking about, all those enormous sums of money. We will not get a single one of those dollars repaid. And the saddest thing about all this is that aimlessly giving away American taxpayers’ hard-earned money has not made us a single friend. Instead, it has garnered distrust and, in most cases, bitter hatred. We have no assurance that we could count on the support of these countries in case of a serious conflict. We cannot even be sure of English help in case such help was contrary to their own interests.”

It was only possible to talk to the public in a hearing in front of a Senate committee, as Aslan was doing. Protected by the Constitution, it was her right to defend herself against an accusation of supposed fraud.

The senators were getting antsy. Senator Shearer cleared his throat loudly and pointedly looked at the chairman. Senator Clifford banged the gavel.

“Miss Norval, I am forced to ask you to avoid any reference to our political circumstances, especially when it comes to international relations.”

“I apologize, Mr. Chairman, if I went too far. However, you are the one who claimed that the amount of money we need could not be found in the entire country. Therefore, you forced me to prove with hard numbers that there must be enough available money in our country that we can count on for our project if we can give away uncounted thousands of millions of dollars without suffering economic collapse.”

“Miss Norval, it is not my intention in the least to deny you your right to defend yourself. However, I will reiterate that our relations with our allies do not have any bearing on the feasibility or lack thereof of building your canal. Therefore, I am asking you to remain focused on your canal and the costs associated with its construction because we have the eyes and ears of millions of people on us.”

“Most honored gentlemen of the Senate, I do not see any other way. I must briefly come back to the tremendous sums that we have given away in all directions—money that we continue to give away almost every week. I must do so to show you the difference between, as I must say, senselessly giving away thousands of millions of dollars and investing thousands of millions of dollars in a company in a healthy and insightful manner.”

“Well, Miss Norval, I do understand what you mean. However, I repeat my request. Please stick to your hard numbers and avoid any digressions into the political realm.”

“Mr. Chairman, I will do my best to follow your advice because it is in no way my intention to cause our government any problems. I will return, then, to the thousands of millions of dollars that we have given away. We will never see any of that money returned, which means that it is lost to our country and economy. On the other hand, the thousands of millions of dollars that we will spend on building the canal will remain in the country. Every single cent will remain in our country and will bear interest. The money we invest in the construction of the canal will give tens of thousands of Americans willing to work well-compensated employment for ten, fifteen, and maybe even for twenty years. The completed project will not only greatly serve the American people, but all nations whose ships sail the oceans or countries who will be able to import needed products at lower prices due to lower shipping costs.

“We will accept money from anyone. And we will sell our shares to anyone who wishes to purchase them. Although we have not yet attempted to reach out to shipping companies, I am convinced that they will make an effort to become shareholders in our company as far as our laws permit, whether they are American or not.”

“Miss Norval,” the chairman interrupted Aslan, “I have declared repeatedly that I know almost nothing about canals and the construction of canals because my private career is in banking and I can only judge the financial aspects of your project. Regarding the financial aspect, I noticed that you always only talk about the canal. You neglect to mention the numerous side projects, many of which will be extremely costly. Just to name a few examples: what about the many bridges that must cross a canal of such length, to maintain regular traffic of trains, trucks, cars, and pedestrians? I know the car route from Houston to Los Angeles, and in my humble opinion, at least four if not six hundred bridges might be necessary. Since those bridges must be very high to allow the passage of large ships with great heights, they will surely be very expensive. So-called bascule bridges, which open and close to allow large ships to pass, will likely not cost much less. In my opinion, you have to add the cost of building bridges to the budget for building the canal. Those costs are part of the entire canal budget. Do you not agree, Miss Norval?”

“You are absolutely right, Mr. Senator. However, I do not intend to build bridges across the canal.”

“The government will not issue you a permit to build your canal if you cut off connecting traffic routes.”

“I will not cut off a single connecting route between the north and south side of the canal. I do not have the details yet, but several of my engineers think that tunneling is less expensive than any kind of bridge because it occurs during excavation for the canal, that is, before the canal is filled with water.”

“Miss Norval, congratulations on this idea. Such a simple solution would have never occurred to me, unless maybe while driving through the Hudson tunnel or during my vacation trip from Detroit to Windsor for several weeks of fishing in Canada.”

As soon as he had said this, the chairman began to daydream, most likely about his summer vacations in Canada. Then he began looking through his papers, not intending to search for something but rather vaguely hoping he would come up with a new question, maybe the one last question to complete his report. Then he could submit the report to the Senate and the House, since both houses would have to approve construction of the canal at the end of the day. Their approval was necessary, since the canal traversed four different states and therefore would become a federal project.

Senator Clifford gave a slight nod to the cameramen. At once, half of the cameras were pointing to his face while the other half focused on Aslan and her assistants.

“Miss Norval, let us assume that for whatever reason, the government is forced to deny you the permit for the canal’s construction. What happens to your company then? Would you dissolve it, or would you concentrate the company’s capital and efforts on a different project, and if so, what project would that be? I would like to add that you are not required to answer this question.”

“I do not see any reason, Mr. Chairman, not to answer your question. In one of our last board meetings, this question came up, and I will give you the same answer I gave the board. If the government denies us the construction permit for the canal, we will build a train track from Galveston, Texas, to the Pacific Ocean with a terminal station somewhere between Los Angeles and San Diego.”

“If I am not mistaken, Miss Norval, there are already several train routes that connect the east coast of Texas with the west coast of Southern California.”

“Yes, but those are not rail connections of the kind we would create. We will build two rail lines, one from East to West and a second one from West to East. Instead of building two rail lines with two tracks each, we will build two lines with sixteen tracks each, and if that is not enough, with twenty-four tracks. Instead of regular freight cars or open wagons, we will use train cars with mounted steel frameworks that can be widened or narrowed depending on what is needed. In Galveston or Houston, depending on where it is more convenient, ships will sail into a sluice. The sluice will lift the ship to the level of our railway tracks, where it will sail into the next lock chamber. The steel framework will welcome the ship in this chamber. Steel cables powered by electrical winches will carefully maneuver the ship—which is still afloat at this point—above the steel structure. Then, while the water drains from the lock chamber, the steel arms of the structure tighten their grip around the hull of the ship. As soon as the ship is satisfactorily secured, the door of the lock chamber opens, and gigantic diesel- or nuclear-powered engines begin to work. The ship travels to the Pacific Coast held by the steel structure mounted on the train cars on sixteen rail tracks.

“While this ship would sail at thirty-five knots in good condition, it is now the job of the rail track quality and the engines’ power to increase the transportation speed to sixty knots or even more. Which mountain ranges the train can cross will depend entirely on the power of the engine. We would not rely on sluices or deep cuts through mountains as we would with a canal. After arriving at the West Coast, the ship is taken into a lock chamber. Once the water in the chamber has reached a level sufficient to float the ship, the steel arms around its hull loosen and free the vessel. A cable maneuvers it into the next lock chamber, where it will slowly be lowered to the level of the ocean. As soon as it has reached that level, the chamber opens. Pulled by tugboats, the boat sails into the open ocean.”

The senators listened as if Aslan were telling the story of a miracle. When she finally fell silent, Senator Clifford said: “Miss Norval, that is the most fantastical of all the quixotic ideas I have heard from you in this room. However, when I think about it calmly, it does not seem as infeasible as at first glance. Actually, Miss Norval, I think that transporting a ship by train from one ocean to the other would be easier to realize and cost significantly less than the construction of the canal, which we have looked at so carefully here.” He then turned to his colleagues: “What do you think about this new idea, gentlemen?”

The senators looked at one another as if to guess what the others were thinking. Since they knew that the cameras were trained on their faces, they shrugged indifferently and kept their expressions blank so as not to indict themselves. Two senators had an especially easy time with this since they never said anything, and in the Senate, only ever said yes.

“It seems important”—Aslan interrupted the indecision of the senators—“to bring up a few points here. The size of the ship—its length, width, height, and tonnage—do not matter at all. The possible weight of its load at maximum speed depends entirely on the resistance of the railbed. We can determine the required strength, durability, and resistance of the railbed by calculating the pressure exerted per square meter. It also depends on the engine’s horsepower, which is limitless given today’s technological advances.

“Based on our still-superficial estimates, excavating the railbed will take less than a fifth of the time needed for the construction of a canal. In serious national emergencies, transporting ships by rail rather than by canal is more than ten times faster. In addition, we could fix any damage to the railbed quicker and more easily than we could the canal.”

“Miss Norval, as far as I can tell, both the canal project as well as the railway project only exist in your head.”

“That is absolutely correct, sir. Every project, no matter what it is, first exists in someone’s head before it can be realized.”

“I will concede that point, Miss Norval. Do you think you can find engineers who can make either of your projects a reality?”

“Mr. Senator, the dictionary of an American engineer or architect does not contain the word ‘impossible.’ If Russian engineers and architects are planning to build a tower of two hundred ten kilometers in height, no matter for what purpose, American engineers can build one three hundred kilometers higher, in much less time and without the help of slaves. All that appears to be necessary is to give an American engineer or architect the opportunity to realize a project that has at that moment only existed in someone’s head.”

“Yes, the opportunity and the necessary funding. Especially the necessary funding. Don’t you agree, Miss Norval?”

“Of course, the necessary funding is an essential aspect, Mr. Senator.”

“Everything you say, Miss Norval, and everything you concede sounds so simple. It sounds as simple as if God were to say: ‘Let there be a canal!’ or ‘Let there be a ship-transporting railway system of outrageous dimensions!’ But you have to admit, Miss Norval, all this is easier said than done.”

“I am sure you are right, Mr. Senator.”

“And if I have repeatedly expressed doubts about the feasibility of your canal project, I have to say that your railway project appears just as infeasible in my opinion as well as that of my colleagues. It appears that the cost of the railway project would merely be less than that of the canal project. Neither of your projects can be realized without government funding. As you know, I am sure, tax rates in our country have increased—in many cases up to ninety percent of your income—such that they can hardly be raised any more without causing disarray to our national economy.

“The government could not guarantee the billions you have not yet accurately calculated that you need to complete one of your projects. And with that fact, we are back to square one of our negotiations: If you do not manage to raise the funds for the execution of at least one of your projects, all the money that shareholders invested will be lost. Since we are not talking about a project in the millions but probably an enterprise that will devour more capital than one hundred times our annual national budget, the consequence would likely cause a panic on the stock market with unforeseeable consequences.”

The senator stopped for a moment and looked at Aslan with cold eyes. He asked icily: “Miss Norval, do you want to add anything at this time?”

“I’m afraid I have nothing else to say, Mr. Chairman.”

The chairman rose, used his gavel, and announced: “The investigation regarding the financial capability and security of the Atlantic-Pacific Transit Corporation, Inc., is hereby complete. The final report will be delivered in six weeks.”

He gaveled the meeting closed and left the chamber, followed by his colleagues. A dozen reporters rushed toward Aslan, intending to bombard her with questions. They were careful to stand in a half circle around Aslan so as to remain in view of the cameras.

“Gentlemen of the press, I am sorry that I have nothing important to share with you at this time. I will be forced to change my strategy completely. However, as soon as I have consulted with my board and lawyers, and as soon as we have reached a decision, you will hear from me. Gentlemen, I thank you for your attention.”

She nodded at the reporters with a sweet smile and left the chambers with the poise and posture of a winner. The reporters, of course, had the impression that she had lost and that there was little hope of rescuing her company. The chairman had made that quite clear.

The cameras watched her walk away. When she had left, the cameras swiveled toward the uniformed assistants, who were currently packing up maps, displays, and tables, unwittingly showing more of their beautiful legs and their plump bottoms. The viewers in front of their televisions, the men, at least, could have hugged the cameramen in gratitude. You rarely saw such lovely, shapely girls, let alone within your own four walls.

Accompanied by Amy, Aslan raced to the airport. She was in New York in her own home that same evening.

“First of all, and most importantly, Lita”—she rushed toward her maid—“a hot bath. As hot as I can possibly stand it. God, I am so tired!”

“Ya lo creo, señora,” said Lita, “I believe you.”

“And as soon as you have the water running, help me undress! I am going to collapse. I’ve never known what it means to be tired.”

She was sitting on the bed when Lita came back from the bathroom, knelt in front of her, took off her shoes, and massaged her feet.

“It is exhausting to remain so tense for so many hours and to know that thirty, maybe sixty million people are listening to you, observing and criticizing each one of your facial expressions.”

“I sat in front of the television the entire time, señora. You were wonderful. Simplemente maravillosa. Really and truly magnificent. Better, much better, and more natural than any actress. However, in the end it looked bad for you, señora. I don’t think the senadores are sympathetic to you.”

“As if I didn’t know that!”

“I say, there is more to this, señora. The caballeros want to give this huge deal to their families and friends. And then they want to ask for their own cut.”

“Well, look at that! I would have never in my dreams thought of such an interpretation.”

Lita draped a bathrobe over Aslan’s naked body and disappeared into the bathroom. After a few seconds she called: “Señora, your bath is ready.”

Aslan sank deeply into the hot water and sighed with pleasure.

“Lita, add more hot water! It feels so good. I felt the same way when I took a hot bath in my hotel in Washington during a break in the hearing.”

“Que más, señora?”

“Bring me heated bath towels in fifteen minutes. I want to wrap myself in them. And then bring me a salad sandwich, two very runny boiled eggs, grapes, an apple, and a glass of Burgundy. And just so you know: I don’t wish to be disturbed until four o’clock in the afternoon tomorrow. Even if the secretary of the interior and the secretary of state were to be on the phone simultaneously. I am not home. You don’t know where I am. You have no idea. I have disappeared. Just disappeared. Without a single trace. I have to sleep for eighteen hours to remember my name.”

“Señora, I am ready to shoot anyone who tries to disturb you.”

Not eighteen but rather twenty hours later, Aslan called her maid.

“Good Lord in heaven, señora, you really did sleep well!” said Lita as she entered.

“I did sleep well indeed!” Aslan stretched and yawned loudly. “And I am hungry—I could eat three entire dinners.”

“Massage, señora?”

“Yes. A light massage. To get my limbs back in balance.”

“Would you like the newspapers, señora?”

“No newspapers. I don’t want to read my name and I don’t want to be horrified by photographs of myself. Not yet. First, I have to relax. At the beach.”

15.

The next morning, it was a Wednesday, Aslan was in Beckford’s office. She absentmindedly played with the materials strewn all over the tables, where Beckford and the uniformed assistants had thrown them when they returned from Washington by train.

“As I said, Mr. Beckford, I need a few days of a break. At the beach.”

“Safe travels, ma’am,” said Beckford indifferently, while he slowly began to organize the materials, putting them back in their places without much interest. He did so rather sleepily.

“I will drive down in my car. Today. In the early afternoon.”

“Safe travels, ma’am,” Beckford repeated dryly. “Should I send flowers? Red roses or white? As you please.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! It would be better if you tried to have some good ideas, while I recover for a few days. God knows we will need new ideas once the committee announces its decision. And as far as I can tell, their decision will not be positive for the company.”

Beckford grinned. “That’s nothing new. Even the assistants told me that on the train.”

“They seem to be smart.”

“You don’t need much intelligence to say as early as today that the APTC is done for. If I had a dog, even he could guess that.”

“I need quiet. The sleep-inducing waves of the ocean. No music. No radio. No television. The quietest hotel is the best. The Atlantic.”

Aslan got up to leave.

“Do you know what you can do in the meantime, Mr. Beckford?”

“Of course not, ma’am, not if you don’t tell me.”

“Get me all the newspapers that report anything of importance about our project and the hearing in front of the committee.”

“Already done, ma’am. I have subscriptions with six newspaper clipping services, starting with the issues that came out on the first day of the hearing. And I did so three days before the first hearing, so I wouldn’t miss any issues.”

Aslan exclaimed with an expression of greatest surprise: “You really already did that? And thought about it in advance? But that’s unbelievable.”

“Why unbelievable? Unbelievable because I had an idea before you whispered it to me, ma’am? You underestimate me.”

“That you finally had a thought of your own, I would have never thought it possible. Really never.”

“I am embarrassed, ma’am. I will try to improve myself in all areas.”

“I don’t intend to embarrass you. All I am saying is this: You are astonishing me. And maybe now is also the right moment to mention that you did much better in front of the committee than I had expected. You delivered the code word exactly on time. Even if we had practiced, my performance could not have been more powerful. And just so you know, I was sweating blood I was so anxious when the chairman tried to trick you. Two good grades on your transcript.”

“I guess I am useful sometimes, after all.”

“Sometimes. Maybe.”

“Thank you, ma’am. I will remember that in the future.”

“Not too soon. And don’t misunderstand me.”

“As a soldier you learn very fast not to misunderstand, ma’am.”

“Well, I’m glad you learned that.”

Aslan went to the door. She hesitated, then she turned toward him.

“You know, you could visit me over the weekend and bring me a dozen of the most important newspaper articles. You could give me a general overview of the situation, especially how people’s opinions have developed over the last few days.”

With a short “See you later, Mr. Beckford,” she left the office.

On the following Saturday afternoon, Aslan and Beckford sat at a small table on the hotel terrace sipping cocktails each absorbed in their own thoughts. The full sun was playing with the waves of the ocean.

Beckford tried to catch Aslan’s eyes several times with no luck. Aslan looked over at him only when she realized that he was checking out a young lady strolling along the beach in her bathing suit. Aslan felt adrenaline coursing through her body and realized in horror that what she was feeling was jealousy. She tried to shake the horrible feeling, but as she watched him undressing the young woman with his eyes, she thought: Maybe I could give him a try. Just to see what it’s like.

She looked over at Beckford again, which she could do easily without his noticing now that he was examining a second curvaceous, bikini-clad girl.

Young, strong, no deformations, Aslan said to herself. “Strange that I’ve never felt an urge with him before. Holved really shouldn’t have left me alone for this long. Beckford is really dumb—but apart from that, he is a beautiful creature.” At that moment, as if attracted by her eyes, Beckford turned to look at her.

Startled, she worried he could guess what she was thinking. She blushed a little, she could feel it, and thinking about it only deepened her blush. So inexperienced in such things, Beckford mistook the blush as a result of the ocean breeze that had picked up at that moment. Aslan smoothed her hair a little, as if the unexpected breeze had indeed ruffled it.

Without looking at Beckford she said: “How wonderful this air is for my skin!” She dropped her head back. Then, lifting her head up again and looking out at the ocean, she said quietly: “The waves come and go. They come and go forever and ever, as long as the world exists.”

She downed her cocktail suddenly and looked directly at him: “Mr. Beckford, can you explain to me why the waves of the ocean come and go without ceasing?”

“I’ve never thought about it, ma’am. And to be honest, it doesn’t interest me one bit.” He also downed his cocktail and waved to a waiter to bring two new ones. What a bore! thought Aslan. No imagination. Not an iota of poetry. Not a shimmer of romanticism.

Beckford sipped the cocktail that the waiter had just placed in front of him.

“Tacky place. Every cocktail has a touch less alcohol and a single, half-rotten lemon slice cut as thin as newspaper.”

She took a sip, swilled it around in her mouth, and then said: “I don’t think the cocktails are at all as weak as you say.”

“Possibly. Maybe I’m just used to straight whiskey, not diluted with lemon juice and mineral water—and who the devil knows whatever else these goddamned bartenders mix into our cocktails.”

“Why don’t you order whatever you want? I don’t mind. As long as you can go back to your room on your own two feet, I’m okay with it.”

She was happy that she had finally managed to steer her thoughts into neutral territory.

“Mr. Beckford,” she said suddenly, “you have been here for an entire hour and you have not said one word about what the newspapers are reporting. After all, the reason I invited you here was to hear your report about everything that has happened in New York in the last few days.

“The only reason, ma’am?” Beckford attempted an intimate grin.

“Yes, the only reason. Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I came here to relax, ma’am, just like you. To enjoy the beautiful ocean, to drink the dishwater cocktails, and to feast my eyes on these beach babes. How could a poor wretch like me think about newspapers right now?”

He looked at her furtively and thought: I have one and a half days, maybe even two full nights. Anything could happen. Maybe she had other reasons for inviting me here.

Guessing what was on his mind, Aslan said icily: “Mr. Beckford, give me the news! I haven’t looked at a single newspaper in the four weeks I was preparing for the hearing.”

Beckford pulled a bunch of newspaper articles from his bag.

“Don’t read anything out loud to me, not now. Just give me a short overview of the most important things reported since I left Washington.”

“Ma’am you have unleashed storms like the country has not seen since Pearl Harbor.”

“Storms?” she asked, surprised.

“Massive storms.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re in the national and international limelight. You’ve started a frenzy that probably won’t calm down again until one of your projects has been completed, no matter how many hundreds of billions of dollars it devours before it yields any profit. I only brought three hundred clippings, and I have to admit that I haven’t read the majority of them yet. But when I left my office this morning, five piles of clippings had accumulated and three girls”—he couldn’t stop himself from adding with a boyish grin—“three very pretty, buxom girls, by the way…”

“Mr. Beckford, we are talking about the news and not your exploits.”

“Exactly. I’m talking about the five piles of clippings and about the fact that I had to ask three lovely girls to sort these piles. And they couldn’t keep up with them. It was a hell of a job, I’m telling you, ma’am.”

“And what was the main takeaway of all these reports?”

“You’ll be surprised, ma’am. People seem to have forgotten everything that was of the greatest importance just a week ago. Because of you, ma’am, nobody cares anymore what’s happening in Moscow, China, Indonesia, or in the Middle East. Nobody asks how many minutes it would take a remote-controlled rocket with a hydrogen warhead sent from Leningrad to explode on Broadway in New York. The newspapers and letters sent in by readers almost exclusively deal with the question of which of your two projects would be more advantageous for traffic, and which of the two projects, the canal or the sixteen-track railway, could be realized faster.”

The only thing Aslan could manage to say was, “Really? Is that really true, Mr. Beckford?”

“Of course; however, something happened that could postpone your project for years.”

“And that would be?”

“As happens so often—indeed, almost always in our country—several groups have formed. There are four groups so far. Each of these groups is zealously trying to gain supporters. First, you have group number one. They say that the Panama Canal is good enough for us, and that both of your projects are impracticable pipe dreams. Finally, they say that there is no way to raise the necessary funds for either project, since taxes for our citizens are high enough already. Then, you have group number two. Their opinion is that if it were possible and we were to build such a ship-transportation railway, it should connect New York with San Francisco directly, straight across the northern part of the country, which would avoid the detour through Florida and Texas.

“Group three has decided in favor of the railway between Galveston and Los Angeles. They argue that its construction would cost less money and time than a canal, and that you could transport ships more rapidly on trains than through the canal. This group rejects a canal saying it is behind the times.

“And then, there is group four. This group claims that it is humanly impossible to build such a railway. And even if you were to build it, there would be no guarantee that it could actually transport large ships of eighty thousand tons or more. This group has definitely decided in favor of the canal.”

“I never thought about the possibility that groups with strong political influence could form. At least, I never considered it in connection with the construction of a canal,” Aslan said, looking out over the ocean.

She added: “I predict that the existence of these groups could indeed postpone the beginning of either project. It makes me think that we should immediately contact twenty engineers, who should compare both projects, the canal and the railway, in terms of feasibility, time of construction, and cost. The company will then consider their decision. Mr. Beckford, I personally don’t have the necessary technical experience or knowledge to determine authoritatively what is better: the canal project or the railway project. A simple comparison of both projects, based entirely on logical thinking, would give the railway project the advantage in my opinion.”

She finished her cocktail and looked at her watch.

“Would you like to dine with me, Mr. Beckford?” she asked in a different tone of voice. “I would still like to hear from you what the papers are predicting in terms of the committee’s decision. Some reporters have a good nose for such things.”

She stood up and so did Beckford.

“At seven thirty in the dining room,” she said as she turned away to leave the terrace. “I have reserved a table as far away from the music as possible since it gets on my nerves. Seven thirty, Mr. Beckford.”

“I will do my best to be on time, ma’am,” Beckford answered. He was glad to be free of Aslan for a few hours. Talking to her, even sitting at the same table with her, having to focus all his attention on her, was mentally exhausting for him.

He wandered along the beach and studied the figures of the young women lying around. For Beckford, these kinds of studies were less arduous than having to converse with Aslan.

Dinner was luxurious but boring. In Aslan’s opinion, none of the courses that appeared on the table were interesting at all. She didn’t say so, but the way she sniffed and picked at the food made her opinion abundantly clear, even to the disappointed waiters. The music was slow and just as boring as the meal.

Beckford, on the other hand, devoured everything that was served. Doing so helped him keep his conversation to a minimum, because in fact, he did not know what to talk about with Aslan, unless it was about the newspapers again, which he would rather not do at that moment.

Finally, Aslan could not stand it anymore. She demanded to see the head chef. The chef came. “Yes, ma’am? What can I do for you?”

“Couldn’t you make me just a regular old hearty bean soup à la navy?”

“Bean soup, ma’am?” The chef’s face lit up as if a sunbeam was shining on it directly. “But that is exactly what I cooked for us, for the staff today.” He pursed his lips, smacked them, and snapped his fingers, his hand held high in the air. “You shall have your little soup, ma’am, and you’ll dream about it till Christmas.”

He stormed out of the dining room so quickly that the guests feared he might knock over some tables. The bean soup came with bacon bits and sausage slices seasoned with dried carrots, flower petals, seeds, greens, and chopped stalks. It was the kind of soup Dutch and Danish housewives had been preparing for a thousand years to please their hungry and half-frozen men after they returned from long fishing trips.

It’s a miracle what truly good food can do once you boil it down to the essentials. Suddenly, Aslan loved the music. She thought the guests in the dining room were delightful people, and the waiters were transformed into the politest, most obliging servers once could imagine. The canal and the railroads, the newspapers and the media lost all importance.

The head chef appeared at Aslan’s table.

“And how is the soup?”

“Divine, chef, simply divine. It’s heavenly that you can still find soup like this.”

With her left hand, Aslan tugged on the chef’s earlobe until his face was close to hers. “For this soup, you deserve a kiss, chef,” she said, and kissed him on the cheek.

The chef glanced at the other guests in embarrassment, as if he wanted to apologize for what had just transpired. The guests, however, burst out in applause and the musicians played a short fanfare in honor of Aslan and the chef.

Now even more confused and even more embarrassed, the chef raced back to his realm of the kitchen. This time, however, he bumped into one of the occupied tables and upended all the glasses to the even greater amusement of the guests. The guests at one of the tables toasted him although he had already disappeared.

Now everyone’s attention focused on Aslan. She was worried that some of the guests might recognize her, since she had been introduced to millions on television and in the newspapers. But no one identified her. Two or three minutes later, they had all forgotten the incident and were busy with their own affairs.

Aslan’s mood improved further. She ordered wine. Beckford, on the other hand, remained true to his usual whiskey. He was looking at the menu again. Aslan demanded a second order of the divine bean soup. The soup had barely been placed in front of Aslan when she saw the chef’s round face in the doorway through which the waiters entered and exited the dining room. He gave her a warm nod. Aslan pressed her hands together and, lifting them, waved at the chef. The chef pressed his hands together in the same way, lifted them, waved back at her with a wide satisfied grin on his face, and disappeared again.

“The chef will mark this day in red on his calendar. I bet something like this has never happened to him before,” said Beckford.

“You could lose that bet.”

“Maybe. In any case, I wouldn’t kiss anyone for bean soup. I had to eat so much bean soup in the Marine Corps that even just hearing the word makes me full.”

The musicians played a piece that no one could have identified for sure. Nevertheless, several guests rose to dance.

“Would you like to dance, ma’am?” asked Beckford.

“Not with great enthusiasm. But, well, okay. I accept. Because I need the exercise.”

After two dances, Aslan leaned a little more heavily on his arm without thinking anything of it. He understood this as a kind of invitation. He tried to pull her closer into a more intimate embrace. She pulled back decidedly and after another half a lap she disengaged and said, “Thank you, let’s go back to our table. My soup is getting cold!”

Half an hour later, Aslan gave the waiter a nod to bring the bill. She placed a hundred-dollar bill on the table in such a way that the waiter would think the money was Beckford’s.

“I can pay the bill myself,” said Beckford, reaching for his billfold.

“I know that, but I invited you and you are my guest.”

He put his billfold back and when the waiter brought the change he left an elegant tip on the little plate and pushed the rest into his own pocket as the waiter looked on. Aslan did not care. It was all her own money anyway.

16.

Aslan took the elevator up to her room and by phone ordered a second half bottle of the wine they had served at dinner. She intended to treat herself to a nice and quiet evening in her room.

“One glass, ma’am, or two?” asked the room service waiter on the phone.

“One glass.”

Having accompanied Aslan to the elevator, Beckford went to the bar so that the whiskeys he had previously consumed would not get lonely in his stomach. He also hoped to pick up a lonely hotel guest, whose husband was perhaps too busy paying attention to some other beach babe that evening. You can always pick someone up in a hotel bar. All you need is money and patience.

In her nightgown and bathrobe, Aslan closed the door of her bedroom and pushed the little table with the open bottle of wine and the glass closer to the divan in the living room. She filled her glass, took up a novel, and blissfully stretched out on the divan.

It was too early to go to sleep. She could not have gone to sleep, as excited as she was alone in her room thinking about the details of Beckford’s report. She would never have expected that her seemingly innocent plan could cause such an upheaval in the country.

She drank some wine, opened the book she intended to read, glanced at the first page, and closed the book again. She began to daydream: For her, the canal or the railway, whichever it would turn out to be, was an enterprise like the construction of a large ship, a skyscraper, or a mighty dam. And now her undertaking had shaken a whole nation and was provoking the most conflicting political and economic opinions.

Thinking about all this almost made her afraid of herself. “Why the devil,” she asked herself, “did I have to have this crazy idea, which most people would consider a pipe dream? Why did I have to come up with a project that most people would consider impossible? I could have led a calm life instead of getting all tangled up in national and international politics. I’m sure now the British will make a fuss about this project running counter to their own interests, and the U.S. government will deny our permits in order to stay in good standing with them. We’re basically still a British colony. We can’t step on England’s toes under any circumstances, because the Antichrist, the sworn enemy of all true culture and civilization, lurks in the East.”

While Aslan was daydreaming, there was a knock on the door. It could not have been the room service waiter checking in again; he would have called. There was another knock.

“Who is it?” asked Aslan, without getting up from the divan.

“It’s me, Beckford, ma’am.”

“What do you want, Beckford? I hope you know how late it is.”

“Yes, it’s ten thirty. But I have a terribly important message for you, ma’am.”

Aslan could tell from his voice that he had imbibed more whiskey than was good for his equilibrium. But she could be wrong. She did not know him well enough to know for sure.

“I’m sure you can tell me tomorrow at breakfast.”

“It really is urgent, ma’am, and should not wait till the morning.”

Her curiosity was piqued. She opened the door, not so much to hear the important message, but so they wouldn’t have to keep talking through the closed door. She feared Beckford would draw the unwanted attention of other hotel guests.

As soon as Aslan had cracked open the door, Beckford shoved past her into the room. Only then did Aslan wonder why Beckford had not called instead of coming to her room directly. And she asked herself why she had not told him that he should have called instead.

Now it was too late. Beckford was in her room and alone with her. She could, of course, call reception and ask for hotel security, but that would only make the situation worse. The hotel management would wonder why she had let the man into her room in the first place and would misunderstand. The reality was that she was alone with Beckford in her room late at night, and that she was standing in front of him wearing nothing but a flimsy nightgown.

She’d guessed correctly: He wasn’t entirely wasted, but he definitely wasn’t sober, either. The amount of whiskey he had consumed had clearly left an impact. His decision-making was impaired, but Aslan felt that he knew what he was doing. He did not even attempt to feign drunkenness. The events of this late evening would have gone very differently had he succeeded in meeting an easy woman at the bar, some neglected housewife.

On the hotel terrace earlier that afternoon, Aslan had let herself slip a little under the influence of the mild air and the lulling roar of the waves. She remembered her assessment of Beckford’s body as she sat down on the divan, pulling her bathrobe tightly around her body. She thought of asking him what the important message was, but the words died on her lips. She felt a lump in her throat apparently caused by her growing arousal.

Indecisive about what he should do next, Beckford felt insecure like a sixteen-year-old alone with a prostitute for the first time in his life. He needed to do something, he thought in his befuddled brain. He looked at Aslan and stepped closer to her. His knees touched hers as he stood in front of her. He pressed his knees harder into her body. Then his hand found its way under her nightgown. As if she meant to refuse him, she turned her body a little, but this movement allowed his hand to explore her breasts. With her left hand, she tried to remove his from her body, but the feebleness of her gesture implied that she could properly defend herself if she were serious about doing so.

She let it happen without enjoying it, without any satisfaction. She found that it did nothing to cool her arousal. After, skillfully, she turned away from him and, lying on her side, kicked him with all her might. He would never have guessed that she was so strong. The kick sent the sturdy sergeant all the way to the door, where he stumbled and fell.

“That’s the door, Mr. Beckford. Good night.”

He left the room without answering and without even turning around.

Aslan stood and closed the door behind him. Out in the hall, Beckford tried to collect himself. The only thing he could think was, Good Lord, that woman can kick! She would make it far in the Marine Corps.

The following day, at three in the afternoon, he called her and asked whether she would not like to invite him for tea in her rooms.

Aslan answered: “Okay, four thirty,” and hung up without another word.

When Beckford arrived in Aslan’s living room at four thirty on the dot, the waiter had already served tea and disappeared. Several different tiny toasted sandwiches and a crystal flask of cognac accompanied the tea.

Beckford tried to hide his insecurity at being alone with Aslan again by being intentionally brusque. He gave up after a few minutes because he felt he was making a fool of himself. Aslan paid him no attention. She knew he was only attempting to regain a sense of his masculinity. Aslan acted as though she had no recollection of what had passed between them the night before.

Maybe she was too drunk to remember what happened, he thought.

Aslan acted as she always did toward him: as his superior, his employer, on whom he depended financially. Aslan poured the tea and when she offered him the tray with the sandwiches, she said, as if she did not care very much: “What was it that was so important that you wanted to tell me last night?”

“Oh, yes, ma’am. I almost forgot. I think I was too drunk last night, and therefore acted so foolishly.”

“That’s possible,” said Aslan sipping her tea, “but certainly you weren’t that drunk. More sugar?”

Does she really not remember? Beckford asked himself.

“Do you actually have important news? Or was it just an excuse to bother me so late at night?”

“It was very important, ma’am, and it is still very important. Two newspapers published letters to the editor by readers who propose that you should run as a candidate in the next presidential election. They claim your transnational infrastructure would get you elected by a landslide.”

“May all the known and unknown gods protect me from such a fate,” said Aslan, laughing. “I don’t think it’s necessary that I run for office. If we don’t execute our project, someone else will. If not during my lifetime, then after I die, but I’m convinced we won’t have to wait that long.”

She changed her tone. “Let’s talk about something else, Mr. Beckford. I’m going back to New York at seven o’clock. If you want, you can come with me. We will be back before ten o’clock.”

“Well, ma’am, that would be great.”

Beckford poured himself a glass of cognac and another for Aslan. He started to feel out of place now that tea was officially over and as usual, he had nothing interesting to say. As usual, Aslan was beginning to grow bored as she did whenever she had to spend more than thirty minutes with him.

Glaring sunlight filled the room. Aslan got up, walked over to the large window and closed the curtains. Immediately, the room took on a comfortable coziness.

“I think I will go now, ma’am,” said Beckford, hesitating as if he were waiting for something. “Thank you for the tea.”

“You are welcome, Mr. Beckford. And don’t forget, seven o’clock in the lobby, unless you plan to stay a few more days. For your studies,” she added, without the slightest hint of irony.

“Not at all. I am very happy to go back with you and to be home tonight.”

He still did not make to leave. He poured himself a second cognac at the little table where tea had been served and downed it.

Aslan, still at the window, turned and stared at Beckford in puzzlement.

“You just said you wanted to leave, Mr. Beckford.”

Aslan came back slowly from the window, as if she intended to come closer to him to show him more clearly that his presence was no longer welcome, and that he was getting on her nerves. She stood close to the divan and turned toward the bedroom, apparently to change for the return trip and to pack.

Beckford happened to glance at the book that was lying on the side table of the divan.

“May I see what you are reading, ma’am?” he asked. His voice shook.

“Why not? It’s no secret,” answered Aslan, walking around the divan and coming close to the side table as if to hand him the book.

Beckford was also standing close to the divan, so close to Aslan that his body was lightly touching hers. He turned and Aslan found herself wedged between Beckford and the divan. As he had done the night before, he pressed his knees against hers. She said nothing but fixed her eyes on his.

He expected that she would rebuff him, but she didn’t attempt to defend herself. She just looked at him indifferently for several seconds. He thought it quite possible she would kick him again, but he’d endured so many kicks in his life, what was one more, especially if it came after all the fun.

Aslan’s lips curved into a mysterious smile, which could mean everything or nothing at all. It confused Beckford. He did not know how to interpret it. He grabbed her harshly by the shoulders and pushed her onto the divan. She covered her eyes with her left arm, but kept her right arm free to defend herself. The smile on her lips had only widened.

He wanted to kiss her, to erase that smile from her lips. But she pushed his face away with the palm of her hand, while pressing her left arm more tightly against her eyes. He pushed up her dress, much higher than necessary, she thought. Again, she let it happen with complete indifference. She felt nothing. She could not even muster disgust.

Afterward, he tried to kiss her again. And as unexpectedly as last night, she kicked him, except this time she kicked him in his groin so hard that he sank to the floor, moaning. She got up, pulled down her dress, searched for her panties, went inside the bedroom, and slammed the door.

Beckford quickly gained his bearings and picked himself up off the floor, as you would expect from a well-drilled sergeant of the Marine Corps. In basic training, he had endured worse beatings. In his naivete, he saw the kick as proof of her love for him, delivered in the moment of climax that had finally overcome the little woman. He tidied his clothes and left the room.

17.

At exactly seven o’clock, Beckford was in the lobby with his small suitcase, which the bellboy was clutching tightly. Ten minutes later, he was sitting next to Aslan in her car.

She was driving, although he had offered to do so. She had declined curtly. They did not speak a single word on the way back to the city. They were both lost in thought.

He was basking in the wonderful feeling of returning victoriously, crowned by laurels. He had finally managed to make her his lover. And he had not even had to resort to rape to win her over. She had come to him like a lamb to slaughter.

Speaking of rape, he remembered several he had committed here and there. As he was remembering those incidents, he concluded that any prostitute, occasional whore, or hussy whom he had picked up on the street had provided him with greater pleasure than the women with whom he had had to use force.

Fortunately, this is all over now, thought Beckford, as the car was racing toward the city. For right now and hopefully for a long time, no more bar girls and no more girls picked up on the street. That is all over now, thank the Lord! Now I have what I have always wanted. A posh, elegant lover. Divine figure. And as a welcome extra: heaps of money. Riches beyond measure. Finally, a lover. How much she must have missed it! Married to that old geezer for years. He’s probably at least sixty. And he always thinks about construction. Day and night. Construction. If you should play the part of the uppity lady as you did before, my dear, I’ll slap you until you have understood who has taken over control now.

He was dreaming like this as the car was gently and almost silently gliding along. In the meantime, night had fallen. In this darkness, his thoughts only revolved around the details of the next intimate moments with Aslan. As her current master and ruler, he would make sure that those would occur the next day.

They reached the first streets of the suburbs, which were already illuminated. Aslan suddenly slowed down the car.

“Out of gas?” asked Beckford, turning toward her rather grumpily, because he had been so abruptly interrupted in his pleasant thoughts.

“Not at all,” answered Aslan. “The tank is still almost half full.”

Driving at this reduced speed, she looked left and right. Maybe she was searching for a particular street or a certain building. Beckford, who was still lingering in dreamland, woke up suddenly. He thought that he was finally understanding what she was trying to find.

She is looking for a discreet hotel where she can spend the night with me, he thought with satisfaction.

Finally, Aslan seemed to have found what she had been looking for. However, she avoided letting Beckford guess what was going on inside her. Beckford looked all around, almost straining his neck, but he could not see any kind of hotel, neither elegant nor common. Aslan brought the car close to the shoulder of the street and turned off the engine. Traffic was not very heavy here, and if necessary, she could park in this spot all night without anyone bothering her. She leaned back comfortably in her seat.

In the light of the shop windows and the streetlights, Beckford could see the same mysterious smile that had irritated him so much that afternoon. It was a smile that could mean everything or nothing, but never anything in between.

Without looking at Beckford or turning toward him, and without giving up her comfortable position, she declared with devastating sarcasm in her voice: “Mr. Beckford, on this long trip from the hotel, you have thought about nothing else but that you have conquered me, and that I am your lover now and you are my gigolo, or whatever you might have imagined. Isn’t that right, Mr. Beckford?”

“Well—um—I thought—um—what happened between us—”

He stammered terribly since he found himself knocked off the saddle so unexpectedly. The sharp tone of her voice abruptly tore him down from the throne on which he had been sitting in his dreams. He knew this hard, ironic tone of voice from previous occasions. He remembered it well: Whenever Aslan used this tone with him, what followed was like being thrown into ice-cold water. Usually it would take him some time to appear in front of her with any kind of semblance of self-esteem.

“Only someone who is as inexperienced in real life as you are, Mr. Beckford, could imagine something so idiotic. Who do you think I am? One of your bar girls? What you thought of me truly and deeply offends me. Every one of your thoughts was an affront to me.”

“But, ma’am, I never thought anything like that at all about you. On the contrary, ma’am, I honestly and sincerely respect you.”

“Blah-blah-blah! Don’t lie so shamelessly. You are not a gentleman with a single fiber of your being. A gentleman would respect a woman who gives herself to him for whatever reason more rather than less. You are a sergeant of the Marine Corps and will remain a sergeant of the Marine Corps until the end of your days. I think I already told you that once.”

“But then I don’t understand, ma’am, why you—why you—” He could not find the right words.

“—why I made it so easy for you is probably what you wanted to say.”

“Exactly, that is exactly what I wanted to say but I didn’t know how to express it.”

“And now, don’t be shocked, Mr. Beckford, and don’t go crazy when I tell you why I made it so easy for you.”

“Yes, ma’am?”

“I needed a human guinea pig for my own peace of mind. I found you to be an excellent guinea pig. Probably the best I could have found.”

“A guinea pig? I don’t understand what you mean, ma’am.”

“You never understand anything. That’s what’s so pitiful about you. A long time ago, I promised, well, I didn’t promise, but I hinted that I could give myself to you under certain undefined circumstances—for your enjoyment if you wish. It doesn’t hurt me if you interpret it that way. And as far as that insinuated promise is concerned, I don’t owe you a thing anymore. I even kept the promise twice instead of once, as intended.”

“That’s right, ma’am, and I am very grateful, to be honest.”

“Forget your gratitude. I am the one who should say ‘thank you very much’ like humans plagued by illnesses who should erect monuments to the guinea pigs, apes, dogs, mice, and rats for all the experiments these innocent animals had to suffer.”

Beckford glanced up and down the street and only twenty feet away he saw a bar.

“Excuse me, ma’am, I urgently need a whiskey. I will be back in a minute. I need to fortify myself for the guinea pig.”

“No worries, I’ll wait. Would you please ask the waiter to bring me a double vermouth bitter here to the car?”

Beckford brought back an extra-large double whiskey when he returned and sat back down in the car.

“I will most likely tell my husband what happened, Mr. Beckford,” said Aslan suddenly, thoughtfully sipping her vermouth bitter.

“Have you completely—well, I don’t know what I should call it,” Beckford exploded.

“Gone crazy, you mean? Not at all. The guinea pig will serve me to find out what my husband might do when he hears that another man—well, what happened at the hotel and with my consent. However, finding that out has little or nothing to do with me personally. Your job as my guinea pig, which you completed excellently, was a different one. I admit that I’m extremely satisfied with my vivisection. It was a much greater success than I expected.”

“And as your guinea pig, I was the subject of your vivisection?”

“Yes, you were. I wanted and needed a certain answer to a question that has occupied me for a long time. I could only obtain this answer in empirical fashion and from personal experience. You see, Mr. Beckford, I am very happily married to my husband. The truth is that I could never cheat on my husband.”

“And last night? And this afternoon?”

“Of course you don’t think so. That’s absolutely understandable. However, the truth is that I did not cheat on my husband.”

“And why are you telling me that?”

“You wanted me to explain the experiment, right? You wanted to know how and why the vivisection happened, right?”

“Of course—since you did the vivisection on me.”

“Let me get to the point. You have to know that my husband married me when I was twenty-four years old. And I entered the marriage as a virgin. And by the way, you might not believe it, but in this country more girls marry as virgins than you might think.”

“I don’t agree at all, ma’am. I have not met a single virgin,” answered Beckford, taking a big gulp of his extra-big double whiskey as if he wanted to wash away the unpleasant memories.

“I guess it depends on the circles in which you move, Mr. Beckford. And just to tell you something else, which you will find just as unbelievable: my husband gave me four weeks before consummating the marriage. Unbelievable to you, right? However, when we figured out how to be with each other, I learned to my great surprise that age should not be judged according to years listed in a birth certificate. My experiment was nothing but curiosity. I wanted to know what kind of difference exists in this kind of matter between a mature man, of average, or I might say, boyish nature and strength, and a muscular, powerful young athlete like you are, Mr. Beckford—although you really are getting rather soft. I undertook two trials of the vivisection on purpose. The first one was last night, when you were drunk and shy at the same time, because it was the first time. And the second trial was this afternoon, when you hadn’t had anything to drink and did not need to be shy anymore, especially since I made it so terribly easy for you, and practically offered myself to you.”

“Well, and so what happened?”

“Do you want to find out the results of the vivisection?”

“I’m dying to find out.”

“Mr. Beckford, the results are devastating for you. You cannot compete with my husband in the least, Mr. Beckford. I could not have paid for this kind of experience that you kindly helped me gain, with money or anything else. Thanks to you, I have learned about my husband’s value in every possible way. I hope that you understand now that I did not cheat on my husband. Instead, I affirmed my faithfulness as stronger and more lasting than ever before. Thank you very much, Mr. Beckford, for your kind participation in this vivisection, which was so terribly important for me.”

“I am the one who must thank you, ma’am.”

“As you wish. It doesn’t offend me. Look over there,” Aslan pointed to a building in the middle of the street. “There is a subway station. The subway will take you to your hotel much faster than I could in evening traffic.”

Beckford went to the bar, paid, and told the waiter to pick up the glasses. Then he sauntered to the subway station. As soon as he arrived in Lower Manhattan, he went to the closest bar to pick up a girl or fish for a lonely woman whose husband did not understand her. He was hoping to regain some of his manly pride, which had been gravely injured.

18.

Although Beckford had prepared her, Aslan was quite surprised about the piles of newspapers, clippings, telegrams, and letters that had accumulated in the APTC offices during her absence. As Amy explained, most of the telegrams and letters were ones that congratulated Aslan on her enterprising spirit, which had allowed her to defend her ideas and plans so superbly in front of the senators. A significant part of the correspondence consisted of questions regarding where and at what price you could buy APTC shares. There were telegrams with the same questions from Canada, South America, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. Amy gave Aslan an overview of what the newspapers had reported in the last few days.

“The newspapers only mentioned the hearing in front of the committee in the first few days. These days, you don’t read anything about the hearing. Instead you hear about what senators, members of congress, and politicians in general have to say about your project. It appears that the powerful newspapers are on your side, ma’am.”

“And why shouldn’t they be?” answered Aslan. “It’s a billion-dollar business that the canal or the railway will provide for the large and heavy industries, who are the ones funding the newspapers. The powers that be in industry can smell the fact that large army deliveries won’t exist anymore if Russia and our country can come to an agreement, which could happen overnight as things have been developing recently. Our project will give large industry more work for longer and with greater security than the army could ever do. The army devours and devours resources, but it is completely unproductive. Our railway project on the other hand, is very productive and promises profits that will not be any smaller than those of the unproductive war industry at the end of the day.”

“I never considered such results and possibilities,” Amy said, surprised.

It was indeed exactly as Beckford had described it to Aslan when they had sat on the hotel terrace. A complete reversal in public opinion and general interest of the population had occurred. People were tired of the eternal fearmongering and turned their thoughts and expectations toward something positive, finally to channel their incredible creativity and irrepressible energy into new areas of activity. One such new area of activity was the execution of this gigantic plan, a plan so huge that humans had never dared imagine anything like it before.

Within the span of three weeks, it was not even a question anymore whether the canal or the railway would be built. No, the only question occupying the public was short and sweet: When do we begin building the railway?

Three weeks were enough for the majority of the most experienced engineers to decide in favor of the railway, as Aslan had broadly outlined it during the hearing in front of the committee. It would cost much less to build the railway than the canal. They would have to buy much less land. The construction of the railway would only take five, and at most, eight years if the cooperation were well organized. How many ships could be transported from one ocean to the other only depended on the number of freight trains.

Instead of a single sluice that would lift each ship hydraulically onto the freight train, you could build six, ten, or even more sluices side by side if necessary. They would lift the ships onto a sidetrack at first, from where the ships would later move to the main tracks.

The newspapers discussed the smallest details of the project’s various problems. Engineers who had something new and interesting to write received up to five thousand dollars per article. The readers devoured those articles more eagerly than the common stories about scandals, which were published daily, and where yesterday’s differed from today’s only in the names of the protagonists.

Editors constantly received letters from readers with new, sometimes very useful proposals. However, they had discussed every technical problem so often and from so many perspectives that it seemed there was nothing new to expect. Suddenly the question appeared: Where is the money coming from for the execution of this project? Who will pay? It had become clear that it was not a matter of hundreds of millions but rather about many hundreds of billions of dollars. Courageous reporters found answers and shared them with their readers in their newspapers at the risk of being summoned in front of an investigating committee accused of worshipping anti-American ideas.

They said take the money from where it does not serve any purpose but to keep all nations of this earth, all people of goodwill in constant fear of hydrogen bombs. It works like this: Keep the Russians and their colonial peoples afraid of the mercenary Americans. Instill in Americans terrible fear of the potentially destructive desires of the Bolsheviks, who have no religion and no culture. Anxiety. Fear. Horror. Threats. Keep people afraid and anxious, and you can take up to ninety-two percent of their income and they will even say thank you. Their fear of imprisonment for tax evasion will help you. Fear is the most pitiless and cruelest enabler of dictators.

Where is the money coming from? We have so much money that we throw it at countries that do not even want it, they were saying. Not even England said thank you. And why should they? Don’t they like the Bolsheviks more than us in England? However, we lack the courage to admit that.

Ten minutes after publication of the newspaper that had printed the question “Where is the money coming from?” the author of the article and the editor who had accepted it were unemployed on the streets.

However, two days later a notice appeared that was worthy of printing: The Bolsheviks, not the Russians, no, the Bolsheviks had managed to create a remote-controlled hydrogen warhead. At a range of eight thousand kilometers, it would miss its target at worst by a mere forty meters. It was capable of a destructive power ten billion times stronger and more destructive than that of the atomic bomb that had exploded over Hiroshima.

The ink of this news had barely dried in the papers when the American Department of Defense reported that they had successfully remote-controlled an unmanned airplane from an underground cave. If this plane left Cape Canaveral, Florida, at exactly 7:13 in the morning, it would fly around the globe in precisely nineteen minutes and would be capable of dropping its hydrogen bombs over the center of Lake Michigan 12.46 seconds later.

The American newspapers did not have to wait long for an answer from the Bolsheviks. This time, it was an invisible wall of radar that rotated high in the atmosphere and was remote-controlled from the ground. It was capable not only of catching any rocket fired by the Americans but also of propelling it back at a precisely calculated angle so that it would explode over the center of Times Square in New York. And people wasted their time with these inventions and counterinventions. They were kept prisoners in laboratories, squeezed into uniforms, and decorated with glittering medals. They squandered and idled away their short, valuable, measured time on earth, their life. A life that had been given to them only once until eternity and which they could never repeat to serve more noble purposes.

Certain circles tried to get the world to understand that it was impossible to live together with the enemies of culture and civilization, and that we should not even try to do so. Newspapers, speeches in Congress, and keynotes constantly kept the possibility of a nuclear-and-hydrogen war alive. Nevertheless, the project of the Inter-American-Atlantic-Pacific-Connection inspired both public and private opinions with increasing enthusiasm daily. Even militarists began sending articles to the newspapers. They supported the project decisively, of course, only from a military perspective.

In any case, whether certain politicians liked it or not, the project was again the focus of the interest of tens of thousands of people. You could observe the construction of this project. It was something solid, something you could hold on to, something useful, as opposed to indefinite, unknown, feared horrors.

19.

Holved, who had returned a week ago from Indonesia, was sitting nonchalantly in Aslan’s boudoir, flipping carelessly through the evening newspaper.

“You know, Aslan,” he said, without looking up from the paper, “I really don’t feel like spending the evening and the night, maybe until four in the morning, with Elmer Tuckers and his other half. He, Elmer, I mean, is a delightful guy with whom you can have quite some fun when you are alone with him. But she, Minnie, really gets on my nerves. She is so boring that even God would be bored. She only gossips about her neighbors, how often they fight, give each other black eyes, reconcile, and then go to their lawyers a week later to get an irreversible divorce. It could make you go to sleep.”

“Why did you invite both of them, then?”

“Since they are both in New York, I can’t just run around with Elmer alone as we usually do. And since I am saddled with both, you have to participate. One couple with another couple. Business. As you know, Elmer is powerful in the administration of his city and his electoral district. Last year, he pushed three construction contracts our way. When he told me on the phone yesterday that he was in New York and would gladly accept an invitation for a cheerful evening, what was I supposed to do? I offered to show him and his rib New York at night. He quietly hinted he might have a new contract for us in his pocket. The way I understand it, they want to build two significantly larger airports and a new, extremely modern overland bus station out there in Idaho.”

Holved continued to talk without wondering whether Aslan was listening or not. She was sitting dressed in a light housedress in front of the mirror, polishing her nails and lost in thought. Her nails, however, were already in perfect condition.

Without looking up, and keeping her eyes focused on her fingertips, she said: “You know, Holved, I cannot keep any secrets from you.”

“There is no reason to keep secrets. Don’t tell me you shot someone during my absence and need me to get you out of that mess now.”

He was still leafing through his newspaper. He was used to Aslan’s frequent confessions: A collision with another car at a total cost of five hundred dollars, including damages to be paid. Or a confrontation with a police officer; in a hurry, she had hurled about a dozen remarks at the officer, which he had misunderstood since he was in a bad mood, and which had resulted in a citation. Another time, she had had troubles with the cook, who had quit on the fifteenth. Of all things, it had been the cook whom Holved loved particularly because she actually knew how to cook. Usually, Aslan confessed to such incidents, really more to be talking and less because she thought it was her duty to report everything that happened. Holved rarely got excited by her confessions. Since his thoughts were often all over the place when Aslan told him something that was of little interest to him, he hardly listened now when she casually mentioned that she could not keep a secret from him.

Without looking up from his newspaper he said indifferently: “Well, what is it this time that you cannot keep secret?”

“Nothing as embarrassing as a fine or a citation,” she said, picking up her comb to fix her hair in front of the mirror. “It’s very simple. I got involved with a man. That’s it, and I think as your wife, I should confess this to you.”

She said all this so casually that Holved did not understand even half of it. Apparently, her words only slowly took on shape and meaning for him, since he remained unaffected for a few seconds, concentrating on a newspaper article.

Suddenly, however, he looked up, startled, and dropped the newspaper onto his knees. “What did you just say? Did I hear correctly?”

“You did hear correctly, Holved. And it didn’t just happen once, it happened twice. Once late at night and the second time was in broad daylight the following day in the afternoon. Of course, I had drawn the drapes.”

“Well, at least the drapes were drawn. Very careful on your part. Of course you only dreamed all this.”

He was quietly hoping she would admit that it had been a dream and that she would say with a laugh she only wanted to see what he would do if he learned of something like this. And as if she had indeed guessed his thoughts, she said: “I did it for two reasons. On the one hand, I wanted to find out what you would say or do.”

“And on the other hand?”

“And on the other hand, I did it out of curiosity, pure, unadulterated curiosity.”

“Curiosity?”

“Yes, really and truly out of curiosity. And there was no other reason. I wanted to find out personally what kind of difference there is between a man of your age and a man my age, who is built like a boilermaker and could perform as a wrestler at the circus in the evenings.”

“So, it was curiosity. That’s all well and good. And what is the name of this man?”

Aslan was still sitting in front of the mirror and playing with her comb. She looked at Holved from the side. “I didn’t ask him his name.” She was happy with this answer. She avoided lying whenever possible. She was speaking the truth since she had not asked Beckford what his name was, because of course she had known his name for a long time already. It would have been trickier if Holved had asked: Do I know this man? It would have cost her quite some effort to answer that question without lying.

“His job?” asked Holved, more to distract his thoughts from her adventure caused by curiosity than because he was interested in the gigolo’s profession. His name and career could not change anything about the facts.

“I did not ask him how, where, and in which way he makes his money.”

Again, she spoke the truth. She had not needed to ask Beckford how he earned his money, because after all, she knew better than anyone else.

“So, you didn’t even ask that. Strange.”

“No reason to do so. Why should I have asked him anything? He would have lied to me anyway.”

“And where did you amuse yourself in this manner while I slaved away in tropical heat to finish up our contracts?”

“Good God, don’t get sentimental! I would have attempted to still my thirst for knowledge anyways, whether you were at home or as you said so beautifully and cinematographically, whether you had to bake in the sun in the tropics.”

Holved had gotten up and was now pacing in the boudoir, which was not exactly easy due to the tightly packed precious furnishings. However, he felt he had to do something. And if a wife gives an unsolicited confession of having talked more or less deeply with another man, there is only one option. Since time immemorial, such a husband has had to pace, whether in an ultramodern boudoir or in front of a stone cave. Usually, a dagger, revolver, or club did not emerge until the husband, whose manhood had been deeply wounded, had decided during his wild pacing which solution would serve his own interests best.

Aslan took off her housedress and put on a bathrobe, sat on the chaise longue and began pulling at her nylon stockings. Her eyes were tracking Holved, however. He downed a whiskey and stopped in front of the mirror to see whether he had changed due to the knowledge that Aslan had successfully quenched her thirst for knowledge.

He was just going to start pacing again when Aslan, who had just pulled off one of her stockings, said: “So, now do you maybe want a divorce from me? Reason: confession of adultery.”

“A divorce? Get a divorce from you? I wouldn’t even consider it. I am happy with you. I couldn’t wish for anything better. But maybe you do.” He stared at her face. “Maybe you want a divorce since now you have found a young, vigorous boilermaker who knows how to satisfy your curiosity beautifully.”

“Me? I should get a divorce from you, Holved? Not for anything in the world. Not even for the greatest pleasures with all the boilermakers in the world.”

“It sounds great when you say that in such a lovely way. However, you strayed into areas where they offer such knowledge carelessly and if you think you got away so easily, you are wrong. I have a little something to say, don’t you think?

“Okay, then say something.”

“It was an offense, no matter what. Right?”

“If you see it that way, what can I do about it?”

“You have to atone for offenses. And better right now before this is old news and while I am in the mood to restore balance.”

“As you wish, my lord and master. What can I, a weak, helpless woman, do about it?”

He gave her a thorough hiding. When she examined herself in front of the mirror to view the landscape of her behind, she said: “As red as a freshly boiled lobster. You didn’t need to spank me so much. Half would have been plenty.”

“The first half was for the first time and the second half for the second, superfluous time.”

“The second time was not superfluous at all, but rather essential to obtain an accurate result. And I did obtain it. And so that you finally know, jackass, you don’t need to fear any competition, neither from a boilermaker and wrestler nor from a dandified gigolo.”

She snuggled into her bathrobe, searched with her feet for her slippers, put them on and slid them playfully across the thick carpet. As she followed the play of her slippered feet with her eyes, she asked: “Do you know, Holved, what Frenchwomen claim?”

“Frenchwomen claim many things of which I know nothing.”

“I mean in terms of satisfying my curiosity and the results thereof.”

“How would I know that? None of the few Frenchwomen I know have taken me in their confidence,” he said as if he did not care.

“All right, then. I think comparatively Frenchwomen have the greatest experience in this matter. They say maliciously: brains over brawn. Muscular men don’t perform well at all.”

“And do you think Frenchwomen are right?”

“What do you think?”

“I asked you.”

“Don’t get a big head, cruel chastiser of helpless women, lord and master of your wife and livestock! Here is the result of my research trip: Frenchwomen are right. Nice muscles are a feast for the eyes like beautiful paintings, but they are only for viewing and worthless for practical use. You can interpret the rest as you wish. Actually, you should praise me for undertaking such a—let’s say—relatively dangerous research trip. The results have increased my esteem for you significantly, as far as that is even possible.”

He stood by the door with the face of a young boy who does not know how to act or respond in light of praise for something for which he thinks he does not deserve any praise. Eventually he decided to say nothing and to leave her boudoir, closing the door behind him carefully.

Lita came in to help her mistress dress. She was a Mexican girl. Her real name was Adelita, which was too long for Aslan. She was neither tall nor small. She was pretty, with long, thick black hair. Her large, dark brown eyes were always slightly moist, which gave her an expression of great passion. Her shape was soft, well-rounded, and inviting, which she did not know of course, but given her female instinct knew how to express perfectly well.

If you assessed Lita coldheartedly, you would be safe in assuming that at age thirty she would gain more weight than necessary for her well-being. A bonus that was not included in her relatively high salary was that she served Aslan with devotion. She was affectionate and loyal like a dog.

Aslan disappeared in the bathroom to take a three-minute shower.

“Which dress for tonight, señora?” asked Lita when Aslan came out of the bathroom wrapped in a large bath towel.

Aslan did not answer immediately. Apparently, her thoughts were far away from the present moment.

“Que vestido, señora?” asked Lita again, while holding out Aslan’s undergarments.

“If I myself only knew which dress to wear. I have nothing to wear. Absolutely nothing.”

Lita pursed her lips. “Nada, señora? Absolutamente nada? Really nothing? But there are—let’s see, how many?—there are twenty-six evening dresses on hangers here. Each one more beautiful than the other.”

“I think so. What do I know. You know, Lita, sing me a Mexican song with the word ‘here’ in the lyrics. How do you say ‘here’ in Mexican.”

“Aquí, señora, aquí.”

“All right then, sing a song with the word ‘aquí’ in it for me. And while you sing, close your eyes and run your hand along the whole row of my evening dresses back and forth. And when you get to the word ‘aquí’ in the song you take hold of the dress you are touching. That will be the dress I wear tonight whether it pleases people or not.”

“Todos sus vestidos, señora, all your dresses are glorious and in all of them, you look divine like a goddess who has just descended from heaven.”

“Let’s go, Lita, sing. Close your eyes tightly and give me my dress.”

While Lita went fishing for the dress, singing quietly, Aslan pulled on her stockings. She did so in a truly voluptuous way. She lay on her back and held her leg up high in the air. Then she pulled the sheer stocking down her leg as if she were caressing it. Fitting like gloves, her stockings were held in place by silk garters. Aslan did not like to wear a girdle to attach these veil-like materials.

Finally, Lita had managed to choose a dress for Aslan according to her instructions. It was a glorious silk creation, made in Rome and there was no other like it. For now, Aslan was wearing nothing else but her gossamer stockings. Lita held out an undergarment. Aslan sat upright, slipped on her slippers, and got up, dropping her bath towel onto the floor.

“Oh my God,” exclaimed Lita, throwing Aslan’s undergarment onto the chaise longue in her shock, because she needed that hand to cross herself energetically several times.

“Señora, what in the name of all the saints have you done to your rear end? That looks horrible. Que horror!”

Aslan’s first thought was to wrap the bath towel around herself again and to put on the undergarment beneath it. However, at the same time, she realized that it was too late for that and that she had to come up with an excuse so Lita would not guess what had happened.

“You know, Lita, I sat in boiling-hot water by mistake. I should have been more careful. But you know what happens when you are in a great rush,” Aslan explained, and she thought that was the end of the incident.

Lita picked up the silk undergarment and gave it to Aslan, who began putting it on with casual movements. Lita picked up the towel from the floor and draping it over her arm, she said: “Curioso, señora, muy curioso. It is really pretty strange that you burned your bottom, sus nalgas, I mean, and not also your feet and calves. How did you manage to do that, señora, if it is not impolite to ask?”

Aslan laughed out loud. “See, Lita, I cannot lie. I will never learn to do so. I always get caught. Of course I did not burn myself.”

“Well, well,” said Lita, grinning intimately at Aslan. “Then it was your old man who spanked you hard. I thought something like that had happened. I was on my way to your boudoir to ask whether I could help you dress. When I got to the door, I heard that someone was getting spanked. Of course, I didn’t know who was spanking whom. Unfortunately, these modern doors don’t have any keyholes anymore. But as my mother always used to say: ‘Silly girl, if you see or hear a spanking somewhere, get out of there as fast as possible, because you might get caught in the middle by mistake.’ And that’s why I got out of there as fast as I could, señora.”

Aslan smiled with some melancholy. “Maybe I really deserved the ‘spanking,’ as you call it, Lita. In any case, I am his wife, and as his wife I have to respect and obey him.”

“Whether you deserved a spanking or not, I cannot say, señora. As my mother always said, ‘Never get involved in family affairs if you want to live in peace.’ And therefore, I never get involved in family affairs and live peacefully.”

Lita was holding out the evening gown for Aslan to slide it over her head when there was a knock on the door.

“Come in!” called Aslan.

“Beg your pardon, dear, I didn’t know that you were not dressed yet,” said Holved. “And now you don’t need to anymore. Elmer Tuckers just called and canceled the night shift for today.”

“And why?”

“First, he told me that his car was not running, and he wanted to postpone till tomorrow. But then he confessed that they had run into a couple from home and had gone to a bar to drink to their meeting. They toasted so much that his always-faithful wife is a little drunk now. She downed more than she can handle and if we took her out to drink, we would be fishing her out from under the table, as Elmer Tuckers said so sweetly.”

Aslan wrapped herself in her bathrobe. “You know, Holved, life is funny sometimes. I owe the fact that I am not forced to move from one hard chair to another during our bar crawl tonight to the fact that Mrs. Elmer Tuckers can only handle a limited number of strong cocktails. I think I would do better lying on my belly in my soft bed.”

She looked at him with an innocent expression.

“What did you just say, Holved?”

“Me? I didn’t say anything.”

She looked at him playfully. “And I thought you had said something or were just getting ready to say something.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” he answered blankly, looking from Aslan to Lita and back to Aslan.

“I—I—yes, I will still read a little. A murder mystery, you know.” With those words he reached for the doorknob.

“Lita,” said Aslan, “hang up my evening gown in the closet again. Maybe you can choose another dress tomorrow by singing for me.”

Lita picked up the dress. Aslan playfully snatched her garters, which were holding up the nylon stockings.

Indecisive and feeling superfluous, Holved was just about to open the door when he happened to glance at Lita, who was trying to hang up the dress in the closet. He could only see her back and her long black hair, which was hanging down one side of her neck. His glance enveloped her youthful hips, and when she bent over to put the dress carefully back where it had been, the soft, well-shaped curves of her bottom swelled lavishly toward him.

With a thoughtful expression, Aslan began taking out her earrings.

Lita was still bending over to organize the dresses properly inside the closet. Holved’s eyes ran up and down Lita’s shapely legs and again finally landed on the inviting curves of her bottom.

When she had organized the dresses in the closet, Lita turned around and whether intentional or not, caught Holved’s glance. Half dreaming, half fascinated, Holved assessed her body as if he were undressing her. For a few seconds they were lost in each other’s eyes. A little confused, Lita then hurried toward Aslan.

Aslan looked up. “What is going on with you, Lita, you are shaking.”

“Nada, señora, nada, nothing—I—I hit my hand against a sharp hook. It hurts a little.”

She shook her hand and blew on her fingers.

Aslan turned toward Holved, who was still standing by the door in silence. She intended to ask him whether Elmer Tuckers had said when they were going to do the bar crawl, the next day or the day after that.

Since she could not catch his eye, she followed his glance and found his eyes stuck on Lita. He was following the snakelike coils and movements of her body as she kept conspicuously busy rushing around Aslan, nervously helping her take off the few pieces of clothing she was wearing. Aslan looked swiftly from Lita to Holved and back. Keeping him in view she casually said in an innocent tone: “You know, Holved, since the evening has been ruined, I am going to bed. Of course, tonight I will have to sleep on my stomach.” A few seconds later she added: “Did you say anything, Holved?”

“Me? No. Not a single word. Why?”

“Oh, I thought you wanted to say something.”

He pretended to yawn—as he thought convincingly—holding his hand in front of his open mouth.

“So, good night, dear!” He came to her and kissed her.

She returned his kiss, pulling him close and throwing her arms around his neck. As soon as Holved had left the boudoir, Lita said unexpectedly: “I think, señora, you should be truly and seriously happy in your marriage, even if you get a spanking every once in a while.”

“Why do you think I should be happy in my marriage?”

“Bueno, señora, su viejo. When I look at your old man from the side and see how he devours you with his eyes I could swear that he knows how to fulfill his husbandly duty!”

“Now listen to this,” exclaimed Aslan, surprised. “It seems you have studied my husband carefully. Too carefully, I might say. Come here and look at my face, Lita!”

Lita came closer and blushed under Aslan’s intense scrutiny.

“How old did you say you were, Lita?”

“Twenty years old, señora. Should I help you take off the nylon stockings?”

Without waiting for the answer, Lita sank to the floor in front of Aslan and began to take off the stockings carefully. She did not look up while doing this but kept her eyes on Aslan’s legs. Aslan looked Lita over, assessing her body, and bit her lips roughly. Lita smoothed the stockings almost lovingly and placed them back in the drawer.

She came back to Aslan and stood in front of her to see whether she needed anything else. Aslan pushed her bare feet into the slippers. She observed the playful movements of her feet as she was lifting and dropping them back to the ground. It’s strange, Aslan said to herself, I only need to think about moving my feet and they do it independently. Suddenly, she looked at Lita, observing her face silently.

For the moment, there was nothing else to do. Aslan was by now completely undressed. She was only wearing her bathrobe, which was draped over her shoulders. Lita knelt in front of her on the carpet, as she loved to do so often in the evenings when Aslan was in the mood to gossip. Aslan stretched her naked legs, wriggled her feet, and the slippers fell to the floor. Lita picked them up and put them back on Aslan’s feet.

“You know, Lita,” she said, squinting at the girl, “you know, when I look at you, as you are kneeling in front of me, and when I think about what you said a little while ago, I am convinced that you are mature enough at twenty to know that if you get too close to fire you can get burned badly. Even if it is nothing more than”—she stopped for a couple of seconds and then continued—“yes, as I said, even if it is nothing more than that he is fulfilling his duty.” She repeated, emphasizing the word “his”: “Yes, fulfilling his duty.”

As she finished saying this, she forcefully slapped Lita’s face.

“Why, señora? Why? I really don’t understand what you are talking about or what you are implying. If you seriously think that I did something wrong, then beat me up with this slipper. But I have done nothing wrong, or I would confess immediately.”

“It depends, Lita, on what you consider ‘doing something wrong’ or—as—as the desire to please someone.”

Lita felt that she was blushing bright red again, and not only on the cheek where she had been slapped. To hide it, she jumped up from the floor, and standing behind Aslan she said: “Señora, here are your pajamas. I will help you put them on.”

“Just give them to me and put my bathrobe on that armchair over there.”

In her pajamas, Aslan stretched out on the chaise longue, hanging her head over the edge.

“Lita, come here to brush my hair and sing a Mexican ranchera for me. I feel romantic and melancholic at the same time. I don’t know what is going on with me today.”

“Same here, señora. It happens to me quite often. Then I go lie down in my bed and cry for a whole hour and don’t know why. Then I cry myself to sleep and the next day, I am refreshed and happy as never before so that I could dance around like crazy all morning. That’s how it is with all of us women, señora. We don’t even understand ourselves. How can someone else understand us then? And least of all a man!”

“Are all twenty-year-old Mexican girls as smart as you?”

“My mother always said I was the stupidest of all the girls born in Mexico. All the other Mexican girls are much smarter than I am.”

“Then God protect me from Mexican women. And if you ask me, Lita, I don’t agree, at least with what your mother said.”

Aslan pulled Lita’s head close and kissed her on the cheek she had slapped. “There. Lita, it’s all good now.”

“I never hold a grudge, señora. And least of all do I hold a grudge about a bofetada, a slap in the face. My mother slapped me half a dozen times every day and I was never angry. Stuff like that remains in the family, as my mother always said.”

While Lita was talking away, she brushed Aslan’s hair and began to sing.

“What is this beautiful song called, Lita?”

“‘Reina de Mi Jacal.’ ‘Queen of My Poor Hut.’”

She had finished singing the rancheras and dressing the hair.

Aslan sat up, stretched her arms, yawned blissfully, and as she walked toward her bedroom she said: “Lita, I just realized that I haven’t had any dinner. Run and get me two sandwiches, a bowl of fruit, a large glass of porter, and a little glass of sherry. I need something stimulating. Anyways, it was a turbulent evening. What do you think, Lita?”

“If you ask me, señora, I would say it was a typical family evening without incident.”

“Maybe. I guess it depends from which perspective you look at it. In any case, from my vantage point, and especially from my bottom’s perspective, it is not possible to say that this evening featured regular entertainment.”

“Well, if you see it that way, señora, I guess it must be true.”

“Now, run. If you come back and find me as a beautiful corpse, tell the world that I died of terrible starvation, because Lita did not bring me food fast enough.”

“Voy volando, señora. I am flying,” Lita answered, and rushed out.

20.

The two most powerful nations in the world, which had emerged as the only remaining large world powers, now seemed willing to destroy each other without pity in order to achieve supremacy. They had entered a competition of which nation could bomb and destroy the moon first, so that the other could not use it as a base for an all-out attack on earth. Nobody considered even for a minute that innocent life-forms could exist on the moon, and that they would be murdered ruthlessly. What do we care about such details as long as we can bomb the moon, Mars, and Venus to show the universe for once what crackerjacks we are, goddamn it! However, immensely large areas on earth were largely unexplored. Without a doubt they could offer hundreds of thousands of people better dwellings and living conditions. No one had explored the core of the earth. No one had discovered a cure for cancer, for arteriosclerosis, or for inexplicable heart attacks. However, time, energy, and money were available in amounts we can hardly imagine, and the battle for space began. One of those superpowers owned twenty-two satellites already. They were racing with incredible speed around earth, to shoot down the good Lord, our savior who was crowned with thorns, the Lord of Peace. They were making the existence of the bearded saints and the little angels quite a bit less comfortable.

Although one of the two superpowers could send fewer Sputniks into orbit than the other one, it owned one satellite big enough that you could see it with your bare eyes in good weather. The competing nation had almost managed to get within reach of the moon. The other nation immediately counterbalanced this feat by adding a new planet to the solar system, as a late Christmas present so to speak: “Peace on earth and goodwill to man.”

Admittedly, these human-made celestial bodies, which devoured billions of the hard-earned dollars of hardworking and tireless workers, had relatively little economic value. Their value was mainly political.

The obsession with discovering new weapons, a thousand times more destructive than those stored in unbelievable numbers, had become a veritable human illness. Instead of building new schools, new hospitals, cheaper housing, new railways, new power plants and irrigation systems, and instead of ending the bitter poverty of millions of people, they were manufacturing two thousand new hydrogen bombs every month as well as ten dozen rocket launchers that could travel nine thousand miles in six and a half minutes and decimate a million people to ash and rubble in half a second.

The results of this sinister arms race filled the pages of newspapers every day. They talked about “new triumphs” to convince even the last skeptic of humanity’s impending complete destruction. In such circumstances, of course, people forgot everything that was of use to them. They were mollified by descriptions of “great scientific achievements” by certain scholars who did not fulfill their duty of serving humanity, but who, on the contrary, used their knowledge and experience to destroy human beings.

Therefore, people forgot the big project of building a shipping route between the Atlantic and the Pacific across American soil. All the necessary money was needed elsewhere. And the situation was the same for both superpowers. And as far as our nation is concerned, we did not stop squandering billions of hard, good American dollars. Those members of the Senate and of Congress who tried to stop the waste by limiting the requested amounts to a minimum and by redirecting the funds toward where they were truly useful were in the minority. Members of certain circles accused them of an anti-American ideology, which came close to an accusation of treason.

America was giving away billions to countries that could not put their debt-ridden budgets in order due to political corruption, the criminal ineptitude of their governments, and hopeless colonial wars. Let the rich American uncle take care of you even if he is incredibly dumb and an idiot; he does not know what to do with his billions anyway.

The American government had wasted more than sixty-five thousand million dollars since World War II by claiming that this was the only way to save economically weak nations from the claws of Bolshevist super-imperialism. They tried to stop the spread of Bolshevism using dollars instead of perfectly sound Western ideology and culture. The might of money against the power of ideas. That’s also a battle.

They threw billions of dollars at dictators who used brutal police and military power to deny their citizens their human rights. No nation was as interested in Sputniks, Luniks, and intercontinental rockets as the American people. However, their interest waned quickly, especially because an unexpected invention or discovery can excite Americans in an almost unsettling manner. The only accomplishments and innovations that took root and remained present in the consciousness of Americans were those that credibly promised to serve a lasting, visible, general purpose.

The uproar about Sputniks, Atlas rockets, new planets, and the successful attempts at launching hydrogen bombs so that they hit their targets precisely at five thousand miles’ distance had died down. People had understood that these projects only served political purposes and were meant to suck even more money from taxpayers. Therefore, they began discussing the APTC project again.

Normal human beings cannot live in constant fear of a possible hydrogen-bomb attack without a healthy reaction. Human nature urges us to protest in order to achieve relief, no matter what the form of the protest.

However, before it could come to that, the nation faced a new problem. People were worried about the rapidly increasing number of unemployed workers. Like a nightmare, ten and a half million people on the dole (officially, of course, fewer than five million) depressed the economic vitality of the nation. Every month, the number approached the threshold of twelve million more rapidly.

What could be done to stop this increase?

Therefore, Aslan suddenly found herself at the center of public interest once again. Her project would solve the problem of unemployment to a significant extent and for several years, even if a hundred thousand superfluous soldiers were to be demobilized.

Once again, Aslan received mountains of letters, telegrams, and invitations to speak on the radio, on television, at conventions, in women’s organizations and clubs, as well as in chamber of commerce meetings and at the conferences of shipping companies. Aslan received many letters from simple folks like workers, chauffeurs, office employees and schoolteachers. In these letters, she read many things she had not considered in front of the committee and never would have considered because they were outside her range of expertise and experience.

One of these letters in particular caught her attention. It came from a plain sailor, a deck worker, handwritten as well as one might expect from such a man.

Dear Madam,

You forgot to mention something to the senators that is very important to me as a sailor. However, it is something that a woman cannot know. You see, every ship must go into a dry dock within a certain time frame. There, you have to clean the hull of all kinds of marine animals, clams, and seaweed. The stuff sticking to the hull reduces the speed of the ship more than you might imagine. That costs a lot of money, which we could save. Then there are the loose bolts. And entire panels are loose, and you have to fix them with rivets so that they do not let water into the ship. Next, you have to paint the ship to protect it from rusting. Then you have to repair the propellers or repaint them or exchange the entire thing. All of these tasks can only be completed in a dry dock. Sometimes it takes three or four weeks or even longer. When you are fixing and painting the ship in the dry dock, it does not earn money; instead, it rather devours it. Now you want to build a railway on which a boat will be transported from Galveston to Los Angeles, California. And that is a very good idea. But when the ship drives on your train it does not need to go into the dry dock. You can clean it, repair it, paint it, and fix the propellers while it is en route with your train, during a time when the sailor does not have anything to do anyway. I think, dear madam, if you had explained all this to the gentlemen of the Senate who do not now and will never understand anything about ships, they would have said that the railway has to be built immediately and that you should ideally begin today. Good luck, madam.

“Amy,” said Aslan, “write a very nice thank-you letter to this sailor and include a hundred-dollar bill as payment for this excellent idea he gave us. Order copies made of this letter and distribute it to a dozen newspapers.”

Amy laughed, waving the letter.

“Ma’am, your idea is almost as good as that of the sailor, who I’m absolutely sure knows what he is talking about.”

Immediately after Amy had left the room, there was a knock at the door.

“Come in!” called Aslan, and Beckford appeared in the doorway.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Beckford. I haven’t seen you for an entire week. Have you been sick?”

“Not sick in that sense, ma’am. But I have finally come to my senses.”

“It was probably time. Sit down! What news are you bringing me?”

Beckford sat down and pulled out a letter that he passed to Aslan across the desk.

“My letter of resignation, ma’am. I’m resigning from my position.”

“But why? And so suddenly?”

“Based on what I see here and read in the newspapers, things are heating up again. That’s not my thing. I have finally realized that I am not suited for civilian life. Yesterday, I reported back to the Marine Corps. I’ve kept my rank as sergeant. I don’t have to think about anything. I receive an order for every step and every hand movement. And I never have to worry what kind of task I should give your secretary.”

“Well, indeed we discussed your position on the board. We had planned to urge you to step down from the position as general manager, because we had planned something for you where you would be entirely independent. The company of which you are president was supposed to receive the tasks of purchasing and administering building materials needed by our company. A gigantic enterprise with great responsibility.”

“But that is exactly what I am talking about and why I reported back to the Corps. I don’t want to be responsible for anything other than to have my recruits understand as fast as possible why they are in the Marine Corps. I want nothing more to do with enterprises, businesses, building materials, senators, railway constructions, and secretaries who tell you ‘good night’ at their door, after you have spent a whole long evening with them wasting many good dollars. That’s just not for me, ma’am. When I’m in uniform and what is more, the uniform of a sergeant, and I take a chick out to the movies, then she knows exactly what she owes me and how to pay it. Life here is too complicated for me, ma’am. In the military, everything is easy. You have one single worry: You don’t want to draw negative attention to yourself! And for a sergeant even this worry is reduced to a minimum.”

“I am beginning to understand. All right, Mr. Beckford, I accept your resignation. If you get sick of the Marine Corps one day—”

“Not as far as I can see, ma’am. They will fully count all my years of service. That will be very beneficial to me when it comes to my pension later on.”

“Nevertheless, if you ever need a job, we will always have an opening for you. Oh, by the way, do you need money?”

“Not a single dollar, ma’am. Thank you for all the good things you have done and planned to do for me. Because of you, I got close to making canals my profession. And canals are the only things that interest me outside of the Marine Corps. And the way I see it, ma’am, you yourself won’t be building a canal, but rather a railway. Again, many, many thanks.”

“Good luck, Mr. Beckford, I wish you well.” She held out her hand. Beckford shook her hand, turned around, and left.

Lost in thought, Aslan looked for a while at the door through which he had left.

Amy entered. “Ma’am, Mr. Beckford just came into my office. He was a little moved when he said to me: ‘Goodbye, Amy. For a long time.’ What did he mean, ma’am?”

“He meant that he is reporting back to the Marine Corps.”

“Well, I really don’t know what to say about that.”

“He probably knows best where he is comfortable.”

“At least I wish him all the best. He never did anything to me that I would have to regret today.”

“You never gave him the opportunity, Amy?”

“Never, ma’am. He was just not my type.”

“He would never be mine, either,” said Aslan, not looking up, and organizing papers on her desk. “Too awkward. Too boyish.” She changed her tone. “Amy, do you have any idea how much the offers are for the new issue of our shares, pending permission?”

“About two billion three hundred fifty million dollars. We have advance payments of about eight hundred million.”

Aslan laughed out loud and tipped her armchair so far back that Amy jumped up to catch her.

“Have you ever heard of such a thing? People are sending checks and money for shares we don’t even have yet and if things don’t work, we will never have. And these people are not just Americans, they are from Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Sweden, Germany, France, and Italy.”

“I think it’s not the shares, ma’am, that attract people like a magnet. It’s the enterprise. The idea. It’s their faith in you and your plan.”

“You’re saying something that sounds like economic philosophy. It’s not the piece of paper, the share, in which people believe, like—let’s say—a ten-thousand-dollar note. A piece of paper. And often a very dirty one. It’s their faith in the invisible worth of the work and production expressed in the piece of paper. At the same instant in which the faith in the invisible worth expressed in the dollar note is shattered, a ten-thousand-dollar note is worth less than a bar of soap. The same thing happens with our as-of-yet nonexistent new shares. They express a value that is not visible at the moment. However, there are millions of people who believe that it will be apparent one day. And all these people who order shares and pay large amounts in advance for shares that do not even exist yet are firmly convinced that our enterprise is feasible and that we will make it a reality.”

“You’re sure there’s no other reason for that, ma’am?”

“I’m sure. Oh, no news from the Senate, Amy?”

“No, ma’am. I’m sorry.”

“The committee is really taking its time.”

“If the committee decides in favor of the company, ma’am, then the new series of shares is immediately available for sale, right?”

“Not by a long shot, my innocent little lamb. The committee doesn’t have the authority to give permission for the sale of any shares. The committee is only an investigative body appointed for purely political reasons. To issue new shares, we need the permission of the SEC, which is the Securities and Exchange Commission. We have to register the shares with them. The only thing the committee can do is report to the SEC that in their opinion there’s no danger of stock fraud. Of course, the SEC has the final word in this matter. They don’t need to accept the decision of the Senate committee if they have a different opinion. Nevertheless, if the SEC denies us permission to issue new shares, we can appeal in court. I hope we don’t have to go that far. In any case, we have to wait till the committee makes their decision. It could take months, Amy, months.”

Aslan did not know and could not know what was happening in the Senate and the House of Representatives. And she could not know at all what was happening in the subcommittee that was deciding about the life or death of her company. The offices of the senators and House representatives, and especially of the members of the subcommittee, found themselves flooded with telegrams and letters. Apart from a few dozen letters written by troublemakers, they were all decisively in favor of the Aslan Project. Congressmen even received threatening letters. They were not even anonymous but signed, and they declared that the politicians should not hope to be reelected if they did not support the project, let alone undermine it. More and more people as well as both privately and publicly held companies began to realize the simple and obvious fact that for the next ten years, hundreds of thousands of people—no matter in which professions—would have a secure and most likely good income. The war and arms industry could not offer them anything like that, since those industries depended on political circumstances.

While the situation looked so peaceful from the outside, the committee and the private sessions of congressmen were tumultuous. Bitter fights erupted among career politicians. They fought about the following question: Why did the government not initiate such a gigantic plan, instead of leaving it to a private company to submit to the people this plan which was so valuable for the shipping industry?

Given the lobbying of American citizens—all of them voters—that increased every day, the Senate committee realized that it would be suicide to withhold or limit the constitutional rights of Aslan’s company without giving her at least the chance to procure the necessary funds for the execution of the work plan. Public opinion in favor of the project developed into a kind of referendum. If a negative decision of the committee might not have caused a revolution, the Senate would still have been faced with such a storm of outrage that they would have had to reverse their decision after all.

Originally, they were supposed to decide within six weeks. However, months and months had passed, and they had not passed any judgment. The senators were probably hoping that the more time that passed without a definite decision, the more likely it was that shareholders would finally lose patience and put a painful end to the company.

The shareholders of the company, however, were made from hardier material. Nothing could shake their faith in the project. It was not the shareholders but rather the senators who lost their patience. Finally, the heat they got from the public became too much, and they were forced to give a clear answer.

Visible in extra-bold letters on the front page of every newspaper in the nation, the decision read: “After careful consideration and examination of all relevant circumstances, we have to declare that the project for which the Atlantic-Pacific Transit Corporation is requesting permission to issue a new series of shares, is a very daring, very difficult, and almost impracticable one. The project will remain a considerable risk for shareholders until its completion. Therefore, the shareholders themselves have to decide whether they want to assume the risk. The examination of the financial stability of the company did not result in anything for now that would give rise to worries for shareholders.”

Aslan studied the statement. “Amy,” she said then, “let’s say we get stuck on the long stretch of desert between Galveston and Los Angeles and our funds dry out. In that case, the members of the Senate committee will stand there with a paternalistic grin in front of the public. They will hold up their hands, which they have now officially washed of the affair.”

“I don’t understand, ma’am,” said Amy.

“It’s simple, Amy. They are washing their hands in childish innocence, the gentlemen of the Senate. Their decision reads: ‘did not result in anything for now.’ The emphasis is on: ‘for now.’ The honorable gentlemen of the Senate are not responsible for anything that might happen in the future. I have to say that I wouldn’t have thought it possible that the gentlemen of the Senate would know how to keep themselves far enough away from a fire in case it might burn too bright.”

“But ma’am, it seems that the gentlemen of the Senate do not fear fire.”

“They don’t fear fire?”

“Apparently not, ma’am. For two weeks now, three honorable gentlemen of the Senate, Drake, Clifford, and Shearer, each have a check for two hundred thousand dollars in our safe as guarantee for their requested shares of the new series.”

“And you are surprised by that, Amy?” asked Aslan. “What surprises me is that these three most honorable gentlemen, who tortured me so pitilessly, didn’t submit at least half a million dollars. They would have that kind of money. These three gentlemen are the main shareholders of the Knutsen Kelthy Crane Jorgson Shipping Company, Inc., Ltd., AGSA. Last year it paid seventeen and one-eighth percent dividends, and that’s after deduction of income tax.”

Also by B. Traven

The Death Ship

The Cotton Pickers

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

The Bridge in the Jungle

The White Rose

The Carreta

Government

March to the Monteria

Trozas

The Creation of the Sun and the Moon

The Rebellion of the Hanged

General from the Jungle

Macario

A Note About the Author

B. Traven (1882–1969) was a pen name of one of the most enigmatic writers of the twentieth century. The life and work of the author, whose other aliases include Hal Croves, Traven Torsvan, and Ret Marut, has been called “the greatest literary mystery of the twentieth century.” Of German descent and Mexican nationality, he has sold more than thirty million books, in more than thirty languages. Films of his work include The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which won three Oscars; Macario, the first Mexican film to be nominated for an Oscar; and The Death Ship, a cult classic in Germany. You can sign up for email updates here.

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Copyright © 1959 by R. E. Luján

Translation copyright © 2020 by M. E. Montes de Oca Luján de Heyman and Irene Pomar Montes de Oca

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Originally published in German in 1960 by Verlag Kurt Desch, Germany

English translation published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

First e-book edition, 2020

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eISBN 9780374722135

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