116
PARTISAN REVIEW
Freedom is like the air. You breathe freedom and never notice it....
The Soviet people cannot understand this - because they were born
free, like birds! Only a fish cast up on the shore could understand me.
. . . And therefore I shall return! I shall return to taste again that good
rye bread! The fragrant bread of freedom, equality, and brotherhood!"
"Not bad," said the editor. "Lively, convincing. Only one thing
bothers me - did he really say anything close to this?"
Busch was astonished. "What else could he have said?"
"Well, yes, of course," said the editor, retreating.
The article was published. The next day Busch was called into the
editor's office. Sitting there was a man Busch did not know, about fifty
years old. His face expressed simultaneously both complete indifference
and intense concentration. The editor had retreated to the shadows. The
unknown person, for all his inexpressiveness, seemed to fill the entire
room.
The man looked at Busch, then said, barely audibly, "Tell your
story. "
Busch replied, irritated, "About what? To whom? In general, for–
give me, with whom do I have the honor?"
The answer was short, as though printed on a dotted line: "About
your meeting. To me . Sorokin. Colonel Sorokin."
Having named his rank, the Colonel fell silent, as if he'd lost all his
strength. Something told Busch to obey. He began to recite the content
of his article about Captain Rudi. The captain listened inattentively.
Busch lamely ended his speech: "Where are you now, Paul? Whither
art thou blown by the winds of distant wanderings? Where are you
now, my foreign friend?!"
"In jail," replied the Colonel unexpectedly. He slapped the table
with a newspaper, as though killing a fly, and then spoke carefully,
enunciating each word: "Paul Rudi is in prison. We arrested him as a
traitor to his country. His real surname is Riitti. He's a fugitive Estonian.
He's been sailing for the West German fleet. This was his first trip to
Estonia. We've been waiting for him for four years."
The Colonel turned to the editor: "Out!"
The Colonel turned to Busch. "What do you have to say?"
''I'm thunderstruck! Words fail me!"
"As they say, a discrepancy has come to light. "
But Busch held to his earlier version. " I wrote everything as it hap–
pened. I had no inkling of the former life of Captain Rudi. I took
him
to be a progressive, intelligent foreigner."
"All right," said the Colonel. "Let's say that's how it was. But
all
