620
PARTISAN REVIEW
"And you think she'll get him?"
Sonya shook her head. "His wife is really horrible."
"That doesn't matter. He needs her to be horrible so that he has an
excuse to be unfaithful."
"Everyone wants a little happiness."
"But she's waiting for something that will never happen. He won't
leave either his wife or Gabina. He's going to stay in place like that cliff
and she'll suffer."
"He can't stay with a woman that he doesn't love," Sonya said. I did–
n't say anything because I know that hatred binds people more than love
does. And some people need to be unhappy and regard with horror the
idea that their dream might come true. Sonya gave me the key, turned on
the light, and I opened the low brown door.
"Go first," Sonya said. "And tell her something nice. Gabina is the
sweetest girl in the world."
When we returned Gabina was sitting with her legs stretched out on
the blue-green upholstered sofa. She had her arms propped on her meaty
thighs and her spine was straight. It occurred to me that perhaps the man
in the cliff-face was the first to have moved her, the first to have set in
motion the pendulum that swings from eternity to eternity.
"I gave him an ultimatum," Gabina said, "and he...."
"Don't say anything. The coffee will tell me more and you would only
confuse n1e."
I took her cup again and hoped that I would see something positive in
it. Really positive.
"After you get past the cliff," I said, "you will meet a man with a fox's
face. You will go with him hand-in-hand, and he will support you, but you
won't love him. Only after him will you meet the greatest love of your life.
He will also have a beard, but he'll be bigger and stronger than the one
who stays in the cliff. He'll take you in his arms and arch over you like a
rainbow."
"Please," Gabina interrupted me just when it was going well,
"please-couldn't it be the same man?"
I shook my head.
"It's a different one," I said and looked at Sonya, who grimaced at me,
displeased.
"And then what?" asked Gabina, and her hardness softened like a
night's snowfall in the rays of the morning sun.
"You will love each other greatly and in the end you will be left alone and
be satisfied," I promised. "The angel of peace and love is hovering over you."
"Of course," Gabina said. "In the end I must be alone if Fanda is ten
years older than me-he'll die sooner."
