Read Online Who Is Martha? by Marjana Gaponenko - Free Book Online

chest, she had saved the treasures for an uncertain future and spread them out on the lawn every few years to bleach them. And now?
    Levadski stared in dismay at the brown imprint of his hands on the old linen. “It doesn’t matter,” his mother murmured cheerfully, “that’s what it’s there for!” Levadski felt a shiver run down his spine.
    While he ate the onion tart he noticed a small suitcase leaning against his own near the coat rack. Levadski had great trouble swallowing his mouthful of tart. “What is that?” he said, pointing at the coat tree.
    “Our suitcases,” said Levadski’s mother, wetting a fingertip and gathering two crumbs from the table that had fallen off Levadski’s plate.
    “You are like the green woodpecker from your dream,” Levadski tried joking. Both gave a forced laugh.
    “Yes, I have been having bad dreams lately, but they are exciting,” Levadski’s mother said. “I am glad you took your old mother’s letter seriously. And why did you?”
    Levadski shrugged his shoulders. In his head the sentences were all muddled: I have always taken you seriously, mother. The image of you rotting away for months in the forest would interfere with the writing of my thesis. The disappearance of the house martins is an ominous sign …
    “Why not?” Levadski said dryly. The onion tart sat like a stone in his stomach. He waited without looking at his mother for her to start talking.
    “My dear child, your father was a wonderful man. We got to know each other in the woods where you were born and grew up. He never left these woods for as long as he lived. Don’t think it is easy for me to leave them. I came here as a student from Vienna, together with three young professors, for the East Galician bird census a few years before your birth. The old count, for whom your father worked as a forest warden, was a great bird fanatic. You already know this. During the breeding season his manor house and his estates were always open to bird lovers – this was known throughout Vienna, Berlin, Paris and London. Even two nephews of the Tsar, may they rest in peace, regularly came to visit. Your father came to collect us from the railway station in a carriage. He loaded up our suitcases with such a scornful expression on his face that I nearly peed in my pants with laughter – I was one of the few women who wore them in the empire. Don’t ask me why. In spite of this, your father fell in love with me. And your father won my heart completely when a bird alighted in the branches of a birch in front of our window. It was a common blackbird, we were a couple, I no longer wore trousers, but dresses, though in that moment I was naked, so was your dear father, by the way. You don’t need to scratch your neck now. Well, when the bird alighted on the birch and obliged us with its territorial song, your father froze. He lay on top of me, listening to the bird, without blinking. He listened to the blackbird he couldn’t see. He listened so intently he held his breath. And when I noticed, there was no turning back.”
    Levadski could have sworn he had turned into a lump of coal. For a few seconds. Then, after a conscientious clearing of his throat, he was himself again. “When you told me you wanted to study ornithology in Lemberg, you made an old widow smile for the first time in ages,” Levadski’s mother continued. “My heart smiled like it did long ago, when your father held his breath at the song of a common blackbird. With my heart smiling, my son, I breathed a sigh of relief for the first time since his death. Do you remember, I asked you how seriously you would take your studies in the capital city with its pernicious charms and influences? I did not mention our financial situation, it would have been unnecessary, you already knew how miserable it was. You said: Mother, I take the matter very seriously. Do you remember? It was then that it became clear to me I would without a moment’s hesitation slave