Перевод "Alongside Night – Part 3"

Alongside Night – Part 3

<h2>Part Three</h2>

I think the most pitiable was a female Ghost…. This one seemedquite unaware of her phantasmal appearance. More than one of theSolid People tried to talk to her, and at first I was quite at a loss tounderstand her behaviour to them. She appeared to be contortingher all but invisible face and writhing her smokelike body in a quitemeaningless fashion. At last I came to the conclusion—incredible asit seemed—that she supposed herself still capable of attracting themand was attempting to do so.

—C.S. LEWIS, The Great Divorce

<h3>Chapter 19</h3>

Shopping parcels notwithstanding, Elliot and Lorimer strodethe three-quarter mile to the Hilton in close to fifteen minutes. They stopped at the hotel telephones, calling up the roomnumber Al had given them, Elliot having decided that his father had a better chance of surviving his sudden appearanceif given even momentary preparation. Losing his father a thirdtime—especially from mere lack of social grace—was not aprospect he cared to face.

A tired voice answered on the fifth ring. “Yes?”

“Dad?”

A long silence followed. “What room did you want?”

“Dad, this is Ell. I’m calling from the lobby. Al told me whereyou were.”

There was no exclamation, only another long pause. “Yourmother and Denise—?”

Elliot hesitated only briefly. “They’re not with me, Dad. Uh—I do have a friend with me, though. Is it okay?”

“Bring your friend up with you.”

“We’ll be right up.”

After hanging up, Elliot told Lorimer, “He doesn’t soundwell.”

“Are you sure you want me with you?” she asked.

“Now more than ever. Come on.”

In five minutes they were at the room. Elliot almost did notrecognize his father. His eyes had bags under them, makinghim look years older than his actual forty-eight, and thoughDr. Vreeland was wearing a jacket, it needed pressing, as didthe rest of his clothes. Elliot thought his father looked like aphysician who had been serving in a plague. The hotel roomdid not look much better, the bed unmade, half a dozen coffeecups strewn around. There had been visitors: ashtrays werefilled with cigarette butts.

Elliot and Lorimer went in, Dr. Vreeland closing the door.Father and son looked at each other briefly, then, for the firsttime since Elliot had been a small boy, they hugged each other.Elliot’s father said, “You look older.”

“You look a little battle-scarred yourself.”

Dr. Vreeland smiled slightly, the tension broken.

Elliot took Lorimer’s hand and guided her forward. “Dad,this is Lor.”

“I’m very honored to meet you, Dr. Vreeland,” she said. “I’velearned a great deal from your books. Especially <i>Weimar, 1923</i>.”

Elliot looked at her with surprise but said nothing.

Dr. Vreeland’s surprise was equally great. “Your study iseconomic history? I would have thought you too young to bein graduate school.”

“I’m afraid I haven’t even started college yet.”

“Then it is I who am honored to meet you,” said Dr. Vreeland.“<i>Weimar, 1923</i> was my doctoral thesis, and I have been repeatedly assured by colleagues even more verbose than myself that it is just about the most thoroughly unreadable pieceever written.”

Dr. Vreeland motioned them to sit around a coffee table inthe corner, then apologized for the room’s condition, explaining that he had not allowed a hotel maid in for two days. “Whenwas the last time you slept?” Elliot asked him.

“Oh, I was catching a short nap when you called up. I wasawake most of last night, and I’m expecting a visitor shortly—a business associate.”

“Dad, what went wrong? When I got back to the apartment,everyone was gone—the suitcases were gone. I thought youwere all waiting at the rendezvous point and was heading therewhen two cops—FBI, I think—showed up at our apartmentlooking for <i>me</i>. I gave them the slip, but not before I heardthem say they had my family. I thought they’d gotten you all.”

Dr. Vreeland shook his head. “I left the apartment with theluggage, as planned, wearing a disguise Denise had designed.Very naturalistic—even close up—but I looked likeMephistopheles, a silver-gray wig, false beard, and mustache.”

Elliot smiled. “My sister has-always been somewhat melodramatic,” he explained to Lorimer.

Dr. Vreeland nodded agreement, continuing, “I then droveto the airlines’ office on Forty-second Street to pick up ourtickets and clearances. By the way, as it turned out, your tripwasn’t really necessary. I found time at six to check over withDave Albaugh.”

“Who?” Elliot asked.

“Ah, that’s right. I never did tell you Al’s name. Dr. Albaughwas one of my brightest graduate students at Columbia. A brilliant thesis on the differences between Austrian and ChicagoSchool approaches to—oh, never mind. I was back at Park Avenue and Seventieth Street at six thirty, waiting there the nexthour. How is it you didn’t see me?”

“I got back to our apartment by ten of six and cut over toLexington after escaping through the fire exit on my way out.Must’ve passed within a block of you.”

Dr. Vreeland shook his head at the irony. “At seven thirty,after none of you had showed up, I returned up to our apartment and encountered two FBI agents. Probably the same twoyou saw.”

Elliot whistled. “Lucky they didn’t recognize you—disguisedor not.”

“I took the offensive,” Elliot’s father said. “I told them I wasa neighbor—a friend of the family’s—and wanted to know whatexactly they were doing in what was now Cathryn Vreeland’sapartment.”

“And?”