Apt Pupil

8

After dinner, Dick Bowden produced a cognac that Dussander privately thought dreadful. But of course he smiled broadly and complimented it extravagantly. Bowden’s wife served the boy a chocolate malted. The boy had been unusually quiet all through the meal. Uneasy? Yes. For some reason the boy seemed very uneasy.

Dussander had charmed Dick and Monica Bowden from the moment he and the boy had arrived. The boy had told his parents that Mr Denker’s vision was much worse than it actually was (which made poor old Mr Denker in need of a seeing-eye dog, Dussander thought dryly), because that explained all the reading the boy had supposedly been doing. Dussander had been very careful about that, and he thought there had been no slips.

He was dressed in his best suit, and although the evening was damp, his arthritis had been remarkably mellow -nothing but an occasional twinge. For some absurd reason the boy had wanted him to leave his umbrella home, but Dussander had insisted. All in all, he had had a pleasant and rather exciting evening. Dreadful cognac or no, he had not been out to dinner in nine years.

During the meal he had discussed the Essen Motor Works, the rebuilding of postwar Germany — Bowden had asked several intelligent questions about that, and had seemed impressed by Dussander’s answers — and German writers. Monica Bowden had asked him how he had happened to come to America so late in life and Dussander, adopting the proper expression of myopic sorrow, had explained about the death of his fictitious wife. Monica Bowden was meltingly sympathetic.

And now, over the absurd cognac, Dick Bowden said: ‘If this is too personal, Mr Denker, please don’t answer… but I couldn’t help wondering what you did in the war.’

The boy stiffened ever so slightly.

Dussander smiled and felt for his cigarettes. He could see them perfectly well, but it was important to make not the tiniest slip. Monica put them in his hand.

Thank you, dear lady. The meal was superb. You are a fine cook. My own wife never did better.’

Monica thanked him and looked flustered. Todd gave her an irritated look.

‘Not personal at all,’ Dussander said, lighting his cigarette and turning to Bowden. ‘I was in the reserves from 1943 on, as were all able-bodied men too old to be in the active services. By then the handwriting was on the wall for the Third Reich, and for the madmen who created it. One madman in particular, of course.’

He blew out his match and looked solemn.

‘There was great relief when the tide turned against Hitler. Great relief. Of course,’ and here he looked at Bowden disarmingly, as man to man, ‘one was careful not to express such a sentiment. Not aloud.’

‘I suppose not,’ Dick Bowden said respectfully.

‘No,’ Dussander said gravely. ‘Not aloud. I remember one evening when four or five of us, all friends, stopped at a local ratskeller after work for a drink — by then there was not always schnapps, or even beer, but it so happened that night there were both. We had all known each other for upwards of twenty years. One of our number, Hans Hassler, mentioned in passing that perhaps the Fuehrer had been ill-advised to open a second front against the Russians. I said, "Hans, God in Heaven, watch what you say!" Poor Hans went pale and changed the subject entirely. Yet three days later he was gone. I never saw him again, nor, as far as I know, did anyone else who was sitting at our table that night.’

‘How awful!’ Monica said breathlessly. ‘More cognac, Mr Denker?’

‘No thank you,’ he smiled at her. ‘My wife had a saying from her mother: "One must never overdo the sublime."’

Todd’s small, troubled frown deepened slightly.

‘Do you think he was sent to one of the camps?’ Dick asked. ‘Your friend Hessler?’

‘Hassler,’ Dussander corrected gently. He grew grave. ‘Many were. The camps… they will be the shame of the German people for a thousand years to come. They are Hitler’s real legacy.’

‘Oh, I think that’s too harsh,’ Bowden said, lighting his pipe and puffing out a choking cloud of Cherry Blend. ‘According to what I’ve read, the majority of the German people had no idea of what was going on. The locals around Auschwitz thought it was a sausage plant.’

‘Ugh, how terrible,’ Monica said, and pulled a grimacing that’s-enough-of-that expression at her husband. Then she turned to Dussander and smiled. ‘I just love the smell of a pipe, Mr Denker, don’t you?’

‘Indeed I do, madam,’ Dussander said. He had just gotten an almost insurmountable urge to sneeze under control.

Bowden suddenly reached across the table and clapped his son on the shoulder. Todd jumped. ‘You’re awfully quiet tonight, son. Feeling all right?’

Todd offered a peculiar smile that seemed divided between his father and Dussander. ‘I feel okay. I’ve heard most of these stories before, remember.’

‘Todd!’ Monica said. That’s hardly—’

The boy is only being honest,’ Dussander said. ‘A privilege of boys which men often have to give up. Yes, Mr Bowden?’

Dick laughed and nodded.

‘Perhaps I could get Todd to walk back to my house with me now,’ Dussander said. ‘I’m sure he has his studies.’

Todd is a very apt pupil,’ Monica said, but she spoke almost automatically, looking at Todd in a puzzled sort of way. ‘All As and Bs, usually. He got a C in this last quarter, but he’s promised to bring his French up to snuff on his March report. Right, Todd-baby?’

Todd offered the peculiar smile again and nodded.:

‘No need for you to walk,’ Dick said. ‘Ill be glad to run you back to your place.’

‘I walk for the air and the exercise,’ Dussander said. ‘Really, I must insist… unless Todd prefers not to.’

‘Oh, no, I’d like a walk,’ Todd said, and his mother and father beamed at him.

They were almost to Dussander’s corner when Dussander broke the silence. It was drizzling, and he hoisted his umbrella over both of them. And yet still his arthritis lay quiet, dozing. It was amazing.

‘You are like my arthritis,’ he said.

Todd’s head came up. ‘Huh?’

‘Neither of you have had much to say tonight. What’s got your tongue, boy? Cat or cormorant?’

‘Nothing,’ Todd muttered. They turned down Dussander’s street.

‘Perhaps I could guess,’ Dussander said, not without a touch of malice. ‘When you came to get me, you were afraid I might make a slip… "let the cat out of the bag," you say here. Yet you were determined to. go through with the dinner because you had run out of excuses to put your parents off. Now you are disconcerted that all went well. Is that not the truth?’

‘Who cares?’ Todd said, and shrugged sullenly.

‘Why shouldn’t it go well?’ Dussander demanded. ‘I was dissembling before you were born. You keep a secret well enough, I give you that. I give it to you most graciously. But did you see me tonight? I charmed them. Charmed them!’

Todd suddenly burst out: ‘You didn’t have to do that!’

Dussander came to a complete stop, staring at Todd.

‘Not do it? Not? I thought that was what you wanted, boy! Certainly they will offer no objections if you continue to come over and "read" to me.’

‘You’re sure taking a lot for granted!’ Todd said hotly. ‘Maybe I’ve got all I want from you. Do you think there’s anybody forcing me to come over to your scuzzy house and watch you slop up booze like those old wino pushbags that hang around the old trainyards? Is that what you think?’ His voice had risen and taken on a thin, wavering, hysterical note. ‘Because there’s nobody forcing me. If I want to come, I’ll come, and if I don’t, I won’t.’

‘Lower your voice. People will hear.’

‘Who cares?’ Todd said, but he began to walk again. This time he deliberately walked outside the umbrella’s span.

‘No, nobody forces you to come,’ Dussander said. And then he took a calculated shot in the dark: ‘In fact, you are welcome to stay away. Believe me, boy, I have no scruples about drinking alone. None at all.’

Todd looked at him scornfully. ‘You’d like that, wouldn’t you?’

Dussander only smiled noncommitally.

‘Well, don’t count on it.’ They had reached the concrete walk leading up to Dussander’s stoop. Dussander fumbled in his pocket for his latchkey. The arthritis flared a dim red in the joints of his fingers and then subsided, waiting. Now Dussander thought he understood what it was waiting for: for him to be alone again. Then it could come out.

I’ll tell you something,’ Todd said. He sounded oddly breathless. ‘If they knew what you were, if I ever told them, they’d spit on you and then kick you out on your skinny old ass. My mom might even take a butcher’s knife to you. Her mother was part Jewish, she told me once.’

Dussander looked at Todd closely in the drizzling dark. The boy’s face was turned defiantly up to his, but the skin was pallid, the sockets under the eyes dark and slightly hollowed — the skin-tones of someone who has brooded long while others are asleep.

‘I am sure they would have nothing but revulsion for me,’ Dussander said, although he privately thought that the elder Bowden might stay his revulsion to ask many of the questions his son had asked already. ‘Nothing but revulsion. But what would they feel for you, boy, when I told them you had known about me for eight months… and said nothing?’

Todd stared at him wordlessly in the dark. ‘Come and see me if you please,’ Dussander said indifferently, ‘and stay home if you don’t Goodnight, boy.’

He went up the walk to his front door, leaving Todd standing in the drizzle and looking after him with his mouth slightly ajar.

The next morning at breakfast, Monica said: ‘Your dad liked Mr Denker a lot, Todd. He said he reminded him of your grandfather.’

Todd muttered something unintelligible around his toast. Monica looked at her son and wondered if he had been sleeping well. He looked pale. And his grades had taken that inexplicable dip. Todd never got Cs.

‘You feeling okay these days, Todd?’

He looked at her blankly for a moment, and then that radiant smile spread over his face, charming her… comforting her. There was a dab of strawberry preserve on his chin. ‘Sure,’ he said. ‘Four-oh.’

‘Todd-baby,’ she said.

‘Monica-baby,’ he responded, and they both started to laugh.