| Zero
Storm |
One
Common Drama |
Two
for One |
Three
Pivotal Years |
Four
Generations |
Five
Ring Circus |
| Subject: | Pavel |
| Date: | Wednesday, July 22, 1998 19:42:00 +0100 |
| From: | Jérôme |
| To: | Philip James Stone |
It was nearly midnight, Montreal time. I was trying for the umpteenth time to reach my father. I was barely holding the receiver to my ear, as I knew it would be another opportunity for the phone companies to make money for nothing; I was expecting the answering machine. I had the phone in one hand, and the other was preparing my suitcase for my return to Milan.
A minor hiccup to my expectation: a voice, which now sounds familiar, answered. It was clearer, not as mechanical and it said 'Machotka' which was not on the tape I knew.
Drinnng.[something] Machotka.Hello, Pavel Machotka ?yesIs this Pavel Machotka ?yes.Hello, this is Jerome Camus.yes...[realising that he had not made the connection...]
Your son.ahh - ha...
He has something of a British accent (or should I say a British pronunciation), mixed with some accent, which I could not put a finger on. Yet his language construction is American.
I motivated my call: the search to explain the past, after my mother's passing.
Then, a pause. He had the presence of mind to state that neither of us knew where to bring this conversation. On second thought, that was an obvious point. So he took the initiative and asked questions: on my mother and how she lived.
I started by the end, saying that all the nurses at the hospital where she was treated knew that she had never forgotten him and still loved him. Granted it was a bit nasty, but it was also true and the best way to sum things up.
In the end, he got more information out of the call than I did. That is fine by me. My meta-level was in top gear. I knew exactly where my ship was and where I wanted to take it.
He did not commit to anything, really. His favorite phrase was: "I have no information on that". When I told him that I had a family in Italy, he did not flinch. He did not mention Umbria at all... In fact, when he stated that he wanted us to pursue the conversation, he always referred to my eventual passage in America... No hint that he commuted to Italy. On this topic, I trapped him though: in giving him my coordinates, I mentioned that there was a new dialing sequence for Italy. He added: "Ah, like everywhere else in Europe". He gets around, no doubt.
He also lied. When I questioned him on my mother's motivations for having abandoned Catherine, his "no information on that" just does not hold water. He was around four years before the occurrence and two years after, no? His brain was in no coma for six years, as far as I know.
He also tripped himself up. When I said I had two children, not necessarily planned, but that they were the best thing that ever happened to me, he instinctively smiled and said: "Yes, I know what you mean"... followed by five seconds of silence, which I had no intention of interrupting. He then added: "... if you know what I mean". Without hesitation I told him: "Of course!"
In the end, he asked me to keep him informed of how Catherine turned out. He thought that she had been: "... rather neglected...". The appropriate brain cells reacted only when I hung up. Obviously, he did not reflect on his own behavior for a single moment.
In the end, the only thing I really found out (actually I confirmed an assumption) is that mom was adopted and that she had known about it. As of what age, he did not have any information on that. She was brought up in the Monnoyeur family. She had a strong link to Magda. But Paul said she really did not talk about it much...
So there, yes, a very intense conversation...
Jérôme