table. She was telling a story. Anna couldn’t make out the details, but Daniela’s modulation suggested a ribald tale. Daniela waved her arms as she spoke, a half-empty beer glass in her left hand and in her right, the tail of a red feather boa one of her friends brought for her to wear. She interrupted the story with her own laughter. She was sincere in her present amusement, merry and gay. For a jealous moment Anna begrudged her this happiness. Anna hiked Polly farther up her hip and pulled her own sweater closed as if to protect herself from the sting of a joy she did not know. Bruno broke into his sister’s story to give her a birthday kiss. She set aside her beer, rose, and greeted the family. She seemed genuinely glad they had come.
“Anna,” she began in English equally as grammatical but more heavily accented than her brother’s, “I am very happy to see you. You look so pretty. Polly is so big!” She liberated Polly Jean from Anna’s arms. Daniela loved her niece and would hold her the rest of the afternoon if Anna allowed it. Daniela worked in Basel for a fair trade organization. She was kind, thoughtful, funny, earnest, easy to like and all around, a veryadmirable person. Had Anna known her in any other context, perhaps they’d have been girlfriends. But she didn’t, and they weren’t. They were sisters-in-law. They were friendly. But they were not precisely friends.
Daniela turned back toward her other guests, who nodded and waved politely at Anna. Anna looked around. Bruno had abandoned her for beer and Victor and Charles had run off to the barn, preferring the company of Rudi, David’s decade-old Saint Bernard, over the company of adults.
With Polly in Daniela’s arms, Anna didn’t know what to do with her hands. She felt ill at ease, like a dateless girl at a school dance. She moved to join Bruno but he was already locked into conversation with another party guest, a man whom Anna had met before, but whose name she couldn’t recall. He was blond and muscular and only an inch or two taller than Anna. When he noticed Anna he widened the circle and invited her with an open hand to join. He interrupted Bruno mid-sentence, pointed to his beer, and raised his brow.
“Willst du?”
That’s what it sounded like he said. He was speaking Swiss. Did Anna want?
Nice, so very nice to be asked.
Anna stepped a little closer while shaking her head no. She wasn’t a beer drinker. The blond man nodded and smiled, then motioned Bruno to continue.
A NNA LED S TEPHEN TO a nearby bistro, the Kantorei. They sat in creaky wooden chairs, the legs of which were uneven and annoying. Anna ordered a brandy and Stephen asked for a beer. And then they began to talk. Stephen was a scientist on a short-term sabbatical from MIT with an appointment at theETH, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. It is one of the world’s top schools. Einstein was a graduate. Apart from the banks and businesses of Zürich’s financial industry, the ETH is the city’s most prestigious institution. Stephen had sublet an apartment in Wipkingen, a quarter on the city’s north side, and the namesake of the district’s train station. Stephen was, Anna learned, a thermochemist. A pyrologist. He studied combustion. Stephen was an expert on fire.
In the difficult months following the affair, Anna had ample time to consider the symbolic implications of Stephen’s work and the effect the man had had on her. Anna’s conclusions were these: That fire is beautifully cruel. That fusion occurs only at a specific heat. That blood, in fact, can boil. That the dissolution of an affair is an entropic reaction, and the disorder it tends toward is flammable. That a heart will burn. And burn and burn and burn. That an ordinary flame’s hottest point cannot always be seen.
D OKTOR M ESSERLI OPENED A book and pointed to a series of related drawings depicting a couple making love in a fountain. In the first they’re rained upon. In the next their
“Anna,” she began in English equally as grammatical but more heavily accented than her brother’s, “I am very happy to see you. You look so pretty. Polly is so big!” She liberated Polly Jean from Anna’s arms. Daniela loved her niece and would hold her the rest of the afternoon if Anna allowed it. Daniela worked in Basel for a fair trade organization. She was kind, thoughtful, funny, earnest, easy to like and all around, a veryadmirable person. Had Anna known her in any other context, perhaps they’d have been girlfriends. But she didn’t, and they weren’t. They were sisters-in-law. They were friendly. But they were not precisely friends.
Daniela turned back toward her other guests, who nodded and waved politely at Anna. Anna looked around. Bruno had abandoned her for beer and Victor and Charles had run off to the barn, preferring the company of Rudi, David’s decade-old Saint Bernard, over the company of adults.
With Polly in Daniela’s arms, Anna didn’t know what to do with her hands. She felt ill at ease, like a dateless girl at a school dance. She moved to join Bruno but he was already locked into conversation with another party guest, a man whom Anna had met before, but whose name she couldn’t recall. He was blond and muscular and only an inch or two taller than Anna. When he noticed Anna he widened the circle and invited her with an open hand to join. He interrupted Bruno mid-sentence, pointed to his beer, and raised his brow.
“Willst du?”
That’s what it sounded like he said. He was speaking Swiss. Did Anna want?
Nice, so very nice to be asked.
Anna stepped a little closer while shaking her head no. She wasn’t a beer drinker. The blond man nodded and smiled, then motioned Bruno to continue.
A NNA LED S TEPHEN TO a nearby bistro, the Kantorei. They sat in creaky wooden chairs, the legs of which were uneven and annoying. Anna ordered a brandy and Stephen asked for a beer. And then they began to talk. Stephen was a scientist on a short-term sabbatical from MIT with an appointment at theETH, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. It is one of the world’s top schools. Einstein was a graduate. Apart from the banks and businesses of Zürich’s financial industry, the ETH is the city’s most prestigious institution. Stephen had sublet an apartment in Wipkingen, a quarter on the city’s north side, and the namesake of the district’s train station. Stephen was, Anna learned, a thermochemist. A pyrologist. He studied combustion. Stephen was an expert on fire.
In the difficult months following the affair, Anna had ample time to consider the symbolic implications of Stephen’s work and the effect the man had had on her. Anna’s conclusions were these: That fire is beautifully cruel. That fusion occurs only at a specific heat. That blood, in fact, can boil. That the dissolution of an affair is an entropic reaction, and the disorder it tends toward is flammable. That a heart will burn. And burn and burn and burn. That an ordinary flame’s hottest point cannot always be seen.
D OKTOR M ESSERLI OPENED A book and pointed to a series of related drawings depicting a couple making love in a fountain. In the first they’re rained upon. In the next their
Similar Books
