The workday dragged on slowly. The smallpox epidemic was spreading. To Eva, it felt as if they were doing little else but mixing shaking solutions. Of course, the rest of the work hadn't diminished either.
Olga.
Eva's aunt.
Márk is coming home today.
She can't look for Olga at her workplace again today—it would look suspicious.
She can look for Olga at her workplace again today and thoroughly question Lucas.
Lucas must know something. Certainly more than Eva does.
If the authorities are dealing with the case, they'll all be dragged into it.
"It doesn't matter anymore", Eva thought.
She suspected that she would officially be questioned about Olga anyway. At least then she would learn from Lucas why.
Perhaps she would be questioned about her aunt as well.
All it takes is people whispering.
That nighttime phone call. She has to talk to Márk about that too.
The caller knew her name. Knew when she turned off the lights in the apartment. She can't just ignore that. Maybe a few adolescents fooling around from the building across the street. Not a big deal—but Márk needs to know.
She can't tell Márk all this at home.
On Saturday afternoon, after work, Eva will visit her parents. She's been putting it off for weeks.
Márk could go with her. Then there will be an opportunity—away from the bug—to talk everything through thoroughly and calmly with her husband.
They talked less than before.
Maybe the bug was the reason. Márk knew it was there, yet he never removed it.
Márk is being observed.
Márk ignores it.
Maybe he's right. Sometimes it's enough just to know things.
Mark would still be away for days. Eva had never wanted her husband beside her more than she did now.
During the ten o'clock break, Elisa again asked to go to the park instead of having coffee. Afterward, she became absent-minded and clumsy, just like on Saturday.
She should invite the girl somewhere.
Maybe she has some kind of problem.
Elisa keeps her distance.
She really should invite the girl somewhere.
The workday somehow passed.
"She defected to the imperialists", Lucas announced.
He had been told more about the case unofficially than Eva had.
They can't be implicated.
They don't know who the contact person is.
Lucas called Eva a good comrade again today.
Not like that other one—Olga.
Who knows? Maybe the imperialists had recruited her long ago. The ground grew hot beneath her feet.
It's a fact that Olga fled beyond the Iron Curtain.
That she's an imperialist spy?
They whisper about it.
The articulated bus jolted along. Its rubber joint stretched wide in the turn like an accordion. The rear section danced. Those standing held on. Then it stabilized. A soundless melody.
What if one day that section tipped, cracked—and the rear tore off completely?
Eva thought about Olga the entire way.
An imperialist spy?
What could her task have been?
She came into contact with many people in the fabric department.
Maybe Olga, too, wove fabric of another kind.
A small favor for this one, another for that one. Under-the-counter favors.
Eva leaned back in her seat.
That Olga was religious was nobody's business.