The Russian Interpreter

‘Ah,’ he said when Manning had finished. ‘I go part of the way with Raya. But I think that if one is flouting the generally accepted rules of behaviour one must exercise discretion. Undoubtedly the authorities know that Raya is here. If last night’s anything to go by, they seem to be prepared to overlook it. But we must make it easy for them to overlook it. We must make sure that we don’t create a public scandal which could be ignored only by deliberate choice. We must limit ourselves to an inconspicuous irregularity which people could argue afterwards, if they were challenged, was merely overlooked in error.

‘Now, here is my schedule of regulations, if Raya is to stay. One: she must leave the room in the morning, separately from me. Two: she must not normally come up to the room during the day while I am out of it. Three: she must not leave her personal possessions lying about. Four: she must not be seen taking meals with me in the hotel restaurant. Five: if anyone knocks on the door while she is in the room she must withdraw to the bathroom.’

Manning translated these conditions to Raya in his most neutral voice, waiting to be interrupted at each moment by the laughter with which she would greet them. But she did not laugh. She sat doodling abstractedly on a piece of paper she had found on the table, saying nothing, with no expression on her face. It irritated Manning to watch her. He realized gloomily that he had never at any time even begun to understand her, and he suddenly doubted that he ever would.

‘Well?’ said Proctor-Gould to Manning.

‘He says “Well?”’ translated Manning to Raya.

She sighed.

‘Would it really make Gordon happy if I agreed to all these conditions?’ she asked.

Manning inquired.

‘If Raya would agree to stay on the terms I have mentioned,’ said Proctor-Gould, his great brown eyes very wide, ‘it would be both a matter of personal satisfaction to me and, I think, a very valuable and interesting experiment in co-existence at the personal level.’

When Manning had translated this to Raya she held up her drawing for them to see. It was a girl doll, like the ones around the walls. Her peg limbs were bent in a ridiculous curtsy, and in a balloon from her mouth were the two letters EC, followed by an exclamation mark.

‘What does EC mean?’ asked Proctor-Gould.

‘I don’t know. It’s not Russian.’

He frowned, trying over the two Cyrillic letters on his tongue.

‘“Ye-S”,’ he repeated stupidly. ‘“Yes.” “Yes.” “Yes.” I don’t know.’

Proctor-Gould watched him patiently, waiting for him to decipher it. But the paper was shaking about in front of Manning’s eyes. Raya was laughing at them.

17

Manning and Katerina stopped on one of the bridges over the Moskva, and leaned on the parapet, looking absently down into the water. Behind them two-car trams ground slowly across from the city side to the eastern suburbs, still packed with people bound for the noisy dark courtyards and the shabby tenement stairs.

‘I can see why Raya pleased you,’ said Katerina. ‘If I’d met her I might have been attracted to her, too.’

‘Spiritually?’

‘Perhaps physically as well. There’s no real difference. All relationships are fundamentally political. One dominates; one is dominated; one rules by consent. There’s nothing mysterious about physical attraction. It’s just an expression of one’s desire for a particular form of political relationship.’

‘I’m not sure that men always want to dominate, or women to be dominated.’

‘I agree. Or perhaps one might say that some men are women, and some women are men. You and I are two of the world’s natural women. We love people because of what makes them people – their will and their freedom – and we expect to be used ourselves as objects – as the raw material on which the volition of others is exercised. Raya must be a natural man. She uses you. She uses Proctor-Gould. She does it not by strength or command, but by caprice, by taunting you and teasing you. It amounts to the same thing. You both delight in being used. So should I if the situation had arisen.’

‘The strong and the weak again.’