The Discovery of Heaven Read Free Page B

adjusting to the dark, so it seemed to be getting gradually lighter. Onno still maintained the pose of a field marshal surveying the battlefield.
    "Go next door, Coba," said his mother, "to Mrs. Van Pallandt's. Perhaps she can help us. But only if the lights are on."
    "Yes, ma'am."
    "It's less than two months since the birthday of the Lord Jesus," cried Onno, "and there's no longer a single candle to be found in this Calvinist bastion!"
    "Can you please put a stop to that exasperating chatter?" asked his eldest sister's husband. "For goodness' sake clear off, man. Go to Amsterdam where you belong."
    "Yes, heaven be praised that I live in Amsterdam and not in Holland."
    "How many rum-and-Cokes have you had, Onno?"
    "In Amsterdam," said Onno, raising his glass, "we don't call this liquid rum-and-Coke. In Amsterdam we call it a Cuba libre, but you'll eventually catch on in Holland. So I shall drink a toast to el líder maximo. Patria o muerte — venceremos! He downed his glass in one.
    "Long live Che Guevara!" shouted a boy.
    "Hey, Maarten, have you taken leave of your senses?"
    "The young monkey's showing his true colors."
    "Beware of that monkey! That monkey will make short work of you and your horrible Holland. Soon Coba will be in control here, and then it will be the ex-governor of the ex-queen who will have to fetch candles from the people next door, who won't be called Van Pallandt but, for all I know, Gortzak, or some other honest working-class name. The bunch of you are Holland. Without Quists there would be no Holland, and what a blessing that would be for mankind."
    "Onno—"
    "Ignore him. Simply ignore him, then he'll shut up by himself."
    "Anyway, you're a Quist too."
    "Me? Me a Quist? What an unforgivable insult. I'm a bastard," he said solemnly. "A cuckoo in the next—that's what I am."
    "You're cuckoo, all right," said one of his aunts at the table with the flashlight, which was becoming weaker and weaker.
    "And who is the father of the cuckoo?" asked his eldest sister.
    "Mother and I will never reveal that. Never! Isn't that so, Mother? We have sworn not to."
    "What have we sworn?"
    "Oh, now you're playing dumb. Don't you remember that handsome prince from that distant country who came to Holland on a white horse?"
    "What on earth is he talking about?"
    "If you ask me, the fellow's no longer completely compos mentis."
    Onno put his hand on his heart.
    "About the Seventh Commandment, woman."
    "Did the prince have a black beard by any chance?" asked his other brother, a professor of criminal law in Groningen. "Was he dressed in a green uniform, with a pistol perhaps?"
    Onno faltered, set his glass down, put both hands against the wall, and began shaking with laughter.
    "He's enjoying it, the windbag."
    "Mother!" shouted Onno with a choking voice. "They know! It's come out!"
    "What has come out?"
    "That you deceived Father with Fidel Castro."
    "Me, deceive Father? Wherever did you get that idea? I don't even know the man."
    "Joke, dear, joke."
    "Funny kind of jokes they tell here. I've never deceived Father."
    "You deceived me!" cried Onno, standing up and raising a trembling forefinger like a prophet. "With Father! By conceiving me!"
    At that moment his youngest sister, two heads shorter than he, loomed in front of him and took his hand. He allowed himself to be led into the room like a clumsy circus bear.
    "That's really enough, Onno," she said softly. "There are limits."
    "Who told you that?"
    "I don't mind at all, I can take a dig or two, but you're embarrassing Mother. She can't follow your strange sense of humor."
    "Strange sense of humor?" he repeated. "I mean every word. Doesn't anyone understand that? Not even you? If even you don't understand me, who will? Oh, where is there someone who understands me!"
    "Stop it. You're simply being provocative, and you're enjoying it."
    "Of course, of course, but I also mean it. I also mean what I don't mean."
    "Oh yes, tell me more."
    "No, you don't want me to tell