The Winner Stands Alone Read Free Page A

Perhaps theyre lying in bed, reading
     magazines, ignoring each other.
    Not that it matters. Igor is alone and tired and needs to sleep.

The Winnder Stands Alone
    7:22
    
    
     AM
    He wakes up at 7:22
    
    
     a.m.
    
    
     , much earlier than his body would like, but he hasnt yet adapted to the time difference
     between Moscow and Paris. If he was at work, he would already have held two or three
     meetings with his subordinates and be preparing to have lunch with some new client.
    He has another task to fulfill here: he must find someone he can sacrifice in the name of
     love. He needs a victim, so that Ewa will get his message that very morning.
    He has a bath, goes downstairs to have a coffee in an almost de- serted restaurant, then
     sets off along the Boulevard de la Croisette on which nearly all the major luxury hotels
     are located. There is no traffic because one lane is blocked off and only cars with
     official permission are being allowed through. The other lane is empty because even the
     people who live in the city are still only just getting ready to go to work.
    He feels no resentment. He has passed the really difficult phase, when he couldnt sleep
     because he was so filled with pain and hatred. Now he can understand Ewas feelings: after
     all, monogamy is a myth that has been rammed down peoples throats for far too long. He has
     read a lot on the subject. The inability to be monogamous isnt just a matter of excess
     hormones or vanity, but, as all the research indicates, a genetic configuration found in
     almost all animals. Paternity tests given to birds, monkeys, and foxes revealed that simply because these
     species had developed a social relationship very similar to marriage did not necessarily
     mean that they had been faith- ful to each other. In seventy percent of cases, their
     offspring turn out to have been fathered by males other than their partners. Igor remem-
     bered something written by David Barash, professor of psychology at the University of
     Washington in Seattle, in which he said that the only species in nature that doesnt commit
     adultery and in which there seems to be one hundred percent monogamy is a flatworm,
     Diplozoon paradoxum. The male and female worms meet as adolescents, and their bodies
     literally fuse together.
    This is why he cannot accuse Ewa of anything; she was merely fol- lowing her human
     instincts. However, she had been brought up to be- lieve in those unnatural social
     conventions and must be feeling guilty, thinking that he doesnt love her anymore and will
     never forgive her.
    He is, in fact, prepared to do anything, even to send messages that will mean he has
     destroyed someones world, just so that shell know that not only is he willing to welcome
     her back, he will gladly bury the past and ask no questions.
    He sees a young woman
    
    
     setting out her wares on the pave- mentvarious bits of craftwork and jewelry of rather
     dubious taste.
    Yes, she will be the sacrifice. She is the message he must send, a message that will be
     understood as soon as it reaches its destination. Before going over to her, he observes
     her tenderly; she doesnt know that in a little while, if all goes well, her soul will be
     wandering the clouds, free forever from an idiotic job that will never take her where her
     dreams would like her to go.
    How much? he asks in perfect French. Which piece do you want, sir? All of them. The young
     womanwho must be twenty at mostsmiles. This isnt the first time someone has asked to buy
     everything. The next step is usually: Would you like to go for a walk? Youre far too pretty to be here
     selling these things. Im . . .
    No, Im not. I dont work in the movies, nor am I going to make you an actress and change
     your life. Im not interested in the things youre selling either. I just need to talk, and
     we can do that right here.
    The young woman averts her gaze.
    My parents make these things, and Im proud