The Miernik Dossier

24. TELEPHONE CONVERSATION BETWEEN TADEUSZ MIERNIK AND ILONA BENTLEY (RECORDED 3 JUNE-AT 1955 HOURS).

MIERNIK: Ilona? Here is the hairy beast.

BENTLEY: Miernik? Quelle jolie surprise.

MIERNIK: I waited a week to phone you. I thought you’d admire my self-control.

BENTLEY: I thought you were making a very slow recovery.

MIERNIK: Maybe I will never recover.

BENTLEY: You sound very sick and sorrowful.

MIERNIK: Yes, I suppose I do.

BENTLEY: That’s very flattering. Good-bye.

(Connection broken here. Miernik dials again; Bentley answers on tenth ring.)

MIERNIK: Ilona, I want to talk to you. Don’t ring off.

BENTLEY: Why not? I don’t seem to make you very happy.

MIERNIK: Is making me happy so important to you?

BENTLEY: Making people unhappy is not what I like.

MIERNIK: It’s not you. Hasn’t he told you what’s happened?

BENTLEY: He? Who?

MIERNIK: Your Englishman.

BENTLEY: Nigel? What’s happened with you and Nigel?

MIERNIK: He gave me the sack. My government is taking away my passport.

BENTLEY: (Laughs). Oh, that. I thought it might be something else.

MIERNIK: You say “Oh, that?” This is not merely “Oh, that,” Ilona. If I go back to Poland, I go to prison. If I remain here or anywhere without papers I cease to exist. A man without a passport simply vanishes from life. He is a fugitive from everyone.

BENTLEY: I know. It’s terrible. I’m very sorry, Tadeusz, truly I am.

MIERNIK: What did you think I was talking about? There could be something worse?

BENTLEY: Not worse, more embarrassing. I thought perhaps you and Nigel had been comparing notes.

MIERNIK: Ilona!

BENTLEY: Men are men. I know how you can be.

MIERNIK: I cannot be like that. But I think your Englishman suspects something. He is very, very cold to me.

BENTLEY: Suspects something? How can he suspect anything unless one of us gives him reason?

MIERNIK: Have you given him reason?

BENTLEY: I haven’t seen him.

MIERNIK: Are you sure?

BENTLEY: What the hell is this, a police interrogation? What I do is my affair-not Nigel’s, and not yours either, my friend.

MIERNIK: I apologize. I didn’t mean…

BENTLEY: All right. I am not a piece of property.

MIERNIK: I have been wondering.

BENTLEY: Wondering what?

MIERNIK: If you would like to have dinner again. Tonight.

BENTLEY: I’ve eaten.

MIERNIK: Now you are angry.

BENTLEY: No, just not hungry.

MIERNIK: Tomorrow, then.

BENTLEY: I won’t be hungry tomorrow either, I’m afraid.

MIERNIK: I see. Once was enough.

BENTLEY: There is something I call Ilona’s Law. “Enjoy the experience but watch out for the aftermath.” I see it proved every day.

MIERNIK: Not with everyone with whom you have an experience, I expect.

BENTLEY: The vast majority.

MIERNIK: It’s a new experience for me to be in a majority of any kind. I don’t like it as much as I always thought I would.

BENTLEY: Miernik, you must stop feeling sorry for yourself all the time. With you, if it isn’t politics it’s sex. Why don’t you just live and make the best of things like everyone else?

MIERNIK: A good question. I think I won’t see you again. I thank you for everything.

BENTLEY: Look, Miernik, if you want to…

MIERNIK: Now it is I who say good-bye.

(Conversation terminates at 2006 hours.)