Primeval and Other Times

THE TIME OF IVAN MUKTA

Ivan Mukta showed Izydor all the important things.

He started by showing him the world without God.

Then he took him to the forest, where the partisans shot by the Germans were buried. Izydor had known many of these men. Afterwards he came down with a fever and lay in the cool bedroom on his sister’s bed. Misia refused to let Ivan Mukta in to see him.

“It amuses you to show him all those dreadful things. But he’s still a child.”

In the end, however, she let Ivan sit by Izydor’s bed. He put his rifle at the foot of it.

“Ivan, tell me about death and about what happens after it. And tell me if I have an immortal soul that will never die,” asked Izydor.

“There’s a tiny spark in you that will never go out. And I’ve got one in me, too.”

“Have we all got one? The Germans, too?”

“Everyone. Now sleep. When you get better, I’ll take you to our place in the forest.”

“Please go now,” said Misia, looking in from the kitchen.

Once Izydor was better, Ivan kept his promise and took Izydor to the Russian units that were stationed in the forest. He also let him look through his binoculars at the Germans in Kotuszów. Izydor was amazed to see that through them the Germans looked no different from the Russians. They had uniforms of a similar colour, similar trenches, and similar helmets. So he found it even harder to understand why they shot at Ivan, as he carried orders from the gloomy lieutenant in his leather shoulder bag. They also shot at Izydor when he accompanied him. Izydor had to swear he wouldn’t tell anyone about this. If his father found out, he would tan his hide.

Ivan Mukta showed Izydor another thing that he couldn’t tell anyone about. Not because he wasn’t allowed, or Ivan had forbidden him, but because the memory of it made him feel anxious and ashamed – too strongly to say anything about it, but not too strongly to stop him thinking about it.

“Everything couples. It has always been like that. The need to couple is the most powerful need of all. You only have to look around.”

He knelt down on the path they were walking along, and pointed at the coupled abdomens of two insects.

“It’s instinct, in other words, something you can’t control.”

Suddenly Ivan Mukta unbuttoned his flies and shook his penis.

“That’s the tool for coupling. It fits in the hole between a woman’s legs, because there’s order in the world. Each thing fits into another.”

Izydor went as red as a beetroot. He didn’t know what to say. He looked down at the path. They went out into the fields beyond the Hill, out of range of the German fire. A goat was grazing by some abandoned buildings.

“When there aren’t many women, like now, the tool fits into your hand, into the backsides of other soldiers, into holes dug in the ground, or into various animals. Stay here and watch,” said Ivan Mukta quickly, and handed Izydor his cap and map case. He ran up to the goat, shifted his gun onto his back, and dropped his trousers.

Izydor saw Ivan press against the goat’s rump and start rhythmically moving his hips. The faster Ivan’s movements became, the more Izydor was rooted to the spot.

When Ivan came back for his cap and map case, Izydor was crying.

“Why are you crying? Feeling sorry for the animal?”

“I want to go home.”

“Of course. Off you go! Everyone wants to go home.”

The boy turned and ran into the forest. Ivan Mukta wiped his sweating brow, put on his cap and, whistling a sad tune, went on his way.