The Miernik Dossier - Charles McCarry [15]
BENTLEY: Ha! Ask the Japanese.
MIERNIK: The Americans were out of character when they did that. They say it saved lives because they didn’t have to invade. Perhaps they’re right.
BENTLEY: They were simply trying to keep the Russians out of Japan. Pure capitalist thinking. They wanted a client state in Asia. Markets.
MIERNIK: Ilona, I think you are a Communist!
BENTLEY: Would that be so terrible, if I were?
MIERNIK: Ugly. It would be ugly. Tell me that you aren’t.
BENTLEY: All right. I’m not. Am I less ugly now?
MIERNIK: Infinitely.
BENTLEY: : You interest me. Your emotions are so generalized. The Polish Question, the Germans, the Communists. What do you feel as an individual towards other individuals?
MIERNIK: Everything. Despite my nose.
BENTLEY: Your nose? What’s wrong with your nose?
MIERNIK: Cyrano, c’est moi.
BENTLEY: Nonsense. It doesn’t matter in a man. Even Cyrano found that out. He got Roxane in the end, didn’t he?
MIERNIK: Truth in life and truth in art are not the same.
BENTLEY: You think women don’t like you?
MIERNIK: I think that it’s safer to assume that they don’t.
BENTLEY: What nonsense.
MIERNIK: A matter of experience. I should be terrified to kiss you.
BENTLEY: My God.
MIERNIK: It’s true. Your beauty frightens me.
BENTLEY: Frightens you? Really frightens you?
MIERNIK: Yes.
BENTLEY: Come here.
MIERNIK: I think not, Ilona.
BENTLEY: Come here.
MIERNIK: The beauty and the beast. I’ll get you another drink.
BENTLEY: Come here.
(A pause in the tape. Male voice groans.)
BENTLEY: Did that terrify you?
MIERNIK: A little.
BENTLEY: You’re going to sit down again? You’re going to stop?
MIERNIK: What else should I do?
BENTLEY: You really are afraid. You’re really afraid.
MIERNIK: I told you I was.
BENTLEY: That’s very exciting. Is your heart beating very fast? Let me feel. No, under the shirt. Yes, feel that. It’s leaping in its cage, poor heart.
MIERNIK: Ilona, you’re cruel.
BENTLEY: Tell me that later. Here, put your hand there. On my skin. My heart isn’t at all like yours, is it? Do you feel anything?
MIERNIK: It’s a very calm heart.
BENTLEY: There, now feel it. There is no cloth in the way now. Move your hand. You’ve touched breasts before. Haven’t you?
MIERNIK: Yes.
BENTLEY: Wait. Now you can touch everything. Get up. Take off your clothes. Take them off. Quickly. You’re covered with hair. That’s very exciting. You are a beast. No, stay standing. I’ll take off your shoes. You’re very big, bigger than Nigel. He has no hair, just a little there and around there. He has no skin at the end. The end of yours is moist. It smells like the forest, like ferns in the forest.
MIERNIK: Ilona, my God.
BENTLEY: Come down on the floor. Take off your glasses. Put your face there. Kiss. How do I smell? Do you like that smell? Is it a forest smell? Is it a sweet taste? Not inside so much. Find the place. Find the place. There. Sweetly, do it sweetly. Now kiss my mouth. Yes. Taste yourself, taste myself. Turn over. Let me see it. It’s beating too, like your heart. Feel the wet, feel the warm. You’re beating inside me like a heart. Now you’re happy. Now you’re beautiful.
(Long pause in tape.)
BENTLEY: You make love with your eyes closed.
MIERNIK: I do?
BENTLEY: You do. Why do you close your eyes?
MIERNIK: I don’t know. Don’t you?
BENTLEY: Never. I watch faces.
MIERNIK: What do you see?
BENTLEY: I don’t know. Pain.
MIERNIK: You saw pain in me?
BENTLEY: I think so.
MIERNIK: It was not pain, Ilona.
BENTLEY: Did all this surprise you?
MIERNIK: It positively astonished me.
BENTLEY: You didn’t say so.
MIERNIK: There’s a time for keeping quiet.
BENTLEY: Did my talking disturb you?
MIERNIK: I never heard anyone talk like that.
BENTLEY: Sometimes I say worse things.
MIERNIK: Like what?
BENTLEY: You’ll hear in a minute.
MIERNIK: Say only beautiful things. You are too beautiful.
BENTLEY: Would you say I’m good at it?
MIERNIK: Yes.
BENTLEY: So are you, my lad. It’s all that hair, and the smell of you.
MIERNIK: Thanks.
BENTLEY: I’m trying to make you laugh.