She said that both his hands would get better, at any rate, he would be able to use them, for something.

He gazed into space, unable to understand.

She repeated what she had said. He nodded and stared at the window pane, which resembled a thin layer of ice. She boiled some more fish and potatoes and fed him when he indicated he couldn’t hold the spoon. She had something to eat herself, and took out the coffee mill, placed it between her knees and for the first time perceived a slight smile on his handsome face, the aroma of precious coffee in a kitchen and the sound of beans being ground. Ingrid had never seen whiter teeth and reflected on the uniform he had been wearing over the rags. She started asking him questions, which he didn’t understand.

She pressed him, he mumbled a few words, and they didn’t sound German. She asked him where he came from and how old he was and heard other words by way of an answer, they too were repeated, so she decided they must mean: I don’t understand.

There could be many reasons for him to be wearing a German uniform. Such as?

Ingrid got up, put the coffee into the kettle and waited until the grounds rose like a gas bubble in black mire and burst, then she lifted the kettle and banged it hard, twice, on the stove rings and poured out two cups, but didn’t place one in front of him. She put her own to her lips and drank, keeping her eyes on him as she asked if he wanted some coffee and heard him answer:

“Da, spasiba.”

She gripped the cup and asked him again if he wanted some coffee, he looked right and left, irritated and exhausted, as he repeated the two words and said something else, which didn’t sound German, either.

She gave him the cup.

He placed his white bundle on the table and knocked the cup over. She apologised, wiped the table and re-filled his cup, squeezed onto the bench, behind him, so that he had to lean back against her and she put the cup to his lips. He twisted his head, glanced up at her in surprise and slurped down some coffee while she became aware of the presence of a man in the house, and that there was no longer the slightest trace of that terrible stench. They sat like this to the sound of staccato breathing, as though she had never been a woman before, and could now allow herself for the first time to be filled with the overwhelming certainty that a different island did exist.

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