Comrade commissar

Lee Chen Woe meets the head commissar, quite unexpectedly.

 

 

The honey moon is over! I took him for such a moron! He did surprise me, oh yes!  I don't know him well enough yet. Frankly, without bias, I’ve nearly lost my temper, twice at least... while being with him; just a few moments ago as a matter of fact, just before leaving him in his cell. It isn't a piece of cake as I expected it to be, on the contrary… I was on the verge of a very deep precipice, almost without realizing it! But I did manage after all, at the end.  The American, dear and precious comrade Spree, isn't as dumb as I did believe. I’ve had to grind my teeth real hard, otherwise I might have lost my temper.

Reaching her room's door she stopped still facing it, and listened attentively to any unusual sounds her ears might pick; whether in her own room or somewhere in the corridor. Throwing a quick glance to both her sides, she pushed the door open and entered.

At the far end of her room opposite the entrance, near the open window stood a dark figure of a man; he was engulfed in light beams and ever curling upward smoke, against the purple-orange sky of an early dusk.      

 Whether he was looking outside or was watching her or who he was, she could not tell at her first glimpse. She shut the door silently, and leaned back on it. Her hand was still on the door's knob.

The head commissar himself… She realized suddenly, awe stricken.

‘Get closer will you, it’s your room and I'm your guest.’  He said in a low and calm voice. ‘Come on,’ he added softly encouraging her. ‘American cigarettes...’ He went on pulling a foreign brand packet out of his shirt's pocket.  ‘Some one has bothered to bring me a present, a souvenir from Saigon’s war spoils. Here take one.’ He said stretching out his hand, with the open packet.

‘I don't smoke comrade commissar.’ She refused his offer humbly with a bowed head.

‘You used to...’

‘I had to comrade commissar just when I'd to.’

What else did you smoke when you had to?’

‘I had to prepare it for others long ago, but I didn't touch it.’

‘You mean you didn't smoke the stuff, although you did touch it. All right, don't disturb yourself, switch on the light and do seat down and write your report.’

The electric bulb flooded the almost bare room with its yellow harsh light, driving away the shadows that separated them. He was not impressive at all at first sight. At the two previous occasions, in which she had the honor to meet him he was seated; while she hardly dared to look up and see him. He had a rather thin body, medium height and an emaciated face. Only the cold hard look of his penetrating eyes told the amount of authority that he has.    

 She went over to her desk and set to work, under his watchful stare, animated by his presence and short questioning. While he turned back to the window to the dying sun and the purplish sky, half an hour had elapsed, and she was still writing.

She heard him move about and sneaking a side-glance, she saw him approaching her. Bending forward over her he stood quietly at her side, reading the written report above her head. She wrote her last sentence signed the report, laid her pen in its place and waited patiently for his next move. It couldn't have been a coincidence of course. She was quite sure of that. He would have me summoned, just as he did last time. No, that surprise meeting was premeditated. He had to check me himself and those straight embarrassing questions, plus deciphering my hand writing right afterwards must be the appropriate technique for it! There is of course my written evidence to compare against the recorded data, which he memorizes in his brain, no doubt.        

‘Add it to the dossier and take the dossier with you, we are leaving.’ He ordered her briskly.                     

Turning her head up, Lee Chen Woe looked into his face with anxious wide open eyes,  not daring to ask where, or what for.                           

‘A village not far from here, you'll accompany a daughter of mine. She is about your age, a bit younger maybe; anyway that's the best solution I've got for the time being.’ With these few words said, he turned and sat facing her, leaning his elbows on the desk, thrusting his head forward.

‘Your remarks enlighten a crucial point, which you have to comprehend yet. Comrade Spree's mentality is different from ours in many ways, just as our East is different from their West.’ He added with a hint of a smile.              

Well the test is over, it seems... She thought with relief.  And it looks as if I passed it with merit! The way the “old fox” chose to soften the atmosphere, relieved and flattered her.

‘Oh yes! Comrade commissar, I see...’ She answered with a faint smile,  nodding her head in obedience.                     

‘So don't let his somewhat naive reactions deceive you.’ He told her, watching her bowed head. ‘He is not the cunning type, but on the other hand he is not a fool, and he doesn't play one, though I find him indifferent in some respect. What you have achieved in these four days, is adequate up to this point but not anymore. You'll have to use more often your fangs,  and laugh in his face while doing so. Whenever you are re-inflating his down crushed ego, do it with well-concealed threats. He must be thrown from deep despair to hope again and vice versa with much more vigor and with much more frequency!’

Drawing into her lungs a deep breath of air, she heard him rap on the floor with his shoe, in a rapid order-like cadence.             

‘I'm ready comrade commissar...’ She hastened to declare.

‘It's all right, relax, I've summoned them.’ 

They kept sitting in silence, till they heard them coming, their approaching footsteps in the corridor and the light knock on the door.

‘Let's go!’ He said rising to his feet.

 

© Haim Kadman 1991 �" all rights reserved.