"An Apple in the River" "There once was an island on which lived a young man." "The island wasn't far, far away, nor across many seas, but right here, in the middle of Riga." "Even though it's called Hare Island, it had no hares." "Even the name of the young man was ordinary-Jānis." "While Jānis takes a swim, we can take a look at the towers of Old Town." "As you can see, they are the same as on postcards, on the labels of "Black Balsam" and "Riga Beer", the same as on the sides of "Riga" washing machines and on the backs of "Dinamo Riga" hockey players." "But people are the main thing, so let's turn to Jānis." "Truth be told: the girls like him." "And he likes them." "Good morning, Gramps!" " Good morning!" "Gramps-an old harbor man, now retired." "For them, mornings come early." "Do you hear that?" "A man who works on the river is coming home, while others are still in bed, turning to the other side." "Ludis Kalniņš, that's how everyone on Hare Island calls him, to differentiate him from the many other Kalniņš's, who have here, on the Daugava River, fished and driven logs for five or six generations already." "Gramps has his worries." "While his granddaughter is sleeping, he heads to the shop." "Those who work in the city hurry to the ferry." "For a few months now, in the mornings, Jānis heads to his job on the docks." "If the girls from the club where he plays guitar on Saturdays saw him now, they'd think that only the supervisor of all of the ships could walk so nobly." "Not so long ago, Jānis felt like a bug here, ready to be stepped on at any minute." "He thought that the place was in complete chaos." "Faster, friend!" "Release it." " OK" "Try each screw nut, otherwise it won't work." "Understand?" "Is this any more difficult than putting strings on a guitar?" "There!" "Suddenly, it's all clear to Jānis." "Now he'll be able to pull this up and attach the ship's rudder and propeller because he's finally done with his screw nuts." "Maybe this is one of those times when a laborer becomes a worker?" "That is "Sena"." "An old aquaintance." "Now that will be a job!" "You know, we've gotten a real gumshoe!" "Once you work on this, you'll understand what a ship is." "If it needs work, I'll work." "I'm a bit used to this place." "When the ferry arrives after work, the island's uneventful life gets a boost." "Some come to the pier just for the heck of it." "Someone thinks that the prince of their dreams may arrive- a single cosmonaut, or at least, a movie director." "Gramps is waiting for his son and daughter-in-law." "They're not here..." "He starts worrying-they're both trolleybus drivers in the city." "So many accidents happen." "It's on the radio every evening." "Jānis has no worries-he's all on his own, so there's no real problem." "He also doesn't have to worry about his possessions, like some do." "Uncle Vanya!" "Come, help the old ladies." "I don't know, is there any point in taking our things-we're practically on wheels already." "They already want to drive us away." " Really?" "And you?" " Haven't heard anything yet." "Nothing's changed with us." "Everything's quiet and peaceful." "The commission came in the spring." "But who knows when the moving will happen." "They'll notify us." " Yes, right." "Look-there's a completely black one!" "The bridge builders will turn Hare Island upside down." "I don't even want to move to those new apartment buildings." "You understand?" "Don't say that." " No, listen to what I'm saying!" "Those new buildings, I hear, have a lot of good things." "That may be, but there's just empty sand all around." "No vegetation, nothing." "You have to keep your door locked at all times." "Here, the doors are open, we walk barefoot." "Here, I can wash my clothes and hang them out to dry." "Oho, wash them in a machine!" " The machine pulls all the buttons off." "I'm just fine here." "It should be mentioned that where there's smoke, there's fire." "The new bridge connecting the two sides of Riga will go directly over Hare Island." "The inhabitants will have to leave this pleasant plot of land." "But for now, Ludis Kalniņš is readying the fish trap for evening." "Gramps is readying fuel for winter." "How's it going?" " Have a seat." "It's a big job." "All of this wood has worked." "What do you mean,"worked"?" " Every piece of wood has served as something." "Maybe as a post for a pier, or somewhere else." "We laid a road in Siberia from logs like these." "It's really durable." "You were in Siberia?" "I thought you had lived here this whole time." "During the civil war, when we fought against Kolchak." "Why, what time is it?" "About eight?" " That's about right." "Eight." "He's sick, don't touch him." "You can get all sorts of diseases from a pigeon like that." "Look, he's dying." "Faster!" "Let's go to the river!" "Children." "A pile of firewood." "A tub of water and an apple tree by the corner." "It's just as taken for granted that Gramps is somewhere in the yard." "That's strange, Jānis thinks, we don't even call him by his name" "Just "Gramps" and "Gramps", like his granddaughter calls him." "And now it turns out that Gramps has participated in events that books are written about and films are made about." "Maybe he believes that serving during wartime is just as common a job like sawing firewood;" "it simply must be done." "Jānis likes all the girls." "The poor guy doesn't realize that soon, he'll like just one." "But let's not get ahead of ourselves." "Gramp's daughter-in-law is making dinner." "Gramps has lived in this room for forty years." "He worked on the docks, his son was born here, the son brought home a wife," "Inga came into the world, and Gramps went to live on the other side of the wardrobe." "The Rozenbergs Family is awaiting the move to their new home as no one else." "Actually, the closest star to us, Alpha Centauri, is 25 trillion..." "I got some good meat today." " I have the second shift again tomorrow." "I'ts quite lean." " As we saw-that is the border." "Inga, put that down!" "To get to the North Star and back," "Drink your milk!" "it would take at least 600 years." "Not all at once!" "A trip to the edge of our galaxy and back would take at least one thousand five hundred years." "All day along the river's edge?" " Nothing!" "At least five million years to reach the Andromeda Galaxy and back." "But what about Jānis?" "Jānis has decided to compose a song." "He's already chosen a key and has two measures down." "If he could just think up the rest, he could perform at the Sopot Festival." "Whatever morning, whatever summer- it seems that as long as the Daugava is there- they await the sunrise on the water." "Ludis Kalniņš is already halfway through his eighth decade." "His partner in the fishing brigade is Kārlis Ķēniņš (Eng.- king)." "Unlike other kings named Kārlis, he's never fished in strange cities and rivers, and has honorably worked his whole life on his own river, and with his own hands." "What drives the vimba to leave the sea and come upriver into the Daugava?" "And what drives them?" "Ludis Kalniņš laughs:" "he'll rest when he's in the grave." "Without the river?" "That's like without a job." "We're used to it since childhood." "Yes, today is Midsummer's Day." "When the oak leaf and the calamus root wilt and smell so sweet" "(paper doesn't smell) the old boys, this time with their wives along, go to the shed of Ludis Kalniņš, their leader." "Since it's his name day and he's the musician, Jānis is also there." "Be sensible tonight, otherwise you'll end up like the centipede- so many legs and he had to take a drink for each one." "Here, the men are like stags." " Beer, beer, Father Jānis!" "What will we get, master?" "Just wait, you'll get some." "I like sailors and their free life," "And the ships that float like white swans." "I like it in Africa, Where the people are not white," "But have forever been born black." "I like it in Africa, Where people are black," "And the girls seem like real devils." "I like it on Hare Island, And Hare Island's colorful gardens," "And the ferry that goes back and forth." "Listen, Ludis, can't we sing something?" "You're a log driver." "How did it go about those good boys?" "Everyone asks, who are they, Who are these good boys." "They are all boys of the Daugava, Strong rowers of oars." "Come, girl, to me, You'll never be hungry." "In the winter, I'll give you ice to chew, In the spring -green grass." "And right in the middle of summer, Red and white clover." "Here's how it happened, back then, when I wanted to become an anchor-man, well, they're called log drivers now." "That's the way it was." "There wasn't work here, so I went to the "Black Exchange"." "You know, the square of St. Mary's Church now." "I met an anchor-man, and got to know him." "All right, we drank some vodka." ""Know what-you don't have a job, go to Viesīte and become an anchor-man!"" "But I said:" "I have no experience, I don't know anything." "I've never even seen a real tree." ""We'll teach you!"" "But I said:" "I don't have any boots." ""That doesn't matter!"" "He took me there, to a place where there was a shopkeeper named Veinereits." "He orders me some boots." "Fifty-five lats!" "Dear people, where can I get such money?" "I barely made it through the winter!" "There it was." "The young ones don't even know." "The olden days." "Was it really so bad?" "If someone was out of work, he could fish the coal out of the river bottom, that the steam-ships had dropped, and sell it." "She used to have centime or two back then, as Jānis's neighbor recalls." "See, how everything changes." "Only pictures remain." "Time passes." "I used to keep all of these things in three rooms." " Three?" "Yes, my husband was a wood inspector, an elegant man." "We lived well and had lots of things." " Had things." "Oh, well." "I didn't have to work, either." "Take some fruit!" "Help yourself!" "Thanks." "They're still a bit unripe." "Your place looks like a museum or an antique shop." "It's not like it was." "Back then, when I called for the craftsman, I could offer him a glass of liqueur." "OK." "I'm not a craftsman, and I don't need anything." "Hand me that iron, I'll look at it." "It's old, that iron, just like everything in this house." "In the end- of what interest can the olden days be to a young person, who has two holidays ahead of him!" "That's the dyke for the Riga hydroelectric station that's being built." "Soon, there will be a large lake here and fish will live in the stoves of the abandoned houses." "People have taken to calling them gold diggers." "Every joke has some truth to it." "While the waters haven't yet obliterated everything, archeologists are busily working on the old walls of the castle and church." "It's widely known that it's best to address ladies in Italian, so that's why Jānis says:" "Ciao!" "Good luck with your work!" "There are lots of guys around here like you, trying to see if they can nick a skull." "I have my own." "I don't need another." "Oh, you don't, do you?" "Maybe we can go to the cinema, yes?" "To the double feature." "Well, OK.-You can't always catch a fish without an empty hook." "So I'll put on some bait." " There, so you do understand." "For instance, I look a lot like the French actor, Belmondo." "I play the guitar, sing." "Isn't that enough?" "There's a time for laughter, and a time for pondering." "Rock retains what is written on it, but not the living language." "What did the language sound like in this Livonian house, by this Livonian stove, by this Livonian well?" "Ask the winds of the world!" "New tribes come and build new houses." "And a game has just begun, just like a hundred years ago, a thousand years ago." "What are you looking at?" "You want me to leave?" "No." "Because our boss is about to beat you up." "Well, I better go get a sword or at least a razor." "Don't look!" "Ķengarags!" "Look at all the new apartment buildings!" "But they're all the same." "If I could live here, I wouldn't be angry at all." "I live on Hare Island." "Maybe you know of it- it's a little island by the iron bridge, on the way to Jūrmala." " I've never been there." "I've only been living here, in Riga, for about three months." "Really?" "Do you want to come to our club?" "I play there." "To a club?" "Will there be interesting boys there?" "I have to change then." "We should be there by nine." "Wait for me down by the riverside." "I live here with my Riga relatives." "Hope they're not too surprised!" "Well." "I couldn't say that you were in a great hurry." "It took a while." "Fas!" "Go get it!" "Come back!" "It seems to me you're not used to waiting?" "Could be." " Am I right?" "Could be." " Not at all?" "I don't believe it." "What's there not to believe." " You've really never had to wait?" "Do you want to know my biography?" " Yes." "Except for my name, Anita, do you know anything else about me?" "Too bad..." "Not even that I didn't get accepted into the English Department at University." "I'm just working with the archeologists now." "They don't know about this back home." "Now you want me to feel sorry for you, like for a child that has hurt her finger." "I don't need to be pitied!" "How much do we know about one another?" "Little, very little." "It's like we're celebrating together," "It's like we're working together." "And we pretend that we know each other, And we meet somewhere in crossing." "We each roll our ball of yarn - But we're smart, we're so smart!" "We each put our half-meter next to another's life, as if it were cloth." "And then we become angry, When it's not like that, but different." "And we pretend that we know each other, And we meet somewhere in crossing." "It's like we're celebrating together, It's like we're working together." "Now that's unfair:" "you take a girl to a party and are forced to watch her dance with another." "You can come over to my place." "No, really." "We can catch the last ferry." "Have you been on it?" "But we have to go now." "We'll make coffee." "Coffee." "That awful aunt that you live with, do you think she'll send your mother a telegram to Salacgrīva, saying that you didn't come home one night?" "Who is she- head nun at a cloister, huh?" "Are you scared of her?" "I do what I want to do." "The window is crying in the fog, What's there to deny-it's not worth it." "I have only loved you." "What sort of juice do you put on your lips," "That they glow with such red lightness?" "There, where the boulevards steam, I met you once," "And I haven't known peace since." "On that corner, where a crooked beggar is asking for money, I'll be trampled..." "Oh well." "An old song." "Was that a song, thinks Anita, or a declaration?" "I don't have China dishes, but the coffee is real." "Jānis speaks, trying to guess how real is the indifference in Anita's face." "No sugar for me." "She's not like that-Jānis thinks." "Jānis wants it." "Although, she very well knew that the next ferry would only come in the morning." "That's for teenagers." " No." "What do you mean for teenagers?" "Aren't those Japanese miniatures?" " No.Those are like in our club." "Who?" "The negroes?" "Awful." "Is that a person or a robot?" " People, see..." "Here..." "Yes, here." "Cars." "Tankers." "I see." " Splash!" "See, fish!" " Oh, how sweet!" "This was the male, these two -females." "That's for salmon sandwiches." "Don't mistake a whale with a salmon, I'm a fisherman's daughter." "Don't give me any sugar." " Does it taste better that way?" "You think that you know how to smoke?" "That it looks modern?" "Don't know." " Or maybe, because other girls do it?" "Don't know." "And about your boyfriend- a captain on a seafaring ship, that was just a story?" " Yes." "A black cat in the morning isn't a good sign." "But if you think about it- what can ruin the mood of two young, life-loving people?" "Quite exotic." "I haven't seen anything like this for a long time." "It's no worse than at the Open-air Ethnographic Museum." "Yes, I can almost agree with you." " And you can see it for free." "Look, everything's almost rotten." " Of course." "But did you know that that fence is made from the boards of an old ship?" "Look here, where did he catch a minnow like that?" "Nice, isn't it?" "Yes." "A very stable couple." "The beauty is indescribable." " It really is." "Well, then let's get on the next one." "It's just a twenty-minute wait." "Like in a book of Pīgoznis' paintings!" "If these poetic apples can be prosaically put on a ferry and can then be taken to the Central Market, then it's understandable why, for instance, this citizen doesn't leave her house, even though in the new neighborhood on the other side of the river," "she's being given a three-room apartment in its place." "A wise man once said:" "there are people, who don't even want people to do good things for them." "The new bridge- some await it, some disdain it- has become a tangible thing." "And a nice autumn day, moving day has come to Hare Island." "Hey, Jānis, how's it going?" " Good!" "Hello!" "They say you're also packing your suitcase." "Only the old folks are staying." "Good, I have to go to Riga." " Back to the girls, again?" "Humorous fellows..." "But isn't it also humorous, thinks Jānis, that one girl in the city can get lost like a needle in a haystack." "She's nowhere." "She's gone;" "no letters, not a single call." "Haven't you seen the sea?" "Why are you hanging about the seaside all day?" "Are you warm?" "Playin' wi' the dog." "Could'a milked the cow." "Hey, not that!" "What are you thinking!" "The piglet needs chopped taters..." "I'll chop them, mom, but the cow-no!" "You can do something to help!" "Pūpol, come!" "Pūpol, come here!" "What a hunter!" "Where's that Pūpols?" "Pūpol, come!" "Hey, hey." "No!" " Beciņ, Beciņ!" "Daughter, you're floundering through life like a fish out of water." "Mom, not again!" "Your dad will be coming home from the sea..." "It broke." "What should I tell your father?" "That his daughter's sitting at home again?" "Dad thinks you're studying in Riga." "Not pulling apart anymore?" "I'll knit you that sweater that you wanted." "Yes, you have to look for a job in Riga." "What will you do here-hang up fish to dry in the factory?" "Home..." "It seems that everything is the same." "But between the two closest people in the world, there stands some sort of curtain, a fence, maybe even a wall." "The wild apple tree, where Anita's father used to hang her swing, is again giving back to the ground its bitter fruit." "All of these weeks, the sea has been calm." "But Anita senses that her mother knows, even though it has never been spoken about." "One evening, while firing the stove, mother speaks first." "I don't understand how you can be craving those sour wild apples, you've never liked them before." " Wild apples..." "Just because." "Maybe you're trying to hide something from me?" "I just remembered an epiphany by Imants Ziedonis- they're like short stories." "And in them, he writes:" "I have gone too far from my mother- she can't help me any longer..." " Yes..." "Several weeks have gone by since Anita has returned to Riga." "You're one of a kind- you just up and go away for a couple of months." "I should have become a detective." "I scared your aunt." "She says: she's gone." "I ask: for good?" "She doesn't know." "You'll have to dance!" "I have new things to tell!" "My "Shanghai" on Hare Island is being torn down, and I'm getting a flat in a new apartment house." "Congratulations." "Twenty..." "Yes, twenty-one point three square meters." "A little person..." "Catch!" "What's with you?" "We're having a child." "Maybe this tragedy isn't even all that big..." "Listen, tell your aunt "bye" and come live with me!" "Right." "There will be space enough for both of us, and maybe for even the doll." "You're acting as if your life is over." "In my grandmother's youth, that would be called a marriage proposal?" "No." "Why not?" "Because that's a gift out of pity." "I'm getting cold." "Take me to the tram." "That autumn, the Daugava's log drivers gathered at their last bonfire." "The hydroelectric dam blocked the river and log driving was stopped." "Along with the last raft of logs, this hard, but legendary and much-sung-about trade, floated into the past." "After the depressing autumn rains, it finally snowed." "It didn't keep for long, but since there wasn't any snow at all the following year, then the people remembered that winter as something clean and bright." "Jānis still works on the docks, but he looks at his old home-Hare Island, from the height of eleven stories, when he goes out on the balcony to have a smoke." "Yes, the tower of Peter was finished and every Rigan thought to himself:" "may it never again have to be restored." "Anita now works as a guide at "Intourist", and when she has a free moment, stops by the cafe, "Pils"." "But girls, I found a magazine, where her lover did..." "One of her lovers..." "Yes, yes." "At least, that's what it said." "Of course, who can know what is..." "There they know everything, everything about..." "She meets with Estonians..." "Do you need a collapsible umbrella?" " I dreadfully do!" "It's Japanese." "Honeys, I don't need a thing." " You always have everything." "Yes, that's the way he is." "But Jānis has managed to get married and he's raising a daughter." "Truth be told, he hasn't composed his song yet- family life has done away with more than one talent, as can be found out in the series, "Lives of Notable People"." "A little rock."