Calgary, January 2020
Mr. Josef Novak and his wife, Jana, were as typical Czech family as their name suggested. Their favourite food was pork with dumplings and sauerkraut, and they liked beer. Josef was an engineer who worked at Tesla Institute of Electronics in Prague, and Jana was a librarian. After their wedding, they lived with Jana’s parents for several years and, finally, after a long wait, and after their son, Pavel, was born, they got an apartment in a panelak (a large rental building built from prefabricated panels). Now Pavel was five years old, the family had a car and a cabin by the lake, and life followed the usual, predictable routine. Jana’s parents looked after Pavel when Josef and Jana were working and, during the weekends and holidays, the whole family fixed and improved their cabin.
In the second half of 1960s Czechoslovakia started to open to the world. For Josef it meant that he could learn more about the technological progress being made in the Western world, and he discovered how much his company was behind in electronics development. He realized that to even partially catch up, he needed to do two things: to learn English and to see with his own eyes what it was that they had. He learned some English at the university but, at that time, there was no possibility to travel, so there was little incentive to take it seriously. Now he regretted it and tried to learn as much as he could. He studied English technical literature and looked for a conference he could attend. When he found one in London, he went to his boss, claimed he could speak English, and convinced him to finance the trip. What he saw in London really impresses him. Some of the equipment was completely new to him, for prices that seemed surprisingly low. When he returned to Prague, he was ecstatic. “Look what they have and look at the prices. We can buy some of it and experiment,” John told his boss enthusiastically while showing him the brochures he brought back.
Unfortunately, the good news didn’t last. All collapsed on the 21st of August 1968, when Czechoslovakia was invaded by the Soviet army. For Josef, this was the end of a dream. To him, the prospect of returning to the past was dreadful. After a mournful farewell to their parents, Josef and Jana packed up their car, put Pavel in the back seat, and headed west to Germany and then through France to England. At that time, all the Western European countries considered Czech citizens to be political refugees and tried to help as much as they could. When Josef and his family arrived in London, he obtained a permission to stay in England, then he contacted some people he knew from the conference, went for an interview, and got a job. In the fall little Pavel started grade one and, unlike his parents, had no problem with English. All looked good, except for Jana. She was not happy. At the beginning, she really tried to fit into the English community, was taking English courses, but found it difficult. To learn a language was harder than she thought. After one year, she still could not hold a fluent conversation. During the day, Pavel was at school, so Jana found a part-time job at the library, but the only thing she could do was to shelve the books. It was nothing like her former job in Prague where she was a real librarian and selected books for the library, contacted publishing houses and communicated with authors. She missed her parents, their cabin by the lake, she missed the Czech language and dreaded the idea of being stuck in England for the rest of her life, being forever a stranger in a strange land. Josef tried to help her and pointed out the good parts of their life. Pavel liked his school, Josef had a good job, and they had a comfortable life. Jana had a freedom to improve her English, look for a better job and plan her future any way she wanted. It was all true, but Jana was not listening. She really hated England. One day, after about two years there, she told Josef:
“I want to return.”
“Return to Prague? You cannot. You are an illegal emigrant; they consider this a crime, and you would end up in jail.”
“I do not care. I just want to return.”
“You would be destroying your own life and Pavel’s and mine as well.”
“I realize that for you two, this is your new home, but for me it is not. I am not asking you to return with me, I just want to go by myself.”
“You would be destroying your life,” he repeated. “Right now, you are too emotional, and an important decision like that should wait until you calm down.”
“It is not just now. I have been thinking about it for a long time.”
“You are making a terrible mistake.”
Jana knew that Josef was right, but she could not help it. All she wanted was to get out of England. She bought a one-way ticket to Prague and asked Josef if he would drive her to the airport. Josef did, took Pavel with him, and all three were waiting for the flight announcement. When it came and Jana went to the exit gate, he told her again, “You are making a terrible mistake.” Then he watched her disappear through the gate and from their life.
Jana was waiting in the security clearance area and was thinking about Josef’s words. Maybe he was right. Maybe it was a terrible mistake. She was tempted to turn around, run to him and call, “Josef, wait for me, I have changed my mind!” but she did not do it. Then she was in the airplane, the door was closed, and there was no way back. When they landed in Prague, she knew right away that Josef was right. The hostile customs officers and the occupying troops she saw on her way to her parents’ house convinced her of that. At home, her parents were glad to see her, but the news was not good. The old apartment she had with Josef was confiscated, and she had to stay with them. Then, after a few days, came the lengthy interrogations by the secret police about why she left, what she was doing in England, etc. Jana was forced to lie and blame everything on Josef, just to avoid going to jail. When she began working at the library where she had previously worked, the only thing she was allowed to do was to shelve books; they wouldn’t allow her to do anything else. Her old friends didn’t want to have anything to do with her, she was a marked person. The worst part was the total hopelessness she felt as she had no way to improve her circumstances. Josef was right. She had made a terrible mistake, but it was final, and she could do nothing about it. Jana was again very unhappy, even more so than in England.
When Josef came back from the airport, he knew that the first thing he had to do was find a babysitter for Pavel. He took a few days off work, went to various agencies, and tried to find somebody who would pick Pavel up from school, bring him home, and wait for Josef to come home from work. After some time, the agency called him back, saying they had an application from a young French woman, Charlotte, who wanted to spend a year in England looking after children and learning English. Would he be interested? Josef was interested, so the agency arranged a meeting between him and Charlotte, and they explained the rules of such an arrangement. Josef would have to provide accommodations for Charlotte, she would have breakfast with the family, and then she would take Pavel to school and go to her English class. In the afternoon, she would pick up Pavel from school, bring him home, wait for Josef, have dinner with the family, and then have free time for herself. She would also have weekends and holidays off.
The arrangement was quite satisfactory. Charlotte’s room was where Josef used to have his office and Pavel, after a few days, got used to her. To him, she was his new mother, and Charlotte imagined that Pavel was her son. It almost looked like they were a family and then, one night, Charlotte went to Josef’s bedroom, got into his bed where Jana used to sleep, and told him she was cold and that he should warm her up. That night, which was one of the hottest nights in London, they became a family.
When the year was over, Charlotte had no intention at all to return to France, and both Josef and Pavel totally agreed with her decision. Time went by, Charlotte became pregnant, Pavel got a new little sister, the family was spending their holidays in France with Charlotte’s parents or sometimes travelled to Spain, and it looked as if their routine will never change. But, when Josef had already been in England for about 20 years, the government in Czechoslovakia was replaced by a more democratic one, the frontier had opened, and Josef got a long, tearful letter from Jana asking him, begging him, to come and visit her. She would really love to see him and Pavel. Josef also wanted to see his former wife, so he reserved one week in a hotel and bought tickets to Prague for Pavel and himself. Charlotte didn’t go. Meeting with Jana would be awkward, and she wouldn’t be able to communicate with anybody anyways.
When Josef and Pavel arrived at the Prague airport, Jana was waiting for them, and when she saw the young man who used to be her little Pavel, she took him in her arms with tears in her eyes. Then she kissed Josef, they took a taxi to the hotel, and had lunch together. Finally, after 20 years, Josef could have his favourite pork with dumplings, sauerkraut, and a taste the good Czech beer.
In the next few days, Josef and Pavel visited Josef’s parents, did some sightseeing in Prague and, every evening, Josef made sure that he invited Jana for dinner at a nice restaurant where they could talk. They chatted about the old days, and Josef told her about Pavel, how he grew up and what he liked and disliked. He also talked about their life in London and about their holidays in France and Spain. Jana was listening, thinking about the life she could have had, and felt like crying.