Intimacies

After one week, Adriaan is still in Lisbon, and although he messages her often, the narrator is disappointed that he never calls. She enjoys staying in his apartment and only returns to hers a few times. Meanwhile, the deposed president’s legal team calls the narrator to interpret for a private session. Kees is there but doesn’t appear to recognize her from their earlier meeting. The president speaks to the narrator in French and thanks her for attending the conference, stating that Kees’s French is not good. The narrator listens and interprets as the legal team lays out their long-term plan for success, with the consideration that the trial might drag on for years. The lawyer emphasizes the importance of maintaining control of the daily court record in order to create a cohesive narrative instead of a persuasive one. He suggests toning down the theatrics as they are not helpful to the team’s overall goal. For the narrator, interpreting in this situation is far different from interpreting in the courtroom, and she feels the growth of an uneasy intimacy with the president as she whispers in his ear. The president listens without emotion or reaction, and she is uncertain how he feels about the lawyer’s suggestion.

As the meeting drags on, the narrator loses herself in the interpretation and realizes that she is focusing so much on precision that she has lost the thread of meaning. Attempting to reconnect to the throughline in her notes, she notices words like “mass grave” (117), which remind her of the president’s crimes. Kees suggests that they take a break, but he remains in the room with the narrator. He remarks that she looks familiar, but the narrator says nothing, fearing that Kees will dismiss her from the case if she reveals their connection. He thanks her for responding to the request to translate on short notice and then derisively asks if she has heard from Adriaan recently. Before she can react, the rest of the meeting’s attendees return. As she continues translating, the president motions toward her notes and says that seeing all the accusations on the paper makes it appear worse than it is. She tells him that her job is to ensure that no translation loses meaning. As she continues translating, she observes that the president is unaffected by the discussion of his transgressions and realizes that he likes her because he thinks she does not judge him for his actions. For him, she is “a consciousness-free zone into which he could escape, the only company he could now bear” (121). This realization makes her want to run from the room, but she stays and continues translating.

It has been a month since the narrator has seen Jana, who is busy preparing for an art opening at the Mauritshuis. The narrator attends the opening, which is entitled Slow Food (123); the title is meant to be ironic. Uninterested in mingling with wealthy patrons, the narrator sneaks off to her favorite part of the museum, which contains more interesting and engaging permanent installations and paintings. She notes the intimacy in the paintings and sees the human portraits as conveying “the weight of time passing” (126). A painting from 1631 by Judith Leyster titled Man Offering Money to a Young Woman or “The Proposition” captures her attention. It features a man grasping a woman’s arm as he tries to gain her attention, but the woman’s resistance is palpable. The narrator notes the artist’s skill at capturing the tension in the moment and reflects that it portrays “two irreconcilable subjective positions: the man, who believed the scene to be one of ardor and seduction, and the woman, who had been plunged into a state of fear and humiliation” (129).

Jana approaches, and the narrator hopes that she will not ask about Adriaan. Though the narrator remains at his apartment, she senses a shift in the situation as Adriaan's trip to Lisbon has now extended beyond a week. She also relates another circumstance that has left her doubting their relationship status. After a different meeting with the president’s defense team, Kees caught her in the hallway and asked if she was okay since Adriaan had run off to Lisbon to try to win Gaby back from her lover. Before she could even recover from the shock of Kees’s question, he asked her out for a drink, and she quickly made an excuse to leave.

The narrative returns to the present. Jana is distracted by several people who want her attention, so she doesn’t ask about Adriaan. She introduces the narrator to her friend Eline, whom she invited to the opening, and leaves them alone. As they continue admiring the art, Eline, an art history professor at the university, notes the irony of the Dutch empire's creation of so much compelling art even as they were pursuing imperialistic endeavors. When the two women reach the buffet dinner, Eline notes that they have curated the scene to resemble two Greek works of art by Zeuxis and Parrhasius. As guests reach for their food, they become part of the art as if they are reaching inside the painting. Jana joins them later, and they both praise her for the impressive banquet display and the success of the opening. After Eline leaves, Jana tells the narrator that she and Eline met after the mugging that occurred in front of her apartment. Eline is the sister of Anton, the bookshop owner who was attacked. Jana relates that one week after the mugging, Eline returned to the crime scene. Jana took her to a café to calm her down, and she learned that Anton had been in the hospital for a week and was recovering, but the police still had no leads on a suspect. Now, Jana half-heartedly asks the narrator about Adriaan, but the narrator evades the subject. When she gets back to the apartment, she sends Adriaan a frank message asking about the status of his marriage.

Adriaan ignores the message, and as the reality of the situation begins to set in, the narrator feels foolish for remaining in the apartment and entertaining the hope that he will return. She places some blame on herself, claiming, “I had been complicit in my own erasure” (141), since she has done little to make the apartment hers. Meanwhile, Jana arranges a meeting with Eline and the narrator because the two got along so well at the art opening. The narrator and Eline meet at a coffee shop, and the narrator doesn’t let on that she knows Eline is Anton’s sister. Eline sips herbal tea, citing her difficulty sleeping, and the narrator wonders if it is a result of Anton’s attack. Eline elaborates that she has been an insomniac since childhood. They speak briefly about the narrator’s job at the Court. The narrator tells Eline about the complexities of her job and explains that she often loses track of the proceedings while focusing so intently on the translation. Her internal monologue reveals that she continues to serve as a translator for the defense team’s private meetings with the deposed president; she has become increasingly uncomfortable with this position. She has also noticed that her colleagues treat her differently, and despite the forced intimacy of the meetings, no one other than the president speaks to her, making her feel invisible.

Eline has two children that she co-parents with her ex-husband. Anton is her twin brother and is very close with the children, acting as a father figure. Eline worries about the world’s political climate, including the Brexit vote and the contentious United States election. Eline must leave abruptly to pick up her son, but she invites the narrator to dinner with her family and brother. When the narrator tells Eline that she is an only child, Eline appears to consider her differently. After Eline leaves, the narrator imagines that she has received a phone notification, but there is nothing, and Adriaan has now been ignoring her last message for a full week.