This story was longlisted for The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award. It is a powerful story of lives re-written. The story is set on Germany some years after the end of WWII. Florian, a German housewife, is becoming comfortable after the exigencies of World War II. Luxuries have appeared in the shops again. She delightedly takes her morning’s purchases, including silk stockings and coffee to show her husband, Wilhelm, at the bar where he works. He seems as pleased as she is and promises to bring home “something good” from leftovers.
At home, she makes them into a pleasing display. “The tin of coffee formed the centrepiece. The silk stockings, still folded, shimmered beside. A packet of eggs. A handful of cherries. A block of butter. Everything was so perfect, beautiful, promising.”
Then comes a knock at the door. Surely her husband isn’t home so soon? Has he forgotten the key? The story changes direction abruptly. Outside is a man “tall but desperately thin” wearing filthy clothing. She recalls the returning soldiers of a few years ago, and wonders if she should offer him a piece of cake. She soon discovers that her obligations go much deeper. The man claims to be her husband, only now released from a Russian prison. She slams the door in his face.
“Can you hear me, Florian? Why won’t you let me in?” He speaks through a crack in the door. She tells him that her husband has already returned from the war. The man informs her that her ‘husband’ is an imposter. Perhaps she had been too willing to accept his claim; some things were awry, but she had ignored them.
The man outside reminds Florian of the ‘family whistle’ – a coded sound that only she would recognise. They had used it for their assignations when they were courting. She hears him on the other side of the door “his mouth was right up to the crack, she heard him wet his lips, she heard the inrush of breath as he prepared, and when the whistle came, it was moist, breathy, and beautiful.”
First published in Legoland, Picador, 2016
A Personal Anthology 