ESL Blogs

The woman by the window

Robert, a twenty-year-old young man, is visiting the exhibition because his boss wants him to write about art, the artists and their paintings.
Robert is a little annoyed because he is not very interested in art, and especially, painting is not his favorite subject.
Unfortunately, he does not have a choice. He urgently needs the money. It is his last chance to keep his job with the small newspaper publisher. He works there actually for the gossip section. The owner threatened him with dismissal if he comes back without a good story.

While Robert walks around the exhibition rooms, he takes some notes as to the names of the paintings, the painters and the dates of their creation.

Suddenly, he stops walking. There is a painting on the wall that catches his attention. It shows a woman by a window. The artist painted her twice, once in front of the window and second as a reflection in the window glass. Her lips are smiling, but her beautiful eyes look sad. It seems she is looking for something or someone in the distance.

Robert wipes his eyes because it is as if he is dreaming. He knows this woman. She is his grandmother. He knows her only from old photos in family albums. There was always a big secret around her, and no one wanted to talk about it. When Robert was a child, he sometimes asked why she had left, but no one told him. So he stopped asking. He thought that speaking about her would be too sad. She had left the family when her son, Roberts father, Conrad, was a teen. 

Once, he did hear the gossip of some neighbors who talked about that case. It was after his grandfather got shot by one of his colleagues during a police operation.
The neighbors said, one day, someone had called the police because inside a flat a woman screamed for help. When the police reached the flat, they saw a man who was beating a woman.  Blood poured from an open wound on her head, her dress was torn, and her face swollen.

This man was supposed to be Robert's grandfather, at least, so the neighbors whispered at that time. He had tried to rape the woman, told the woman, the victim, later the police.

The neighbors spoke about the disappearance of Robert's grandfather's wife. They assumed she died by suicide, but no one knew it exactly. They only know, the family had reached for her for years without success.

But ... Here hangs a painting of his grandmother and it shows her as an elder lady.
Robert is curious who the painter is, looks at the small paper next to the painting and reads the information.

He notes the painter's name and leaves the exhibition. He drives home and looks on the internet for more information about the painter. He wants to know where the artist met his grandma. Why has painted the artist her as an elder woman?
Robert finds out that the artist is still alive, and he also finds his complete address and the phone number. Robert doesn't hesitate and phones the artist. He reaches the artist in his atelier and asks him for an interview for an article about painting. The artist agrees, and they make a date for the next day.

Robert has forgotten his boss' warning. He's only interested in the story of the picture.

The next day, Roberts stands before the artist's atelier and rings. An old man opens the door. He wears a white coat with lots of paint spots.
Robert asks first the painter questions about painting in general,
then he asks about the painting  The woman by the window.
Robert wants to know when the artist had painted it.

The answer surprises him because the artist painted this woman almost 20 years before when she was about 50 years old.  "She is my wife." says the artist, and continues, "I met her after her family had forced her leaving her home. She did not know where to stay. I took her with me home because I noticed her despair. At first, she did not want to tell me what had happened. Later I found out her husband has beaten her during all the years of her marriage. One day, she couldn't bear it any longer; she defended herself by using scissors. Her husband was injured. When the family saw the injuries, he told them, his wife has wanted to kill him.
She had never before told anyone of his violent outbursts against her. That was the reason that no one believed her when she tried to explain her attack. Her father told her to leave the house, otherwise, he would call the police. She knew the police would not believe her either because her husband was one of them, a policeman. She begged her father to stay because she did not want to leave her son. But her father forced her to go straight away. She did not even have the chance to take clothes with her when she left the house."

The old artist sighs. "When I met her, she was sitting on a bench at the train station.
The rain fell and drenched her clothes in the water. "

Robert looks at the artist, speechless with open mouth. "And then?", asks Robert the artist.

"The train arrived. I saw the woman getting up and walking towards the rails. I was able to hold her back before she tried to jump." says the artist.

Robert remembers only very weakly his grandfather because he never had a very close relationship with him, not to say he did not like him so much. Despite being a child, he had noticed his Grandfather's inappropriate remarks regarding his mom. Finally, Robert's father broke with his father after many disputes about his behavior. There was not only his behavior towards Robert's mom.  He also refused to tell Robert's dad more details about his mom and why she left.

It must have been a big blow for Robert's dad to hear after his father's death his father was violent against women, a rapist, and a bully.

"As I told you, it took a long time until she trusted me.", says the painter. "We moved to another city, far from here. She never tried to contact any of her family members. She was afraid, her husband would find her. I have lived with her as if we are a married couple ... for about 40 years. We never got married. We were afraid he would find out where she lives if we applied for new identity papers for her.

The painter stops for a moment, then he continues. "You see, randomly, about five years ago, we heard her husband is dead already for ages. We bought this house here and returned to her former hometown. She wanted to find her son. It was in vain, so we decided to make an exhibition with my paintings and to show also that painting with the woman by the window that shows her face. We hoped that someone would recognize her. Maybe it would be a good idea if you write an article not only about art and painting but also about her story? What do you think?", the artist asks and looks at Robert.

Robert can no longer be silent. His head is threatening to burst. "Where is your wife?", he asks the painter. "She is in the house to this atelier," answers the painter.
"Let her come, please," Roberts asks the old man.
The old man phones his wife She doesn't answer, and he is wondering why.

"Darling, I thought you come for lunch," suddenly says a female voice behind Robert's back. "Maybe you forgot to pay attention to your watch, as always when you paint. So I have brought you your meal," she says.

Robert dares not to look around.

"Oh, you have a visitor," the female voice continues. "Would you please introduce us to?"

Robert turns around and looks at her. Before the painter can say anything, the woman drops the tray with the plate. The food spreads all over the ground.  
The woman's face is pale. She looks as if she sees a ghost. Robert does not know what to say and looks at her, too.

The painter looks at his wife. "Darling, what is?", he asks her worriedly.

She does not reply. She only looks at Robert. Then she asks quietly, "Who are you? You look like my son Conrad might have looked when he was your age", she says with shivering voice, tears running down her cheeks.

Robert goes to her, takes her shivering hands in his hands. "I am not Conrad," he says, " but I am Robert, Conrad's son and I believe you are my grandmother." He smiles at her and wipes the tears from her cheeks.

"I had lost any hope of finding my son because I couldn't find anyone with his family name here in the city surrounding area." says the old woman and looks questioningly at Robert.

"My dad and my mom moved to Canada some years ago. I came back for a job, just for a year. Dad had thought it would be a school for life for me when I had to care myself," says Robert and smiles. "Let me phone my dad to tell him the news. I am sure he will take the next plane to come here. He always believed you are dead," Robert says, and he calls his father.

As he thought, his father and his mother plan to come with the next available flight. So the family story finds a happy end.