The Fallen Idol

It had been a long journey and with the time difference too it was all a bit much for Daniel. As he lay in this alien bed looking at the unfamiliar shadows on the walls, he couldn’t help thinking that he’d made a costly mistake. Peter was nothing like he’d imagined, nothing like his letters or the Facebook status updates. He certainly wasn't the perfect cousin Daniel had expected him to be.

Daniel’s Auntie Jana had left the Czech Republic in 1968, she’d been allowed to visit the UK on honeymoon during the Prague Spring and decided to head to USA when the tanks rolled in, rather than head back to Prague. So Peter and Daniel were cousins who’d never met; the same age, the same blood but different continents and for the first 19 years of their lives vastly different political systems.

But they’d been pen pals, email pals, Facebook friends and when Peter invited Daniel to his daughter’s wedding Daniel jumped at the chance to travel to the US and finally meet his cousin.

Before 1989 Peter’s letters had been the highlight of Daniel’s life. They lit up the dreary existence and brought with them dreams of freedom and another world that Daniel couldn’t quite believe existed.  Peter’s letters were stuff of legends in school too, everyone wanting to know what was happening in the land of the 'Killers from Wall Street'. Having an American cousin meant Daniel was cool by association.

So Daniel had always idolised Peter but now the dreams were shattered. Peter had patronised the hell out of his ‘little communist cousins’ as he insisted on calling them. Daniel had tried to explain that he wasn’t and never had been a communist.  He reminded Peter that the Velvet Revolution was 24 years ago and even before that because of Auntie Jana’s disappearance, the family were the enemy of the state but that didn’t stop Peter from name calling. Peter also kept saying Czechoslovakia, Dan didn’t mind that greatly, what's in a name? But he did think his cousin might have a slightly better understanding of his own heritage. But the thing that had really riled Daniel was Peter’s attitude to Dan’s wife, Eva. He was crass and lewd. His suggestive comments were not so much flirting as molesting with words. He seemed to think because he was a big shot American he could lust over her. He kept talking about the wedding party and how he hoped Eva would dance with him, his words were  heavy with innuendo, not so much double entendre as single in your face entendre. It made Daniel’s skin crawl. 

Two weeks, two weeks until their return flight, two weeks under this roof with this nasty little man. Maybe first impressions were misleading; maybe Peter was just nervous and over compensating. What did they say about not judging a book by the cover? Daniel had to give him a second chance but it was not going to be easy. Eva stirred next to him, she moved in closer to her husband and, as if reading his mind, she mumbled in her sleepy state, ‘if that grubby little man thinks I’m dancing with him on Saturday he’s got another thing coming, the only person I’m dancing with is you.’