The Grasshopper (12 page)

Babe used the opportunity and
turned up the volume on the monitor, so that her conversation with
Prince could not be heard in the salon.

The voice of the speaker rumbled
from the monitor:

“On that day it is time for all the
bathroom accessories. That means we change: bathtubs, sinks, toilet
bowls, bidets, faucets, showers, tiles, both wall and floor. We’re
looking forward to the new designs and new wonderful pastel colors,
dear Consumers.”

And after that came a completely
different, joyful and frivolous voice in the next
advertisement:

“Our Planet is heating up, dear
Ladies. The temperatures are increasingly higher. You’re hot in
your stockings. But you don’t reject them, since they make your
legs long and sexy. Unfortunately, you cannot fully enjoy your sexy
appearance because you’re sweating. Look, dear Consumer, how Miss
Babe has solved this dilemma.”

Prince swiftly turned towards the
monitor and was petrified. Babe was lying on her stomach, in a
luxurious pink stand, covered from her armpit to just below her
derriere by a pink towel. Two top, publicly well-known tattoo
masters were at that very moment doing the lace on her floral
stockings.

“What is Miss Babe doing, dear
Consumer? Yes! You’ve guessed it! She’s tattooing stockings. Let’s
hear what Miss Babe has to say, what is her experience with
tattooed stockings?”

In the next shot, sitting in a
tight miniskirt on a bar stool, with her legs crossed, revealing to
the viewers the very edge of the lace on the tattooed stockings,
this time with a star pattern, Babe said:

“I will never again put on real
stockings... Forgive me, dear Consumer, I didn’t express myself
properly, because these tattooed stockings are the only real ones.
Tattoo them just once and you will see for yourself. You’ll confine
the old ones to fashion history, where they belong. You can feel
comfortable, with cooled legs, and look equally attractive or even
more attractive,” here Babe moved a bit, her skirt rode up also
revealing the skin of her thighs above the lace, “and feel…” Babe
winked at the camera. “Girls, you know what I mean.”

“Why are you doing this to me,
Babe?” Prince panted after the advertisement.

“You mean, Princess?”

“Why are you doing this to me,
Princess?”

“What am I doing to you,
Prince?”

“Why are you clenching your knees
the entire time? The entire world can look at your long, wonderful
legs in tattooed stockings, only I can’t. And now, when they are
fishnets. Why am I not allowed to see them? Why?”

“You’ll see them.”

“Babe, Mr. Kaella, please sit down.
We’re live in thirty seconds,” the assistant director
said.

“When will I see them?” Prince
asked.

“Now,” answered Babe, and walked
towards the couch.

Chapter 40

The students of the fifth and
eighth grade, standing in line one after another, took black
scarves with a blue Earth on them from one large box, and black
hats with a blue Earth from another, which Mitke the janitor had
brought from out of storage to the school hall.

The boys from the eighth grade,
some of them already young men with thin moustaches and a few hairs
on their chin, with their highly changed voices, cursed as rudely
as they could, aggressively shoving the fifth-graders, and without
having tied the scarves around their necks or placing the hats on
their heads, they went out into the yard, strutting as they walked.
They were very angry because they couldn’t watch Babe’s show to the
end.

The girls from the eighth grade,
some of them blossoming, were a lot calmer. They talked about how
much money their parents would give them and which of Babe’s
wonderful fashion accessories they would allow them to
wear.

The boys from the fifth grade were
mainly tried to get out of the way of the enraged young men from
the eighth grade, and when they had passed, they would smack one
another upside the head and kick each other.

The girls from the fifth grade
stood around in small groups, muttering something among
themselves.

All this together caused a noise
that spread through the acoustic hall and disturbed the students
from the other grades, who were in their classrooms calmly watching
the interview with Mr. Kaella and his son Prince.

Being aware of this and his
responsibility, Mitke the janitor kept repeating “Quiet, children,
quiet!” without taking his eyes off the large screen hanging from
the ceiling of the school hall.

What was in common for both the
boys and girls in both the eighth and fifth grades, was that
walking through their teachers they all boarded the buses parked in
the schoolyard, which were waiting to take them to the prepared,
fenced-off space in the middle of Short Street.

Chapter 41

After the commercial break Babe sat
at the very edge of the couch so that her head would be closer to
her guest, Mr. Kaella. But not only for that reason. She leaned on
the couch with her left shoulder so that Prince could see her
profile. He saw a cascade of blue hair, long eyelashes,
lips…

“Your lips… How the two overhangs
at the ends of the upper lip lie on the lower lip. And this leaves
that gap in the middle… You can’t press them closed, can you? How I
will open them, spread that gap with my tongue, tonight… and
penetrate… Tonight? What tonight? Now! During the next break!” the
impatient Prince decided.

“You know, Miss Babe, before I
continue with my recollections, I’d like to say something else to
our viewers.”

“Go ahead, Mr. Kaella.”

“This reminded me… I mean, this
between the commercials… Although it sounds kind of coarse… But,
dear Consumers, it isn’t so. We trust you completely… but… we all
know how fast we live today, how many obligations we have. And a
person simply forgets to surrender to the Inspectorate… I don’t
know… a toothbrush… paste… from last season. And then this is
discovered and completely unnecessary problems are
created.

“So we are reminding you so that
you, dear viewers, will be spared such unfortunate situations. And
don’t be angry at our inspectors, when they go through your houses
and apartments. Do you know how many people are employed by the
Inspectorate? How many families survive from their earnings? The
inspectors are part of us, part of our community and they are
working solely for the common good.”

“Of course they understand that,
Mr. Kaella,” Babe said.

“I know, I know that you
understand, dear Consumers,” Mr. Kaella continued. “I just mention
that in passing… to pay homage, to take this opportunity to thank
the inspectors for their effort and fervor… Actually,” a smile lit
up his old face, “I wanted to say something else. I was reminded by
this, when the speaker listed everything that had to be returned,
and says ‘children’s toys’… It reminded me of my granddaughter. I
adore her, Miss Babe.”

“You do?” Babe uttered with tight
lips.

“Yes. I also love my two grandsons.
But they are young men… and she… she’s grandpa’s little butterfly.
And these toys… We returned them at the end of every season. I
mean, dear viewers,” Mr. Kaella looked at the camera very
sincerely, “so that you don’t think that we Kaella’s don’t abide by
the law. On the contrary – very strictly. To show through action,
not only words, that we respect the laws and Constitution of our
State.

“And … what was I … ah, yes…
grandchildren… it is never a problem for them to return the old
toys. Boys… as you know yourself…” Mr. Kaella grinned at the
camera, “they destroy them the second day, disassemble their toy
car…

“And grandpa’s butterfly… she had a
little pony. And when we were supposed to hand it over to the
Inspectorate, my little granddaughter cried and cried. And this son
of mine, strict as he is, wanted to take away her little horsy. And
I jumped up, dear viewers and shouted ‘Well, this won’t do!’ I
picked up my little granddaughter with her pony in my hand, and ran
away from my son and daughter-in-law to my chambers, and
immediately called the President of the State… I don’t remember who
it was at the time… and ordered him to change the law, that
children don’t have to return toys.

“You know how it is… Everything in
life is important. What you do, what you have achieved, what you
have given humanity… But children, grandchildren… they are the most
important and the most beautiful thing of all.

“And then this son of mine, and a
bunch of people from the Company, from the Inspectorate, from the
university… all kinds of psychologists, lawyers, psychiatrists,
sociologists… I don’t know who all… started convincing me that it
didn’t work that way, that it undermined the Constitution, that it
fundamentally perverts the young consumer’s soul… and so on. But I
wouldn’t allow them to take that little horse from my
butterfly.”

“Stop boring with the stories about
that granddaughter of yours and that nag, old man!” Babe panicked,
thinking that this would discourage Prince. So she slowly raised
her leg and glanced over at him.

“And finally we agreed that
children could keep only one toy until their fifth year. That is
what we said. Anything more than that and the future Consumer would
be forever lost in space and time,” Mr. Kaella concluded his
recollection.

Having seen Prince’s lustful gaze,
Babe realized that he wasn’t at all listening to his father. On the
contrary, he had completely leaned over towards her when her
blue-black skirt rose up… when she crossed her legs, when the
squares on the two fishnets intertwined, when the tattooed black
lace on her perfect, smooth thigh eliminated all other thoughts,
everything else…

Chapter 42

The staff members, better yet
brothers in arms and friends, because they had been roaming the
planet for years as part of Pascal’s freedom caravan, and
diligently, tirelessly, and wholeheartedly carried out their tasks,
were gradually calming down on the plane and approving Raul’s and
Pascal’s decision as the most rational one at the
moment.

“There, you see for yourself, that
now, when you have all the information, that we acted
appropriately. Each of you would have done the same, right?” Raul
said contentedly.

“I would, undoubtedly,” said
Jagdish.

“I don’t know... I don’t know. The
only thing that is important to me is for this to pass as quickly
as possible. So that I can be at Pascal’s side again, all the time.
Only then will I be at ease,” Liam sighed.

“Can someone finally tell me why
Svetlana was devastated? And where did she go?” asked Svetlana’s
secretary, Jin.

“What do you mean ‘devastated’?”
the other secretaries shouted all at once.

“I only know what Pascal told me,
Jin. And I don’t know where Svetlana went. And the fact that she
was crying, that she was devastated, that is only their affair. It
is not up to us to discuss that.”

“I have the right to know what
happened to Svetlana. She’s my best friend,” Jin said
unremittingly. “Perhaps last night someone else saw or heard
something… or knows something? Someone from security?
Liam?”

“We only know that she left the
hotel in the early morning,” Liam said.

“Jin, what do you mean ‘did someone
else see’? Who saw Svetlana last night?” anxiously asked Marina, a
secretary, looking at her colleagues Phoebe, Eve and Dorika, who,
also surprised, shrugged their shoulders and shook their
heads.

“Gloria saw her,” Jin
said.

“Gloria?!” shouted Marina, Phoebe,
Eve and Dorika, looking at their colleague in disbelief.

“How could you not tell us?” Phoebe
asked Gloria in an excited tone, still not believing that such a
thing was possible.

“I’m sorry… How could I tell you
when Raul said that she left Pascal?”

“You should have, in any case…”
Phoebe was relentless.

“Alright, let it go, Phoebe. Come
on, tell us what you saw,” Eve said impatiently.

“I was just falling
asleep…”

“What do you mean ‘you were falling
asleep’?!” Dorika exclaimed in shock. “So, you were in our room,
and you didn’t wake me?! How could you?! How?! Margot, please, I
don’t want to sleep in the same room as this person… I mean, in the
next hotel. Don’t talk to me anymore, Gloria! Is that
clear?”

“Dorika… forgive me… I’ll explain
everything in private. I was waiting for something… I can’t talk
about that right now…”

“I’m not interested! Now you’re
going to make things up!” Dorika raged on.

“I’m not making anything up, I just
didn’t want to…”

“Wait! Wait, Gloria!” Raul
interrupted. “You girls will go on for days. Now tell me, what did
Svetlana look like? Was she really in tears?”

“Yes, she was. She was desperate…
miserable. As though it wasn’t her, as though…”