The Grasshopper (29 page)

“I know that you’re overjoyed! I
know! Because your Svetlana didn’t leave Megapolis! That’s why
you’re overjoyed, sir! Now she can come to you here! To this
dormitory of yours!” Manami spread her hands. “Because you cannot
survive without her! Because the nights are too long!”

“My love! My Manami!” Pascal cried
out, trying to hug her.

“Let me go!” Manami pushed his
hands away. “You will tell him to bring her to you, because you’ve
had enough of this prison with me!”

“I haven’t had enough, Manami! I
will never have enough! That’s all I want, my love! Just to be
locked up with you! Do you know how much I have suffered? I thought
that you don’t love me anymore, but you were only jealous of
Svetlana! You silly…”

“Don’t say that name any more!” she
pushed him all the way to the wall. “I prohibit you! I prohibit!!!”
she screamed.

“I won’t, Manami! I won’t! Anyone’s
name! Only yours! Manami! Manami! Manami! Do you hear, Manami? My
Manami! Are you mine? Tell me! Tell me that you’re
mine!”

Pascal tried to hug her. Manami
fought back wildly.

“What do you need me for, sir? She
is yours! She is!”

“She is not mine, my love.” Pascal
lowered his voice, realizing that he had to explain it to her, that
he must calm her.

“She’s not?! And whose is she!?
Whose!?”

“I don’t know… She knew from the
first day how in love I was with you, Manami. From the first moment
that I saw you. My love, my life… You cannot understand that; how
much I love you. There is no me, Manami. There is only my love for
you.”

Manami started crying aloud and ran
out of Pascal’s quarters.

Chapter 106

“Peter, please wake Mr. Alexander.
Tell him that lunch is ready,” Manami said the next day.

“Finally,” Peter shouted. “He can
test me.”

He got up from the couch where he
had been sitting with Eir, painting something on the tablet. He
knocked on Pascal’s door.

“Pascal, wake up!
Lunch!”

“I’m coming, Peter. Let me just
wash my face.”

Pascal entered the living room area
and stopped dead in his tracks. Then he rushed towards the couch
which was covered in their red cover. He sat down next to
Eir.

“What are you drawing?” he asked,
passing his hands across the red silk.

“A bunny,” said Eir.

“What’s wrong with you, Pascal?”
Peter was puzzled. “Sit at the table.”

“I will, Peter… in a moment…” He
touched their cover as though he was touching her.

Manami placed a plate in front of
her son, looked at Pascal and smiled.

“There, there, sir. You’ve been
sleeping all day. Peter has been waiting for you to test
him.”

“Mom saw that I know everything,
and now she wants you to test me again, Pascal.”

“That’s good… Has Eir eaten,
or…”

“She has. The child can’t wait for
heavy sleepers,” Manami was radiant.

“I sincerely apologize. But I
haven’t slept a wink in two weeks.”

“Why?” Peter asked.

“I had constant headaches,” Pascal
got up from the couch, approached the table and stood behind Peter.
He was looking at Manami. “And last night the pain went away. It
disappeared. Never again to return. Isn’t that right,
ma’am?”

“How would I know, sir? You have to
take care of your own health,” Manami laughed.

“Come on, Peter,” Pascal tapped
Peter on the shoulder.

“Come one, what?” Peter was
surprised.

“Well… go to your seat.”

“What’s wrong with you, Pascal?
This is my seat. You sit across the way.”

“That is where I sat while I had a
headache. You’ve forgotten that I used to sit here
before.”

“Whatever,” said Peter and moved.
“I don’t care.”

“I do,” Pascal sat in his place,
with a view of the kitchen.

“Bon appétit!” said
Manami.

“Thank you,” answered Pascal, and
started eating.

“Chili! Finally you’ve put it in,
my love!” he said with his eyes. Manami didn’t touch the food. She
just watched him and smiled.

Chapter 107

Peter did not leave the living room
area the entire afternoon. Manami and Pascal were left alone only
late in the evening, when Peter finally got tired. Pascal rushed to
Manami, clutching her shoulders and feverishly
whispering

“Do you love me, Manami? Tell me!
Tell me that you love me!”

“Peter isn’t asleep, sir!” Manami
was glowing.

“Tell me! Tell me, my
love!”

“I was brought up in a conservative
family, sir,” Pascal went silent and let go of her shoulders.
“Where marriage is a sanctity.”

“I knew it! I knew it!” Pascal
shouted and ran towards his room.

Manami rushed after him, grabbed
his hand and turned him around.

“What is the matter with you, sir?”
she laughed. “Why are you so impulsive? One cannot explain anything
to you completely.”

“You love me! I know that you love
me!” Pascal shouted, when he saw Manami looking at him lovingly and
smiling.

“You fixate on something,” she ran
her fingers through his long wavy hair, “and you don’t notice
anything else. It took you two weeks to realize how jealous I
am.”

“My love… My Manami…” Pascal
whispered while hugging her.

“I was angry at you for two weeks,
and you didn’t get it, my darling!”

“Well, I thought… alright,
alright,” said Pascal holding her by the shoulders again and
looking her in the eye, “you said yourself that you consider
marriage a sanctity.”

“Yes, I did. And you only know how
to go crazy. You didn’t let me say that I’m not a saint. And that
I’m madly, madly in love with you!”

Pascal moved towards her lips.
Manami pressed her head against his chest.

“Let me kiss you! I have to kiss
your lips, Manami!”

“I won’t let you. We cannot. We
have to behave like nothing has happened.”

“How, Manami, how? I can’t go on
like that.”

“You have to… We have to. Promise
me.”

“I can’t…”

“If you love me, promise
me.”

“Alright… if you wish so. I don’t
want to force you to do anything, my love. Everything will be as
you wish.”

Manami wriggled out of his embrace
and said

“I’m going to see whether Peter is
asleep. And to put on my nightgown. I want us to sit on our cover
until dawn. In our room. That’s all I’ve been dreaming of,
Pascal.”

Chapter 108

“The generals have turned against
me, Grasshopper,” Erivan moaned. “They say that they want no part
in this and that they will not be held accountable for crimes
against humanity and for gecide.”

“Genocide.”

“Yes, that’s it. They say that they
convicted you, without any mercy.”

“So you are also a doubter, Mr.
President?”

“Me, a doubter?!” Erivan was in
shock.

“Well, if you doubt our
victory.”

“Me doubt victory?! Be careful of
what you say, Grasshopper!” Erivan rumbled.

“Of course you have doubts. Have
the defeated ever judged the victor?”

“Well, that’s true. You’re right,
Grasshopper. That has never happened. We will try them for
gecide.”

“Genocide.”

“Yes, that.”

“And what did you tell the generals
to that, Mr. President?”

“Nothing. Charlie killed them
all.”

“That’s good. How is my friend
Charlie?”

“He is well. They are all well, and
I haven’t slept in nights, Grasshopper.”

“Why do you permit yourself this,
Mr. President? You do your office hours, your eight hours, then to
bed. Or a casual stroll around the residence. You have to think
about your health, above all.”

“I do, but it’s no use. I’m always
swamped by people.”

“By whom?”

“Everyone. From all sectors of the
Company. They complain that they can’t deliver goods to shops under
these conditions. That the few that they do deliver are not selling
at all. That is why the workers are not getting paid. Then they
don’t want to work. They go on strike. No one is paying for energy
anymore. Even in the places where you haven’t switched it off.
They’re a wanton mob, Grasshopper.”

“What salaries? There’s a war.
Introduce labor duties.”

“I’ve already tried that,
Grasshopper. It doesn’t work. The inspectors have created a labor
union and even they won’t work. Neither to arrest the Non-Consumers
nor to take them to the camps. They are demanding regular pay and
an increase of 30%. Where do I get the money for that?”

“What happened to Prince’s
money?”

“Its all gone. I bought cheap
shares for all the money in the vault, and the price started to go
up. But now the sectors are not producing. They’re on strike. The
stock is worthless. It’s a disaster, Grasshopper. Even I received
only one quarter of the salary for this month.”

“What do you care about your
salary? You can have whatever you want.”

“I know… I’m just saying, so you
can see that the situation is difficult.”

“I really don’t see any problem
there.”

“Its easy for you up there,
Grasshopper. That’s why you can talk like that.”

“What is money, Mr.
President?”

“What do you mean ‘what is it’?
Money is…”

“Its just printed paper. That’s
what money is.”

“Yes, Grasshopper, but…”

“Print it, Mr. President, as much
as you need. For our squads, for the Inspectorate, for weapons
production.”

“I don’t need it for the squads. I
told them that all the war booty is theirs. Some of your colleagues
are already very rich. They could buy both you and me,
Grasshopper.”

“I believe you. But I’m telling
you, print money for everything else.”

Part III: The
Apocalypse

Chapter 109

“What did you do to the entire
city, Grasshopper?” Erivan asked anxiously.

“I vaporized it. That’s easy. You
increase the strength of the cosmic energy beam to the maximum and
you reduce the entire city to atoms. You vaporize it. That’s what I
call it. Because the city makes a ‘puff’ and that’s it.”

“But why the ‘puff’!?!”

“I saw that in that city the
bandits were preparing a secret weapon for the destruction of your
residence, Mr. President. I’m merciless in that respect, when your
safety is in question, Mr. President.”

“Wow, thank you, Grasshopper. What
would I do without you? Who would defend and protect me? By the
way, do you see how bloodshot my eyes are?’

“I do. They’re really
red.”

“I’m still not sleeping. It’s
getting worse and worse.”

“How is that?”

“I printed the money. I gave the
inspectors their salaries. And I increased them 100%, not 30%, like
they had asked…”

“And?...”

“And they started working normally,
but then they came and said that I had tricked them, that the money
was worthless.”

“What do they mean
worthless?”

“It isn’t worthless, but they said
that all the prices had gone up. That they can’t buy even a kilo of
potatoes for their monthly salary.”

“Print more and increase their
salaries again.”

“I did and I gave them a raise, as
a reward in the middle of the month. And they said that they can’t
buy even half a kilogram of potatoes. So I asked them ‘how much do
these potatoes cost?’. They said a million. No problem. I added six
zeroes and printed their new salaries. And they came back. They
said that potatoes now cost a thousand billions or a billion
billions, I’ve already forgotten. And that’s where I realized that
they are only greedy and that they were lying to me. Even Prince
Kaella didn’t have that much money.”

“And?”

“Nothing. Charlie killed those from
the union and now all the inspectors have turned against me. You
can probably see from up there how they are tightening the noose
around my residence. And you’re playing dumb and asking me why my
eyes are red and why I’m not sleeping.”

“I see. Who’s defending you? The
squads?”

“Nope. Only Charlie’s left.
Everyone else has stolen as much as they wanted, killed as much as
they wanted, each one created their own army… Now I hear that
they’re killing each other.”

“Don’t worry, Mr. President. I’ll
defend you. I’ve been working on that for a while now. Just hang on
a little longer.”