The Grasshopper Read online

  “Driving you mad?” asked Babe, suddenly dropping her hand to his pants.

  Prince’s eyes opened wide when she squeezed his crotch.

  “You have yet to feel what it’s like to be driven mad. This is nothing. I’m just starting to drive you mad,” she whispered in his ear, while continuously opening and closing her hand.

  “Yes, yes… that’s what I want… what I need…” Prince grunted, while his hand started going up Babe’s skirt.

  Babe suddenly pushed him away with both hands, so forcefully that Prince staggered.

  “You can’t touch that, Mr. Prince.”

  “What do you mean ‘I can’t’? Why can’t I?” he almost shouted, rushing her again.

  Babe stepped back and laughed.

  “You can, of course you can, my Prince… you can do everything… but only when I want it.”

  “And you don’t want to now?” Prince froze.

  “Not now. I want it to be nice for you…”

  “We’ll its nice…”

  “Even nicer… much nicer…”

  “Ah, I know… You want in the limo. Alright, I’ll order a limo for the two of us. Father can go back by himself.”

  “Well…” Babe laughed, “didn’t you promise me dinner? Just the two of us, with candles?”

  “I did, I did… but I can’t wait anymore.”

  “Well you’ll have to. You’ll go back with your father, just as you came. And you’ll wait for me at the restaurant. I have to prepare for you.”

  “What do you mean ‘prepare’? You can’t get any prettier.”

  “I will be. And let me tell you what I’ll look like. And you can imagine it until dinner. Long dress, blue-black, sliding behind me…”

  “I’m going to die…”

  “Bare back, two strips tied together across my breasts…”

  “You’re killing me…”

  Babe came around behind him, pressed her bosom against his back and rubbed his crotch with both hand. She whispered to him

  “And those two strips…”

  “Yes?”

  “Don’t worry… they aren’t very wide… just covering the nipples and the little Earths.”

  “Aaaah!”

  “And the slit on the dress…”

  “Yes?”

  “High above my hip…”

  “No…”

  “So that it’s clear to you that I’m completely naked underneath the dress.”

  “Naked! Aaaaah!”

  While he had been screaming Prince had once again tried to get his hand up her skirt again. And Babe pushed him away once more.

  “Why don’t you give it up? I just wanted a touch, to see whether you’re naked now too.”

  “Nonsense! What were you thinking? I’m doing an interview with you and your father, and not…”

  “Alright, alright… Why do you have to get angry immediately?”

  The bodyguard turned around and said

  “Sir, your father is coming.”

  Babe went to the couch. Prince ran up to her and tried to unbutton her jacket.

  “What are you doing?” Babe screamed.

  “I have to see them. At least that… please.” Prince panted.

  “I would like to show you my breasts. I was thinking about it. I really was. But I can’t.”

  “Why?” Prince was surprised.

  “Because you’d see my bellybutton.”

  “Ah, the bellybutton… I’ll drill it with my tongue… drill it…”

  “I’m afraid you won’t be able to.”

  “Why? Does it too have a little Earth?”

  “Not a little Earth. Something else… it’s not important…”

  “What else? What?!”

  “Something just for you. Something that belongs only to you, my Prince.”

  “Tell me, don’t torture me anymore. What is that which is just mine?”

  “I won’t tell you. I want you to see.”

  “But when? When will I see it?”

  “Now,” said Babe, turning from Prince and walking with her hands held out, like a caring daughter-in-law, to Mr. Kaella, who was at that moment entering the submarine salon.

  Chapter 56

  When he saw that Prince had sat down in his armchair, Mr. Kaella whispered to Babe, who was standing next to him “Miss Babe, you know, I’m a little tired. I will talk about the Balance in another interview. Here, next week, for example. You now talk to my son…”

  Babe was aghast. “What’s with you, old man?” she thought in panic. “How can I talk to Prince?! I have to show him something! Do you want a daughter-in-law like this or not?!”

  “That won’t do, Mr. Kaella,” Babe said resolutely. “This is your interview. The viewers want to hear you. Only you, Mr. Kaella.”

  “I know that… I’m aware… but…”

  “This is what we’ll do, Mr. Kaella. I believe that you are already tired. But you have a written text about the Balance.”

  “Yes, I do…”

  “We’ll put it up on the teleprompter. You can look at the camera, the text will appear, and you will read it. Without any burden or too much thought. And I won’t ask you anything. Do you agree?

  “Alright… But next week a new interview. I want to explain everything in greater detail. This was too short.”

  “Of course, Mr. Kaella. We have received countless consumer messages during the show; people are begging you for more interviews.”

  “Oh? Is that true, Miss Babe?”

  “Yes, it’s true,” Babe responded briefly and ran to the control room to organize the teleprompter.

  “But all that wasn’t enough,” Mr. Kaella read his text about the Balance, while looking at the camera. “The state didn’t have enough revenue for carrying out its most basic functions. I increased the taxes and therefore filled the state coffers, but I also increased the poverty of both the people and the sectors of the Company. People had less money to spend. This is why the sectors’ profits dropped. In order to salvage their profits the sectors laid people off. Those that hadn’t been laid off worked all day long for the same salary, so that they too would not lose their jobs. This is how the sectors reduced costs and increased productivity. Those that had been laid off did not have money to spend, and those that still worked didn’t spend it, but saved it for a rainy day. Therefore the cost-cutting did not help the sectors much, because their revenue dropped faster than their expenses. This is why profits waned. And that is why I could collect fewer taxes. This created a vicious circle.”

  Chapter 57

  Babe again sat at the edge of the couch, next to Mr. Kaella, but her body faced Prince, and she clenched her knees. This humble position was the complete opposite of the great lust that she felt throughout her body. She wasn’t at all listening to Mr. Kaella. She was overjoyed, because she had rid herself of that last fear.

  No,… not fear, certainly not fear. She wasn’t in fact afraid of it… she wasn’t. “Why would I be afraid of something that isn’t at all important?” Babe seriously contemplated. “Alright, it’s true that it isn’t important, but it also isn’t insignificant. Actually, it is secondary. That’s it. That’s the right expression. Secondary.”

  And she wasn’t afraid of secondary things. Sometimes, recently, when she would think about it she would just get a little worried. She was a little anxious that she might face the same fate as the secretary of the executive producer of her media company, Capital City TV.

  That secretary told Babe that while she was once in the producer’s office taking his instructions, he suddenly bent her over his desk, pulled up her skirt and pulled her panties down her legs. While bent over the desk, she listened to the producer unbuckle his belt and drop his pants. When she was pinned down on the desk by the producer’s big belly, she realized that he was having trouble getting close enough. Even though she wanted to, she did not come to his aid, because her panties prevented her. However, after a while she heard his chugging, which she thought
was a little suspicious. To eliminate any suspicion she asked

  “Sir, is it in?”

  “It is… it is…” the producer wheezed.

  That secretary was a smart girl. Babe also appreciated her. The same moment she started moving her hips and said

  “Oh, how big it is!”

  “Some of our sectors were already reporting losses,” Mr. Kaella read his text on the Balance. “There was a growing number of unemployed people. And what did that mean? That I had to give them energy, food, water, apartments, pharmaceuticals… for free? Well that wasn’t possible.

  “Then at one moment I realized … that was the moment of my enlightenment, that I have to create the Balance. This meant that every person must be employed and earn enough to pay all the expenses and buy as many shares as possible, for the greatest possible extension of life.

  “And how could we achieve this? It was simple. The produced goods and offered services had to be completely spent in a given period of time, so that production and services would continue uninterrupted. That way people would have constant jobs and enough income. This meant that the basic driver of our most perfect and final form of capitalism is constant consumption.

  “The modern information systems have calculated for each type of goods and services the time after which the old must be destroyed in order to produce anew. Today we call that seasons. For clothing this is three months, as we know, two years for cars, seven for apartments, for household appliances…”

  “No, no… I won’t share her fate!” Babe’s soul cried out. “My hand wasn’t empty! On the contrary! There is something between my Prince’s legs. There is, there is… and that is why you will now see what I promised, my Prince. That thing on my bellybutton!”

  Babe unbuttoned the lower button on her jacket and looked at Prince, whose entire body trembled in the armchair.

  Chapter 58

  Pascal returned to the bathroom. As a well-behaved man he closed the door behind him so that he could urinate, even though he was alone in the suite. While he was washing his hands, he realized that the soaps, gels, shampoos, toothpaste which were arranged in a large box on the dresser – were contemporary. From this season.

  “Come on, Pascal,” he forced himself. “Come on, play detective. Did you see how you forgot about her for a moment at least, while you were trying to guess where you were. It hurt less, at least for a moment. Come on… you see that the soaps are new. What can you deduce from that, Pascal?”

  “I conclude that this apartment was prepared for me by someone,” Pascal spoke to himself. He pretended that he was not alone and strived for the other person not to notice that he was only thinking about her.

  “Excellent,” said the imaginary person and asked “And what do you think, who prepared it, Pascal?”

  “What do you mean ‘who’? Seneca and Raul.”

  “Is that right? Seneca and Raul? And where did they get this shelter?” said the counterpart curiously.

  “Raul certainly doesn’t have it,” Pascal answered obediently. “And Seneca… why wouldn’t the mayor of Megapolis have a shelter for him and his family? One of the most important functions in the State,” Pascal nodded to himself in the mirror.

  “Aha! And you’re saying that he built it a long time ago?” the counterpart still wasn’t pleased with the response.

  “Yes. At least ten years, maybe even more.”

  “Aha! For himself and his wife – the bedroom, one room for the daughter and one for the two sons. Seneca now has one son, and ten years ago or more Senece didn’t have any children. Nor was he married.”

  “He didn’t have any children, he wasn’t even married. You weren’t married either! Where was I then?! What was I doing at the time?! Why didn’t I rush to Megapolis and steal you from your parents’ house?! Why?!!!”

  Chapter 59

  “The Balance in our society functions flawlessly,” said Mr. Kaella, without taking his eyes off the text which appeared on the teleprompter. “And that is no accident. This is in accordance with the essence of the human being. This is how Mother Nature created us. As Consumers. We live by consuming air, water, food, energy. When we stop consuming, we are dead… we are no more. Consumption, that is life itself. We were created in order to consume. This is the only purpose of existence of every single person and mankind as a whole.

  “The consumer is the center, the foundation of the universe. We are born, study, we work, create, only in order to discover new objects of consumption. Scientists and engineers are constantly working on this. Artists of all kinds create works of art so that people would consume them. When I realized that, I immediately cut all funding for further space exploration.”

  Babe’s bellybutton was covered by a crown made of real gold. From it descended a gold chain, which ended in a fluorescent green broken arrow, like a bolt of lightning. This arrow was the emblem of Kaella’s Company and represented a ray of cosmic energy traveling towards the Earth. The arrow pointed downward.

  Prince could no longer control himself. “A crown! That’s me! That is why you say that it is only mine… you magnificent woman! No one understands who I am! Only you do! And my beam, my lightning, my deadly arrow!” he thought.

  “Look, look at your crown and your lightning… look, Prince!” Babe told prince with her fiery stare. “And tonight you will look at my crown! I told you that I would have a backless dress, but what I didn’t tell you is what will be on my back. What is already tattooed on it. Something that is only mine. Something that is me! A huge gold crown with rubies. The crown of the Princess of the Planet Earth!”

  Chapter 60

  “Pascal, hey, Pascal, stop that already! You’re a detective. Have you forgotten?” Pascal shouted at himself.

  “Yes. I’m a detective. Where were we?”

  Pascal didn’t move from the mirror, as though his image was the counterpart forcing him to investigate.

  “Think, Pascal. Who among the important individuals in the state, among the persons who could build themselves such a shelter, who has three children. Two boys and a girl?”

  “Well, I understand what you’re trying to say, OK… President Xing has two children…”

  “That’s right,” the counterpart from the mirror responded.

  “Erivan is alone. He doesn’t have anyone. In the top of the Inspectorate…”

  “Leave the top of the Inspectorate. Erivan is the top of the Inspectorate.”

  “Yes… In the Company… by sectors…”

  “Leave the sectors. Who is the Company, Pascal?”

  “Kaella… he only has Prince… Well of course! Prince has two boys and a girl. But they are students. They don’t need pink covers… the bunk beds, that I understand, the rooms are small… but the light blue covers for adult men…”

  Pascal turned around and once again took a look at the bathroom accessories… the tiles…

  “But ten… fifteen… twenty years ago, Prince’s children were little. And it’s… it’s Prince Kaella’s shelter!”

  “It can’t be… Raul and Seneca would not hand me over to Prince. Perhaps Seneca, if he was scared… but if he was in cahoots with Prince all this time, if it was all just a ploy, pretend… if they waited for the right moment before the elections… to instill fear.”

  “No, no… Raul injected me in the arm. Raul would never be on their side. That’s for sure. Don’t even think about that…”

  “Oh my God, Prince killed them! He killed both Raul and Seneca! And he abducted me from them! And now I’m in his shelter… beneath the palace… in Capital City. That’s got to be it. I slept through the flight to Capital City. And Prince is holding me. He has some plans for me… Raul! My Friend! My best and only friend! And your people… and our people… you’re all dead! All of you!”

  Pascal covered his face with his hands and trembled. “And you Seneca. You are dead because of me too. Because of me you too lost your life.”

  Pascal opened his eyes wide and screamed. He ra
n out of the bathroom, ran to the exit, the locked door, and pounded on it with his fists and feet, screaming

  “Don’t you dare touch her, you scoundrels! Don’t you dare touch her! Or even look at her! Not even the children! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you all! All of you!!!”

  Chapter 61

  “Why would I spend money on space exploration?” Mr. Kaella wondered in front of the viewers. “It could have paid off if we knew that in some remote corner we would find consumers similar to us. Because we could sell our products and service to them and make a hefty profit.

  “But they don’t exist. It’s only us. What do I care if there is water on some planet out there? Like, life is possible. Let that life transform itself into a consumer, my buyer. Then we can talk.”

  “You’re trembling, my Prince… you’d rush me… take off my jacket… raise my skirt… and I would tuck my hand into your pants…”

  Babe was losing control of herself, which was uncharacteristic for her. Her case was the most striking evidence that the sense of power, as the strongest aphrodisiac, acts equally in both directions, on males and females alike.

  “My arrow, my lightning… from my crown… from me… from my soul…” Prince’s eyes were pinned to Babe’s bellybutton. “You aimed the arrow downward… towards your… towards her… That’s what you meant! That she is only mine… your intimate thing… You… you are only mine, Princess!!!”