The Grasshopper Page 18

  “Dad? What does he care who washes his clothes? He just wants everything to be clean and ironed.”

  “Sir,” Manami was getting uncomfortable, “I rather not discuss this topic any further. You will do as I said. This is the end of this discussion,” Manami concluded with a firm voice.

  “Alright, ma’am. As you wish,” Pascal agreed.

  Chapter 88

  “Peter looks a lot like the Mayor,” said Pascal.

  “That’s what everyone tells me!” shouted Peter proudly.

  “Your hair is a bit darker,” Pascal smiled. “And your face is narrower… and your chin is smaller, like your mother’s.”

  “They tell me that I’m exactly like my dad! Eyes, and eyebrows… and everything!” ten-year-old Peter was relentless.

  “Yes you are… exactly like your dad,” Pascal laughed.

  “Both in appearance and in character,” Manami smiled, brushing the hair from her son’s forehead.

  Peter pulled his head back. “Don’t, mom!” he said.

  He parted his hair on the right, just like his father. But he grew it longer. So that it fell over his forehead, all the way to the left eyebrow. That was the hairstyle that boys at school wore.

  “And Eir…” Pascal said, while gazing at the two-year-old girl, who was playing with a doll on the table, while sitting in her mother’s lap. “Eir is just like her mother.”

  “That’s normal. She’s a girl,” said Peter. “Elevator! Dad!” he shouted, hearing the elevator doors open. He jumped out of the chair and ran to the shelter door.

  Seneca appeared a few moments later. He silently nodded to Manami and Pascal, who had gotten up to greet him. He stroked his son head

  “Peter, take your sister and go to your quarters. Play with her. I have to talk to mom and Mr. Alexander.”

  “Alright, dad. Come, Eir,” said Peter, lifting his sister from their mother’s lap.

  “What’s happened, Julius?” Manami asked frightened, when Peter and Eir had left, looking at her husband’s tense face.

  “Erivan has killed more than three hundred people. The heads of the Company, Inspectorate… the heads of Kaella’s state.”

  “Awful!” Manami cried out. “Did he also…”

  “Yes, Manami. Both of them.”

  Manami screamed. Seneca hugged her and held her to his chest. Pascal turned around and went to his room.

  Chapter 89

  “Alexander,” Seneca knocked on Pascal’s door.

  After a few moments Pascal entered the living room.

  “Yes, Mr. Mayor?”

  “Please sit with my wife,” said Seneca. “The children are asleep and I have to go… so that she’s not alone.”

  Pascal locked the door to the shelter and sat on the couch, next to Manami. She was sitting with her hands in her lap, shoulders slumped and head hung low. She was crying. Pascal wrestled with himself not to hug her. He finally wiped a tear with one finger.

  “Who are the Levis? The mayor of Capital City?” he asked quietly.

  “Yes. Our best friends,” Manami answered. “He was like an older brother to Julius. He was the one who recommended Julius, who wasn’t even thirty at the time, to Prince Kaella for the mayor of Megapolis. And Sophia… what a woman. What a lady… Noah is upstairs… with Julius, in his office.”

  “Noah?” Pascal asked.

  “Their only son. They wanted him to study here, in Megapolis."

  “A student?”

  “No. He’s with the Inspectorate now. He already holds a high rank. An extraordinary young man… What is he feeling now? He doesn’t have anyone anymore… Julius won’t let him leave his side… so that Noah doesn’t do anything to himself. So that he doesn’t go to Capital City… Awful… only now do I understand what you must have felt when we told you… when I told you about your friends. Only now…” Manami looked at Pascal. “You know what, sir?” she raised her voice. “I will tell my husband that it isn’t enough that he has switched off all the media and communication in the shelter. When he brings such news, we can’t do anything to change that… I cannot pretend in front of the children… when this… hurts so much… I will tell my husband not to tell us anything anymore. And I forbid you to ask him anything. Not in front of me.”

  “I will not ask the mayor anything, ma’am. Nothing at all,” Pascal said.

  “You have to know what is going on. So that you are prepared when the moment comes for you to take the presidential office.”

  “Presidential office? Ma’am, you don’t still believe in that?”

  “Of course I believe. That’s the only thing…” Manami paused. “Sir…”

  “Yes?”

  “May I…? Just for a bit… a few moments… rest my head on your shoulder?”

  Chapter 90

  For hours the Grasshopper did not answer Erivan’s persistent calls. In the meantime he had moved the four bodies to the amphitheatre and cleaned up the operations room. He finally called Erivan.

  “Grasshopper! You’re alive!” Erivan shouted. “I’ve been beside myself since you crashed like that. And the connection died.”

  “Forgive me, Mr. President,” said the Grasshopper, with a stronger voice. “It wasn’t intentional. I passed out.”

  “I know, I know. Are you alright now? I mean, you can’t be alright. But are you better? Or will you pass out again?”

  “I won’t anymore. At least I think I won’t. The wound hurts and I have a slight fever. But nothing much. I’ll take an antibiotic, rest for a few days and I’ll be as good as new.”

  “Alright, alright. You rest as much as you need. This first phase of the war is working for me. Do you know how interesting it is to look at maps with the generals. Then we discuss which city to attack. It was awesome! And Consumers need to perish some more. So that they get fired up even more. You just recover calmly. No hurry. But pick up the line as soon as I call you.”

  “Of course I will, Mr. President.”

  “Alright, go lie down now… wait, stop,” it dawned on Erivan. “You didn’t tell me what happened over there. Why did your men attack you? And how did you kill the Command crew so quickly?”

  “Simply, Mr. President, I sent them all to the amphitheatre…”

  “What’s that?”

  “It’s the largest space here. It’s used for meetings, lectures…”

  “Alright, and?”

  “And their chiefs stayed with me in this operations room, supposedly for me to explain to them the new method of operation.”

  “And?”

  “My men killed the two of them immediately. And I switched off the oxygen to those in the amphitheatre.”

  “Bravo! It’s like watching myself! Why did your men attack you? What was it, they didn’t have the stomach for it?”

  “No, no. I told them back on the ship that we would kill everyone here. That’s why I brought the five most brutal men. But… that’s what surprised me so much. When these five couldn’t take it…”

  “What?”

  “In the end I told them how it was. What your orders were…”

  “And they refused?! My orders?! It’s good that you killed them!”

  “I killed three in the hallway, and then, wounded as I was, I burst into this operations room, and two of them were on my tail. And I protected the command desk with my body and shot…”

  “That’s good, that’s good!” Erivan shouted. “My generals are at the door. I can hear them already. I have to go, Grasshopper.”

  Chapter 91

  Pascal chose a place at the table for himself. The place from where his view of Manami in the kitchen was least obstructed by the counter.

  “That’s very interesting, ma’am,” he said, while Manami was preparing lunch. “The fact that you wear a kimono.”

  “That is my family’s tradition, sir. I observe it with great pleasure,” said Manami, turning towards Pascal. “And this isn’t a kimono,” she smiled. “It is obvious that you are not knowledgeabl
e about this type of clothing.”

  “It isn’t?” Pascal was surprised.

  “This is a yukata. It is thinner than a kimono. It was originally made of cotton soaked in indigo. Today they are colorful, like this one.”

  “Yours isn’t exactly colorful. Neither are the other ones I’ve seen, which aren’t blue.”

  “It isn’t? Well it isn’t exactly youthfully colorful, with flowers, etc. But you see that it has geometric patterns on it.”

  “It does, it does… but they are just a little darker… and they’re gray. They don’t stick out much. But you know what? I’ve already forgotten the other name. For me that’s a kimono.”

  “That’s what dad says, too,” said Peter, while playing with Eir on the floor. “It’s a kimono to him, too.”

  “Peter,” said Manami. “You need to start studying soon, son.”

  “Aw, mom!”

  “No ‘aw’. You know what your father said. Just like at school. And I’ll help you go over the new material.”

  “If you would permit me, ma’am… I mean, you have plenty of work with Eir… And you’re cooking for us, cleaning… I could work with Peter. You know, I’m a teacher.”

  “Yes, I know. Biology.”

  “Yes, but that’s not important. The two of us will cover all the subjects. To help the time pass. Isn’t that right, Peter?”

  “Great!” said Peter, jumping to his feet. “I’ll go get my tablet. And if the teacher wants to give me a low grade, I’ll tell him that that’s what the president taught me!”

  “Peter!” Manami pretended to be angry. She waited for Peter to leave the room, she looked at Pascal and asked “So, you are bored with us? Something to help the time pass, is it?”

  “Ma’am, please… don’t joke like that with me.”

  Chapter 92

  “The Mayor told me that there had been some problems at the University…” Pascal said.

  “Yes, there were…” said Manami, while putting a cup of tea on the table.

  “And that you proposed at the time…”

  “Pete’… doggy,” Eir placed a toy dog on Peter’s tablet.

  “I can’t study because of you!”

  “Forgive me, Peter,” said Pascal. “It’s my fault. I won’t speak any more.”

  “Peter!” Manami shouted. “What is that behavior?!”

  “Mom, I really can’t study!”

  “Of course you can’t! But we too cannot be silent all day because of that! Mr. Alexander explained the new lessons to you. Now go to your room and study. When you learn it, come and he will test you.”

  “But mom, it’s nice here.”

  “And where did you study at home? You studied in your room, Peter. The sooner you learn it, the sooner you will be able to join us and talk with us. Come on now, go to your room.”

  Peter reluctantly got up off the couch.”

  “And Eir? She might fall from here…” he said.

  “Sir, I have to clean up the kitchen. Please take Eir,” Manami said.

  Peter went to his room. Pascal took Eir in his arms and walked around the living room. He finally went into the kitchen and stood next to Manami.

  “Eir is exactly like her mom,” he said quietly.

  Manami turned and kissed her daughter’s arm. “Eir has a soul like a fine string,” he said.

  “Like you… like yours, ma’am.”

  Manami looked away.

  “Eir is an unusually calm child,” Pascal continued.

  “She is calm… yes,” Manami looked at him. “But not as calm as she is now. I think, it seems to me… that Eir, in her own way, feels the atmosphere. That she understands. That is why I said that she has a soul like a fine string. The smallest breeze will play a tone on her. It is because of Eir that it is important that Julius doesn’t tell us anything. I might be able to hide my pain from Peter, but not from Eir. Regardless of how strange it might sound.”

  “It doesn’t sound strange, ma’am.”

  “You say that Eir is like me. And not only in appearance.”

  “Yes.”

  “I wish for my little girl to experience everything that her mother did. But on time. That she doesn’t inflict pain on anyone because of it.”

  “You are not inflicting me any pain, ma’am. There is no room for it. There isn’t any room for anything else, ma’am,” Pascal whispered.

  “I wasn’t thinking of you, sir.”

  Chapter 93

  The Grasshopper called Erivan.

  “I’ve been thinking, Mr. President.”

  “Doing a little philosophizing, a?” Erivan smiled.

  “I was watching the news last night,” the Grasshopper continued in a serious tone.

  “And?”

  “That report from your office, with you and your generals…”

  “Yes?” Erivan murmured suspiciously.

  “I didn’t like it, Mr. President.”

  “Why?” asked Erivan in a slightly annoyed voice.

  “For several reasons,” the Grasshopper continued calmly, not paying attention to that.

  “Oh, yes?”

  “First of all, you weren’t visible, because the generals were in front of you…”

  “What was that stupid director looking at?” Erivan got excited.

  “You have no business mingling with them, Mr. President. They are generals, but they are far beneath you.”

  “They are! Of course they are! Everyone is!”

  “That’s what I’ve been telling you. You need the camera to show this.”

  “What do you propose, Grasshopper?”

  “I propose that you take the big screen, the one with the map of the world, off the wall and place it in the center of the office, on four legs, like placing a map on the table, get it?”

  “Yes. I like that idea…”

  “Because this way everyone is looking up, like reading the train schedule at the station. It doesn’t look dignified.”

  “You’re right. You’re absolutely right!”

  “And when the screen is placed at table-height, then let all the generals gather at one end of the table, pushing and shoving among themselves, while you stand magnificently on the opposite side of the table, alone.”

  “Excellent! Bravo, Grasshopper!”

  “One other thing…”

  “Yes, tell me…”

  “That suit of yours...”

  “What’s wrong with it? It seems to me that the tailor did an excellent job.”

  “Yes, he did. It fits you perfectly.”

  “So what then?”

  “Have the same tailor make you a uniform. Also entirely black. With a black shirt and a black tie. And high, black leather, shiny boots…”

  “Excellent, excellent… I agree…”

  “Because the State is at war. You, as the supreme commander, must be in uniform.”

  “In uniform! Clearly, of course!”

  “People remember wartime presidents the longest. The peacetime ones are soon forgotten. War is the ideal opportunity to go down in history. And in it the throne that has never been reached awaits you.”

  “Wow, Grasshopper, how well you express yourself. Throne!”

  “Pedestal!”

  “Wow, pedestal!” Erivan was elated. “I’ll call the tailor immediately. Goodbye, Grasshopper.”

  “Just one more thing…”

  “Yes, but say it quickly.”

  “When you are in uniform, and the generals are squeezing around the table, across from you…”

  “Yes?”

  “When the camera is recording…”

  “Yes?”

  “It should also film them from the side…”

  “Alright…”

  “And let them lean over the table, let their heads peer through…”

  “Aha…”

  “And they will peer through to be filmed for the news…”

  “They will, I know…”

  “And they will all try, with all
their voice, in their dull gray uniforms, to have you accept precisely their proposal…”

  “I know, they try…”

  “And you, on the opposite side… in the wonderful black uniform. Pants tucked into the boots, which have been impeccably polished, shining under the spotlights…”

  “I can already see it… wonderful…” Erivan gargled.

  “…with one hand, clenched tightly into a fist, bent over slightly, leaning on the table, and with the other bent at the elbow, placed on your back; one foot slightly forward and wisely nodding, while they are running around, showing their proposals in the map…”

  “Yes! Yes! Hand behind my back!”

  “And finally… I think at the end of the news report, you turn your head, looking resolutely at the camera, that is to say into the heart and soul of every Consumer, and you place your hand on the map, anywhere. It doesn’t really matter.”

  “Fantastic!”

  Chapter 94

  “My husband wanted to make Megapolis the most advanced city in the world,” Manami told Pascal, after the children had gone to bed, explaining to him the problems that had occurred at the University.

  “That is why he paid the greatest attention to youths. He wanted the University to provide top experts and scientists, but also respectable, polite, moral people. Young people with a genuine conservative system of values. He invested great efforts and means into this. He requested and received a special budget for this from Prince Kaella. He provided scholarships, financed research and development projects. He developed two new elite student dormitories, one men’s and one women’s, in the park next to the square, as motivation for young people to achieve better grades. For them to get rooms in that dorm, based on them.”