Читать книгу You are my bird! - Елена Мошко - Страница 1

I was driving when I had that feeling. Shuffling the deck, the time was careless – everyone would get one, then two, three, four cards…Equally. It made my skin crawl. It became clear to me: one would now get trumps, others – the sixes.

I was waiting. It was anybody’s guess what card was prepared to me. Not only people play games – the games are playing with people too. The action of that one was taking place an arms length away. Or, rather, just started to set in. I felt it in my bones, in every fiber of my being.

Having drawn up at the lights I was waiting with bated breath. Rain, dripping the windshield, turned the red light into an ill-shaped puddle. Heavy flat streams ran making their way down to earth. You see, I don’t know where and when I did learn to listen, feel and wait patiently. Maybe – in my previous life, about two hundred years ago, when my great-great-grandmother, being exiled to Siberia, all winter evenings long scanned the wild snow-covered taiga, the white wasteland, waiting for any changes. She strained her eyes and ears only to understand that her time is breathlessly silent. Her princedom was awakening in me setting blood hammering in temples. The unconquered proud seed thrown in a lean year had sprouted up to gain the enchantment. It was dawning in myself as a new life. Feeling it!

I looked around. A crowd of pedestrians in the very center of the megalopolis was already reaching the other side of the crossing. Knight, seven, king… Three, seven, ace…

A knock at the window made me jump. A stranger in the rain-soaked dark overcoat was making hands signals…Saluting or asking for a lift?

I hardly had time to react when things spiraled out of control. The stranger pulled the handle, opened the door and in a second had found himself in the seat next to me. Not looking at me he brushed a drop of rain from the tip of his nose. It seemed to me that like a wet cat he would now give a shake from head to toe, showering the interior with wet drops.

But the new fellow passenger seemed to be stiff with cold: he was hardly able to move. Quivering with cold, he slowly closed the side door behind him and said, apparently addressing to all the same:

– I’m cold – I’ve been waiting for you for more than an hour!

– Me???

Instead of his answer I heard moaning signals demanding to leave the crossroad. I floored the accelerator and shot out, probably, to myself:

– Going!

The car obeyed and started speeding up.

– Sorry! It seems to me, I was wrong! – dark-grey eyes of the stranger were gazing at me with astonishment, – Its raining… I was mistaken…

– Оp! – I raised my eyebrows in surprise and very nearly crashed into the car ahead!

Oversized «Lexus» had obstructed the view. How typical! Its better not to hurry!

– Jeep, but crawling as a cart… – I dropped and added to myself «…yoked with donkeys. Well, at least the plates are Roman «RES…1313…». Double thirteen… «RES»… Never believed in signs. Should have, maybe…

– Belts! – was my short order, when I decided to overtake the off-roader on the right and revved up.

But no such luck: «Lexus» has also moved to the right, keeping me behind.

I then drive on the wrong lane. Let it be so! A slingshot, two seconds in flight and I smoothly overtake this “tank” to give full swing to my car…

– Are you in a hurry?

* * *

His question makes me take a peek at the unexpected fellow traveler: he wipes his face with a handkerchief. His fingers tremble slightly. Yes, today it’s been pouring all day. I just nod, feeling his eyes are pausing on me:

– You are to get warm… – I turn on the heater, realizing that the guy is dead with cold. Our unceremonious talk brings us closer, as we both are, no doubt about it, Russians… I am not surprised to hear Russian speech here, in Rome. There are plenty of us here, but at night-time and in such weather… A guy? Yes, the guy does not look more than forty: thirty-five-thirty-six…

Silence.

Tossing my head, I glance at the rearview mirror: a pickup van follows at tail. The bright side lights of the foreign car are moving away, then approaching again. In their light, I cast a glance at the fellow traveler. A straight Roman nose, protruding forehead, cheekbones… He looks like… Or is he? By a characteristic sound, I understand that the pickup is overtaking us:

“Zero-zero weather!”

…And why today it came into my head to wear a white skirt! All people are in trousers or in jeans like my passenger… He seems to fall asleep. The hand with a wet handkerchief lies limply next to my right thigh, but does not make it cool, but in fact heats it… I feel it’s warm, oh boy! Though, I am more surprised with the handkerchief in his hand: not every man carries a clean handkerchief:

– Feeling bad?

– No, I’m just getting warmer…

A velvet, warm, confident baritone. And here is the answer – the glasses mark on the nose bridge. One always need a handkerchief to clean glasses… “Hes just confused my car with somebodys else one”… when took off his glasses in the rain. I hate myself! You must not predestinate everything in this way”… I turn away. The windshield wipers are barely able to drop the rain. Wet dirty-gray asphalt as a shapeless tape runs under the wheels.

– And it appears, I have recognized you… Where are you, actually, going to? My words and formal address should have brought him to life. And my answer to myself: “Well, anywhere, just not to be at a stop.” A living celebrity is next to me.

* * *

– Do you know me? My passenger smiled saucily. – My fan?

Yes, I know him. To put in other words – I’ve recognized him. His regular and irregular features, with something special and attractive, now and then make frequent appearances on TV, and glossies. How could I meet such a man in ordinary life?… Never. Especially, like this…

– Do you know me?

– Yes, Vlad… Is it Vladislav or Vladimir?

– Yes, – somehow vaguely dropped my companion, still getting warm. – I need to – to the city center, and then the airport. Sorry…

– That’s enough apologizing. Thing of the past. It will cost you – an autograph. Settled? – I began to choose where to turn.

– But you were driving somewhere, maybe were in a rush?

– I? I went home or a sort of home…

“You said a sort of home.” What is it?

– A sort of, means a s-o-r-t o-f.

– Your answer is similar to the weather in this city.

– Something wrong with it?

Vlad leaned back in his seat.

– Yesterday it was snowing, everything melted in the sun in the morning, but now it’s raining…

– It’s always like that in autumn. Were you freezing?

– Today is not the same as it was yesterday on film shoots… I was only in a shirt when it began to snow. They were shooting the scene of execution by firing squad. According to the scenario – it’s the heart of summer. And then – all of a sudden – snowflakes started coming down… Still surprised, how I did not get sick.

– It’s so strange… – That’s what I say – strange… Now it’s snowing, then – raining.

– It’s strange that you are going to the airport, but don’t even have either bag or luggage.

Suddenly a flash of lightning illuminates the salon for a moment, giving it graphic lines. Then again the twilight. Now there will be a clap of thunder…

Suddenly the tune of my phone makes me yank on the brake. He has just rocked forward, bumping into the dashboard, then, kicking his handkerchief under my foot, pulled out my phone from under his back.

– Yes, – he says – I’m listening…

Now I’m listening to the roar of car horns. Why not! We are idling in the middle of the roadway stopping the traffic. And how could I react to his “Yes”? If it’s a buzz from Cyril, then what will he think? With wide eyes and stretching out, like a beggar, my right hand to him hoping to get my phone, I look at my fellow traveler making himself at home, then get into first gear.

– Yes, indeed…

– Give me! Please do! – demand I, trying to come close to curb.

All that’s missing is a crash! Here the police deal shortly with road hogs: at every trifle it makes such a row… Give then excuses before them and explain Cyril, who I’m cruising around Rome with at such an hour and in such weather.

– Certainly, you may…

In the meanwhile, I have parked up near a streetlight.

– Give me! Move it! – I demand, again informally and try to snatch the mobile from his hand.

– It’s impossible, – he pronounces and throws the mobile to the back seat.

– I must answer! – insist I.

And here comes the thunder I expected for!

He suddenly takes my face with his huge warm palms so that the tips of strong fingers embrace my head, pulls it toward himself, as if he wants to tear it away, and then kisses… kisses… with such a sweet kiss, so that my underbelly and not just that – the whole of myself melts like wax, letting myself go and be lost in this breathtaking kiss…Good heavens!.. the bottom falls out, my head is swimming, I’m rolling into the abyss, just feeling that some evil force raises me over the seat, then drags me to… I can’t open my eyes… I, too, becomes suddenly impassioned and attracted with violent and irresistible force of desire… I do not remember, I do not know myself to be such…I don’t see a new flash of lightning, it just gets a bit lighter and then darker again… Complete switching off, distraction… Then I hear my new elegant white skirt bursts at the seams, why on earth?… Now my favorite blouse with blue and green pattern, being such a perfect match for my eyes comes to pieces… A good thing there is no bra, it would share the same fate… Briefs? Where are they? I do remember I put on these damn briefs… Why did I suddenly think of them? What could they keep from in the situation? Nothing! Nothing can stop anything… And what’s that got to do with it?… These thoughts run in my mind just for a moment, while he is busy with quite another thing: Holy Mother! What strength he has?!

His strong arms carry me, completely naked, through the compartment, lift up, up and all this he does, not missing my lips, and with some lickerish persistence drags my body to him so that at first my buttocks scoot down the cold torpedo, but soon my legs and knees find their place on the edges of the seat, I feel the warmth of his thighs (when has he managed to pull off his pants?) and, finally, still kissing and kissing me, he gently pulls me down on himself, like on a steed…

– Wow! – I whisper, when his lips give me a pause.

“Yeah,” he whispers in my ear, “ooh…”

My eyes are still closed… I do not even need to help him with my fingers to find me… It’s like catching snowflakes with your lips.

Not a single thought about Steve, or about Cyril… At some point I hit my head against the car top, an idea shoots across my mind on… on…

The only inconvenience of these women’s “Peugeot” is low tops…

Now I myself pull off his tie, then his shirt…

With my eyes closed…

His body is still a bag of muscles. Lord, I’ve seen his body on the screen of my home theater! Once I even stopped the show – I fancied cybersex with him… I?!

And his body is now in my arms!!!

Then we rest, smoke…

“Wasn’t that your autograph?” I ask.

“You, you know, ve been amazing!”

And I, the fool, wanted an autograph.

A new flash of lightning… But why there is no thunder?!

* * *

Only now, when being in the driver’s seat, still completely naked, I glance at the street and notice that the familiar “Lexus” with these looking like random “RES… 1313…” just come crawling across my car, both of us.”

– Another second and it’ll just crush us!”

– What’s happening?

I look at my seducer in bewilderment, searching for the keys on the seat, then, bending over and keeping my eyes on Lexus, on the rug below… Another moment and…

– “We will be flattened by it now!” My God! Where are the keys?

– “Don’t take on so, sweetie!”

With these words, Vlad reaches out to me, kisses on the cheek and, cocking his left eye, suddenly jumps clumsily on the seat and pulls on his jeans still folded around his hairy legs (I managed to notice it).

I just watch him, while covering my tits with arms crossed, as he is looking for something in the cabin. Having pulled a pile of wet things from the back seat, Vlad instantly drags his wet jacket out the raincoat, tosses it on his still bare chest and opens the door. Dropping a short “Moment!”, he with his usual gesture pushes his glasses to the bridge of his nose. Not looking at me he goes straight to the off-road vehicle pulled up at about three meters from us.

And then I, still not believing in what has happened, give a sigh of relief: Fuh! Is it all over? Or just has started? “Rollercoaster ride” sometimes helps to strengthen relationships, or it may be quite opposite… But why did it happen with me – not with someone else?… I have no time to think out my question. A staccato of spurts of fire makes me shrink my head into shoulders. One, two, three of them… I’m afraid to open my eyes, and when I dare to half-open the eyelids I see: he twists with pain on the block pavement… Yes! he is convulsed in death-throe not having time yet to put the jacket on. The glasses slipped down to one side and may drop any minute. His arms, then legs and all muscular body are in convulsive twitch, the head is thrown back, the look on his face is not seen, but it seems to be his last minute. And now he lies on his back without movement, spread-eagled, his wet jacket is still on his right hand… The police cars have not been heard yet, but they are sure to run hot. What’s the next step? – here is another thought among many about what happened within some twenty to thirty minutes. One can write a crime story! Nobody is going to believe this! But what to do? I realize that I shall not stay in place! My fingers are again in search of keys… Naked!.. I’m completely naked in the thick of a sort of shoot-out!.. This thought just kills me. The keys have been found in the ignition lock. Oh, Lord!.. Thank You! Zhzhik! And the engine has started! And why would it not? Looking around to back the car, I see now these two in black masks… Oh God! So, they are those, who were shooting! They are so near to me, my hands are shaking, and I’m quaking in my boots… Brass monkey weather… What can I do?!

A phone call interrupts my thoughts.

– Yes!

– Listen, I cannot get you on the phone for half an hour already…

This is Cyril.

– Circhik, – I say as quietly as possible – I sit in traffic… I’ve got stuck at the Pope! – and put the phone down.

Those two with assault rifles at the ready pass me one after one, and, apparently, they go only to make sure that he is dead! And, of course, to make a security shot. The one that goes behind, has even hooked the motor hood with the but… Ho! And here is the third one! He is on the other side of the car… And now they come almost close to him, then surround him, going from the head side… I can hear only sentence-scraps.

“Khvoshch, what’s wrong with him?” Ready?

– Newbie…

Not a single movement… Even the rain quiet down, waiting for the outcome… Being afraid to move and shivering from head to foot, I’m waiting for these security shots… Just as I thought: the first shot sounds somehow uncertainly and indistinctly: puk… Then again: puk-puk… Just for the hens to laugh at! This “puk” even amuses me… But it also makes me pop eyes out: the first one suddenly began to stagger, then twitched awkwardly, and after that the other two began jerking their arms, then heads, and suddenly their feet went pit… Like puppets… It’s a side splitter!

Puk-puk-puk… I see now that Vlad, turning around and around on his bare back, discharges his pistol into one, then another, then the third, mercilessly, without aiming: Puk! Puk! Puk! And now when they are lying face down, he gets up, wipes his glasses hastily with his sleeve… A showman! He does not stick the pistol in belt, like action film heroes do, but approaches every dead man (I’m sure!) and busts one more cap in each head. A security one! And only after that he sticks the gun in belt. Still naked. Then, picking up the jacket from the pavement, he goes to me.

– “Wait,” he points to the ground with his hand: “here” – and pronounces a word that I cannot hear or read on his seductive lips. Narrows his lids, patiently waiting, trying to read my answer through the prism of the glasses.

I just look at him dumbfounded and slowly nod assent: “I understood.” He turns abruptly and immediately goes to the off-roader, which as if intentionally has opened the back door in front of him. A showman!

An idea suddenly has struck me that a new film series with his participation is being shot, and in a minute or two these three will rise and laugh, and Vlad will leave Lexus and invite me to watch this scene, where I… Ooooo! If they are professionals, they have shot us in such a role!

I do not know whether to be glad or sad, I just sit, trembling and feeling chilly. With fear and cold… Naked! The motor buzzes quietly… The heater just blows a blast of air, I look at those three… I see that they do not rise, do not shake off water from their trousers, that they do not smile to each other… Dead! But who will smile, lying in pool of his own blood?

And here is a police car.

When backing up I have almost crashed into the light bar car. The thought that they may find me naked brings me to life. In the depth of despair, I’m looking for some little thing to cover up and find his white shirt. Oh, that’s great! I put it on and wrapped up in it like in a saving cocoon. It even covers a part of my thighs! Hurrah! This is a face-saving! And I like its smell too! I even put a tie on the standing collar, though have not tighten the knot. In my opinion I have now a beautiful and quite respectable look! If the police will not ask me to get out of the car. Well, and where are my shoes? There they are! Now I may go even to the runway! Except for his handkerchief, which I still have, like a pad… Well, okay… I’ll think about it later…

It’s been a hell of an evening!..

I’ve balled up my skirt and blouse and pushed them in the glove box.

The rain again began to whisper in Pome…

What an evening!

And here is the police… I was always amused by their pot hats… I lower the glass a little.

– Mi scusi, signora, vorresti per favore…

Now I bust out my charming smile.

And of course, he recognizes me.

– Оh! Madame!