Читать книгу Tulips - - Страница 4

The sun was rising from behind the distant mountains, and the domestic animals began to wake the citizens of the island with their various voices, demanding food. The elders always woke up before everyone else, and they took their time and made thorough preparations for the next day. The adults woke up their children and got ready for work. The day began, as always, peacefully and quietly.

Young tulips, yawning, were already reaching for the academy.

“Hello,” said Hugo, seeing Alba on the trail.

“Good morning,” replied the girl.

“I didn’t sleep well; I was up half the night.”

“Why all of a sudden?” Alba asked sleepily.

“Who knows. He’s probably getting ready for adulthood, and doesn’t want to sleep alone,” Hugo said, smiling.

“There are your inappropriate jokes again. Where’s Joshua? I can’t stand you alone.”

“By the way, yes, he should be here by now, the lesson is about to begin,” Hugo looked around.

“That’s strange, it’s not like him to be late at all,” Alba said, also glancing around.

“Once again, we haven’t seen him since yesterday! First, he was at the academy, then he worked in the garden, and then he went to a meeting with friends,” the mother of the missing tulip explained to the counselors.

“Good. We’ve looked all over the island, but he’s nowhere to be found. Now let’s go to the academy and ask his friends about yesterday’s meeting. Don’t panic. We’ll find him, God help us,” Claude concluded.

It was a thin man who was in charge of order on the island. In addition to keeping order, his men were engaged in searching for missing animals, helping the inhabitants resolve rare disputes, and whatever else it took to keep Paradise calm. Claude and his men wore clothes symbolizing authority, namely, black tight suits with a small gold star badge on the chest, high-laced boots, a robe that fell below the knees, and a light headdress. A comfortable and practical uniform that made them feel comfortable in all conditions.

“I beg you, hurry, this is a great tragedy for the whole island, not only for our family,” said Klaus, almost crying.

“I understand everything, but you also remember the responsibility you have for the peace of every citizen of the island. Don’t tell anyone about it yet. We have no need for premature excitement and panic,” Claude replied stiffly. After interviewing Joshua’s family, Claude led a small unit to the academy to fully recreate missing Tulip’s last day.

At school, Claude summoned Hugo and Alba to talk to him, but quietly, so as not to create unnecessary rumor and gossip. The tutor escorted them out of the lesson, and the head counselor took the tulips to a separate room.

“Now, I don’t want to alarm you, but your friend didn’t come home last night,” Claude began.

The boys looked at each other, and each of them shuddered.

“Tell me about what you did yesterday after the mandatory help. Joshua’s parents tell me you’ve been making frequent visits to some place near the cliff, is that true?” Claude continued sternly.

“Yes, it’s true,” Alba began first, “we almost always go there in our spare time and watch the sunset.

“We just sit and talk,” Hugo added.

“And what happened yesterday? You watched the sunset as usual and then you went home before it got dark, as usual?” Claude clarified.

“Yes, but not exactly,” he answered and looked at his girlfriend.

“Please, be more precise,” said the counselor.

“Alba and I left a little earlier, because it’s much farther to our house, and Joshua was still there, because it’s a couple of steps to walk,” Hugo explained.

“We didn’t think anything could happen, he wasn’t often, but there were times when he was alone. But there was never a problem,” Alba added.

“Anything else? Did you notice anything suspicious in his behavior?” asked Claude another question.

“No.”

“No, nothing like that,” replied Tulips. After a few more minutes of questioning, Claude,

finally let the students go to class, and he and his men went to the place Joshua’s friends had told him about.

Claude saw nothing suspicious or anything to add to the story of the missing young man on the cliff. The counselor looked over every rock, then walked around the hammock, walked to the cliff, looked down, but saw nothing, and neither did his men. After he stepped away from the edge, the ground collapsed, but Claude simply didn’t notice the insignificant event.

“What do you mean, missing? It’s not the mainland with its gigantic expanses, it’s a tiny island,” Isa didn’t understand.

“Yes, of course, but my men and I have found nothing, and everyone else has seen nothing. If the boy had been on the island, they would have found him by now, Claude reported.

“May God forgive our sinful souls for not looking after the innocent boy,” Isa turned to God, then turned to Claude and ordered, “Gather the people, let every citizen take part in the search. Paradise has never known a case of a missing person, and I will tolerate nothing of the kind while the burden of power rests on my shoulders. God bless us.”

Claude, having received a clear instruction, bowed and immediately set out to carry out the task. As the chief left the walls of the Temple and the doors closed behind him, one of his guards approached Isa. He was a rather tall and strong man, like all the others in the Supreme’s service. Isa’s guards wore the same uniform as Claude’s men, but their faces were covered by dark masks. These masks made them unrecognizable, so the locals called them “faceless.”

“What do we do?” one of them asked.

“Nothing yet…” The Supreme hesitated, and after a pause he spoke, “Well… I need to have a word with someone.”

Wait for me at the exit, and don’t accompany me.

Rising from his chair, which could truly be called a throne, Isa rushed to the exit.

All the citizens of the island, sooner or later, when they learned of the disappearance of the tulip, immediately went in search of it, except for those who could not do so because of illness or duty. People searched everywhere, going under every bush and into every crevice, sparing no effort to find the missing young man. Unfortunately, the search came to nothing.

“What’s going to happen now?” Alba asked her friend.

“I don’t know. This happened for the first time in the history of Paradise, no one prepared us for this,” Hugo answered.

“I don’t believe anything happened to him. I don’t want to believe it,” Alba cried.

“Relax, we’ll find him, I promise you,” Hugo said, putting his arm around the girl as he pondered the loss of his friend, “Joshua… Stayed sitting there with his…”

“Alba, he stayed there with his tuba,” suddenly it hit Hugo.

“With a tuba? So what?” Alba wondered.

“Come quickly, we must report it,” he grabbed her arm and raced to the Supreme.

Meanwhile, Isa entered the very garden where Joshua was working. In the same place where he always sat, tranquilly, Giuseppe. His legs were out of place scouring the island with everyone else.

“Hello, father,” Isa said, sitting down next to him.

“Good day to you too, Supreme,” the old man replied.

“Hmm, how flattering of you to address me. It has been a long time since I heard you say that.”

“You haven’t been around in a long time,” Giuseppe muttered.

“I haven’t had time, you know… Businesses and troubles,” Isa smirked.

“I hope they haven’t figured you out yet?”

“Ha-ha-ha! What are you talking about? My fellow citizens know only the good things about their mentor. But let’s not start an old record, tell me this, where is the boy?” Isa asked with a serious look at the old man.

“If I only knew… You don’t think I could have kept it a secret, do you?”

“I think you might have said something unnecessary to him, as you did before. You were sent away from everyone else, but here you found someone who believed you. As you saw, I didn’t interfere, but tell me honestly, was it your doing?” Isa asked, implying that the old man might have revealed to the young man some old truth that prompted the tulip to act recklessly.

Giuseppe looked calmly into his son’s eyes and answered, “No, I had nothing to do with it.”

“That’s good, because I was afraid, I would have to take the sin.”

Isa got up from the pew and continued, “If you are well, then I dare not trouble you any longer, father. The next helper I promise to send a deaf-mute, so that you do not corrupt him with your freethinking,” he grinned.

“Find him,” the old man said, looking at the ground.

Isa did not answer. They froze, understanding each other without words.

But then the tulips burst into the garden.

“Isa… Supreme …” said Hugo, out of breath, “there is one thing we forgot to tell you!”

“Don’t hurry, take a breath. What did you remember?” Isa asked with a change of face.

“Yesterday we had a music lesson… " Hugo blurted out.

“We went to the precipice with the instruments without running home,” Alba interrupted him.

“Joshua was carrying a tuba with a bassoon as big as his own,” he continued excitedly.

“Tuba… Bassoon… Well done you for remembering such an important detail. May God bless you, my children, run to Claude and tell him and everyone who is searching for it,” the Supreme answered the young tulips.

“Yes, of course. Thank you,” they shouted as they ran.

Isa waited until the tulips were out of sight before he said,

“I have nothing more to say to you, father. See you soon.”

He left, and Giuseppe looked after him for a long time, shaking his gray head.

“Ehhh! Brainless beasts!”

“Stinking pigs!”

“Try and catch me, you bastard!”

“Sea jerks!”

“Ha-ha-ha!” The young men laughed and called names as they gathered by the shore.

“Yes! Come on, let’s go, or the hard-headed ones will be here soon,” ordered Leo.

“That’s a cool thing to say, isn’t it? Sea cretins, ha-ha-ha!” said Aldo rather loudly.

“You said morons, not assholes, that’s right, brother!” Mateo corrected him.

“Ha-ha-ha-ha!”, both brothers laughed.

“You mean jerks? Which one of you jerks had forgotten to bring a flashlight?”, Eva asked, rummaging through her backpack.

“She asked you,” she said, turning the question back to her brother Aldo.

“Nah, you’re the only one who’s a jerk,” Mateo said.

“What did you say?”, Aldo was indignant.

“What did you hear,” Mateo hissed, shoving him away.

“You’re both jerks, now you don’t have flashlights,” Eva summed up, giving one flashlight to Leo and taking the other.

“The hell with it, let’s go this way,” Leo spat, “It’s not the first time!”

“You forgot to put it in.”

“You forgot, I remember everything,” the brothers continued to argue.

The young men were having fun hunting sea monsters, an old pastime for idlers on the coast. The old men used to say that giant squids would swim to their voices at night and tentacle their way up the cliffs to catch any “hunters” who wandered out of sight. Those who liked risk and wanted to make the blood run faster took pleasure in teasing fate. But there were occasions when people did go missing, so such games were considered chic and the height of courage by the local boys.

“Leo, wait,” Eva said suddenly.

“What else is there?” Leo stopped.

The girl lit up the shore, and saw a lifeless body.

“What is that, a person?”

“It’s a parsson, ha-ha-ha!” The brothers went on joking like they usually did.

“Leo, I think he’s still alive, he needs help,” coming closer and touching his pulse, said Eva.

“Leave it, he’s been in the water, he’s not alive now anyway,” Leo replied indifferently.

As soon as she turned him over, he coughed and water spurted out of him.

“Ew, that’s disgusting!” Mateo jumped away; he was covered with slime.

“You’re such a clean freak! Leo, help him,” said Eva.

“Oh, my gosh! He’s really covered in slime,” Leo growled, and leaned over the man, who was coughing convulsively and lying motionless on the stones.

It was Joshua. He was still unconscious, and he didn’t understand anything, but he was choking of vomit, saying one word “alive!”

Leo laid Joshua on his side and started hitting him on the back to get all the water out of his lungs.

“Damn, you dumbheads!” Mateo screamed.

“Leo, what are we going to do?” Aldo asked quickly.

“Take the kid, I’ll distract them,” Leo commanded and climbed into the backpack that hung behind Eva’s back.

“Leo, hurry,” said the girl.

“Coming…”

“Hurry up, Leo, they’re coming,” Eva kept pushing him.

“Now, hold still,” he repeated sharply.

“Leo-oh-oh!”, she screamed, pointing to a group of men who had sprung up suddenly from between the rocks near the shore.

At last Leo took out his silencer, depressed the safety, and threw it violently in the direction of the squad. The boys threw themselves to the ground. There was a pop that instantly stopped the hardliners. It was a kind of mechanism whose explosion disorients a man completely for two minutes and stuns him, leaving a strong whistling in his ears for a long time. It was enough to make the rascals easily pick up the young man’s body and disappear into the night.

“Hurry, hurry,” Eva worried.

The friends dragged Joshua back to their shack, where they vigorously began to bring him back to life, for the dead ocean water was deadly.

“Quickly! First, put on the ointment and gloves. Mateo, take off his clothes and burn them. Aldo, get some rags. Eva, get water,” Leo ordered.

Leo himself began to rummage through the large box in which they kept medicines for all occasions, and there were many such occasions in their lives.

“Ready!”

“Bandages and rags.”

“Here, Leo, take the water,” the friends reported one by one.

“Now, use this jar for rubbing and Eve, hold the lamp over his face where I can see him,” he ordered.

The brothers began to rub Joshua with a special ointment while Leo treated his eyes, ears, nose and mouth with a special solution.

“Well… He’s got a chance,” Leo muttered.

There was a sharp creak of the door, everyone shuddered. An older woman appeared on the threshold.

“Eva said we had a drowned man. Here, give him this,” and grandma Rosa, the lady of the house, gave the boys a hot, fragrant infusion.

Eva gently took the pot and began to slowly drink to Joshua, holding his head.

“Breathe calmly, don’t open your eyes, it will soon pass,” she said as she helped Joshua in his distress.

Tulip, half asleep, was unaware of where he was and what was going on. Sometimes he tried unsuccessfully to get up and say something, but each time he lost consciousness until he was completely unconscious.