The Grasshopper (4 page)

“OK. And he also wants to be
informed, to be up-to-date…”

“Yes, of course.”

“And you inform him. You, Raul,
me…”

“Not only that. He does a lot for
us. He gives us wise advice, connects us with people…”

“Alright, alright… I agree. Of
course Seneca is exceptionally important to us. I told you myself
that he brought us victory. But I’m interested in why we go to his
house? Can’t he meet with us, can’t he come secretly, in a regular
car, to the hotel garage?”

“It’s more isolated there, and
safer. Here, at the hotel, we can never know who is coming or
going. Who is watching or listening.”

“The coffee probably also isn’t as
tasty.”

“This is becoming ridiculous. What
coffee…”

“Well exactly. What coffee?! You’d
rather have a cup of real green tea! Isn’t that right, Pascal?!”
Svetlana’s eyes started to fill up with tears.

Pascal was silent.

“But you… You, the great Don Juan,
don’t dare ask even for one cup, but keep ordering coffee, which
Seneca’s butler bring you, you tell the mayor how you feel
uncomfortable drinking alone, and that he should have something
too. And when after your third coffee Seneca finally decides to
have something to drink, he asks for green tea. And how does he ask
for it, Pascal?”

Svetlana’s tears started trickling
unstoppably down her face and her shrieking voice trembled. Pascal
stared at the floor and was silent.

“And then he tells the butler
‘Please tell my wife to prepare some green tea for me.’ And then
you stare, without breathing, as Mrs. Seneca, in one of her
kimonos, brings a cup of green tea, humbly holding it with two
hands. She approaches her husband, with her small steps, looking at
the floor the entire time. She puts the tea in front of him and
when she sees him bring it up to his lips, she glances at you for a
moment. That moment, those glances of yours, I can’t stand them,
Pascal. I would stand for all other women my entire life. As long
as I was the first. But I don’t want to nor will I be second. Not
even for you.”

Svetlana then opened the door to
the hotel room with one brisk move and ran out into the hallway.
Pascal did not follow her. He did not see Svetlana running,
slamming her body, bouncing off the walls of the hallway. But he
heard the night’s silence shattered by her moans and piercing
groans. The moans of a young soul, hurt for the very first
time.

Chapter 11

That night Mr. Kaella could not
sleep. He tried yet again to explain to himself how it was possible
that this was how this ugly world was repaying him for everything
that he had done for it.

Having inherited his father’s
company, Cosmic Energy Kaella, and having acquired companies for
the exploitation and distribution of drinking water, as well as the
companies for the production and distribution of food, he provided
the great majority of the people on the planet with a decent
life.

Unemployment was minimal, the loans
comfortable. The water distribution system was extensive and
efficient. Food was expensive but readily available. And that was
what was most important. Cosmic Energy made all this
possible.

In order for such a level of
prosperity of the State to be sustainable, people had to fulfill
only one condition: they had to spend. This is why at the beginning
of his rule he ordered the President of the State to enter into the
Constitution, into the first article, the following definition and
obligation:

“The social order of the State of
Earth is Humane Capitalism. The fundamental value of Humane
Capitalism is consumption, because one person’s spending provides
work and income for another person. This is why consumption is the
constitutional obligation of each and every citizen of the State of
Earth.”

It was not by chance that he called
his social system Humane Capitalism. In the entire history of
mankind only he had the right to do such a thing. Because he was
the most humane ruler of all times, there was no doubt about
it.

“Who else provided his people with
water, food, cooling, transportation, education, healthcare, jobs…”
Mr. Kaella thought to himself. “Everything, absolutely everything
that a civilized person needs. And without any discrimination, on
any grounds. What else can you give a person? What? Thanks to
Cosmic Energy and my family, there haven’t been any wars in a
century.”

“And what does this Pascal
Alexander want? He wants freedom, the right to choose, he says. To
buy what he wants or to not buy at all. To spend when he wants or
not to spend at all. Is that it?” The fuming Mr. Kaella shook,
alone in the enormous bed in the Presidential Suite, with his
entire elderly body.

“And what about those people… what
about those companies whose products Mr. Aleksandar and his
Non-Consumers don’t want to buy, whose services they don’t need?
What will happen to those people and their families, Mr.
Alexander?! I ask you this! How will they earn money and pay their
bills for energy, water… What will they give their children to eat
when their companies go bankrupt because of you? What?! You
soulless selfish animal!”

“I have to stop doing this,” Mr.
Kaella said out loud. “My poor body can’t take it
anymore.”

For years he had tortured himself
by trying to understand the villains. Good cannot understand evil.
This was a simple fact that he must accept. But he can and must
fight against evil. And he will fight. Starting tomorrow, until the
final victory.

Chapter 12

Prince Kaella was obviously wiser
than his father, at least on this night.

“Events are taking their course,”
he thought. “The right course. Capable and loyal people are in
their positions, prepared to act.”

Why should he trouble himself with
that anymore? Especially now, when she was finally there, just a
few floors beneath him. He could decide tonight, at any moment, to
get out of bed and to knock on her door within a few
minutes.

Who knows, he might even do that.
Because this desire, this passion… he has never felt… anything
similar... so powerful. It was as though he had only now awaken
from some monotony, from some mist, nothingness, senselessness… in
which he had spent his entire life.

Her body, her seething flesh…
exactly in the right spots, exactly where it should… simply forces
a man to lose his mind… to go mad!

But no. Not only that. There are
such female bodies on every step, alright not exactly like that,
but similar. But there is no journalist, host, editor that looks
like that, while at the same time creating an evening news program
with record-breaking ratings.

How much good she actually did for
his father, him, the Company and the State. She exposed
irregularities that occurred in society, invited to the studio the
persons responsible from all sectors of the Company and the
Inspectorate and clearly, without any reluctance, before the
millions-strong audience, demanded that they stop non-consumption
and mercilessly punish the Non-Consumers.

Those responsible would promise
that before the cameras and soon after, in some cases already the
following day, they would carry out arrests and raids of
well-concealed, secret Non-Consumer outlets, full of goods from
past seasons. Such successful actions by the Inspectorate were
always immortalized by Babe’s camera crew. In the next show she
aired with great pleasure the footage showing outlets ablaze and
Non-Consumers with their hands handcuffed behind their backs,
surrounded by shapely inspectors and their grayish uniforms, humbly
entering Inspectorate vehicles, heads hung low.

Prince was
pleased with himself. He had decided that from now on he would
always give in to his desires, urges and instincts. His rationality
would never allow him to simply get up after one of Babe’s shows,
to go to his study followed by his wife’s gaze, and to call the
director of Capital City TV and announce his official visit to his
media company, with the request that Miss Babe describe to him the
entire process of creating her show
In the Eye of the Storm.

Had he not acted on the cries, the
shrieks of his soul, had he not listened to the real him, he would
have never learned… he would have never seen, felt how Babe looked
at him, how her breath stopped from his nearness, how this fearless
journalist become confused, only in his company…

How she bowed her head and
trembled.

This is why he organized this
interview in the submarine, far away from Capital City. Here, where
he and Babe would be alone, where he could knock on her
door…

No, he would not disturb her
tonight, his instinct clearly told him. He would not allow her to
feel uncomfortable when she stepped out before him, half-asleep, in
just a plain nightgown, without any makeup. Let her prepare for the
interview in peace. Tomorrow she will look…

He would make it another night
without her, just one more night. Just one more. And after the
interview, when they return to the hotel… then nothing would to
stop him. Nothing!

Chapter 13

That night Pascal Alexander also
did not sleep. After Svetlana left he stayed up for a long time
looking down from his window into Consumer Square, where the
occasional passerby scurried home, without paying attention to the
magnificent fountain, the statues of Mr. Kaella’s grandfather and
father, or the stage prepared for Pascal’s speech the following
day.

“The stage will be taken down in
the morning,” Pascal thought. “I didn’t tell you that, Svetlana.
Seneca will not arrest me tomorrow. He told me that I am a free
citizen who has not committed any violation. I didn’t want you to
worry, to suffer even more, Svetlana, because tomorrow I will go
into the square. I will, Svetlana.”

He finally forced himself to sit in
the armchair, to take the tablet from the table, place it on his
knees and start watching footage of his speeches. He wanted to
distil from them what is best… no, not the best, but the parts, the
words and ideas that people reacted to the most, with shouts. His
thoughts that the people understood.

He started every speech with the
words:

“Hello, free people!”

He skipped the usual initial shouts
and his waves and thanks.

“We will win these presidential
elections. For the first time since the founding of the Company,
the State will have a president who will be the president of the
free people, and not Kaella’s puppet.”

There, that is where the people
shouted out in approval. It was clear to them who governed
them.

“On the first day I will slate free
elections for Parliament. And when we finally get representatives
of free people in their offices, we will do away with the first
article of the Constitution and all the others that limit our
freedom.”

Just a few voices could be heard.
What do people know about Parliament? Most of them don’t even know
what the Constitution is. He won’t mention that. He mustn’t confuse
the people.

“I will immediately carry out an
investigation into how the companies for energy, water and food
were acquired at the time by one single family. I promise you, here
and now, that the Company, which this family is using to enslave
us, will be again listed on the stock exchange and its shares will
be handed out to all the citizens. Cosmic Energy is cosmic and it
cannot be the property of one dynasty. We will all be
owners.”

Now there was a surge of shouts.
This can be expanded, emphasized. Repeat several times that all the
people will be owners.

“When we resolve the issues of
satisfying our basic needs for energy, water and food, we will go
back to ourselves, nature, evolution – because all life, just like
us, was created through evolution. And it represents nothing other
than a struggle in the free market. We will inscribe democracy,
free market and protection of competition in the first article of
our new Constitution.”

Nothing. Silence. It isn’t the
people’s fault. Kaella writes the history textbooks, censures the
Internet. How would people know what the world looked like a
hundred years ago? He mustn’t confuse them with that. They will
slowly, gradually learn this, over time.

“How much of your monthly income
goes towards energy, water and food? How much do you pay per month
to his son Prince, for the loan for you overpriced apartment, your
entire working life? Or rent? Why do we work, why do we live? In
order to give Kaella everything that we earn? Is that why we live?
Will our descendants also live only to fill the pockets of Kaella’s
descendants? No! Its enough!”

Catharsis. That’s the real deal.
Telling people about their daily lives, about their bills, through
which they overpay for basic living costs.

“And what happens to the remainder
of your monthly income? You are required to spend it on things that
you don’t need. New clothes and shoes are mandatory every season.
Every year a new dishwasher, a new car every two years. And if you
don’t buy them the Inspectors take you to prison, take away your
apartment, expel your children from school… We refuse!”