The Grasshopper

Chapter 116

They decided never again to sit in the dark. They turned on the light on the dresser. Manami sat in Pascal’s lap. She pressed her hands into his cheeks, and quickly kissed his lips, then retreated. Pascal stroked her neck and back.

“I’m the happiest!”

“No, I’m the happiest!”

“I’m the happiest! And shut up, I tell you!” She kissed him again.

“Alright, I’ll shut up, but I’m the happiest!”

“I want to hear it! Tell me again! Come on, tell me – whose body is the most beautiful in the world?”

“Your body, Manami, is the most beautiful in the world.”

Manami giggled.

“You should be ashamed of yourself for lying! I would be ashamed.”

“I’m not lying, my love. The most, most beautiful!”

“It’s all my fault. For loving so much when you lie to me.”

“The most, most beautiful! You are the most beautiful! The most wonderful, Manami! And it is the most beautiful body, which I could barely see through the tears. Let me look at you again, now that I’m no longer crying.”

“Don’t be cheeky, Pascal. Get serious. It’s out of the question!” Manami moved slightly away from Pascal and looked him in the eye. “Now tell me that thing.”

“Manami, with you I will make love for the first time in my life.”

“It is true? Is it true, my darling? You have never before made love?” she kissed his lips.

“It’s true, my love. Absolutely true. It’s the greatest truth of all. And that expression is silly. I don’t understand how can I make love? It makes me. It makes me belong to you, only you, my dearest being.”

“Pascal, my Pascal!” Manami giggled. “My love, my joy, my darling, my everything, everything! Only mine! Are you? Only mine? You are only mine?”

“Only yours! Only yours!” Pascal pressed her against his chest and kissed her hair.

They were silent for a while, touching and cuddling.

“I’m not sure that I heard everything that you told me,” said Manami. “I only thought about what you would say when you saw my body. But now I want to talk to you. To talk to you until the morning. About what you said or didn’t say, it doesn’t matter. And you to only listen to me. I am much smarter than you, I guess you’ve realized that up to now?”

“I know,” Pascal laughed.

“And you’re again imagining something in that head of yours and you don’t understand at all what is tormenting me. Everything needs to be explained to you, Pascal. Like to a child. But what can I do? That’s how I have it. First of all I’m not split between you and my family, my upbringing and my convictions. You and my children are my family. And my love is my only conviction. Don’t you see that the four of us here are like in a house. Julius comes, like the father, to see us and say hello to his children. And to drink tea with us, have lunch. Everything is as it’s supposed to be. He brings us food and supplies… That’s like paying alimony to me.”

“You’re being silly,” Pascal laughed.

“I’m not being silly, Pascal. That’s how it is now, that’s how it will be when we get out of here. Do you know that every time that Julius comes through our door I want to rush to you, to take you by the hand, to put my head on your shoulder, and tell him… him and Peter ‘Pascal and I are in love. We cannot live without each other. Julius, I want a divorce immediately and I want my children.’”