The red-haired clown. A novel. Elena Fedorova

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СКАЧАТЬ up her eyes and raised her head. Charles kissed her forehead, eyes, cheeks, pressed his lips to her lips, as to a spream. They did not see how Schwartz Schtanzer quietly left the room, having closed the door behind him. He went to the terrace, where his Aspasia La Rouge was waiting for him. She got up towards him and asked: “Well, how?”

      Instead of answering, Schwartz hugged her and began to whirl her.

      “What are you doing? Stop this immediately. I am going to faint. Have mercy on me, Schwartz,” Aspasia said. “At my age, it is forbidden to make such sudden movements.”

      “At your age, my dear, it is exactly the time to make those movements and to be reckless,” having kissed her upon both cheeks, Schwartz said.

      “What are you doing?” she exclaimed, having released out of his embrace.

      “I express joy,” he smiled. “You were right, Aspasia. Charles loves Simone. He loves her truly. You won!”

      “If I won, then you lost. Are you so happy to lose?” she asked.

      “No,” he shook his head, continuing to smile happily. “I am pleased with your insightfulness, your feminine intuition, your strength, your… Madame La Rouge, allow me to kiss you.”

      “No,” having proudly thrown back her head, she said.

      “I knew this,” Schwartz sighed, impulsively hugged Aspasia and kissed her on the lips.

      “You… you…” she looked at him distractedly and turned away.

      Schwartz hugged her by the shoulders, whispered:

      “Forgive me. Forgive me, dear Aspasia. Consider my act to be foolish childishness. Give me a scolding. Just do not be silent, please.”

      She turned and kissed him on the lips. She pushed him away, blushed, looked down, and said:

      “If you knew how long I was waiting for this foolish childishness from you, Schwartz.”

      “But why didn’t you..?” he exclaimed. She raised her head, looked into his eyes widened in surprise, and confessed:

      “I was playing the role of an impregnable arrogant woman to hide my helplessness. I do not know how to cope with my feelings. I do not know how to do this. What have I done? What have we done? How will we look each other in the eye after everything that has happened”

      “With love and tenderness,” Schwartz said, having taken her hands in his.

      ‘How will we look your wife in the eye?” Aspasia asked, freeing her hands.

      “I do not have a wife for a long time, my dear Madame La Rouge, “Schwartz smiled. “I am a widower.”

      “What are you talking about?” she frowned. “This morning, I was talking to Madame Schtanzer in the garden.”

      “Aspasia,” he began to laugh. “The woman, whom you believe to be my wife, is my housekeeper. I became a widower seven years ago.”

      “Schwarz…” Aspasia pressed his hand to her chest. “But why, why didn’t you tell me? Why?”

      “I was afraid to be rejected,” he said.

      “That is so foolish,” she sighed. “Why did you decide that I will reject you? I cannot reject someone I care about, someone I…” she pressed her palm to her lips and anxiously looked at Schwartz.

      “Well, well, well, Aspasia, why are you silent?” Schwartz asked, removing the hand of Aspasia from her mouth. “Please, finish what you wanted to say.”

      “I… lo-ve,” she whispered. He hugged her, snuggled against the flaming cheek, and said:

      “Aspasia, you have made me the happiest man on the planet. Just think, it took fifteen years to hear the only right words, which contain the meaning of my life, the meaning of our future life, Aspasia…”

      Simone and Charles drove up to the circus in the leather landau, pulled by four chocolate shiny horses. Matilda dropped the bucket of water, froze, watching how Charles, dressed in a light golden suit, was upholding the girl, dressed in black dress-trap. They slowly were going to the show-booth of the clowns, Lele and Bebe were dancing, they flapping on the backs of horses, were seating themselves in the carriage, and were leaving.

      “Dad, dad, did you see?” Matilda cried belatedly, throwing off the bucket angrily.

      “What happened?” having run out to her shouting, the Director of the circus asked. Matilda waved toward the receding landau and began to stamp her feet.

      “What does it all mean? How can this licence be in your circus? Do they want to derail the performance?”

      “Do not worry, dear,” Rudolf Welzer tried to smile. “They will come back. We have four more hours before the performance.”

      “Only four hours!” Matilda cried.

      “What will you do if they do not come back? What will you do if they do not return to your circus at all?”

      “I will think of something else,” the Director said hesitantly, having gone to the show-booth of the clowns. He knew that Matilda was right something irreparable happened: he lost his best clowns. He knew it would happen sooner or later. He was prepared for that from the very moment when a tall gentleman came to him and left the annual revenue only for the little boy Benosh to not change his stage name. If they took off on that very day, he could have stayed without the clowns fifteen years ago. It is a considerable period of time. They visited many places during this time… He made a decent fortune, married off Matilda. What else does one need?

      Rudolf Welzer sat in front of a mirror, put a red wig on the head, and smiled:

      “I need the circus because it is my whole life. I will die without it. Only here, at the circus, I feel needed. Only here.”

      He put on a big red nose, whitened his face, and winked at his counterpart in the mirror.

      “The problem is solved, friend! Today, the unsurpassed clown Rudy the red nose will come into the arena of the circus! Finally, my lifelong dream of becoming a clown will come true. Finally, no one will dare to condemn me for the choices I have made. Everyone will consider me a hero because I will save the program.”

      The horses were running together along the road. Lele was enthusiastically shouting and was clapping hands. Bebe was smiling condescendingly and was nodding to passersby. Simone and Charles were laughing lightheartedly. Everyone was having fun.

      “Lele, tell me, why did you call me Benosh?” having caught her hand, Charles asked.

      “O-o-oh,” having rolled her eyes, she sang. “Once I heard… No, it was not so. One day, I was walking down the street, and the carriage was slowly driving past, similar to ours, this carriage. There were few horses, so he was not driving very fast. Maybe, that’s because a sugary beauty was sitting in the carriage. No, she was not sugary, she was very, very beautiful and somewhat unreal. She was sitting like that,” Lele made a pose, СКАЧАТЬ