Chapter N.IX
Vitaly Ivolginsky
Always Visible (Another Prayer for the Dying Horror Genre)
Zero Act — Que Difícil é Ser Escravo de Deus!
Chapter N.IX
As it were, ajussi Jo got up from his chair. Little girl shuddered and, leaning back, instinctively covered herself with her hand. Jordan went to the table and, picking up this ill-fated book, turned to Delia, who stood in front of the chair, as if spellbound, and looked at ajussi through her fingers with some surprise, but without fear.
“I want do something nice for you”, he said, opening the pamphlet. “You do love…”, he suddenly fell silent and began turning the pages randomly.
Delia involuntarily wondered what her adult friend had in mind. Baby girl lowered her hand from her face and, narrowing her eyes, carefully looked at his concentrated face.
“What I love?”, she asked with barely concealed curiosity. “Read? Paint?”
“Incinerate”, answered unexpectedly ajussi Jo and violently pulled the book by the edges of the binding.
There was the sound of tearing paper, and several book pages flew into the floorboards. The next moment, Jordan began tearing the book to pieces with a vengeance, while Delia silently watched his actions. She could not even think that she could be so delighted with the sight of an adult man, bothering himself with such an atypical activity for his age. Soon a pile of tattered paper pages lay at ajussi Jo’s feet, and the hardcover he hadn’t been able to tear was thrown to the floor beside them. Joyful man took out a lighter from his pocket and nodded to the girl, who involuntarily felt funny, but she managed to suppress a smile, not wanting to seem impolite.
“Take these shreds”, ajussi Jo kicked the paper, “and take it to the hearth”.
After these words, he moved to the opposite corner of the room, and Delia, after a little hesitation, squatted down next to what’s left of a foolish book and began to carefully pick it up from the floor – piece by piece – folding them into the hem of her light skirt, which she usually wore in autumn, when the weather was still warm enough to walk in easy clothes. When Delia had collected everything, she straightened up and turned to the mantelpiece, where ajussi Jo was already standing.
“Get over here”, he beckoned her with a gesture.
Holding the hem of her skirt, the girl slowly, so as not to spill the paper, moved towards him. As soon as she was near Jordan, the man bent down and opened the iron door of the fireplace.
“Throw all your burden in there”, – he nodded to her, referring to the book’s odds and ends.
Delia released her hands from her skirt in relief, and the paper fell with a rustle right into the dark maw of the fireplace. Only the cardboard halves of the binding did not seem to want to agree with this and with a barely audible thud fell under her feet. Little girl had to bend down and pick them up from the floor, after which she threw him to the rest of the scraps.
“You make me proud!”, exclaimed ajussi Jo with inappropriate triumph. “Now step aside”.
Delia obeyed, and her adult friend squatted in front of the fireplace and flicked on his lighter. A few seconds later, a crack was heard right in front of his face, but nothing terrible, of course, happened – it was just a small fire flaring up, and in a few moments the flames were already licking the paper and carton folded in the middle of the fireplace. Ajussi Jo got up, brushed the dust off his knees, and shoving his hands into his trouser pockets stood beside the girl.
“The Book of Light, they say…”, with irony in his voice he muttered softly, looking at the fire.
“Let there be light!”, Delia answered cheerfully, her eyes fixed on the flames dancing in the fireplace.
So Jo & Delia stood for a while, silently watching as the fire turns tabloid esoteric fiction into what it essentially is – to ashes, only not figuratively, but literally. The girl had the feeling that the act of burning they had just committed, is a challenge to the whole society of these demented psychics who themselves do not understand the meaning of their pseudoscientific teachings, but with surprising perseverance they try to teach it to others, naively believing, as if an educated person has any business with their ridiculous and senseless fuss with crystals and such nonsense, ostensibly bringing human benefit and purification.
Suddenly, ajussi Jo threw back his head to the ceiling, and the girl heard his laughter, similar to the laughter of a child who received a long-awaited gift. She shuddered in surprise and recoiled from him, but soon she realized what was the matter and laughed with him. Her laughter was full of such unbridled joy and happiness as she had never experienced before – it seemed that her whole being was filled with such bliss and peace that no other event in her life could previously cause, even birthdays, Christmas or some other family holidays. It was this strange event – burning a unwise pamphlet in a neighbour’s fireplace – that could cause her a strong surge of happiness.
Soon they calmed down – first ajussi Jo stopped laughing, and then Delia herself. Man and a little girl stood near the fireplace, where the last pages of a tattered, foolish and useless tiny book were burning down, which both of them, not without reason, considered, if not bad, then at least mind-numbing reading matter. Burning these pages gave them self-confidence, and, one might even say, awakened their taste for life. Ajussi Jo, looking up from the fireplace, turned to the girl and peered at her for a while – apparently trying to understand from the expression on her face what impression their sudden act made on her. Delia, feeling his eyes on her, blushed in embarrassment and began to straighten her slightly wrinkled skirt.
“Did you like it?”, he asked kindly.
In response, the girl nodded her head in the affirmative.
“You’ve never laughed like this before”, continued ajussi Jo. “Agree, because it great – to burn the books?”
“If that’s a junkfiction, then yes”, Delia replied cheerfully, jumping up and down.
“I’m not saying that this applies to all literature”, as if making excuses, Jordan began to explain. “Those who can really teach something should be cherished as height of luxury, and they should not be burned at all”.
Delia raised her hand to her face and scratched her chin thoughtfully, which obviously amused her interlocutor, who, in response to her gesture, tilted his head to the side and let out some semblance of a chuckle. This slightly hurt the girl, but she did not show it. Looking at ajussi Jo, she suddenly realized clearly how much he looked like her – it was not so much about external data, but how much they had similar internal qualities. After all, if dig into the depths of his soul, it turns out that the difference in age, as it were, did not exist – ajussi Jo, at twenty-four, was still as naive and childish as Delia herself. In fact, the only difference between them was only in the level of knowledge and experience.
“Hold on a second”, suddenly said ajussi Jo, raising his finger to the ceiling.
After that, he went to the desk, on which lay some papers, books, and also there was a small telephone set. Delia stared at him in bewilderment, but when the man’s hand reached for the telephone receiver, she could not stand it and took a few of uncertain steps towards him.
“Where are you calling?”, she asked with a sudden tremor in her voice.
“Take it easy, Delia”, said ajussi Jo, looking at her affectionately. “Just give me a minute to talk”.
With these words, he began to dial the number, and the girl heard a characteristic sound with which the disk of the device rotates (ajussi Jo had a very old model of phone). She realized that Jordan wanted her out of the way, but she asked him one more question just in case.
“It have to do with me?” she asked without any hesitation.
“I feel like you’re reading my mind”, ajussi Jo smiled. “Of course it is related. Something very interesting is waiting for you. Highly”, he repeated, and to emphasize the importance of the word, he snapped the fingers of his free hand.
Calming down, Delia stood behind him. It suddenly occurred to her some wonderful idea – eavesdrop on someone else’s conversation and find out what adults are talking about! A slight smirk appeared on ajussi Jo’s lips, and he nodded his head approvingly, as if encouraging her curiosity. Apparently, he was not at all against the fact that the girl heard the content of his conversation with the person on the other end of the line. Almost a minute passed, accompanied by measured beeps, until a young male voice came from the receiver.
“Hello, Jo, why bother me at such an early hour?”, spoke with some displeasure the invisible to the girl interlocutor.
Delia almost couldn’t help but laugh – it was already five o’clock in the afternoon on the clock, and this gentleman for some reason considered this time to be early. “Maybe he’s a lover of sleep until noon?” she thought, covering her mouth with her hand.
“Hello, Japh”, ajussi Jo said cheerfully, “I’m calling to find out how you are doing, what mood you are in”.
“Listen, what is this thing”, not listening to his words, the interlocutor spoke with despair, “when the electricity is turned off in the morning and only turned on in the evening? I’m already tired of getting dressed in the morning by candlelight!”
“No idea, mate”, Jordan replied calmly. “I have electricity from another substation”.
Delia was bored listening to them talking about electric power problems, but she understood that this was only the beginning of the conversation, and the most important thing would be said later. Intuition did not disappoint the girl.
“Look, Japh”, with feigned carelessness said ajussi Jo. “Do you mind host the couple of not-much-star-studded folks?”
“Couple?”, a surprised voice came from the receiver. “Are you not the only one coming to visit me?”
Baby girl blushed slightly when her adult friend used the phrase “not-much-star-studded folks”. “What would happen”, she thought, “he considers me to be his, but at the same time he constantly makes it clear that I am not smart enough to be equal to him?” However, ajussi Jo, busy talking, did not notice the thoughtful expression on Delia’s face.
“Yes, friend, I want to introduce you to my new neighbour, Delia, pharmaceutist’s daughter. Very smart and sweet girl”, at these words, he turned to the baby and was a little embarrassed when he met her gaze.
“You going to come with a babbie…”, a voice answered thoughtfully.
“What, you’re afraid that the young lady will get bored and remember you as a rare bore?”, chuckled ajussi Jo. “Wrong, mate – Delia is a serious girl, loves to talk about literary topics, we recently read the Brüder Strugatzki with her, and she liked it very much”.
“Whom?”, not understand man on the other end of the line.
“Well, do you remember the book onkel Korble got me?”, said ajussi Jo, hiding not his pride in himself and Delia.
“A, which is in German…”, murmured the voice, as if only now he understood what the interlocutor was talking about.
“So be cool about the boredom, Japh”, Jordan cheered up his friend, “Sit, chat, read your book, take a look… The main thing is that there is something to put on the desk, I hope you don’t have any problems with this?”
Silence reigned on the phone – apparently Japh went to check if he had anything in the fridge. Delia, who had been standing behind ajussi Jo all this time, suddenly felt very hungry because that day she ate only twice – at home in the morning and when she just came to a neighbour. In both these cases, it was limited to small – half a grapefruit and homemade shortbread, with which Uncle Jo wanted to please her, but his culinary skills did not make much impression on baby, and in the end, Delia was still starving.
