Book: Shadows in Paradise. Page 2

Dealing with honest people is God's punishment. With crooks, you at least know how to behave.

I did not take my eyes off Natasha. With a concentrated look, she stood silently in the white spotlight. And it seemed to me that in front of me was a very fragile, charming copy of a giant statue, which illuminates the raging waves of the Atlantic with its torch, a fearless woman, though not quite like her mighty prototype - a certain hybrid of Brunhilde and a wicked French tradeswoman - and a woman, rather like Diana emerging from virgin forests, warlike and invincible. But this Diana was dangerous too. Dangerous and ready to fight for her freedom.

Americans are working to die.

She is a book for me with seven seals. I never know in advance what she will think or what she will do. You are wrong, she is not a child of Yokohama, Canton or other exotic cities at all - she is just from another planet. She came down to us from the lunar craters, rose from the pristine depths of stupidity, pure, holy simplicity and monstrous naivety, about which we, mere mortals, have long lost sight of. She is as pure as on the first day of creation. In a word, a complete sample of a woman. He makes no effort to anything, knows no doubts. It exists, and thank God!

Everyone here can start over, changing everything that is given to him by nature: face, bust and even name. As if it were a masquerade or a source of eternal youth.

The word "war" just didn't sound here [in America]. This country was separated from its wars by the ocean and half the globe. Its borders were nowhere in contact with the borders of enemy states. This country was not bombed. And they did not fire.

- Better than in Italy, New York is an Italian city. In addition, it is a Spanish city, Jewish, Hungarian, Chinese, African and Historical German.

I wake up. I’m tired of stupid juggling with words. There is nothing more exhausting than being present when a person demonstrates his mind. Especially if there is no mind.

- I know there's a war going on. And at such a time, it's funny to cry because of trivia. But I roar and that's it. Despite the fact that somewhere far from us dozens of battles are played.
- I understand that. War has nothing to do with it. Let hundreds of thousands of people be killed somewhere... If you cut your finger, the pain will not subside.

You could explain to her that, unfortunately, I always had enough reasons to cry. The idea that one can cry for no reason - simply from world grief or from heartbreak - could have arisen only in another, happier century.

Trouble brings people together better than luck.

- Do you want to become an American?
- I wanted to become Austrian, then Czech. But the Germans, alas, captured both of these countries. Then I decided to become French - the result is the same. I wish I knew if the Germans were occupying America as well.

I looked around. For some reason, it seemed to me that I was at home. A person who has not had a home for a long time often comes up with similar thoughts.

People forced to be constantly on the run, had no choice but to count on chance. The more incredible the case was, the more natural it seemed. And these days, the ordinary sometimes looks like a fairy tale. Not a very funny fairy tale, but surprisingly, the end of it is often much happier than you might expect.