Part
22.
The barking of dogs was heard in the yard, followed by
shouts and whistling. The hunters had returned. The Padrone put the book back
in its place and hurried to meet them.
Dada was in a wonderful mood. She shone her cheerful eyes
at the Padrone, and the Padrone smiled warmly back at her.
Zeki grumpily dumped the hunting equipment and, without
even looking at the Padrone, rushed into the house.
Zeki clearly looked furious, while Dada looked overly
satisfied.
The Padrone looked out in surprise.
"Hmm, interesting.
Probably they fought again! They bickered again! Over
nothing, as they used to do at one time! Ha, ha. Dada would get on his nerves
silently, and Zeki would go into a rage.“
The Padrone thought.
„However, lately, it seemed as if they had gotten
along perfectly. For quite some time, Zeki had not been scowling, nor had Dada
sulked at him."
They had dinner in silence.
Zeki didn't even relax his brow. In Dada's eyes, however,
a spark of joy flashed maliciously. The Padrone secretly observed them both. He
asked them nothing, waiting for the right moment. Several times he looked at
Zeki with a questioning gaze, but Zeki was perfectly able to avoid his look.
Only when dessert was brought in did Zeki’s thread of patience snap, and he
slammed his fist on the table with such force that he nearly smashed the dishes
together.
Dada jumped, but still looked up at the boy who had
sprung to his feet with a sneer. The Padrone told him to "sit in your
place" with such severity that Zeki dropped back into his chair abruptly.
He did not say a word, just kept scowling; his knit brows and tightly shut
mouth emphasized his origins even more. The enraged Roma boy was seething in
silence, but out of respect for the Padrone, he returned to his seat without
any further resistance.
Dada was calmly enjoying the delicious dessert. It seemed
that Zeki’s anger had only brought her amusement. Watching them, the Padrone
lost the desire to stay at the table. He stood up and beckoned Zeki toward his
study. Left alone, Dada finished her dessert with a happy look, then stood up
herself and headed for the Padrone’s study without any permission.
No one had the right to disturb the Padrone when he
summoned someone for a conversation in his study. Now, Dada’s excessive
boldness had shocked not only Zeki but the Padrone as well.
Dada stepped boldly into the room, settled into an
armchair nearby, and looked proudly at the men. Zeki looked at her with
displeasure, growling at her not to interfere in men’s business. Dada raised
one eyebrow and shook her head coquettishly, as if answering, "who are you
to ask?" Zeki was growling, while it seemed that Dada was deliberately
getting on his nerves.
The Padrone smiled, but tried to speak to the pair again
with a serious face and quite strictly.
- I find such behavior of yours terrible! It concerns
both of you! You are the face of this family! The mirror of the estate! What
can you not share?! Why can't you come to an agreement?! Do you know what the
servants will do when they see you? First of all, they will lose respect for
you! Then they themselves will become unruly, spend the whole day bickering,
forget about their work entirely, and in the end, they will tear each other
apart and kill each other!
The Padrone fell silent for a moment. He looked deep into
the eyes of both.
- Is this what you want?! Tell me, do you both want
this?!
Dada frowned, as if to say, "What does this have to
do with me?" Zeki also curled his lip in displeasure. The Padrone looked
from one to the other, still unable to understand what was happening between
the two.
He remained silent for a while. He was waiting to see
when Zeki would finally speak, and he was just about to start the conversation
when a servant informed him that there was a visitor.
The man with the dangerous eyes had come to see the
Padrone again. At the mention of him, disgust was clearly visible on Dada’s
face, and she didn't even try to hide it. Zeki looked at her in surprise; the
Padrone had never noticed such a thing from Dada either, and although a look of
surprise appeared on his face, there was no time left for that. He had to
receive the guest, so he immediately dismissed both of them from the study,
warning them one more time with a wave of his finger:
- Go now and think carefully about what I told you! It
concerns both of you!
The Padrone spent the whole night in thought. He was very
interested in what Dada was writing in her diary. Although he hadn't managed to
read it, he wasn't even sure if he really should read it. He knew well that one
should not pry into the soul of someone you trust, love, consider your own, and
respect, and who in turn trusts you, loves you, and considers you their own.
"But what if she has something in her
heart?"
The Padrone thought.
"What if she is planning some evil? She will
destroy herself with this, and who knows how many others she will sacrifice.
What should I do? What can I do?"
He could no longer rest in bed; he got up and began
pacing the room. He had no idea when Dada managed to write in her diary when
she spent all day chasing after Zeki with a gun in her hand.
"It is indeed interesting, does she really sneak
into her own gallery so quietly to write in her diary? Probably at night, she
manages to do it at night, but for a long time now, no one has seen any light
coming out of the darkened salon."
However, its content was more interesting than how and
when Dada managed to write.
The next day, there was no longer a need to summon the
couple to the study. Zeki reported right at breakfast that he would never take
Dada hunting again, because one time she felt sorry for a rabbit, and then in
another season, she scared off the ducks. Before, it seemed like it happened by
accident, but now it turned out she wasn't even hiding it, and was deliberately
getting on his nerves.
Dada was smiling childishly. Zeki continued to grumble.
The Padrone listened calmly at first, but in the end, he
burst out laughing at Zeki's account. It turned out that Dada’s tricks had no
end, and Zeki had put up with them many times, but now he was categorically
refusing and would never take her hunting again.
What game Dada was playing or what she was striving for,
the Padrone could not figure out, although he understood perfectly well that
this was not just a childish game. Dada clearly had something planned, and
therefore he firmly decided that he absolutely had to read Dada's notes
somehow.
LEX. Wednesday, March 9, 2016.
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