– What are you waiting for, sir? – the smiling host asked me with friendly surprise. – Your number is 19. Go and meet your fate, my friend!
– Yes, of course, – I smiled back, – thank you for reminding me why I came here… People are so absent-minded, and I am, after all, a person… – I had finally remembered what I was supposed to do. And I walked slowly deeper into the room, where solitary ladies from among the Waiting ones flitted about, lovely and not so lovely… A wild thought flashed through my mind: “I swear on my mother, no cop has ever gone looking for a mistress with someone arrested in his fist!” I grinned nervously and began to count:
– One, two, three… – I couldn’t even see their faces; they blurred into one vague, swaying smudge, and I walked through that smudge with a foolish grin, – six, seven… what a pity I have quite a different number, unforgettable one… ten, eleven… excuse me… eighteen, nineteen! You’re the one I need, lady!
– Are you doing it on purpose? Casting spells again? – a familiar voice asked quietly. – You shouldn’t, Sir Max. But there’s nothing to be done about it now… You don’t argue with fate, isn’t that right?
I finally focused my eyes. The pale smudge of a face gradually took on familiar, dear features. Lady Melamori was watching me warily. She seemed unable to decide what would be better: to throw herself around my neck, or to flee.
– This is too much! – I said quietly. – No, this is really too much! – And then I sat down on the floor and began to laugh. I didn’t care about decorum, or anything else for that matter! My mind flatly refused to take part in this absurd adventure… It seemed my hysteria convinced Melamori better than any words could that there had been no “conspiracy” against her. Never.
– Let’s get out of here, Sir Max! – she said quietly, crouching down beside me and gently stroking my poor mad head. – You’ll frighten the visitors. Come on, you can finish laughing outside if you want! Get up! – And I obediently leaned on her small, strong hand. Sinful Magisters, this fragile lady lifted me to my feet without any effort!
The fresh breeze quickly put everything back in its place, so my urge to laugh faded at once.
– So many strange things happen in this foolish World, Melamori. – I said. And fell silent. What was there to say!
– Max, – Melamori said quietly, – I’m very ashamed: in your bedroom… in short, now I understand I was talking terrible nonsense, but I was so frightened! I completely lost my head!
– I can imagine… – I shrugged, – falling asleep in your own home and waking up God knows where…
– Who is “God”? – Melamori asked indifferently. I had more than once had to untangle myself from such idiomatic misunderstandings, but this time I just waved my hand wearily.
– What does it matter!… The thing is, I really didn’t do anything on purpose. I still have no idea how it could have happened…
– I know, – Melamori nodded, – now I understand that you don’t yet realize yourself what you’re capable of, but… It doesn’t matter anymore.
– Why?
– Because… That’s just how things turned out. Only we’ll go to your place, not mine. I live too close, so… In short, let this last walk be a long one.
– Last? Have you lost your mind, Melamori! You think I’m such a deadly fellow? That I’ll bite your head off in a fit of passion? – I tried to be cheerful, because I absolutely had to be cheerful right now, a hole in the sky above it all!
– Of course you won’t bite my head off – it simply wouldn’t fit in your throat… – Melamori smiled helplessly. – But that’s not the point. Do you even understand where we met, Max?
– In the Quarter of Rendezvous! You won’t believe it, but I don’t know how I ended up there myself… Think what you will, but I came there following a guy with a mother-of-pearl belt… You know about all that business with the belts, right?… – Melamori nodded, and I went on. – We roughhoused a bit, and then I arrested him. He’s still here! – And I showed Melamori my left fist with a smile.
– You mean to say… – Lady Melamori burst out laughing. It ended with her taking a turn sitting down on the pavement. I sat beside her and put my arm around her shoulders. Melamori was groaning with laughter. – And I thought you were… Oh, I can’t! You are the most amazing fellow in the World, Sir Max. I adore you! What a… what a pity!
In the end we walked on.
– Have you never been to the Quarter of Rendezvous before? – Melamori asked quietly.
– No… Where I come from, in the Empty Lands, things are somehow simpler… Or the other way around, more complicated – it depends on your point of view… In short, I’d never been there!
– And you don’t know… – Melamori’s voice had dropped to a whisper, – you don’t know that people who meet in the Quarter of Rendezvous must spend the night together and then part?
– In our case that’s completely impossible, – I smiled, though my heart was slowly sinking, – we’re both not about to give up our jobs, as I understand it…
Melamori shook her head.
– That’s not necessary. We can see each other as much as we like, but… we’ll be strangers, Max. I mean… Well, it’s clear enough. It’s tradition. Nothing to be done! It’s my own fault – I went there out of spite, wanted to prove something, I don’t even know to whom… I shouldn’t have gone anywhere today, and neither should you… Though who can be blamed here? People don’t decide such things themselves.
– But… – I was completely lost. My head was already such a jumble that I could simply shut up.
– Let’s not talk about it, Max, all right? Morning is still a long way off, and… They say fate is wiser than us…
– All right, we won’t, – I shrugged, – but it seems to me all this is some primitive nonsense. We can decide for ourselves what to do. What do silly traditions have to do with anything? If you like, tonight we can simply take a walk, as if nothing has happened, we won’t tell anyone anything, and then later, when…
– I don’t want to… and it’s impossible anyway! – Melamori sighed, smiled, and gently closed my mouth with her icy little palm… – I told you: enough of this, all right?
