The Acrobats by Mordecai Richler

Author:Mordecai Richler [Richler, Mordecai]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-55199-563-2
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Published: 2002-06-13T16:00:00+00:00

Carlos smiled enticingly at him. He was short and dark and he stank of eau de cologne and cognac. His dyed black hair was greased down to his oblong skull like a shining plate of metal.

Barney entered the shop.

“Oui, Monsieur?”

“Not French,” Barney said gruffly, emphasising his masculinity. “American.”

Old Carlos rubbed his long elegant fingers together. “Ah, American! A democrat. You have such beautiful handsome sailors. They were only here last month, such brave …”

“I want a hundred pesetas worth of flowers!”

“Si, si, si.” Carlos bowed, dipping forward from the waist. “But what kind of flowers?”

“What do I know about flowers? Gimme a hundred pesetas worth of the best!”

“Oui, Monsieur.”

“And – em – hold on a second! All kinds of colours, huh?”

Carlos bowed again. “Oh, Monsieur, you do not know what a pleasure it is to serve someone from your great country. We Spaniards you know suffer greatly under Franco. Oooh, it is terrible. Very, most, terrible. We had such a bloody revolution and so many beautiful young men were killed. Brother against brother, boys with guns on the street.”

“Are you a Red?”

Carlos gathered up an assortment of roses and geraniums and daffodils. “Monsieur, s’il vous plaît!” He paused, a dapper fencer holding a shield of flowers before him. “I am a Monarchist. My mother was presented to Don Alfonso the …”

“Okay, fine.” Barney wiped the sweat off his forehead. “But royalty don’t impress us Americans. You might as well learn that. We like people to be free.”

“One hundred and fifty pesetas.”

“I only wanted to spend …”

“But Monsieur asked for flowers of the best quality!”

Barney handed him a five-hundred peseta note. “I’m in a hurry,” he said.

Old Carlos drifted over to a pot of red roses and rearranged them in a perfunctory manner. He handed Barney his change. “And if Monsieur has any American dollairs he would like to have changed?”

Vividly Barney recalled all the gory tales of homosexual passion he had read in The Sunday News. I wonder if I should report him, he thought. “No,” he said. “No money to change.”

Carlos bowed.

Tottering, just a bit unsure of himself, Barney pushed open the door to their room. Jessie was not in.

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