The Red Dove by Derek Lambert
Author:Derek Lambert [Lambert, Derek]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2017-12-09T00:00:00+00:00
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The Bolshoi touring company arrived complete with costumes, sets and discord.
Talin heard about the latter when he took Sonya on a tour of Leninsk stage-managed so that she could appreciate its merits which, he had to admit, were few and far between.
He started off with his own small house down the street from the cottage where Yuri Gagarin had lived. Gagarin had died in a conventional air crash, of all things, and the cottage was now a shrine.
If Gagarin’s house was a shrine then Talin’s home had become a showpiece. The kitchen was packed with gadgetry, even a dish-washer from Helsinki, and in the living-room stood a television. A colour one at that.
The deep-freeze was stuffed with good food, the furniture dusted, parquet floors polished. The place was an invitation – to Sonya to live there whenever the Bolshoi gave her leave from Moscow.
First they went to the bedroom where Talin had installed a double bed. They had been apart for several weeks and they made love eagerly, without bothering to undress completely.
Half an hour later Sonya inspected the house. She approved but, Talin noted, took it as her birthright, as an annexe of Bolshoi nachalstvo. She switched on the television; for a couple of minutes they watched Yuri Senkevich plugging his Sunday evening programme Film Travel Club; briefly the Himalayas beckoned them.
‘In colour,’ Talin pointed out.
She smiled. ‘So it is.’
Talin switched it off.
Just before they left to tour the city the phone rang. It was Massey. ‘I’ve got a favour to ask,’ he said. ‘You remember how we talked about space?’
Of course he did.
‘Well, the Bolshoi has sent a touring company to Leninsk. They’re performing a ballet about space. Giving it a trial run. I’ve been told that you are engaged to be married to one of the dancers.’
Talin glanced at Sonya who was staring through the window at the other small detached houses. ‘One of the dancers?’
‘Sorry, the dancer.’ Sonya had turned round, interested. ‘I wondered if you could –’
‘Get you a ticket? I’ll see what I can do.’
Sonya crossed the room and kissed Talin. ‘Who was that?’
‘A man called Massey.’
‘English?’
‘American.’
‘What’s he doing in your secret city?’
‘Advising,’ Talin said and, hurrying on: ‘Can you get an extra ticket?’
She looked doubtful. ‘An American? Well, I’ll try,’ shrugging away the request. ‘Anyway, we won’t be dancing the whole ballet here, just the highlights. The director doesn’t think that Leninsk is quite ready for the extended version!’
It was while they were walking through the centre of the city, a route intricately plotted by Talin to embrace the theatre, cinemas and best shops, that Sonya mentioned discord at the Bolshoi. The trouble, he gathered, was divided into two categories; the first he vaguely appreciated with the indulgence of the layman peering into the artistic temperament; the second he understood utterly.
A lot of the dancers, apparently, were disenchanted with the artistic director, Boris Pudovkin. He was pigheaded and he had favourites.
When Talin pointed out that she was one of the favourites she replied with spirit: ‘That’s not the point.
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