Claws of Mercy

“This goddess is special. She’s more heavenly than Egyptian,” Valentina sounded so jealous that Ruslan stopped asking. Only a mad woman could be jealous of a statue. Or a completely desperate woman, completely deprived of male attention. Valentina Vladimirovna didn’t look like the latter. Her appearance was above all praise, but her manners left much to be desired.

“I’ll go!” Valentina Vladimirovna checked the time on the electronic clock in her iPhone. “I have a session at the massage parlor and then the gym. You should know how far it is to drive from here to the nearest fitness center.”

Ruslan wonder why she even came here. Was it to see the statues from all over the world? Or was she more interested in the empty pedestal? Valentina Vladimirovna seemed to be waiting not for a statue of a goddess, but for a rival.

“Are you driving yourself?” Ruslan asked reluctantly. The woman he was talking to gave the impression that she was not sober.

“No, I have a chauffeur. He’s waiting downstairs.”

That was to be expected. A rich man’s wife has no reason to get a driver’s license, and certainly she would never use public transportation. Ruslan was embarrassed that he had asked a stupid question, but the beautiful blonde was not offended by it. She looked absent-mindedly at the empty pedestal.

“Goodbye!” She said goodbye. But to the pedestal or to her companions?

In a minute Valentina’s heels were already tapping on the steps of the rotunda.

:She is a gorgeous woman!” Dima whistled.

“And her maintenance costs her husband, most likely, not cheaper than this palace,” Ruslan said pessimistically.

“Hush! Or she’ll hear you.”

But the guest had already left, and the pedestals and evil gods remained. As soon as the living interlocutor disappeared, Ruslan felt trapped in the company of pagan gods. It seemed as if the statues were watching him.

Fatalism

There was noise coming from the construction site. It was chaotic. Carts, wheelbarrows, cranes, all jumbled into a confused picture. What a mess to work in! Ruslan had a headache from having to rearrange other people’s drawings. It would have been better if he had been allowed to make his own, but then the rotunda would have to be destroyed and the foundation would have to be rebuilt. The employer won’t allow it.

Vereskovsky himself came to the construction site a week later to visit the new architects. The conversation with him was not the most pleasant. Vereskovsky had a lot of requirements that were difficult to fulfill. Everything had to follow his instructions stupidly, and he did not promise a bonus in case of successful completion of the construction.

Many of Vereskovsky’s conditions were extremely stupid. It seems that he is a fantasist. So the construction is going on like a bedlam. Ruslan was extremely happy to kick the oligarch out of the construction site.

“He ought to have been a serf while working in the fields,” complained Dima. “Next time you’ll meet him alone, and I’ll pretend that I’m too busy with urgent problems.”

“It’s not good to put everything on your friend’s shoulders!”

“I know, but I don’t want to feel like a slave!”

Dima muttered to himself for a long time something like that all the money he earned here would have to be spent on psychologists to calm him down from his boss’s tyranny. Ruslan silently looked after Vereskovsky, who, accompanied by his bodyguards, was walking toward the luxury car. The oligarch appeared to be an unassuming type.

“What did Valentina Vladimirovna see in him, I wondered?” Dima also looked at the way Vereskovsky was driving away.

“It was money,” Ruslan answered without hesitation.

“Are you joking?”

“It is absolutely not. If a beautiful woman gets mixed up with someone who has only wealth among his virtues, it’s immediately clear what she found in him – a voluminous purse, well, maybe some connections. All beauties strive for a high social status through marriage or love affair.”

“You’re a pessimist!”

“I’m a realist!”

“Don’t you get any attention from women?” Dima scrutinized his handsome colleague.

“They do, but not for long. I don’t have much to offer them,” Ruslan bitterly remembered that all the romances that had started in high school and at the institute had ended there. How is it that in the modern world you can get acquainted only at school and at work? And if in the circle of colleagues found no one suitable, then there is nowhere else to look. There are, however, dubious dating sites, where you can pick up a promiscuous person or a fraud.

“Once I met a pretty girl by giving her a cheat sheet for an exam,” Ruslan recalled.

“And how did it all end?”

“She lived in the Moscow suburbs, and I lived in Moscow. While we were going to school, we met. Together with the studies, the affair ended.”

Ruslan doesn’t even want to think about those times. It was impossible to live on a scholarship or to buy a bouquet of flowers for a girl. Many students worked part-time after classes, and they had no time to meet someone. During the school years, only children of rich parents live well. If Valentina has children, they will be able to have fun and go on dates between classes, spending parental money on flowers and visits to cafes.

“Did you hear that Vereskovsky’s wife is planning to go to the hospital before the construction is finished?” As if by the way, Dima said. “So she won’t visit us again. It’s a pity! I enjoyed talking to her much more than to her stern husband.”

“Is she seriously ill?”

Dima almost laughed. “She wants to have plastic surgery at some elite hospital.”

“Are you serious? Why would she do that?”

“Who can understand with these beauties?”

Ruslan shrugged his shoulders. Probably Valentina Vladimirovna’s beauty is just skillful makeup. All the stars look perfect after cosmetic salons, but when you wash off the makeup, they get old and dull before your eyes. He was well acquainted with this situation on the example of one theater star, with whom his mother was friends.

“She wants to change her facial features?”

“Why would she? Did her husband fall out of love with her? Did he think she was ugly?”

“It is worse! Valentina Vladimirovna fell under the general craze – she wanted to become like a movie star. She’s very fashionable now. Everyone wants to be like her, but not everyone has the money to realize this dream. The star’s name is Athenais. You’ve probably heard of it?”

If he wasn’t too busy working, Ruslan would go to the movies. But it seems that overwork is a good thing. Otherwise, what absurd thoughts would he have been indoctrinated into by the movies? Women go to the movies and then start dreaming about plastic surgery instead of doing housework and cooking! It’s high time the star business is shut down since it indoctrinates healthy viewers with such sick thoughts.

A star named Athenais was now a mass lunacy. Ruslan didn’t know what was so special about her, because he hadn’t seen any movies with her. He had only heard glimpses on the radio that she had caused frequent suicides, and that girls who wanted to be like her had died under the knives of plastic surgeons. But the fate of Valentina Vladimirovna is not his business. If she wants to become another victim of beauty, it makes no sense to dissuade her.

“Why don’t we go to the nearest movie theater this weekend? There’s an Athenaïs movie playing right now called ‘Blood Dawn.’ It is about the struggle of violent religious sects. They say it’s more moving than Romeo and Juliet.”

That’s the last thing we need! Ruslan was already under the impression that a gorgeous girl who could easily win first prize in a beauty contest was eager to reshape her face to look like Athenais.

“No, I don’t! I’m going to sit down this weekend to work on some new blueprints.”

Dima turned away with a sigh, clearly swallowing the reproach:

“You’re so boring!”

Let him be boring, the main thing is that he’s alive. Those guys who go to movies with Athenais die in droves. Ruslan noticed in his friend’s things a glossy advertisement with some Egyptian movie and ran his eyes over the first lines. What a coincidence! This very star, it turns out, played the role of that Egyptian deity called Alais. That’s why her statue will be made of gold! Apparently, the oligarch himself was no less impressed by her than his wife.

Ushebti