That disgusting creature!

Shatz was thinking with deep revulsion, while driving

through Mouka’s main street.
How come the ambassador trust such a man, does Everon extort him in some way, or
what? That’s one thing I can’t grasp… and on what grounds can these two base their
assumptions; it’s no more than a pile of nonsense! Everon didn’t leave his table and
his sacred cards game, during the whole evening.
Clandestine business that must be their winning card, security breach that’s what they
mean the damage I’ve supposedly caused…Am I a potencial extortion victim? Is
Janine or her father secret agents of some mysterious intelligence organization, who
would extort me or did already pump precious information out of me? It’s sheer
stupidity!
What damage do they fear of, the ambassador and that pompous ass? The worth
damage has already been realized long before I’ve set my foot in this country, and it
was the delegation’s cut down in manpower! I’ve nothing to do with it; I’ve no
influence on the little that’s being done at the embassy or at the farm. What do I know
after all, what secrets do I keep?
Reaching her street Shatz parked his car in front of her door, got off and knocked on it
with the lily like hanging handle – the French royal emblem.

Well she’s my queen isn’t she? He thought amused. Now, after my previous queen left
the scene, God bless her. Her despise for Everon is justified and every word she said
against him, was true! Shatz summed up his thoughts about Everon and their last
night’s incident.

Janine herself opened up the door, an apron was tied to her narrow waist, and
hastened to let him in, with an excited and warm smile.
Shutting the door after him she rushed to his arms, clinging to his body and raised her
face, offering Shatz her soft ruby lips. Shatz kissed her with growing fervour
clutching her slim body to his own; and when her breath was almost.cut off and she
detached her nouth from his, he watched her lovely face surprised.
‘Where is your father and the loafer, are we all alone?’
‘Yes, Papa is in town he took the loafer with him, he needs him; but they might return
any moment now, for there isn’t much left for him to do there…’ She hastened to add.
‘Please stop, we must be careful.’ She warned him detaching herself from Shatz
craving body, against her own will, removing his hands from her own body. ‘Let’s go
in, you’re coming to the club tonight, aren’t you?’
‘Oh, I’m supposed to have dinner at the ambassador’s table, with all our delegation
members…’
‘Then I wouldn’t see you tonigh?’ She asked worried sending her hand to his chin,
caressing his face slightly.
‘I’ll come, I must, I won’t go to the ambassador’s residence!’ He answered
vehemently drawing her to his body again, covering her face with his kisses.
She yielded to him relieved, embrcing him with her white delicate arms. But then
looked up into his eyes with a sudden start.
‘Come alone at eight when all the members are already there, and wait for me at our
place…
’While all these few words were said in whispers, as if her father was at the front
door, ready to come in. Still embraced in Shatz’s arms, she led him into the living
room.
‘Stay here, I must run to the kitchen. I’m preparing lunch, I’ve put things in the oven.’
She added laughing and squeezing out of his arms she ran to the kitchen.
Just a few seconds passed and she was back, smiling happily rushing back to his arms.
‘Papa wanted us to dine at La Couronne but I objected, I’ve told him that I’ll prepare
lunch; you came, I’m so happy and everything is going well!’ She laughed delighted.
‘No, not now! Sit down please…’ She urged Shatz almost pushing into his chair.
‘We’ll have to behave with much restraint when Papa will be back!’ She told him with
a grave look on her lovely face. ‘If we’ll be carried off he’ll catch us red handed!’
With these words said she rushed back to the kitchen.
‘Papa likes you,’ Janine noted as soon as she returned and sat on Shatz’s knees. ‘But
he doesn’t have the slightest idea, and if I’m wrong…’ She added in a whisper with a
sudden fright, ‘he hides his feelings exceptionally well.’

A few moments passed when the wine grower came back from town, having ended
his errands. Their boy followed him in, carrying two loaded baskets in his hands.
He wasn’t surprised to see Shatz with his daughter; he didn’t even bother to ask when
did Shatz arrive. He seemed to accept Shatz’s presence as if he already was part of his
household. They sat to eat lunch and Dariot carried on with Shatz a lively
conversation.
Janine’s delicacies came out well enough, and both Shatz and her father kept
complimenting her. The warm atmosphere and the fact that Janine’s little hands
prepared that food for him, gave Shatz an extra amount of pleasure.
Shatz didn’t say a single word of course, about his troubles, the abrupt turn of eventrs
that did worry him; and when he left Janine and her father, he felt as if he was sent
straight into the storm’s eye – leaving his comfortable refuge behind him.
Outside Dariot’s home, which he left in haste that wasn’t clear at all to him; Shatz
kept reproaching himself. Why did he leave in such a hurry, he could have stayed with
Janine and her father two more hours at least.
He had nowhere to go as a matter of fact. He did not feel like going to the embassy, or
to the swimming pool knowing he wont find Janine there; his professional obligations
were not required yet, particularly when his stay in this country was in doubt. Thus till
his future would be clear, he’d rather pass his time as relaxed as possible, he told
himself.
He loitered in town, picked up his mail, bought a few things that seemed to him as
necessity; then he drove outside town and found refuge in a palm grove near the
coast; there he spread a straw mat that he has just purchased, and sat down to read his
mail and papers – waiting for the fall of night and his appointed date with Janine at
the club.

At about eight thirty at the same evening after a delay of some fifty minutes, the
ambassador reviewed his few guests – Everon, Peleg, Avisar and their wives with an
impatient stare. His intense stare interrupted their convestions.
The incident between Everon and Shatz has revived his dwindling authority, to his
own surprise.
‘We had better sit down to the table, he isn’t coming he must have been hurt, or he
simply continues to see the daughter of that French wine merchant – brazenly, against
my instructions, it’s incredible!’ He added angrily.
Although everyone was already seated round the table, the conversation wasn’t
resumed yet; and if last night sensational incident and its dramatic resumption just a
few hours ago at the embassy, wasn’t treated yet – it was quite obvious that it’s going
to burst out right away and things would be sorted out excitedly.
The ambassasor’s young wife Rivka didn’t like at all the incident’s direct implication
on her relationship with her own middle aged husband. She wasn’t ready of course to
let these unexpected developments, to interrupt her plans and have any influnce on her
own delicate relationship with her husband – even for a short while. Everon as far as
she was concerned, has gone too far this time; and it wasn’t the first time that his
extravagant initiatives, his excessive involvement in her husband’s decisions, did
interrupt her own plans.
Last night’s incident convinced her that she must release her husband from Everon’s
clutches. Right after having sent the boy that served as their waiter to the kitchen, she
attacked her husband and Everon, who was sitting next to him.
‘Are you out of your minds, what have you done to this young man who’d just
arrived… who’s hardly acclimatized here and you make him feel as if he’s unwanted,
as if he’s some loathful felon! What has he done after all?’
The ambassador who didn’t expect such an extreme reaction from his wife, and before
all his inferiors, turned pale as if he was struck by a lightening.
The rest of their guests jesticulated with uneasiness on their seats, or froze in them
dumbfounded. Everon straightened up in his seat, reviewing the “battlefield” and his
chances to gain some more achievements.
‘We didn’t prevent him from coming…’ He noted with emphasized indifference,
cutting the short silence that fell as a result of the ambassador’s wife blitz attack.
‘We didn’t even hint such a possibility!’ Retorted the ambassador who managed to
regain his senses. ‘If he’s burning his bridges with his own hands, I don’t understand
why you should defend him with such vehemence, particularly when you don’t know
all the details, which are invovled in this unfortunate case!’
His wife lowered her head with embarrassment, regretting her tactless outburst. The
ambassador watched each one of his guests with an intense look, from Peleg at his left
up to Everon on right – who was sitting upright in his seat. A hint of a smile sneaked
to his lips, he was celebrating him triumph.
‘There’s one more thing I want everyone of us to remember, this unfortunate affair is
defind as confidential, no matter how it should end up; it shouldn’t leak out of our
small circle on no account!’