Blooms of Darkness Read Online Free PDF Page B

would also be served. The fresh fragrances would fill the house. Everything was handled smoothly and pleasantly. After the visit a sudden melancholy would settle on those remaining. His parents would immerse themselves in reading, and Hugo would sit in his room and call up the faces of his guests in his memory.
    • • •
    The lights in the windows become gray and a small cloud descends on the bushes next to the fence. Hugo sees that they are lilac bushes, like in his yard, and happiness floods over him, as if he had seen someone he knew.
    When he was five or six, he became sad and cried about the lilac flowers that suddenly withered. His mother, seeing his sorrow, promised him that in the spring they would blossom again, and everything would be as it was. He loved his mother’s optimism. She always knew how to make a gray color into a bright one, pleasant to the eye.
    Hugo’s father, by contrast, did not know how to prettify situations, or how to reverse or change them. Beneath the veil of his silence dwelled a quiet skeptic. He didn’t spread gloom about him, but it was clear that he would not beautify reality. Hugo loved his father, but he was not drawn to his spirit. In his mother’s presence, he always felt elated. His mother sweetened every sorrow, as if to say, Why sink into melancholy when it’s possible to help people?
    Now he sees his father again. For some reason it seems that he’s grown older since he was snatched away. His hair has turned gray, and many wrinkles have been plowed into his face. Hugo is sad that his father has suddenly changed, and, as his mother used to do, he says, This is an illusion, a thought that’s out of place. At the first opportunity it will go away, and everything will again be the way it was .
    While he is exchanging one thought for another, the evening descends. From Mariana’s room the closet looks dark, and even the colorful gowns draped on hangers are enveloped with gravity. Hugo is sorry he has to be alone, far from his father and mother and his friends.
    While he is mired in self-pity, Mariana appears. She is wearing the same dress she wore in the afternoon, but now she is gayer, her lips are red, and her hair is done up, showing off her long neck.
    “How is my young and darling friend?” she asks in a hoarse voice.
    “I played chess with myself.” He rushes to apologize. “Too bad I don’t know how to play. I would gladly play with you.”
    “I’ll teach you. It’s not so hard.”
    “Mariana’s head is already blocked up. A head that doesn’t study gets blocked up. Since I finished school, I haven’t studied.”
    “You can try.” Hugo speaks in his mother’s tone of voice.
    “It would be a waste of time,” says Mariana, making a dismissive gesture with her hand.
    The light in the room is dim. Nevertheless, he senses that Mariana has drunk too much and apparently forgotten that Hugo is a boy, calling him “my young and darling friend.” Now she suddenly changes her tone and says, “Honey, in a little while you’ll have to go into your closet.”
    “I’m ready,” says Hugo, and holds on to the box in which the chess set is stored.
    “Good night. Sweet dreams.”
    “Do you perhaps have a lamp?” Hugo asks, forgetting that he is under the protection of strangers.
    “A light!” She laughs. “In the closet, you mustn’t light a lamp. In the closet, you close your eyes and go to sleep. If only I could sleep at night.”
    “Pardon me,” says Hugo.
    “Why are you asking to be pardoned?”
    “Because I asked for a lamp.”
    “You don’t need to beg pardon for little things like that. Come over to me and I’ll give you a good-night kiss.” Mariana kneels down and Hugo approaches her. She hugs him fully against her breasts and kisses his face and lips.
    The smell of brandy strikes him.
    “Don’t I get a kiss?”
    Hugo kisses her cheek.
    “That’s not how you kiss. You kiss hard.” Hugo holds her face again and kisses her. “I’ll have