The Quiet Girl Read Online Free PDF

is one allowed to hit?"
    "Law number three eighty-seven of June fourteenth, 1995, amended in 1997. 'The child shall be treated with respect for its person, and must not be subjected to physical punishment or other offensive treatment.' In practice this means you can certainly lead them with a firm grip. But no karate chop. Are you expecting a child?"
    "There's a student."
    "A new little Footit?"
    The English clown Tudor Hall, alias Footit, was the first to make serious money by taking a child, his three-year-old son, into the ring with him.
    Kasper stood up.
    "How much is it?" asked Maximillian. "How much do you owe? Actually, I know. The undertaker told me. It's forty million kroner. I'll pay it. I'll sell all the crap. I can raise forty million. I'll get my license back. I'll go to court for you. With my IV stand and all. I'll make them back down."
    Kasper shook his head.
    Maximillian's hand fell on the papers.
    "They'll throw you in jail! They'll deport you! You won't be able to meet her!"
    He pressed himself up on the bed. Like a gymnast preparing to do a handstand on the parallel bars.
    "A bad heart," he said hoarsely. "Not a good thing for a clown. Pisses on the helping hand. Burns the opportunity. After she's been out of range of any damage from you for years."
    He turned toward the woman.
    "When he dies--and his turn will come too--he'll have wheels put under his coffin. So he can pole himself out of the chapel and into the crematorium. And won't have to ask anyone for help."
    His anger was monumental, as it always had been. But the physical underpinning was gone. The sick man began to cough, deeply, dangerously.
    The doctor let him finish coughing and then carefully lifted his upper body. Kasper put the playing card on the edge of the bed.
    "If," he said, "you still know someone who can get into the main motor-vehicle registration files. Then you could find the address. That goes with this license plate number."
    Maximillian had closed his eyes. Kasper started toward the door.
    "We saw the broadcast from Monte Carlo," said the sick man. "Both the award presentation and your performance."
    Kasper stopped. Maximillian reached backward. Took the woman's hand. The skin around, his eyes had become smooth, like a graciosa in the Spanish theater.
    "We wished the show would never end. It was like when I was a child. It's the only thing that must never end. Love. And great performances."
    Father and son looked straight at each other. There were no masks. The sick man held out for a few seconds, then it became too much.
    He put his hands up to his hair. It was red, bristly as a badger's. He lifted it off. It was a wig. Underneath he was as bald as a watermelon.
    "Disappointed, eh? Had it made after the chemo. From my own hair. Hats off! To a great artist!"
    Kasper walked back to the bed. Took hold of the large bald head and drew it close to him. He listened into the tragedy that thickly surrounds most people. The sound of all that could have been, but never will be.
    Maximillian had stiffened at Rasper's touch. After a moment he pulled himself free.
    "Enough," he said. "I feel like Lazarus. The dogs lick me. When will I see you again? In six months?"
    The doctor held the door for Rasper.
    "The little girl," Maximillian said from the bed. "The student. Wasn't that the real reason you came? Wasn't it?"
    The door shut behind Rasper; the doctor stood beside him. "I'll drive you home," she said.
 
 
    7
    The most successful white-face clowns Kasper had seen had based their effect on having their partner play up to them from below. Selfreliant authority is very rare. The woman in front of him had it. It radiated from her. Cleared corridors and opened doors.
    She wanted to do something for him, but couldn't express it. She sat behind the wheel in the underground garage without moving, and waited for the words. They didn't come.
    The vehicle was as long as a railroad car. Kasper loved how rich people sniffed their way to each other.