The Grasshopper by TheGrasshopper Page B

the advertisement.
    “You mean, Princess?”
    “Why are you doing this to me,
Princess?”
    “What am I doing to you,
Prince?”
    “Why are you clenching your knees
the entire time? The entire world can look at your long, wonderful
legs in tattooed stockings, only I can’t. And now, when they are
fishnets. Why am I not allowed to see them? Why?”
    “You’ll see them.”
     
    “Babe, Mr. Kaella, please sit down.
We’re live in thirty seconds,” the assistant director
said.
    “When will I see them?” Prince
asked.
    “Now,” answered Babe, and walked
towards the couch.

Chapter 40
    The students of the fifth and
eighth grade, standing in line one after another, took black
scarves with a blue Earth on them from one large box, and black
hats with a blue Earth from another, which Mitke the janitor had
brought from out of storage to the school hall.
     
    The boys from the eighth grade,
some of them already young men with thin moustaches and a few hairs
on their chin, with their highly changed voices, cursed as rudely
as they could, aggressively shoving the fifth-graders, and without
having tied the scarves around their necks or placing the hats on
their heads, they went out into the yard, strutting as they walked.
They were very angry because they couldn’t watch Babe’s show to the
end.
     
    The girls from the eighth grade,
some of them blossoming, were a lot calmer. They talked about how
much money their parents would give them and which of Babe’s
wonderful fashion accessories they would allow them to
wear.
     
    The boys from the fifth grade were
mainly tried to get out of the way of the enraged young men from
the eighth grade, and when they had passed, they would smack one
another upside the head and kick each other.
     
    The girls from the fifth grade
stood around in small groups, muttering something among
themselves.
     
    All this together caused a noise
that spread through the acoustic hall and disturbed the students
from the other grades, who were in their classrooms calmly watching
the interview with Mr. Kaella and his son Prince.
    Being aware of this and his
responsibility, Mitke the janitor kept repeating “Quiet, children,
quiet!” without taking his eyes off the large screen hanging from
the ceiling of the school hall.
     
    What was in common for both the
boys and girls in both the eighth and fifth grades, was that
walking through their teachers they all boarded the buses parked in
the schoolyard, which were waiting to take them to the prepared,
fenced-off space in the middle of Short Street.

Chapter 41
    After the commercial break Babe sat
at the very edge of the couch so that her head would be closer to
her guest, Mr. Kaella. But not only for that reason. She leaned on
the couch with her left shoulder so that Prince could see her
profile. He saw a cascade of blue hair, long eyelashes,
lips…
     
    “Your lips… How the two overhangs
at the ends of the upper lip lie on the lower lip. And this leaves
that gap in the middle… You can’t press them closed, can you? How I
will open them, spread that gap with my tongue, tonight… and
penetrate… Tonight? What tonight? Now! During the next break!” the
impatient Prince decided.
     
    “You know, Miss Babe, before I
continue with my recollections, I’d like to say something else to
our viewers.”
    “Go ahead, Mr. Kaella.”
    “This reminded me… I mean, this
between the commercials… Although it sounds kind of coarse… But,
dear Consumers, it isn’t so. We trust you completely… but… we all
know how fast we live today, how many obligations we have. And a
person simply forgets to surrender to the Inspectorate… I don’t
know… a toothbrush… paste… from last season. And then this is
discovered and completely unnecessary problems are
created.
    “So we are reminding you so that
you, dear viewers, will be spared such unfortunate situations. And
don’t be angry at our inspectors, when they go through your houses
and apartments. Do you