The Winner Stands Alone (35 page)

Youre back early? Id have been here sooner if it wasnt for the traffic. Jasmine kicks off
her shoes, drops her bag, and throws herself down on the bed, exhausted and fully clothed. She says: The most important words in any
language are the short ones:

yes, for example, or love or God. Theyre all easy to say and they fill up the empty spaces
of our universe. But theres one small word that I have great difficulty in saying, but Im
going to say it now. She looks at her companion. No.

She pats the bed, inviting her companion to join her. Her compan- ion does so and strokes
her hair.

The word no has a reputation for being mean, selfish, unspiri- tual. When we say yes, we
think were being generous, understand- ing, polite. But Im going to say no to you now. I
wont do what youre asking me or making me do, even though you think its in my best in-
terests. Youll say that Im only nineteen and dont yet fully understand life, but going to
a party like the one tonight was quite enough for me to know what I do want and what I
definitely dont want.

I never planned to be a model, and I didnt even think I was ca- pable of falling in love.
I know that love can only survive when its free, but whoever said I was anyones slave? Im
a slave only to my heart, and in that case my burden is a very light one. I chose you
before you chose me. I embarked on what seemed an impossible adventure and never complained about
the consequences, whether it was societys preconceived ideas or resistance from my own
family. I overcame all those things so that I could be with you here tonight, in Cannes,
savor- ing the victory of an excellent fashion show, and knowing that there will be other
opportunities in lifeby your side.

Her companion lies down next to her, her head in Jasmines lap.

The person who made me realize this was a man, a foreigner, whom I met tonight while I was
at the party, lost in the crowd, not knowing what to say. I asked him what he was doing
there, and he said that hed lost his love and come here to look for her, but wasnt sure
anymore whether she really was what he wanted. He asked me to look around at the other
guests. We were, he said, surrounded by people who were full of certainties, glories, and
conquests, but they werent enjoying themselves. They think theyre at the peak of their
careers and the inevitable descent frightens them. Theyve forgotten that theres still a
whole world to conquer because . . .

. . . because theyve got used to life as it is.

Exactly. They have lots of things but few aspirations. Theyre full of problems solved,
projects approved, businesses that prosper without them having to do anything. Now all
thats left is the fear of change, which is why they go from party to party, from meeting
to meeting, so as not to have time to think, and to meet the same people over and over and
be able to believe that everythings the same. Certainties have replaced passions.

Take off your dress, says her companion, preferring to say noth- ing more.

Jasmine gets up, takes off her dress, and slips between the sheets.

You take your clothes off too and put your arms around me. I really need to feel your arms
around me because today I thought you were going to let me go.

She does as Jasmine asks and turns out the light. Jasmine falls asleep at once in her
arms. She, however, lies awake for some time, staring up at the ceiling, thinking that
sometimes a nineteen-year-old girl, in all her innocence, can be wiser than a
forty-one-year-old woman. How-

ever fearful and insecure she may feel right now, shell be forced to grow. Shell have a
powerful enemy in HH, who will doubtless create as many obstacles as he can to prevent her
taking part in the Fashion Week in October. First, hell insist on buying her name, and
when that proves impossible, hell try to discredit her with the FŽdŽration, saying that
she failed to keep her word.

The next few months will be very difficult.

What HH doesnt know, indeed, what no one knows, is that she possesses an absolute power
that will help her overcome all difficulties: the love of the young woman now lying in her
arms. For her, she would do anythinganything, that is, except kill.

With her, she is capable of anythingeven winning.

His company jet already has the engines running. Igor sits in his favor- ite seatsecond
row on the leftand waits for takeoff. As soon as the seat-belt sign is turned off, he goes
to the bar, serves himself a generous measure of vodka, and drinks it down in one.

For a moment, he wonders if he really had succeeded in sending those messages to Ewa,
while he was busy destroying worlds. Should he have been more explicit, adding a further
note or a name or some- thing like that? That would have been terribly riskypeople might
think he was a serial killer.

And he wasnt: he had an objective, which, fortunately, had changed in time.

The thought of Ewa doesnt weigh on him as much as it used to. He doesnt love her as he
once did, and he doesnt hate her as he came to hate her. With time, she will disappear
completely from his life, which is a shame because hes unlikely to find another woman like
her, for all her defects.

He goes back to the bar, pours himself another vodka, and again drinks it down in one.
Will they realize that a single person was re- sponsible for extinguishing those worlds?
It doesnt matter. His only regret is the moment he decided to give himself up to the
police in the afternoon. Fate, however, was on his side and he managed to complete his
mission.

Yes, he had won, but the winner doesnt stand alone. His night- mares are at an end. An
angel with dark eyebrows is watching over him and will teach him which path to follow from
now on.