C'EST LA GUERRE (77)

So I leave my office, carrying under my arm the "top secret" folder and I find the Lieutenant who was already waiting for me ready to exit, in her office adjacent to mine. I observe that she has applied herself some slight touches of "rouge". (It pleases me deeply,, albeit perhaps it is only a gesture on her routine.)  We left out and we begin the short walk to the presidential cinema, crossing the gardens and fountains of the Palace, all it also belonging to the romance-rococo school, the fresh and fragrant shade of the trees, the cheerful stridency of countless birds, almost like another world within walking distance of an office, everything so beautiful and harmonious but for some reason we cannot avoid walking "occupationally" namely to a good pace, from a job at the office to another job at the cinema. We stopped just a moment at the pond of the goldfish that  adorn indolently the geometric mass of water between soft and liquid murmurs... under the intense diamond´s sparkles on its surface bathed by the sun.  A beautiful corner like with a gravitational, magnetic and mysterious force towards the stillness and tranquility, the knowledge and intelligence.  Oh, the individual peace..! I like these palace gardens...! although sometimes, I have needed to do pushups with the presidential armchair... Perhaps one day, the entire planet will be like a garden adjacent to the Palace of all the human beings, or never we shall consider ourselves as "sapiens". Everything on our walk turns out very appropriate to relax and stay calm the rational animal, amid this gardens natural but rational environment, too; to be human it is a synthesis and balance between these two parts: animal and rational. We should beware of those who self-present as angels, like only rational individuals. In these cases the rationality is converted into a "spirituality", that is, they are liars and hypocrites.

Then we take through the labyrinth of gardens to tackle the path. The soldiers (the best gardeners of the country, mobilized for war) interrupted their work to our pass, in a respectful and regulatory "standing at attention" from their work place. One of them, perhaps a little clumsy or tizzy by our presence, had put in attitude of "present arms!"... only that his "weapon" was a rake. I make to the soldier a gesture of rejection without stop my walking nor ordering that he were put before a firing squad, on the spot. (Just kidding...a military and presidential small joke.)

We got to the theatre whose entrance was protected by a slope of sandbags, and suddenly a soft and pleasant background music of Bach surrounded us inside. We were greeted at the door the Sergeant in charge of the room and his projection team, waiters,... etc. All professional experts in their civilian life. This Sergeant in particular, was a famous expert in "atrezzo" of a film studios in his civilian life and was traded from the camouflage battalion, to the management of the presidential cinema. He has got a reputation becoming invisible with some frequency, during his guard duties. Shortly after, already we seated and the military waiters served us some drinks and delicatessen, the Lieutenant transmitted my order to turn off the lights and began the projection. During the initial titles, I told the Lieutenant that in this cinema do not do ads, etc...

And indeed, if the reader already suspected it, the first part of the movie produced by our superiority, was based on scenes of the beach, at the time of the appearance of Neannie. From a little later, from the moment that I gave the order to record everything that was happening. Anyway, there we were, on the great screen, dramatically, the Lieutenant and I, naked and as the reader knows, I was bare longer. With dissimulation, I sought the hand of the Lieutenant and I squeezed it momentarily with force, telling her:

 — The first actress in this movie is wonderful. She seems a goddess to me, my dear Lieutenant. In fact, she is so.

— Thank you, sir. The first heartthrob does not seem bad to me neither. I think that the first actress has guessed that he has much power. All very romantic, almost unreal. — She answered.

I stood pretty surprised by her cold and polite answer, full with irony, but at the same time I could see that she was quiet and serene despite the images of her and of me, exhibited on the screen. Although in reality the reflected situation  was so special, even historical, and we two were so absorbed by the circumstances, that our nudity stood relegated, in the background, secondarily, especially when sometimes it could be heard the dialogue that took place between us two about Neannie and his pranks, or better, the non existent conversation on the beach. The reader will remember also that Neannie wore some fur and a pouch.

— These are things of live, my dear lieutenant. — I told her some flattered — Nonetheless I have to put on record, my dear Lieutenant,  that for many, the first gallant is a such Neannie.

— Oh... not for me, my dear sir. At all. — She answered smiling.

And that was all, very discreetly, on our part.