Young and Revolting: The Continental Journals of Nick Twisp by C. D. Payne Read Free Book Online Page A

This set off a cacophony of bird cries from within. In a corner of the small living room a large wire cage held four more colorful birds, all obviously pleased to see her.
    “ Bonjour, my babies!” she called, taking the cage from me and placing it on a table. “Thank you, Rick. Jiri! Hush now!” The squawking bird shut up when she fed it a seed from the pocket of her skirt. She smiled and held out her hand.
    “ I’m Reina Vesely. Forgive the mess.”
    We shook hands and she sniffed the air. “I hope it doesn’t smell too bad. Five birds can get rather offensive. I don’t even notice it myself now.”
    “ It’s fine,” I lied. Monosyllables were all I could manage. She was quite overpoweringly beautiful. Pale skin like Meissen porcelain under cascades of deep bronze hair. Aristocratic cheekbones. Delicate features laid on in supernal harmony.
    “ So thirsty from those stairs. Would you join me in some lemon water?”
    It took a moment for my dazzled brain to compute that she was not proposing a mixed-sex scented bath. “Sure.”
    Her kitchenette had actual cupboards, not stacked-up wooden crates like ours. She filled two tall glasses with sparkling water and handed one to me.
    “ Salut,” she said, clinking her glass against mine and swallowing deeply. “Sometimes I think those stairs are getting steeper.”
    “ I know the feeling. Weren’t there any apartments available on lower floors?”
    Her smile lit up her extraordinary gray eyes. “I’m like my birds, Rick. I like to be close to the sky. Besides, climbing stairs is good therapy for my leg.”
    “ You have, uh, a disease?”
    “ No. It was an accident. Two years ago. I’m much better now.
    You and your beautiful wife are quite the topic of conversation in the building.”
    “ You’ve met Sheeni?”
    “ No, but I’ve passed her on the stairs.”
    “ So you’re Madame Ruzicka’s niece?”
    “ Only spiritually. We’re both Czech, but not related as far as we know. She was friends with my grandfather. And now she is my kind benefactress.”
    “ She seems like a nice old lady.”
    “ She is my dearest friend. She saved my life. But I won’t bore you with that story. How do you like Paris, Rick?”
    I filled her in on my limited Parisian experiences.
    “ Oh, but, Rick, you must see the Eiffel Tower! You must go to the top! I love it up there. But perhaps I was born for high places.”
    You can say that again. Anything less than a grand palace would be a crime against nature.
    6:33 p.m. My Love is back from solo tourism, with several detours for more clothes shopping. She points out that a person living in Paris cannot be expected to make do with a wardrobe acquired in the boondocks of Mississippi. I suppose not, but if she buys any more clothes, we’ll need a map to find the toilet in the closet. She was interested to hear that I had made the acquaintance of Ms. Vesely. “It’s a pity that someone so pretty has such an affliction,” she commented.
    “ You think she’s pretty, darling? I hadn’t noticed.”
    I am resolved to learn from the mistakes of my idiot divorced father: one does NOT praise another woman to one’s wife.
    “ Yes, rather attractive. I wonder what sort of accident it was?”
    “ She was probably run down in the street by some crazed Twingo driver. It’s all poor Maurice and I can do to get across the streets in one piece.”
    “ You have to be careful, Nickie.”
    My Love is concerned for my welfare!
    “ That dog is owned by an American,” she continued. “If anything happened to it, I’m sure we’d be sued.”
    “ Uh, right, Sheeni. I suppose tourist-flattening is a daily occurrence here. Back home drivers actually stop for pedestrians in cross walks.”
    “ Motorists are rather polite in California,” she acknowledged.
    A surprising admission. Is it possible that My Love is herself experiencing a twinge of homesickness for the Golden State?
     
    TUESDAY, May 25 — A sudden tragedy yesterday in Los