A Stormy Visit
Just as Anemo Gale was about to use his newly recovered spoon to stir his artichoke tea, an unexpected sound rang out.
Bang! Bang!
Someone was pounding hard with the bronze lion-shaped knocker on the brown door.
Mistral startled on the windowsill, pricking up his black ears.
— What an unceremonious visit! he meowed, wrinkling his nose as if he had smelled something old.
Sirocco leaped like an orange ball toward the window, knocking over a stack of envelopes on his way.
— Un-ce-re? Is it a big bird? Does it have feathers? he asked, trying to see over the edge of the glass.
Eol, who was watching everything through his magic lens from behind a mug, hurried to explain:
— No, Sirocco. Unceremonious means something that doesn't follow the rules of politeness. That is, someone who knocks too loudly or comes without giving a sign beforehand. Like when you jump on Anemo’s belly while he’s sleeping.
Anemo Gale, dazed as usual, tripped over his own slippers in the hallway.
— It must be the courier with my new notebooks! Or maybe a real detective who heard about my new chapter! he shouted with enthusiasm.
Sirocco froze by the door, looking at Eol with round eyes:
— En-thu-si-asm? Is it something you catch? Am I going to get sick?
Eol smiled under his thin whiskers:
— Enthusiasm, little one, means a very great joy and a lot of energy for something you’re about to do. It’s like when Anemo opens the bag of your favorite treats and you start running through the whole house with happiness.
Mistral huffed, grooming his fur with a posh movement:
— I’d say it is just an excess of noise. I hope the person at the door at least has courageous shoes; otherwise, I won’t let them step on my carpet.
The person at the door was not a detective, but someone much more fearsome for Anemo Gale’s mess: his mother, Mrs. Gale. She entered the hall with a gentle smile but with a gaze that immediately scanned every speck of dust on the bookshelf.
— Oh, Anemo, my dear! she exclaimed, placing her gloves on the hall table (right over an ink stain). I hope you’ve cleaned up and haven't let any... rodents near your manuscripts. You know very well I have a terrible phobia!
Sirocco, hidden behind the table leg, froze.
— Pho-bi-a? he meowed to Eol, who had made himself tiny behind a jar. Is it something you eat with a wooden spoon?
Eol, his heart beating like a little clock, whispered from the shadows:
— No, Sirocco. A phobia is a very, very big fear of something specific. The lady is afraid of mice... which means me! If she sees me, she’ll scream so loud it’ll be heard in the whole neighborhood.
Mrs. Gale sat on the edge of the plush armchair, but her mind was already in the garden, at the Littlepace hair salon, and in the pastry shop window, all at the same time.
— Anemo, my dear, the dust on the encyclopedias is a calamity! You must use cotton cloth, not wool. By the way, did you see the neighbor on Hunters Run painted her fence bubblegum pink? Horrible! And speaking of colors, the doctor’s daughter, an admirable match, always wears sky-blue. You should invite her for tea, though with the way your kitchen looks, she might think you're hosting an archeology exhibit... Oh, and don’t forget to water the geraniums, I heard a heatwave is coming!
Anemo Gale nodded, trying to catch at least one thread from his mother’s tangle of ideas. He was putting sugar in his tea but forgot to stop, staring fixedly at her hat, which vibrated with every sentence.
Sirocco, hidden under the tablecloth, looked at Eol with eyes as wide as saucers:
— Eol... what’s a ca-lam-i-ty? Is it an animal that eats dust? And what’s a match? Does she play ball?
Eol, standing still as a sugar statue behind a porcelain teapot, whispered:
— A calamity, Sirocco, is a great misfortune, like a flood or a fire. The lady thinks the dust here is a world disaster. And an admirable match... well, it means a very suitable person someone could marry. Someone who might help Anemo stop putting salt in his coffee.
Mistral, on the other hand, basked under Mrs. Gale’s petting, purring with studied nonchalance. He was the "Knight of the Table," the only one who seemed to understand etiquette.
— Meow... Mistral said, looking at Anemo with pity, as if confirming that the lady's son was indeed a lost cause.
Sirocco thought hard:
— Eol... but what is non-cha-lance? Mistral looks like he swallowed a cloud of fluff.
Eol: — Nonchalance means behaving with elegant indifference, as if nothing could disturb you. Like the house could be collapsing, but you’re too busy grooming your whiskers to notice.
Mrs. Gale stood up abruptly, as if pushed by an invisible spring. She took out her gold-rimmed glasses and a silk handkerchief that smelled of lemon. She began to wipe them meticulously, staring at the shelf where Anemo kept his thick dictionaries.
— Anemo, my dear, these volumes are a horror! she cried, getting dangerously close to where Eol had left his magic lens in plain sight. This dust is an impurity attacking my lungs! And by the way, have you heard the pharmacist’s niece got engaged? Such a methodical girl, she even arranges her spices in alphabetical order!
Sirocco, claws dug into the carpet with emotion, whispered to Eol:
— Eol... what’s a hor-ror? Is it a dragon that eats books? And what’s me-thod-i-cal? Does she play with blocks?
Eol, pressed against the brick wall behind an encyclopedia, was trembling slightly:
— A horror, Sirocco, is something terrifying, ugly, or very bad. And being methodical means doing things with great care and order, exactly how Anemo’s mother is wiping my shelf right now... Oh no! She’s getting close to the lens!
Mistral, seeing his "reign" at the tea table threatened by a possible mouse hunt, decided to intervene with a master maneuver. He jumped from the chair directly into Mrs. Gale’s path, rolling over and meowing with a voice so thin and innocent that the lady stopped in her tracks.
— Oh, Mistral, you’re such a little narcissist! Mrs. Gale exclaimed, stopping her dust cloth just inches from Eol’s burrow. You want all my attention, don’t you?
She set the handkerchief aside and began scratching the black cat behind the ears. Mistral closed his eyes, purring with a nonchalance that made him look like a king on a brick throne.
But we know Mistral didn’t just want pets; he wanted to stop the lady before she discovered the little mouse’s magic lens.
Sirocco, claws dug into the brown carpet, whispered to Eol:
— Eol... what’s a nar-cis-sist? Is it a garden flower? Does Mistral smell like flowers now?
Eol, wiping sweat from his forehead with a trembling paw, replied:
— A narcissist, Sirocco, is someone who thinks they are the most beautiful in the world and wants everyone else to look only at them. The lady thinks Mistral loves her, but he’s just pretending to save us... and to be petted, of course.
Mrs. Gale turned abruptly toward her son, who was trying to hide an old pizza box under a stack of newspapers:
— And by the way, Anemo, I heard some spicy gossip at the pastry shop! They say a thief has appeared on Hunters Run who only steals... gardening gloves! What an absurdity, isn’t it?
Sirocco pricked up his ears:
— Eol... what’s gos-sip? Is it something stolen from the garden? And what’s an ab-sur-di-ty? Is it a big thief?
Eol: — Gossip, little one, is a story about other people, usually told behind their backs, which may or may not be true. And an absurdity is something that makes no sense, something completely silly. Like someone stealing left-handed gloves and leaving the right ones behind.
Anemo Gale dropped his wooden spoon into the tea mug.
— The glove thief? he cried. But that’s exactly what I needed for my chapter!
Anemo Gale slammed the tea mug on the table, splashing a few drops onto his mother’s impeccable tablecloth. His eyes lit up with a strange light. Without another word, he rushed to the typewriter and began hitting the keys with dizzying speed.
Tap-tap-tap-clank!
— Anemo? My dear, but I was just telling you about the pharmacist’s niece and...
Sper că acum textul are exact ritmul pe care l-ai gândit tu! Arată mult mai „ca o piesă de teatru” sau ca un fragment de roman clasic.
Vrei să adaptăm și partea de final pe care am scris-o eu mai devreme, tot cu aceste liniuțe?
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