The Lonely Hearts Hotel(11)

“I think the minute we get back Rose should be put in the cupboard for a week,” Sister Elo?se suggested.

“She’s been punished enough.”

Sister Elo?se was stunned. The Mother Superior turned and looked at her harshly. “I don’t want you hitting her in the face again. She’ll be black-and-blue for two weeks now.”

“I think it’s time to send Rose out to work. Before she really gets us into trouble.”

“Not just yet, Sister Elo?se. Not just yet.”

? ? ?

THE MORNING AFTER THE PLAY, Pierrot swiped a pair of wings from the costume closet. He wore them as he tiptoed along the corridor. He had no intention of ever taking them off. It had been a triumphant night for him, as he had gotten Rose to dance for him.

Sister Elo?se let him wear the wings. She couldn’t bring herself to tell him to take them off because they suited him so. It came to seem natural to everyone in the orphanage to see him in those wings. The whiteness of the wings was so bright, it seemed that Pierrot himself was radiating light. He wanted Rose to notice his wings, though. She was afraid of even looking at Pierrot because her jaw was still blue.

When he passed her in the hallway, Rose put her mop against the wall and couldn’t restrain herself from running her fingers over the feathers. “What kind of bird do you think these feathers come from?” she asked.

“I don’t know. A swan?”

“You had better stop wearing those wings, then. A swan might fall in love with you. And as you probably know, swans mate for life.”

“You are a funny one, Rose.”

Sister Elo?se caught him chasing Rose around. Rose expected to be attacked, but the beating did not come. Instead Elo?se took away Pierrot’s wings out of spite. She put them back in the box where they would be kept until next Christmas and then could be used to worship the one who was truly God’s favorite: Jesus.

But they were called on to perform again sooner than that. The Ladies Charity Society was so impressed by Pierrot and Rose’s spectacle at the town hall that it recommended the act to other charity organizations. The two children were asked to perform all over the city.

Sister Elo?se was furious when the Mother Superior told her. Her face became pale, as though she had just received the news that she had a terrible illness.

“Mark my words,” Sister Elo?se told the Mother Superior, “this will be disastrous. You have to humble these children. They are going to have to get used to working in factories and being maids when they get older. If they get used to all this fancy living, they’ll be done for. They won’t want to accept their lot in life and they’ll turn to crime.”

The Mother Superior shrugged. “We need the funds, Sister Elo?se.”

“But you always told me we should keep those two apart.”

“Sometimes these things are impossible to stop.”

Elo?se stormed out of the room. She kicked a black cat that got in her way. Rose and Pierrot were going to fall in love. She knew it sure as day. Everybody knew it. But nobody cared now. Money was an abstract idea, like God, and so it trumped all earthly considerations. She shook Pierrot awake violently that night. After she made him come in her mouth, she felt more secure, but not much.

When Pierrot and Rose began traveling around town together, they were surprised to discover that they were able to do similar tricks. He pulled a paper flower out of her head. She pulled a striped ball out of his. They looked at each other in amazement. They were both able to do handstands. All the rocks fell out of his pocket. Her dress fell up over her head. They laughed at each other upside down.

They would visit rich people’s parlors. They needed only a couple of things to perform, and almost all the rich people were in possession of these: a piano and a nearby carpet. They would sometimes move a small coffee table off the carpet to give Rose her proper theatrical venue.

Pierrot would sit on the piano bench and begin to play his odd, miraculous tunes. He would sway his head in ecstasy as if he were a genius performing Rachmaninoff for a thousand spectators in Prague and not a tinkling ditty he had composed himself.

And Rose would do a strange pantomime. She had one in which she pretended she was being blown about by the wind. At one point she would be blown over backward and do a little backflip and then stand up again. When Pierrot finally finished his windy tune, she would wobble slightly as though she were dizzy and discombobulated. And then she would take the world’s loveliest bow.

She did quite risky acts at times too. Like once, she brought out her bear character. She sat eating an imaginary pot of honey. She told the bear that she didn’t want to share, as the bear would just be a glutton and pig out. Finally she said okay, and the bear devoured every drop of honey as she watched, shaking her head and tsking, telling him that he would certainly have a bellyache now.

When she was done, the woman of the house had tears in her eyes. The woman said she had no idea why. Rose’s performance was the saddest thing the woman had ever seen.

? ? ?

UNLIKE SOME CHILDREN when falling in love, Pierrot and Rose never fought. Their temperaments were suited to each other’s. When they were onstage, there was something of this sympathy that people were able to sense. It was like watching a tiny little married couple when they performed. They were able to intuit each other’s movements.

Indeed, wherever they were, they were always able to act in an oddly harmonious way. It was almost as if they were a monster with four child hands. The Mother Superior watched them setting the tables while conversing with each other. They did it quickly and at no point did either of them reach for the same utensil or the same dish. And they set the tables without once bumping into each other, a feat that had not been accomplished in many years.