Chapter II.X

Written: July 28, 2023

Translated: September 13, 2023

**I**n general, Jerome Myron, who at school was a direct target for other people's insults, was dear to Delia. She could not say for what qualities she fell in love with him, but she was always pleased to realize that she could be useful to this golden-haired boy. Most of her thoughts related to school closely intersected with Jerry's personality. His name was something intimate to her, and whenever she had to talk about his identity, her cheeks turned red and her breathing became ragged.

Alas, the feeling was far from mutual - the culprit of her love torments was, how should I put it, not particularly delighted with this. Jerry, of course, did not quarrel with the girl who protected him from the attacks of other boys, but he didn’t reciprocate her in any special way - personally, he liked another girl much more who was in the same class, Tessie Parillo - daughter of a certain bookseller. She was a tall blonde, who, like Jerry himself, despised others and kept herself apart from everyone.

Actually, it was precisely because of this nature of his passion that the boy could not make friends with her - it was as useful as starting a relationship with your reflection in the mirror. So little Myron, secretly sighing for the young lady Parillo, was friends with this dark-haired gal, whose face for some reason made him associate with a Chihuahua. Jerry had never said something like that out loud - both in conversation with everyone else and with the young heiress of the Yonce family herself - but it was clear from his eyes that he was forcibly tolerating this girl, from whom he had only one benefit, protection from bullies.

Be that as it may, Delia was head over heels in love with this boy, and she took advantage of any opportunity to cross paths with the listing broker's son. For example, one day she and her father went into a grocery store, where, by a happy coincidence, Jerry himself was with his mother, Miriam Myron. Seeing him, the girl immediately rushed to the boy with joy and, taking his hand, said that she wanted to go with him to La Boutique Fantasque. Luckily for her, young Myron did not resist her, and the children left the store, followed by the surprised glances of their parents. Delia led him into the shop where they were met by an old man who somehow reminded the girl of Einstein, only without a moustache, he was wearing a white shirt and a black leather vest. He had something to show his little visitors - At first, the children looked at small toy animals that danced the tarantella, and then the owner of the shop showed them a table on which a toy train rode by itself.

Delia and Jerome stood shoulder to shoulder, gazing wide-eyed at the wonders of La juguetería fantástica. When the self-propelled toy train made a couple of circles, the girl took advantage of the moment and quietly took the boy’s hand in hers, squeezing it with all her might - from excitement her palm was very hot and sticky with sweat. Perhaps that is why Jerry suddenly broke free and ran out of this shop without a word. Baby girl looked after him with tears in her eyes, while the old owner grunts something displeasedly at the listing broker's ill-mannered son. The girl returned to the grocery store, where at that time her father was arguing with Miriam Myron about the fact that he allegedly allows his daughter to just take and take other people's children to an unknown place. At the sight of young Lady Yonce, the Jerry's mother calmed down a little and, without even sparing a glance at the girl, she took her son by the arm and went home, while mister Yonce quietly scolded Delia, who silently looked after Jerry...

But one time the golden-haired object of her unrequited love did Delia a favour. It was mid-September when his parents took their son to their summer cottage for a few days, which, by a happy coincidence, was located not far from the home of the Yonce family. Jerry did not notify his classmate about this, but Delia, accidentally seeing him at the market - where she was shopping with her mother at that moment - hardly hiding her joy, she asked the boy about what fate he had ended up here. At that moment, Jerry, languishing with melancholy in a country setting he didn’t like, decided to brighten up his loneliness a little and without hiding told her the address where the Myron family’s summer cottage was located, and also the time at which he will wait for him. Delia then couldn't sleep a wink all night, thinking about how she would meet Jerry. And so, when the time came to leave the house in order to arrive at the right time, she ran there without any second thoughts, almost glowing with happiness. However, when the girl was already there, there was not a soul in the Myron's cottage - cunning Jerry, who wanted to laugh at a naive girl, specially arranged a date with her for that day and hour when he and his parents were already driving in the car on the way home to the center.

But Delia never found out about this trick. On the contrary, she got into her head the obsessive idea that this was her own fault, as if she herself had missed out on her happiness. When her father brought her to school the next day, she met Jerry in the hallway before class, walked up to him and, with downcast eyes, said to him sadly "I'm sorry.". The boy was surprised by her unexpectedly meek reaction, but without showing it, he played along with her state, saying "It's I who should be sorry" and ran to class. That day, Delia, without responding to her friends’ greetings, sat through all the lessons in the same position, and even when Charles Pevec, the most rowdy-dowdy boy in her class, apparently inspired by her condition, snatched the pen from her hands and was about to throw it in the trash can, the girl remained sitting in place, only raising her eyes, red from tears, to the bully. The young Pevec was confused and, after standing indecisively by the trash can, he walked up to Delia and put her pen next to her books...

When, while visiting mister Thurlow, Delia shared this story with him - of course, without knowing the true state of affairs on Jerry's part - her interlocutor was somewhat amazed that this girl, whose whole nature seemed to be filled with the energy of life, could feel such a complex of guilt because of some mere trifle. Jo tried to calm the girl down by reading her a poem by some author with the strange surname Blok - something about an accordion and buttercups - but the baby girl, shouting to him "I'm going out the play", ran to her home, not wanting to show neighbour her tears, which by that time were already filling her up from the inside. Both she and Jo were sad that day, only if her sadness was caused by impressions from a failed date, then her adult friend’s was caused by her reaction to his attempts to somehow calm her down. For two days Delia did not go to her neighbour, being in a depressed state, but on the third day the girl perked up and again visited mister Thurlow, who, however, at that time was keen on reading a certain book, which made it seem to his young guest that he was not particularly pleased with her visit. To entertain the child a little, Jo first in front of her eyes burned that book, which didn't contain anything smart, and then invited the girl to go visit his friend Japhet, to which she agreed without further ado.

From the fourth floor apartment where Jo's colleague lived, the young heiress of the Yonce family brought back pleasant memories - firstly, Japh, who knew how to cook for real (unlike mister Thurlow who trying to imitate him), threw a feast for her stomach, upon arrival, he treated her to baked lamb shoulder and stewed beans on the way back. Secondly, Delia listened with great pleasure to a fairy tale from the old collection "Fables of My Father Swan", which the owner of the apartment read out loud, since the girl herself was too lazy to read herself, and besides, she just liked to sit in his cabinet and listen to his pleasant voice, while not forgetting to comment on what she heard. At the very beginning of this literary reading, the girl even allowed herself to be indignant that the author did not explain the name of the main character, to which Japhet stunned her with the answer, the essence of which was that her own name did not mean “always visible”, as her mother told her from early childhood, but was the name of the island where, according to ancient Greek myths, the Greek goddess Artemis was born.

Having learned about this, the young heiress of the Yonce family then felt as if wave of truth extinguished the fire of falsehood, which she was not slow in admitting to her adult interlocutors. Then mister Thurlow said with a smile that she had a good vocabulary, and some kind of light flashed in Japh's eyes, hidden behind the thick lenses of his glasses. This moment might have seemed unworthy of attention to the girl, if not for what followed next. When Japhet finished reading the fairy tale and the three of them went to eat beans, at the table he pulled out a notebook, where he wrote down this random remark from Delia from memory, slightly paraphrasing it. The girl then inquired why he needed it, to which she received the answer that it was needed for his research concerning Americans bearing Greek names. Baby girl considered this explanation complete nonsense, gave up on the matter and, deciding that it was time for her to go home, went to get dressed.

As Delia and her adult companion approached her family's home, the girl, who had previously been walking behind Jo, suddenly rushed towards him and, grabbing his hand, pulled him strongly to the side. He, trying not to fall to the ground, grabbed the fence with his free hand, accidentally driving a thin sliver of wood into his hand. The little girl opened the gate with a laugh and disappeared into the yard, and mister Thurlow, trying to remove a splinter that had gotten into his finger with his teeth, was stunned to catch with his ears the sounds of her footsteps coming from behind the fence. When the front door of the Yonce's house finally closed, he sighed and raised his head - it was dark in the window of her room...

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