American dream (Американская мечта)

love with you and can now do such silly things that at any other time she would laugh at it. And I’m not going to break her heart, because she is my nephew and she is so young. I won’t sleep with you any more; you can tell her that you are free.  
 - You love her?
 - Yes, more than you. Men come and go, but relatives stay.
 - OK, I’ll tell her about your reaction and see what she says.  
 Becky said nothing; she only smiled and continued painting the nude, when she came. After the séance they drank tea with sweets and talked about everything else but the bet. Finally, Tim asked:
 - So who lost the game?
 - Me. You won’t sleep with her now, because you hope to sleep with me and I may be jealous too.
 - Really? Than what’s your decision?
 - I spoiled you relations with Jessica and now I must offer you a room at my flat. But it’s not sex. So it’s a standoff, no one won and the game goes on, if you are not afraid to live with a beautiful girl.
 - Why should I be afraid?
 - You may fall in love and be in pain.
 - And what about you? You are not afraid of the same thing?
 - I’ve invited you; it means that I’m not.
 - OK, I move to my room tomorrow.
 - Don’t forget to take my address and the key. I’ll be in the studio.
     After two weeks of peaceful coexistence in one flat Becky was reassured that Tim was not as sexually-minded as she thought. He did not try to flirt with her, did not try to get into her bed at night, though it was so easy because she didn’t lock the door to her room and was ready to meet him with a scream. He did nothing and she was at once calmed down and disappointed. Contradictory feelings displayed themselves in her teasing jokes at breakfast, when they met at the table, but he only smiled. At last she raised the question directly.
 - I’m glad you don’t chase me but I understand that you are an adult man and need sex. So if you want it, you can bring a girl to your room. Say, Nancy. By the way she liked you and wouldn’t mind a romantic meeting. After the session in the studio you could invite her.
 - What can be romantic in our meeting after I saw her nude?
 - That’s the problem. Men see women nude only when they sleep with them. Your relations are contradictory and she wants to settle it.
 - If you are so worried about my sex, why not settle it between us?
 - I waited when you try it.
 - To say “no”?
 - I didn’t say anything so far. May I think?
 - You use Nancy to allure me, so why not say frankly, what you want yourself?
 - I’m a spinster. Do you know that I‘m already twenty five?  
 - If I make love with Nancy you’ll imagine I do it with you?
 - No. I just want you to be satisfied with life.
 - You are lying to me or to yourself. But I know what to do.  Imagine I’m a painter and you are a sitter. Just undress and pose. I’ll take a mental picture of you; it’s not sexuality but art.
 - Really? It’s an interesting idea. I never thought of it. But it attracts me. Close your eyes.
 In a minute she allowed to open them and he saw her completely nude. Then she closed her eyes and he understood that she is ready. So he came closer, kissed and embraced her tightly to break her barriers and she relaxed. He carried her on his hands to the sofa and became her man.



                                             A killer

  Everything was perfect but life can’t be so serene. There is always some problem ahead and happiness never lasts long. This time it was Nancy’s death.
  She was killed nude in the studio, posing for Becky, by a bullet that came through the window from a sniper. Police found nobody and soon another model was killed in the same way. She also posed nude to a photographer and the bullet found her in her own home after the photo was published in a magazine. Two similar cases prompted explanation – the killer had sexual problems and got satisfaction as a sadist, destroying the object of his unrealized desires.
  Tim didn’t study psychoanalysis but he understood the cause and decided to catch the killer by bait. They exhibited nude Nancy in the studio hall and started to wait. It was irrational but there was a chance that he would come to see her again as he saw her in the optical riflescope, or even to destroy it or to steel, or would betray his complexes in some other way. Above the painting he masked a hidden camera to watch the faces of all visitors and to analyze their expressions.
 Attracted by a newspaper announcement, people passed quietly by, showing only curiosity. But one man stopped a little bit longer and slightly grinned. Tim decided to follow him and to find out where he lives. It was a small old private house in the suburb. He recorded the address and phoned with his suspicions to the detective, Dale Crimson, who in five minutes called him back and confirmed that the visitor was in the police database for a similar crime in the past.
 Police checked him up and he had alibi, supported by his friend, a former criminal too. They left him free, but Tim Somo didn’t believe it and established surveillance with other two studio guards in turn. At night the guard awoke him up by telephone, saying that the suspected subject left home with something resembling a rifle in a cover and went in his car to the center. Tim intercepted him five minutes before he stopped and went out of the car with the cover. At the corner the man took out a rifle and looking ahead began to wait for someone. The streets were empty but in fifteen minutes a car appeared at distance, approached and halted at the opposite side of the road. A girl went out and the man targeted his rifle to her. But Somo’s bullet was the first and the killer fell to the ground. They called police and went to the girl to ask her some questions. When she saw the dead man with a rifle she confirmed that she was a porn star. So the case was closed and described in newspapers. All frightened sex models relaxed and as a present to Tim made a collective photo with him, though in dress, for a magazine.
  Thus Timothy Somo became famous and got many new friends. A reporter visited him for a long interview; police offered him work, if he becomes a citizen (say, in three years after marriage) and the models invited as a bodyguard. All promised to pay more and he decided to use his chance because he was already going to marry Rebecca and married life required more expenses and higher status, if she would consent.  Her parents might not like a night guard as a husband for their talented daughter and he in spite of his habits chose for the future police.
 In a month Tim and Becky got married; they had no prejudices against the models, appearing nude in magazines, and invited them to the wedding. After the party Becky suggested them to make a series of nude paintings and they agreed.
 - Beauty and sex are better than homicide, - supported the idea Tim. – If people need it, why not? Let them tune to it, find a channel for discharging their excessive energy and relax.
   Three years passed as three months. In police after examination he was enlisted to the homicide department to work with Dale Crimson as a partner, because he asked it himself. And for the assessment of possible criminals and versions he started using astrology.
 - Does it really work? – wondered Crimson. – I thought is a fraud.
 - It can’t answer the question directly but may give a hint. Oppositions of planets between two horoscopes show a conflict. If someone has strong Mars, he may be a sportsman or a military man, because it is the god of war, but if he has none known variants of realizing it, I have a question how this force discharges in his life. If it doesn’t work even as sex, he may become aggressive and turn to violence, though certainly it’s not a proof. Deaths and secret affairs are connected with Pluto, Scorpio and the eighth house. If a man work is security services or some secret project it’s OK, but if he does not I must explain to myself his character too. Maybe, his just hides from his wife a lover and maybe he hides a crime.
- Oh, I see. This way it sounds more realistic. And can astrology predict personal life, success in love or career?
 - More sure than crimes. Because it is more natural, and crimes are not determined by planets, they are results of wrong choice. People in ethical questions have free will; no one is born a criminal, he may become him after failure to follow his true fate, given by God.


                                       Five years after

  His work in police was risky but interesting. Death again accompanied him everyday and often smiled into his eyes, but he smiled in return and went on. Some criminals were caught; same were killed for armed resistance.  They were not different from other policemen either in methods, or in results, though were closer to the best thanks to intuition and psychological analysis. Astrology helped too on the initial stage, but their main stake was on facts and experimental check up.        
 When Becky became pregnant, life looked clear and plain again. So he wrote a verse:

            A fish in the sea didn’t see
            How the sun at the dawn was born.
            After the sleep it went to the deep
            To dream of a beam.
            But birds find the words
            To sing to the spring.
            A flower gives me power
            To fly to the sky
            With the smell of its spell
            And to hear with my ear
            The voice of rejoice,
            The universe sends in my verse.

  It had strange inside rimes but he was strange himself too and the verse reflected his state. So why not let it be? On the anniversary of their marriage Becky bore a daughter and they called her Sonya, the name both Russian and English in use.
 Happy years fly quickly, problematic crawl slowly and require more energy and attention to pass them through. So Tim’s memory fixed stronger the next period when clouds appeared again. Financial crisis undermined economic life, many projects became bankrupt and Becky’s art studio was closed for debts. Paintings didn’t sell and the boss decided to give up the idea and transfer his money to something else.
 The crisis was not only in bank account but in minds too. People became nervous and made fatal mistakes; where earlier they were reasonable and reserved. Dale Crimson was irritated by life more than usual and shot an unarmed criminal, though he was really dangerous and could be armed as his friends who fired at them and fled away. Timothy Somo didn’t witness against Crimson and lost the trust of their chief’, which was nervous too, because had only one year before pension, and he fired both of them just to be on the safe side. So bullets can not only solve problems but create then too, even if they hit the right man.
 After five years Tim found himself in the same situation as when he only came, but now he was responsible for his family too and had to search for a job quicker.  He did not think much and phoned to the models, who wanted him as a bodyguard. Some of them left the business because of economic difficulties, some got married and some didn’t now have enough money. But one of them was OK as usual and took him at once. It was the porn star he saved concretely. She did not forget the attempt and was still afraid to go alone at nights, though she worked as a strip teaser at night clubs. Filming was stopped for indefinite time and it became the only source of money. So she had to take him and he had no choice too, though he didn’t like such places and the people, who led there a fast life. The porn star’s name was Melina, out of stage Melissa. She had a son, the result of unhappy love, and lived alone in an half-empty flat. Her money for porn films was lost in the crisis after the bankruptcy of three banks at a time, but in other respects she was OK.
  - You don’t know how I’m tired of clubs. Films take less force and pay enough for good living. Here I loose myself and waste my time. I hope lucky days will return and I’ll play back all I’ve lost. And how did you earn money in Russia?
 - I was a night guard and sold flowers.
 - Why don’t you sell them here?
 - It requires a beautiful salesgirl. There it was my wife, but we parted and the business couldn’t go on.
 - Oh, I could sell them too, - she laughed. – If I fail to return to cinema, I’ll open a flower shop with you. I have no experience, but will save some money for the start.
 - I have some too from my first lucky case, when I saved one woman’s life. In Russia we sold them in the street without a shop so the main problem is a beautiful sociable girl.
- OK, it’s me, if I’m in good humor or need it badly.
 And she laughed again, because so far she hoped for luck.
  Gradually Melissa got accustomed to him and they became friends. She had lovers from time to time, but changed them quickly, because they didn’t take her seriously as human being and annoyed her by endless sex talks. One day she asked him smiling:
 - Would you like to try cinema for yourself? We would look fine as partners. For the return I need someone to play sex with, who doesn’t make me puke. Good impression on spectators depends on inspiration.
 - I wouldn’t play sex before a camera. It’s not for me.
 - There are many stages to choose where to stop. The cadre can show us to the waist, when we embrace and kiss. The rest is imagination and computer tricks. They can undress any actress in virtual space, if she only agrees. For actors it is not necessary, porn stars are usually girls. Men are more sexy than women, but they prefer to watch the opposite sex and pay. A rival on the screen can irritate. Certainly, there is pure porno, but it’s vulgar and I prefer erotic teasing like in clubs.
 - I don’t think my wife would like it.
 - Oh, it’s like a nude in art. She doesn’t paint men, but girls for her are OK. I’ll talk to her myself and show my films. Men there are not naked, it’s only me. You may be just background; all attention would be focused on my body. And you can beautifully fight and play with your gun.
  After Becky looked through her films, she said it was porno, but could be made art, if she added psychological, ethical content and reduced sex to minimum. Melissa promised to think it over and consult script writers, who wrote for her earlier, when she was one of the best.
  In two days she brought a script, she chose especially for Becky, without frank sex scenes, but with a detective plot. Becky approved it and Melissa invited Tim for casting. Becky didn’t go with him because he had to kiss there with Melissa and she would prefer to see it only on the screen.
 Fighting episodes for Tim were easier but kisses were not so difficult too. So Melissa was satisfied and promised the director to warm her partner up at the next casting and make erotic scenes fuller as needed. Finally, the film was made and sold to a night TV channel. She earned enough to give up night clubs striptease and to save for a rainy day.
  Tim wasn’t sure his cinema career would continue and bought a flower shop with three ready beautiful salesgirls. Now he was again not afraid of the future and knew what to do next. His life in America was now not worse than in Russia but he had a devoted beautiful wife with a daughter and soon – a son. So bullets were forgotten and the basis of his new life philosophy became a chrysanthemum.