Loyal friend. Part one.

Celeste looked thoughtfully at the letter and then at him. Fatigue still did not allow her to be happy. Although, any other girl in the town would have already managed to fly to the Moon and then to Saturn, and all because the richest, most handsome man in the world confessed his love to her.

It was a fairy tale. Yes, we all know that. Love is always a fairy tale. But everyone is always interested in how this fairy tale will end.

When the Sun disappeared behind the clouds, Celeste lowered her eyes and one tear fell on the rose petals. Her long eyelashes were little butterflies that desperately tried to hold back other tears.

Adelard, not understanding what was happening, took her hand and repeated, "I love you. Celeste, I love you very much. And I will come again. I will come until you answer me. I will be the most selfish person in your life. After all, I will always tell you about my love. And I will not leave you."

This confession was not enough and he knew it. The wings behind him wanted flight. But Celeste continued to hold back her tears and clutch the letter in her hand.

“I will come every day,” he whispered in her ear and walked away with quick steps.

But Celeste continued to stand in one place. And no one knew what she was thinking or what she felt.

Time was running forward. The wings flew high into the sky, leaving green land, blue and green sea far below, under white shoes that continued to feel the grass on which they stood together.

Adelard was in a dream. Her voice was still ringing in his ears, and he could feel her tears on his cheeks. But the fact that he learned to fly was undoubtedly his imagination, and in fact, he was just driving very fast forward. So fast that the whole world became the same color. Passing by the carriages, which were in a hurry along with the people who nervously sat and looked out the window, Adelard managed to scare the horses several times and create noise throughout the small town.

Two wheels, like two wings, flew forward, quickly, along with the rhythm of his heart. But when he did not notice the young man in the black cloak and bumped into him and almost fell, he came to his senses and said awkwardly, "Forgive me."

But the young man didn’t say anything, he didn’t even lift his head to look. He just walked past him.

Laughing at this situation, Adelard wanted to run far away and spend the whole day writing poetry and painting portraits that he had never painted. But this afternoon, he had a lot to do. And he knew that from the very morning, all those kind people, his colleagues were waiting for him.

Returning to reality faster than any of the lovers, he drove towards his house.

When enough time had passed, he finally drove to the factory and looking at his reflection in the glass, he suddenly saw something like blood on his face. He had to move closer to the glass to see if it was just a play of light.

"Adelard, what happened?" Jean asked, running out of the factory, along with the unpleasant scent of future soap.

Looking at his reflection again, Adelard examined his black suit and then directed his attention to his friend, said, "Hello Jean."

Jean, looking around, as if he was waiting for someone, closing his eyes from the sun, said, "These hungry people are already waiting for you. Every time I see their faces like this, I can hardly restrain myself. You do understand the reason for their smile. They want more money, more land, and most importantly, your kindness."

Throwing a cheerful glance at his friend, Adelard put his arm around his shoulders and when their hair touched, he said, "Today I am happier than ever before. And no one will take this wonderful moment from me."

"You're in love. I can see it."

"You know me too well."

"In this case, I will prepare for the fact that you will become the most ordinary man who is slowly but surely losing himself and all interest in other things."

"You are just worried that I will forget about you. But I promise, I will never forget about you. Although, in my life, now, there is a star brighter than you."

Playfully pushing him, thereby forcing him to bump into a passing man, Jean whispered, "You have become like everyone else." And there was something evil in his words. But Adelard thought it was just jealousy.

In the crowded office, where ten people were patiently waiting, the smoke from the cigarettes managed to create a whole fog. Panting from the smoke, Adelard still could not get used to this habit of all people, and every time his lungs were filled with acrid smoke, he felt a slight nausea and a sore throat. And even now, covering his nose with his hand, he went to the window and nervously opened it. When the hot wind blew into the room, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Turning towards everyone, he smiled and said, "Good afternoon, gentlemen."

Gentlemen, the finest examples of real men, looking into his green eyes, actually experienced only one thing and that is greed. In everyone's mind there was money and nothing else. And as everyone knows, money is enough for a person to behave like the most cultured and educated example to follow.

“Monsieur, these are all the papers you asked for. Here is a calculation of all the expenses for the last six months,” said the old man who had worked in this factory from the beginning.

Throwing a glance at him at the same time, everyone thought of only one thing, and that was a sycophant.

"Thanks Xavier."

And then, unable to endure any longer, a man in round glasses and with a fat belly, stepped forward and shyly said, "Monsieur Adelard, have you forgotten what you told me a few days ago? I mean the land that I acquired."

Recovering his memory after millions of thoughts about Celeste, Adelard immediately grabbed a checkbook and wrote a large sum there. And without hesitation, he handed the long-awaited paper to man named Claude.

"Monsieur you are so generous. But don't you even want to know, to understand what I am going to do in these empty lands?" to look like an honest man, Monsieur Claude asked.

And Adelard's answer was, "I have known you for many years. And you have always been a good business partner. Your company has been useful to my business many times. And besides, I know that any beginning for you a new hope, a new goal. Therefore, knowing all this, why not help you. You have found empty lands and I think you intend to build something on them. And also, in this matter, there is also benefit for me. But most importantly, I want to help you. If there is a possibility, then why not help?"

After exchanging glances with each other, all ten men could hardly contain their emotions. And only Jean stood tense and too serious. After all, it was perfectly clear to him why all these people had distorted emotions on their faces, hiding behind them - laughter. Adelard, with all his generosity was a real clown for them. Yes, you got it right. He was always a clown. And the reason for his title was his kindness.

"Now about the problems," a young man with a thin mustache like Salvador Dali's intervened. "The farm, which supplied us with fat, closed. More precisely, the government forced them to close and all the cows and sheep together with pigs, had to be killed. The reason is that they were diagnosed with some kind of disease. And because of this disease, all the meat was infected and it is rumored that one person also became infected and died. They had to kill all the animals and thereby burn them. Therefore, we have no fat now."

"I'm sorry. Madame Lucy must be very worried about this. Why didn't I hear about it? Why didn't anyone tell me about it?" Adelard asked, collapsing into a chair and covering his mouth with his hand. He always had a habit of worrying about other people as if they were himself or his family.

"I thought you already heard about this. The whole town already knows."

“Adelard, I don’t think you need to worry about this. It happens from time to time. And we also had similar crises in our factory. Don't think about it. Better look at this, sales of our soap have grown significantly. And not only that. You read this! All your holdings and lands that you gave for general consumption have brought you a lot of money. And again you are a winner. Your father would be proud of you," Jean said, squeezing his shoulder.

But Adelard was not happy about that.

"Monsieur, you should be glad that money is always on your side. This means that you did not disappoint your parents. And besides, we worked hard and therefore, the whole world knows about our soap and therefore, you remain the most rich and powerful man of the whole world," said another man who stood in the very corner of the room. He was wearing a gray suit and was too short, but with a huge ego.

Gasping from sadness and cigarette smoke, Adelard went to the window and quietly asked, "Do you have something else for me? Any news?"

Silence meant he was right.