40 The Storm is Coming

Being so different from everyone else was neither easy nor pleasant for Rafał. He really wanted to be like the others, but there was nothing he could do about it. Despite many attempts to rekindle the flame inside him, he just wasn't interested in any woman, not even the most beautiful one. Neither was a man, because that was something Rafał had tried too.

His interest in sex with any particular person was nil.

Unable to change this, Brylski had to accept his otherness and the fact that he was inferior to others, handicapped. That he was someone people would laugh at if they found out he felt no sexual attraction. Impotent was a really painful word.

Especially since Rafal was not impotent. He was as responsive as possible to any physical stimuli, only he did not feel attracted to any particular person and even when he felt desire, he preferred to satisfy it himself rather than have to be in contact with another person.

People, however, did not take the trouble to distinguish between the two cases. For them, everything boiled down to one word: someone sexually handicapped, some kind of subhuman, as if only sexuality defined whether someone had value as a human being.

Damian, however, did not treat Rafał that way. Damian acted as if Brylski's asexuality was not an aberration, as if it were something... normal and not worthy of any attention. Damian behaved as any man should behave.

Therefore, Rafał felt gratitude towards him and an even stronger desire for them to become friends.

"What kind of beer do you like?" asked Radosz as they sat down at the table. "This brand is okay?" he pointed to the umbrella and the decor, where an advertisement for one producer cheerfully dominated.

"Now you ask that?" laughed Brylski. His heart felt remarkably light. Damian seemed to really accept him as he was. "This brand is very good. I like the dark ones."

"Me too," Damian smiled and ordered two large beers. "Alright, you asked why I don't want erotic scenes in my show."

"Yes. I've noticed that current trends are such that pretty much everywhere is selling sex. Many series really could do without bed scenes, but they're there. Not to show the character's character or to help drive the plot, they're there because they're there."

"Yes, sex has always sold merchandise well and I think West has started to forget some of the rules of production filmmaking. They just want to sell sex and violence because that always sells. But you know I'm aiming for the East."

"You mentioned that."

"If you watched any drama produced in China or Korea, you would see how little eroticism there is. Sometimes there is none at all. You could watch fifty episodes of a series about love and the most erotic scene would be a kiss under some flowering tree."

"You've got to be kidding," smiled Rafał in disbelief and with a nod thanked the waitress for the beer.

"Not at all. Asians are not very prudish. It's just that the aesthetic of their productions is softer. Less sex, less blood, less brutality. It's not that they idealize the world. They just want their productions to give a respite from a certain brutality and maybe they also want to moralise society a little bit, to show that it's not just sex and violence that counts, but the story itself."

"I don't believe that producers don't have ideas to sell more sex," he added.

"They have, of course they do, but the censors won't let them. I'm not sure if the government cares about the morality of the audience or if it follows some other rule, but in Korea and China there's a clear line that you just can't cross. You'll see more sex in Thai and Japanese productions, but they too will be far from the pure copulation you'll see in some serialized American or European productions, and here sex will always be tied to the character's story."

"That sounds... pretty good. I don't know if it's because I'm just the way I am, but I get irritated by unnecessary sex scenes in movies. Sometimes I feel like they only exist to clog up time with something."

“Believe me, it's not just you. People are used to sex on screen, but didn't a kiss covered by a man's hat have something more mysterious and appealing about it?”

“You are right, it did” admitted Rafał, recalling such a scene from an old black and white movie. “I am not a romantic, but such scenes had a certain charm.”

“People have imagination, really, you don't have to show them everything directly. Yes, such direct scenes are sometimes necessary. Passion can show the relationship between characters, for example when during sex one of the parties breaks his resistance and gives himself completely to the other. In many cases, however, the story will be more memorable if the curtain falls immediately before such a scene. And then we don't have to impose age restrictions, so we widen the audience..."

"I see. You were furious with Różycki because his vision was too bold and threatened your interests."

“Exactly so," Radosz confirmed. “If the censors in the East make me revise my series, I will lose time and money. If I introduce two versions, one for the West and another for the East, won't that be a kind of discrimination against some group of fans?"

“You really have thought and planned everything out," Rafal remarked admiringly. Earlier he had thought that Radosz had simply given money and that was it. Now it turned out that he had put a lot more into this production.

“That's right," nodded Damian. “That's why I need you.”

“Me?”

“When was the last time you looked in the mirror?”

“Today after the shoot, when I was washing off my make-up. And why do you ask?”

“Because your face is the first answer to your question. The second is your talent, and the third...”

“Is there a third?” Rafal was surprised. “Or is this a quiz where I have to choose one correct answer?”

“In that case you would have to choose D, 'all of the above'.”

“But I still haven't heard C” complained Brylski. He did not have the impression that Damian was teasing him, at least not on purpose, and yet he felt strangely intimidated.

“The third, or C, is your personality.”

***

Suddenly a wind so powerful that it almost tore down the umbrella under which they were drinking beer. It tore down the paper napkin stand and flapped the advertising banner. People started to look around anxiously.

“It's going to rain soon” one of the guests noticed and the waitress quickly started to fold umbrellas under which the guests were not resting. A man, probably a bartender, started to help her. In other pubs people were doing the same.

“We should probably go back” observed Rafal. “The hotel is not far away, if we go fast, we should make it before the cloudburst.”

“Yes, you're right” agreed Damian, who like others was trying to estimate the situation. “Let's go.”

Radosz gave the waitress the money for the beer and together with Rafał they went on the street. The wind was strong, making it difficult for passers-by to move and black, heavy clouds appeared in the sky, hanging low ready to burst at any moment and spit a downpour.

The sky was torn apart by a long lightning flash, followed by a powerful thunder.

Damian and Rafał reflexively walked so fast that they almost ran.

“I've been getting weather alerts by text message for a couple of days now," Brylski announced, "but it looks like today the warnings really came true.”

“Damn," Radosz cursed. “I hope they got the set right.”

“You want us to check it?” suggested Rafal. They were almost outside the hotel. “The set is not far...”

“I guess I should actually check” said Damian, thinking that if he didn't, he would be very, very worried.

Instead of entering the hotel building, Radosz headed for the parking lot. He noticed that Rafał was following him.