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The Straw Broker
- Lady Ronit
- Sep 11, 2024
- 12 min read
Updated: Oct 18, 2024
I remember that day particularly, as an unfortunate one, because I lost my favourite earrings from my collection. They were large, gold, very uncomfortable. Clips. They hurt my ears. But I wore them, partly to spite my Mom, partly to spite myself. I bought them last summer, a year ago, in a vintage store in Krakow. My Mom dislikes these stores, saying they are no better than thrift shops and worse, dirty. I, however, love finding pearls in these dens of iniquity, then wearing them to raise my Mom's blood pressure. I regret that fate gave Her such a degenerate daughter. She probably regrets it too, as she supports me half-heartedly and not particularly enthusiastically. I bring shame to my Mom and pride to my Dad.
Let's start with me, because The Straw Broker did not present himself particularly well. Though it must be said, he dressed very meticulously. If only not for that straw in his shoes, the world would hardly guess his true origin. Oh no, I see nothing wrong in social advancement. On the contrary, give me a hardworking man. But to truly advance, you need a kind of innate or naturally acquired class. A certain elegant ethereality. And this quality matures in a person like wine. It takes years to develop nobly.
We will start with Him, the Straw Broker, as he is too tempting for my mood. We met at a student integration event. He came to the city, though born in a village. A charming village he was very ashamed of. It was almost a miracle I managed to bring my false Friend to that meeting. She left in the English manner, after less than an hour. An hour too long, the entire time longing for her strange Boyfriend. He picked her up in a ramshackle wreck, and they disappeared into the night, quickly fading from my memory. Before that happened, we met the Straw Fellow. Apparently, a lightning bolt struck this aspiring financier because he was speechless for a long time. My friend commented on it with one sentence, thrown at the first opportunity when we were aside, resolutely:
Wera, I've never seen anyone look at you like that.
And I had seen this look before, not for the first time, but I formed a thought in my heart, quickly woven like a nimble bird weaves its nest:
Caught fish. Let's play with him.
For I am a bit like a cat that doesn’t even want to bite a mouse but kills it for sport.
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