The Educators - Part 11

The First Lady stares at the wall, in silence. Mentioning her childhood has filled her brain with echoes from a distant past. She closes her eyes, and sees a mental picture of herself as a child. She’s at home, in Sevnica, eating cevapcici with her parents and her sister Ines. For a few minutes, the memory of happier times gives her comfort.

All of a sudden, the sound of Mingze’s sobbing awakens Melania from her trance. When she looks at her cellmate, she finds the image so pathetic that she feels guilty for what happened earlier. The daughter of the Chinese President looks like a frightened child, eating the last mouthful of cake, with her face covered in tears, and her lips, in chocolate.

-I’m sorry I slapped you. I didn’t have any right to do that. I lost my temper…

-No, it was my fault. My mother would have slapped me as well, if she heard me talking like that to an old person.

-An old person? Oh, honey… Do you want another slap?

-No! Sorry, translation problem… I don’t mean “old”, as in “someone with white hair that walks with a cane”. I just mean that you’re old enough to be my mother…

-Still not making it better, darling… -says Melania, chuckling-. Don’t worry, I know what you mean. How old are you?

-I’m twenty-eight.

-Well… I guess you are right. I’m old enough to be your mother. I’d be a young mom, though.

-You slap just like my mother. You spank like her too…

-Really? Did she spank you a lot, when you were little?

-She still does. So does my dad.

-Oh my God! You’re twenty-eight and you still get spanked at home?

-My parents say that I must respect their rules until I get married and have my own children.

-Oh, baby…

“Wow… And I thought my parents were dictators!”, thinks Melania, not believing her ears. When she was twenty-eight, she had already given more blowjobs than all the other Slovenian women combined. But Mingze still looks so immature, like a little girl crying in the corner of the cell.

-Mrs. Trump… -says Mingze, a few minutes later.

-What, dear?

-I’m so scared… and I miss my parents so much…

-I know, baby. We’re all scared. And we miss our loved ones. I’d give all I have to give my son a hug right now… But we need to be strong. The kidnappers said that they have no intention of killing anybody. Sooner or later, we will get out of here and see our families again.

-Do you believe what those terrorists said?

-Yes. If they wanted to kill us, they would have done it already. Or at least they would have cut off somebody’s finger or something… But, luckily, they haven’t. Yesterday, I was terrified, because I thought we would start seeing decapitations and things like that. But today, I feel much more tranquil. I believe that they want to humiliate us, to make a point and attract attention to their cause, but I really don’t think they want to **** us.

-I hope you are right.

They spend a few more minutes in silence. Soon, Mingze starts crying again, more desperately than before. Melania approaches her, and gives her a hug. At first, Mingze feels uncomfortable. She is not used to cuddles, even less from a stranger and with both being fully naked. But that soon changes. With Melania’s arms wrapped around her, she feels an indescribable sensation of protection. Overcome by anguish, Mingze leaves all social conventions behind and embraces Melania with all her strength. Soon, she is crying herself out with her face buried between the First Lady’s breasts.

-It’s gonna be okay, baby. We will get out of here, I promise you.

They stay like that for a long time, until Mingze runs out of tears. When Melania notices that the sobbing has ceased, she looks at her cellmate and sees that she has fallen asleep, having found a comfortable pillow in her breasts. The First Lady smiles and closes her eyes. She is soon asleep as well.