VanCleef & Arpels on the summer night. Nonna Ananieva
patented in the beginning of the 1930ies. To set one ruby in this way takes the master jeweler from one to two and a half hours. There are only two master jewelers with such skills in the company, and they are the only two in the whole world. It’s a real gem. Why Forest? They spend a lot of time thinking up the names. Is this gem meant to be a star in the forest? Or is it a red autumn leaf, shining in the evening rays of the Northern sun? Shine, shine, my star – as the Russian song goes – there won’t ever be any other like you. Anyway, it’s better that the star carries some personal significance for whoever beholds it. And there’s no need to be reminded about that.
– The call is for you – Helen handed over the receiver to me.
– Hello!
– If we want things to stay the same, things will have to change[1] – a baritone voice said, melodic, familiar, perfect in each sigh.
– Sometimes one changes unrecognizably – I replied. So he had noticed me in Stockmann after all.
– How could I have failed to recognize you?
– Or pretended that you didn’t…
– I was trying to suppress emotional shock, dear.
– And who won eventually, you or emotional shock?
– Could I invite you to the theater? – he paused – Are you still fond of ballet?
– As you are, if I remember correctly?
– Yes, in my own way – Sergey laughed.
I thought for a while, and consented. I stood up to place the ring back in the showcase. Lena, the salesgirl, shook the hair away from her forehead and gave me a wink.
– Yesterday you got a perfect haircut – I said to her, winking back.
– Dima left, so I have to ask the others.
– You mean to do your hair?
– You want your hair cut as well?
– I do. Why has Lenia disappeared? – I didn’t like this news at all. Who could I trust with my image now? I felt kind of upset. We had been going to Dima for several years; he was a master and a creator. He was Lena’s own discovery.
– He left for Guinea – she responded.
– To work there? As a hairdresser? – Naturally, this surprised me.
– No, to pay a visit to his grandmother, – Lena joked. – He started working as a gold digger – she continued.
– Searching for diamonds? Are you for real?!
– As far as I know he went over with an acquaintance from Bauman’s University as a programmer. They found something. Everybody finds something out there. Oh, and rubies too. Neither of them has come back.
I took out my appointment book. There was a political map of the World. I opened it at Africa and found Guinea. Then I remembered from my courses that there were no kimberlite deposits in Guinea, although something else like lamproite was found there, but I couldn’t be sure that was quite correct. Within these deposits of the second type other precious stones could be found, like rubies or sapphire, which basically belong to the same corund. And sure there were also colored diamonds, such as the brown ones.
– Just think about it! – I was still surprised.
– In the salon they told me that he isn’t likely to come back to work. Last time someone heard from him was an email he sent to one of his colleagues from Goa. He was spending his holiday there.
– Well, I hope he hasn’t lost his scissors so he won’t starve.
– Lenia? Starve?
– Well, take it easy, I guess. Life’s an unpredictable thing; only the sun doesn’t struggle to rise. What do you reckon, is he gay?
– Hard to say… in all probability, though, yes. His favorite dream was to visit San Francisco at Halloween and to go for a walk through Haight-Ashbury.
– That’s a typical gay dream. And a handful of rubies would definitely help him to fulfill it.
– A handful of rubies would be very helpful for many things, – sighed Lena.
– He must have been bored in the salon, in spite of his talent and all his exquisite customers. He was dreaming of things.
– Of what things?
– I think that if he has money to spare now, you’ll need to find another hairdresser.
– Do you think he’ll actually set off for California?
– Dreams are a serious thing, birdie – I told Lena, who was quite young and pretty. Incidentally, so are all the other girls in our boutique.
3
Sergey invited me to a Balanchine evening at the Bolshoi Theatre. Bach’s Concerto Barocco was being played, along with a pas-de-deux from Tchaikovsky’s Lebedinoye Ozero (Swan Lake), Agon by Stravinsky, and Bizet’s Symphony in C-major.
What did I know about Balanchine, about his life and works? I knew that he had been Jacqueline Kennedy’s guest of honour at the White House in winter of 1961. Once, a long time ago, I had read about this visit in a book by Bernard Taper. She had invited Balanchine to the White House to ask his advice on how best to promote the development of Arts in the U.S. Balanchine was no exception to the rule; he came away charmed, like so many others lucky enough to spend time with her.
A little bit later, speaking along with other celebrities in a media discussion on the topic of ‘If I were president…’, he stated that he would agree to become the president on the condition that Jacqueline Kennedy remained the first lady, and that with her help he would do everything in his power to bring beauty into the lives of others.
She was pale, and looked a little tired during their meeting, but her pearl necklace, fixed on the left with two narrow diamond pins, rendered this pallor gentle and mysterious, so that Balanchine remarked ‘I don’t know who designed that marvelous bijou, but it really is made for you’. He felt as if he were D’Artagnan in front of the Queen. He felt as if he could swim across the English Channel or do something impossible for her. He didn’t remember much of the plot of The Three Musketeers, but the wonderful readiness for the selfless folly remained.
– It’s VanCleef & Arpels, – Jacqueline smiled at him.
Later on he sent her a letter, which was unusual for him. In it he wrote (also according to Taper) that her husband was busy with serious international problems, and that nobody could reasonably expect him to pay the same kind of attention to arts and culture. But the woman, he wrote, always remains the source of inspiration. The male half of humanity mostly takes care of material issues, while the female half takes care of the soul. The woman is the world, in which the man lives, and she makes a home of this world for him. Inspiration in art is born thanks to the woman. God creates, the woman inspires, and the man unites these two factors. He also wrote that the woman is the prime source of beauty in life, and that the man should be subservient to this… or something like that.
She responded in a polite and official way.
He responded to her reply with his new works, which might, to some extent, have been inspired by her image….
– Have you been busy with jewelry for a long time? – asked Sergey. The performance was going to begin in five minutes. Our seats were good ones, in the box number 11, near the imperial box. It was the perfect place to watch the ballet from. The Hall gradually filled up with people.
– Almost eight years have passed. So long and yet so short a time. – I was looking at people in the orchestra stalls. You could tell that they had dressed up to come to the theatre.
– Nothing’s ever enough for you. – He semi-reproached me in his own meaningful way.
– Is
“If we want things to stay the same, things wi1l have to constantly improve” – the maxim of Italian writer Tomazi di Lampeduza (1896-1957).