Read Online Little Nothing by Marisa Silver - Free Book Online

pushes Pavla onto the small wooden platform that serves as the stage. She wears a white gown that grabs at her waist and bust, and which she complains, quite correctly, is translucent when she is notcovering her body, head, and face with the red cape, as she does at the beginning of every show. Following Smetanka’s directions, and they had to rehearse this many times—the girl is no actress—she begins to pantomime the part of a young maiden out for a leisurely stroll. She sashays just as he has told her to, exaggerating the swing of her hips and making sure to part the cape occasionally so that the onlookers can glimpse her figure beneath the gossamer material of her dress. She crouches down to pluck an imaginary rose and then stands and admires it. The crowd begins to grow restless. “We’re not here to see Sněhurka and her seven fucking dwarves,” a man calls out, demanding his money back. Now it is time for Danilo to take the stage. Wearing stockings and a pair of threadbare breeches and holding a rusty sword by his side, he is the prince. He mimes being surprised then captivated by the young woman with the hidden face. As instructed, Danilo manipulates the sword so that its tip begins to rise. Hoots. Shrill whistles. Off to the side of the stage, Smetanka smiles to himself; the crowd is in his hands.
    â€œWho is this young woman?” Danilo says.
    Your mother!
Someone invariably shouts.
Your sister!
    â€œShe is the most mysterious lady I have ever seen. I must have her!” Danilo exclaims. “Yon maiden, show me your countenance!”
    â€œI cannot do what you ask, kind sir,” she says.
    â€œIf you reveal yourself, I will marry you and take you to live with me in my castle and you shall have everything you have ever dreamed of,” Danilo says.
    Smetanka bobs his head as Danilo makes the sword bounce up and down furiously to the predictable delight of the audience.
    â€œAlas, I am cursed to wander this earth without ever showing my face,” Pavla says.
    She tells her story: She was born the most beautiful girl in all the land. When rumor of her glory spread, princes the world over offered all their wealth to have her. But at her birth, an old witch put a curse on her saying that if she were ever to expose her beauty, she would lose it.
    â€œYou mean to tell me that no man has ever seen your eyes? That no man has ever kissed your lips?” Danilo says.
    The men in the audience grow impatient:
Who needs to see the face? Let her show you the lips that count!
But Smetanka is not worried. This small interlude of romance is dedicated to the women who predictably swoon and shush their rude spouses and who, Smetanka knows from months of traveling from one town to the next with this low-rent carnival, will be the ones to insist on a second viewing. These are women who spend their days gutting fish and wiping baby asses and whose only pleasure comes from the belief that all that separates them from their deliverance is a glance from a man of quality.
    â€œIf I cannot see you then at least do me the honor of dancing with me,” Danilo says.
    Smetanka winds up an old, beat-up music box and Pavla and Danilo perform the dance he has choreographed for them—two steps to the left, two to the right, break apart, turn a circle, come together again. As instructed, Danilo’s hand slides down her backside. She lets out a low rumble of warning. Danilo takesher noise as an expression of passion and, turning to the audience, winks broadly. And then the climax: Danilo, overcome by love, must gaze upon the object of his obsession. With one swift movement he tears off her cape to reveal not a beauty but a face so unexpected and terrible that he backs up in horror.
    The audience gasps. Sometimes, and this is good for business, a woman will faint. Danilo, affecting disgust, flees the stage leaving Pavla alone. In the wings, Smetanka, the exacting maestro, mimes her gestures, as