With his body in the water and his thoughts in the past
The setting sun was gently kissing the paving stones of the quay. It's rays were mischievously gleaming, reflecting off the restless waves of the canal and the windows of the houses, the gulls were shouting loudly and the heady aroma of blooming cherries was flowing in the air. All passers-by were full of energy, they laughed loudly and smiled for the spring walking along the pavement. Only one person was gloomy and quiet. He was looking at the amused people and his face becoming more and more sad.
Once upon a time, far twenty years ago, he couldn't calmly go out, because every Parisian knew him by sight! And what remained of that? Now Rene Dupont, the star of French cinema of the late twentieth century, wasn't recognized even by a single person.
He was slowly walking along the canal ignoring all around and thinking about when had everything turned in such way. “Monsieur spilling the Wine” had been supposed to be the best historical picture, but the audience didn't have caught the deep sense. He had hoped it to be his best movie and bring him not only French, but also world fame, but this role became his complete failure, after which everything began to roll downhill. After that movie, all his luck had seemed to evaporate and for whatever he took, everything failed miserably.
But to hell with that, no matter how long Rene would be sorting through the events of the past, it couldn't be changed. Meanwhile, the sun hid behind the roofs and a cold wind blew from the canal. It was time to go back to his little apartment. The sleeping areas were quite far from the city center, so while he was slowly walking home, it became completely dark and cold.
Suddenly Dupont heard a strange noise and screams from a side street behind him, as if someone was running. Having looked around, he really saw a guy running from all legs and screaming loudly and a huge black dog rushing after him. When they have almost approached to Rene, the dog suddenly decided to jump, the guy bounced sideways and accidentally pushed Rene in the direction of the canal.
The man wasn't ready for the earth abruptly disappeared from under his feet and for a moment he saw the starry sky. And then everything was hidden by the black water of the canal. Rene, choking on cold water and feeling a wet coat inexorably pulls him to bottom, managed to think only
"How stupid and meaningless my life was, the same happened to death."
The second chance for him was like blessing.
It hurt, it hurt so much. He couldn't breathe. Hands didn't obey, chest felt heavy pressure. That was all Rene could feel. Then something grabbed and dragged him, he felt a sharp gut punch and something burned his throat, and he began to cough, spitting water out of himself. His throat was still sore, hands were trembling and head spinning, but he could breathe again!
"Hey, man, are you alright? " - Someone began to shake his shoulder and Rene leisurely opened his eyes. A face with long hair bent over him, but immediately disappeared and from somewhere above and to the right he heard:
"Monseigneur, he woke up!"
Rene tried to sit down and look around. On the third attempt, with the help of that young man, who was obviously someone else's servant, he finally managed to sit up. But it’s still strange that in the twenty-first century there were still people who called their employers in that way. Also this guy dressed is somehow strange.
Rene looked up at the "monseigneur". A young man of about twenty with a beautiful but stiff face and frowned eyebrows was standing opposite to him. His lilac clothes looked as if he came from a sixteenth-century portrait hanging in someone's family gallery. He crossed his hands on his chest and asked:
"Hey, guy, who are you and why on earth has you decide to drown on my territory? "
"The guy?" thought Rene. - "I'm old enough to be your father, I'm ... I'm ... But who am I?"
“Have you swallowed your tongue? Tell me your name and where you come from!”
"My name is ... my name is ..."
All the names that he was called in the past, all the roles that he played, were now mixed in his head and he couldn't figure out which of these names was his own one. Therefore, he decided to tell the first suitable one in hope that soon everything would become clear.
"My name is Emile. Emile Bernard" - he pronounced this name mechanically, and immediately lowered his gaze, intuitively feeling that this was definitely not the right name, and that he didn't like to pronounce it at all.
And he was surprised to see that his wrists were decorated with lace cuffs, peering out from under the dark sleeves.
"What the hell is that?!"
Meanwhile, the from above he heard demanding voice
"Where from?"
"Ah, monsieur, I'm just a traveler from the Duchy of Lorraine, accidentally wandered into your Navarre lands and fell into the water, haha."
Inside Rene was very surprised:
"Why am I saying this words? Also in such a carefree voice! And why on earth do I know the name of this place?"
Meanwhile, after his words, this already not very calm man became finally angry.
"How dare you talk to me in such a careless tone? Do you even know who am I?!"
"Oh, monsieur, your face is really familiar to me. Or is it just deja vu, but it seems in past we were drinking wine with you"
With these words, uttered in the same mocking voice which Rene couldn't control in any way, he finally angered the man in lilac, for at that moment he heard "What a nonsense!" and a tall leather boot flashed before his eyes. Rene flew away for several meters, hitting his head to the ground.
“Monseigneur, why have you treat him in such way? Firstly you ordered me to save him from the water, but now you want to beat him to death? ”
The head hurt terribly after the blow, but scraps of memories in his mind began taking shape and building whole picture. And Rene froze, finally understanding where he was now.
This had all happened before, this is a damn movie that had broken his life! The movie, in which he invested all of himself, the role to which he got accustomed so much that she seemed to be his own skin even after twenty years had passed. After the failure, Rene hated it as much as he could and tried to forget with all his might.
Then it turned out that now he ... had a chance to fix everything? He could rotate the plot as it was necessary from the very beginning, so that the audience would be satisfied and the beautiful picture wouldn't become a disaster?
But where then the film crew or cameras?
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