Free Sirius by Jonathan Crown Page B

him.”
    “He understands already,” says Crown in the background.
    The scene is repeated. Sirius does as instructed. He doesn’t want to come across as a know-it-all, but wouldn’t it be even more moving if he were to lay his paw tenderly on the widow’s arm as she says the word “love”?
    On the second repetition, he decides to just do it. Chester is impressed. “Yes, exactly! That’s it!”
    Scene 2.
    The widow flicks through the newspaper and stumbles across the announcement of an aristocratic gentleman who is looking for love, completely unaware that he’s a con artist. She decides to answer the ad.
    Sirius is to lie at her feet again.
    “Action!” calls Chester.
    “Who knows,” sighs the widow. “Maybe he’s the love of my life?”
    Sirius thinks that it wouldn’t be a bad idea if he were to growl a little at this point. As a kind of warning.
    Chester is delighted: “Exactly! Good idea. The dog growls. As a kind of warning.”
    It isn’t long before he starts to address his directions straight at Sirius.
    “How about if you look sadly into the camera at the end of the scene?”
    Sirius looks sadly into the camera. He also puts a trace of melancholy in his expression.
    “Excellent!” calls Chester.
    To Crown he says: “Sold! Sirius has the role.”
    *
    From that moment on, Carl Crown no longer chauffeurs John Clark to the film studio, but Sirius instead.
    “What a shame,” says Clark. “Now I need to get by without a guardian angel. What will I do in the Banana House without you?”
    “Be careful, that’s what,” Crown replies. “The problem with the mambas is that their poison immobilizes the heart muscles. It goes straight to your heart’s core. That’s why they’re so dangerous.”
    Clark is flummoxed: “How do you know these things?”
    “I was a biologist in my former life,” replies Crown. “So, remember, be careful with your heart!”
    “I’ll try,” laughs Clark.
    Sirius is now the Hollywood star around which the Crowns’ lives revolve. And yet he’s not really a star. This is his very first film role. But he has an official ID from Warner Brothers on which it says: “Name: Sirius. Profession: Animal Actor.”
    Rahel gives him a good brush before he leaves the house every morning. “Give it your all!” she calls after him. “Remember everything you’ve learnt!”
    She sees little Levi before her. How he was trembling with fear when they found him. He had only just come into the world, and immediately his own world fell apart. He had to transform himself into a cushion in order to survive. And luck was on his side.
    How smart he already was back then, Rahel thinks to herself.
    When the cushion suddenly waved its tail, Levi was born again. He had already experienced enough to be able to understand the world.
    Has he understood humans ever since that day?
    The Big Dog constellation was in the sky back then, the only glimmer of light in the darkness. Levi transformed himself into a star, Sirius, and saved his family’s life.
    Only he who transforms himself, survives.
    Rahel is still in her dressing gown. It’s ten in the morning. She smiles, opens the front door and steps out onto the street. Like Carl used to back then; every morning, always at ten on the dot, day after day.
    She looks up to the sky. It’s cloudless, a brilliant blue. The Big Dog is nowhere to be seen.
    His star is currently rising in Hollywood. In Hall 2. In the film A Widow Lives Twice .
    *
    A phone call from Jack Warner’s office.
    The switchboard operator in Hall 2 walks on tiptoes so as not to disturb the filming.
    “Mr Crown,” she whispers, “Jack Warner wants to see you.”
    Crown sets off on his way to the main building. In the elevator, he runs through his thank-you speech once again. On behalf of my family, he wants to say, I thank you – but then he’s already being welcomed by the head secretary and taken to Jack Warner.
    The mogul sits behind a desk which resembles a monumental