# Ruby Chef (англ)

Н В Патрацкая

Natalya Patratskaya


Ruby Chef


Chapter 1

The summer was excellent - warm and sunny until mid-September. Autumn came gradually to a golden border on the trees. The islands of red foliage on maples appeared ingratiatingly and beautifully. Birch leaves were slowly spinning in the air. It was nice and while it was neat on the street. The rain had passed with thunder, but there was no thunderstorm. It's cold. But the sun appeared and could not believe that it is not particularly warm.

Rimma longingly thought that she had to put on warm clothes to go outside. In the spring, extra clothes have to be removed, and in the fall you need to add something warm to the wardrobe every day. Do not want. Sunday. You can just look at the fall from the balcony and not go out. It turns out a kind of self-deception to extend the summer. In the evening there could be dances in the white tent, but last week they were not there, so she strongly doubted that they would be.

Now they dance some pair dances, which happen on weekdays, but she does not participate in pair dances. Something in her broke, and she did not want to tie her nerves for the sake of a random dance partner. But in her life there was a partner who strongly penetrated her essence, but she never danced with him. Strange? There was no reason. Not dancing man Shchepkin was friendly with a friend of Rimma named Olga. Whether there was anything more than friendship between Shchepkin and Olga, Rimma could only guess.

Rimma once called Olga to her, and she answered:

- Why should I go to you? I have grapes at home!

Rimma remembered this answer for the rest of her life. And now she was buying and eating grapes for three weeks, and even now the grapes were lying in the fridge. Autumn. Schepkin did not like to dance, he loved speed, cars. He loved to show off in front of women, possessing inexplicable charm. He always wore ruby cufflinks on his shirts, a ring with a ruby, and sometimes he inserted a tie into a clip with a ruby. The lilac hue of the stones clearly adorned it and gave it a certain masculine charm. If he was an actor, he would be loved by millions of women, and so only tens.

Rimma decided to invite Schepkin to her, and he answered:

- I'll come for tea.

But the tea did not work out, right after his answer, her mother arrived without a call. Rima was not going to introduce mom to Shchepkin. And a coincidence is necessary, mother brought with her exactly grapes, as if someone had suggested to her. Although, my mother lived in the same area with Olga. It turns out that Olga heard the conversation of Rimma and Schepkina? So Olga was with him? Stupidity. Not before the investigation, Schepkin already went to Rimma. She left her mother at home, and she ran out into the street to meet Schepkin. And in time. He had already arrived at the curb at the entrance. She got a car to him.

- Rimma, and where are the gulls?

- It does not work seagulls, my mother arrived.

- Get to know mom!

- Not! She will take you seriously, then tortures you with questions.

- I'm a serious man!

- And smart, and beautiful, and charming! Not! Everybody likes you, even Olga!

- Are you jealous? Olga is my friend. We work with her, I work out the schemes, and she does the drawings on the boards.

- Friend or circle? There are so many vias on its boards! I saw your new book on new product development.

- Shut up. I buy a new apartment. Do you want to look at her?

- Go.

- And you can not guess in which area I buy an apartment?

- I guess in the new. There the houses are beautiful on the outside, but inside they are black.

- No, inside the apartment are white: the walls are white and the floor is white and there are no plumbing.

They drove through the old town, then turned onto a new bridge, and drove towards the new building. New houses near were brighter and more beautiful than from afar. The ground in front of the entrances was completely put in order. Green field for the game, colored playgrounds for kids.

Rimma and Schepkin entered the porch, approached the metal doors of the elevators. We took the elevator to the desired floor. In Shchepkin's apartment, two workers fussed, they replaced windows. One tried so hard that the glass broke. The apartment was really white, and the house was built on new technologies from insulators and beautiful panels.

She got acquainted with these heaters at work, she had to make street blocks for large equipment.

Schepkin showed the apartment to Rimma, and then said:

- Note, I showed you the first apartment, but do not roll your lips! The apartment is only mine. It's not worth talking about her at work, and do not say anything to Olga.

Rima after these words went out to the balcony and looked at the construction site on the other side of the house. At this time, the diligent worker broke another glass bag. Plastic windows began to do like a lock in the door: the larva and the sash. Rimma's mood dropped. Gulls turned into bride.

Mom called and asked:

- Rimma, where are you?

- In the new building.

- Wait. I saw from the balcony with whom you left. I'll pick you up. Get out in ten minutes.

Rimma involuntarily submitted to her mother and waved to Shchepkina, who was sorting out relations with the workers about the broken double-glazed windows.

Mother took Rimma through the store, she bought some groceries, drove Rimma to her house and went to her house, saying a few words:

- Rimma, I understand that you are passionate about Mr. Shchepkin. Olga told me that you are not indifferent to him. Not for you, he. Not for you!

Rimma got out of the mother's car, and slowly went home to her, eating grapes with stones.


While Rimma was going home, she met a neighbor. Rimma had no children yet, but her classmate and part-time neighbor, Christina, at the age of 26, will soon give birth to a fourth. Who about what. Rimma attended college, studied at the institute and worked all the time. A classmate was older than her for a year and all the while giving birth. She gave birth to the first girl before the age of 18, then she had a real man and she would soon have a third child, and only her fourth. A man lived in their three-room apartment. 10. Christina's family - 5 people plus another child who will be born soon. Yes, even the family of her mother, who gave birth to six children. Some of the children grew up and lived separately, the mother's youngest son was the same age as his daughter's son. In short, ten people lived in a three-room apartment.

Rimma lived alone. Her mother lived alone. Olga's friend lived alone, she would have no children, she helps her brother's children. And Rimma was so guarded by her mother that the case did not reach the men.

Rimma liked Shchepkin, but he was somehow elusive. And he lived alone, but he had a hobby: he loved apartments in different areas. You will not come to visit him, you never know where he is. In theory, he gets a little, but he knows how to make money besides work, he knows how to be friends with big people.

Exhale It is necessary to exhale. Rimme was the only one left. She realized that Schepkina must be forgotten. Let Olga stay with him.

Olga, as if she heard Rimma's thoughts, called:

- Rimma, did you like Shchepkin's new apartment?

- Normal.

- You feel sad? This is normal. Did you decide to leave it to me?

- I did not take it. How do you know about the apartment? He told me not to tell you about her.

- Naive, I know everything. He is my man, and you look at the truth of our relationship through the blinders.

'Sorry, I didn't notice you with him.'

'You don't see anyone but yourself.' You work and work, - said Olga and disconnected the phone.

Rimma thought that at work it was too late to look for a man. Everyone is busy. She remembered fellow students at the institute and college. But they have already got families. Where was she? Now, if mom didn't come around with grapes today, maybe something would have happened. Yes, even on holidays all men are lonely, but lately the holidays at work have mostly been abolished.

Where does Rimma's apartment come from? She is a late child. Mother was with the apartment, she married a man with a room. From the room they made an apartment and rented out. When her father died, Rimma moved into this apartment, and her mother bought herself a new car. It's simple, for love and by calculation. Calculation with Mr. Shchepkin in love did not go.

Indian summer. Beautiful and sad.

I called Shchepkin:

- Rimma, I suggest to go on a picnic tomorrow. Your mother won't be there.

- Tomorrow is a workday.

- In time for lunch.

- And Olga? Will she go?

- Olga has only nephews on her mind. Let them grow. I want my children from you.

- I have a few apartments, I'm not a couple. Will children appear at the picnic? Is there a lot of load on lunch?

- It won't reach diapers. Dress like cabbage. The weather will be from the Indian summer series.

At lunch Shchepkin was waiting for Rimma, the motor was on. She sat in the front seat, and they immediately drove away from the city. Turning off the road, they stopped in a meadow among the golden foliage against the background of still green leaves. The sun was shining, the clouds avoided the glade. Shchepkin took out a folding table and two chairs from the trunk. There was food in the box. Schepkin behaved correctly, they ate and talked. Rima was pleasantly surprised by a date among the autumn nature and weather, and without witnesses. A little piece of happiness.

Rimma looked out the window: bright golden curls of maple branches reigned in the courtyard. Indescribable beauty stretched above the ground, reaching the sixth floor. In some places in the yellow bouquets of maples rose majestic birch trees with green leaves. Rowan somewhere somewhere leaned against the maple with red berries.

These are bouquets! It remains to tie a ribbon with a bouquet of trees and pack it in gift paper. But where is that huge hand that can lift a luxurious bouquet of autumn? Where is that sinewy hand that could bring a few leaves of maple to its beloved, a small yellow - copper bouquet? Rimma would love to go to this beloved.

But where to get it? She looked at the flat screen of the TV, where the player in bright clothes was hiding from the bull, bouncing in the air after the rope. So she wanted to photograph the center of the bouquet of autumn, but did not want to go down. Below is a beautiful autumn, and above it is a magnificent one. She began to photograph the autumn from the window, then printed out the photos on a color printer, and the yellow paint quickly ended - she printed out the autumn pictures.

I had to go to the electronics store. Buying ink for the printer, Rimma saw the name of the seller on the chest - Alex. It is clear that he did not drive calves to other planets. And a mischievous thought occurred to her. For some time now she worked in the firm 'Mystical Circumstances' in a laboratory of heightened secrecy, where they were engaged in the production of serial fairy tales acting on the psychological mood of the population. Naturally, a golden elm leaf shone on the company's emblem.

Everything is more than simple: by order from a television company, the staff created aliens, flying objects and petty devilry. For example, if a thunderstorm was expected in a certain region, then an additional lightning thrower was sent there.

The inconspicuous aircraft had the ability to scatter the semblance of lightning in a certain direction. A well-known person with a solid reputation was chosen and intimidated by lightning so that it was expensive to take it to TV reporters, and then show it to the people and sentence that random surveys were obtained from the scene by eyewitnesses.

It was good to intimidate the pilots of small airfields. It was possible to do without a thunderstorm. A flying object, covered by a special hoop emitting streams of multi-colored light, in which there was always a golden hue, continually appeared over the airfield. The pilots were scared, and it remained only to remove the results of the company's creativity.

The most favorite entertainment companies - aliens. They were created as modern pictures for the World Wide Web. Aliens were sent to the kebab glades by the end of the feast. A flesh-colored helmet was worn on a person; in the area of the eyes, triangular eyes were inserted into the mask. People for jokes were chosen elegant, with them worked out a specific gait, put on their hands something like a membrane. In aggregate, such an alien struck the creators themselves.

Rimma always shuddered at the sight of another alien - alien. There are people whose elbows are bent in the other direction, she saw such people herself, and in the guise of an alien, the twisted elbows are surprising. Where to find unique aliens born on Earth? Best at competition.

Therefore, the television company announced a contest for people with alien features in the body. We selected a group of the right people, signed a contract with them and prepared them for the role of aliens.

In such cases, the interstellar spacecraft did not interfere. If we take Buran and add to it additional geometry from the supporting structures, then it would be quite possible to surprise the faint-hearted people, and at the same time deliver the aliens to the right place, say, to the conference of clever doctors of science.

The television company of interstellar subjects never suffered from a lack of audience, so Rimma had a great job.

Working as a sales manager for electronic equipment, Alex, a young man of glorious appearance, confronted an alien from head to head. The light in the hall at this moment decreased slightly, and a creature of average height appeared in front of him. It looked huge triangular eyes, restricting his will. It seemed that in the hall there was no one but two of them. The creature took the laptop and handed it to the next same geezer, which was highlighted in the space of the trading hall.

Soon a whole chain was lined up of aliens, along which laptops disappeared from the sales area. Alex was numb. He did not even press the alarm button. All the spectacle on the trading floor was filmed on a security camera. The footage went on television in the evening. Alex has become the most popular sucker of the day. It was about aliens - intruders. He would know who owned the development of the appearance of aliens! All would be angry at that brought down! The management of the television company had a contract for the purchase of laptops for this group of people, and the show paid for the costs.

Alex was painfully embarrassed for the alien robbery of his department, for the laptops handed down in front of his eyes, and he decided to go far away, where there are no aliens. And he went to the east through the iron ring of the country. In the compartment next to him sat a pumped man, tormented by knowledge of the Tunguska meteorite. He was all worried about the question: why did the trees lie around the perimeter of the magic circle, and in the center they turned green.

'Very interesting,' said Alex, and added: 'It was a flying saucer, with rotating screws around the perimeter, and an observatory in the center.'

- Great, young man, I myself had such an idea. If we go further and assume that an interstellar ship was landed on the airbag located around the perimeter of the ship?

- Almost the same thing.

- Do not tell me, young man! Flying saucer is too small, but an interstellar aircraft would be more appropriate.

- And what do we get from this? - asked without interest Alex.

- Like what? Yes, it's aliens flew to us! Another civilization.

- These aliens in my department were robbed, and I am ashamed to go where my eyes are not looking.

- Similarly, I remembered your face! You are the sucker whom geeks with triangular eyes have robbed! - exclaimed joyfully companion.

'Why should I cut through the country's iron ring to the east, if they already know this story there?'

- Listen, since you are a sucker, go with me to the site of the fall of the Tunguska meteorite or to the landing site of an interstellar ship, which has melted down and turned into a material incomprehensible to earthmen. That is, the interstellar spacecraft self-destructed.

- If the ship is melted, what will we look for there?

- Mail! The most real mail of an alien civilization.

- A letter in a paper envelope?

- Humor is appropriate. You and I need to become psychics, tune in and go look in the direction where our sixth sense will point us.

- To walk on windbreaks, on snags, among mosquitoes?

- Listen, mosquitoes have not seen your fiasco in the store. Could you agree with that?

'Sure,' Alex answered seriously.

Rimma entered the compartment while the train was moving.

- Good afternoon, lovers of exotic! My name is Rimma. I arrived by helicopter, which landed me on the roof of your car, and through a special hatch I descended into the car.

'My name is Alex,' the young man smiled incredulously.

'Ah, I know you,' said Rimma with a smile.

He said nothing.

The fellow traveler introduced himself:

- Sidor Sidorovich Fen! Everyone knows me because of addiction ...

- No need to continue, I read your version of the Tunguska meteorite in a magazine.

- And where are your wings now, Rimma, on which you flew to us? - seriously asked Alex.

'They lie in a suitcase,' she answered seriously.

- Rimma, we want to offer you a tour in search of the mail or black box of the Tungus interstellar ship.

'So you say it was a ship, not a meteorite?' - asked Rimma very interested.

- Rock Paper Scissors. We need the black box of the interstellar spacecraft, 'said Sidor Sidorovich without emotion and thought that Rimma was a young and very nice girl.

- And in the box waiting for us information? - interested asked Rimma. - Oh, and the space pilots ejected from the ship?

- Baby, you're a miracle! - exclaimed Sidor Sidorovich, pulling out of his pocket amber rosary. - Can you fly?

- Yes, I attach the wings and fly.

- Our person! Where are you going?

- I have a holiday. I'm going there - I do not know where, look at that - I do not know what.

- Great answer. Wait, did you win the next worldwide psychics contest?

- I.

- Rimma, look at the pictures of the place of the fall of unknown.

- This is the place of the fall of the Tunguska ...

- Do not hurry! Think, baby! Think! Are those creatures alive in this ship alive?

'There were seven crew members,' Rimma said seriously. - Two were caked in the ship upon landing, five ejected from a height of twenty kilometers. They are carried by the wind. We need to know where the wind blew that day.

'They were carried twenty kilometers away from the place of the fall,' repeated Alex.

'The word coconut flashed through my head,' Rimma said.

'Well, they landed in a ball that opens up in two halves,' Alex finished.

Rima once again looked at the snapshot of the fall of the alien body.

'They have multiplied,' Rimma said. - Similarly, there are now at least a hundred of them on Earth. They have some unknown functions to people.

- Hooray! - Alex cried. 'I found where the aliens came from in my department!'

Rimma was puzzled by completely different problems: a message came about the transformation of alien aliens. Among those who figured this out was Alex! Sidor Sidorovich did not cause doubts, this specialist was always close to the most unreal truth. He was believed by representatives of the company 'Mystical circumstances', he was followed and made unhurried conclusions. So she was next to them.

Meanwhile, the travelers left the train, took a helicopter, and flew away from the fall of the space object. Twenty kilometers from the crater with the whirlwinds of lying trees, they descended into a tiny clearing thanks to a cool helicopter pilot. They had to find a capsule: if the aliens are not circus performers and did not sit in it in three deaths, then the shell should be of decent size. Even if they had increased flexibility, the size of the capsule could have been very small inside, but large outside to protect aliens during the passage of atmospheric layers.


The travelers were lucky; they met a hunter and asked him about a big shell. Surprisingly, the hunter did not laugh, but said that he knows the bear's den, which is used by many generations of bears and to which people are not allowed. The den has a coconut shell form inside. A group of four came close to the unique den and heard the awesome roar of bears. The bears drove the travelers from the museum exhibit so that they forgot to think about the Tungus area.

Rimma knew that the great masses of the population would not get such messages, people would not notice them, and they would do it right, and no one set such tasks. But to invent mystical circumstances is her direct official duties.

There are three spheres of life: water, earth, space. Cosmos made itself felt through Sidor Sidorovich, but she knew that it was necessary to work on the opposite, which means that human views should be lowered to the bottom! So what?

Similarly, a certain businessman decided to play Captain Nemo! He bought himself not a yacht, but a submarine. The submarine of a businessman was different from a military submarine, like a palace from a barrack. You can surprise a businessman in the underwater world, but he is greedy and can not let the surface out. And this is not a thought.

Think! Take a couple of Tungus aliens, put them in a light submarine or deep-seated trigger vehicle, veil it under a space floating object, make the image of alien inhabitants go pulses on a businessman's submarine. His receivers will catch these intrusive images. The shock is secured, and from the secured client the corporation will receive its share of payments. But Rimma did not start wide-scale implementation in the life of her regular nonsense.

The newly minted friends went in the direction of the village of Sidor, where he had his own mansion, in which he allocated guest rooms for Alex and Rimma. Sidor Sidorovich himself went to rest, and the young people drove around the village in a golden car, which he gave them.

'The distant future, like the distant past, has five differences, naturally when compared with the present,' Rimma said, considering the yoke lying next to a person or the likeness of a person.

'And what will you say about this human-like creature?' - Alex asked with tension in his voice.

They bent over a man lying as if he was repeating the line of the rocker. Nearby were two empty buckets. Alex, dressed in a silver jumpsuit, tried to swing the man lying: apparently, he was still alive, but completely insane. Rimma was in a golden jumpsuit

- Rimma, the man drank two buckets of water, and therefore so difficult to lift?

'Alex, he drank heavy water,' the girl replied mockingly, 'most likely, the man was hit with a rocker on the head.

'It's a detective in you that woke up.' But you and I are a completely different matter. 'We shouldn't be bothered by empty buckets,' Alex said quickly, trying to lead Rimma away from the rocker arm. - Understand, the man is alive. He will wake up, and we need nothing to be recognized.

Rimma involuntarily obeyed Alex and quickly got into the car. The golden-colored car tore off, leaving behind a cloud of dust.

The man lying next to the yoke looked after the dusty cloud:

- Oh, woke up! Sleep was not allowed.

And he again curled up next to the yoke.

A woman in a chintz dress with flowers approached the beam. She picked up two buckets and a rocker, not paying attention to the man lying on the grass, slowly went to the well. She calmly pulled a bucket to her, fixed on a crane, and recoiled with horror from him: in the bucket there was a poisonous yellow liquid. She tried to pour the yellow mixture onto the ground, but the mixture curled into a ball, like a man at the rocker, and hung at the bottom of the bucket. The woman decided to remove the bucket from the crane, but she did not succeed. The public bucket was well secured by the barbarians. Then she returned to the lying man and began to wake him:

- Get up!

- Unhook it! I am sleeping!

The woman sighed sadly and went home. And at home she did not have water even in the sink, which should be pressed from below, and the notorious wooden green comfort was hidden among the bushes of green gooseberries.

At this time, the golden car slowed down next to the mansion, painted in sunny color and covered with a copper roof. The house stood in the village like a dandelion on the lawn. Rimma first left the car. While on the move, taking off her yellow jumpsuit and smiling with a firm smile, she entered the bathroom, touched the faucet, and water poured into her hands. She turned the faucet again, and water filled in from the different ends of the bluish bath, filling the container. She closed the door closer behind her.

While Rimma was in the bathroom, Alex in the hall turned on a screen the size of a wall and saw a report from Saturn's satellite. This satellite was called Earth by the inhabitants of the Earth - 2. All life of earthlings seemed to be reflected on a new planet. In the transmission from the Earth - 2 showed convenience in new homes, but instead of transparent water, a yellow compound consisting of incomprehensible substances flowed from a tap.

Alex shuddered, remembering that today they were trying to wash themselves with this rare substance that he had brought from Earth - 2, but only they had smeared the local well. He felt ashamed that he had left a yellowish-copper tangle of mucus in the bucket of a well, even though it cost a lot of money.

People with buckets began to approach the well. It was the only well with a crane and a tub in a small village; the inhabitants lost the habit of taking water from the river. The men tried to remove the bucket attached by a chain to the crane, but they did not succeed, and they did not want to lower the yellow slimy clot into the well. Suddenly, men dressed in country-style clothes began to be pushed away from the tub by a strong young man in silver overalls. He deftly grabbed the yellow clot with his hands in strange gloves, and soon disappeared into the car.

Rimma came out of the bathroom and saw Alex entering the house, carrying a yellow lump of cosmic mucus in her hands.

- Rimma, you and I forgot a sample of the detergent from the Earth - 2, I returned it ...

Soon they returned home, away from alien problems.


Chapter 2

On the screen next to the presenter a television diva was spinning with a quads haircut that many have already done. Without thinking twice, Rimma went to the salon - a hairdresser to make her haircut. The girl, looking at her hair, offered to make a square on the leg. She diligently began cutting hair, but something lingered on the occipital region for about fifteen minutes, giving the side strands no more than a minute. The result haircut exceeded all expectations. Remember the hanging mustaches, so in their role were the side strands of hair, and between them the grotto was cut instead of the mouth.

One way or the other.

Regardless of age, Rimma always went to workouts, so this time she went to a regular workout at a sports club, but after a workout for some reason, she swayed with exhaustion. She saw a birch tree and clasped a white silky tree trunk.

However, the birch itself clasped the girl with its branches and pressed it into the trunk. Rimma was in the trunk of a tree. She slowly sat down on something resembling a seat, which under her weight began to move. The seat, along with Rimma, slowly began to sink under the ground, while increasing the diameter of the room. Rima felt the braking, the seat stopped. It was surrounded by a cylindrical marble hall.

At some point in time, marble slabs parted in front of her eyes, she saw glass behind which there was a tunnel. There were horses in the tunnel. The glass slowly moved to the side along with the image of horses. She was really in the tunnel, where a mini - train was waiting for her. She got into an empty car, the train picked up speed and rushed into the unknown.

Rimma did not have time to come up with options for their destination. The train stopped without her intervention. She got out of the car, in which there were no more than ten seats. There was no driver in the small cabin, but the train drove on, as if it did not notice the absence of a passenger. Rimma was on a small underground station with no signs of life.

Desolation reigned around, which was many decades old. She shrank from fear and despair, seeing no way out. Rusty metal is not pleased, from the ceiling oozing water and went deep into the earth. There were puddles under her feet, like in the market where she was this morning. She looked up again and saw a towel, but not one, there were many of them, they were connected one to one.

Rima climbed up the nodes from the towels. The last obstacle she overcame through the metal stairs and found herself in the marble hall of the bath. The well from which she came out closed.

- You can not be beautiful like that! - A male voice sounded under the vaults of the bath and added: - And so poor.

- Who are you? Rimma whispered, emitting light from her huge eyes.

- The owner of the market, where you buy things and give. I bought the things you donated. By the way, they are no longer sold in my market, 'said an arrogantly certain owner in the voice of Sidor Sidorovich.

- Well, I will not buy things in the market entrusted to you! - Rimma said, quite familiar with the situation.

- Today bought a jacket and to whom? Do you need her? Not! Thank you said? Not! What are you giving away? - thundered a male voice under the marble vaults.

- I always do that. I buy things and give to those who need them. 'My classmate has a lot of children, I gave her a jacket,' Rimma said without feeling guilty.

- Do not look a gift horse in the mouth - is this your favorite saying? - asked a male voice.

'I saw the tails of two horses today,' Rimma remarked, looking around the room where she could not find any talking and watching objects.

- Do not look, Rimma, you will not find me. Horse tails are exactly what you deserve.

Rimma heard a click, as if she had turned off the talking device. She sat on a marble bench, which was several hundred years old, judging by its smooth forms, but soon got up in search of ordinary doors. She recalled the cylindrical chamber into which she had fallen from birch, and decided that the walls in the room should move.

She sat down again on the marble bench and carefully examined the walls, but found nothing on them. She felt sad in a room without windows and doors, but she remembered that she was being watched, without this she would not have heard the voice of the master of the trap. Such a state for her was more than painful.

In order to distract herself, she began to do the exercises one by one, not thinking about where she was and what happened to her. After she was completely tired, she felt a stream of fresh air. One wall slowly moved away. Rimma quickly left the marble room and found herself in a wooden house, in which stood a wooden table and two shops.

On the table was a jug of water. Lay a pack of chocolate. She drank almost all the water, after eating a few squares of chocolate, looked around her, not hoping to find a door among the identical boards that surrounded it on all sides. The girl put the jug on the seat, put the remains of delicacy next to her and lay down on the long table, folding her palms under her cheek. Rimma fell asleep.

The observer, glancing at the monitor, went about his business. This lady amazed him with her every action and appearance. He did not want to harm her, but he was unfamiliar with good, soon he returned and pressed the button that opened the door.

Rima woke up from the sound of the opening door and quickly ran into the next room, which turned out to be a long corridor. She walked along the corridor and involuntarily entered through the open doors, which immediately closed behind her. The lady was on the site, which spun under her and stopped when she lost the landmark from which she entered. Rimma looked around the room with a single door, she pushed the door, behind her was a bathroom.

"Though so," - she thought, not thinking about leaving this room. A hatch opened at the top of the room, peonies spilled out of it. Luke closed. A small window in the wall opened, a table with food came out of it. The window has closed. Blinds appeared in the wall, followed by an open window. Rimma went to the window, but it was a mirage, but the table with food turned out to be real.

Rita had no choice but to remember this day. It came to my mind as the seller eagerly tore off the label from the jacket sold, distracting customers from delivery. Buyers really went about their business, stepping over puddles. Rima knew her financial capabilities and was glad that she could buy and donate.

Then she went and bought more things, and also as a gift. Just yesterday, she tried to find some things at home and sadly realized that this was impossible, she bought a lot of them this year, but donated everything. And she had those that gave her. Riddle. Then she went and bought an anti-appetite pill, but they fought off every desire, except for the desire to eat and eat.

Rima picked up a portable phone and realized that she did not want to call anyone. She plunged into a state with the complete absence of all desires, and came to the silent horror of her amorphousness. By an effort of will, she lifted herself up, turned on the laptop, but it hung. She looked out the window, the curtains carried the wind aside, at such moments in her television the sound was changing by someone's will and the laptop was cut down. As if someone had torn off the label from her.

At home, she decided to take a reading of the water meter, but the hot water meter bathed in water drops and did not show the numbers. I had to use the phone to build bridges with people competent in this matter, who told her that they had to take a hairdryer and dry it. She looked at her hair and decided not to dry it any longer with a hair dryer, since it is intended for drying hot water meters.

Rimma looked at the laptop, he independently digested the new updates. Everything worked without her intervention. She spun around the mirror, looking for flaws in her figure, tortured by food restrictions and hard workouts, and did not find any surplus. The figure was normal. She could fly to other planets instead of visiting the market. Outside the window I heard the clatter of the hoofs of horses, she looked out of the window, but she was left to contemplate one tails, the horses themselves disappeared into the foliage.

'Enough,' thought Rima and quickly put on short pants, a t-shirt, and a light jacket. She jumped out of the house, trying to throw off the amorphous state. She understood perfectly well that she did not want to talk to anyone.

The wind caressed her coolness. The birds sang in three voices. The crow's voice against the nightingale sounded somewhat creaky. Birds - titmouse brought something melodic. Rimma went outside, walked a hundred meters and saw a strange pair consisting of a woodpecker and a squirrel. They stood on the ground and seemed to be talking. At the sight of the lady, the squirrel jumped on a spruce, and the woodpecker immediately took off closer to her.

Rimma walked another five meters and stumbled upon fallen birch trees with still green leaves. She wanted to run, in this place of the road she always became anxious, and she, picking up speed, ran, knowing full well that in about a hundred meters she would go on a step. Further the road passed next to the houses. She went to the gym.

At first, she worked with one trainer, who forced her to bend and unbend at infinitely slow speed, freezing in strange poses for a minute. Then she went to the pool, where the other coach made the run with a ski step, swimming in the water with a light rod in his hand. After such interesting trainings, she went home without noticing the birds singing, and unwittingly stopped at a birch that she had never seen in this place ...


A hair dryer at this time was sitting alone at home and watching TV. A film about pirates who once lived on asteroids, that is, on ships, flashed on the screen. He presented himself as a boatswain on a wooden leg. Why not?! This lovely Rima - Venus did not invite him to visit, but she really wanted to get it. But how? To portray squeaky boatswain? Why not?

Sidor Fen decided to become a lame boatswain, he put on shoes of different heights. One shoe pounded. The second shoe creaked. On the face he put on the mask of an elderly man. He was ready to make his visit to Rimma - Venus. Mini - camera secured on the lapel of his jacket.

Rimma drove up to her porch. The youthful man looked at Rimma with a heavy, wild look. He turned his bold gaze on the closed door of the house as she dialed the code for entering the staircase. He kept his eyes on her hands. She felt this terrible look, therefore she was mistaken. She dropped the code and dialed again, covering the lock code number of her porch.

The man followed Rimma into the light hall, he did not go to the elevator. Strongly lame, he began to climb the stairs. Rimma looked after the lame with inner fear. It seemed to her that in his leg there was something else besides the leg itself. But what? Or it seemed ...

The elevator stopped, opening the doors. She reached the required floor without any problems. Lame on her floor was not, and he could not physically overcome so many floors before her. Fear in the soul of Rimma appeared from his terrible look. She opened her front door, hurriedly slid the bolt, and calmed down a bit.

Soon the neighbor of Rimma rang the door on the marsh house, Olga. They agreed to meet in order to discuss their personal problems and just to take the soul out of the conversation.

Olga flew with round eyes:

- Rimma, there is no light in your elevator! There is no light in the hall!

- Olga, I recently arrived, the light was everywhere.

- And now! Imagine the entrance, when there is no light in it! I do not like these your towers to hell. Scary in the towers! Twenty floors put pressure on the psyche, each floor is like a trap! It is better to live in a swamp, less floors.

- We are living.

- Rimma, you go with the key to the door between the elevator and the platform at your apartment. And I come out of the elevator and I see two doors locked to the lock, and four elevator doors. Imagine: the light is off. It's a trap! Unique trap.

- You're right, Olga. The staircase is between the first and second floor, above it is blocked on each floor. Today I saw a lame man, he was walking upstairs to the second floor. He could not get up to our floor, in the side entrance all the doors to the platforms with apartments are closed.

- Therefore, I do not like these towers.

- You know, we have not done repairs on the site for 18 years, we have lived here for so many years.

- The very beauty of the wall in the entrance on your floor.

- What else, the landing is huge, there are four large apartments. In two apartments, no one lives. There are two of us in our apartment, and one person lives in the same place.

'And the five-story houses are being demolished, at least they kept fire safety requirements and there was a staircase!' And you turn off the light in the towers - and everyone is stuck in their apartments forever.

- Yes, the tower is huge and half empty. And in your house in the swamp people are not at all, some ghouls, she said.

- That's for sure. People love safety, not huge areas.

- Do not tell me there are different towers.

'We're talking about your tower, Rimma.'

There was a strange sound behind the door. The girls looked at each other. The light went out in the apartment. The entrance door opened. They pulled themselves into huge armchairs in which they sat. There was an uneven creaking shoe.

Creak. Knock. Creak. Knock.

Girlfriends froze. The light flashed. Before them stood a youthful man with a piercing gaze of black eyes.

'Girls, you have one wish for two.' I have only one desire. We have one wish for the three, 'said the man in an icy voice, as if he were a robot.

- What do you want from us? - Rima said in a trembling voice.

- you.

- What are you, cannibal? - Olga asked in a hoarse voice.

'Your solitaire doesn't work. I want you together and on this rookery, - and he pointed to the sofa, which was from one set of upholstered furniture with giant armchairs. So the sofa was huge.

- Without wine, to dry? - Rimma asked.

- You can with liquor.

'I have no liquor,' Rimma replied.

- What are you asking? Get undressed! - Suddenly a man shouted loudly.

- We are not lesbians! - Olga objected.

'And I'm not a Yankee,' he said with her intonation in her voice.

'If the Yankees were there, they would not have been a gift to the girls,' Olga replied. - I would find women on a dachshund from a hundred and above.

- And I need you above the knees. Talkers in the ranks! - the man flared up, his eyes turned evil.

The girls to the wandering striptease were not ready. They began to pull off their clothes.

- Stop it! The man growled, shaking his long hair.

- What to stop? - Chorused girlfriends.

- Stop taking off your clothes!

'My arm is broken in my wrist,' Rimma sighed.

- Great, I need you! My leg is broken. Your arm is broken. We will be a great couple.

- I can leave? - Olga squeaked in a strange voice.

- And you will break if you leave! Said the lame instructively. - Both quickly sat down! I said both!

'I can't sit down,' Olga said. - I have narrow pants. I got stout.

- Take off your pants, squat without them.

Olga pulled off her pants. There was a triangle with ribbon in the girl. She crouched down.

'Ugh, naked girl,' said the man reproachfully. - You're all out! Okay, crouch. Squat, I told you! - screamed lame, sitting down in a chair.

- What is this, warm up? - asked Rimma.

- I did not say anything about love.

- And who wanted us on the couch? - Olga asked wearily, squatting for the twentieth time. - Better on the couch ...

- Lie down on the sofa. Both lie on the sofa!

The girls lay down next to the sofa: one in shorts, the second in shorts.

Creak. Knock. Creak. Knock.

The man left the room. The girls got up. Olga began to pull on her pants.

Creak. Knock. Creak. Knock.

- Why don't you press the press? The lame man asked.

- There was no order, Mr. Colonel! - Olga said smartly.

- I'm not a colonel. I am a retired boatswain.

- What, and no one to order? - Olga asked pitifully.

- Be silent!

- What a voice ...

- Speakers in the ranks ...

- Why are we needed? - asked Rimma. - Let me lay the table, feed you.

- Cover! - shouted lame.

Rimma quickly went to the kitchen.

Olga could not fasten the pants, they were too narrow.

'What an awkward girl you are,' the man said warmly.

- Insult, Mr. boatswain.

- Believe it, no ...

- I believe, Mr. Admiral!

- Where have enough! And it sounds beautiful, they have not called me that yet.

- And how many girls do you have per month?

- None.

- More in detail! You invade the apartment to the girl, do not rob her, do not rape her. Why is it for you? - Olga was surprised.

- I see which girls are different. Here are two of you, and how different you are!

- I'm better.

- You're miserable.

- And why is that?

- The second girl went to cook, and you danced for five minutes, trying to fasten all the pants.

- You didn't like me?

'I don't need you.'

- Excuse me, but what about your foot?

- So, a stray bullet.

- Why is the foot not bending? Isn't she there? Do you have a denture?

- What is stuck? I will not say.

- Show me, I'm a doctor. An orthopedist, by the way.

- It would have said so. So you didn't want to treat me? Can't you remember me?

- I do not remember you, I have a lot of patients.

'I tracked you for a long time.' When I saw you, I decided that you could help me with my leg.

'They would have come to the hospital or to my house, or they would have dragged themselves to a friend.'

- You're like a doctor. I saw you before, I wanted to take a fright.

- You succeeded. Not ashamed?

- Do not be ashamed of me, look at your leg.

Lame looked at Olga and began to unbutton his pants. Olga tensed, she saw a lot of legs on the beach, but this man caused her mixed feelings. Pants fell to the floor. One leg was normal, hairy. The second leg ended in a mechanical prosthesis. Olga fainted.

Creak. Knock. Creak. Knock.

He hobbled lame in the kitchen.

Rimma looked at a man without pants and fell along with a plate, in her eyes swam.

They woke up the girls. We looked at each other. Men were not around. The creaking was not heard. They got up and tiptoed around the apartment. Is empty. The door to the apartment is closed. In the kitchen everything was clean, the dishes were washed, the pots were empty. Rimma decided to check the wallet in the bag. The wallet was empty. Rimma went to the safe in the closet. The fashionable safe gaped with the emptiness of its opened mouth.

'Here is a knock - a creak,' Rimma said in the hearts.

- Gaining. Alive and good. Rimma, I will not go from one of your doorsteps, walk to the road.

- Persuaded, I spend.

The girlfriends went outside, they inhaled the cool evening air.

Olga raised her hand.

The third car drove up, stopped. A man was looking at them, his piercing black eyes piercing the eyes of the girls.

- Both sit down! The lame man shouted loudly.

The girls sat in the back seat of the car. Between the driver and the girlfriends, the glass slowly crawled upward. The girls shook hands, beginning to vibrate nervously from elementary fear. On the side windows dark windows slowly rose, not transmitting light.

Girlfriends were in a moving car in total darkness. The rear window was tightly closed with a dark cloth. Easy friends felt that they have nothing to inhale. Suddenly, a roof opened above them. Big stars looked into the car. The car stopped abruptly. A heavy face appeared in the roof hatch.

- How do you feel, girlfriends? He asked, sarcastically lame.

'Well, Mr. Admiral,' Olga replied.

- We came to the red fortress.

The doors of the car opened. The girls were in the woods in front of a red brick wall. The door slid aside.

Creak. Knock. Creak. Knock.

Next to them was walking lame. There was a large round table in the courtyard. Ten women sat around the table.

- Women, your regiment has arrived! There are two more girls. Now you are twelve people. Live together. Invite us to the table.

The man sat on a chair like a throne decorated with a trident, in front of him twelve women sat in a circle. Thirteen plates were on the table. Two women served food on the table. Revitalization at the table was not observed. I felt the general lady's fear.

- Stand up! Sit down! Get up! Sit down! The man shouted imperiously and began to eat.

The girls carried out his command, took the spoons in their hands. There were no sharp forks and knives on the table. All dishes were made of pure aluminum.

Rimma involuntarily looked at the red brick buildings. She was both sad and curious.

- In my department there are thirteen rooms, one by one. The dining room is on the street, the kitchen is in front of you. Products purchased for thirteen days, thirteen days the doors of the fortress will not open. You will not be fired at your job, you are all on vacation for two weeks. You are twelve - I'm alone. Walls under current. Break up!

On the table in front of each girl lay a memo, on which stood the room number, the daily routine was written, but the duties of the girls were not written. The girls came from the table. Two girls began to collect dirty dishes. One of them was Rimma. She did not understand that this is all a reality, and not a joke. Rimma made the only wise decision: to be closer to the kitchen, to cook, to clean, to wash dishes, to be silent and to listen.

'Begin ear to all, voice only to few,' she remembered the words of Shakespeare.

On the first morning, one place was left empty.

Rimma was cooking for thirteen people. The aluminum device remained empty, one girl did not come for lunch and dinner. What was this girl, Rimma did not have time to remember. Now she tried to remember everyone.

The second day was rainy. The man did not come out. Two seats at the table were free. Ten girls ate in the rain. Someone sneezed, their clothes were the one in which they were brought here.

Olga whispered Rimma to a riot in a whisper, she called to see those rooms from which no one had left. Rimma decided to survive and did not agree to revolt. In her free time, she swept the yard. Olga found a friend, and they vigorously discussed the situation.

The third day was blinding by sunshine. Warmly enveloped girls from head to toe. They thought where they would wash.

Creak. Knock. Creak. Knock.

Rimme came up lame, looked into her eyes and left.

Creak. Knock. Creak. Knock.

So five days passed.

On the sixth day, Olga did not appear at the table. Rimma's heart sank. Asking a man was pointless. The table was quiet. He did not even command. The food was getting smaller, the food was disappearing before our eyes. Rimma decided to cook more economically, taking into account the girls leaving every day.

On the eighth evening, steps were heard in her room.

Creak. Knock. Creak. Knock.

Rimma fell silent. There was nowhere to hide, next to the room was a combined bathroom, but without windows and a bath. There was a bed in the room and nothing else. He went lame, he quietly went to Rimma. The creaking was no longer audible. Rimma lay and looked at the man ...

His heavy gaze was unexpectedly kinder.

- Rimma ... Do you want to live? Are you not afraid of my leg?

- I did not see her, I saw one, not the second.

- You do not ask where seven women?

- Are they alive?

- They are at home.

'Are the others in awe or know they'll let them go?'

- No, the rest do not know anything.

- I have a choice?

'You can go home or you can stay with me.'

- The girls went home?

- Do you want to pass them dear?

- I do not know, they did not pass across the street.

- And you will not leave this yard anymore, a broom will not help you anymore, you held on to it.

- Yes you are right. What should I do?

- Two options: love me or go home.

- What did they choose? Did they sleep with you?

- Not. All went home. I did not feel them. Through them, the current did not go, the current goes through the wires, and they were not in love with me even on pain of death. I feel you.

- And where is Olga?

- Doctor, or what? I thought I could do it, but I didn't want her. She left.

- Olga gone from life or home?

- For me, this is the same thing.

'They will bring the police here!'

- No, no one will.

Suddenly the room plunged into total darkness. The hand of Rimma was reached by a light, quivering touch. She involuntarily pulled herself up to that hand. Flashed light. Nearby lay a gray mouse. Rimma looked around the room, she did not find a single door. Four flat walls. She shouted, but the sound drowned in the soft fabric of the walls. The bed jerked sharply. Rimma fell into another darkness. She abruptly jumped to her feet, felt in one leg a strong pain and palm at the elbow.

- Rimma ...

- Is it still you ?! - Gritting her teeth in pain, Rimma said, looking into the eerie eyes of a man.

- I'm unfit.

- What do you allow yourself ?! Why are you kidding girls? Did you have women?

- I do not know what to do with them, so I collected a harem, looked at everyone and let him go.

They stood in the basement with red brick walls. Dim light burned in one corner. The man sat on a black leather sofa. Rimma, limping, followed him.

- All the girls tried to do something with me. I did not understand what they wanted from me. I let everyone out at that door, - and he pointed to the door in front of the sofa.

- Are you a normal person?

- I'm trying to remember why a man needs a woman, and I can not.

'Where did you get this red fortress?'

- This is my dacha.

- I can leave?

- The door is open.

Fen killed twelve birds with one stone, it was his method, so he re-educated twelve girls. Taming obstinate girls was his fad. He already felt that Rima - Venus - the strongest of the girls in the moral and ethical terms.


Chapter 3

Rimma wedged herself in the morning with one stroke of her long eyelashes, as if they had inherited from the big people from her sleep. The sky, covered with monotonous gray clouds, tuned to a calm mood. She walked along an asphalt path, surrounded by bright foliage of civilization, sharply different from meadow grass. Ten steps one way from the trail would guarantee dense thickets of bushes, five steps to the other side would lead to a highway with rounded cars, and only a clean asphalt path was dominated by rare pedestrians.

Life is beautiful, but there is no place for deep laziness and tremendous speeds in it, therefore the path is what makes life prosperous.

Is it difficult to understand simple logic? No, she has her own statistics on the life and condition of people. A person's condition is not determined by his financial condition, it is determined by his physical condition, which cannot be bought, but can be improved.

Prudence - a thin thread that determines human well-being.

No, Rimma is not perfection itself, but there is something non-trivial about it. She is slender, flexible, with hair slightly below the shoulders, the color of which depends on the mood. Rimma is little different from ordinary people, except for one strange phenomenon that appears in her in moments of laughter or anger - these are rays of light coming from the corners of her eyes. If she laughed, then her eyes shone with rays.

People sometimes deliberately made her laugh to see fireworks of funny rays. But if she was angry, the rays of light changed, they concentrated in the pupils and began to emit strange energy. Sometimes there was a feeling that these rays pierced a person through and could cause irreversible phenomena in his body. She remembered how it all began.

Then the computer Rimma received new data on the state of the banks of the Oriole - the river flowing through the district of Grad. It was then that today she walked past the Oriole car, which simply blocked its way. And on the screen of the monitor appeared the shores of the Oriole, plastered with country houses. Normal coastal landslides split one house or sank another ten meters below the ground.

Rimma could never understand those who built houses on the coastal strip of oceans and large rivers.

The coast can be strengthened by grass, shrubs, small trees, but houses have always contributed to the destruction of the coast. It is clear that the underground forces of the earth are enormous and the shifts of the earth's crust are normal, but people love to live on the shore, and nothing can be done about it.

Rimma had a strange feeling that the earth's wife, Aphrodite, was present on the Lord God on Earth. It is she who does not allow swallows to live in the coastal zone. You might think that the processes in the earth's crust occur by themselves, but you can think differently, and this has its reasons.

What does Mrs. Aphrodite look like? This question unwittingly interested Rimma. I wonder how old she is? As much as Earth? What did she do in the time of the dinosaurs? Then surely no one built houses on the coastal slopes of the Orioles.

Here, on the East Peninsula, he scored a new geyser. And everything is simple: Mrs. Aphrodite liked the man who followed her geysers, and during his lunch she threw out a stream of water in front of his beautiful eyes. This is certainly the work of a woman!

Rimma shivered involuntarily when her leader, a man of no age named Andrei G. Shchepkin, approached her. He looked at the monitor screen, noticed geysers instead of landslides on the bank of the river and looked at Rimma in surprise.

- Rimma, explain where geysers come from on the river bank? - He asked, leaning closer either to the monitor, or to the golden hair.

'Andrei Georgievich, the thought came to me that landslides on the river bank were the work of Mrs. Aphrodite and geysers were hers,' Rimma said, defending the geysers on the screen.

- Exactly! And how no one had ever figured it out before! - Andrei Georgievich cheerfully exclaimed, radiating ridiculous rays around the eyes, and strictly added: - Your job is to predict landslides, when and where they can be waited and warn the population of the planet about the danger!

- So I am about that! - exclaimed Rimma. - It is necessary to find Mrs. Aphrodite and ask her what else she is going to do, where she outlined earthquakes. Why does she like to shake the earth?

- Here's a smart girl, you can not collect everything in one pile. Although with me there was one case. You want - believe, you want - no, but it happened in the same house, now destroyed by a landslide. My friend and I arrived on a regular business trip to a city located on the banks of the Orioles. We settled at the young mistress, a very perky little lady. I tried to flirt with her, and she said only two words: 'Sleep alone.' The next day there was a strong earthquake in the village with the same name.

- Here! And I'm talking about you! - exclaimed Rimma. - So it was Mrs. Aphrodite herself! You saw it yourself! And I do not believe that it exists. 'In some cases, the layers of earth, located on the sides of the fault, approach each other. In the others, the earth falls on one side of the fault, forming discharges. In places where they cross river beds, waterfalls appear. The vaults of underground caves crack and collapse. It happens that after an earthquake large areas of land are lowered and flooded with water. The tremors shift the upper, loose layers of soil from the slopes, forming landslides and landslides, 'Rima remembered these words, but someone is in charge of this! 'You wanted to get close to Mrs. Aphrodite on the evening of December 6th, and she arranged a massive earthquake!' Andrei Georgievich, you are a monster!

'Exactly, that was exactly then,' Andrei Georgievich said in surprise, lifting his hair with a dyed gray hair.

- I just want to ask: what did you do on April 25? To whom did you pester the young man? - assertively asked Rimma.

- Rimma! In the spring I was full of strength and energy. I was a passionate, recalcitrant, unbroken stallion. But I remembered! I was then carried away by one girl, very similar to that lady from the bank of the Orioles, but much younger.

- Ale, Andrei Georgievich! I'm scared! Have you met her again? What is her name? - scared asked Rimma, realizing that in front of her was the man who had personally seen Mrs. Aphrodite. Whatever name she hides. - And now she reminds you of herself by landslides on the banks of the Orioles!

- Not! - with fear in his voice exclaimed Andrei Georgievich. - I am afraid to meet her, she will say two short words - and then destructive earthquakes occur.

- Andrei Georgievich, you are a great connoisseur of the dynamic chaos of the Earth with a butterfly effect, introduce me to Mrs. Aphrodite! - exclaimed Rimma with eyes burning with admiration, sparkling from the rays of her own light.

- Rimma, do you think that you offer me? Where will I find Mrs. Aphrodite? And why do we need it? Turn on the news, fast! - Andrei Georgievich looked at the screen and exclaimed: - THIS IS IT!

'Etna,' she said. - Look in the credits. Then there was a volcanic eruption. Now I know what Lady Aphrodite looks like!


Andrei Georgievich perfectly knew Mrs. Aphrodite. He felt her through time and distance. But what to say, they were always familiar. This Rima has good abilities, she is a very insightful person. How she deftly caught the chain of events, which he himself guessed, but he was afraid to draw an analogy!

Schepkin once graduated from university. At that far time he was smart and handsome, and then he met Mrs. Aphrodite. How clever Rima figured it out! Aphrodite at a time when Andrei Georgievich had only the right to drive, had a luxury car. Where she took it - not known, but it looked marvelous. The last thing he thought about was that she was involved in earthquakes, and he still didn't think about it until he heard from Rimma.

It was Aphrodite who gave him the bright car Oriole. Andrei Georgievich was happy and loving as much as he could. Aphrodite appeared before his eyes rarely and disappeared for a long time. He was not sad without her, but worked in a scientific institute where she attached him.

At the right moment, he received a message from Aphrodite and predicted disasters on Earth, which is why he was known as an indispensable employee. There was nothing unusual in this; his conscience did not torment him. Andrei Georgievich believed that everything that happens on the surface of the Earth happens by itself or depends on the Moon and the Sun, but not on him and Aphrodite. Therefore, with a clear conscience, he went to the sea in his car.

There were few cars on the highway, and Andrei Georgievich alone drove into the tunnel, which was not on the map. Somewhere in the center of the tunnel under the wheels there was a smooth obstacle. The car stopped. The light from the two sides of the tunnel disappeared. Darkness has come full. Obsessive fear got into the soul. 'Somewhere we went through it,' he thought and turned on the interior lighting, but the light did not come out.

Everything was quiet. Silence. Darkness.

Suddenly there was a feeling that the engine was working, but not a car, but a jet. Andrei Georgievich felt a wiggle, then as if he had been taken off the ground. There was a feeling of flight and fear of uncertainty. Soon the light appeared. He slapped his forehead, realizing that he was inside a cargo plane, immediately saw Aphrodite herself! Who would doubt it.

'Andrei Georgievich, get out of the car,' said the charming lady, smiling at the dazzling whiteness of her teeth, radiating streams of penetrating light from her eyes.

Andrei Georgievich left his unreliable shelter and joined Lady Aphrodite. They left the cargo hold of the aircraft and found themselves in a pretty sweet cabin.

Mrs. Aphrodite explained:

- We are flying on a dormant volcano. Why do you need to go to the sea if you can relax on the warm slope of a volcano? Do not worry, Andrei Georgievich, next to the volcano there is a mountain range with a beautiful mountain river. I have a small portable house, it is transported on a cargo plane and put where I need it. I must be in the center of the earth's crust. The aircraft is reliable, with a large supply of fuel. It will hang in the right place, releasing the propeller from itself and launching it.

Soon the plane hovered in the roar of the propellers. Andrei Georgievich's hoofs were shaking from resentment, precisely from resentment at his own powerlessness. He could not do anything with this powerful woman, commanding all the cataclysms of the crust. He rode to the sea, and he was thrown on a volcano. Lafa.

The house was quite tolerable for life with biological amenities. Moreover, Mrs. Aphrodite made him crawl and climb on the surface of the volcano, saying that his feet and hands should be used so that they do not hurt. But they simply languished from unusual muscle pain.

So what to do? Senior teams must be performed. What Aphrodite did in the volcano is unknown, Andrei Georgievich had a feeling that she was talking to the spirit of the volcano. After a week-long volcanic holiday, they left the hospitable volcano, which soon earned, as the media wrote and said.

Andrei Georgievich did not lag behind the media, he designed his stay on the volcano with a creative mission and became a hero of a scientific institute. He is the only one in the world who predicted the eruption of this particular volcano.

Rimma was not surprised that Chief Andrei Georgievich once again showed the wonders of insight. He did not let her at all to the topic of volcanoes, so it was difficult for her to judge his scientific feat.

Rimme was given problems of moving plates on the ocean floor, which are located far from the coast. In these places, the huge waves did not bother anyone, and her predictions were of little concern to anyone.

Rimma became a free girl. Sits, works. The winter outside is not worse than in the north. He thinks, maybe go on a cruise? What keeps her in one place? She does not have a passport and a foreign companion. And she went the way of single women: she began to buy and read romance novels. If the novel is successful, then over the weekend one book can be read, from love novels, it was transferred to female detective stories. Been reading novels! Rested without a cruise. Thoughts about the trip disappeared by themselves. And she immediately calmed down, the second time I felt the emptiness around me. Everything, I decided, it's time to become a man, and simpler - a woman.

I remembered that there is a solarium. Once a week I went to be illuminated with light from a huge number of lamps. Tanned a bit. Then she went to the hairdresser for ten facial massages. Her appearance has changed slightly. Loneliness is a dreary thing. The artist agreed to paint her portrait. Again a few sessions - and she is in the portrait. Go to the north though ...

Information about the rocket appears on the computer. Over the past three years, this is the ninth failure. Rima read the news about the fall of the rocket, she re-read about the fall of eight missiles.

Thoughts of two appeared: either the space developers lost their ability to launch, or someone systematically causes missiles to harm at the start, or before the launch.

The city of Stepnoy is located on the banks of a gorgeous river, the place is beautiful, so people live in the city very smart. There is a technical institute in the city, where wonderful specialists teach and advanced students study. Rimma herself studied at this institute, and she knows who is now studying in it. One must also remember that rockets are made in one country, and they are launched on the territory of another country.

There is no need to quarrel between countries, but it is precisely that which happens when someone from a series of well-educated people wanted to get money is possible. That is the motive for the crime. The Internet has generated widespread communication between people; information, previously well-classified, has ceased to be secret number 1. In theory, no one should know anything about missiles, about the time of their launch.

Rimma can imagine how the rockets themselves are designed and manufactured. Constructors and developers are no longer becoming every year, the frames accumulated over the years have retired. New developers are sometimes cut off from the design archives. Previously, secrecy was above all else, which prevented the dissemination of accumulated knowledge.

Consequently, spaces in the manufacture of spacecraft are possible. And she knows how to verify the making of a spacecraft.

Rimma visits the factory - a ship collector under the guise of a designer. She talks to technologists and developers. She stands at the machine tools, she attends the board making workshops, she is looking for gaps in production. She is looking for those who could accidentally or deliberately harm.

The very manufacture of engines, which are often blamed for cosmic catastrophes, is not very familiar to her, but she is looking for people who understand this problem. Fuel, its quantity and quality, but here everything can be checked. It seems that the entire fabrication of a spacecraft is covered in solid mystery. Rimma unwinds any secret for little clues.

And finds a group of people. Friends of the institute, there are five of them. They need money for human whims, but the salaries of engineers do not suit them. They speak languages, they know how to find in the network all the information about factories working for space. They themselves understand the technique.

Four guys and one girl united in a union called Turquoise. Rimma is looking for and finding them. She learns about the fate of the girl, through her goes to the four guys who have found support outside the two countries associated with the development and launch of spacecraft.

The girl looks ordinary, wears turquoise. The guys on the rings - turquoise, this is their distinguishing mark. Turquoise is a symbol of the sky, into which spacecraft should not take off, in their opinion. Unexpected support was found by a group of people "Turquoise" among the believing elders, who looked like poor but rich in soul. The elders have a strange power of influence on people, these are veiled psychics. Rimma visited one of the sponsors of the group "Turquoise", whose goal was not to let the spacecraft to God, that is, to the sky.

The group "Turquoise" has found sponsors among those who wanted to humiliate the company "Rus", launching the spacecraft. Rimma found those who for three years did not let the ships take off. There are streams of rain on the windows, in this weather no one flies. Before the rain, the birds flew through the windows and flew around the room with rage until Rimma let them out through the window.

The group "Turquoise" took into the development of powerful hands of special people. But the tenth spacecraft did not take off.

What is the matter? - thought Rima. - Or not the whole group "Turquoise" is known to her, or there are other groups that do not allow them to explore space. The city was checked by special people at this time, but something did not suit them. The worm of doubt wore a turquoise hue. Turquoise. Gyurza! - dawned on her. - We must look for the group "Gyurza".

And she turned her attention to a new message.


Rimma looked at the news of the sunk ship. Sometimes the otgadka of events develops in her head, and even now, when she read that mostly elderly people had sailed on the ship for seventy years. Rescuers saved only 5 people and then from the team, and 400 people disappeared into the depths of the sea.

These people were clearly in the 'Last Breath' society. They bought tickets for one ship as tourists, they were also given several guides, like they went on a tour. The last way under the water was their tour. The ship was swept by the wave and overturned into the depths of the sea.

The captain knew about this, he knew how to escape from a sinking ship. He did not save anyone, there were two of them who knew about the sad fate of the tourists, and they were saved. The captain of the ship did not sink. He and his assistant successfully escaped from an instantly sunk ship during a tsunami.

Monstrously? Rescuers descended to the bottom of the ship and heard a knock from the inside of the ship. They were answered by their knock. But they could not save the passengers of the ship. The ship is not a submarine, it does not have a camera to go from the water into the room. Rescuers arrived - three thousand, but twenty people could not be saved.

Rain is coming. Network turned off. Gloomy sky Electricity went out and caught fire. Rimma is a normal girl, without big ambitions, with a good level. She can fall in love and is capable of falling in love with herself. In the old days, people got married, in modern times they are trying to teach people to meet and marry through the media. The overall standard of living has grown, more people of old age have appeared. And there are few people who want to start a family and live independently. Why? Lazy.

For the survival of people, financial priority is not always located in the newly formed family unit. It is clear that families are the basis of any state system, but families have become the cells of society that are able to survive with the least resistance. What else. There were very rich people who reduced the middle class, capable of producing offspring. There were natural palaces, often childless. It's okay

The news reported that the policeman shot himself for being demoted and divorced with his wife. And the director left the journalist. And the apartment is a mess. Rimma fed the animals, swept the floor, went into the bath and washed off the dust. And forward and with the song.

Rimma changed cafe. And the friend who helped her to another cafe helped her in this, and also fed her. Rimma had to speak out. There are ordinary people, and there are people above average.

Friend Rimma is a graceful lady in whom there has never been more than 50 kilograms. They have almost the same height, but the weight is different. Olga fell 30 million rubles. She held them in her hands. Rimma does not represent such a sum of money, and Olga let money through her hands. And the money turned into a lordly plot with a house, and she became his mistress. Good lord Where did people get such money - Rimma didn't even think. She has no money, and Olga - easily! Why be surprised.

Olga now has more and more: both the apartment and the bar area. Therefore, they began to meet on a neutral territory, namely in the cafe.

Rimma generally had the feeling that she was not a person, but big ears, on which everyone hung up the noodles of her life. Guys do not like her, but they ask:

- Rimma, I'm sorry, haven't you had a man for a long time?

What does she have on her forehead that her husband has found a woman thicker than her?

Such men ask her questions:

- Rimma, do you have a man?

No shades of gray. Although sometimes asked:

- Rimma, did you read the book 'All shades of gray'?

'I read,' answered Rimma.

What is in this book that everyone reads it? The book is full of texts from the correspondence of heroes and a lot of repetitions. And there is little love, more intrigue of a closed room, causing horror. Rimma once fell into the trap itself. Then she was alone, though, she had a flirt with one young man.

The guy was good: a tall blond with a flexible figure. Rimma herself was good, the weight is not more than 60 kilograms with an average male height. She was wearing a light trouser suit, sandals and two more clothes. Hair to shovels shimmered cleanliness. They had a business meeting. She had to go to him on business. And went. And here she was seized with passion at the sight of a blond who, apparently, had embraced him too. They forgot why they met. Clothes from them flew the only way. All shades of beige and gray flew in all directions. It happens, but rarely or never. Not love, but passion in its purest form. They never met again, as if a one-day rose had bloomed and faded.


The seashore is amazingly conducive to friendship turning into love. Only sea and sand, but how many emotions they cause! The man on the beach relaxes completely from touching the earth - mother and bathing in the sea - father. It is renewed, its skin is smoothed, the skin color becomes pleasant from sea tan. The man is almost naked to see other people, but he does not care. The feeling of stiffness disappears, it becomes part of nature.

Rimma would love to sprinkle all with silver, but it remained in the submarine. So, she and the captain secretly left the submarine. The team members fell into the hands of pirates, between them a serious brawl ensued. There were no losers, as well as winners. They all died. The submarine has a huge size, it is a whole house, it is quite fit a small village or village.

In the heat of the moment, the crew set the ship on anchor, which they could not pull back. They had no choice but to live some time in a submarine and dry their laundry on the observation deck. The captain was afraid to call for help, he did not want to incur new pirates or detractors.

People lived alone in a metal house, which had enough water and food in it. The relationship between the woman and the captain was friendly and nothing more. They sat on silver, but ate with metal spoons. Deserted shore did not bring surprises. Nobody came to them, did not arrive. The planes flying over them could see a heap of stones, so successfully they disguised the boat with artificial stones. All lived quietly and modestly. They had a radio. They listened to the news without giving a distress call.

They occasionally told in the news that the submarine, whose task it was to get silver from the ocean floor, lying in a boat sunk 70 years ago, was missing.

Sometimes the voices of anxious relatives were broadcast. The captain became gloomy at such moments, he was responsible for the crew and the boat. But the team was gone, and the submarine grew into the bottom. The weather only pleased, she was immensely good. The sun was shining. The wind was blowing weak. The sky exuded blue.

Two weeks later it became boring. All rested, it was time to act. A boat can be moved by two people, but how to move a house? Rima admitted that she was an adventurer, and it would be time for her to return home. The captain was beginning to get angry at her, because it was she who dragged him into a silver adventure.

From an abundance of surging sadness, Rimma sat on the beach and began to look at the submarine disguised as a rocky island. They couldn't wind up the mechanical knot stuck in the bottom. Waiting for the tide. Rimma noticed a change in the size of the waves. Then she felt that the ground beneath her shuddered, then it threw up. Instead of running into the depths of the mainland, she ran to the ship. The captain stood on the boat. He waved her hand. And they, without saying a word, entered the boat. Batten down the hatches. Launched, finally, the lifting mechanism of the earth anchor.


The ocean came to life, breathing powerfully and hysterically. People with all their hearts felt tremors. A huge wave caught their shelter and threw it into the open ocean. It was a real miracle. The submarine was afloat again. The captain coped with the management of a giant boat, and Rimma decided to go around the cabins. And in one cabin she saw a sailor. He lived alone in the remote part of the ship, ate himself. He wanted to run from her. And then she realized that this man is not from their team. It was one of the pirates! But he pleased her. She smiled at him, took her hand and led her to the captain, who needed helpers.

The captain spoke to the sailor in a strange language; there was no hostility between them. Therefore, Rimma went to the galley to cook food, portraying a diligent cook.

Believe it or not, believe it or not, but the submarine stopped over the place from which the silver was raised. And the captain made a strange decision - to return the silver to its place! Thanks to the mechanical conveyor and all the mechanics and electronics. The captain pressed the buttons, and everything happened in the reverse order.

People returned the silver to its former place, but they could not bring the team back to life. The submarine surfaced. They saw - the ship of pirates and on it the whole crew of the boat. It's hard to believe, but they were all alive! And maybe there was no fight between them, and Rimma missed something while she was leaving the ship through the lower deck with the captain?

Later, she learned that the pirates were not pirates, but soldiers of the country to which they moored. So silver just smiled at them.

The captain became her friend, but they did not marry. Rimma had a feeling that if she became the wife of the captain, everything would work out like with silver and she would have to return him to the place for order.

Now you can think about silver, which 200 tons at the bottom of the ocean sank 70 years ago. Rimma wore silver earrings twice on her ears, they are good until new ones, and then darker. You can imagine what silver looks like at the bottom of the ocean! In fact, she can not even imagine such deposits. Can a palace be made of silver, and if it gets dark? She already knows the price of marble, she sat next to him. She saw silver and two pennies. You can imagine a marble palace with silver chandeliers and wrought iron railings. Ware all silver.

It remains to raise the silver from the bottom of the ocean. Diving to him is useless. You can swim in a submarine. From the compartment to release the dome, which tightly covers the precious metal. Why is it up? For the submarine. It must be rented for two pennies of silver. Such a thing Rimma thought up until silver was raised by those who found it. Where can I get an ocean map with a cross? This is a solvable question. If silver is found, then you need to find those who found it.

From the media, Rimma knew who had found the treasure, she needed to be liked and the matter was in her hat. I had to register on their forum, put my photo, show activity, gain confidence. Place finds themselves and not hide. With laughter and for two pennies of silver, Rimma received a silver reference point in the ocean.

The ocean is now far away, and the frost is near.


Chapter 4

The day was frosty. The sun was shining. The snow creaked under my feet. Rima went and did not feel the cold. Serfdom of personal dependence on Alex collapsed in an instant. She sighed freely from sheer independence. She poured all the beads of words in front of him. And he arrogant.

Yes, elementary arrogant. She was sad for about five minutes, as if lost, then she realized that everything was normal. There was nothing to praise him. The laudatory friend Alex quickly deteriorated. Or maybe she wanted it?

There is no need to talk about it now! She drove the station called "Alex". And the frost quickly cooled her involuntary annoyance. What she didn't want was to write and tell him the praises. She was exhausted in this regard, but she didn't want to scold either. That was, that was, and there is nobody.

At the end of a frosty day, Alex appeared. He was waiting for Rimma at the entrance door from the street. He walked through the creaking snow like a pendulum. He gazed with hope in his eyes at the people coming out of the beautiful building. He knew that he had a happy rival, and how he felt that he was no longer his rival.

He loved Rimma through the mist of relationships.

Alex deftly grabbed Rimma's arm and led him along the old alley. Linden Alley saw a lot of couples in her lifetime, and this pair was familiar to her. They reached the old cinema and stopped. The snow-covered square was decorated with a magnificent likeness of spruce. The green cone shimmered with lights of garlands of all colors of the rainbow. People were not around. Lonely couple.

Festive cone spruce. Evening frost. Cars shone with headlights along the roads. Alex touched Rimma's hand. He looked into her eyes. But her eyes declined to meet. She stood next to him, but was clearly absent. She wriggled out of his hands. She didn't want to tell him anything. She was afraid to speak, so as not to praise him, and went along the linden alley with gnarled branches of time. He went near her.

A screen appeared in front of their eyes.

The bluish screen with flying snowflakes was a little different from reality. Rimma involuntarily touched the screen with her glove. The screen swallowed her. Alex tried to enter the screen after Rimma, but the screen rejected it.

Rimma rose on the screen above the festive square. Alex saw her disappearance, but could not do anything. He was powerless over incomprehensible power. Well, the flying saucer would have taken Rimma from him, but she was nobly carried to the cold sky by a screen with snowflakes.

The screen hovered for a second over the cone of the holiday fir and disappeared into the dark sky. A single flying screen could hold one person, and he chose Rimma. And she, accustomed to flying on a computer screen, was not afraid of small flying objects. Now she was sitting in a narrow chair in a narrow cabin with transparent walls. The girl felt the utter unreality of the moment.

Surprisingly, she was very comfortable. She saw below the lights of the city, flashing garlands of highways. Fear did not have time to appear. The surprise of the unreality of what was happening was replaced by the question: where is she? But this question also disappeared as soon as she touched the glove wall with her hand.

No, Rimma did not fly out of the cab.

Transparent walls with floating snowflakes did not swallow it again, it remained inside an incomprehensible aircraft. The flying screen landed on a forest clearing among wonderful fir trees and quite real ones.

The girl felt cold and got up from the chair, which quickly moved away from her to the side along with the screen of the outer wall of the cabin.

She was in the dark of the night in an old forest with huge firs. Giant tents fir surrounded her from all sides. From - under the tent of spruce - two dwarfs came out in bright caps. They simultaneously worshiped Rimma. She shuddered in surprise. The dwarves led her along a frosty path.

A small palace with a large number of spiers on the roof appeared among the firs. The gates went in different directions when they appeared, and the company entered the courtyard of the frosty palace. Rimma noticed that the spiers on the house resemble inverted icicles. There was no one inside the house except them. A flat screen monitor hung on one wall. Rimma took the remote control, turned on the screen.

A face with long, gray strands of hair appeared on the screen.

- Rimma, I am Nikolai Nikitich, president of the Association of non-standard aircraft. How did you like the flight in the snow screen?

- I liked your gray wig, - barely opening her lips, said Rimma.

- Well. In this house you will stay until morning. The gnomes, or rather the Lilliputians from our squad of testers of small aircraft, will go about their business.

The screen went blank. Gnomes are gone. The light was on. Rimma examined the strange house, but did not find the doors and windows. They were not there. The control panel no longer turned on the screen. Silence surrounded her from all sides. She involuntarily lay down on a single sofa, accidentally pressed the remote control button. A round screen appeared overhead and lit up, familiar snowflakes appeared on it. When the snowflakes disappeared from the screen, the face of the great equipment tuner Andrei Georgievich appeared.

- Rimma, hello! Rest, dear.

- For what? She said.

- You think I'm jealous? No, I'm fine.

- Why did they bring me here? She asked dejectedly.

- And who were you walking along the linden alley? With Alex. I had to disconnect you in this way.

'And this is all my fault?' For this, should I spend the night alone in the woods in a strange palace with icicles on the roof?

- Yes! We must be consistent in their relationship.

- It's cruel! - with tears in her eyes shouted Rimma.

The screen on the ceiling went out. The light of the lamps has diminished. The girl was in the half-gloom, but she had no fear. She realized that she was under the control of Andrew, and just fell asleep.

Alex - a person with a higher technical education, fluent in two foreign languages, was an expert in his field. Any young man could envy his appearance: he was 180 centimeters tall, his eyes were rubies, his hair was dark, his nose was straight, of a pleasant shape.

He supported the muscles on his body with three workouts a week in a gym with mirrored walls. His weight was within fifty percent of growth, that is, ninety pounds. He loves mystery, it was she who surrounded the creators of new flying objects.

Yes, he sometimes helped Rimma in life, but now he was worried about other problems. He also worked in a corporation consisting of several small firms producing a wide variety of apparatuses. Units, including him, knew the new look of the aircraft, the launch time was always surrounded by humor with a bit of secrecy.

Alex was so good that he was used on a private television line to handle people who happened to be in a closed area.

Aerial vehicles used in different areas. Customers - they are always customers and are covered with the secret of investing money. Considering that many secrets can be downloaded through the World Wide Web, the appointment of secret agents somewhat dulled over time, but they certainly appeared near the aircraft.

Two agents, Senya and Venya, were waiting for the release of a two-seater aircraft capable of taking off from any balcony and windowsill. Therefore, the agents were two gnomes, or, more precisely, a midget, their small stature made it possible to make a small device with a steep engine. They landed in a flying bobsleigh with three motors and flew from any skyscraper. The wings were extended from three sides, and the flying bobsleigh easily tacked in the air currents.

Thanks to the versatility of the aircraft, Alex was not in trouble. He liked Rimma, who has a beautiful, elegant appearance and obstinate character.

Rima woke up from the three-story cry. An unknown lady screamed at her in a black fur cap, in a black coat in the form of an hourglass. Rimma looked at the overall young lady and could not figure out why she was being scolded.

In the next portion of the scream, the name sounded - Alex. So, here she is guilty. The screams and curses stopped. Rimma got up on her feet and appeared on the ear of a screaming person, who unexpectedly quietly said:

- Rimma, I am Nadia. I'm Alex's girlfriend. Let it be known to you!

- Alex told me nothing about you.

- Oh, so you know that his name is Alex! So why did you go with Alex? - Nadia asked nervously.

- Quite by chance our roads coincided, and we walked about five hundred meters together.

- Yes, but these five hundred meters of yours constantly showed on the TV screen and added about some new aircraft! On all television channels showed your disappearance in the screen with snowflakes!

- How did you find me? And I could not find the doors in this hut with icicles.

- I wish I didn't know this house! Nikolay Nikitich is my uncle, 'added Nadya.

- I heard this name from the screen located on the wall. But I do not know the secrets of this house.

- So, baby! So that I no longer see you next to Alex! Otherwise, again I will ask Uncle to use you as a guinea pig!

- Nadia, we are with Alex ...

- Without "we." Alex, let it be known to you, my young man.

- After all, he was ...

'Ha - ha - ha! - the lady in black furs laughed loudly. - I brought him to the divine form. He is sleek, handsome, pumped, assured!

- But where does a young girl have such money? - sincerely surprised Rimma.

- I have roots, and very wealthy! Do you understand this ?!

- Sorry, I remembered. Your uncle ...

At that instant, the side screen lit up. Good-looking Nikolai Nikitich laughed and said:

- Nadia, leave the girl alone. She did not touch your Alex.

Immediately on the ceiling, a round screen appeared, on which Alex's face appeared:

- Girls, do not make noise. Everything is good. Do you want us to ride you on a new flying device?

'Alex, would you go ...' the beauty in black furs firmly cursed.

- Do girls swear so? - Rimma was surprised.

'Ha - ha - ha! - laughed gray-haired uncle. - Nadia shows her knowledge in the second language, and she has not said everything yet.

The walls of the house spread out in both directions, and the girls were among the snow-covered tents of fir trees. A cone with seats located around the perimeter fell into the clearing.

The strange cabin was closed by a transparent protective glass. Rimma and Nadia sat down on different sides of the cone. The flying cone, slowly rotating around its axis, quickly began to rise vertically upwards. Glade with a house of two halves remained in the silence of the forest.

A flying cone landed on a town square with a cone of a festive fir. Reporters came running. TV arrived. Rimma and Nadia were in the middle of the day.

Nadya answered the reporters in a very correct language, she spoke beautifully and without a mat, which made Rimma very amused. Rimma once again realized how important it is to own beads of words. That is because Nadia can throw beads in front of reporters!

And she will hurl beads of words in front of people, but where to go?

Nikolai Nikitich could stand on his head, he had a good body control, did a lot of joint exercises, and easily ran up the stairs. It cost him nothing to pour cold water, he did this procedure daily. Due to the physical perfection of his body, he remained the head of a corporation of flying objects.

Nadia least of all followed the example of her uncle. She loved warm baths with salt and foam, enjoyed eating candy from fancy boxes, drank liqueur, reminiscent of coffee with cream. As she grew up, only God knows her uncle. He made enormous efforts so that she graduated from the school, he turned gray from the burden of this burden. He pulled her through life, realizing that this was a labor of Sisyphus. Apparently, he was a genius, and on Nadya nature rested, which he did not want and could not realize.

It so happened that Alex had mentally chosen one girl - Rimma. There was in her that power of thinking that fascinated him with its mystery. And Nadia was just cute and energetic. He did not climb to the girls in the soul, but guarded as much as he could and kept the one and the other in sight. He rarely attended casinos, restaurants and bars, rarely visited theaters and concerts. His dedication in the work required from him a full return.

Nikolai Nikitich would love to marry Alex on Nadya, he understood that she could get bored with the procedure on the very first day with unrestrained words. She succeeded in speaking, and Alex needed a more silent fairy.

From this point of view, Alex was attracted to Rimma. He was not an agent, he did not follow anyone, but was forced, at the request of his elders, to intervene in the life of others within the television company. He did not carry a pistol with him, knew the techniques of hand-to-hand combat and could evade an accidental strike.

The secret agents and testers of the corporation were the recognized Liliputians Senya and Venia. Nikolay Nikitich, once having been at their concert, came to the conclusion that the uniqueness of little people is poorly used. He selected a dozen Lilliputians, whom he gave out to all as gnomes: they wore caps on their heads for greater persuasiveness.

For them, courses were created broad profile. The gnomes, realizing the importance of their purpose, learned seriously and with inspiration. For greater importance, they were called agents, although two zeros in front of their number did not indicate their danger to people.

And here a strange, unexpected thing happened: Nadia, a young girl, fell in love with the gnome Senya. He was a permanent leader among his gnomes, his authority was not subject to verification. Maybe it was that she got used to them. The combination of high and low people did not shock her. Senya did not take their relationship seriously, she was so tall for him! He led small talk with her.

The views of Nadia and Cenis were warmer when they met, their voices trembled. The gnomes surrounding them only smiled. In order for Nadia to come out of this love, Nikolay Nikitich found Alex for her and with all his strength took care of him, encouraged him and promoted him. He got them married. At Alex's and Nadi's wedding, Nikolai Nikitich, with good intentions, introduced Rimma to the famous inventor Shchepkin. As if she didn't know him!


Rimma, with surprise, opened her eyes wide: in front of her a triple-screen type screen appeared on the table. One flat screen of the monitor was in front of it, and on both sides it was surrounded by two equally large screens. Besides the screens she saw nothing. It became stuffy. The fan was behind the screens.

A confident young man appeared on three screens, his eyes looking derisively into her eyes:

- Are you jealous? Be jealous I don't need you anymore, I don't want you!

The image returned and disappeared, and the screen went dark.

'Who would have doubted this,' Rima thought, gulping airless air. The screens lit up, a young man appeared on them himself in three forms: a front and two profiles. Rimma shuddered in surprise.

- Rima, we are checking the settings of the new generation of computer screens, how do you see me? How do you hear?

'Good, but too unexpected.'

- Before you are screens for the development of the internal design of fighter cockpits for one pilot. Order from the director of the film Shchepkina. Everything in the film should be really, apparently, convenient! Do not rush to conclusions. The task is more serious than it can be assumed. The fighter is designed for space maneuvers. It will lift into orbit in a capsule with a thermal coating, and in space it will fly between space stations. So consider yourself flying in the sky.

- Cool. I hope I'm not alone will be engaged in the design of the fighter?

- You will be three, you know nothing about each other, your developments must be independent of each other. All that you come up with, snapping up and dragging away from the screen through their books and inventions. How many times has this already happened!

'Where are the cosmic forces of the fighter?' This is a small plane.

- It will fly along the energy carrier channels between the space links.

- So if he will fly along a certain route, then why does he need three control panels?

- You are thinking, reduced to a minimum the number of buttons of all kinds and purposes.

'Then why do I need three screens?'

'To be there,' the young man said and disappeared from the screens.

Rima turned off the side screens, bent them in a straight line with the main screen, sent a stream of air to herself.


Alex Rimma met in the winter. That he was on the screens of computers. Where winter is, the New Year always happens. How could she captivate a young man? An absolute coincidence that is more common on New Year's Eve. Do not believe?

At the end of the year, there is a general emotional upheaval in anticipation of the unknown. Everyone is waiting for something, and this expectation has supersaturated the air of parties of all levels. And one more important moment: on New Year's Eve drink champagne. Shock drink! The mind becomes cheerful and allows you to fall in love with half a word.

Often it is not recommended to use it - it will lose the magical properties necessary for dating. The party fit in the banquet room. Alex came in black trousers with a belt, in a black shirt, and even in a black and gold tie. The belt is great. The figure - Rimma's heart sank, squeaked and melted with surprise. She could not take her eyes off him. He felt her attraction and sat down beside him. For two, he put one bottle of champagne.

The audience at the table quickly switched to spirits, began to shake the bottles over the table, fill their glasses. Rima and Alex drank bubbles of champagne, these magic bubbles brought them together with incredible speed. A thought flashed through her mind: would she invite him to her house? But how beautiful is it to do?

She called him a long number and then asked:

'Alex, did you remember what I said?'

- Remember. Repeat?

- If you remember, then you can come to me, this is the code of the electronic lock.

They danced in a common crowd. His body springing down to Rimma, he was filled with desires, like a glass of champagne. She felt it ... Desires must be realized. But for every "necessary" is Nadia.

Summer. Heat. For a moment she closed her eyes, and when she opened, all three screens in one straight line depicted the control panel of a space fighter ...

The clouds, the wind, the cold.


Rimma came to work in the office of the company. The first frosts were accompanied by a gentle, pinkish-bluish sky. At other times of the year she did not observe such a miracle in the sky. Only the second time in her life she had seen such beauty, and only a few minutes in the morning, and even from a certain height. As if feminine and masculine melted in the sky and shone with the glow of love.

Office life reassured. Rimma left the playgrounds. Eternal her friend and rival Olga took the courses of accountants and began to work in the office.

Foreign life subsided. Olga and Shchepkin passed sexual age. Tender relations they had rarely and lasted a few minutes.

Rimma also wanted to keep his moments of happiness, but they melted into life as quickly as the pinkish color of the sky disappeared. The ghost of happiness attracted its human warmth of relationships, but quickly dissolved in everyday life.

Rimma entered the office, tapping the key of the electronic lock.

Andrei Georgievich Shchepkin was sitting at a table with a computer, next to him was a bench machine. Their eyes met - that's all the greetings of congenial people.

- Andrei Georgievich, how are you doing with the new product?

- There are not enough two chips in the product. Rimma, there is a new task, sit at the table, discuss.

The guest table stood apart from the chef's table, it was possible to sit on both sides, spreading out all the drawings of the new product. Rimma sketched a new device. She understood the task and decided to discuss all the issues with the developer. Then take everything you need from this still life and carry it to your table, like loot.

At her table, Rimma could remember the words of Andrei Georgievich, get a blank sheet of paper and draw, draw a drawing of a new product. And only when the valuable thought appears on the sheet, again to meet and discuss the result of the search for a new technical masterpiece.

And all love is one joint work.

Computer screensaver revealed secrets by lightly pressing a key or mouse button. A list of the developed design documentation for the products appeared on the screen. Rimma found clean formats, they received new names, numbers, and a new product began to be born in green and white lines against a black computer background.

On the right, on the table, on metal shelves were old reference books and new catalogs from exhibitions and instrument displays. On the top shelf was a flower that never bloomed. With his bush, he hid Rimma from an employee, whose profile would otherwise loom in front of her face.

Yes, manager Alex sometimes worked in the office, and it was impossible to allow their eyes to meet while working. The foliage gently and unobtrusively hid Rimma and Alex from each other. To the right of Rimma was a favorite mug with a lid. Forget-me-nots, cute flowers were depicted on the mug, and you can't call them flowers, but only gently - flowers. A crocodile lay behind a mug - a dark green phone tube. Rimma least used the services of a green crocodile, most e-mail.

Behind his back was an old cabinet in which new folders with drawings and documentation for new items were hidden. The old documentation was sent to the bowels of the closet and did not loom before my eyes; what was depicted in it, has long been produced and hidden by buyers anywhere from the dungeon to heaven.

Olga, a very pretty woman, came into the office. She handed out a piece of wages, stopped next to Alex. He had for her a certain attracting force. They both radiated smiles, glowed with the joy of communication. She did not linger next to the object of her adoration and walked to her workplace.

Olga for Alex - a cloud of fleeting happiness. Rimma's gaze returned to her desk, she worked intently. By chance, she looked up over the computer and saw the sky with white clouds of clouds, and her eyes returned to work again.

Silence reigned in the office. Everyone worked. Behind the glass wall, Alex's firm manager's voice was heard, suddenly his voice grew stronger, and he shouted:

- Philip, why don't you come to work? You have absenteeism and no sick leave.

In response, there was a male rumbling. Philip turned out to be a Christmas present for the company. He got a job in December. They took him as a material handling specialist, but he exceeded all expectations. A very interesting man, quite tall, well-fed, with gray hair and not bald made a good impression on everyone.

On his desk was a desktop machine for the manufacture of prototypes, on the shelf there were instruments for monitoring the finished product. His business was to lead the work of several products of the company.

The day he started with telephone conversations.

- Hello, honey, - said Philip, - we will meet at 16 o'clock at the store ...

Or:

- Hello, honey, how are you? You know...

Alex looked at his neighbor on the left and did not know how to shut himself off from him. But Phillip knew that. He moved cabinets, rearranged appliances. Within three months, he erected a fortress of ancillary items. An old glass-covered table appeared inside the fortress. On the glass was a favorite phone. Before his eyes on the poster hung products of the company, but the production is not the company for which he worked. Philip did not like to work at the machine. All of Alex's new folders were slowly transferred to Philip's closet.

Philip filtered the water in a glass filter, heated the water in the kettle, poured boiling water into his liter mug, and threw many spoons of sugar in it. The attraction began: tea drinking in a fortress from devices. Whistling, smacking, sipping tea, Philip melted with pleasure.

Inside his fortress passed a riser with a three-phase current, the wires covered the metal casing. In this casing, Philip drilled holes to hang a bundle of wires. He had one hole, but when drilling the next hole, he managed to get into one of the wires. Shine, crackle, smell! A 380 volt toggle switch failed and the instrument test cabinet burned out. This was the beginning of the end of Philip.

Alex looked at him, and sometimes it seemed to him that Philip remained under socialism and missed perestroika.

Spring has made its own adjustments in the behavior of Philip. He only called his wife and lived in the country. Dacha punished him with dampness and cold. Three meters from Alex, there was always a man with a cough, plus tea, and even a whisper from a mini-receiver.

Tired of Philip withering in the fortress, he left for a couple of weeks, then completely disappeared from Alex's sight.


Chapter 5

Once Olga came and said that Philip should be fired for absenteeism, but he himself refuses to quit. The dismissal event lasted five months, including the court. Alex came to his place to work, he did not drink tea at this workplace, and a thin stream of fluids was flowing from him when Rimma approached him for work.

The horizon, pinkish - reddish against a gray - bluish sky, was not as gentle as yesterday. And the personal man somewhat lost tenderness in dealing with Rimma. Primordial tenderness, whether you are married or that casual love, happens once or extremely rarely. Everything else in love is the search for the first feeling, and sex is already a mechanical process for the search for pleasure, it is pinkish-red against the gray-bluish sky and human activity.

Sometimes any peace is more precious than pleasure, it would have survived, not to love, and the happiness at that moment is the absence of depressing thoughts. That's all the sky, the prose in life wins the love beginning of man.

Olga had fun playing cards on the computer. Among the accountants, this is the most honorable entertainment, on this occasion, manager Alex twitted at her. She was beautifully offended and lowered her eyes in her many papers. Sometimes he made her laugh, and she laughed loudly.

The sunset was different from dawn by an inverted image of pinkish and bluish color. At dawn, there is a bluish sky below, a pinkish top, a pinkish below at sunset, a bluish sky above.


If you take a small team like: Rimma and the chief, she felt a hundred times that he shouldn't contradict and argue with him very carefully, although he is not armed, but he is so dangerous, dangerous in anger if he is not listened to. The main he.

And in a warm country, people completely forgot about their own safety. Wanting is not harmful, but sometimes it is very dangerous. So, the chef talked. Rimma turned away from the computer, she had to listen to a man without a murmur, jerking. What was he talking about? Do not believe about the meat factory. There was a time when people in the store shouted to the seller that there was paper in the sausage instead of meat.

And Rimma had to learn the truth about the sausage.

In his youth, the chief came to work at the meat-packing plant, where his uncle, a respected person in the team, already worked. For this reason, it was easier for him to join the difficult team. He worked more often at night to tidy up the equipment. The years were not very well-fed, but in the meat factory meat was full. Eat - I do not want. The guy is skinny. The belly is small. He could not eat a lot of sausage.

The meat factory thundered all over the country with its advanced technologies, cleanliness and order in the workshops. Even the clinic, standing nearby, shone with these qualities. And there was a personal sanatorium for the employees of the meat processing plant. They built the building in the pre-war years, the building was Komsomol. Everything is done firmly and fundamentally, forever.

Next to the chef, a fat man worked, his stomach could hold more than one kilogram of sausage. It was not allowed to carry products from the workshop to the workshop. The modest chef endured a bit of sausage in his own working mitten, he had enough.

But Fatty tied the sausage to his big body, and then sold it to the drivers in the yard, without leaving the meat processing plant. So he bought a car. Once he was caught at the entrance. He was asked:

- Where so much sausage loaves you take out?

- I'll eat it myself!

- That's how much you eat, so much and make out.

A crowd gathered.

The fat man broke a loaf of sausage into two parts:

- One piece of bread, the second sausage, - and began to eat both.

But the sausage in the throat he did not climb, probably, the audience interfered. He did not finish the loaf of sausage. The remaining sausage loaves were seized from him, he was punished.

The chef entered two institutes, but went to the food institute. Sausage production interested him, he wanted to develop mechanisms for the food industry. Having entered the institutes, he did not go to study, but went to the sanatorium of the meat-packing plant and only after a good rest went to work, and then went to study.

The chief was called for work, he left the office. Here and the staff one by one returned to the place.

If the gas is air and fresh water is equal to sea water, then everything is fine. Each by itself. If one dump water into the sea, then the other is to close the taps of the air supply. Forcibly you will not be nice, since you do not need air from the pipes, let them take it from the air.

Rimma was so depressed by life that she did not call anyone. But the telephone rang. She picked up the phone.

- Rimma, hello! How are you feeling? - she heard the voice of Olga.

'Hello,' said Rimma, so sad and pitiful that she shuddered.

- What happened this time?

- Everything is fine, I'm getting used to my personal life.

- Can I help you?

'Yes, I've got everything done by somebody here, and some kind of TV is all over the wall.'

- Good question. I can buy it from you.

- No, I am not selling, I did not put it here, not for me to sell, suddenly the former mother will appear!

- I agree, then so, turn on and use. You twist the handle, and before you pass the regions.

- Thank you, I'll now take a look at the land, but I don't understand how you know everything? - asked Rimma and heard the whistles, and it seemed to her that it was not Olga, but some of the men spoke through a filter for telephones that distorted the voice.


Rimma called Olga back:

- I had the opportunity to view the entire globe, but I wanted to watch only one person. For safety reasons, each person must be grounded or de-energized.

- What does it look like in reality? - Olga asked.

- For example. The man lies and watches TV, or sits at the computer, or reads a book. An elementary current of desires passes through him if he accidentally wandered into an erotic picture or saw sexual moments on the screen. After a while, he develops an ordinary hunger and a state of dissatisfaction.

- What does he want at such a moment?

- So that the one whom he chased came and brought food and that she cooked food and fell in love with him. And the most important thing is to leave after that, not having drunk tea.

- How does a woman respond to such a situation?

- Once or twice she may well meet all such desires, if ... If she wants it herself, and if she does not want a sloth, then she may be lazier than him and not read or watch erotic materials. So they died out. From laziness. Having thought of this version of life, I grinned and remembered the alarming and calling eyes of a superficially familiar large man, but I did not strive to approach the new object of women's suffering. I still understood, communicating with different people, that people perceive an ordinary registered marriage differently, and I didn't want to climb into this variety of opinions.

Olga did not answer this humor.


Yesterday at work they read how invented condensed milk. This is opposite Rimma in the office, hiding behind an old plotter, decorated with blooming violets, a very strange man is sitting. Imagine a working engineer in 80 years. It is hard to imagine? For his work biography, he worked exclusively as a design engineer.

He began to draw on the reshyshin, then on the drawing board and now draws in the computer. Sometimes he was the head of the design bureau, sometimes the head of the department, and now he is the lead designer. A sinusoid is present in any biography, he is no exception, he is a man of the golden rule, which says that work is the main thing in life.

Yes, he is gray, so already laid was gray. But he is in his mind. And he quickly moves when walking. He is married a second time, his second wife is 17 years younger. But it does not work, but it works. His son lives overseas, but his daughter from his first marriage lives nearby, and she is the only one who shares his passion for the dacha. On weekends, he travels by train to the country in any weather. He himself cleans the roof from snow in the winter and from the leaves in the autumn, he upholsters a toilet and a garage with a profile sheet.

Sometimes he and his wife make long walks on weekends or visit museums, parks, observation platforms of the city. He rarely takes vacation or sick leave, practically he is always at work. It happens that he argues with the chief, who is the head of the design bureau.

In the afternoon Rimma and Olga walked in the forest.

'I printed regular books and presented them to different people,' Rimma said.

- And the people? - Olga asked.

- Some grab the book and give further, others sell. Often they don't need a gift book, they want to get money for it. They call the publisher, make comments. Then the author is called from the publisher and give the gift comments.

- Who is to blame for the whirlpool of such generosity?

- Author. The author should not give their books to greedy people.

- How to weed them out?

'A detective is needed at this place.' I gave the book to my boss. He has a first wife. His wife does not work, but makes money from gifts. She was given something in the store, she found a defect, put the entire store on her ears, and she was given money for an item she did not buy.

- Rimma, you put so much work into your books. And then you give them! Do I need to publish my own books?

- You're right, you need to publish only copies for yourself, to work on the works. People who publish their books in large quantities often live in books from their homes.

- There are those who sell books?

- Those who sell books through shops spend a lot of money on the sale and publication of books. Life is so wise that it is easier not to publish than to publish books, it is better not to write than to write. But there are those who have written themselves, but nothing is sold. Therefore, there are gifts.

- What do they do with gifts?

- Throw out, read or peredarivat, less often sell. Stuck in my teeth this topic.

The next walk of Rimma and Olga came to an end.


Very different problems were busy at work. The water element of the oceans, somewhat reminiscent of space, immersion, as well as taking off, does not happen without overloads.

It is ridiculous to say, but for several years Rimma thought about the fact that she didn't like submarines at all, working as a designer in completely different areas, she was constantly thinking about submarines. Somehow she was very lucky, because she was given a small device for deep-sea diving to develop, from such work she was in seventh heaven with happiness.

But there is no complete happiness, a new chief came to them in the KB, a copy of one of the country's previous presidents. Name, surname, appearance, height - everything corresponded to this president.

During the reign of the president, the designer was also a twin, he had a huge design office in his subordination. If his wife needed a new apartment, he was given it for a week, and in two weeks he could drive into it.

The president on the throne was about five, five years his twin - the designer enjoyed power over people and over structures. The triumphal peak passed, and the counterpart-designer at retirement age came to the small design office where Rimma worked.

The duplicate - the designer decided to restore his own order both among the people and in the products they were developing. Most of all in the design bureau he liked Rimma's work, he constantly took it out with his not entirely correct instructions about the design of the device for deep immersion.

It must be said that by this time Rimma had been working independently for many years, and what she developed was all working.

The new retired chief of the Design Bureau prevented her from all his former triumphal forces. Before him, she had already developed a basic design node, which passed all the tests. The pest-twin did not let her repeat the tests with the device. He had magnets - and they worked incorrectly.

Horror gripped the entire consciousness of Rimma. The head spoiled all her work, despair - poorly said - accompanied all the days of his work with his counterpart-pest.

The administrator can not work - designer! If he commanded an army of developers, it does not mean that he developed what they did. He was the administrator, the counterpart of the president, and all. Amazing work with an underwater object was destroyed by a twin to the ground.

God did not let Rimma die in the presence of the double of the president.

It is impossible for a designer from God to interfere with the development of designs! God took pity on Rimma and sent her a new leader, Andrei Georgievich, with whom she had already worked. Both were obsessed with developing a lightweight submarine. What Rimma did not like the existing submarines? By its size.

Floating houses in the ocean with a huge number of unnecessary pipelines, made of poor-quality material, could not please the hereditary designer. Remember the death of a large ship and a huge number of versions: because of what he sank? Rimma of all versions was interested in one - the ship's casing was made of molten metal, and the interior of the ship was luxurious. A terrible contradiction! Ice beat metal! Absurd ship designs.

And if you look at the design of submarines? Hell of a sailor, and this is poorly said. Previously, sailors were fed with stew and condensed milk, they were fed better than the rest of the army, a former submariner told him this.

And now? How to lure a sailor in a submarine? Consequently, in the development of submarines, it is necessary to involve completely different mental forces, this means of underwater movement of submarine missiles and people must be reconsidered.

Miniaturization should penetrate the design of the submarine.

Rimma and Andrei Georgievich started the development of an underwater helicopter. It is a helicopter. Without a screw, the plane does not fly and the ship does not sail. Rimma developed an airtight assembly between the inside of the ship and the outer screw. The difficult thing without a magnet did not work, she did it with a few magnets.

If the propellers are at the rear of the ships, then the 4M light submarine is at the top. The great helicopter designer M. invested his knowledge in helicopters and airplanes. Unknown to the world, the chief designer has developed an underwater helicopter. And the fact that he is unknown to the people, he was clear from the time of his uncle.

Rimma's uncle was secretly kept alive, his name was known to great SP, but the people and distant relatives did not know what he was working out and who he really was.

The underwater helicopter was not sent to the exhibitions, it was immediately hidden from people's eyes and declared a secret underwater UFO. The size of the underwater helicopter was greater than the air, undoubted.

So, small apartment with a small size control panel. Rimma was a great developer in the field of miniaturization of structures due to the use and development of the latest chips and other electronic components. She was a well-known designer in her circles in the development of sealed enclosures using magnets to transfer one type of movement to another.

The shape of the underwater helicopter gradually became oval when designing; a huge number of drawings were left behind. Layouts worked flawlessly. The ubiquitous scouts were the first to learn about the work in this area of underwater craft.

The secrecy of the work was marginal, all people did not accept their own, but information was leaked into secret, knowledgeable services of the country.

Rima felt shadowed, but the twins did not send her and did not interfere with her work. The development of the underwater helicopter was completed, the product passed all tests.

The customer was pleased, but did not go to increase the series, they didn't want to let the new product into public use, the secret services took the underwater helicopter into service for ten years, then they gave permission for the use of the underwater helicopter.

He worked. Life was on the rolling track of existence.

At work, a natural storm. The wind blew right through the window and brought such tasks that everyone was turned upside down. Yesterday, the chief came to the assembly area, who had long looked at what to find fault, and found the door, which was thrown under the windows on the street. The door lay under a rusty pipe and quickly rusted.

The head of the department gave overclocking to the boss. The chef gave overclocking to Rimma yesterday and continues to humiliate her today. As a result, she has a desire to quit. In order not to quit, but to calm down, Rimma begins to write. And you thought, why do people write? To bring the nerves in order.

The air conditioning rumbles, the wind flies into the open window and flings the doors open - all three pleasures on the face. The sun is shining outside, all the lights are on, plus the light of computers - here are three more pleasures in the same office. And silence - all went out on business.

Strips of curtains slowly sway from the wind, the phone rings, and there is no one to approach. She got up, went over, listened, but there was no one to call - everyone came out. Job? After labor races came a respite. Everyone wants a vacation. Outside the windows of August. The first leaves of the trees flew along with the wind. One of the works lies, there is a lack of a pair of elements, today it has also been shaken. Attacks from all sides.

Passed day. Day to day is not necessary, yesterday all day - even cry, today is just a day without a smile. I had to eat ice cream, which turned out to be fresh and tasty with a jelly filling. It is impossible, but it would be desirable, so let at least something pleasant and cool. "Coast, coast" - lunch in full swing. Rimma forgets the one with whom she went on the other side, and reminders of her psyche no longer work.

So, she ties up with the publication of books through publishers, samples of personal books are more than enough, and the financial sense is zero. Can not sell. There is a dream that cannot come true, to make full-fledged detective stories out of novels. You can read detectives, but the most bressed to the clue - solid thorns, or it is not her profile.


The real spring sun reigned on the street, if you do not look down to the ground, where there was still snow in some places, then the sensation of life and mood is spring. Life twists and twists forces, sometimes pierces the chest.

Rimma went to work. Bright snow glare glittered in the cold snow from the light of lanterns. Buses were left behind, in front was a parking lot. Frost reigned over the land. She was warm today, she dressed in winter clothes - she froze yesterday: she did not dress for the weather, and the bus got cold.

She got around the cold, sat down on a warm spot on the bus and put on winter clothes. At the bus stop today all the ladies were in fur coats, everyone aired the fur coats for the first time after last winter.

'Fur coat is good,' thought Rimma, passing a huge dog past her. And then she realized that the stop and the people were left far behind. Nearby there is no one except a huge dog. She missed him, but the dog was clever, he ran ahead and waited.

Rima felt threatened in the frosty air. She was no longer up to the brilliance of snowflakes. She looked back, but she didn't see the people and realized that meeting the dog is unavoidable, but there is nowhere to retreat. Deserted She went ahead.

The dog jumped out from behind the car and stopped. It was a huge white dog with black spots, arranged like a bow around his neck. She lifted her bag, protecting herself from the dog, as if to say that there was no meat in the bag. She went to the checkpoint, where there were two more big dogs, it was their rightful place. Someone brought them food. Rimma walked past the dogs and the checkpoint.

She constantly managed to come to work first, so she turned on the lights in the office. Turning on her computer, she straightened her smooth hair, changed her shoes, and began pounding the keys. After watching the news on the network, she briefly recalled what should be done, and proceeded directly to work. At this time, the rest of the staff appeared.

And the roses bloomed on the window ...

The oldest employee of the company was born so long ago that it is difficult to imagine that you can work at his age. But he worked, read the news and announced them to the public. He has very little left until 80 years. Years old...

With him you need to take an example for long-term performance.

At 11 o'clock in the morning he announced to all that it was time to eat fruit. And he solemnly said which pears are the best - that is, if he brought pears. The next day he praised the persimmon and called delicious varieties. He also brought apples, which he sliced into slices on a saucer. He very gently and with a sense of eating grapes. He could so admire the lemon with a leaf that then no one could eat this lemon, he became an animated fruit.

At 12 o'clock it was lunch time. Included kettle and "Road Radio". If you can drink one tea daily in a sachet until you have drunk the whole package, then listening to one song 'Happy Birthday' every day is simply painful. And only the president's speech on Constitution Day could turn off Road Radio with its songs of the same type.

The elder's birthday came, but not on Constitution Day, and on this day 'Road Radio' was in place. He loved and drank only brandy, drank with feeling, with pleasure. Snacked with respect to the products that he himself brought. It is amazing to look like this at his age and so rejoice at everything that can be eaten. But he could be angry, he could hate, if someone had crossed it. There was one enemy in his office, it was he who did not sit at the birthday man's table.

And on the street was slushy December ...

Rimma sat in the office and looked around her. On the left was a palm tree. On the right was a smaller palm tree. Evergreens curled over the right shoulder. Purple flowers bloomed on all surfaces. Small bushes bloomed in red flowers.

Earned a printer, this is Rimma made a printout. Rimma followed her gaze and thought that all the color and leafy decisions in the office belong to her. She is a master in caring for office flowers. The spring holidays have just passed, but all the flowers of the office survived during the weekend decade. Rimma put all the flowers on the table, wrapped them with rags of flagella, the second end of which was dipped in a bowl of water.

Today, all the flowers were normal and bloomed in full, creating a cozy atmosphere of the south in the office located on the Central Russian Upland. Outside, the temperature is around twenty degrees, the sun is shining, white clouds are running. All work intently.

Rimma once complained that in their country house the water had gone from the well. The winter was not too snowy or someone pumped water from the level of the land where they took the water. Her neighbors began to deepen the wells. Summer residents are strange people, they get water, put greenhouses, and then successfully distribute the fruits of their labor, because they cannot eat jam - pickles, frozen berries - fruits.

Rimma has no problem, the chief has no problem. Olga and the elder have a dacha. In the office, they each sit in their own corner. In the center of the office are a table and chairs. Put on the table design documentation for inspection and delivery to the shop or archive. It was on this table that the office flowers survived a long holiday.


The next day, Olga went with her friend to the dining room. Rimma stayed in the office. She put the kettle on, warmed the second in the microwave. Music sounded during lunch. The rest is full. Rimma goes to work by bus, almost half an hour in one direction, then goes on foot. Today she didn't get two stops and decided that she wouldn't go for a walk in the afternoon.

Yesterday she wrote an application for leave and came to the conclusion that you can spend your vacation at home. She goes to the gym, bathes in the pool, goes to the solarium, does massage.

The question is, what is she still not doing in parallel work? As for men, Rimma has a complete failure in this matter. She has a state of complete zero. There is no love, no love. Silence in the feelings. She had seen Alex again, but she wasn't at the cashier's desk. They have no feelings. And she is not ready to change it yet.

Sucks.

So, there remains a job with which it is completely overwhelmed. There is still time before vacation, you can work in your pleasure. This alignment. Rimma will go on vacation in the middle of summer.

Rima in the summer went to the mountains by car with her mother. She is just in awe of mountain lakes. Mom has a cottage located near the lake. Once went and again wants to go. She and her mother are great. Last year they traveled to the peninsula, and the queue at the ferry did not stop them. Everywhere visited: in Simferopol, in Bakhchisarai and in the Ancient city with caves were photographed.

Satisfied ...

Rimma can not drive. She has mastered the computer one of the first, started a cell phone long ago, and stopped at that. An entrance order was hanged on the door: on Fridays in the summer, everyone works until 15 o'clock without lunch. Suburban period legalized.

Strange news day. All were sent on vacation for two weeks and calculated. The chief in rubies first went on vacation, Rimma will go on vacation after his return. She tried to find out where he went, but he didn't say anything. She studied the prices of trains and airplanes, she also looked where, how and for how much you can relax.

From the first time, vacation problems did not work out, but within a week everything turned out how good or bad it will write later. And then the complete calm in her feelings after the departure of the chef. Sometimes there is an idea to call, call Alex on a vacation, but she understands that they will not succeed.

The network again wrote that they refuse to investigate the murder of politicians at the highest level. It seems either everyone knows or does not want to advertise the information. The brown-eyed politician turned out to be a loving person. He was devoted to the whole program on television, showed his women and children. What does she care about this politician?

He is incredibly similar to her one-time love. He had a whole unofficial harem of women. The old mill. Then it was this song that sounded. They could have a one-time baby too. No, Rimma could not go for it. Terribly. Is it possible to erect a monument of one-time love, or is it better to forget it soon? It is better to forget and remember how bitter life experience.

Rimma looked at Olga, who sat with her chin on her hand. Dinner. 'I miss you,' sounds on the air.

Rima does not dream of anyone, and Olga told her that she had no one. And Nadia and Alex bought an apartment. Well done. They and their relatives threw themselves into an apartment, and bought an apartment for leaving.


Chapter 6

Rimma did not like to talk on the phone. She grabbed the forehead with one palm, the height of the forehead was the width of the palm, then she looked at the sky, from where she was brought in devils from a mental journey. Interestingly, all trips to the historical past began in her youth and ended no older than the age at which she was.

She felt pain under her palm, indeed, the journey was not easy, drank a couple of different pills under the slow sips of black coffee and thought that the past no longer pulls her in any manifestation. She looked at the cell phone and decided to never touch his buttons again.

'In the land where meteors roam, astronauts hold their way in the sky, here they are alpine spaces, if you want, you can look in ...' - Rima's soul sang mentally and looked at the endless sky the color of her eyes.

The buds in the trees were ready to shoot little leaves in a space warmed by warm rays. Earthly grace surrounded her on all sides, except for one.

And where is the sun not shining? In her soul, the sun did not shine, the soul flew into cosmic spaces, where the buds on the trees do not bloom.

Why did she give up aluminum space? The filling of the spacecraft is devices hidden in sealed aluminum circles. And where are these mugs needed? In the forest by the fire, it means that it is on Earth, the axiom of life and mood is proved. Who is proven?

Lousy mood did not match the spring mood of the Earth. Therefore, it is time to go into the subcortex of the consciousness, into the darkness of your thoughts.

The aluminum device was on the table, it had already completely formed a few years ago in other people's brains, and it did not work, now this monster of the earth had to be redone so that it would work in space spaces and work as long as the spacecraft was in space .

The device was responsible for the internal airspace of the ship. Complex device, multifunctional.

Why did the device not work with the previous developers? Here it stands and does not breathe, does not work, it is not finalized. The author of this development has long been in the ground, could not develop a space device for a spacecraft, and his soul immediately visited the cosmos as a personal person.

He was removed for an unfulfilled space mission. Who removed? This is not a question of its competence.

Next to Rimma, there was a certain engineer who had just graduated from the institute with the red diploma. He developed this device with its predecessor. His name at the moment adorns the institute in gold letters and his modest grave.

I got drunk a man. The diploma did not help him. After the death of his friend, he began to drink gin and tonic at lunch. At work, this smell seems disgusting, it does not match the working environment. And once he began drinking a bottle of vodka a day without a snack, he died a couple of weeks later.

It means that people died for this device, and he, damned, stands and does not breathe, does not blink with his LEDs, does not measure the set parameters. They died, Rimme left their work.

The device will not work from such thoughts, and the mood will not rise, despite the buds on the trees, which are not visible from the workplace. The device of such complexity is not developed alone, it is not one, there are two of them: She and He. It depends on them the breath of this device and the astronauts in space.

Rimma leafed through the design documentation remaining on this device, selected what can be used in the new version.

The drawings were made on a computer, but it was felt that they were still damp, but some could be used for further work. She bent over her own drawing of a complex device node, which had to be forced to perform its functions.

Rattling the keys, Alex burst into the room, he is the second mind of this device in the new version. By his appearance, no one would guess that it was his brain that was expensive, his ever-worn jeans spoke of his indifference to his appearance.

The ugliness of his old sweater did not yield to the female understanding, even his wife. This young man was a penny in his forehead.


Rimma was afraid of only one thing, so that Alex would not drink himself, like his predecessor. They practically didn't talk among themselves. They always worked silently. Rare dialogs arose only when interests collided on this device. At work, they are ordinary employees.

The curators of the new device turned out to be a great many, the work was constantly checked by third-party organizations. Alex worked as usual, but all requirements were quickly fulfilled, if it concerned the manufacture of the device, its parts, its configuration. Instead of an award for his work or medals, the company suffered financial losses.

The company was framed so that it became all indebted as silk. The company was set up, because the previous company that carried out this order was completely ruined. So Rimma was extreme in this work. Quickly tales affect.

Work on the device progressed, despite the financial troubles of the company. For this device, no one promised the golden mountains, but it had to be done and brought to full operation.

They made the device. He earned, all of his seven functions fulfilled their purpose. Documentation was done and reworked, handed over and retaken.

And once called:

- Thanks for the work.

And the whole reward.

The temperature in the office was below comfortable. Rimma took out a tight jacket from the closet, and it became easier to endure the living conditions.

Alex entered the office with a red-faced face:

- When will the summer ?!

Rimma looked out the window:

- The sun has already appeared!

Andrei Georgievich looked away from the computer and turned to the window:

- It remains to add warm, and there will be summer.

- As soon as children play in the snowdrifts, is it cold there? - Alex continued his speech.

'Alex, have you seen how children build snow castles?' - asked Rimma, glancing at his frozen look in a warm jacket.

- Thats exactly what I mean! - Alex said, took off his clothes and plunged into work.

The silence was short, Alex was the first to break it:

- Andrei Georgievich, sew me a chip on my door code, which I stand like a gopher at my new entrance, and freeze, until someone opens the door for me?

'Okay, I'll do it if you buy it,' said Andrei Georgievich, without raising his head from the small board, 'Rimma, this design of your universal key does not work!'

- This is why it does not work? - indignantly exclaimed Rimma and went to the chief.

- Look, your cylindrical key is larger than usual, imported, it does not contact! - Andrey Georgievich shook the office air indignantly.

- I have done everything correctly, let's check the dimensions! - said Rimma, took the cylinder from the chief and began to verify the dimensions of the product with the drawing. - Here, Andrei Georgievich, look, in this game not all the sizes correspond to the drawing, there are big deviations from the nominal sizes!

- I do not care what you say, you do not understand that the key is not in contact! - the chief continued the song, without penetrating into words.


Rimma went to the assembly shop, lifted everybody up, made her find the necessary part, finished it herself, put it in the key, checked it on the door, the LED glowed red, the signal went, there was contact, but the door didn't open.

She triumphantly appeared in the office:

- Andrei Georgievich, there is a contact, but the LED shines with a red light, not green!

Andrei Georgievich responded to the tirade of words with a sly expression on his face:

'So I have this key,' he lowered his voice, 'I did for Alex, so the key will not work here.'

Rimma returned to her seat and continued to work.

The door squeaked from the key, Alex flew into the office:

- Rimma, give the drawings to the castle, order a new batch.

She took out the drawings and propagated them in Alex's office. The men started talking about something clever. She multiplied the drawings and left them on the table of Alex, the most beautiful man of her time.

In her computer on the screen, the green and white lines of a large drawing took all the attention. In the office, everyone worked, the sounds of the radio never violated this original silence.

The door squeaked, Alex entered. Rimma turned off the computer and went to the closet with outerwear. They left the office together. A snowstorm swept past planes, houses, pedestrians, past a tense state of mind.

The soldering iron buried its nose in the infinity of space and radiated the temperature of the soldering. The scheme has earned. Rimma was developing a new device. The square of the flat screen shone exactly before his eyes, he called her to draw a new design, he pulled to himself and pushed, but life without him was empty and boring.

The screen attracts like a man, or collects thoughts about them, which is one and the same, life at the screen becomes the norm, everyday life. Life with the keyboard under the fingers became real and boring.

'Another amazing phenomenon occurs during human life, everything fantastic becomes commonplace and natural, and old science fiction seems to be a weak reflection of the history of mankind. Mankind goes forward with giant steps, eating all fantastic ideas '- she wrote this abstruse phrase and did not even smile.

Normal gray - a dirty sky loomed on the horizon, letting lost snowflakes pass through it.


Rimma was sitting at the computer, drawing the next development.

A man with a serious name, Andrei Georgievich, was sitting not far from her, inventing a new design that is unknown. Suddenly he asked:

-Rimma, do you like pearls? I can help and give you any pearls on the ground.

- Where have you brought! Did you see pearls on me? I always have mother-of-pearl lipstick, mother-of-pearl eye-shadows, and sometimes pearl-colored nail polish - that's the whole set of pearls.

- Not much. What are we developing the equipment for a pearl plantation located in the lagoon of the Untouched Island?

- This is our job and everything. Pearls are a by-product of our development, not the goal of life.

- Rimma, do you need a pearl of youth?

- What for? Have you found a younger performer of your thoughts? If she is younger than me, then she still goes to school, and all my efforts to be younger than her are in vain.

- But you can look better than her!

- Yes?! What for? Electronic capsules of youth lie next to me in the closet. People pay money for them, and I redraw the edible shell on their body, launch a new form into production.

- And you have not eaten a single e-pill? They are next to you!

- This is my job, and I do not eat my job.

- Oh, on your white coat, I see pearl buttons!

- They bought me a working uniform, more precisely a white coat with pearl buttons, so that he made my figure shapeless.

- Sorry for the real pearls on your buttons.

- Andrei Georgievich, why are you today started a pearl theme? Something happened?

'Do you even know that on the Untouched Island of Mother of Pearl Flounder, the Martians should hatch?' More precisely, unknown creatures.

- Did you have a pearl dream today?

- No, I saw on TV. You do not understand me, but our new employee understands me.

- So, closer, but she is not younger than me.

- Rimma, excuse me, of course, but she looks younger than you.

- According to rumors, she eats the pearls of youth, and she herself has already become a dried roach, or, excuse me, a flounder. Are you with her for a couple of Martians produce? People you already can not get?

- In vain I spoke to you! You are not very good today. I'll launch you into electronic pills, maybe you can eat to keep up with others. You do not want to listen to me, but one amber lady wants to invent the golden energy of youth.

'I know we will make golden stands for chemical works for her.'

- Do you want me to get you a golden capsule containing the energy of youth?

- This is nonsense. I myself drew the golden capsules, it would fill them with something.

- You can not argue with you.

They fell silent.

Alex flew into the room.

- What are you inventing now, are you our design minds?

'Cutters for a new city in the Copper Mountains,' Rimma replied.

- Rimma, are you kidding me or scoffing at me? After all, everything turned out, cleaned the mountain in the right place, got a platform with a flat surface, which are natural, and which are made of crumbs. The rumor has passed, people are going, not in trouble. There is a new job, gentlemen designers!

- Spit it out, Alex, - Andrei Georgievich drawled displeasure.

- What if...

'To do without pearls and cook pearl barley,' Rimma agreed for him.

- No, what if ...

'Buy us cars with mother-of-pearl coating and leave us alone,' said Andrei Georgievich.

- Closer that if we all fly to a pearl plantation, pearls with sexual effect are grown on it.

- Who about what. Alex, did your roof fly off in your old age? - Rimma asked maliciously.

- I was joking, you need to redo the device for resuscitation. The heart must be brought back to life in any conditions.

- We already did it.

- Replace the batteries in the design of the solar panels that are used to fly to the planet Far.

'Alex, you're smart.' Precisely, this is a good idea, - Andrei Georgievich smiled.

Alex, pleased that his idea was approved, left the lab of the corporation of foreseen circumstances.

Rimma plunged headlong into work, she had a feeling that she knew Alex all her life.


Rimma came home with cold feet. In the evening it became very cold. Her legs in shorts offended by the lack of pants. I also forgot to take the car, went for a walk, so I walked up. She rubbed her legs and turned on a solar-powered windmill heater.

She thought that rare shots quickly become rather obsolete.

Yes, and her ex-husband, Alex, had not bothered her for a long time. She forgot about him, but not because of her own cruelty. In addition, she thought that when shooting a film in a fighter the window did not open, which means that again the fan or air conditioner would represent a breeze, and close people would be far from the pilot.

Then the thought flashed through her head that the actors were working for wear for two reasons: the lack of fresh airflow on the stage and in the theater as a whole, the presence of any relatives and especially close people in the auditorium, which adversely affects the actor's performance and his nervousness.

'These two reasons are also true for other professions,' thought Rimma, swallowing pieces of cake without raisins. And she suffered from jealousy and anger, but not for long. Her beloved Alex again bore her eyes, standing with a stranger, forgetting about the next Nadia. Whether he is very intelligent and therefore looks at Rimma from afar so that he can see better. In fact, all this is nonsense, he is a close person to her.

Pieces of cake disappeared, Rimma's mood rose. The air was blowing out of the fan and creating normal climatic conditions. And if there were no fan, how would she press the keyboard with ten fingers, if she had to wave her fan? 'This is it,' said the last piece of cake and disappeared behind the fence of white teeth.

She perfectly understood that a glass of orange juice is more useful than a soft and pliable cupcake, but you can make a stomach ulcer from the juice, but you cannot make a cupcake, it is harmless, affectionate and cottage cheese.


By the way, about dogs: Rimma had a dog Cross, who covered her pillow with his yellow liquid. This dog beige mink color - pet. He, of course, visited his toilet, but sometimes he sprayed its contents on the pillows, which are located in an upright position. His love for pillows did not have boundaries.

Rimma put a waterproof fabric under the pillowcase and now only changed the pillowcases. He was also drawn to the white walls of the refrigerators, and yellow puddles appeared around their feet. He proclaimed what he did with loud barking. Seeing Rimma, he left. Such is the prose of life.

All to one, and Alex did not come to Rimma. He found a friend with a helicopter and used someone else's vehicle to move around the city. The owner of the helicopter is a thin man, and Andrew is a strong man, and the two of them flew over the city and its surroundings, not using the costumes of flying wood goblins.

Rima to them in the helicopter did not sit down. Thus, the helicopters separated people into classes of vehicles, or, more precisely, at their price.

So, something in this whole quartet is wrong. Rima felt that her friends' helicopters went around at the turn, and she was thrown into a ditch as poor. So, she crawled out of the ditch over the dirty turf upstairs, where a helicopter with a pilot was not waiting for her. Why did she find herself in a ditch of poverty? She is?! It so happened that Rimma unsuccessfully invested money in fantastic material for spaceships, which was hard to figure out.

She looked up, next to her desk was a handsome handsome man! "There are no such beautiful men," thought Rimma.

And he did not think, he said:

- Hello! - and smiled a charming smile.

'Hello,' Rimma said incredulously and quietly, rising from her workplace. The man was taller than her head! - Who are you?

- Your neighbor in this room. I will sit next to you.

- Did I miss something. Are you probably a new hardware tuner or programmer?

- Similarly, I was here, but you were not there. My name is Philip.

'C'mon, tell me that you have returned from the interstellar portal,' she said at random. - And what we said the other day on interstellar communication.

- Oh, got to the point. Yes, we talked to you, but did not meet. Is it your dog Cross, designed to fly to the moon?

- Yes, my dog's name is Cross.

Two people entered the room. They waved their heads to the newcomer in greeting, as if they had known him all their lives. Rimma took her seat. Andrei walked to the next table, over which the day before the staff had been busy, assembling a test stand for the equipment. Of course, Rimma knew that a new employee was coming to them! But she did not expect that he is divinely beautiful and more beautiful than you can imagine!

- Philip, do you have a helicopter? - Rimma blurted out unexpectedly for everyone.

- Rimma, leave the newcomer alone! - exclaimed one of two employees.

- I'm not asking you, but new!

- I have a foreign car. It is located near the entrance. To take you home from work?

- Not! - Rimma snapped and realized that her card is a bit, that this handsome man is really not for her.

She buried herself in her triple computer, not listening to the conversations of men. Then she opened the World Wide Web and found an ad that talked about the prize draw. And then Rimma remembered that if the rally was held on Sunday, then she should get lucky. She will win any prize! How she got sick of bad luck and lack of personal transport!

At home, Rimma was waiting for another surprise: white curtains on the windows and tulle at the wind blowing out the window smelled of Cross. No, Cross himself did not smell, but his yellow creation on the white curtains was something odorous. I had to buy curtains before the window sills. After all the cases she went to the draw of goods, where she won a bucket of dog food and four chocolates for herself. Cross a bucket of food for the year will eat, the only way if it is not sent to the moon. He is a small, loudly barking dog. Most of all he liked to lie in the legs, and if Rimma went to bed, then Cross certainly found himself in the area of the calves from the outside.

- Rimma - my name is! How many times can you say that I need to be called correctly! - exclaimed Rimma into the receiver.

'So while I'll pronounce your name, I don't want to speak,' Alex said.

'You never once called me right,' said Rimma, offended.

- It sounds impolite, but it's right, but when I have time to marry you, if a new handsome man has come to you for work, and have you had time for anything good to fall in love with him? Rimma, I have no time! - shouted Alex and hung up the phone.


Indeed, Alex was not up to Rimma, two people fell into his apartment. He looked at them in surprise: his round eyes asked what had happened, and his mouth was silent.

- Alex, found out? I see that I learned there is a little thing. Do not make faces, we have known each other for a long time, we have come to you for the sake of one businessman. You will be the third performer, your refusal is not accepted. We fit your flexible figure. You are strong and you will climb to the third floor of a private house. Shut up, shut up, everything is thought out for you. There is one person, you need to scare him. You don't need to kill him, your task is to scare. Come on now, put on a uniform and go ahead, 'said Senya quickly in person.

The three of them went to a foreign car with dark windows. Philip thought only about one thing: so that he would not have to kill himself, and not be killed, and leave the place of disassembly unnoticed.

He did not choose these two companions, Senya and Venia, it was they who chose him when he once again turned around on the bar to attract Rimma's attention. Then he conquered the observers of a completely different sense.

Tests of the spacecraft due to the deluge at the development company were postponed for a couple of days. A new type of transport was intended for virtual planning between the planet Earth and the planet Far, which was discovered not in the observatory or in the starry sky, given that it is hard for the stars and the sky to live. Planet Far was in the Sphere. If there are actors who are seen by everyone, then there are authors who do not know.

Planet Far was in the role of an unknown object, and instead of it in the starry sky was the planet Earth. The landing of earthlings wasted no time. He worked in new conditions for himself and got used to the new worlds opening from the moon. The planet Far was discovered when reconfiguring a large telescope, it was visible not in front of the telescope, but as it were reflected on the screen.

Stargazer, who discovered on the screen traces of the planet, was surprised without any measure. He looked through a telescope and did not see the new planet, but it appeared on the projection screen. He checked the screen many times, but there were no defects on it. Then he shifted the telescope, the situation repeated itself in a new place. He rubbed all the lenses - the effect is the same. Stargazer decided to believe and check out the new planet, which he called the planet Far. By analogy, the headlights from the car reflected from the windows in one house and passed to another house. The astronomer Fen summoned a friend Alex from Earth.

Alex flew into the spacecraft. He brought with him a virtual telescope capable of enlarging the reflected image. A new object began to appear on the computer screen. Alex was straining from the strain through a straw and looked at a computer miracle. In front of him on the screen was a planet covered with clouds, it seemed to him that he sees the Earth himself. Alex and the astrologer together looked at the screen, but they did not find the familiar Earth continents. Undoubtedly, before them was a wonderful, unknown planet with an atmosphere suitable for the life of earthlings.

Rimma did not sleep. Oh, what is being done! He has changed again, her masculine ideal! This is a flexible young man, the growth that is necessary. But in the curves of his body there is an extraordinary male attraction. Lord, how good he is in the photo! He writes articles about the starry sky. Here he is! He knows everything about the stars and sits in a terem on three oaks! Let him be her next hobby.

And Rimma is interested in the land and its value, now she knows what she needs. She needs a runway for space flying objects, preferably in the forest zone, so that not everyone can see.

A normal life goes around it: people drink, eat, smack, who, how and how much can. Men marry and live long with women who do not put in the forefront after the wedding. They have a good home, and wrinkles on the face appear as if the meanders of thoughts, as if not to allow other women to their husband.

As for Rimma, her father protected her from other guys, saying that she changes young people more often than they do - gloves. At school, Rimme was smacked by girls, protecting their betrotheds, they were dressed up. Yes, she could not be a slave of young people! She was worried about other problems, such as interstellar flights. Here, I got the idea how to make a flying space object, not covered with a multitude of ceramic tiles, flying away from a ship when it collides with a bird's beak, still on the ground.

What do you need to do for this?

The spacecraft must be covered with ceramics, like candies with glaze, naturally, keeping the temperature regime. Seamless spaceships, slightly similar to aircraft, will take off from its runway. What did you think that Rimma is stupid? No, she's on her mind. She writes in her mind that she needs a stupa, a car, a yacht, a helicopter, a plane and a spaceship. Quite a bit, if you look.

Where will she fly on a spaceship?

Young people seek foreign production. Rima understood perfectly well that in the Solar System all young people live on the Earth and she is not personally acquainted with everyone, the earth's resources are not yet fully developed.


Chapter 7

Here is life! And there is no need to fly to other planets. Everything on Earth is there! The thought came: we need a piece of sun to heat the cottage at the personal cosmodrome, because electricity to areas distant from the capital is supplied intermittently. Helium, hydrogen is on Earth, it is necessary to make them a prototype of the sun, and the protuberances themselves will turn out.

Here, another thought.

Rimme needs a rainwater pool. To this end, it will make a huge funnel, streams of rain will flow into it, and the funnel will serve as the roof of the dacha. So the shape of her house was determined. Another funnel can be laid out with mirrors and get extra energy to heat the house. Yes, she and so everything is done by itself. And if she had a young man, when would she come up with everything?

Fluffy clouds are numb from their own clusters, and numb, became gloomy and gray. Under the clouds appeared sunny patches of land, and next to them - clouds covered with darkness. On one side of the building, the sun was peering in through the window. In the window, located on the other side of the building, rain clouds were coming. Suddenly a heavy direct rain fell on the building, covering it with a shroud of rain. And quite unexpectedly, water poured from the vent. People jumped up from their seats, drenched in dirty water jets.

Water flowed through the windows and computers. Alex turned off the toggle switches by turning off the power. He first jumped out the door and ran to the technical floor, having noticed that someone was running in the opposite direction. Indeed, it was necessary to try hard to combine the rain outside the window with the flow of water inside the building. Someone sent water from the water supply through a hose into the channel for air flow. And he was wearing leather pants - that's all Alex had noticed. He wrapped the tap with water, put the hose aside. People slowly put the office in order.

And before Alex's eyes, the leather pants of the pest loomed, to say the least. Sitting at a still wet table, he came to the conclusion that it was not by chance that his workplace was flooded. Yesterday he wrote a story in which water was used, today this water was spilled on his head. All this year, writing on the Web under his own name was not justified and caused him permanent harm.

Moreover, his personal girlfriend Rimma constantly got him, directly and indirectly. She thought he wrote about her. From this, his position only deteriorated and ruled out all love. Moreover, he was constantly played on the Net. Alex concluded that fame must be unknown. He looked on the web at the mourning frame with the face of a famous actor, and it seemed to him that he only now sighed calmly.


Famous people go through some circles of hell in life. It's sad, but people do not run to donate money for being entertained for free. On the contrary, there are those who are trying to humiliate the one who entertained them. Water from the ceiling is a common revenge. Alex didn't want to find out who owned the leather pants.

Virtual spaceship was ready to fly. Alex decided to say goodbye to Rimma on interstellar communication. But she spoke in a strange voice, as if with a stranger. Undoubtedly, she was taken out of real life or taken part of the memory.

Sadness overwhelmed the young interstellar cosmonaut, squeezed him with a vice and then released. It was not the time to give in to the senses. I must say that none of the inhabitants of the Earth wanted to accompany him to the virtual planet. Alex was different from the inhabitants manly character, sharp mind, good memory, physical fitness.

The virtual spaceship consisted of one compartment for an astronaut. The devices were hidden in his shell and had access to the computer screen. The engine and the entire energy supply system occupied the rest of the space. The entire spaceship was like a virtual complex with a constantly changing form.

Alex did not know the main thing: he was not sent on the flight. Before the flight, he ended up in a virtual laboratory, where a mosquito was made from it. He was placed in a virtual spaceship. His brain remained in working condition, and he himself almost was not. He looked at something in horror instead of himself. He looked like a mosquito, but in human parameters. He could not be called thin, it is strongly said. It consisted of twigs of arms and legs and a trunk four twigs thick. World-class high jumpers could well have replaced him.

His head was flat. With this head he understood why none of the inhabitants of the earth followed his example. This state of Alex did not require special energy for maintenance. Handsome by earthly standards, turned into a virtual model, flew to the planet Far. The flight path of the virtual spacecraft was set. Alex watched the work of the devices only on the computer screen, sitting in a chair as thick as the curved leg of the chair. A small groove in the curved design was his place.

Alex came up with a new name for himself - Komar Far - and smiled. Under this name, Rimma will not find him on the Internet. He looked at himself and realized that the interstellar astronauts did not recognize him, now he can be mistaken for a power cable in a spacecraft with a connector instead of a head. He looked at his palms. They looked like wires coming out of a cable.

The spectacle is not for everyone, although everyone does not care who is hidden in the cable. On his feet, he found five longer wires running from their foot cables. He was sad, but not for long. The planet Far appeared on the screen and began to rapidly approach. The spaceship began to make chaotic security movements, so that it was not accidentally shot down by the good inhabitants of the planet Far.

The spaceship landed in the crevice of the mountains. The inhabitants of the planet Far did not meet Alex. He climbed through one of the many hatches. At that moment, he understood the positive aspects of the new look. In addition, his head could change its shape.

'Life is beautiful,' thought Komar Far and looked at the landscape of the new planet Far. Sharp peaks of rocks surrounded the spaceship from all sides. Clouds floated innocently on the sky. Alex remembered what he was taught before the flight. He was taught to use the new puny body. From the heat, cold and rain it was protected by a thermal shell of durable material.

He looked at the wiring of the fingers and toes, did not want to erase them on the rocks. Mosquito Far got out of the spacecraft something resembling a balloon. He pumped the balloon with light gas, wrapped it around the rope and flew into a new world. Alex clung to the top of the cliff. Tied a ball of thread over the protrusion in the rock. He looked around him and saw all the same rocks.

The landscape did not make him happy. Mosquito Far looked at the spaceship, firmly seated between the rocks. The joy of being on a new planet was without soil. He sat in the groove of the stone, which, together with the astronaut, began to gently descend into the rock. There was no fear in the connector instead of the head. Alex felt a slight push. His cabin stopped in a pleasant room. On all the walls hung a panel with sharp ledges of rocks. In the center of the hall was a hose from which wires were sticking out. He was probably a local resident.

Alex went to the hose. Hose rose from the table. He extended a bundle of wires in greeting. Alex thought that before the flight he saw a hose from which water poured on his computer. Now in front of him was a hose with wires of the same diameter. More precisely, it was a natural cable. The cable spoke, and his head swelled like a cobra's head. So those who sent Alex to the planet Far knew what the locals looked like!

And Komar Far thought that he was the first inhabitant of the Earth to set foot on the planet Far. He was pleasantly surprised that the cable knew how to smile. On the planet of Far, according to Alex, there were no individuals of different sexes. To him all the hoses with the heads of the cobras appeared on one face. His own body of pain and pleasure did not deliver him. Hoses moving around the city were not annoying, but they were not attractive either.

The houses standing on both sides of the central streets were with numerous cylindrical turrets. Hoses led a normal life. They worked, studied. Alex was not allowed into the personal life of the local population. And he unwittingly began to yearn for his body, about his friend Rimma and about his personal life before the flood in the office.

Eh, those leather pants! If they had not flooded his office, maybe he would not have walked in the image of a hose among the local hoses! Find leather pants! But how to find them if Alex is on a planet remote from the Earth at two space transitions?

The archive of films in the local film library turned out to be quite large; it allowed him to watch films in his free time. There was no direct connection with Earth on the planet, it was necessary to call across the Moon. But Rimma still did not recognize Alex. However, she could find leather pants!

Thoughts of himself began to flash in Alex's head. As a result of the puzzles, he concluded: he is not. He was on the planet Phar swallowing the existence of a primitive robot in the form of a mosquito from hoses. He had hope that he could return to his beloved lifestyle. Hope for life in crisis conditions would have pleased him more than a prosperous life in the form of a cable with electric power. Alex worked on the planet Far along with the rest of the hoses. Outwardly, no one was different from each other. Therefore, he did not attract attention.

And then a thought flashed through him: the local hoses were sent from Earth. But why could not they send ordinary people here? And he answered himself: people want to eat, and the hoses have enough electricity, which can be obtained on any planet from anything.

Alex lived to the point that he talked to himself. I would have known - I did not fly, but who would take into account his opinion. And what if leather pants are a regular hose, but thick! A thick firm was Thomas. This self-taught could arrange a flood, the only way! Alex remembered the beads on Rimma, she repaired them from Thomas and could have told him too much. Here is Thomas and he poured water over him because of primitive jealousy!

Two hoses came up to Komar by Faro and were invited to a local party. The event took place in a fabulous castle, resembling a large organ. Probably, the hoses loved the organ for a large number of sounding pipes. Their external forms coincided. Alex enjoyed organ music to the fullest and was surprised by a huge audience full of listeners. He lived for a month on the planet Far, but still could not detect the difference between the hoses. Either all the cables were cables.

Alex slowly got used to the new life. He felt better after organ music. Hoses were engaged in processing of rare ore, which requires huge energy costs, the resulting substance was sent to planet Earth. Some clouds reminded him of Earth. The vegetation on the planet was more artificial than growing from the soil. Clouds floated around the planet, but did not rain.

And if spilled, all the hoses would spark from a short circuit. What was Alex breathing? And who said he had lungs? Hoses fed where worked. For them, there were chargers. Plumbing they were completely useless. Life among the hoses was too monotonous.

Komar Far bored on Rimma so that he was ready to fly to Earth by a transport spacecraft. He clenched his fingers into a fist, a picture of landing on the planet Far flashed through his head. He remembered the forgotten virtual spaceship stuck between the rocks. Now he knew how to get to the elevator, located in the rock.

It remained to receive permission to walk in the rocks.

Alex decided to invite two hoses, which once called him to a party. The three of them persuaded the duty lift to let them out for a walk among the rocks.

Three hoses soon found themselves on top of a cliff, from which a spaceship was perfectly visible. Given the ease of the spacecraft, three cables after a good recharge pulled the spaceship on a small platform. After a successful sortie, they returned to the city for a new charge. Their internal batteries, located in the head, were filled to the limit.

As a result, the hoses felt a little dizzy from an excess of electrical energy. This energy they attributed to the spaceship. After a few minutes, the virtual spaceship was ready to fly. But they miscalculated. The person on duty of the elevator turned out to be more quick-witted and first entered the spaceship. Three hoses wrapped around their empty heads.

The duty officer checked the spaceship and allowed three hoses to fly to the planet Earth. In the cockpit, Alex discovered containers with a secret substance. It turns out that they decided to use the carriers for peaceful purposes, without giving the opportunity to rejoice at the escape.

On planet Earth, all three hoses entered the virtual laboratory, from which three normal young men of flesh and blood emerged. Alex was amazed that they were all the same age and received a paper that they had passed alternative service in the army.

The head of the company, Andrei Georgievich, sincerely rejoiced at Alex's return. As it turned out, he already served as a hose on the planet Far, where no one was sent twice. Alex returned home and immediately went to the office. His gaze was looking for Rimma's eyes, but she was not there ...


Rimma at this time was walking across the bridge, carried by the crowd to the next spectacle. Suddenly she felt a look of such strength that she turned around, continuing to walk in the stream of people. It was he! Beloved Alex! She tried to take a step to the right, but she felt that any movement except forward movement was impossible!

She couldn't turn her head back again, she had to look down and walk with the crowd. She was losing him. She lost his tart gaze with a huge brown eye. She lost his magical figure with such musculature that it captured the spirit at the first glance at him.

God, how good he is!

When she happened to turn her head back, she did not see him. And how could she see him if he was not. Or is he there? The spectacle in the palace was excellent and magnificent, but Alex's passing glance was much stronger than a whole regiment of magnificent artists. Rima after the concert came out devastated, and the idea of Alex ticked in her head. She walked along rather empty streets.

Getting into a new fairy tale turned out to be extremely simple. Mr. Crisis waved his shaggy paw, and from his stroke the finances of the company of Andrei Georgievich flew into the tube of obscurity. The huge transparent house became half empty. Workers of the company had nothing to pay for offices. It is absurd, but people began to crowd in small rooms, cramming into them to the utmost crampedness. And where closely, there is a place of contention. And Mr. Crisis could flourish without harming his growth.

In the old tale, the people in the kingdom - state were ruled by one king - the sovereign. He could be bald or shaggy, but he was alone. Everything in the kingdom belonged to him! In a situation with a large empty building, he would simply settle everyone evenly and create working conditions for the workers. And during the reign of Mr. Crisis, the country of the districts represented a blanket created from a huge number of patches.

Each shred of the county belonged to a certain owner, who tried to get the finances from those people who lived on his shred of land or building. And all this is terrible nonsense, but Mr. Crisis from her flourished in full bloom. Therefore, the office in which Rima recently worked was small.

Rimma jerked the green beads around her neck. One link broke. Her eyes ceased to appear green and the colors became steel. She went to the workshop of Thomas. He is a good man, the father of Andrei Georgievich, but he turned his workshop into a warehouse, at the edges of which there were safes. Among the safes rose metal-cutting machines, covered with metal shavings. The room was soaked through with tobacco smoke. Rimma went to the workshop of the local monster. She tried to say a word of greeting and coughed from a strange atmosphere.

Thomas smiled and opened the door to borrow fresh air from the corridor for the lady. Rimma asked Thomas to fix the torn beads, in which the beads were connected with metal springs. In order to cheer her up, Thomas began to talk about a ruby, from which he made a brooch for his beloved. Rubin Thomas found in the trash, which he constantly brought.

Rima pulled the collar of a thin sweater on her face, trying not to breathe the air that caused the cough.

People, in order not to throw away the old equipment, carried it to the workshop. Thomas was pleased with everything: both old devices and motors. He hid the finds in the safes, following the saying "Put it far away, take it closer." He was a large creature with a luxurious belly, but with such a vague appearance, he possessed an inventive mind and golden hands.

He could work on a lathe, milling and drilling machines. He was a great fitter - a collector with a cup of tea on a drawing, which he disliked. The drawing tried to lead Thomas, and he really did not like it. Rimma knew his such peculiarity, therefore any leadership Thomas reduced to a friendly conversation. But he never had such a snuff box.

It turned out that in order to please Mr. Crisis, smoking rooms were closed, and they forgot to wean from cigarettes. Rimma received repaired beads and missed the next carrier of gifts in the snuffbox.

Andrei Georgievich squinted his eyes at the green beads at the office of Rimma and continued working. Why was he so silent? He was many-sided in essence. Above all, he knew his work and didn't particularly pester him with morals.

Rimma revealed the secret of the local crisis. The crisis has created itself, he is tired of obeying people. Then he went to the trick and declared himself Mr. Crisis, which everyone had to reckon with. That is, the crisis turned the economic operation at the state level and turned the financial pyramid upside down.

As a result, money from all pockets of rain poured onto the ground and fell into the dungeon of obscurity. Yes, you will quickly find traces of the Crisis than those of Alex. Last time Rimma saw him during the flood. Rimma felt that she had overdone the flood in his office. She wanted to scare her friend, but he disappeared completely after the flood in the office. She tried to ask employees about him, but they were stubbornly silent.

Nobody gave information about the whereabouts of Alex. She was lost in conjectures and so lost in thought at the workplace that she ate a cake on the machine, which the man in leather pants handed to her. Soon she felt a wild cut in her stomach. With a shudder, she thought about why she ate the cake, because she felt a strange aftertaste when she first touched him with her lips.

While she fought for her life without pain, a man named Alex disappeared from her head. She became a phlegmatic girl with slow movements, as if she was under the influence of another gravity.


The three-story house was hiding behind a steep fence, due to which the upper two floors were visible. Alex was sent to conquer the fence from the back yard, and he was not told what his accomplices would do. There were no dogs in the yard. And who now keeps dogs in the yard, if they are expensive and pedigree?

The mansion was also expensive and purebred, made of lightly treated stones. Alex jumped over the fence and climbed the wall; there were enough ledges on it, even the costume of the flying leshekh was not needed.

On the third floor, he had to climb into a small window in the bathroom. He drew an oval on the glass with a diamond tool, with one motion he covered the glass with a film, pressed it and got inside. Interestingly, the glass was not double, but single.

The bathroom was something tiled and neat, it did not consider the details. Through the bathroom, he went into the corridor of the third floor. His flexible figure in leotards curved toward the bedroom door.

Alex did not think, and performed the task. The bedroom was immersed in the twilight. He saw a large bed standing back against the wall. He clearly saw one silhouette. So his task is to scare this person.

Alex put on a monster green mask, pressed a button, and his clothes pouted. He became fat. From his pocket, the melody from the first green monster movie with ears rolled up sounded. The sleeping man stirred, but, seeing the terrible and charming figure of the green monster, closed his eyes, then opened and again saw the troll's protruding ears, which were approaching with strange steps.

-A - a - a - a !!! - the man screamed, an obvious clone of the general designer Nikolai Nikitich. He pulled the blanket over himself, then abruptly threw it away and did not find anyone in the room, but saw that the door in the room closed silently.

Alex went out into the corridor, two skinny dogs ran towards him, apparently, they heard the owner's shout. The dogs, seeing the green monster, stopped. Alex took advantage of the confusion of dogs, sprinkled out of the canister in their direction by an unknown substance. The dogs have shut down. He took off his troll suit and left the building on the balconies.

The same two men brought the money to Alex and, handing him an envelope, disappeared. Alex immediately went home, where Nadia was waiting for him. He knew perfectly well that it was harder for others to survive the bankruptcy that Nikolai Nikitich made, introducing everyone to a fantastic flight through an interstellar portal.

But the film, shot on the theme of flight, was a fantastic success among viewers, and finances found their sponsors.

'Nadya,' said Alex, and fell silent, peering at the TV screen, where, in a black frame, they showed the face of a man resembling Nikolai Nikitich, who was said to have died by himself. Alex clenched his teeth, paused for a while, listened to the announcer about what he was saying, and said: 'I suggest you go to the Moon.'

'Is that a joke, Alex?' - asked Nadia. - Where are you buried millions? Do you store them in a dried form, like fruit tea?

- No, everything is much steeper. If I fly to the islands, then I have cash, and if I fly to the moon, I'll have to sell what lies in my belt.

- You wanted to become a famous person again, but for what money? She asked, not taking his words seriously.

'At the price of humor,' Alex replied with a strange expression on his face, touching the bag with his fingers at his belt.

- I carry everything with me? - asked Nadia, waving her head in the direction of his bag.

- No, there is cash for a flight to the islands or where you want to go within the Earth, and if you agree to go to the Moon, then the money will be different.

- I understood you: new attractions opened in our Moon park. Well, let's go to the park and on the rides find out what we are good for, 'Nadya said seriously.

- Okay, let's go on a roller coaster! - agreed Alex. - Nadia, you just tell me: in our house did not accidentally appear large screw heads, which are neither a candle for God nor a devil of a poker? Just screwed in screws or bugs?

- You have an evening of mysteries! I am a woman at home, and all men's affairs up to screws are alien to me.

- It sounds good! Nevertheless, I will pass through the house, 'said Alex and looked at all the screw heads with a close look, but did not find anything unusual. His attention was attracted by a new cabinet; from one side he could see brown plastic plugs, and there was no plug on one screw. He put his mouth close to the microphone, which looked like a screw head, and said:

-Hi, Senya, why did you sew a man?

Senya was sitting at that time in a high-raised seat of a chair in the duty room. He looked at the alarm panel, heard a beep, saw a blinking LED, turned on the broadcast from Alex's house, but never heard more than one phrase. Senya and his partner Venya sitting next to him exchanged glances. Their expressive eyes did not express their thoughts aloud.

'Alex is a quick-witted man,' said Senya, a stocky little man with a sloping head. - He is smart, we will not sell.

- But he will sell what he stole. Senya, did you not understand that it was he who stole the belt with the goods? And the clone looked that the belt with goods disappeared, and gave an oak, - Venya told.

- Venya, do you think that Alex stole the goods?

'No, his dogs were stolen,' mockingly handed Venya, a thin man, one might say thin, somewhat stooped, with sparse blond hair on his head, but without a continuous bald spot.

'It seems that you are right,' Senya gritted his teeth, 'we were waiting for Alex in the car, but I did not see the clone of Nikolay Nikitich.' On TV they said that he died his own death, he lived alone, a heart attack - and there was no one to help.

'Are we going to scare Alex now?' This Nikolai Nikitich had to frighten his clone so that the goods would be given away, and Alex would frighten and take the goods. And I gave my twin to God. Are we in vain gave him money? - worried Venia.

- We have completed our task, the rest is not our business. Venya, and what kind of product are we missing? - Senya asked naively, thinking that diamonds from the moon were in the belt.

- Senya, as I understand it: the substance that makes people into dogs has disappeared. If a dog eats this substance, the set of chromosomes in it changes and the dog becomes a person, albeit not far off, but still.

- There are enough dogs and among people, still people from dogs to do. Venia, say you are joking.

- No, I was not joking, this substance is so expensive that it will not seem a little if you sell it. But if Alex is now, then he is the richest of people and can fly to the moon.

'So let's throw him and become rich,' suggested Senya.

- I need it? - muttered Venya. - Nikolai Nikitich said on TV that dogs are being prepared for a flight to the moon. Dogs will not become humans, they will be made a little smarter, they will train them and send them to the moon gnomes. Did you hear about the moon gnomes?

'Who do you think I am?' I saw the layout of the Sphere for the Moon on TV, of course, the moon gnomes are small, so you need scouts like dogs, but smarter dogs. Listen, Venya, and if I eat this burglar from my belt, will I become smart? Nobel Prize will give me?

- Senya, you will be given an award in the field of high-tech thefts!


In the dream, Nikolai Nikitich continued to fly. He experienced the bliss of soaring in the air. Probably in a past life he was a bird. In real life, he was an inventor. Thoughts about the technical innovations that can be created at the company, did not give him rest. And now he was thinking about how to make a smart dog that can be sent to the moon. The necessary dog Cross was his employee Rimma, but she was very direct, and it was difficult to imagine the dog as a scout in the catacombs of the planet.

Schepkin, the right hand or the head of Nikolai Nikitich, proposed to use for the Cross the serum of the brain, which he used for biological robots. Nikolay Nikitich trusted electronics more. He thought that a memory chip is what it takes. In the chip, you can sew the desired program that contains the necessary knowledge for the dog. Worse is another: the dog was not in the head of the board to install the chip. Either the chip must be a radio-controlled model. Warmer


Chapter 8

Portal of fame and portal of oblivion were friends of families. They had nothing to do with Rimma, she was unknown. Why? Oblivion did not threaten a simple woman, since there was no fame. She looked at the computer screen and squinted at the sky outside the window.

Cirrus intricate clouds form a thin layer separated the earth from the depths of space. Soon the eyes involuntarily looked towards the front door, while all of it did not even budge. A tall, imposing Shchepkin entered the door. The last time he joined in her house. It was a man covered with legends that people composed, raising him to the rank of local fame.

In the next arrival of the imposing man, Rimma's view melted away. She thought that Shchepkin - this is what we need. The office was buzzing and moaning from Shchepkin's voice. He butchered to pieces and negligent workers. At the end of the month, he yelled at everyone and everything, and especially at another victim, showing his subservience in the selection of personnel.

A terrible person in essence, but outwardly quite nice. Rimma liked him for quite a long time, until she indirectly fell under the words exhaust gases. She had to experience the horror in full measure without leaving her workplace.

It was possible to get to the next victims of the disassembly for a slight lateness to work or to miss part of the working day because of quite decent, for example, if you had to pass a primitive analysis. Shchepkin's screams are nonsense, but constantly spoiling the nervous system, after which I just wanted to walk among the flying leaves, which rustled, but did not swear in righteous words.

That was the horror of swearing: all the words were separately correct, but in general it was a hymn of injustice. After a while, all the people in the company calmed down. Outside the window, the wind drove smoky clouds, between which the sun peeped and lit the golden plumage of the trees.

Schepkin was silent until the phone rang.

Let him say that it is his bread, but it is somehow tasteless. Tosca squeezed Rimma from all sides of the words Shchepkina, she could not stand it and left the office. 'Work is not a wolf, it will not run away into the golden forest, but Schepkin used to be a wolf,' thought Rimma and climbed to the floor above. But, looking at his employment, she resolutely went to her office, realizing that all her throwing between floors was sheer nonsense.

She sat down in her place, but peace did not come, then she opened the Web and read the latest news, which said that the condor had taken the man from the roof. Shchepkina Rimma knew as a neighbor in the stairwell and the ice palace, where she sometimes skated. So that was why the soul was restless! He was a constant fan of her. She saw him in a hockey box, at work, but the floor above. If she had not watched hockey, then she would not have known Shchepkin as a hockey player. If even shorter, he was the father of her son, Zhenya ...

Rimma opened the literary page, watched the contest. Everything was as usual, she had been watching the assets of a major competition for a month, of course, they removed a piece from the competition that only met all the requirements of the competition. The day was not the best for her in all respects.


But a negative result is also a result. 'The global nature of the Network has grown so much lately that it has covered vast spaces. And this means that it is very easy to become the prey of network kites, 'thought Rimma, looking through her pages and removing herself from direct shows.

There is such a sign: if you can not sleep in the morning, it means that the East grazes on your pages. If you feel bad in the evening - activated the West. Security is not always direct, in the age of world information it may be indirect, so it is better to have a second bottom of existence, necessary so that people do not recognize theirs.

Schepkin disappeared from the access field, he could not find. The connection has been lost completely. And suddenly, closing one of its pages, Rimma came across a reader very similar to Schepkina. That is, he went on the web, but as a reader, who gradually played out Rimma. And she did not sleep from this. That's the whole focus of communication. She felt Schepkin across the ocean of the World Wide Web!


Rimma sat, worked at a computer in a technical laboratory.

Suddenly, Chepkin runs in and screams in a terrible voice:

- Lost serum! Gone! The green monster stole it from Nikolai Nikitich.

- Cheese, or something, did you whistle a crow? - asked Rimma with a naive smile.

- What kind of cheese ?! Who needs our work now, if the serum is gone!

- Andrei Georgievich, why are you shouting like that? Everything will be fine. We will do the work, the order for the moon will not be lost.

- I forgot who I'm dealing with! I'm sorry, Rimma. I will explain the cry of the soul. The fact is that the serum, designed and created for dogs, in order for them to become smart enough to go to the catacombs of the moon and report information about the lunar gnomes, is gone.

- Andrew, and the serum was hidden in a container, and the container was made under the belt?

- Rimma! For sure! Where do you know this from?

- Yesterday I saw such a container on one person, and he still boasted that there was so much money in it that would be enough to fly to the moon.

- Who is he? - asked Andrew, rounding the already big eyes.

- What will happen to him?

- On the head stroke. And if you don't tell who he is, you will be stroked with what you need.

- I was joking.

- This is not a joke, but a crime of interstellar meaning. Missing the possibility of training space crews for particularly difficult flights. Someone stole all the accumulated material, nothing is left except for huge chemical formulas. But from formulas to matter as from the Earth to the Moon.

'What will happen if I find this substance?'

- To be honest, I do not know.

- It turns out that you need to find the substance and throw it to you for adoption?

- Yes, Rimma, yes! When will you bring the container?

- Tomorrow.

- This is not an answer! I'll take you wherever you say. In the belt we will go, and now!

- To know where he is now. You see, I do not know where the legs of the one who carries the substance of interstellar cost on his belt are located.

Andrei looked at the girl and decided that she was joking, but he was not joking and asked:

- Rimma, do you want a new foreign car?

- And what, so now called candy? She asked jokingly.

- I heard that you know where the serum is. Do you want me to tell you who you saw her? Alex has. Most likely, he suggested you fly to the islands.

- How do you know? If he proposed, then Nadya, not me.

- Where do you work? I'll tell you more, Alex tried to fly away with a secret bag, but he was stopped when he passed through the turnstile at the airport. He will do without information, let him get it himself, and we will look after him.

- So, and for what feats offer me a foreign car, if you have already found the serum?

- For the new development! The moon is the moon, but there are many roads on Earth. It is necessary to develop a device for determining the roughness of the roads on the moon when moving certain goods.

- Andrey, now I understand everything! The lock sensor closed when Alex passed through the turnstile at the airport!

- Clever, you manage without a foreign car, if you know everything yourself.


At home, Dog Cross happily met Rimma, spun around her legs and sat down. His ears stood up. The clever little face bent slightly and froze with a devoted expression of eyes. Rimma carefully looked at the dog, clicked on the name "Alex" "in her phone, in response, he heard his voice:

- Rimma, what's the matter?

- Alex, are you free? I heard the edge of the conversation, they said that you had major problems.

- And I was free. A bag of whey to me almost voluntarily gave Philip. At the airport, I threw off my bag, Philip grabbed her again, and I ran out of the airport, until people from the chase did not understand what was happening. Then I stopped a passing car, Nadia was sitting in it, my girlfriend. I sit behind the wheel, and she sits next to me.

- Is Nadya alive?

- She's normal ...

- Have you had a double castling? - asked Rimma mechanically, she actually was shocked by the news of the last days.

The connection was lost.

- Alex, who called? - Asked Nadia, turning her head to the man behind the wheel.

'Rimma already knows everything,' Alex answered, stopping the car at the side of the road.

'Take me home,' the young lady asked sadly.

- Yes, look at the field with wheat! We were lucky! Frisbee right on the course!

- Why should I? - sadly asked Nadia.

- Then sit in the car, and I'll see what happens there! Lucky for me to witness the writing of circles in a wheat field! - Alex cried. He got out of the car and went to the wheat field.

Nadia, without emotion, moved behind the wheel on her beautiful face and drove towards the city.


Alex did not look at the noise of the motor. He was captivated by a round cloud over a wheat field. He walked toward the unknown and saw the pillars descend from the cloud to the ears, draw a monogram, then they rose into the cloud. He tried to call Nadia, but his mobile phone remained silent. The young man stepped onto the highway - it was deserted.

Suddenly, Alex felt himself coming off the ground and rising smoothly, as if an invisible force was holding him. He raised his head: a thick cloud hung above him, and then he noticed that this cloud was holding him. He made an attempt to break free and fall to the ground, but the strength of invisible hands in cloud gloves was much greater. The earth went from under the feet, but its feet did not dangle over the abyss of emptiness, but gently sank into the cloudy elastic mass. He already felt this cloud, almost invisible, but so real! He looked down and saw the monograms on the wheat field, for a moment more - and the spectacle disappeared.

For some time, Alex lost sight, and woke up inside a spacious cabin in a chair of white fog. He began to look around the strange cockpit of an unknown aircraft.

- Alex, we like you! Came a squeaky voice from the ceiling. - We will take you as a manufacturer.

-You who is that?

-We are the highest niche of the existence of intelligent beings. We are secret and obvious at the same time, we feel, but do not see, we are cloud gods.

- Great, and where do you live? On the mountain or in the swamp? Can you live there?

- He is still asking! We are everywhere, this is about one of ours wrote a famous fairy tale. Lit up and hit the fairy tale.

- Is the Snow Queen your lady too?

'It was probably ours too, but for a long time.'

- And the trolls - your handiwork?

- We drove by, trolls are not in our unit, we have a slightly different role.

- Interested.

- You performed our task in the image of a green monster and coped with it perfectly, but in vain you missed the serum to increase the intelligence of the dogs, now it will be difficult to get it.

'So the trolls are in your unit,' Alex said thoughtfully. 'I thought you were transcendental dwarves.'

'We are all transcendental if invited,' said Nikolai Nikitich.

- I saw you somewhere. Nikolai Nikitich! So are you alive ?! Do you play circus?

- Yes it's me. Okay, other people intercepted the serum at the airport. The humor is that the thief grabbed the bag thrown by you and disappeared. Nobody knew, because of what the fuss rose at the airport.

- And what is this cloud in which we fly?

- Oh! Darkness! Alex, this is an ordinary flying saucer, clothed in a cloud for greater conspiracy. In it, all objects and all moving parts are covered with a cloudy substance.

- Do you draw circles in the fields with wheat?

- Naturally! Our business is to intimidate people with incomprehensible phenomena.

- Did I really have to be sucked into this cloud trap?

- You saw too much, and who you, found out a little later.

- And Nadia released?

- She left on her own. She is an intelligent woman and doesn't put her nose into other people's affairs, and she threw you away.

- What will you do to me?

- ears naderim! But seriously, I noticed that you are not afraid of heights, if you will depict a person if necessary, a cloud, although you have a suit of a flying leshye and flying at a low altitude are not news to you.

- Do all the tales work for you?

- Not all, but useful for business. Yes, you will be a man - a cloud, 'Nikolai Nikitich said weightily.

- The flying man is a cloud?

- Do not be distracted from the case, you will have a cloud suit. You have already understood that the thought is embedded in everything that surrounds you, and very serious. Fly between the houses you will be without a web. From the wings of birds and aircraft, we refused. Our role - invisible visibility, small clouds. That is, everyone sees you, but as a cloud. Remember the song: "I am a cloud, a cloud, a cloud, I am not a bear at all." Yes, Winnie the Pooh is a great prototype.

- And I will have a friend in the form of the Donkey or Piglet?

- Let's give you a wolf friend.

- No, something is easier for me.

- Then me myself.

- Wait, but it was reported on TV that you died!

- flew by. I am under the personal care of the heavenly aura, I am always alive while she is alive. Cross, we wanted to treat serum, then he could become a resident of the moon, but you lost the serum. And now the dog is weak to be your friend.

'Am I so simple?' - Alex was indignant. - I have not lost the serum, it is now in the container on my belt. And at the airport I slipped a metal object in the garbage in such a bag, he squealed, and I myself said that I took the wrong bag and left. By the airport, by chance, there was a Nadi car.

'Why did you go to the airport at all?'

- Feel the ground.

- Alex, good that you are not burdock. Just great! - Nikolay Nikitich's face was distorted by a contented smile. 'We'll fly to the cloud base now,' and he disappeared into the cabin mist.

The glade in the forest was enclosed by an even metal fence. Alex stepped out of the flying saucer. Senya and Venya approached him, they got up from two sides and led him to his room, located no higher than the fence. In the room were several suits of clouds of different shades for different weather. The costume itself was not great. Alex was helped to wear a suit with a rigid frame, fixing his location in the suit.

Engines provide smooth movement in the air. It was a mini-aircraft without large blades and wings. He pressed the first button, a kind of cover poured around him, a cloudy substance began to form around the cover. He pressed the second button and flew into the open window. The speed of the cloud was so small that it just hovered above the cloudy airfield, if you can call it that. 'And why are these clouds needed?' He thought.

- Alex, why did you get up to the sky? Get down! - He heard in the headset the raspy voice of Nikolai Nikitich.

'I don't know how to do this,' Alex whispered.

- Before you red button. Click on her! - screamed angrily Nikolai Nikitich.

Alex was lying lying above the cloudy airfield, before his eyes were the buttons and control knobs, he pressed the desired button and began to gently fall to the ground. The fall was so slow that he calmly stood up. A very pleasant feeling of flying remained in his soul. Senya and Venya ran up to him. Nikolay Nikitich walked calmly from the front door of the building to them.

- How is the feeling of flying? He asked with a smile on his face.

'Normally, commander,' Alex answered, 'I'm sorry, I automatically pressed buttons, I didn't think I would fly.'

- Senya, could warn a person about the purpose of each button, knob and indicator on the control panel.

- Nikolai Nikitich, so in this regard we have Venya. He is an instructor in low clouds.

- Venya, conduct a course on the study of this cloud model.

- Yes, no problem, we'll do everything! Alex so smartly dressed in this suit that we did not have time to blink an eye, as he flew out the window in a gray cloud.

- Cloud specialists, you can ask a question? Do I have to lie down during the flight? I am not a fish to lie down! And you can fly while sitting? - asked Alex.

'Variants of a person's location in the cloud are in operation, only the planning cloud is now ready,' answered Nikolay Nikitich.

-And there is no running cloud in the work? Wanted - flew. Wanted - ran. Wanted - lay down. Ok, I'm ready to study flying in low clouds. Is there anyone smarter than Veni?

- Work, Alex! - threw Nikolay Nikitich on the move and went in the direction of the car.

Senya disappeared in an unknown direction.

Venya and Alex returned to the room with cloud flying objects.

- Alex, you must understand that you are not a bird to plan in the air. Your task is to fly wherever you are sent. Motors are small, but strong and reliable. I don't know all the subtleties of a flying cloud device, besides, I don't know how energy is converted into them, but I know the purpose of all buttons, switches and the value of indicators. Management is simple. You will understand immediately, but do not fly away. Rise ten times over the base, and then fly on assignment.

- Instructor Venia, can you show the merits of a flying cloud by example?

- Can. I am thin, clear and transparent. And you are the same, only more beautiful.

- And together we can take off?

- Sit down and listen, then take off together.

And they went deep into the study of the device of the flying cloud.

Andrew came to the technical laboratory, sat down at the workplace. He was busy setting up a new device of unknown purpose. Rimma worked next to him. Suddenly the light from the window disappeared and reappeared. She saw two gray clouds moving away from the window.

- Andrei Georgievich, who today represents the clouds? - asked Rimma.

'Your betrothed is mumbled Alex and Venia,' Andrei answered quickly, not taking his eyes off the instruments. - Rimma, you better tell me when you bring Cross to the injections? He asked, getting up from his seat.

- Dog pity.

'This is a job, and you knew that the dog would fly to the moon.' By the way, your pillows will remain dry.

- Can I fly with him to the moon? The dog got used to me.

- Before the flight, you will have to go through a series of training sessions - this is a long time! Your variant brains are needed here. Listen, but what if Nadia send along with the dog to the moon? She is a brave girl and will not give up the flight. Cross knows her well.

- Great, let them fly.


At this moment Alex entered the laboratory.

- Alex, we are thinking of sending Nadia and the dog to the moon. Will you let go? She wanted to fly to where our devices are not. The serum has returned to us, several injections, and the Cross will be ready for flight, 'asked Andrei Georgievich.

- Andrei Georgievich, thanks for asking if I could have sent her anywhere without my permission.

- Why are you so humble?

'You will become submissive and resigned with you,' Alex said in a dissatisfied voice. - Why exactly Nadia? No other people?

- And you still ask? Her task is so secret that everyone who communicates with her should be our people. We can not risk it! You know, the complex on the moon is not only being built, but also by our competitors. Our task is to penetrate the catacombs of the moon. According to our data, they are low, but numerous. The man in them will not pass. We assume that the moon gnomes themselves are small living gnomes, covered with a little fur. Cross among them will look like a wolfhound or a horse, more like a horse. We must take him to the circus, find a trainer, so that he can carry a saddle on himself with a little monkey. Moon gnomes will enjoy this type of transport.

'Cross will do this task without serum,' said Rimma.

- The first part of the job he can perform after training. But this way we will solve the problem of satisfying the whims of the moon gnomes. Our task is for Cross to get more detailed information about the catacombs of the Moon and deliver them to us. He is our intelligence officer, - Andrei Georgievich said seriously, looking at the instruments of his stand. - KB already knows all this, about who and how lives on the moon. Glare - the head of the moon - knows a lot. We have his portrait, we will put it in front of the dog, so that he remembers it. Task dogs - Blik! Sour coasts are one thing, and the secrets of the moon's people are another. Cross is a horse for Blik, but not just a horse. Serum will provide an opportunity to develop the dog's brain to the level necessary for self-preservation; it should not be intimidated by the unknown, but it should not take unnecessary risks. He must come back alive and bring us a video. We will write everything down, all his way through the catacombs, - said Andrey with a confident voice.

- Andrei Georgievich, but the device is still in operation, we did not check it in extreme conditions. 'You understand perfectly well that the temperature on the moon and in the moon is not room temperature,' retorted Rimma.

- I do not need to explain the temperature limitations of the device. Everything is under control, paid for everything.

But the moon was still very far away ...

The rags of snow in the dark blue sky, chasing each other, increasing in volume to a small snow, gently sank to the ground. Feminine feelings from thoughts may increase like a snowball, but falling on warm earth will immediately melt. And what a man asks a woman what she does not need? And he cannot ask her what she wants!

Here Alex again ran into the room to Rimma, looked, ran away, as if he went to the Internet and left. "The bride today, or something?" - thought Rimma, looking at the dark blue outside the window, where the snow finally stopped. "If a woman asks." Yes, she does not ask her husband anything, let her come in and out. What if? .. Don't. Time to work...


From the printer on the table crawled sheet, Rimma took it. The short letter read: 'Rimma, I wait at midnight. Tin.

Rimma looked at the office staff: everyone worked and didn't turn their heads in her direction. However, she was convinced that the letter was written by some of them. Tin. What is it? Roof? Is she waiting on the iron roof at midnight? ABOUT! Not! She will not go! Not! If only they could write, whether or not you can take an escort with you.

Life is getting better, Rima thought and grinned. And rightly so. She remembered that at home there was a little melon called the moon. Moon? What other moon, if the sky is covered with clouds? Or is this life covered with dark spots of trouble? Ah, this night will be a full moon ...

- Rimma, are you waiting a long time? - she heard a male voice and involuntarily shuddered when she saw Alex.

The rays of the sun penetrated the office. She took off her jacket with short sleeves and remained in the topic. Heat squeezed from all sides. Here is the main injustice!

If a hot week has already fallen, then it is necessary to let everyone go on vacation at once, let them survive in free conditions. She looked at the three screens. Work on the remote control came to an end.

Rimma opened the mail and wrote a letter to Alex: 'The story of last year is repeated: the beach, love, silence and your walk with Nadia. Great solution to all problems! I wish you happiness both at work and at the water! It would be nice to invite Andrei Georgievich to watch your walks! Two years you can not contact me. "

At this time Alex entered the room in person. But she already sent him a letter and didn't even look at him.

'The frightened marsh', Rimma thought about Nadia, but she didn't feel better from the internal outburst of malice. On the way to Alex was always Nadia. The fan was blowing. Alex walked out the door without taking her heart. Oh, everything seems to be great! Why she could not understand earlier that Nadia is a swamp of a dummy?


The love season is a pitiful state of accumulation of consumer energy. The situation is still the same: and laziness, and no one to love, but laziness in this case is more important than love, it is not always the case, but often. Alex Rimma's magnificent face remarks again, she sees his silent attention, but she still doesn't believe, still don't want to disturb the lazy, imposing state of lovelessness.

This is not a nightmare, not an obsession, it is still something unconscious. He is near. He is getting closer. He touches the fingers. He looks at her. He walks beside her. Rimma does not notice him, but only slightly notes that Alex is not indifferent to her.

And here she sees the attention of the second man to his person, he fulfills all her words addressed to him, he remembers her advice! He does not drive her away! Andrei Georgievich is gladly in her aura. Good lord That stagnated filly in the stall of their interest!

And who is this? Is it even the third man, or rather Philip, lit up on its horizon? This is no good!

What did this men burst with their interests in her address? Did they smell the untouched person? It seems very similar.

Here is life! Rimma no longer knows which way to direct her feet. Think - do not think, and three potential men are nothing compared to one loved one. She was almost never married, they only joked with Alex that they were husband and wife, but the son was born from such a joke.

Rimma faltered about her own thoughts and lowered her eyes to bright green sandals. What if men respond to green light? Yes, she looks good in a green top and a skirt the size of a standard book. So what?

It's so hot! All and took out their bodies from rags and exposed them to a socially permitted minimum. On a figure each of girls and women is naked. A spectacle for guys and men - choose to your taste! Well, now is not about that, you need to focus on one of the three. On whom? Here is the question of the day.

Green! And Rima adorned her nails with green rhinestones. Cool! She looked at herself in the mirror, looked casually from head to toe, and confessed to the reflection that she looked great in summer.

The question 'which of the three?' Melted away in its own mirror image. Here is a stupid one! And who of the three was wearing green clothes yesterday? Andrew! Right, you need to probe it. Rimma dreamily looked into the green distance of foliage and pressed the phone with its number.

-Andrey Georgievich, is it me, Rimma, listen, are you very busy today? For me, are you free for life? I'm waiting, yes, now.


Chapter 9

Shchepkin closed his cell phone, turned on one leg, jumped, pulled out a chandelier with his foot, walked the wheel and stopped at the mirror. Hazel looked at him cheerful eyes, shone a happy smile. He was happy! Rima herself called him! She called him! What are the legs! What a hair! And she is waiting for him!

He wiped a smile from his face, opening the cabinet door. All clothes instantly became old. Yesterday he had everything, but today there is nothing to wear. In green he was yesterday. She liked him in green, and if he comes in white, and she does not like it? Gray, beige, black. Lived to a dead end. Go to the store late, promised to be today, now, but in what?

The corners of his lips dropped. He picked up jeans, a white T-shirt and became gray, faceless. Got sneakers: one, the second. Put on a ring with a ruby and calmed down.

I looked at the sandal sandals. He sighed heavily. And this is it? Is he that elbow punch opens any tin can? I looked out the window. The sun was shining, the foliage was moving. He stood. His steel car made alarm sounds. He waved his hand and jumped out the door, forgetting about clothes. His car called.

Andrei Georgievich got behind the wheel, brushed off green dust, turned on the air conditioner, and the world swam before his eyes ...

'That's better,' said Alex, who was sitting in the back seat, vengefully, 'rest, dear, otherwise he got ready for Rimma.' Not for you, not for you.

Andrei fell asleep from a napkin attached to his face with a sleeping pill with his head thrown back.

Alex got out of the car, walked about thirty meters, got into his car and drove to Rimma.

'Rimma,' he spoke to her on the telephone, 'who are you waiting for today?'

- You, Alex!

'Clever girl,' thought Alex, 'thinks quickly, so if he had not listened to her negotiations, he would have waited for her Andrew,' and said:

- And that's right, come out, I will come to your entrance soon.


Rima again looked at herself in the mirror, flashed the thought of Andrei and disappeared. She looked into the courtyard through the translucent fabric, saw Alex's tall jeep and went out to meet the fate.

Alex looked at Rimma, who opened the front door. Smooth, long legs in sandals on a thin high wedge with green straps appeared in the doorway. A miniature skirt opened up and legs, and the navel of a girl, on top of her breasts covered with a small top. The young man shook his head, as if to say: well, well, then he waved his head from top to bottom in greeting and opened the car door for the girl.

- Hi, look cool! Hair has grown even more, soon you will wear them instead of clothes.

- Hello, Alex! Where we go? Only close, it is very hot.

- I'm in the car cool, did not notice?

- Noticed blowing from all sides. What is your cooling on a hot day?

- Air conditioning. New And today you waited for Andrey, dressed in green clothes like he did yesterday. I saw him spin around you. Let him through! Hear, while I advise, but we'll see.

- Do not scare. I'm alone. To me claims can not be. You are almost married!

- Do not judge you. You are my potential girlfriend, but I do not like to suffer from jealousy, and you do not give me a reason!

'Alex, I didn't know that!' I do not remember you talking to me about love. Do you have Nadia!

- Who is that? What kind of love? You are mine, and all love. And Nadia is a girl.

- We live apart. I am on my own, Rimma said and looked in the mirror.

- Was not, so you will be mine, the situation is correctable. Your surroundings suit me and my new car does not spoil. Forgive you a skirt long in my palm.

- You did not confuse? You listened to me, you fulfilled my requirements, and now you command ?!

- The time of submission has passed, now I am in charge. You are my girl, you are not yet a minister in a green skirt! - with gusto said Alex.

- Stop, drive! Cried Rima.

- Got into the car, so bear with me - this is the holy rule of driving on the roads. I'm driving!

'I won't sit down again,' Rimma said grimly.

'I'll show you my eagle's nest, and you will change anger to mercy.' It's not too far.

Rimma looked out the window: cars flashed through the window, at home, but pedestrians were not visible. And there was no one to shout, and people wouldn't understand a girl from another jeep. She covered her bare knees with her palms.

'You cover them with your hair,' Alex quipped.

- And I will close, - Rimma bowed her head to her knees, her hair covered her legs. She had the idea that all this was in a past life.

Alex took the wheel in his left hand, and squeezed her neck with his right hand:

- Sit down, keep your back straight! He shouted in a steel voice.

Rimma straightened, her face was impenetrable. They both fell silent.

Jeep stopped at a new high-rise building. They entered the foyer of the entrance, which was distinguished by its modern splendor, rode the elevator to the last floor, went to the roof. As it turned out, Alex's eagle's nest was what was needed. The ingenious perimeter fence reliably guarded the peace. Water glittered in an eagle's nest; one could sit around the perimeter. Rimma took off her shoes, dunked her fingers into the water.

'You can swim, nobody will see you,' Alex said calmly.

The sun warmed on the roof more than on the ground. Rimma threw off her green clothes and entered the eagle pool. Ten meters in diameter - such was the pool on the roof. She did not want to sort things out, it was too cool in an eagle pond. She calmly swam in the pool.

'Take off your clothes,' Rimma heard through the nirvana of her condition.

Rimma swam to the side, threw off two strips and continued to swim. There was no indignation in her, but there was a strange pacification. Alex took off his clothes and swam away from her in the opposite direction. He swam without clothes and did not approach her. Rimma got excited, she swam to meet him, she clung to him with her whole body, a convulsion of elementary desire passed through her body.

Alex pushed Rimma hard. She was not offended, but began to jump in the water, her chest shook the air and sank into the water. He turned away. She swam up behind her, wrapped her arms around him. He turned his face sharply. A smile struck him, she was disgusting! He was scary!

It was not Alex! The thought flashed that it was a werewolf in Alex's look! Rima quickly swam to clothes.

But over clothing stood Nadia with a fierce expression. Rimma was not scared, did not scream, but went out and sat on the side of the pool. Wet hair stuck to the body. His teeth were chattering from cold, or from fear.

Alex in her eyes turned into a centaur. Rima from faintness lost consciousness. She woke up in pitch darkness under a starry sky at the bottom of an empty pool, on a large inflatable mattress. No one was around.

There was no clothes on Rimma, a ruby on the chest in a golden frame lonely shone. Rimma was shaking from the cold, but was absolutely calm.

She went around the empty pool in the hope of finding a towel or clothes. She was shivering. She went to the fence. Below, the city was shining with lights, the stars were shining above it, and she glittered with nudity. Rimma went around her place of imprisonment. She was looking for a way out, but found nothing.

Naked woman in a cage on the roof, she thought without emotion.

Rimma was without clothes on someone else's roof, but the feeling of shame was filled with stress.

Philip accidentally saw Alex sneaking out of Andrei Georgievich's car, and immediately went to the car. He saw the sleeping Andrew and woke him up. Then the two of them followed Alex and found out where he had taken Rimma.

- Rimma !!! - Andrew made a heart-rending cry.

- Andrey, I'm on the roof! Faster!!! Rima shouted back, her voice in the silence of the night sounded deafeningly loud.

Andrei went up to his car, took out a rug, took off onto the roof of a high-rise on a high-speed elevator. Rimma he wrapped in a sheet. And only now Rimma burst into tears.

- Do not cry out, Rimma, Alex put you in a cage, and put me to sleep in my car, so I went to look for you to his house. Alex is not a monster, but something sadistic about him. Jealousy and disrespect, he punishes.

- Why does he need it? - asked Rimma.

- To know why. He really liked you, Rimma. At first he kowtowed before you, so he wanted to get close to you. And then I wanted to take revenge for the forced humiliation. He is such a man.

- Is he a man? - asked Rima, after they descended to the ground.

- Outwardly, he is a man, but devoid of charm. It has a physical anomaly. He evokes the desire of a woman and after that makes the meanness of purification and revenge.

- And if Alex is a centaur?

- Yes, yes, he is a centaur with four hooves. You have confused all his cards. A desire awakened in him, but he ran away from you with a grin on his teeth. He flushed out of the pool, put you on an inflatable mattress and left with the same centaur as he did. Together it is easier for them to carry the burden of life. His girlfriend Nadia is also a centaur. She cooks well, sometimes cleans up in a new apartment, which they bought for two. This pool is his idea. They have a good technical business and they always have money. Oh, Rimma! You shook not only Alex, but his friend Nadia. His girlfriend could not take her eyes off you. But they are an impotent pair, the muscles they have and the neck, like a centaur. But this is their secret. They are ashamed, but they cannot do otherwise, said Andrei. - I guessed about the real life of Alex. Tin ...

Rimma got into her head that Alex and Nadia were centaurs, so it was easier for her to experience what they did to her. She understood that the real centaurs on the last floor of the high-rise buildings cannot live, but the advanced ones can. It comforted. Rimma was not far from the truth.

They went into their apartment by people and turned into centaurs, real animals. Now one room was designed for their human image, and the second for an animal.

Why transformations took place with them, they did not know, but tried to behave normally and carefully. They used the pool for walking, threw hay there, straw, and sometimes poured water. They saw that Rima was asleep, and disappeared from her sight almost in time, already at the exit from the roof they turned into centaurs.

Through the dream Rimma saw them, but the dope would not let her open her eyes.

She had the idea to once again visit the roof and capture the couple in the form of centaurs. Whatever you may say, but Alex has sunk into her soul forever. In the morning she came to the conclusion that the centaur was not Alex, but Philip! As she did not immediately guess! And Nadia? And she could not understand that in front of her Alex portrayed Philip.

The sky was covered with gray veil. The sun disappeared, as if it was not there. Looking out the window to the street, Rimma put on clothes covering all the details of the figure. The light raincoat trouser suit was no different in sexuality. In the office, she separated herself from all men's glances with an impenetrable look and a detached look. They did not mind.


Rimma had peonies in a vase on the table; she added granulated sugar to the water. The first bud quickly blossomed. Then she changed the water, because the other two buds slowly blossomed, and the first one had already withered. Sahara swallowed one peony per day, so it quickly disbanded and withered. Two peonies still pleased with torn petals.

Alex Andrew. Philip. Which of them is the first peony? Alex? He wilted for a relationship! Rimma looked again at the peonies and left the room on the rod. People were coming towards, and it was normal. She went outside, went down to the embankment. River waves were in place. She went to the cast-iron grate. Elbows themselves laid on the railing. She began to look after life on the water.

Green ducks swam along the shore. Tugs plowed the river surface. River waves hit the old granite.

- What are you doing here? - I heard the voice of Andrew.

- I look at the waves. At lunchtime, I have the right to a little pleasure, - answered Rimma, not looking at him.

- There is a case, and very entertaining. Remember, you said that Alex and Nadia are centaurs? I followed them, even though it was not easy to do. You know, their height is the highest. Imagine, they turn into centaurs only on their last floor. Why? I dont know. No answer. All right in a field would turn, and that at height rather decent. If it were not for the silence of the night - I would not have heard your voice!

- What do you mean?

- Interested? And how interesting it is to me! They behave inadequately. So, I bought strong binoculars, found a high-rise nearby, commensurate with their building. I went out onto the roof, the usual roof without a human invasion, climbed onto a lift superstructure and began to watch the roof.

- And watched for a long time?

- How many do you need. The day was a day off. Precisely, they both came out on the roof in a normal form, and suddenly they began to arch, and they turned into centaurs before my eyes! Cool!

- Andrei, why do you care?

-Do not you understand? This is a sensation!

- To whom the sensation, and to whom and grief. I barely moved away from them.

- Wait for me to blame. They went on vacation to the Mediterranean island, which I forgot there, I don't know, but apparently they picked up something more ancient.

- Smart, however! Many went there ...

- They have someone instilled in the centaur's virus, and they do not know the antivirus. But they are most likely under surveillance. Remember for what such cases they were given this apartment? Do not you know? They did not pay money for it, I know that for sure.

- Andrei, why are you getting involved in this business? Once given an apartment, people are not small implicated, you would not approach them. Notice - notice.

- Do not scare, scared. Honestly, funny. Who would tell - would not believe.

On the river swam the river tram.

'I have to go to work,' said Rimma and walked away from the embankment, without looking at Andrew.

After all, he came up to her from behind, and stayed behind him.

Rimma walked, walked ...

And he? Andrew zaarpunili from the river tram, and so quietly that he did not squeal. He soared over the cast-iron railing and dragged along the water on the harpoon. He was dragged aboard.

- Andrei, why are you so inquisitive? - Alex asked him.

Andrei looked at him with bulging eyes.

- Answer! - shouted Alex.

- And what not? - frightened Andrey answered the question with a question.

- Did Rimma tell about what he saw on the roof?

- She was on your roof herself and saw everything.

- And what did she see?

- Swimming pool with and without water.

'Is that all she saw?'

- I saw you.

- In what form did she see us?

- In swimming trunks for swimming in your pool.

- What did you see with binoculars on our roof ?!

- I looked at the sky, it was very starry. And I did not look at your roof.

- If you lie, then I understood what is required of you.

Andrew did not have time to blink an eye, as he, like a bait on a fishing rod, was returned to the cast-iron railings of the embankment. And how they did not kill him? He swayed, looked around. Not a single passerby. And the ship sailed. No one. Nothing. And fear in the soul.

Rimma looked at the peonies and clearly noticed that the second peony had faded sharply. She was bored and sad. Cell phone purred new melody.

- Rima, it's me, Alex, are you all right? I can not get through to Andrew. And on the roof was Philip, she could have guessed.

- I saw Andrei Georgievich today, he was normal.

- comforted. Let's go to the night disco? Let's sit and dance.

- Come on. Will you pick me up yourself or will everyone go alone?

- If you do not mind, then I will come to your house at 21:00.

- I'll be ready.

Andrei listened to their conversation, moved his lips from impotence. At the appointed time resolutely out of the house to his car. Sat down I went. He took out the suit of the flying leshego, put it on in front of Rimma's house and swam out of the car with a gray little cloud.

Alex drove up to the entrance of Rimma, opened the door of the car and did not notice that a gray cloud had flown into it, and only then Rimma village.

Andrei crouched in the back seat. He wanted to personally listen to the dialogue of Rimma and Alex. Surprisingly, they did not talk about centaurs, chatted all sorts of nonsense. Andrei calmed down and fell asleep in the car.

Rimma and Alex went to the night disco. They sat down at a table, ordered a glass of light wine. Music did not give them a drink. They went to dance. Light show crushed its energy. Nadia came up to the glasses of wine with a dark blue ruby on her finger, she held her hand over the glasses, glittering with a ring, and came out of the light and crackling of light music.

Philip devils brought to the disco. He saw the wave of Nadia's hand over Rimma's and Alex's glasses and quickly headed for the glasses. He took the glasses one by one with each hand. From the sudden movement in the glasses there was an incomprehensible reaction, and the flames burst from them. The people immediately turned to him to see the continuation of the show.

The music changed, Rima and Alex came up to Philip.

- Have you drunk our wine? - asked Rimma.

-Probably. I think you need to leave this building. Do not mind and do not ask.

They went outside.


Lightning shone through the curtains. It was raining outside the window. Rimma managed to run home under a black sky before rain and thunder. Weather - shaking. Alex and Musin parted. Rimma was at home alone. Thunderstorm outside the window. Men behind a thunderstorm. She noticed a fire in the wine glasses in the hands of Musin and an incomprehensible cloud in the car, moreover, quite soft. She thought it was a new pillow, and did not ask, did not want to seem stupid. With her and the centaurs on the roof is enough. She did not want to think about incomprehensible phenomena in her life, and she did not believe in centaurs.

She decided that everything seemed to her that no matter what Andrew saw through his binoculars. Maybe they have such a theater. Rimma once again looked at the glitter of lightning and turned on the TV decisively: it is necessary to distract from reality.

I looked at myself in the mirror: not very tall, not a skeleton. Yes. You can add: alone, but with friends and without a single friend. And on the TV screen - a white ship and a rich audience. Is she rich or poor? She doesn't care, doesn't care.

Rimma fell to the floor ...

A cloud flew into the open window of the wind and hung. From below, Rimma could see the face of the cloud, it was Andrei himself in a suit of a flying leshego. He sank down on her and kissed her tenderly. Rimma convulsively tried to throw him off, but that turned out to be beyond her power.

Andrei picked up Rimma from the floor, laid him on the bed, smiled and asked:

- Rimma, you want to fly? It's simple.

- Andrey, I recognized you still in the car in this masquerade, but said nothing.

- Well done. Can I stay with you?

- But you must? Why do you need me? She asked, closing the blanket.

- Thunderstorm, rain.

- So you are a cloud. Your weather.

- Not really my weather. For flights I need dry, cloudy weather. The flying properties of the suit deteriorate with high humidity.

- How do you fly?

- If I knew how the costume of the flying devotee flies, I would be a genius, and I am a performer, a pilot of low clouds. I can say that the weight of the suit with a minus weight, what it is - I do not know, but I easily fly above the ground. Do you want to fly with me?

- If it is easy, then you can try.

'Tomorrow,' he said, and fell asleep in his suit.


Rimma tried to touch the costume of the flying leshego. But the suit in front of her eyes withdrew from the sleeping Andrew and disappeared in his pocket in a trickle. She fell asleep.

In the morning they woke up at the same time.

'I don't understand why I've been falling asleep everywhere lately,' Andrew said, 'where I sit, lie down, sleep there.'

- Tired of a double life, here you sleep. And I understood why Alex needed a roof: this is a spare airfield for small aircraft.

- And this is the right answer. And then ... - and he, not having finished speaking, was silent.

- Andrey, where is your flying suit? I saw him disappear into your pocket.

- This is a one-time model, I tested it. There are reusable options for costumes, but they are cumbersome, and the cloud in them is significant.

- Why is this necessary?

- That was.

- So now you go on foot? You give a lift?

- Rimma, keep me at home! Let me be alone! I do not want to be a flying leshim or centaur!

- Still, the centaurs. Andrei, are you sure that you will not turn into a centaur in my apartment?

'I'm not sure of anything, but I barely managed to fly into your window in a thunderstorm.' It is good that it was covered, but not closed. Surprisingly, I didn't turn into anyone at night and overslept.

- Does your cloud suit affect transformations? Explosive mixture: the devil in the cloud.

- Fu, this is not the limit of transformations. The centaur runs well in the forest, if necessary, a dozen other kilometers in the costume of a leshishan can fly up and fly. I am a forest scout. Could and guess.

- What are you doing in the city?

- I work with you. I need a partner, your weight suits me, you will have a good suit of flying leshekhi on you. Your skeleton is a great frame for a one-time cloud suit.

- But I'm not a centaur!

- Already! I inoculated you. In vain I, perhaps, flew to you? The fact is that two people invented the centaur vaccination: Alex and Nikolai Nikitich. Then they tried it on themselves. And now let in a small series.

- Explain who I will be after the vaccination?

- What do you not understand? We go with you to explore. In the middle zone of the country you will be a moose. In the northern part - by a deer, in the steppe - by a horse or just a centaur. This is how it will be necessary for the cause, and so will you.

- And I asked?

- On the roof, all measurements were taken from you and a set of disposable flying leshi suits is ready for you personally. You needed to carry out tasks of special importance with me. I just didn't know everything then.

- In the age of cars, I will run on my own two feet? Sorry, on your four legs. Will your arms be your front legs? What for?! Andrei, are you at the same time with Alex?

- Take it easy! You are waiting for a non-trivial life. By the way, masks of corresponding animals are due to you. As for the hunters: the mask will not allow you to pierce your head, and in the region of the heart you will be surrounded by a bulletproof electronic vest. I got it?

- Nearly. What is the meaning of intelligence?

- A business issue. We need to find a trail of aliens. They arrived on Earth in a conical capsule, which stuck into the ground. The capsule was found, no living beings were found in it. These aliens do not allow themselves access to their equipment, apparently, they have a certain type of radar. We need to determine who they are and what they are. It is likely that they came to us through an interstellar portal from the moon. By the way, a new topic on preparing for the flight to the moon is opening soon. The civilians of the moon did not meet our first intelligence officers badly, militant inhabitants live on it. If the peaceful inhabitants of the moon came to us - is this one thing, and if not? It is necessary to find out who flew to us in the cone capsule of unearthly production through the space portal with access to the Glorious Mountains. But these are not my questions.


Rimma discovered on her bed a flying leshi suit. Strange, so many times today I went into this room and did not see the costume, and now he is in front of her! Who could go into the apartment and leave the suit?

- Rimma, hello! - said Andrei, entering the room. - What are you interested in my costume?

'Memories, I thought, this is your old costume.'

- kidding me! Today I rushed into your house in the cold. I know that Nikolay Nikitich disappeared again in work. Where have you been? Feet - how cold!

- What are you attentive! Tired of white clothes, I wanted a variety.

- Well, there is a task. But how did you manage to freeze? It is completely incomprehensible to me!

- The senses. Love. Moonlight night...

- It is clear that there will be work for you and on earth. Not spy mania, but pure psychotherapy. And how would Nikolai Nikitich look at this? Without his participation, direct or indirect, we do nothing. He is, of course, not God, but something clever emanates from him. Have you not understood yet that centaurs no longer exist?

- Do I have to wear the costume of the flying leshi? - asked Rimma, leading Andrew away from the topic of centaurs, she was still ashamed of herself on the roof.

- Rimma, it's time you put on the costume of the flying leshekh and become a flying witch, but this fate is constantly bypassing you! Are you all jealous of me? How can? It has passed! We are with you!

- So what? Do I need to look at other people's windows or fly into them at once in a suit of a flying leshego? - Rimma continued to speak on this subject, holding a strange suit in her hands.

- Steeper. We will go with you to the exhibition of space fighters. One plane is unique, designed to fly into space through the outer portal, for which we will buy a runway.

- Is the plane a stranger? I designed a fighter cockpit layout for a fantastic movie.

- Co-production. It can fly to the moon.

- Offer to fly to the moon?

- Do not rush to guess the mission, which is directly related to space flights. We are interested in the material of the aircraft. He has strange qualities: he is all metallic and glitters in the sun, then amorphous and shimmers like gel.

- Andrew, and you yourself can not tear off a piece of the plane to analyze the material?

- The material is unusual and durable.

- And I, having put on a flying leshi suit, cut off a piece of the plane with nail scissors?

- In a suit you will penetrate into the cabin, take invisible pictures, sit by the window ...

- A plane goes into an amorphous state, and I get stuck in it, like a ship at the bottom of the Bermuda Triangle?

- Well done! - Alex said, flying into the window in a suit flying leshego.

- I consider the gathering of the flying evil forces to be open! - jokingly shouted Rimma.

- Rima, Mrs. Aphrodite gave you an interesting subject, so he is so hard and strong that she can make a scratch on the plane. Musin will help you complete the task, 'Nikolai Nikitich said seriously.

- Men, I'm not a locksmith. Send a peasant to take a sample of the material.

- You see, you can not be replaced! - Alex cried.

- I'm a stuntman in a movie? - asked Rimma. - Well, shoot the film, but from the first take.


Chapter 10

Rimma herself decided to fly to the moon with the Cross.

The moon, a sandy desert with even round craters, did not always welcome spaceships from Earth. In the early years of the Moon's exploration, many launches of spacecraft from Earth were unsuccessful, some were protecting the Earth's satellite from the invasion of foreign bodies.

Fountains of glowing dust people could take for shooting. From the first flights, the earthmen had the feeling that in the depths of the moon someone lives. That they did not let the spaceships. They fired space rockets at an unknown weapon! Or it seemed to earthlings.

A glowing column of dust escaped from the surface of the moon from the crater and hovered in the air for three minutes. Rima for a moment numb: the spectacle was unfamiliar. She was walking across the moon in a spacesuit.

She moved in small steps: gravity on the satellite is six times less than on Earth. The suit shackled her movements and did not allow, due to its gravity and clumsiness, to move with long, light steps.

Yes, Rimma and Alex flew first to the moon during the construction of the Sphere.

Before the flight, they were a little worried, somehow the native inhabitants of the moon would meet them. By this time, it was known that the moon dwarfs live on the moon. It was rumored that these were small creatures that they could not take off on the photo, as if they were conspired from the magic of portraits.

Next to Rimma was Alex.

They became friends on simulators in preparation for the flight. People on the moon were selected according to their mind, health, and undemanding food, capable of self-restraint on many issues of life. Such people met in various layers of society, on Earth there was a search for people chosen to live on the Moon.

Rimma was among the first builders of an extraordinary space complex, so she studied the atlas of the moon well. At the moment, she walked along the bottom of a crater with a diameter of twenty-five kilometers. On Earth, it was decided exactly here to build the space object "Sphere". Soon Rimma caught up with Alex on the moonwalker.

All construction of the Sphere was in the plans of Andrei Georgievich. Alex was responsible for working with the moon gnomes.

Nikolai Nikitich was responsible for the construction of cargo spacecraft. Andrei Georgievich was engaged in the development of the Sphere. There were many plans, but the speed of construction was sometimes strongly stalled by the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

Chose a place for the construction site. So what is next? Without a magic wand you will not abandon building materials from Earth to the Moon. What did Rimme have to do? Write in the cabin of the spacecraft. Alex at this time was engaged in construction planning. Rimma was sitting in her cabin of the spacecraft and recalled her way to the moon.

Soon Rimma and Alex together chose a site for the construction of the lunar complex. The sand rose from the wheels of the moon rover and quickly subsided. The sun was shining for more than a week, there was still a week left until night, it was necessary to inspect everything well.

A day on the moon lasts a month. I wonder how many years will Rimma be through the earth year? But while she was young and believed that a paradise complex would be built here. People were preparing the construction site for the stationary space station, given the fact that there is no atmosphere.

The developers of the station, led by Alex, assumed that the complex was a small town located under the Sphere's cap, that it would be built for greater compactness somewhat like an anthill, dissected by all sorts of arches to move. On Earth, his life-size model was assembled, which was tested in all possible parameters.

People on Earth knew what a plus or minus fifty degrees was, you had to add another fifty degrees to your knowledge and get the conditions of life on the moon. There are successful structures that stand for centuries. The station was not made for one year or day. The complex was much simpler and more interesting than ordinary flying stations around the Earth. Difficulties will inevitably be expected by its inhabitants, but there are various types of zones on Earth where it is necessary to pass from vacuum to air, such adapters have long and reliably been worked out.

A small piece of the Earth was created under the Sphere with the usual atmosphere. There is no miracle. If you disassemble all the problems of building a complex into parts, you could see that they all had their own technical solution. Part of the problems was worked out on Earth. The sphere - the roof of the complex - was tested in Antarctica and the Sahara desert.

The conquest of the Moon was the work of all earthlings, it was not a separate nation, but the creation of a new clan of people. The lunar space station was supposed to be built under a large sphere.

The roofs of the Sphere, like the space suits, were made multi-layered. The task of the developers was that it was necessary to get a constant twenty-three degrees inside the object. They took into account the fact that the temperature here is in the range of one hundred degrees plus up to one hundred degrees minus.

Everyone knows how water behaves at such temperatures. Consequently, there could be no water on the surface of the moon. What to water complex for five hundred people?

Developers had to solve such a complex task. To drill the surface of the moon? But where, where and how much? You will extract water, and it will freeze or evaporate.

How to catch water if the temperature for it on the surface of the moon does not fit?

The answer is one: first, you need to build a sealed volume in the form of a sphere, not pierced by meteorites. For the construction of the complex, new technologies were developed not only for obtaining fundamentally new materials for the roof of the complex. In the confined space of the Sphere it was necessary to create an oxygen climate.

The main thing for creating a complex is the roof, the air, the temperature inside the Sphere, then it comes to the water. Must be in the depths of the moon concentrated water and its components!

A whole series of spacecraft with a large carrying capacity under the guidance of Nikolai Nikitich was developed. Soon whole series of these ships were to fly from the Earth to the Moon to transport a huge amount of cargo.

Along the perimeter of the house - the pyramids intended to build apartments with windows; inside the huge building they planned to arrange industrial premises. Paradise complex expected to build a man for five hundred. It was decided to place a large space observatory on the upper floors of the pyramid, with a large set of telescopes to observe the stellar spaces from a new point of view.

Rimma thoroughly dealt with Andrei Georgievich's plans to build the Sphere. She came out of the spacesuit in a spacesuit on the line terminator. A little used to the lunar landscape, she noticed small minks in the lunar surface. Minks were covered with stones.

Rimme was lucky: a dwarf appeared from one mink, two more came out for him. She mentally called them moon gnomes and hid behind a spaceship, watching the small gnomes running out of the moon. The moon gnomes looked like small people with well-developed arms. There was something human in them, but covered with dark fur. It was impossible to confuse them with monkeys.

The locals did not have a tail, and there were more heads relative to the body than people. In general, the dwarves were sympathetic. It was possible to compare them with the cubs, but they were more elegant. Rimme moon dwarves immediately liked.

The moon gnomes jumped a little at the mink on the hind limbs, then on the front and rear, and then began to move just as strangely towards the rocket.

Having run ten meters and noticing Rimma, the dwarves waved their heads at the same time, lifted up two hands in greeting, then quickly returned to their hole and disappeared into it.

Rimma was pleasantly surprised by the appearance of such cute gnomes and regretted that her dog Cross remained on Earth to prepare for the flight.

People talked about life inside the Moon, but the description of the lunar gnomes has not yet been found - not in a single scientific publication. Rimma described the moon gnomes in the journal of observations.

On Earth, built spacecraft for flights to the moon. Slowly but surely, in various fields they produced everything necessary for the complex, thought about how to provide people with food.

It was decided that nutrition on the moon would be of a plant nature. Developed the soil for the cultivation of cereals, vegetables and fruits. All agronomists of the Earth were attracted to interesting developments and experiments.

Space ships began to arrive on the moon. The spaceport in a huge crater filled with people in spacesuits. Cranes were assembled from several parts. All parts of the roof structures of the Sphere on the Moon weighed six times less.

The sphere rose before our eyes. New space suits did not interfere with movement in space, people got used to new gravity for them.


Hermetic Sphere complex was built. Inside the pumps started working, oxygen slowly filled the huge room. People happily filmed spacesuits, work has become more fun.

On the sand were built residential premises and technical complexes. Land for planting was around the perimeter of the Sphere. 'The gardens will surely bloom inside the complex,' thought the creators of Sphere and Rimma along with them.

The work became more and more, but she continued to write a story about herself as a holiday.

A sphere with a diameter of one kilometer was a very impressive structure, therefore, transport inside the Sphere was necessary, and it was launched along ring roads. Thin people who can eat plant food, healthy and relatively young people made up the population of the complex. Families were not forbidden, it was necessary to create a society of moon people.

Rimma and Alex decided to stay on the moon. They believed in the success of the complex.

The sphere of the space station was on the visible side of the moon and was easily visible from the center of observation from the earth. The complex was the second cosmic outpost of the Earth.

Climatic conditions did not differ in good temper, therefore a closed life support system was built in the form of a comfortable complex with several roofs of different materials interconnected by flexible and light fittings.

Air flows of varying temperatures flowed between the roofs, creating the necessary twenty-three degrees Celsius inside the space station. Roofs were flexible and did not become brittle from changing temperatures.

The roof is the main task of any station; for many years its tightness was the number one task on Earth.

Inside the Sphere there was a small compact city like a multifaceted pyramid with a flat top for a viewing platform.

Along the perimeter of the Sphere were places for recreation: swimming pools, parks, walking paths, greenhouses for growing cereals, fruits and vegetables.

They brought seedlings from the earth, seedlings and then grew everything themselves. If you take nutrient-rich soil, then it should be much less than ordinary land.

For walking there were lunar rovers, space suits. Through a series of hermetic entrances, it was quite possible to go out into the open spaces of the Moon on a small expedition. People preferred to live in families. Here were their mini-schools and mini-universities. People were selected on the principle of digestion - they took those who can eat plant food. No meat was produced on the moon. Thus, a clan of people was formed not by the nation and the language barrier, but by the method of nutrition and survival.

People believed that the only possible form of life is the Sphere complex. People and plants were alive at the lunar station. Plants prevailed necessary for human nutrition.

Ornamental plants were practically banned. Everything that grows was supposed to benefit double: to give off oxygen and to give food. Dairy industry was absent.

Missing trace elements were received as a dry medical ration from the Earth. The dry ration had an expiration date of five years - in case the connection with the Earth is interrupted, the station could live independently for five years. Oxygen was generated at the oxygen station, electricity was generated from wind and sunlight. Life at the station was calm: alcohol, cigarettes, drugs did not get here.

On the inner perimeter of the complex drove high cars like buses. The speed of movement depended on the passengers. The transport went in four lanes depending on the number of stops and speed. All this moving tape of roads was closed by a roof, had its entrances and exits.

And on the roof above the roads was the biggest road - the pedestrian.

The pyramid was riddled with roads, like rays, but staggered in height. The main task of the station is to observe other planets and a little behind the Earth.

Telescopes of various resolutions were located on the platforms of the second last floor. Agronomists and astronomers are the main specialists of the complex. The rest of the knowledge was from the chosen people, including Rimma.

At the lunar station, marriages between people of convenience were welcomed, it was believed that such a marriage was the strongest. If love can be calculated, then it becomes calculated, and a marriage of convenience was allowed. Thus was created the ideal of family life.

The family should be strong and, if possible, the only one. The population of the complex was invisibly limited.

The indigenous population is thin, slender people no more than 180 cm. They didn't need much, they were flexible, compliant, helpful, brought up in a narrow circle of communication.

Entertainment at the station was sporty, there were no restaurants at the station. There were beautiful blocks of food intake, for all the food is the same, there simply could not be a wide variety.

The pure and measured way of life prevailed. If a person was born by chance, who needed meat for his food, then at the first opportunity he was sent to Earth, and in response to the Moon they could send a vegetarian. If someone was psychologically distracted from the general channel, he was sent to medical units and the brains were put in place. Painlessly all this did not pass, but the doctors always had means at hand to calm them down, so all the discontent was extinguished.

If there was life in the depths of the moon, then there must have been water or its replacement. There was life in the moon, but very strange.

Moles are not moles, or live gnomes. On the surface of the moon there was nothing to breathe. What did they breathe in the depths of the sandy planet? If there was life inside the planet, then there was a semblance of air. Or are these robots living in the catacombs?

The moon was dug inside and around by hardworking limbs. What is the meaning of their life? Security? Yes, the gnomes guarded the moon. Outcrops from them were covered up, and if necessary, they would emerge in the space of the space rocket and harm from the soul.

What did the dwarves breathe on the surface? What did pearl catchers breathe in the old days on Earth?

Training - and people could spend some time in the depths of the ocean. The underground inhabitants of the moon treated with the likeness of the lungs, requiring a small amount of oxygen, and could run out to the surface of the planet, holding their breath. What did they eat?

The moon was riddled with streaks of nutrients and microorganisms, the indigenous people lived along these veins.

They had a small growth, not more than 50 cm. Eyes adapted to the darkness distinguished objects. They could be guided by smell, touch was well developed.

The lunar gnomes used stones found in the depths of the planet as tools of labor. They were covered with wool, but the animals did not resemble, there was something in them or something from rational dwarves, in general, the dwarves were very nice.

The roads inside the moon corresponded to the growth of the dwarves, in some places there were large rooms, there were objects emitting light. Lived gnomes with some amenities.

They brought to themselves the remains of interesting objects from rockets, so they needed rockets that could not fly away from the moon. Glowing objects - the pride of the dwarves, the more they were, the greater was the rank of the moon gnome.


Power is needed inside any living system. Dwarves were required to find new nutrient veins and protect them from destruction.

They noticed long ago that people who arrived on missiles did not seek to leave the moon, as it usually happened before. They built huge structures, and there were so many of them that the moon gnomes fell silent and did not protrude.

Self-preservation worked for them. Sometimes the gnomes dragged small objects to their catacombs.

The surface of the moon froze at night and thawed during the day, least of all it was noticeable on the sand. The moon gnomes empirically found the terminator's line - the line of the morning, and once a day they were selected to the surface, but this line was also known by big people, so this line was very popular among moon gnomes and people in space suits.

Who would know how the Sphere will appeal to the dwarves! Oh, they appreciated the advantages of the new structure of big people! The moon gnomes in the area of vegetable landings dug holes and with great pleasure came to the surface inside the station, when people slept according to the laws of Earth time, and the lighting was almost turned off to save.

The gnomes were happy in those moments and strictly observed the turn in their community to appear in the Sphere.

Rimma noticed the gnomes inside the station, she was waiting for them to appear and carefully looked at the planting of vegetables. She, noticing the specific irregularities in the vegetable plantations, began to wait for the appearance of gnomes. For the bait she left them a delicious meal at the entrance, she really wanted to see the cute faces of the indigenous people of the Moon again.

Previously, other lunar dwarves noticed a small Cross, who arrived from the Earth after preparation. Rimma with Cross walked around the landings. She saw a dwarf's face. The cross was a bit more of a dwarf who came to the surface. The dog was small, and it attracted the attention of the dwarves, they decided to send one gnome to explore. Acquaintance took place. Cross-leg stroked the head of the dwarf, and he was very pleased.

Rimma told Alex that she had seen a local resident, a moon gnome. Yes, now it was necessary to make official acquaintance with the gnomes. Soon all the inhabitants of the complex knew that there was life in the moon. The main thing - it was necessary not to spoil the local life, but to study and find in it a benefit for the residents of the station.

Rules are rules, but there is always an intruder. Someone on a space rocket secretly drove a small calf. The offender was scolded, but the residents of the complex were so happy with the animal that they had to allow the calf to live at the station. The calf had to take a place for food and walks in the vegetable garden. There were craftsmen, sprinkled clover, and he grew up between cabbages.

Dog Cross knew his master and led a home life, sometimes Rimma walked with him, which pleased all residents.

Moon gnomes began to appear more often at the station, they were given a place to meet people. Later a small house was built for them in the place of their exit to the surface. Children were not allowed close to the gnomes. For security, the gnomes' exit point was fenced with a net. Found a man who voluntarily began to communicate with the dwarfs inside the grid, trying to develop a common language of understanding.

People could not penetrate the catacombs, the roads inside the planet were too small. But miracles always happen. Cross with Rimma came to the house under the net. Cross at the first opportunity rushed into the moon along the roads of the dwarves. The incident immediately went around the entire complex.

The people began to approach the house. The Soviets obeyed and cut short due to the unreality of execution.

The moon gnome, who at that time was at the station, ran inside the catacombs. Cross ran after him, the oncoming gnomes pressed against the walls at the sight of a strange animal.

Glowing stones showed the way to the dog, he was not scared, but it was very interesting. The little gnomes didn't scare the dog, and at some point Cross was tired and sat down at the nutritious vein. Cross ate the food of the gnomes who crowded around the dog. One of the dwarfs came up and explained to the others that Cross had escaped from a new complex of big people. The dog tried to stroke. Cross arched back.

Everyone was satisfied. On their advice, the moon gnomes thought for a long time what to do with such a large gnome as Cross.

And Cross did not think, he ate, rested and ran on his trail back.

The moon gnomes ran after the dog. People gathered around the gnomes' house, they joyfully watched Cross cross the mink's exit, and soon ten dwarfs flew out behind it. The moon gnomes looked at the people, the people looked at them, and Cross ran up to Alex, dirty, but pleased. The leadership of LKS decided to increase the space for walking the moon gnomes. They made a mini-park, but the top was closed with a net.

Moon gnomes have not yet been fully explored. The complex on the moon gradually paid for itself. Observations from the moon were so different from observations from Earth observatories that it was decided to modernize the complex, and not to dissolve.

We already thought about launching spaceships to other planets from the moon.

Life has become more fun. Live milk appeared. Moon gnomes appeared. All this entertained the residents of the complex. People get used to everything: for a long night, and for a long day. The main thing is that the Sphere had to be kept in order. Any hole in the Sphere could violate the earthly paradise on the Moon, so there were full-time observers and custodians of the Sphere.

The news of the moon gnomes reached the Earth, there were people whom they were interested in. A mini-lunar rover was created to study the life of the gnomes in their catacombs. The mini-lunar rover was equipped with lighting, photographic equipment, a video camera - all of this was firmly fixed, checked on Earth with the help of the gnomes Seni and Veni, and sent to the Moon.

On the mini-moon rover there was a place for one gnome. Rimma suggested that the most inquisitive of the moon gnomes take a mini-transport. She showed the effect of the equipment.

The moon gnome was called Miles, put on him clothes that distinguished him from the rest, and sent on a journey along the roads of the gnomes.

The moon gnomes scattered along the walls at the sight of the brightly lit moonwalker on which Miles sat. He was known by many, but not everyone knew that Mil was the personal intelligence officer of the head of the Moon ...

The moon was settled not for the first year, in all respects it looked like Earth, except that it had a slightly different size. So that the incoming rockets would not land where they would have, they invented a cosmic field with radar installations that caught the flying ships, then a magnetic trap was turned on, and all the ships landed in the places assigned to them.

The largest room occupied the head of the moon. Miles on the moon rover came to the head of the report and showed a new type of transport. Glare, was the name of the head of the moon, approved the actions of Mile and allowed to remove the premises of the dwarfs, but do not show edible layers and do not show the military parts of the dwarves, do not show the technique.

The fact is that the inhabitants of the moon collaborated with the inhabitants of Mars.

Martians before earthlings visited the moon, they installed cannons in depressions on the surface of the planet to protect against spacecraft arriving. The guns served properly, and for a long time people could not master the moon - they were afraid that the spacecraft from the moon rarely returned.

Martians brought Flare clothing, luxury goods, food and equipment.

All this was only at the head of the Moon and his entourage, the rest of the gnomes walked in their wool and fed on nutrient veins.

Therefore, the people of Earth, who saw the dwarves for the first time, did not know anything about the connection of Blik with the Martians, they believed that the moon gnomes were dark gnomes, and they naively believed that Miles would film all the secrets of the local kingdom.

Quite by chance, Blik himself got on the video camera tape, they could not check the footage, but Miles didn't go to the forbidden places and didn't take too much. Rimma waited for Mile at the exit to the surface in the area of the complex. Miles appeared on the surface. She greeted him and handed the tape over to the intelligence agencies, and that was the end of her mission.

The study of films engaged people arrived on the moon. Naturally, most of all they were interested in the frame, which showed a chic room, decorated with beautiful material, with luxurious soft furniture, with a strange object that looked like a screen.

In the chair sat in the mantle of Blick. The poor moon gnomes standing along the walls of the roads differed sharply from him, and their caves were poor, and the food was modest and incomprehensible.

Space reconnaissance from Earth decided that it was necessary to get in touch with the head of the Moon - he was immediately called that way and guessed. Moon gnomes recognized one Rimma. They only carried out her orders. Scouts showed Rimme the most interesting shots.

This intellectual Mil began to make sounds that resemble human speech.

Rima showed Mily the shots he took, he was not surprised, there was a feeling that he knew more than he shot on film. Surprisingly, he was wearing clothes tailored by the complex's tailors. Once Mil brought Rimme diamonds, he said that in his dungeon there are a lot of such beautiful stones.

Earth - Moon transport missiles flew on schedule, landing on the moon in the vicinity of the terminator line. The first outpost in space attracted people of Earth to itself. Somehow, footage from the moon constantly appeared on Earth's television screens. Earthlings were looking forward to the demonstration of a film about an extraterrestrial civilization. Business trip at Rimma came to an end.


Chapter 11

For some time, Rimma had his own modern mode of transport, invented to fly around traffic jams. Here again, she mixed up the buttons on the MLA control panel (a small aircraft capable of moving through the air), as a result of which she was carried away from the central highway of flying objects. She flew into total darkness. She has an all-seeing eye in her forehead! Her third eye of intuition is any darkness in joy.

But this time the famous fashionista curled the third eye with big bangs and therefore lost its landmark. She attached a huge tail of strange hair to her small hair tail. The local barber tried and made her a gift. He cut off part of the tail of the stallion Fomka and remade it for the tail of Rimma. Here she was delighted with the gift! No one was ever more beautiful than her and in the whole wide world! She even wanted in honor of such beauty to call herself a princess, but no one would understand.

The small aircraft of the latest model consisted of a comfortable cabin with an armchair. From above, the cabin was closed with a transparent dome, giving a 360 degree view. Therefore, Rimma turned his head, or the skewer of LAM. The aircraft decorated an antenna panicle for receiving signals from the controller's console. The body color and airbrushing she chose herself. Yes, it is prestigious for a girl to have such a model! It cost a lot of money, and not in every swamp MLA buy.

Speaking of swamps. Rimma's summerhouse stood in the Cranberry bog. Great place for solitude and thinking about the meaning of eternal life! A place in the swamp was given to her at a gathering of swamp people. The main swamp hostess at all times was the sinewy witch Martha. She did not recognize herself as a woman, but always claimed that she was a pure-blooded noblewoman. Marsh people did not use air transport, and the witch constantly flew over forests, fields and marshes in a small aircraft. Over the years, she took power into her own hands and distributed land and swamps to young girls herself.

All the witches are like witches, and Rimma did not attribute herself to witches, she considered herself a princess. The young girl was distinguished by her stateliness and extravagance, for which she received a beautiful swamp with tufts of cranberries and small birch trees. You cannot drive through the swamp, but if necessary, you could move by jumping from hummock to hummock, clinging to small birch trees.

Great place! Rimma ordered a cargo helicopter, a team of builders and a house layout. The builders built the platform and lowered the marsh anchors from four sides. A two-story palace with small turrets gradually grew on the platform. This was her summer residence.

Alex sat on the edge of the forest with a beautiful view of the Cranberry Swamp and didn't blow. Reluctantly he looked towards the swamp from - under the large eyelids and long lashes.

He had a house located on three oaks. He had a good house, not every forest dweller can afford it, because they did not give out housing mortgage in the forest. A few words should be said about his house. Alex had once found three oak trees that had managed to grow on the edge of the forest. He cut down three oak trees at a height of two meters and connected them with logs. On the logs installed flooring and built a one-story house.

The house on three oaks house Martha really liked. She wanted to buy Alex's house for himself. She tried to deceive him and get a house on three oaks, but he was incorruptible.

At the edge of the forest, Alex made a well for water, spent the water supply to the house from the well, and was almost happy. He lacked a sports channel to watch football battles. He bought himself a TV, a satellite dish and set up a windmill on the edge of the swamp to generate electricity. Now he was happy watching the games of CSKA, Spartak and Zenit on the football field and in the ice arena.

Marfa has lost all peace from Alex's opportunities. She was ready to take him as her deputy, but he did not agree, then she began to watch the concert on her television. She had enough houses, and not only on chicken legs! And in general, she always liked the palace in the swamp, owned by Rimma, and not some house on Alex's three oaks there!

So, Alex was sitting on a stump decorated under a chair, and unexpectedly saw a mini-palace in a swamp. He rubbed his eyes in surprise! Palace in the swamp! That's great! For the first time, he regretted that he did not have a GLA - a small aircraft - and even a helicopter! All LAMs spread only through Martha, and with him his relationship did not develop. He did not want to jump from hillock to hillock in the Cranberry bog. He opened the World Wide Web, which he recently managed to carry out from his dachas, who use a wireless network, and saw: "Everyone sells and buys cars only here!"

But you can't drive through the swamp in the car, that's for sure Alex knew! Then he decided to buy a helicopter, but he remembered that the charter of the society of marsh inhabitants prohibited the use of non-statutory moving equipment. Yes, he is not a girl, but the ruling party in the swamp - witches, this had to be considered. Alex took out his binoculars and turned him toward the palace in the swamp.

The palace inspired respect. Near the palace went a gorgeous girl with a ponytail on her head, in golf and shorts. He had seen her before, she flew on the last model LAM, and her name was Rimma. And the girl was not so simple, she built herself a palace in a swamp.

Alex loved to walk in the woods. On weekends, he got up early and went into the woods with a backpack. He never had a garden. Alex could not be a digger by nature, could not dig beds, plant shrubs or potatoes with onions. There was no peasant vein in it. His parents were ordinary and practical people: they had a garden, a vegetable garden, and everything in the house was good and beautiful, or it seemed to him ...

He was returning home, and from - under the upper garbage in the basket he took out the fruits of the forest. He brought raspberries with intoxicating smell, brought mushrooms, lingonberries.

In the middle zone of Russia, berries grew for the production of medium noble drinks. The nobility of wines, like the nobility of people, depends on many factors. In places where the cranberries are growing, he could not find noble grapes. Cranberry can be made tincture on alcohol. A cranberry and without sugar not spoiled.

He found lingonberries in the forest. It will flood her with water, and she will stand the winter. And once he came across a blueberry glade, picked up a backpack and a basket of berries. Went for mushrooms - found a blueberry. It happens to everyone?! Blueberry jam Alex did not dare to cook. He strained his memory and remembered that in the warehouse of the girl Martha saw bottles, there was still something in them at the bottom, but on the whole they could be used for their own needs. He went to the warehouse, begged two containers from under the drug, brought home, washed for a long time, sterilized.

Marfa marveled at Alex's diligence. Berries he did not wash. He said that if the berries are washed, useful microbes will be washed off. He put the berries in the bottle, added sugar, squeezed sugar with berries and poured some water into the mixture. The time was still warm, and Alex waited for the fermentation reaction. Some dark-colored liquid fermented in the bottles, then he confiscated two rubber gloves from Martha, put them on the neck of the bottles so that the wine breathed and did not run away. He made two long flat sticks of wood and sometimes began to stir dark liquid.

I waited for the wine to work out. All the familiar ghouls of the Cranberry bog waited for wine. But it turned out that Alex had been making wine for the first time in his life. He always drank good wine in life, and that rarely, only on major holidays, but this time the process of wine-making greatly drew him. Previously, he bought wine in large bottles, poured it into a metal cup and added sparkling water from the siphon.

He also had a theory from which it followed that if wine was added to the water from the swamp, the water would become suitable for consumption and all microbes would be destroyed. In general, he loved to fight microbes, and then he spread microbes in bottles and enjoyed watching the fermentation process.

Once Alex decided to go to the city. Before leaving, he again prevented berries in one bottle, and when he began to interfere with the wine in the second bottle, he saw Rimma through the window, flying to his house on the MLA. He rashly as hit a stick on the bottom of the bottle! The bottle and broken. Wine ran down the floor, began to flow under the benches. At that moment Rimma looked in on him.

- Rimma, and the smell of wine! I licked, I had a normal wine.

'You'd better wipe the wine off the floor,' she said, laughing.

- No, I will collect the glass, and you wipe the floor, and we will have time to go to the city.

His bags were at the door. They both went in for a quick cleaning, removed the effects of the winery and went to visit the gardener. For ten days they ate fruit from trees, berries from shrubs, and vegetables from the beds. When Alex returned home, he saw that over a single bottle the glove was swollen like a cobra hood. He gently prevented the wine. Yes - it was already something like a wine. The bottle was ten to fifteen liters. He began to collect bottles that are twisted with caps, even found a square bottle. Swamp people gathered to celebrate the holiday. Alex brought them a sample of their wine, they drank it.


Soon, Alex brought the rabbit home and put him on the balcony of the house on three oaks. When autumn came, the size of the rabbit was already quite large. Alex sharpened the ax and prepared to make a rabbit stew out of it. Rimme he said that she flew to the MFA as far as possible from his home. Pre-bought ceramic pots to extinguish the rabbit. Alex killed the rabbit with an ax. Rabbit stew was made in a pot with vegetables. The taste of the food was excellent, but when I remembered that the rabbit had just run - and now they were eating it, Rimma's appetite deteriorated somewhat.

Alex read in the book how to handle rabbit fur. He prepared the desired composition, rubbed the fur on the inside with grains of salt and waited for the cap to be made of fur. The rabbit's fur was put on the balcony, and the smell coming from the fur increased and decreased - everything depended on the direction of the wind. Fur, covered with salt composition for the treatment of fur, spoiled the eyes. Alex threw out the fur safely, and cleaned his face with salt. The wine of medium nobility, he also used for its intended purpose: he rubbed his face with wine.

The next morning, Rima began a new life with a white simulator. This mysterious white machine for adjusting the figure stood next to the bed. Why exhaust yourself charging, running, which is almost impossible in the marsh conditions? Rimma got into the simulator, pulled on a tape with rubber protrusions, turned on the second speed - and forward, to the new figure. Who said it was easy? You stand, but for you the tape beats and beats, and you move it to and from there to yourself.

Rimma's legs are tightly wrapped in jeans, slightly elongated in heels, she strides towards fate.

Two LAMs made a semicircle in the air and stopped. Without looking at them, she knew that in one of them was sitting the one for whom all her attempts in the area of the figure. He is irresistible for her. Next to him, she feels like a perfect girl. He is taller than her, tighter, and she next to him looks slender. Bliss - be near him! Alex is her visual happiness! The happiness lasted exactly as long as the LMA of Rimma was rising above the marsh.

Marfa flew to the LAM behind the car in which Alex and Rimma were driving on the ground, guarding their way. On the highway there were huge trucks with whole trains. Surprisingly, the car turned off the highway and went not in the direction of large cities, but in the direction of the Cranberry bog. She slowed down the house on three oaks. The house has deteriorated somewhat without a host, but still attracted the attention of random travelers. Alex first went up to the house. Behind him, Rimma climbed the stairs.

Alex and Rimma sat in chairs on opposite sides of the room.

'Rimma is a princess,' said the parrot from the cage.

Alex poured the grain into the bowl for the parrot to shut up.

- Nonsense! - exclaimed Rimma. - It does not happen! She cried, and in her voice she wept.

Alex poured a glass of water and handed it to Rimma so she calmed down.

Martha entered the door with a dull expression.

- Easy, I heard everything and I know everything. Rimma, do you want to be called "Countess Rimma"? Why? Sounds amazing!

Alex brought Tone his glass so that she would not worry about Rimma.

- Thank you dear! But to be a princess is not relevant. I have nothing but a swamp. I can work. That's enough for me. No, I'm not a princess, there's some kind of mistake here, 'said Rimma and put an empty glass on the table.

- Oh, you still cry! She does not want to be a princess! Who will give you to be a princess? Look, everywhere they write and say that the princess is dead, prove that her bones were found together with the bones of the shah who died in a car accident. And this means that you are not a princess! - proudly uttered Marfa and put a glass on the table.

- Bullshit! Rimma is a princess! - said the parrot. He touched an empty bowl. But instead of a bowl, a ring with pearls fell out of the cage.

Alex picked up the ring, then slowly put it on Rimma's finger. The ring had to fit her. He always considered her a princess and was in complete agreement with the parrot.

The next day, Rimma flies in the LAM to the house in the swamp, and Alex sits on the porch, a screwdriver climbs the stairs, he is a local TV star, only a few people can get on the screen. They talked about the pipes. He said that at home he cleaned the pipes and did not change them. Exactly a week later, all the mixers stood in place by the will of Alex, a long history, modern, like the life of Rimma.

Rimma, seeing the news from the swamp, decided to go to Sergei. On the edge of the swamp, she saw a house on three oaks. Alex was sitting in the house himself. She sat down in surprise on a chair made of oak stump. Alex looked at Rimma with surprise.

- Are you at home? Why don't you pick up the phone? - quietly asked Rimma.

'I live here alone for a long time,' he answered, like an echo, 'there is no one to call me.'

- It is clear that there are only mosquitoes and no one to talk to you.

'So it's not hot here, my house is heated.' I do not complain about life. What have you forgotten here?

'I haven't seen you for a long time,' Rimma said, 'today you were shown on TV, your house on three oaks and this new palace in my swamp. You can see it from the window! But how do I get there? LAM under repair. Do you have a vehicle?

- Asks! Here in all ages one transport - stupa! - important and mockingly said Alex.

- Do you have a stupa? - With hope in her voice asked Rimma.

- Of course have! I repaired your LAM, take it away! - Alex answered cheerfully, rising from the rookery. 'Martha gave me her old stupa.'

Soon they were on the porch of a house standing on stilts, driven into the endless swamp swamp. They drank cranberry drink and gnawed it with fresh baked pastries. The conversation slowly turned into monologues in which it was difficult to separate the truth from the fiction. The evening was warm, but the mosquitoes did not allow them to pour out their souls. Alex suddenly fell asleep. Rima also fell asleep.

Alex constantly looked at the palace in the swamp. Tired of him to see Rimma with bare legs above the knees, he really wanted to be closer to her, but it did not work. He decided to hide his pride and turned to Tone to give her the right to use the stupas of the last generation to move over the swamps. Marfa is a man of experience. She requested a house on three oaks to the witch foundation. In a fit of desire, Alex agreed to exchange the house on three oaks on a mortar with a roof and a vacuum cleaner motor. Alex flew on a mortar to the house of Rimma, sank onto the platform, and the platform almost did not sway.

In the eyes of Rimma, Alex noticed a secret sadness, she did not have the joy of a new tower. And Rimma's legs were covered with jeans, which was not part of his plans, he lost the house for her bare legs above the knees, and then jeans! Rimma kept order in the Cranberry swamp entrusted to her, but as long as the cranberries blossomed, there was absolutely nothing to do in the swamp.

She only smiled slightly at the person who arrived in the stupa. And Alex from her smile dismantled such sadness that there is nowhere else. He had nowhere to fly! He could not go home, for all he was no more, but he almost died, he almost did not become a zombie.


On a winter day, Olga, a friend of Rimma, helped out. She knew perfectly well that Alex and Rimma would not come to anything. At the moment of a desperate silence of a young couple, she appeared on the platform of the palace. Olga bought skates and took them to the palace in a swamp on a snowmobile. The swamp is frozen. In places, an even layer of ice bound the open water. Palace of Rimma attracted the attention of swamp ghouls. Alex generally came to her often. Olga made a variety in the cold period of life in the swamp. Rimma was delighted with the new entertainment and turned on the music for the whole Cranberry bog.

Of all the cracks to the music climbed the inhabitants of the forest and marshes. Handsome Alex appeared in a sheepskin coat with fur to the top. He sang without words. He brought with him a dozen white hares, which he served as forest scouts. Olga appeared. Her Rimma produced in the rank of aerial maiden, protecting people from ghouls, and gave her white skates. Andrei arrived. She made him the rank of serpentine demon who loves hollows of oaks and is able to instill passion in a woman, especially since he has a clone - Alex, who lives in a house on three oaks. Andrei did not refuse the title of serpentine demon, but asked to be modestly called - Andrei.

Marfa arrived at the sounds of marsh music. Rimma did not pass her attention. She wanted to produce it in forest spirits, but she refused. Marfa made the decision to be herself, she refused to be a spirit of air elements. But Rimma did not give up, she appointed Martha with a feminine spirit, and only the man who was the first to remove her clothes could remove the post from her.

Skates enough for everyone, there were still some skates.

Rimma was true to herself and suggested to Alex to become a likeness of Wii. Alex raised his hand up and lowered sharply in agreement. He always had the habit of agreeing with women to prevent swamp scandals. Alex said that he plays the role of vii because he has heavy eyelids and huge eyelashes from nature.

After the official part of the marsh people skating scattered across the ice marshes. Everyone found a personal ice rink and spun on it.

One Mrs. Martha did not spin on skates, she sat tiredly in the palace in the swamp and looked at the skating of others. Alex was tired of all the fastest and began to shoot the public on a cell phone, then entered the house. So ended the New Year holidays. In fact, friends lived in an ordinary town and worked in a factory for the manufacture of artistic products.

Ended the rest of young people in the cranberry region.

Rimma flew south. Therefore, she went to the airport, which was almost at her side, about twenty minutes from the house, if you go by car with a good driver. The airport is a wonderful invention of man, which always changes on time, obeying technical innovations in all areas. The last novelty was a plastic basin for things.

The girl took off her shoes and put them in a plastic basin. In the next bowl, she put the jacket and bag, then put everything on the conveyor belt along with the suitcase and went through the turnstile. Suitcase and bag stopped at the checkout.

- Girl, you have scissors in your bag, put them in a suitcase. You have Bengal lights in your suitcase - put them out of your suitcase, 'said a strict lady in uniform.

Rimma fulfilled the instructions. At her for the Bengal lights also made a protocol, then missed in the waiting room. It was she who flew to the north of Africa in winter, but not everyone took it out of a suitcase with a huge number of pockets.

After a showdown, she went to the window and looked at the planes. The glasses in the waiting room were so powerful that the sound from the planes did not reach her. Airplanes, buses, and trucks moved across the field, and it all moved in complete silence.

The waiting room for that also exists that in it people toil to flight. Many people get computers of all stripes and quietly have fun. Children run around the stalls in search of toys, which they did not yet have. And they buy toys in order not to break the blissful silence behind thick glasses.

Announced landing on the plane. Rimma moved to the next checkpoint. A slender line quickly organized and just as quickly moved into an elongated crowd, descending for boarding a bus. The buses here are wonderful, the places in them are standing, as they are close to the plane.

Drivers passing under the nose of the aircraft, the horror takes a habit. It remains to climb the ladder, go to the salon, squeeze into your chair and flop into it. Happiness. Sit and wait for takeoff.

The net with the magazine is fixed on the chair in front. You can look through the house of such a magazine is definitely not. Rimma looked at the manipulations of the stewardess with the means of protection, pulled the magazine out of the net and buried it in her as the best means of protection against thoughts in flight.

By order, she turned off her mobile phone. Laptop, lying in a bag over his shoulder, put in the luggage compartment above the chair.

Outside the window stretched a bright sky. All the clouds were quite quickly under the plane. It remains outside the clear sky. After some time, the young stewards brought drinks. Flight attendants followed them and spread the lunch. Rimma ate everything so that in a new place she did not begin life with the search for food.

At some point the shaking intensified. The scoreboard above the doors came on. The plane flew over the air holes. People turned in their chairs, like bears in a den. Rima at this time was thinking about anything, but not about the problems of the Galaxy, she just thought about the plane ...

Rimma - a girl of medium height, gray-eyed, golden-haired beauty with a small musculature. She does not drink alcohol and does not smoke tobacco products. Not every young man can approach her. You can't take her with your bare hands - she owns self-defense techniques. It is time to say: so they died out.

At the airport of arrival there was increased humidity. Heat. Palm trees slowly shook huge leaves, resembling fans with cuts. Palms didn't look like quivering aspens.

Taxi drivers flew at the people who arrived from all sides, and they were all subtly alike. A man approached Rimma with a sign of the hotel she was to go to. The silver car with calm swiftness drove onto the coastal freeway.

The road in two lanes was located slightly above the road in the opposite direction. The luxurious palm trees flashed in one row between the roads. Blossoming magnolias royally stood along the road. The taxi driver commented on the terrain through which they passed. The driver helped to carry things in the room.

Rimma was left alone. From the window one could see the turquoise sea, least of all it was of the color that happens in movies and in pictures. Between the hotel and the sea was a pedestrian zone, located between lush southern vegetation. From the balcony of the hotel to the tall plants the distance was significantly less than from the surface of the sea.

In the evening, at the entrance to the hotel, Rimma sat and dragged a local masterpiece in the form of whipped cold coffee with foam through a straw and watched people. All decent young people were under the strong supervision of the family rear. According to her observations, it turned out that families rest in the south: he, she and the children (from one to three).

The girl needed a lonely young man. But they were not there! She already regretted going alone.

The next day, a strong young man was sitting at a table in a hotel cafe. The administrator whispered to Rimma that he had come on a motorcycle worth a good car.

The girl really enjoyed it. This is what you need! Danger and what to do? She stepped into the parking lot to appreciate his motorcycle, but he was covered with a cover. At that moment, the owner of the two-wheeled colossus approached her.

- A girl named Rimma, what are you looking for here? Adventures on your head? - asked a very interesting young man.

- Fedor, I just liked you when you were riding this bike. I saw you from the window when you drove up to the hotel, - said Rimma, apologizing a little.

'Do you care?' - asked derisively handsome.

- There is. I need a person for entertainment in the style of local excursions, - Rimma expressed her desire with a strong voice.

'There's something in it,' said the young man thoughtfully, looking at the girl. - I wanted to ride a motorcycle and go on. I suggest another option: you will travel with me on local excursions, and the motorcycle will stand for some time under the cover, and then we will ride on it when we better understand the charms of the area.

'I say that you are suitable for me,' said Rimma, cheering up.

- Then I'm always with you.

'Great,' Rimma laughed. - The first tour will be in an hour. We will go to the railway station along the pedestrian path where the bus will be waiting for us. Jacket grab. Walk is expected with a breeze.


The breeze is not a breeze, but the road on the tour bus from the hotel to the berth of the ship, they made five times slower than on a silver car of a local taxi driver. Fedor from such a slow movement on local traffic jams all wrung.

On the white ship music has not played. Motor ship cheerfully rocked on the waves. Passengers collected from all over the coast, slowly flocked to the pier. Fedor and Rimma sat down at the bottom of the ship, they drank a cold drink and went up to the deck.

Waves of the color of the sea wave regularly flew away from the ship with small breakers. The coast slowly sailed in front of them, or they sailed past the coast. Nicely. The actor in ancient clothes of the seaman walked on the steam-ship. With him willingly photographed vacationers.

It was worth the ship back to the shore, as the sky darkened. The moon has appeared. The bus went back much faster. Fedor looked out the window, absorbing traffic signs, which could be useful for a future trip.

Rimma looked at nature and was saturated with it. A grove of cypress trees with a height of ten-story houses easily concealed any buildings. Magnolias growing between cypress trees, very much like girls in dresses with flowers. Palms whispered that she was in the south. Lush vegetation attracted novelty and was unusual for the eyes. The air was warm, viscous and made it possible to reduce clothes to the allowed minimum.

In the morning, Rima went to the sea on the asphalt, from which peculiar pebbles looked out. The edge of the sea coast, to which it was approaching, was so small that it was used for pedestrians, for the monorail, for the overpass. She went ashore through a junction located under the embankment for a monorail. A few more steps - and she appeared on the beach, which turned out to be a small patch of coast, covered with large pebbles.

The feeling of lightness pleasantly pleased the girl after a long aimless existence. She felt as if the hostilities had ended. Although, if you think about it, no changes have occurred in her life, and this is really good.

On the eve of Rimma passed the central coast of the town, divided into enclosed areas. She looked at the available beaches and chose this one, the road to which seemed more beautiful and richer than the diverse outlets of a small resort town.

The girl sat on the edge of the asphalt, before setting foot on the pebbles, then she looked at the azure sea. On the shore, she sat on a towel, laying it on the pebbles.

The view in front of it was magnificent: on one side was a mountain, on the other side there was a berth, in front of the sea stretched, ships sailed across the sea horizon.

The people lying on the beach had a pinkish tan, because until today the weather was overcast, so the girl's white body started tanning along with the rest of the sunbathers. Fedor came to the beach alone and lay down so that Rimma noticed him. He loved society, could be different and could afford a trip to the city of magnolias.


Chapter 12

Fedor suggested that Rimma, who came to the beach with a tail of hair, looking out of a hole in a white cap, had an excursion to the mountains. After some time, they got into a military vehicle, which was already driven by a person who had a cheerful disposition. He drove them to the mountain prairies, where real horses grazed. Fedor and Rimma got out of the car, stood against the backdrop of mountains and horses.

They went the rest of the way on the seat of the car that was driving along the serpentine road to the top of the mountain. For their happiness or misfortune, the lift to the mountain did not work.

The girl squealed with fear as she drove alongside the edge of the road, beyond which there were mountain crevices below! She was standing in the car, holding onto the rail, which served as the edge of the roof. The song about love and alcohol thundered from the bowels of the car, emotionally glowing travelers.

Rima's heart jumped out of her chest from adrenaline, when the driver stopped the car and pointed to the estate, located on a small plateau. The name of the owner of the driver said in a whisper. This is where the Master of the mountains lived! Rimma heard about him, saw his portraits, knew him on the TV screen.

The car continued to go up along the serpentine road, along a strange road without concrete fences, along the ground and rock, where rare trees, standing or fallen, protected it from falling into the abyss. The edge between the wheels and the precipice was sometimes so small that Rimma preferred to look towards the mountain, which seemed more reliable and calm.

The car reached the waterfall, diving into the summer glacier. And now, when the summit was conquered by the wheels of the car, a large hail followed, replaced by a cold rain. I had to wear warm clothes to autotourists, and the chauffeur urgently closed the car.

The rain was replaced by hail, and hail by cold rain that was eroding the road and making it slippery.

The mountain roads were constantly covered with rains from snow clouds, which were not at the foot of the mountains, and slid so that the passengers had almost no fear. Any wrong movement of the driver - and the car could fly into the abyss along the mountainside. Fear subconsciously fit under the crust of Rimma's skull.

Clouds moved away. A helicopter hovered over the girl, from which a flight of stairs with tentacles controlled from a helicopter took off. Rimma was slowly sucked into the helicopter. It seemed to her that she was participating in the show, because inside the helicopter she did not see the people. She was overcome with horror, which squeezed her throat.

Suddenly, a screen with an image of an imperious man lit up in front of her. He said a strange phrase:

- I am the Master of the Mountains. Rimma, your ransom for eternal freedom is two diamonds the size of a walnut. I do not know where they are, but I know for sure that they exist! Your task, Rimma, is to find two artifacts. For everything about everything you are given a year!

- The owner of the mountains, what time ?! I do not search for missing diamonds!

No one answered Rimma. Helicopter tentacles put it on the ground in front of the waterfall. Feodor did not notice Rima's absence or pretended that he did not. He had no fear in the mountains. He serenely believed in the safety of a trip in a military vehicle.

They descended from the mountain much faster than they climbed. Rimma saw some black tents on the mountain! What would it mean? The tents stood exactly on the spot from which the Master of the Mountains was visible! The tents were black, very strange ...

- Rima, wake up! What are you thinking about? - Fedor girl braked.

'About black tents,' Rimma automatically replied. 'Why are black tents on the mountain?'

'Homeless people live in them,' he replied disgustedly.

- And what do tents do at an altitude of 1900 meters above sea level?

- People live, chew bread, which tourists leave.

- And you can not remove the tent?

'You won't remove all the tents,' Fedor said wisely.

Rimma had other thoughts on this subject - she thought that the host of the mountains bodyguards lived in the black tents. She shuddered at the memory of the order of the Master of the Mountains. She really wanted to think that everything was a joke. Wild joke of travel route organizers. But something prompted her that everything was wrong, that there was no joke, but there was an order to find a diamond radiating the energy of life.

And how did the Master of the Mountains know her name? And she realized that finding out the name of a person is easy. And who is Fedor? She looked at her traveling companion for the first time with suspicion. And then who is she? Why did the owner of the mountains turn to her with a strange request?

After the mountain road, on a flat coastal freeway, the car was driving at such a wild speed that at another moment Rimma would have shrunk from fear, and then just rejoiced that she was not in the mountains, but on a plain.

Outside the window, flowering shrubs flashed, resembling huge domestic flowers. The stalks of grass seemed so huge that there was a feeling of implausibility.

In the mountainous terrain, any ascent upwards seems natural, from this point of view the way up the stairs to the sixth floor of the hotel was not something supernatural. Rimma chose a hotel on the World Wide Web, so she chose a modern building, but later drew attention to the lack of an elevator.

It had never occurred to her that the elevators in the mountains were not honored, but on the last floor there was a beautiful hall and a large balcony, on which she sometimes sunbathed. In general, the hotel had no flaws, and the views from the two rooms of the room were so different that in one window you could see a cloudless sky and a boundless sea, and from another window you could see mountains in clouds.

Rimma did not understand why she needed Fedor. Without him, she would never go to the mountains! She wanted to go home immediately after he offered to repeat the way to the mountains on a motorcycle. In the evening, Rima and Fyodor sat in a cafe located on the busiest street of the city. Suddenly Bengal lights sparkled around them like fireflies. Rima thought that her Bengal lights returned, which they took from her at the airport.

She did not want to rejoice, she felt that she was on the hook of someone very strong and even more incomprehensible. She really wanted to go home to her mother, maybe she knows where to find two diamond walnuts for the Master of the Mountains.

In the evening, Rimma stood on the balcony of the sixth floor and looked at the cypresses - at the old trees without foliage entwined with climbing vegetation. She heard the phone ring in the room, but she didn't take a step to pick up the phone. She is not such a good girl, but all because a neighbor on the floor came out on the balcony, and she sat down next to the low railing for fear.

It occurred to someone to do the railing on the balcony at the waist level ?! She alone stood on the balcony on half-bent legs, hanging on a rope swimsuit and towel. When neighbor Fyodor came out to the balcony, she generally sat on the floor. There was fear in her. What was she afraid of among the dazzling beauty of the southern nature?

Yes, she reveled in one type of lush flowering shrubs, located on the coastal slopes of the mountains. She didn't really know the names of flowers and trees, she could name a magnolia, chestnut, cypress and palm. She was fascinated by houses located in the mountains and hidden in green bushes. From this balcony there was a divine view, topped with a turquoise sea. She absorbed the whole surrounding reality with dumb admiration.

And the neighbor ruined everything. I would have sat in my room and would not go out on the common balcony adjoining the hall. "What kind of tile is beautiful, but you won't be able to sit on it for a long time," thought Rimma and looked at the man from the floor. He did not see her point-blank and looked into the picturesque distance. The railing of the balcony was on his baseboard, but he did not sit on the tile for fear. He stood! Rima could not understand this at all!

The phone stopped ringing. She could not crawl on her knees from the balcony in front of such a brave man! Suddenly, Fyodor raised up both hands, so usually dive into the water. Rimma rushed to the young man and grabbed his leg. From surprise, his legs buckled and he sat down next to her.

- Rimma, you asked me to grab the legs? I did not bother you to sit on a tile!

- I saved you from falling from the balcony! - Rimma blurted out.

'Who are you holding me for?' Leave your foot! I was not going to fall, I was breathing in my system. The air in this area is fantastic!

- The railing is not for your height! I was scared for you and for myself, too, 'she said, releasing someone else's leg.

- Great acquaintance! We will sit on the floor together. Rare pieces of iron railing review will not interfere. That you came up with well - to sit on the floor, but could put a circle or an inflatable mattress on the tile. I'll bring it now! - Fedor exclaimed, rising to his full height and disappearing behind a plastic balcony door with office white stripes of curtains.

Rimma pulled a swimsuit off a rope, a towel and left a magnificent but dangerous balcony on half-bent legs. The man did not knock at her door. She did not expect him, although communication with him took several wonderful minutes. Finally, she remembered the phone, but he was silent. She lay down on the double bed, but, feeling the silk of the bedspread under herself, she jumped up and again appreciated the excellent fold-out cover. But she sank into a chair under the window.

The view from the window was not worse than from the balcony, but much safer. She turned her gaze to the open doors of the closet - compartment, there was a desire to bring order to it, but good intention disappeared from a knock at the door.

- Let the person you saved! Said the neighbor's voice outside the door.

Rimma glanced at the wardrobe, pushed the doors, thereby establishing a quick order, and opened the door to her neighbor on the floor. And Fyodor walked unhindered into a room with a slightly shifted silk veil on the bed.

- Rimma, you have a great number! The two of us will be pleased to sleep in this rookery.

- Sorry, but I did not invite you to my bed! - Rimma was indignant.

- Girl, if you saved me, take my life in your hands! I have a good mood today. I'll be here for eight days, and you broke my breath of the evening seaside air.

'And today I'm thinking of leaving,' Rimma said, 'and only managed to take a dip in the sea at parting.' And it turned out to be pretty cold.

- What a mismatch! There is no drink on the track? - Slyly asked a young man.

- If I'm on the road, then do not drink at all. As for alcoholic drinks, I have never had them! - shouted passionately Rimma, opening the door to the room so that the neighbor left her territory. - I'm leaving home! Goodbye! - Rima shouted with anguish in her voice, trying to sneak out her neighbor.

- Wait a minute! I want to live in your room, I like the look of it, 'said the young man and sat in a chair by the window. - Listen! And you have full order in the room! I would spend our time together here!

Rima had no words, she covered her mouth with her hand, and put her back on the joint. The sight of the man in the chair did not inspire her.

'I'll call security,' the girl said in a metallic voice.

- The guards are running and falling to the sixth floor without an elevator! - quipped the young man. - Speaking of seagulls. Have you seen seagulls over the sea? Great! Do not give a tea in front of the path? He asked in a submissive voice.


Rimma sighed, took out a teapot, not permitted by the instruction, poured water into it and plugged it into the outlet. She took tea bags from luggage, sandwiches from the fridge, glasses from the nightstands. It turned out a light breakfast with a brazen young man of a sleek appearance.

'Will I ever hear good words from my savior?' - asked the young man and immediately picked up a cell phone. He turned his head toward Rimma: - I have no time! It's time to go.

'Good-bye, I have been waiting for this moment for a long time,' Rimma breathed, with relief realizing that Fyodor would soon leave.

The young man examined Rimma from head to toe. She was slim, sweet, indecisive, inexperienced, and so on, in a light dress with a fitted silhouette. He liked the girl again.

- How I am sick of your escape! The reason did not say - and do not! Until! Said the man unexpectedly quickly, closing the front door behind him.

Rimma ran to the door and turned the lock. From the other side, steps were heard walking away from the tile. She listened as he descended the stairs. At this sounds ceased. The girl looked at the tea in the glasses and took one in her hands, for some reason she touched the second glass with her hand, sighed and went to the window, sipping her tea in sips.

She knew very well that the entrance door to the hotel was not visible from the window, but she could see the path from the hotel to the sea. Rare pedestrians walked along the path with elongated shadows. The warmth of the southern night of coolness almost did not bring.

Rimma moved away from the window, found a remote control for the air conditioner, turned on the cold air, but quickly turned it off. She felt that she did not find a place for herself, then she began to switch channels of local television, stopped at the news with prices for local real estate and quickly turned off the TV.

The girl threw the blanket from the bed into the chair and lay down in the dress, throwing her hands behind her head. My head was empty, sad. She felt that next to her was a person, albeit unfamiliar, but energetically significant for her. In vain she thought that he was a homeless person, even for a second it was impossible to allow such a thought!

And suddenly she realized that he was giving a sign to someone on the balcony! For sure! He informed someone who could see him. After all, he stood at the lighted balcony door. For this area, the sixth floor is almost a mountain. That stupid girl rushed to save him! But he is good too! And she turned on her side, but quickly got up, put herself in order and went to bed. She slept quietly until the morning.

In the morning Rima dressed for the beach, she had nothing else to do. She looked at herself in the mirror and decided that a hat with a brim would cover her from prying eyes, which are hard to surprise by tanning visitors.

Rimma tuned in for tanning and bathing.

But the rocky beach was not very pleased with the sides and legs. The stones slammed into the feet, as if they were not pebbles washed by a wave. She tried to swim in the shales, but it did not bring much joy. Rimma found a place with small pebbles and lay face down, looking at the turquoise waves and seagulls. Fedor was nowhere to be found, nor was his motorcycle. She did not meet her neighbor on the floor in her last morning. She thought that on the eve of her mother called when she was sitting on the floor of the balcony.

The hotel Rima finally came to. She just wanted to escape from the hotel. The toes were peeking out of summer sandals, thin leather straps deftly wrapped around a thin leg. She came out of a cool hotel. The dress of a multitude of strips of fabric fluttered from the light whiff of the summer wind, long strands of hair swaying on bare shoulders in an artistic mess. Fashionable corset depicted the upper part of the dress. There were no sleeves at all.

Rimma examined the parking lot. In her head sounded an order for two diamonds, which she had never seen. Unbearably wanted to go home. She did not notice Fedor in the parking lot. She felt doubly sad. One car stood with the door ajar, the key hung near the wheel. The order clicked again in her head. The hotel was one side to the mountain, it turned out that there was only one floor from the parking lot to its room.

She ran into the room, threw things into the bag, got into the car and drove away. Gasoline was over in twenty hours. She forgot the main thing in the room - her wallet. She had no money at all! A foreign car without gasoline. A fork in the road. Cold wind. She did not put in the bag warm things that lay next to the wallet. That's how she hurried to escape from the order!

A young, elegant man with subtle features appeared from the car that came up. Pointed black shoes were shining on his legs, a white shirt without a tie was peeking out from under a black jacket. The jacket was visible under the open black cloak.

The air of the approaching thunderstorm approached. The girl shivered. The young man resolutely began to take off his black raincoat. She unconsciously extended her hand to him and took the cloak. He held up his cloak with a surprised look, and only then looked at the thin-legged girl in strips of cloth instead of clothes.

- Sorry, but this is my raincoat, I took it off because it is very warm here.

- Sorry, but I'm so cold that I involuntarily took a raincoat.

- I hope you will return it to me?

'But I don't have warm clothes, I'm freezing without a raincoat.'

- What did you think when you were driving in your stripes?

- Everything happened so unexpectedly that I did not even come to my senses from this trip. Then, I was driving from the south.

The young man tried to take her black cloak from the girl, but she clutched at him with her nails so that she could not take it.

- Girl, pay for a raincoat and take it away.

- Young man, where did I get the money?

- Do you drive by car alone and with empty pockets?

- Man, where have you seen my pockets?

- I am powerless, take it! Said the young man and got into the car.

The girl with a quick movement opened the door of the car with her foot in her sandals.

- you! You are insolent! Exclaimed the young man.

- Young man, I ran out of gas, I'll go with you.

- I can get rid of you?

- Hardly. The car I came here for is not mine.

- Where to take you? What is your name?

- Another thing. I am Rimma. Take me home. Four hours by car - and I'll be at home.

'Have you escaped from your friends?'

- Yes. Can I not explain?

- For God's sake. Do you have anyone at home?

- At home - mom. She's kind. She has my warm clothes. You take me, and I will give you a raincoat.

- I'll take it. Close the door.

They rode in silence. Rima was sleeping in the back seat, but opened her eyes on time.

- Thank you, we arrived, take a raincoat. Won my mom's house.

- Let me take you. My name is Philip.

Rimma's house was buried in foliage. Her pretty mother was standing on the porch of the apartment building. The girl jumped out of the car and, flying past the surprised mother, disappeared into the house. Soon she appeared again, she was wearing pants and a jumper, sneakers were white on her legs, she was holding a bag in her hands.

- Hello Mom! I'll tell you later! - She shouted and disappeared in the bowels of the car.

Emotions were not reflected on her mother's face. She watched with interest the movement of her daughter, then just as calmly entered the porch. She was glad of her return, but somehow stupidly, as if she had died of the unexpected return of her daughter.

- Rimma, it's great you taught your mother to the suddenness of her appearance and disappearance! She didn't even ask you about anything.

- Boy, breathe easy. You have your coat, but I forgot to take a jacket! But it is already warm for me, though, my sneakers are not suitable for your boots.

- I'm already a guy! Nobody called me that way! I'm actually going home from a business trip! I have to go to work now. Where will I go?

- And I have a vacation for a couple of weeks. And I have a whole week left! Take me to your home and go to your work.

- I have no words! I do not live alone! I have a father and mother! I live in a parent house!

- It can be fixed. How many rooms do you have?

- Four.

- I'll be the fourth! Do you really think that I will leave a guy like you alone with my parents! Not! You will be mine! Don't you have a brother?

- you already have a little me? I have no brother.

- I want to know the extent of your inheritance.

- We arrived. Here is my home, it is my inheritance, - answered the young man.

Outside the car window was a magnificent apartment building. In the parking lot at the house were cars - monsters. Rimma looked at the house, the cars and the young man with respect.

'Your house suits me.'

- Do you approach this house?

- Easily!

The door opened the mother of a young man.

- Good morning. Son, and who is this with you?

- I'll be your daughter in law! - exclaimed fun Rimma.

- Philip, is it true?

'Mom, figure it out yourself, I didn't manage to do that,' Philip replied and went to clean up after the trip.

- My name is Rima, I came to you for a week! - blurted out the girl.

- Philip knows this? Have you known each other for a long time?

- I do not know, but I guess. We know each other for four hours.

- He was always an obedient son and did not bring girls home.

- I myself came!

- That's noticeable! But once they come, I will give you a towel and show you a room for guests.

The room was a wardrobe, a bed, a dresser with a mirror - all white. Rimma sat on the edge of a single chair, looked around the room once more, put her bag in the closet, took out a small dress and sandals with two jumpers, then thought and took out her underwear, sighed and left the room.

Philip was closing the bathroom door at this time.

- Philip, everything is fine! And you were afraid!

- I'm still afraid of you.

Rimma in a dress and sandals without studs turned out to be quite a pretty creature and did not provoke protest by her appearance. Painted nails on her fingers did not cause antagonism. They are fully consistent with her temperament.

- Rimma, and you look good! I did not ask where you study or who you work?

- I will not say.

- And I am an engineer - manager in the company.

- I work in my mom's office.

- It is clear your mother's calm.

Philip's mother unwittingly listened to their conversation from the kitchen, moving away from the appearance of a strange stranger. Now she looked at the girl better. The fright passed, but the nervous state still remained.

'Philip, you're lucky you met such a girl,' her mother said softly.

'Mom, I haven't yet recovered from her invasion.' I didn't touch her with my finger, and she is already in our apartment.

- Here they are grieving! And I like you! - said Rimma and hugged son and mother.

- Girl, what do you want from us? - Philip's mother asked dejectedly.

- I will spend a week with you and leave.

'I don't believe it,' said Philip, took his case and left for work ...

Rimma looked at the sad woman, went into the room, turned on the TV and saw an excerpt from an advertisement about a psychic who told miracles about two diamonds. She turned off the TV, changed clothes and ran out of the apartment with her bag, then found a bus stop and went home.

- Mom, I'm back! - from the threshold shouted Rimma.

'I see that now you are definitely back, or you flew in with a new guy like a moth.'

- I liked him.

- I would have sat at home with my norm.

- His mother suffers because of me. She was frightened of me.

- Now with the arrival, daughter! Come to work tomorrow. Rimma, you have done so much for the trip to the south, better go to work. Let go of you, and work, and you will run - even that you will do with its bright appearance. Tie your tail, put on your glasses, a modest suit, nobody will recognize you. I would go to the office.


In the evening, a car stopped outside Rimma's house, a handsome young man with a wide-open raincoat stepped out of it, in front of him he was holding a bouquet of cherry roses on long stems. The men's shiny boots went up the stairs. He rang the doorbell.

Rimma's mother opened the door to him.

- Rimma is not at home! She said, looking curiously at the young man.

- How can I find it?

At this time, a car drove up, Rimma got out.

- Philip! Hello! Is your mother all crying that I have broken your calm?

- No, I came with an offer! - and he gave her a ring with a square diamond.

- Philip, I have no time! Your diamond is yours, it's male. It is too small for me!

- There are ten carats in a diamond, or even more! Did I understand correctly that you were joking that he is small?

- Mom, Philip do you like?

- Does he put a new program in my computer?

'I will do everything for you,' the young man assured the woman.

'Good,' and Rimma took the roses from his hands.


Chapter 13

Fyodor was not really a good boy and had unlimited adventurous abilities. He opened the World Wide Web and read that the city of billionaires burned down on the ocean coast. He closed his eyes like a cat. Strange thoughts arose in his head.

At this point, Fedor called Philip:

- Philip, there is a deal! Do not mind! Fly now. Get ready! We need to be overseas today.

- Fedor, I have things to do! 'I can't fly with you,' Philip tried to argue, recalling Rimma and her date.

- Hour on fees. Objections are not accepted. I'm sure you have a date with Rimma. Phillip, thank you for meeting Rimma at the border. I picked up my car, on which she ran away from me. Two hours waiting for you at the airport. Two places on us with you are booked.

Indeed, after twelve hours, they were on the other side of the globe. As soon as it dawned, in the form of lifeguards they went scouring the ashes of others under the pretext of searching for living people.

Philip had a plan of an alien city in his head. He knew where the houses of celebrities were located, but he did not have to look for diamonds in the ashes. Fedor followed him with a displeased face.

Phillip constantly said that the safe they were looking for was in the wall, which should remain on the ashes, and this wall must be found faster than others. On the eve of the search for people were under the water jets, so the little heads were still smoldering, and he was already walking towards his diamond dream. He knew about one diamond collector who lived in this particular city, and where his house was located - he knew! But how to find the home of a diamond collector in the ashes, he could not imagine.

Philip stopped when he saw the people, and said:

- Fedor, think about it! You are familiar with the city plan! Where do you think the collector's house is located? Time is short, strangers cannot find a treasure, the owner of the house was not here, I heard reports. Then, diamond collections are not carried with them.

- Philip, the collector of his collection probably kept in an expensive bank.

- No, my dear, maybe he kept the treasure in the bank, but only a part of it to distract his eyes. I smell my scent, in the ashes a safe with diamonds stands and waits for us.

'You are the troublemaker, Philip, and went in search of diamonds without the diamond lady Rimma.' She would find diamonds through the ashes. I heard about her radio transmission in the car, and then I just met her, and you on this trip deprived me of a date with her.

- Right, a billion times you're right. I feel sorry for her to withdraw. I learned about her before you, I saw a program on TV about her extrasensory abilities, and when I saw her on the beach, I immediately approached her! And do not forget, I sent you to meet Rimma when she left me in my car!

- Call Rimma! She will fly to this ashes! You don't need me here at all, except for carrying heavy loads, because we'll also be stopped with a safe.

'Call, call, fairy tales without it will not work,' said Philip and blew into his hand, 'tomorrow there will be fewer burning heads, and what kind of mansions were there!' And what happened to them ... Fedor, but here he is - a collector's mansion! Look, here someone has already gone, here they were already looking for a safe!

- Yes, all the water was poured here - squishing under my feet. And why are flimsy houses built? Rich people, and houses like card houses that have always amazed me. What kind of houses are they building here, if they are lifted up by tornado whirlwinds and carried from place to place? So, look, a piece of the wall and the handle sticks out. Attention, Philip, is safe!

- Great, you found it: and people walked here, and the safe stands still.

- People put out the fire, and we are looking for what we know from collectors' catalogs.

Fyodor and Philip tried to remove the safe from the broken wall, but they failed. Fedor took up the lock, but it was clear that the safe had changed its shape and would not open even with knowledge of the cipher.

So that's the reason! They already tried to open the safe, but could not and could not take it out of the wall! Two treasure-hunters, without having agreed, lowered themselves on a fragment of the wall and began to look at the safe. Philip smiled smeared with ashes in his mouth and was silent.

Two men, armed with a welding machine, approached them and, without speaking, proceeded to the safe, which turned out to be several green bills. Fedor happily screamed. Two with a welding machine looked at him in surprise, took the money, rolling the desired machine on wheels.

- Fedor, everything is fine, they will not come here anymore, you can continue the search for the treasure! - without discouragement, exclaimed Philip.

- It is interesting that on these ruins can be found? Do you imagine? - Fell asked sadly.

- Very simple! Rimma flies here! I did not tell you that she arrives today. You will sit, and I will bring her, 'Philip said, waving his hand in farewell, and went to the side of the road, where there were more people, and therefore cars too. He effortlessly asked for someone in the car and drove towards the airport.

Rimma flew in. Philip asked her to fly in a tracksuit and shoes with thick soles. So after a short meeting, they quickly went to the ashes. She took a close look at the ruins of the mansion, the annexes, the garage, and looked at the pool, which was littered with burnt trash.

'Boys, I'm glad you called me here!' But you could have called before, when the resort was safe and sound! Well, I will look for diamonds in the safe. I will ask you to walk beside me, 'Rimma said and looked at the destroyed garage with a long look, which somehow attracted her attention, probably because its walls were stronger than the walls of the house, as if someone had doused it with fire protection agent.

Yes, the garage was in a soot, but almost intact, it was just covered with foreign debris. Rima went to the side of the garage, walked around on all sides. Her initial opinion was confirmed: the garage was almost intact.

- Fedor, come here, you do not know how to raise up this wall - the door?

- The secret of the contribution. We do not have such doors, but now you take a walk, dear, and I will try to find a solution and an answer to your request.

Rimma approached Philip, and together they looked at the twisted safe in order to learn the tricks of the owners in the field of storage of expensive items. Soon they heard Fedor's shout. What did he do - is unknown, but the door was raised half a meter. All three laid flat on the tiles, beautifully laid out on the ground, and began to look inside the garage.

They were distracted by the question:

- Where to look?

They turned their heads, two handsome men stood over them: legs to the sides, hands on machine guns.

Rimma realized and answered:

- We heard the dog barking and want to save it.

Men waved to them.

- Fedor, stand on the watch and guard, - said Philip and climbed after Rimma under the garage door.

Inside the garage was a car. All materials and objects of the garage were impregnated with the composition against the fire. It was interesting. Among the ruins of expensive mansions there was a whole garage, which they could claim as eyewitnesses.

- Philip, if there are diamonds, then they are in this garage, I'm telling you for sure.

- Rimma, and you find them! I can speak and cannot find it.

Garage inside was lined with refractory bricks. Rima began to bypass the walls, look at the ceiling, looked at the car - she could not find obvious clues for the cache. Philip understood it in her eyes, but said nothing. She asked him to crawl out of the garage and began to inspect the floor, covered with tiles.

She did not find anything attractive and stopped in complete confusion among the non-combustible garage. Rimma became scared, she felt the look, although there was no one in the garage.

- Phillip, - she called in a trembling voice, - someone looks at me.

Philip climbed into the garage, began to inspect the corners in order to find the eye of the camera. The walls and ceiling were sinless, without camera eyes. He went to the car, began to bypass it and realized that this car never went, that it was not a car at all, but a model. He himself became terrible, and he felt someone's look. Philip opened the door; it did not open. Tinted, mirrored glasses laughed at him. He could almost hear the laughter of the glasses. Fearfully. Philip got out of the garage.

- Fedor, are you brave? Look at the car, and we stand on the street.

Fedor climbed into the garage, but, not rising, got out from under the door.

- I cant! I feel the look, and he does not allow me to climb into the garage.

- Similarly, the feeling of horror permeates to the goosebumps. Let's call the men with the welding machine, let them open the garage, look for the collection, 'suggested Philip.

- No, you can not hurry, you have to think. Scary so that all thoughts flew away, - said Rimma, shivering.

'Woof, woof,' the dog barked in the garage with a wheeze.

- There is a dog in the car! - exclaimed joyfully Philip.

- Check, you do not have a water gun? - asked Fedor.

- There is a gas spray. Okay, do not remember dashing, I climbed into the garage.

At this time, a huge dog flew out of the garage wall. Rimma went to the wall, from which the dog ran out, it had a hole, closed by a hinged door, covered with asbestos material. She raised the door and realized that this was the strength of only a very large dog.

She didn't dare to climb into the manhole and climbed under the door of the garage, which suddenly began to climb upwards. The twilight disappeared in the garage, it became lighter and more fun. Hard look was no more. The car door was open, there was a dog's den in the cabin.

Fedor grinned and said:

- Two secrets revealed, and where is the third secret?

- Fedor, look at the bottom of this car, there is a door to the basement, - said Rimma.

- Rimma, you are a miracle! Right, there is a manhole in the basement. Phillip, you are the thinnest, you and climb into the basement. So, this dog was saved in a subfield during a fire.

The door to the basement, located at an angle by the second chair, could open in both directions, which allowed the dog to walk here - here. Philip sat down, leaned over and slid down the ramp to the room. As soon as he touched the floor with his hands, the light came on.

The small basement looked pretty decent. Philip called Rimma. She went down to the basement and saw her portrait two years ago. Behind the portrait in the wall was a hiding place, in it lay an empty cherry casket, trimmed with black velvet.

Rimma looked around the room once more, sat in a chair and said:

- The trap is a passenger car, you have to get out of here.

The door to the garage closed. The light turned off.

Fedor stood and looked towards the ocean. He thought about it, so it didn't immediately come to him that the garage was quiet. He turned his head toward the garage doors, but they were tightly closed. He approached the dog's manhole, but also Laz was tightly closed. "Call the rescuers though," thought Fyodor.

He understood by the sixth sense that all this is very serious for those who are in the basement of the garage. He began to look around in search of people, but people all disappeared. Silence reigned in the midst of the conflagration filled with water.

In the dark sat Philip and Rimma.

- Philip, we are trapped! I noticed that there is a bucket of dry dog food and a bucket of water from which water drops into the trough, on this we can hold out for a while.

- Rimma, I'm not a dog.

- You know, dear, you have no choice, or look for a way to open the door from the basement. If you want to know, I felt the chair on which I sit. So, I dare to say that under the chair is an iron box, perhaps it is safe.

- You are a cool girl, if you already sat on that, so there surely are diamonds! And I lie on the hill, from which you and I slipped into this basement, and I do not feel a number of diamonds. And then, what is Fedor doing up there - our leader? He must save us.

- Philip, chatting less, climb up the hill and try again to open the door.

- I tried to open the door, but I did not succeed. It is too dark and complete isolation from noise, light, fire and water. It's just some kind of bunker!

- And if it is a bunker, then there must be a connection with the outside world. It was not the dog that did this connection. So let Fedor find this dog, and she will save us. Who about what, and I felt at the metal box lock. Philip, come to me and try to open it.

- I do not see you point blank.

- I will sing, and you go to the voice, and in the lock you will determine the code on the sound.

- Do not teach the scientist, I ate the dog in the castles.

'Then it will not be difficult for you to switch to dog food.' Why Fedor does not open us? - asked silence Rimma.

Fedor went to the garage, looked at the door, but it seemed to be jammed, or it should have been. The door was closed without a single crack. He began to click on all the bulges around the door in the calculation to find a button that opens it.

If there was a clear lock, he would open it, but nothing resembling a lock would come across to his eyes. Now he himself could not understand how he managed to raise the door for the first time, or she was raised to him by a dog.

But where to find this dog?

An ominous silence descended to the ocean. Fedor shivered, forgetting those who were in the basement. He walked around the garage with sooty walls and began to drag various objects into one place, trying to make a staircase out of them.

He climbed the debris onto the roof, in the center of which he noticed a wheel, but, coming closer to him, he found a drain for rainwater, which was closed by a filter from the ingress of large objects.

He sat down on the wheel and felt the garage shudder. He got up and looked at the door, which opened completely. He quickly went downstairs, ran into the garage, looked at the closed manhole into the cellar. On the roof of the car, he found the same wheel, clicking on which he opened the door to the basement.

Rimma climbed out of the basement first. Philip appeared behind her. He was holding a black ball. They, without saying a word, went in the direction of a very deserted road. A minute later the door to the garage closed. Bulldozers and similar vehicles drove along the road. The place of the conflagration has cooled, and now whole building troops were heading for it, which is why there were no people and cars - everyone knew what the trio did not know. They left the road and turned to the coast.

On the shore, the trinity was more fortunate; they boarded the boat and sailed towards the hotel.

In the room, Philip opened a black ball, there was a rubber ball in it, cutting which he found a ball of organic glass. Rimma spun the ball, and in her hands was a diamond the size of a walnut, and strange lines appeared in her head:

"You like me? What a miracle among the wreckage and the game.

We love life, even escudo. There is a beast among the people ... "

On the plane, Rima asked Fedor:

- Fedor, did we all look for exactly this diamond the size of a walnut? Because of him, we spent time and money? What is so valuable about it?

- Rimma, yes, we were looking for this particular artifact. But the search for this is not over, somewhere we are waiting for another walnut, more precisely, an ordinary diamond of unusual size. And we will find it. The owner of the mountains gave me and you one task: to find two large diamonds the size of walnuts. Why do they need them? If diamonds are taken in the palm of two hands and send their light to the sky, then God will send an additional 50 years of life for them.

- Oh, where have you been! So you put this one miracle in your palm, show it to God, and you will get 25 years of extra life. Enough for you. Did you sell me to the owner of the mountains? So why did you take me to the top of the mountain?

- Rimma, it happened, now you're with me. Think about what I do without you for 25 years?

Rimma was happy, because a couple of days had passed, and they already had one diamond with a walnut! How she successfully met with adventurers Philip and Fedor! Or they were introduced? But she did not want to think about it. Phillip spoke first:

- Dear my Rima and Fedor, we have fulfilled the task of the Boss of the Mountains, who does not like to joke. Do not be surprised, we have with you for three one task - to find the artifact. I will take the artifact myself to the Master of the Mountains, and you can take a break. And after the trip I will return to work ...

Yes, Rimma received this task after one trip ...


But Rima again decided to go to the sea. Recently, wealthy people flew by plane for one reason: the airports were located outside the first ring, and the railway stations nested on it, which made it impossible to calculate the time of arrival to the station due to the indefinite speed of movement on the fabulous transport ring.

This is probably why there were empty seats on the trains, and the guides traded in comforts: whether you could put passengers in a compartment or not. The second regiments in the compartment were occupied by the guides themselves for personal recreation. Rima went on vacation with the hope of returning.

She traveled to the city where bamboo grew a couple of times, mostly by train. And once she flew on a plane. How terrible to fly over the sea, the soul of her heels went.

Rimma decided to rest alone, she chose the southernmost point of the country, located by the sea. There are Caucasian mountains outside the window, clear sky, a pair of clouds above one of the peaks and a constant sound of construction. In order not to hear the percussive sounds of the construction site, I had to close all the windows.

The muffled sounds of blows and the negotiations of the builders are now still audible, but they allow you to concentrate on your affairs.

Vacation Rimma decided to spend where the railway ends on the coast. And she succeeded. She thought for a long time where to fly, but the price of tickets for a plane from Sheremetyevo back and forth was equal to her salary. Compartment cars were somewhat cheaper, they were close to the price of tickets for a plane from Domodedovo. To get to Domodedovo, you need to spend time and money.

She went to the railway ticket office, which was combined with the box office on the aircraft. Two women and a man were sitting in a small room. One of the women was selling train tickets.

'I need a train ticket,' said Rimma, addressing the woman, next to which stood the coveted three letters: RZD.

- Which train? Coupe or reserved seat?

Rimma named two branded trains, the time of departure and arrival.

- They do not have tickets. There are no return tickets at all. You can leave the night train. Take the top seat, reserved seat. The train leaves at 2 in the morning. But remember, there are no return tickets.

At this time, a representative man rose from his seat:

- Plane tickets don't interest you?

'No,' Rimma replied and left the ticket office, in which there are no tickets.

She again decided to think about where to go. Looked at the situation with the Crimea. Tickets to Sevastopol turned out to be strange and incomprehensible for the price and flight time. Two days have passed.

- Rimma, did you buy tickets? - Olga asked her.

- Not yet. Maybe I will not go anywhere? - timidly asked Rimma.

- You have a vacation! It is better to go than you will sit at home.

Rimma rushed to the computer. She frantically scored "Railway tickets." She entered the numbers of trains for which the railway ticket office said that there were no tickets. Tickets were there and back. Moreover, another train appeared, equipped with second-class carriages, and there were tickets for it too. She chose the train, car, place, pressed the button "Pay." She paid by credit card. An e-mail came to her ticket, it remains to print it.

She entered the state of the hound dog and chose the hotel. Clicked the "Pay" button. And soon, an email arrived with a confirmation of payment and booking.

Remained a return ticket. She wrote in the search for the necessary trains, for which the railway ticket office said that there were no tickets at all. Tickets were! It remains to pay and print the tickets that came to the email. She made printouts of letters and calmed down. Before the holidays were two weeks.

There was a thought to take with him Alex, but he was carried away by her neighbor and rode bicycles with her. That's what he bought himself a new bike for. Rimma was completely alone. She spent two weeks collecting a suitcase, taking a bag, then a suitcase on wheels. Gathered. Olga drove her to the station and dropped off:

- You will reach the station yourself?

- I'll get there.

Rimma rolled the suitcase towards the station. The ancient station inside was brand new. There was still time before the train. She sat in the waiting room and studied the station, along with a suitcase that rolled beside a dog. And under the letter "J" together we stopped. After that, she poisoned herself on the platform where the scoreboard with the train numbers hung.

She suddenly wanted a pie from a kiosk, a flat cake with signs of cabbage stew and turned out to be a pie. While she was slowly chewing on him, a number of the way appeared on the board, it was possible to go to the necessary platform. The suitcase, standing on four twin wheels, could easily ride vertically with little effort on the asphalt, on squares such as paving stones, he drove badly.


Rimma with an electronic ticket has not yet traveled and was a little worried. On the next platform was a monster - a two-story train. She saw the young man hand out a ticket listing for the conductor, and the guide checked it with his printout. Rimma calmed down a bit, it means that e-tickets are a normal phenomenon.

A neighbor in shorts took out an e-book and began to read. The carriage fell asleep. Rimma woke up at three in the morning, the reserved car was completely filled. The board said that the way to the toilet is free. Two toilets were located nearby. She tried to find a button in the cockpit, about which the conductor reminded everyone.

The red button was not pressed, the usual light switch was next to it. She clicked on him, scary sounds were heard, and everything was quiet.

The neighbor on top also woke up and went to bed again. Rima woke up the next time the young man began to turn from a civilian to a sea wolf. He took a package from the third shelf, in which he was in a formal suit.

He put on his pants, buttoned his belt. The slender guy in his eyes turned into a handsome man in formal clothes. Lampasa of the three colors of the flag was great for him. On the platform waiting for his mother. And Rimma after him wished him lucky with the bride. She fell asleep with the feeling that she could now rest until the end of the road.

In the morning, all the attention was transferred to the mother with a teenage girl. The girl slept for a long time, like children sleep after exams. Mother, reading an e-book, said a few words to Rimma, then a few words to a large neighbor in the compartment. And that's all. They began to talk and talked for three hours in a row.

Rima during this time managed to drink green tea, brought by the conductor. Naturally, she offered tea to an interesting man, but he kept silent, and Rimma asked herself. The second time the story repeated two hours later, but the conductor joked:

- Pour tea into bed? - and put it on the step, from which they climb to the second side shelf.

The man listened to the woman and her for about an hour.

In the compartment on the right was a family of six: a mother, a father, three sons and a daughter. Cinema is not necessary, just look at the life of a large family. A rare example to follow. They brought six teas at once, at the stops they bought five to six ice creams. Mom played with children, dad paid and led the general management. And they all went to the sea.

In the compartment on the left, two couples were driving, one on the upper shelves, the second on the lower shelves. In these couples, women showed weakness or ache, men supported and stroked the head. No one stroked Rimma's head, she changed her position on the lower side shelf and unwittingly watched her neighbors or looked out the window.

The landscape outside the window is flashing bushes and trees, less often fields and ravines, even less often rivers. At a small stop on the platform they sold potatoes with a chop, cucumbers, fish baked in dough, and all products were brand-packed. Rimma bought a layer of pike perch in the test.

One river stretched for a long time in a narrow strip, on which a fisherman sat a hundred meters away, and a car stood on the bank next to it. Then the river became big, and white ships, bridges and the majestic city of Rostov appeared on it. The ice cream on the platform of the train passengers snapped up quickly, it turned out to be tasty and cold.

Evening came. In the compartment, the girl took all the attention to herself and told a miniature about Luba, who does not know geography, somewhat playfully. And she obviously did not tell everything.

- So what is next? - asked Rimma.

I do not know any further.

- Tell in your own words.

The usual retelling followed. Naturally, she wanted to enter the theater institute. The girl was a good figure from swimming and went to the drama studio. Mom took care of her constantly. If such a girl goes to college in another city, then without a mother, a slave will be very hard for her. And the mother wanted her daughter to receive a good education.

Everything is relative here. Rima realized that they still do not know everything what they want. The evening was coming to an end. It was getting dark outside the train window.


Chapter 14

In the morning she woke up before everyone and looked at the mountain scenery outside the window. From the food she had water and crackers, so two hours later she took coffee from a conductor, and all because she put her mug and coffee in a suitcase lying on the third shelf. Would pour a glass of boiling water and brewed coffee itself. We drove.

Gradually, people went to the towns of the big city, Rimma reached the final stop. A man approached her and offered to take her. She knew where to go and the number of the bus, but agreed. But the bus driver did not know the hotel, which she called along with the address. She told him where and how to go. We arrived. As a result of the trip, we can say one thing: the main note is 100 rubles and a coin of 10 rubles.

Without coins of 10 rubles, tea, kvass, coffee is difficult to buy. 100 rubles cost two patties with cabbage in Moscow, 100 rubles - pike perch in a test station, 100 rubles water on the platform in Rostov, 90 rubles ice cream. And the taxi driver had to give 300 rubles. He has no money at all.

We went to the hotel. I had to give the administrator 500 rubles for future services and ask for 200 rubles (she had 100 rubles with one piece of paper) and give it to the driver. She was immediately given a lunch ticket, its cost is 300 rubles. Humor occurred after the departure of the driver.

Rimma had an electronic printout and a voucher for paying for the hotel via the Internet. The administrator said:

- I remember your last name, but your room is not booked. I'll call the director.

Rimma was sitting on the sofa, the suitcase was at the reception desk.

- How did you pay for the hotel reservation? - asked the administrator.

- Card. I paid for your hotel, but it came out through the whistle.

- We will call them back. A room is prepared for you on the fifth floor.

A man entered the hotel, looked attentively at Rimma, at her beautiful suitcase on wheels and said nothing. But the administrator said:

- You can climb into your room, here's the key to it.

Rimma took the card, threw the bag on her shoulder, took the suitcase in her hands and went to the stairs.

- There is an elevator.

'Thanks, I don't use the elevator for 6 years,' answered Rimma and walked up the steps from a beautiful tile to the fifth floor.

The hotel has three stars, and Rimma would give him all four. Everything is beautiful. Everything is. Everything is convenient. Even the electronic key. The room had two beds, though she rented a single room. She never turned on the fridge. On the number three mirrors, maybe they are talking about stardom?

Air conditioning, flat-screen TV, two nightstands, a wardrobe - these are the rooms that make it up. Rimma put the suitcase, put the bag and went into the shower. Happiness to ride the train, but even more fun to take off everything after the road and plunge into the clean jets of water in the shower. She dressed clean and contented and began to take apart the bags. Then she went to dinner. Local dining room may well be called - a cafe. Tables, chairs, orange circles of plastic napkins, bar and distribution. She filed a ticket.

- There is a first, second, appetizer, compote. What won't you eat? - argued chic guy on hand.

'I will be all right,' answered Rimma, who ate ice cream last night.

The food was delicious. The second one and the appetizer fit in three small tasty cups on a large plate. There is nothing to refuse here, Rimma thought, trying to eat slowly, but quickly ate everything and washed down with a clean compote of dried fruit.

Going down for lunch, she grabbed a towel with her, and put a separate swimsuit under her clothes. After eating, she went to the pool, which was at the hotel. Next to the pool there were several white plastic sun loungers and a certain amount of wood on metal frames. White plastic loungers slowly surrendered to the position of leaders.

Everything is wonderful: the blue water in the blue pool, the blue sky, the building on one side of the pool, and at the level of her eyes ten men worked, but if you lay on a sunbed, you could not see them. But right on the course the windows of three hotels were visible, considering that the pool itself is located at the end of the hotel. After lying down a bit, she went into the water, the clear smell of bleach spoke of her safety. The water is cool, but it is quite possible to swim a few laps in the presence of men building the second floor of the next hotel. In the city, the hotel adjoins the hotel; it is made of hotels of all stripes, like from a mosaic.

So, life is beautiful: the sun, sea and water. Rimma went to the sea, to the nearest beach, and was mistaken. She went along the embankment on the left bank of the river M and came to the place of its confluence into the sea. On the seashore, men stood by a wall and fished. Dolphins frolicked on the waves of the river, slowly disappearing into the sea, and also caught fish. "Male Beach," thought Rimma, having stood a bit among the anglers, she went back, but on the other way.

Hotels, cypress trees, blooming flowers and shrubs. Nice road, but Rimma slightly lost among unfamiliar buildings. On her road were the pavilions selling beach accessories. Girls tried on closed plastic slippers for walking on beach pebbles. Rima bought shoes for swimming in the sea. I had to go to the embankment, from which she already knew the way to the hotel.

In order not to run home, she bought breakfast, lunch and dinner at the reception for the duration of her vacation. It remains to just relax and not chasing ice cream, cakes and berries. One is bad, her phone did not get in touch with her sister, and the Internet at the hotel did not work on her computer.

In the morning she went to a normal beach, where people sunbathed, but almost did not swim. The sea was cold, the sky was clear, the sun was hot. In bathing slippers, she felt less pebbles, but went knee-deep into the sea, doused herself with water, and all the bathing. After lunch, she found a sandy spot on the beach and rushed into the waves of the sea. Great! And cold. Water burned especially hands.

Eyes are jealous, and hands are raking in - such a state sometimes arises from meeting and talking with new people. Worse, thoughts switch to new actions. When Rima chose a city of magnolias for a vacation, she had the idea to go through the streets of the city, where magnolias grow. But for eight days the weather was hot, and it wasn't enough to walk the streets. She diligently bathed in the sea or pool, sunbathed and suffered from the pain of burnt skin. Days after seven sunburn stuck, but the skin began to peel.

In the evening she spoke to a new acquaintance, she left a day earlier. Rimma's brains stuck, could not sleep, everyone wanted to leave earlier. In the morning I got up, had a good breakfast and went on reconnaissance and a guided tour at the same time. Magnolias grew up safely on the main street of the city, so she decided to walk along it from the city center to the end, that is, to the railway station. She started the way over the bridge, built in the year of her birth, as the inscription in front of the entrance to the bridge was broadcasting.

Clouds adorned the mountains and sky. The weather is cool. She walked through the city of her dream past the houses, but people say that in the city of magnolias there are no houses, but there are only hotels. Magnolias bloomed. Shrub bloomed. Houses, qualitatively repaired or new, delighted look. I saw Rimma on a small house sign: ticket office railway and air. She crossed the road. She entered a small room, went to the schedule of aircraft.

'The old schedule is old,' said the only box office employee.

Rimma began to watch train schedules.

'I need to hand over my ticket and buy a plane ticket,' Rimma said and handed her e-ticket.

- Electronic tickets can only be handed over at the box office of the railway station.

- Is it far to him?

- Twenty minutes down this street. Go straight and do not turn anywhere. You can take a bus.

Rimma went out and walked down the street where the magnolias were blooming. When she arrived, the taxi driver approached her right on the platform and brought her to the side. She did not see the station. Now she looked at the station from all sides: a magnificent structure with stairs and elevators. Her personal bag was forced to pass instead of a suitcase, at the entrance to the station the duty officer asked her:

- Where and why are you going?

- I need a railway ticket office.

- Long distance ticket offices on the escalator to the right.

Rimma went down to the first floor. And here tickets were sold through automatic machines. She got sick of changing tickets.

- What is your question? She asked the cashier of the official railway ticket office.

- I have an electronic ticket. Anything else you need to do?

- You will come with a printout of an electronic ticket and a passport for boarding. You have passed the electronic registration.

Everything. Rimma calmed down, but the head of a two-hour walk along the main street with magnolias spun. She climbed to the second floor, where there was an exit to the trains. She bought herself a bar of chocolate. The pressure in the mountains on this day was low, her pressure was very low, and the overwork from the hike had to be extinguished with good chocolate. She looked at the Swallows' train schedule, but went to the buses. Forces she did not have to admire the sea, which was visible from the transition to the buses.


The weather was cloudy and cool for three days. During this time, the burnt skin has become hardened and began to climb, that is, Rimma from the stage of a pink pig passed into the stage of a snake that changes skin. On the third cool day, she rushed into the pool, where the day before changed the water. The water was cold, but she swam a little in it, then went out of the pool, lay down without a dose of sun on a sun bed, once again plunged into the water and realized that it was time to go to the room.

She covered the frozen body with a blanket and fell asleep. I woke up and had nothing to do. Half a cup of coffee drank and went to the hairdresser. Clouds stood over the central part of the city, so she went to a nearby barber shop, where a young girl was fussing. She is in a long dress in the floor cut a man. Soon came the second girl in high wedges. It was she who took up Rimma's hair, which she wanted to make a perm for the hundredth time on her head.

- Woman, I warn everyone that the chemistry is obtained without small curls! The composition is imported.

- Let it be without curls. I need weak chemistry. My hair has grown back, you can twist it on large sticks.

- Where are we bobbins ?! - exclaimed the hairdresser, who was standing behind Rimma.

'In the top drawer of the nightstand,' replied the girl in a long blue dress, cutting a young man seated in front of her.

A young man entered the salon with curls around his bald head:

- Girls, will you cut me?

The girl in the long dress said quietly to the girl on the wedges:

- Take him to cut your hair.

Rimma's hairdresser said:

- Come in an hour.

'I'll come a minute later,' curly said meaningfully, and left.

'They don't do chemistry for an hour,' thought Rimma, who had partings on her head and whooping-cock on a piece of paper.

At this time, another man came, whom two girls sent for their order in the dining room. He came out and quickly brought something in the test. Rimme was screwed on his head, wrapped in a forehead with a plait of cloth, sponge-coated and left for twenty minutes. The girls went to eat. There were no more men in the cabin. Then one another did her hair, hooking overhead strands to her. Rimme washed off the composition and put a new one right above the sink for the head. After the whole procedure, she really didn't have any curls on her head, she was done styling with a hair dryer and a comb.

A curly-haired young man came for a haircut, and Rimma dyed her eyebrows and eyelashes a girl in a long dress, pressing the pedal of the chair so that Rimma was almost in it, then she calculated Rimma and slipped a torn bill. At this barber all affairs ended for Rimma.

"Stately woman," Rimma was named as a clothing retailer. Rimma bought a dress for herself, a jacket. And then at night I woke up at the thought that I did not buy a skirt for my jacket. Two days later I bought it. As a result, things became more than she brought. On the day of departure I had to fill the whole garbage bag with my old things. Not everything is so simple when you come from the central part of the country to subtropics.

Palm trees, cypress trees, magnolias are good, but they walk in shoes with a holder between the fingers. And Rimma is not spoiled by the south, there is no hollow in the fingers for beach shoes. This is ridiculous, but she erased all her legs and bought three pairs of shoes. Alone, on pebbles to enter the sea. Others, from the hotel to the sea on asphalt and pebbles to the sea walk. Still others, to go to the store or in the evening stroll along the embankment.

Proud Rimma went to the hotel, where she tried to access the Internet. She took a small laptop and went downstairs to the receptionist. At the counter was a sign with the local network code. The signal was weak. While she was trying to access the network, two men came with luggage to the administrator to check into the hotel. One young and handsome man began to joke with the girl standing next to the administrator. The second, middle-aged and ugly, was worried about the safety of their belongings in the hotel.

'Your room is like a safe, an electronic key,' Rimma could not stand whining at the eldest of men.

'There is a safe in the room,' the administrator announced.

- You think so? And not such locks were opened, I will assign valuable things to the administrator.

Everyone immediately became uninteresting to him. Rima just went to her room, she did not remember the first one, but the second one ran into the memory with a lack of impressiveness. This is what inventors like her father look like. In the evening, she decided to go to a park of southern plants before dinner. She took a camera and went, and towards her went an eccentric - a man in different clothes, and he looked much more interesting. Well, she took off all the interesting trees, swans, and separately blooming magnolias. In the park there were people who themselves were filmed against the background of southern exotic. And rightly so.

The sun was shining and warming. Rimma never bathed in the sea, she was afraid of too cold waves. Today she came to the conclusion that if you move further from the place where the river flows into the seas, then the water should be warmer. Similarly, the farther it went, the more sand there were, more people on land and at sea, and the sea was warmer, and the difference was three hundred meters along the coast. Three times she went into the waves of the sea, and then sunbathed. The people arrived. From man to man on the beach was 20 centimeters. Day off.

All shoulders sank. Rimma jumped up, put her blouse on a wet swimsuit, slipped a beach shawl under the straps of a swimsuit, shook sand like a poppy off her feet. Boats, bananas, and buns were boating in the sea, but she darted to the side of the hotel. Rimma walked along the hell past ice cream, past kvass, past fruit. She stopped, drank water from a bottle - and to the hotel, on foot to the fifth floor.

She took off her wet swimsuit, black sand spilled from her. She took a shower. Got dressed. Wet towel and swimsuit hooked with clothespins to the balcony. Now it became easier. The coolness of the air conditioner reassured, the main thing is not to set it at 17 degrees, but set at 22 degrees. Cold black coffee is a couple of sips, and the brain is cleared of unnecessary thoughts.

Thoughts of Aphrodite came to mind. She possessed the thoughts of people, kind and black. She captivated the singers, who just stuck to her. Sick and old people came to her. Some were annoying. Then she organized a black project under the code name - "Yacht". The excursion boat was ordinary, the tourists were unusual. They were recruited from among the visitors of Victoria Lvovna, the old lonely people went to her for help, she helped them buy a ticket for a tour of the river.

Excursion appointed the day before the storm. River. Rocks Storm. Two minutes - and no one left. The vessel went to the bottom rapidly. Saved 3 percent of those who sailed on the ship, including the crew. This happened two weeks before her death. Probably, someone managed to curse her, from those who did not immediately drown in his cockpit. A terrible story. What was her benefit from it? None, given her sick mind and state. Before the operation, she had two more fun. Victoria Lvovna decided to become a psychic man-made events. But more about that later.

Rimma looked at the tiled floor, painted under a tree, at the window. She went to the balcony. On the left, the river was silver. The mountains and the hamlet were visible to the right on the horizon. The building was right in front of the eyes, the workers were making the fourth floor of the house, at the bottom right there was a forge under the windows. After a little listening to the everyday work of the city, she hid in the silence of the room and the closed windows.

She turned on the TV, the films were exclusively historical, but the image was twitching as if it were a blacksmith who hit the iron, and not the iron. Holiday, even the maids do not rush into battle. For vacationers today a great show of skaters on the ice, but did not want to go into the cold. Without a taxi is not accessible. Buses run around the city, but Rimma does not understand them. People stand like at a bus stop, but there are no signs that this is a stop. The city has so many private hotels that it's not very popular in it.

The market is wholly owned by one southern republic, the goods and sellers are all from that country. It is good when the southern republic shares its summer clothes and shoes with the southern city, but all this can only be worn. Rimme's house in these things will be cold. In short, the desire to run and buy something for yourself is gone. Today, Rimma so bathed and sunbathed, that she feels herself fried fish. She would have run away home, but she limited herself to leave.

Fried fish today does not want to swim anymore. Yes, the water is warm, the day is hot - everything, as she dreamed, but the body does not want to go to the inferno or in the water. Air conditioning. Room. Loneliness. By the way, she became silent here. There is no one to talk to, you can sometimes say a couple of phrases and no more. Not life, but happiness, on the one hand, and boredom, on the other. And run away far, expensive and hot. It is not worth doing torture from vacation, since today is a holiday, it means that the number of tortures with heat and water can be reduced. Persuaded herself.

Rimma could very well give people a massage and say that she heals. No, this is not blasphemy. Any healing is not eternal. That is the trouble. Perhaps Victoria Lvovna could have taken his reserves out of a man for a short time. So she treated and rulers. No, Rimma does not envy her glory. But Rimma's meeting with the man who personally knew Aphrodite made her think so. Good or bad? While Rimma just went to the beach.

On the beach, 70 percent are women of all ages and children. It is not enough men, it is even less beautiful men. She came to the municipal beach, they come here not only from all cities of the Big Country, but also from neighboring towns. There are sun beds for money and free sand. Here is the separation between people. Why are few handsome men? They do not like to sunbathe or rest here.

So, if Rimma does not see beautiful men, it means that she herself is ugly or middle-aged, which is almost the same thing. No, she did not succeed with the Inventor. He is crazy, and she is in herself. She now loves herself: goes in for sports, does massage, bathes, sunbathes and looks like smoked fish. To be honest, rest on a business trip is hard work, if you don't go to the beach, you feel dissatisfaction. The desire to talk almost disappears. They do not speak here, but talk in the direction of travel or where they sunbathe.

A strange companion was a girl. Children were splashing in the hotel's swimming pool in the morning, and their mothers lay in the shade under the wall, by noon the shadow disappeared, and the noisy company left the pool. All gone, there was a girl of about ten. The girl was talkative. She flew in from the banks of the river, which flows into Lake Baikal, but did not see Baikal itself. She had a little brother from a series of naughty little tyrants, he was not yet a year old. Brother ate a lot, but did not want to go. The girl treated him badly, he prevented her from sleeping, to rest, so she preferred to leave the house and be alone. Rimma tried to talk to her at the level of fairy tales, the girl was offended.

For the first time, Rima realized that this girl was like a little wolf cub. She didn't like everything. I didn't like the building that adjoined the hotel and the pool, didn't like the planes flying low over the city and very close to the pool. She did not like the tiled floor, because the brother falls on it and cries, but does not want to go at all. The girl did not like everything. At the same time she asked Rimma what to do in order to live very long, she said:

- I understand that you need to eat right and play sports. And what affects life expectancy?

Rima was surprised at this question, but her brother was at the hotel with her mother and grandmother, perhaps she was worried about her grandmother.

'We must be benevolent towards people,' said Rimma.

The girl looked at her in surprise.

- What is this?

- We must treat people kindly. We must help the brother to walk so that he does not act up.

'He does not want to walk, he only eats and crawls,' the girl said with a hardened voice.

- You have to see the good around you. Look: the sky is blue, the sun is shining, the flowers are blooming. Beauty!

'What is bad is easier to find than good,' the girl replied. - I will never come to this hotel again.

- It is well fed.

- We do not go to the dining room, we eat in our room. It did not even have a bed for me, it was brought and left.

- You flew by plane? - asked Rimma.

- Yes, we flew by plane. Flew five hours. I liked flying.

Rima realized that the girl lives in a room where she lives alone, and four of them live there. Therefore, Rimma arrived by train, and if she arrived by plane, so she would not have money for food in the dining room at the hotel, no, she would have found a way out. If the cost of a plane ticket is taken away from the fare in a second-class carriage, the cost of food at the hotel is obtained. Arithmetic. And they flew four people, and they flew for a long time.

An hour later, the girl ran into the room, grabbing all her belongings. After dinner, Rimma decided to go up to the pool, located on the second floor level. During dinner, she saw a tray and three tall glasses being carried there. In the left corner of the pool were three guys who drank beer. To their right sat a girl. Late in the evening, a certain woman walked around the floors of the hotel and shouted a name. Maybe that was the name of this girl? Two days later, Rimma caught a glimpse of the mother and the girl before her departure home.


Well, what can I say, the worse thing is that you need to leave the hotel at 12 o'clock. This is the scourge of the nervous system. The train goes at 20 o'clock, what to do 8 hours? Moreover, Rimma got up and collected all things before breakfast, she came down from the fifth floor with things without an elevator, had breakfast, took lunch with a dry ration. And she went with things to the bus stop across the bridge, built in the year of her birth. At the station, she was at 10 am. You could still go somewhere, but the suitcase mood eats up physical strength.

She handed over the suitcase to the storage room, went to the beach. I sat on the beach, looked at the sea, at the sky. The sky turned black from the clouds, I had to go to the station building. She sat down and fell asleep. I woke up - it was raining outside the window. Overhead constantly announcements are heard that are not designed for a long stay in the station building. The station is huge, there are enough waiting rooms, there is no soundproofing from the ads.

Was it worth going to the city of magnolias and the sea? Rather yes than no. Now in front of Rimma is a huge window of the station, on the left is the sea, right in front of it are railroad tracks, on the right there is a stream of cars. If you look straight ahead, behind the railway tracks you can see the mountains and the city of Sochi itself. Above the sea, near the coast, a balloon hovers. I really want to get up and go to the sea, wait a long time.

Rima went to the sea a second time while waiting for the train. To her sat a woman with ancient nails. She was under eighty years old. What could she say about herself? It turned out that she worked as an energy engineer and in the old days went to sanatoriums. Now she is an old but independent old woman, she lives near the sea. Rimma sunbathed, talked, took off the sea and went to the station building, on the road with the old energy woman she missed.

The train waited a long time, but he approached quickly. She barely presented the e-ticket, as the conductor said that she already knew that Rimma was traveling in her train. Progress for two weeks. Electronic tickets began to gain momentum. Nicely. The carriage is just beautiful. Coupe - excellent, with sofas. Rimma placed her things, changed clothes and climbed onto the second regiment. At the next station, an elderly woman with a boy and an independent young woman came into the compartment. For a day - this was the company Rimma. In the evening she fell asleep and slept half the day. The rest also slept after a rest.

The elderly woman was talkative, but she spoke exclusively about her grandson and his education. A young woman joined in with her conversation, and she was talking about a daughter left with a nanny at sea. 'Their life was a success,' thought Rimma, listening to the neighbors in the compartment. She herself did not want to confess, she modestly lay on the top shelf. A couple of times she sat down to the neighbors, listening more than speaking.

The elderly lady turned out to be with character, she was 65 years old, two of them she did not work, and she was very happy about it. Now she traveled with her grandson either in the south or in the northern capital. The grandson was obviously with humanitarian abilities and he easily accompanied his grandmother through museums and parks. She had a husband, who was their sponsor, and he traveled by car, meeting with them in places of travel and parting. Cool.

The young lady was from a series of business women. She is all in business, about her husband said briefly. She had to drive and work a lot. She was constantly talking to the nanny on the phone. The train was walking fast, green vegetation of all types was flashing outside the window. Air conditioning worked.

The land of magnolia and cypress trees had to be abandoned. Vacation is over.

Olga met Rimma, and drove her to the house along the old road, which now could be passed without traffic, thanks to the appearance of a new road. A cat and a dog were waiting for Rimma at home. The floor was covered with material from a torn pillow. Just imagine, you came from the hotel where you were fed, where you were cleaned and cleaned, to the apartment where everything is abandoned. Defeat Work at home no end, and in the morning you need to go to work. And nothing.

Rimma thought that something had happened or happened to Aphrodite. She felt her like she was her mother ...

And here it was reported that Aphrodite died. Rimma Ivanovna did talk to the eccentric by phone, but the next day. He was so nervous, because his Aphrodite died - the patroness, he was not always middle-aged and ugly. With Aphrodite, the crank invented man-made devices to increase longevity. She was a famous healer. Stately Aphrodite liked many in the period of his youth.

So Aphrodite liked the very general ruler of a large country. The ruler usually flirted with nurses, he loved this type of women. His wife was an important woman and was not at all like a nurse. The ruler could joke about life with Aphrodite, he called her for a personal massage. Aphrodite gladly treated the Ruler, she was a beautiful, well-groomed woman and was very proud of her business.

And Aphrodite's son was born from the Ruler. Massages are different, as it turned out. No one guessed whose son Aphrodite had. The years went by. The ruler died, and the son of Aphrodite became more and more like his distinguished father. Someone didn't like it. By this time, the inventor and Aphrodite had ceased to work together, and she was fascinated by a rising star - a singer, author, performer of his songs. He was impressive! He was charming and attractive.

Aphrodite found her leaving youth with Singer. The singer was proud of Aphrodite. They loved to look at the swans in the pond. The singer was killed, and who and why - is unknown. The son of Aphrodite, meanwhile, acquired all the features of the Ruler, but he himself was a weak-willed young man, he did not have a girlfriend. The mother after the death of the Singer completely took care of her son.

And here she liked the new ruler. He was tall and personable, gray and daring. A strange combination for the ruler. Aphrodite at this time was still a stately and bright woman, her fame was great. The people still experienced the death of the Singer, many people loved him, but no one tied his fate with Aphrodite, but someone threw all the trouble onto another eastern woman - the singer, and she fell into disgrace for a long time.

And Aphrodite? After all, she was Shchepkin's first love! She completely transferred to the service of the new ruler. Her career went up. She was given a lot of apartments. She became less engaged in massage therapy, wrote more pictures in her free time. The new ruler had a heart surgery, and Aphrodite helped him a little at this level. Her son was removed, as a singer, for being similar to his father, which was not told to anyone. Ten more years passed, and Aphrodite underwent a heart operation, as the second Ruler, and she began to speak like the first Ruler. She was gone, with her left a chain of events in which she participated directly or indirectly.


Chapter 15

The city threw off old houses and faced those that could please the eyes of the townspeople. The old five-story houses gaped with empty windows and disappeared from the face of the earth one by one. The sun turned on the heating system and fruitfully heated the snow in its rays.

Spring walked through the new quarters and lingered on elevated places. The children ran through the raw playgrounds, afraid to roll down the hills in fresh puddles. In the forest, the roads turned into a snow-water mess. Where there was no asphalt, fresh dirt beckoned into its swamps, which strayed dogs avoided with dignity.

Another week - and the dampness of melting snow will disappear for a year. In the meantime, the snow absorbed solar energy and disappeared from the excess of feelings.

Suddenly, Shchepkin stopped the slow screen carousel. He was attracted to a woman's face. Yes this is Rimma! It was snowing outside the window, and Rimma was walking along the marble slabs of the hotel lobby in sandals. All people were dressed from head to toe and slowly undressed. And she walked in bright wicker sandals, and her legs glowed in stockings in plain sight.

Schepkin noticed her. He could not fail to notice her, even though he was recognized as the favorite of women. But she did not see the women around her! That they saw her! They saw its transformation from a gray creature into a frail ostrich. They could have no future, but love could well turn out.

Why did she need him?

The snow outside the window showered ate, and the women Rimma showered ridicule. They yazvili. They hinted. They mocked her. And she was again in love with Schepkin's ostrich. And he? It sometimes seemed to her that he confused her with other women and was terribly surprised when she appeared before him - Rima. He backed up. Or maybe Shchepkin was a cancer, not an ostrich?

And she even that!

She bought high-heeled boots to like him on the street. She acquired new coats to appear in front of him unexpectedly. She was constantly styling her hair, and they radiated a glow. She changed dresses, but she could not change or change her life, which had long been measuredly walking alongside another person, a scorpion in a horoscope and in essence. Ostrich and scorpion were a bit similar hairstyles and eye color.

Schepkin looked at Rimma with one thought: so that she spoke first, he was shy of himself. He was afraid of inadequate female reaction, he was afraid of being intrusive. He thought that there are people who receive love in any way, and he needed exactly this woman who changes her appearance and clothes every day. He was an ostrich in its essence, she had only to saddle him, since she would hardly have withstood his weight.

Love between them again broke out on the New Year after the table event. God, how many people were born for this reason! And they did without children, but great manifestations of feelings. Feelings easily appear after sparkling drinks, and all the people before the New Year are unusually beautiful, and their feelings are elevated. And the universal jubilation adds its own drop of sensuality.

Rimma fell in love with Schepkina again when it was snowing outside the windows. Shchepkin was beautiful to the point of madness. They climbed the marble stairs with him. His black trousers from expensive material flashed before her, and she did not lag behind his long legs. He was a real ostrich! His huge black eyes seemed bottomless. She sank in them from the internal tension of feelings. Any of his glance in her direction was enough for her to love him madly in the coming week, but mentally.

So, probably, like idols from among singers and actors. But he was a reality! She saw him and felt his vibes every cell of his body. Rimma wanted very much to put on something brilliant, for example, to put a new watch on her hand over a black sweater. Or she wore beautiful sandals on a long and thin heel!

The sun. Rimma today in his rays thawed from the winter cold. In my head flashed an episode of last love. And she thought that Andrey played the farewell chord correctly. Now he sits at home and does not go to work. Why all? Yes, because his sun appears at home after dinner, his windows face south. Let it lie under a house tree of an unknown breed, and it will work, however, after it releases the brains from love.

Brains are needed in work, so these experiences must be able to be dumped so that they do not interfere with work. Experiences are dumped in the following ways: cigarettes, wine, beer, food, pills, walks.

Rimma threw feelings on the conclusions on paper, it is important that no one of his friends saw them, and the whole world could read them. She loved the whole world platonic and did not love anyone physically. That is the great difference between all of humanity and its only man, but so far it has not.

Yes, and because of him, she is not busy with that, but it's time to work. Rimma lowered the screen with the text and began to perform official duties.

And suddenly it dawned on her that Andrew was sitting at work at the computer and reading her works on the World Wide Web.

She made one mistake: changing the name, she left a picture that he uploaded from the depths of the web. He found her prose, he simply could not understand all her inventions, he took everything written on his own account. And this is wrong, he is not a savings bank to open an account. Here it is buried, a dog of misunderstanding!


The sun's rays pierced the silver curtain and entered Rimma's soul, in her mood, and she wanted to live, and her own rays shone from her eyes. I wanted to get out of the twilight of bad luck. Such universal sadness sometimes visited her blond head, as if everything had passed with the cold winter.

This autumn passes, and winter ends with the defeat of human life. It all depends on how you look at life. But it is better to look at life with the rays of the sun, it must be pierced with light and illuminated in order to forget about the frosty troubles. The first time, perhaps, left Rimma alone? Of course not.

Rimma once again looked at the sun behind the curtain, heard the noise of instruments and fans. Alex's voice talked with employee Olga. And what is she up to? Never mind.

Rimma was always interested in life on Earth, but safe for a woman. Oh - oh - oh, how difficult it is to be a woman! Tell a secret where is good? Men are offended. Well after a divorce, like after a thunderstorm, but there is a feeling of lurking resentment. And this is not a panacea. That left Rimma live a lonely princess.

Rimma, in good weather, went for a walk at lunch in a nearby forest park, along which road services paved a path of white pebbles. In the summer, white shoes from white pebbles became white; in autumn, dirt and foliage leveled stones to the same height, aided by cars passing by the logs.

In the forest, constantly in one place burned out excess branches and sawn logs. What for? It is possible that they produced ash for tablets. Nearby was the manufacture of manufacturing medicines.

Brownberries after the rain with pleasure grew near the footpath. They did not like to grow in vain, they really wanted to feel the warmth of human hands. Rimma saw mushrooms under any leaf, behind any snag. She could not miss the cute hat of the fungus, especially the small one. One mushroom gave her a nail file. "I wonder how an employee of Kira in the forest could drop her"? - flashed the thought in her clever head.

Among the trees flashed a male silhouette in light-colored clothes. He was obviously looking for mushrooms ten meters from the road. Rimma slightly shivered, she turned into a hedgehog with prickles. She walked alone along the forest path and did not think that there were still people in the forest. She abruptly turned away from the path to the bush, sprinkled with raspberries, and gladly ate ripe berries.

But suddenly Rimma felt the look. She raised herself and saw a squatting man at a bush with a raspberry, located three meters away from her, who was eating raspberries and looking at her with a grin. She leaned toward the bottommost berry, and a folding knife lay next to the berry. She wanted to shout:

- Men, who lost the knife?

Instead, she kicked a knife into the bushes with her foot, slowly got up, glanced around imperceptibly, and went to the automobile highway. There was a click behind, a creak. She stopped from fear, then realized that these are old trees creaking from contact. A woman with a handkerchief on her head and a basket in her hand was walking along the path towards her:

- Girl, can you tell me how to get out of the forest?

- You are not on the wrong path, you must return to the fork in the road and turn onto another road. Forest Crossing confuses the road.

- Well, thank you! I feel that the cars are already nearby, but I cannot get out of the forest.

With all her heart Rima was ready to go next to the woman, and she went next to her. A woman noticed:

- What is so sad?

'I found a nail file in boletus,' answered Rimma.

- The women dropped, they have no knives, so they look with a sawing file, wormy mushrooms or not. So everything is simple.

'Everything is simple with mushrooms, Kira's friend hasn't returned from vacation, she knows all roads in the forest, I always went with her and didn't think about anything. I think it's her file.

- What happened to her? The woman asked.

- I do not know. I also rested in the south, where Nadia is now, but I left a week earlier. We rested there, where bamboo used to grow. Bamboo grove, and near the sea. Now everything in the city has become more beautiful, and instead of bamboo, palm trees and cypresses grow. Oh, and I do not detain you, we have already reached the road?

- Maybe your friend will come back?

- I doubt she went to work. When she came to the sea, she really wanted to go home. She told me that herself. She is a slim woman, nimble.

- What could happen to her?

- If I say, do not believe it. Are you in no hurry?

'I can listen to you,' the woman said.

- When I arrived in a bamboo city, there was still snow on the mountain tops, and the sea was cold. Nadya arrived a week later, and the sea was already warmer. There are many ski slopes in the mountains. The sea is constantly stormy. The festival was held in the city, because of which the clouds were dispersed for a week. The sun shone on the ski slopes and heated the snow. No, I will not tell you my assumption about the absence of Kira.

- Oh, No! - the woman exclaimed and quickly went to the bus stop.

Rimma looked after her and immediately heard men's voices behind her back. Fear ran down her back and she went to the parking lot. Two men in light trousers and light shirts came out of the forest. The men, talking, approached their cars in the parking lot.

Rimma felt ashamed, she turned back to find a knife in a raspberry and give it to them, but other events distracted her.

When Nadia returned from vacation to her place, she saw her nail file on the table, which she lost in a mushroom. And Rimma found her while walking in the afternoon in the near forest. Something like this.


A cloud of wet asphalt gently leaned against the white cloud. The combination is amazing. Gray clouds drifted right alongside and looked thoughtfully at a black and white couple. In some places, through the gray clouds, the bluish cloudless sky showed up in places, and through the black-and-white wreath of clouds, the sky was not visible.

Here and destinies are intertwined mercilessly. For a long time, Rimma worked under the guidance of a very intelligent person who could put on any kind of mask when communicating. He could be charming if she was badly needed in work. He could be indifferent if there were other troubles in his thoughts. He could be impenetrable. If he wanted to fire a man.

Rimma got a black line of complete alienation. He did not let her go to work, but with interest he used her documentation, which she dropped into his computer. And it was a mistake. The chef did not let her take her things from the table. She did not give away the keys to the room and left under his arrogant gaze. She tried to call him, but to no avail.

And when Rimma was bad, her dear little man said that she felt bad because they talked badly about her. Rimma was silenced by surprise and dirt, in which she could not move. So she is out of work. Without respect.

The terrible word "betrayal" can hardly be replaced by the word "hypocrisy." Rima always considered herself a white cloud. But no, people considered that she was too white and smeared it with tar in front of her native little man.

There are people who can destroy you through people close to you! At the same time, these closest people for no apparent reason forget all the good things that you have done for them, and remember only the bad things that have blackened you!

From such a blatant injustice Rimma was very upset, but not for long. Why grieve? If people wanted to believe in the bad, then it is profitable for them. When a different situation is beneficial for them, they will create it.

The most predictable future is not an unpredictable future, but an almost existing one, but unrealized at the present time due to the imperfection of the system of existence. Such a pun is well known. Rimma was lucky, she came to the department, at which there was a research and development part, a laboratory, in which a designer of her level was needed.

Not always men behave relaxedly, in the training institute all the staff were mysterious and well-mannered. Rimma benefited from any good relationship. For example, the department opened a new topic, the first item is the analysis of existing structures. And where to find these designs?

There were books, textbooks, and the authors of these textbooks walked alongside the department. It was still possible to go to the patent library on the embankment, and Rimma went there more than once, there she could really find analogs of the structure, which she still had to develop.

Several floors with folders of drawings from all over the world. Several trips to the library on different topics did not go for it for free, analogues and patents for inventions were found, and Rimma herself has a patent for the invention in collaboration with members of the department. But without male teachers all this would not be possible.

Some volunteered to introduce it into the course of new sciences, others into the field of microcircuits, others dealt with the encapsulation of cases, fourths put thoughts into vacuum installations, with the fifth she developed coordinate displacement devices, with the sixth she worked on measuring instruments, with the seventh student led her graduate work.

Life in terms of mental load was very intense, and for another ten years, Rimma was on the forefront of all the department's diploma projects, i.e. she knew all or very much that in this area of science in general is being developed and constructed in the city. That was her life.

The rags of snow flew in the dark blue sky, chasing each other, they increased in volume to a small snow and gently sank to the ground. Feminine feelings can increase like a snowball, but, falling on the warm earth, will immediately melt. And what a man asks a woman, then what she does not need. Ask her what she wants, he can not! Well, again ran, looked, ran away, as if he went to the Internet and left. And here's another one, by the same principle, came in, looked, went out.

The heart has a funny quality: it can love, but, repeatedly offended by a loved one, it closes tightly, like hatches on the ISS. Miniature ISS are sold in the form of plastic toys, and maybe the feelings are plastic, easily offended? Real feelings endure resentment longer, although everything is paid for with love, absolutely everything. Where there is a compromise, there is love and money or their vague substitution, about which a person does not admit to himself, but any love is mercantile in principle. Rimma's ears were overwhelmed by such thoughts, or someone remembers it. And she does not remember them. The constructor of the former does not happen, mentally solves all problems as technical problems.

In life, everything often changes: the cosmos, the usual department at the institute. This is just real. Then a young man is next, then professors who are deeply indifferent to the appearance of female employees. Of course, Rimma is not indifferent to the professor, but here a new level of relations arises - work. You have to be beautiful, smart, cool. After all, there are new plants and new opportunities for making developments!

And there are new walks along the embankments with a young teacher. And there are new poems to new people accompanying Rimma. We must pay tribute to the men of the cleverest department, that everyone treated Rimme well. No one crossed the boundaries of permissibility.

With one assistant professor there was a lyrical digression. Tables stood side by side: Rimma and associate professor, and, casually looking at him, she wrote the poem 'White Flowers'. 'Give me flowers, only white, white, so that at dawn we were bold with honesty,' such were the words. Then one time the associate professor was in the delegation in the Volga city, there were only four people.

A few years after this trip, he fell ill. He underwent a complicated operation, and on the night when he was to be discharged from the hospital, a huge white bouquet of flowers appeared in the handle of the entrance door of Rimma's apartment. The assistant professor died, but before his death he sent her a huge bouquet of white flowers.

Inevitably, the period came when the department at the educational institute began to sharply decrease in the number of employees. The first to leave the department are steep lecturers. The country moved to a new economic system through problems in all sectors of society.

The latest work was the development of an electronic product. The performance of the product was good, and after ten years it worked. Rimma some time existed due to this development. The first small private organizations were formed.

The director already wanted to build a separate company, but all the money received for the products was invested in a private bank. During this period, all the pillars were decorated with posters with the names of banks, which all promised the golden mountains. The bankrupt became the director along with the bank, and all the employees along with him.

There was an interesting person at the department who was engaged in economic work, he also received a call from the first-aid post about flu vaccinations. Man he is more than responsible.

They call from the medical center, so that everyone goes to vaccinate, you have to go, but the teachers refuse to go, and he went himself and made two vaccinations for himself with a difference of a couple of days. Zablab, a former retiree, a former military man, he had no bad habits, except for diligence and diligence.

After two flu shots, he went for three days to his homeland, the province closest to the capital, got sick there, they said - pneumonia, died within two weeks after two flu shots!

There was another interesting professor, born in the outback, by the age of sixty he became a professor of modern science, consonant with the name of the department. The last time Rimma saw him two months before his death on the bus, he was very glad to see her, and he was already seventy years old, she took out her new book from her bag and gave it to him.

The professor said that his granddaughter and her peers Rimma know. Two months later, she learned that a professor at seventy years was trying to be at the height of science, he mastered a computer, and so, when he last went to the institute, on that day he should go out to the World Wide Web, and a car hit her. The professor did not go online - he died. He knew a lot in the most intelligent field of science.

For ten years Rimma attended the defense of graduation projects which he and other associate professors, professors, led. Could have left him alive. Why did the professors get shot down? At seventy, he was also a slim and lively man; he did not eat on Mondays. Wasn't he shot down on Monday?

At the department there was one woman assistant professor with a magnificent mane of blond hair; she was the right hand of a professor who was shot down by a machine. Smart and energetic woman.

About the head of the department of that period, we can say that the professor is the smartest and most beautiful man of his time. His books and books of the downed professor hung or hung on the wall at the last corner in front of the university department.

In the room in front of the entrance to the office of the head of the department sat a terrific secretary, on the table on both sides were huge electric typewriters. The secretary, all in silverware and in the smells of perfume, smiled at people and ordinary students who came to the professor.

When the typewriters disappeared, she went to work at the kiosk, and many former members of the department ran to her to buy a bottle of water.

Life lasts a long time, but quickly passes. The coil of life is wound, if you pull it by the tip, you can still unwind while Rimma is there.

And now in the case.

Tonight a star loomed in her window. Rimma was not lazy and looked out the window, but she didn't find the starry sky and the moon. But the star was hanging on the spot: is it something, did it go out alone for a walk today? She took the glasses and put them on her nose.

The star is not close. The turbidity is somehow visible through the glasses. Then she took the grandfather's binoculars. But through binoculars she saw in the sky not a star, but a mini-van, and the light was burning in it! What could a van do in the sky? He was not like a flying saucer.

Three hours after leaving the department, Rimma came to a large factory. I called from the checkpoint on the local telephone, heard a beautiful male voice, then a familiar female voice, she was recognized for her designs. It remains to arrange the documents.

Rima without a break went to another place of work. The head of the department was an unusually handsome and intelligent man, it was good to work with him, but he was quickly promoted and the whole plant was given into submission, but in the region.

Freedom of a winter morning! The air after the weekend is fresh, like spring water. In the dark of the morning, women stood next to the road and sold their goods. The store in the snow worked according to its own rules, each saleswoman came in her day of the week, so the goods here changed daily.

For herself, Rima here rarely met. She saw on sale what her relatives or acquaintances needed, but to please them in absentia was not easy. And she passed by the morning saleswomen.

Large buildings of firms of all stripes shone with rare windows. At this time, all the people at work have not yet arrived. Early. For several years these buildings have faded. At any time of the day, the luminous windows were getting smaller, later posters appeared with phone numbers for renting.

The buildings began to come alive. From them took a huge amount of old utensils. The premises were repaired, the light appeared in the new lamps.


Rimma walked past the fir trees and a low square building, into which huge rolls of paper were thrown from the car. Here was located the printing house. Another twenty steps - and she walked past the doorman, climbed to her floor. Everything. Life froze until the evening. The World Wide Web is an early morning girlfriend.

She was not fond of men at her firm, they were all married, and she was married when they took her to work. But life is not without imagination and reality.

Rimma herself always needed a job for financial support. She used to provide herself. She loved independence, she liked being powerful, she did not like to obey. Remaining officially working at the department of a technical institute, where she received almost no money, she found one of the first private companies headed by a short resourceful person.

Her physical weight during this period decreased by twenty pounds. Thin and slim Rimma came to the company and was hired in her specialty. Computers at that time were still weak, and it was difficult to name perfect drawing programs. I had to sit down again for the drawing board. Her hands barely carried the stylus, which was constantly falling from the pencil. I had to wrap my fingers with electrical tape. The workshop was located on the floor below, so that the amenities at work existed.

Falling in love with a handsome guy or a man is easy; falling in love with an ugly man in worn clothes is much harder, but quite possible. Life has given her the opportunity. The developer, with whom Rimma worked, was at the same time deputy director, because he owned half of the company. She never called him by name. At work, he was sitting next to her, so he was her next development engineer.

Rimma is a designer, she cannot work without a developer, everything is so arranged in life. He invented the electrical circuit of the product in accordance with the wishes of the customer, and she developed the design for the product. His desk stood so that anyone could approach it only sideways.


Often masters from the workshop or technologists came to Rimma. The technologist was a handsome and respectable old man, but the masters were changing, the place was not quite quiet. One of the masters was an unusually interesting man; with his brown eyes he looked at her so much that it was hard not to get carried away by him, at least in thought.


Chapter 16

Rima accidentally il purposely called the master diminutive, affectionate name ...

The developer, after the master left, went to Rimma and poured boiling water from her cup on her !!!

By chance or on purpose ... The boiling water penetrated under the clothes, the legs in the upper part became very sick. She went home, a huge blister on her leg, a long blister that hurt.

The developer liked to listen to the radio at work, but that the songs sounded in a foreign language. He believed that familiar words distract from work, but foreign ones do not. The music sounded above her ear as echoes of sadism, for her it was too loud, but he believed that loud music saves from listening.

Life Rimma taught not to object to men and their weirdness. Her new boss, that is, the developer, had a malachite set for pencils and pens on the table, and there was another entertainment: he was reading the newspaper 'From Hand to Hand'. He was looking for a new car. Yes, after her arrival at this company, the director of the company has already changed the car, but his partner and deputy have not yet appeared.

In winter, in a sneaky sneaker, the developer drove away in his old car. He comes and tells: he bought himself a new car and walked around the car for a long time in the snow, his feet got wet in old sneakers. He had the finest jeans. He created the overall impression that he did not have a woman, although he was taken care of by a lady from the personnel department.

Only a handsome director could take in his headlines such an ugly developer who was not poor, but was strange, if not more.

What happened next?

The firm burned down a large electric kettle at the weekend, someone did not turn it off, and it was not possible to find out who left it on. The kettle has already burned out and was brought out of the repair by the developer five days before the fire, apparently, the kettle was deprived of the fuse during the repair.

The kettle burned uniquely: without fire, but with great soot, as if the installation for spraying soot on all objects worked. Everything in the big office was covered with an even layer of soot: the ceiling, walls, floors, tables and documents not removed from the tables. All the staff of the company were forced to change clothes, bring items for washing and launder everything that can be washed.

Rimme was easy to work with a rag, washing off walls and objects. Men worked over the ceiling. Just finished washing up the soot, as the developer touched the fire system with the last movement of a rag on the ceiling, the building's guard immediately came running, but in the room the consequences of the fire were all washed away.

At that time, in the next office there was still an optical installation, in which for her work they used a special-cut diamond, clamped in an expensive holder.

The developer, dismantling this setup and adjusting it, reaching the diamond, just took it and put it in his pocket. Rimma saw the entire installation and the diamond separately before the developer finally ruined it, hiding the diamond in its own bathroom.


Rimma had a different story before meeting an ugly developer. Apartment Rimma flooded on all the walls. The floor above fell asleep a military man who had come from the army, he drank too much. He opened the water in the bathroom and fell asleep. Water for twenty centimeters covered his entire apartment, then the water along the walls began to descend down the floors.

Washing powders dissolved in water, and frothy water flowed through all the walls of Rimma's apartment. She had no one at home; everyone worked and studied. When the first schoolboy came home, he saw waterfalls of chandeliers, a stream of water on the switches. It is surprising that all the wiring was in the water, but everything worked out. There were people who called for someone, and they opened the door. They saw the sleeping military man, and did the right thing, that is, they themselves began to collect water from the floor.

Three hours after leaving this firm, Rimma came to a large factory. I called from the checkpoint on the local telephone, heard a beautiful male voice, then a familiar female voice, she was recognized from the dictionaries - the translators.

It remains to arrange the documents. On the same day she went to another place of work. The head of the department was an unusually handsome and intelligent man, it was good to work with him, but he was quickly promoted and the whole plant was given into submission, but in the region.

Rimma got into the women's team. The room is full of flowers, paintings and drawing boards. Five women. The work is more than interesting and quite complicated. Female constructors are a special clan, they work with men.

The teeth of all women are white and even, the figures are slim, the characters are male. But five women in one narrow and long room - this is very serious. Four months later, Rimma moved to a cold room without flowers and people; there used to be many designers here, but because of the cold in the room and the cold in the country's economy, the designers disappeared like mammoths, or dispersed around other organizations.


The KB windows looked north, the sun did not look in here, the malachite spruce before the eyes outside the window is its only entertainment. A couple of months later, designers - men - appeared in this room; four people came at once, but sat down from Rimma in the distance on a warmer heel.

Life began to seethe and seethed for two years, then again everyone began to leave for other firms. It all depends on working conditions and wages. This company is so big that its slowness in the new economy did not affect people fabulously.

The machine park is excellent, and everything else in terms of office equipment did not immediately appear. The climate, 14 degrees of heat in the workplace, had a negative impact on health, in a word, she was taken to the hospital directly from work, after the hospital she was already waited at another company.

Who is like, and Rimma as a teenager reread a large amount of adventure literature with a slight touch of human sympathy. For some reason, it was untouched love that left traces of ghostly feelings in her soul.

In her life, she was written to go in for sports or exercise, so she had to go either to the sports section, or to the gym, or to the pool. She also had a constant interest in adventures with detective elements, but without killing, so that everything was beautiful and the mood did not spoil.

She herself is an ordinary young girl with her specialty, although to whom is her specialty interesting, until a whirlwind of adventure passes through her ?!

So, either not so, and Rimma went again to a sports club located on the shore of a tiny pond. The pond resembled a huge funnel with water, along the edges of which sedge grew. In the distance, new low buildings were visible.

From time to time she heard how the railroad tracks exhausted multi-ton trains. And so silence reigned here. In the nearby forest, birds sang and mosquitoes bit. She went to a sports club.

The sanatorium belonging to the plant where Rimma was working at that time consisted of two-storey houses for the construction of 60th houses. The medical building met her with a spacious hall and velor dark chairs. The medical administrator checked the sanatorium card and gave the room in the best building. The big room suited her perfectly. She came for 24 days to rest and heal, she had to disperse the sharp back pains, the legacy of design work.

November did not indulge in snow in the first days of the month. The grass was green. Part of the leaves still hung in the trees. Treatment chose the minimum, the main entertainment - the pool across the street from the housing habitat. The day in the sanatorium is filled from morning to evening, the darkest occupation is to constantly dress and undress, take off and put on boots.

Breakfast - got dressed and went to the dining room. Food a lot. Then you need to get dressed and go to the medical building, there to undress a couple of times to the last or the penultimate degree. Then run to your body, take everything for the pool and again undress and dress.

From the pool, carry things to your room, hang up drying towels and swimsuits, change clothes - and it's time for lunch.

Before lunch, about twenty minutes, everyone walked around in front of the dining room. Dogs and cats took places at the stairs to the dining room.

Lunch is a wonderful meal, a lot and satisfying, but it's hard to eat everything. Fruits are often picked up and released. At this time, Rimma took empty plastic bottles and watered flowers in the huge hall of the dining room. The winter garden required maintenance, but apparently there was no standard unit for it.

And then personal time: sleep, rest. More often at this time she studied poems, worked on them.

After a quiet hour, people gradually came to the dining hall; it was there that two tennis tables stood, huge chess and checkers.

Rimma attracted tennis. It was not boring. In the evenings it was possible to watch TV in a beautiful hall, or a movie at a club, or visiting artists from a cool room.

Once Rimma fell on the ice hidden under the snow. She didn't just fall down; she was staring at Alex, who had come to visit her.

Rimma's right arm was pierced by a terrible pain at the fold of the wrist of the hand and arm, there is a darkness of small veins, and ligaments, and bones. Rimma did not go to the doctor right away, she could not believe that the pain was so severe after the fall.

She kneaded her hand with ointments, and then came to the doctor on duty, she was put on a tire and was told that tomorrow they would take an ambulance to the city to take a picture. Where have you seen her go take a picture?

No, of course, a day later she herself took off the tire, stretched her hand and began to play tennis. Partners are strong. The hand fell ill so that I had to throw this lovely game, which was decorated with partners. She went to the pool. Here common friends frolicked.

Swimming with a bandaged arm is very painful, but it's unreal to get out of the pool, climbing stairs and holding onto handrails.

But Rima came out of this situation. In the evenings and in my free time, my hand was kneaded and kneaded with ointments for the back in spite of all the canons of gypsum, then wrapped with bandages. The hand was ill for a long time, but she came to work after the sanatorium.

The right hand was damaged, and it was necessary to draw on the drawing board with the right hand, and the lines required bright and clear, and the drawings of the cabinets were large. It hurt, but she wrapped her hand and scribbled it.

Rimma worked as an engineer in the company. The denim summer has arrived. The day was lit by the sunny coolness. Normal summer. Nothing unusual and interesting. Rimma with a model haircut felt confident, and life became calmer.

She came out of a negative state. Now she was close to complete indifference to the events around her. Reality, and if it is now a strange band, then naturally, I want to go into the mirror of a distorted reality.

Its reflection in the mirror almost suits her. She is not satisfied with the absence of high matters without new technologies. Need a little miracle.

Let the apartment itself come in a divine form, and then the dust interferes with a pleasant state. But the mirror will not help here and we must act with pens or hire an outsider for domestic work.

Simpler. Wait a minute It is necessary to erase the green dust of flowering trees from all surfaces of the mirror of a distorted reality ...


Rimma, having replaced a couple of companies, returned to her favorite company.

Flying shiny snowflakes - a balm for the soul and mood. On the edge of the asphalt under a light snowfall, Rimma could go and go without any competition: people preferred to go in cars and in buses.

Let them go. And she passed along the edge of the snowfall - as she walked, the aura cleared, she revived, the astral forces gained strength without any human energy exchange. Now it is fashionable to look for the ultimate in the withdrawal of internal energy, so Rimma took flying snowflakes from space.

And yesterday she met Alex's long and long look. Did this look give extra energy? It is not known, but something human - gave, remnants of love or the beginning of a new relationship between them. Who would know how she did not want his love in due time, but then she got used to it, and it turned out to be the snow balm of her soul.

Part of the road is quite deserted, although the highway was not far from its road. However, in one place of her snowy path, Rimma was always creepy: because of this inner horror, she sometimes didn't want to follow this path. By the way, there was an outlet for a heating station, more precisely, an outlet for a large well, covered with a grate. Warm air blew through the grate, so a man in a drape coat often lay on the grate. The bus stop from his couch was about twenty meters away, but this man always terrified her.

In my heart, it froze when she walked around the man's rookery along the edge of the road. Not far from this terrible place was a firm, well-groomed, decorated, but it still needed to be reached ...

A trickle of blood stood out brightly against a white background of fallen snow. Rimma was ready to run at a terrible well, but out of the corner of her eye she saw that there was no horse in a drape coat sitting on the trellis. On the lattice sat Thomas, a worker from her company! It was he! Rimma stopped rooted to the spot, gazing with horror at Thomas's blood.

- Rimma, stop, I'm injured! Said Thomas, with his hands on his leg below the knee.

- Thomas, what fate are you here, and even covered in blood? First aid or taxi call? - asked Rimma, not knowing what to do in such a situation. - Who hurt you?

'You won't believe it, but I saw you out of the bus alone in the snow, jumped out at the bus stop, decided to wait, sat on the grill, and a sharp object pierced my leg. I pulled a metal hairpin from my leg, sharpened on both sides, with one side it was inserted into this well, and the other stuck out, but through the snow I did not notice it and ran into it.

Thomas showed Rimma a sharp hairpin. A shiver passed through Rimma's body. More recently, she met such sharp black screws, and this stud was of the same quality: sharp and tough. Literally two days ago, without thinking of help, she herself hammered such a screw into the wall with a hammer.

She beat the screw in a big way, with all her strength, with bitterness. Screws required screwing, but she lacked the strength for it. The screw flew out of the corner with the lines for drying clothes fixed on them. A primitive, greasy and soft screw flew out, and she drove it so sharp, black ...

Why did she feel horrified, but did not feel pity for a man? She didn't feel sorry for him, probably because his scornful attitude towards her was still alive. Residual deformation of his humiliations.

Rimma went to her workplace at the factory. Who loves the smells of perfume, but she loved the smells of the machine shop, the smell of machines, oil and chips. She loved the quiet rumble of working machines, she loved workers at the machines and technologists who were in charge of them. Loved the blueprints.

She walked past the workshops, looked at the machines, breathed factory smells and was saturated with astral energy of production. It produced the latest technology. In the epicenter of the production of excellent aura.

Her workplace was further than the machine shop, she climbed to the second floor, passed a long transition connecting two buildings, and turned out to be in a building made of sheets of unknown things, but always cold.

Windows around the perimeter radiated cold air from all the cracks. Here were technologists and designers, they are frost-resistant. Rimma could not stand the cold and in the afternoon began to roll the newspapers into flat tubes and stick them into all the obvious cracks. It got warmer.

Her favorite hairstyle was a wig, she kept him in the nightstand table. She came to work, took off her hat, put on a wig and worked. It was best to come to work in a coat; you can work and even draw in it. But it was always nice from their own mistakes or problems in production.

You could take off your coat, put on a robe and go to the workshop to call the technologist. In all workshops, it is much warmer, because plants and machines work well at a certain temperature.

Rimma walked in a white coat over the passage, and Thomas walked towards her, limping. He looked at her and passed by. He again works in the main production, and he has his own tasks. At the moment they are not crossed by work. Rimma was on call technologist machine shop.

On the milling machine of the last generation, the body was processed for a complex product, which was necessary for it in its work. He was so complicated and whimsical that the milling machine operator was out of pride of himself, so he was pleased with the set tolerances on the drawing. The lower the tolerance, the more expensive the product, which is profitable for the milling machine.

The miller is the elite in the field of payment, so he will receive two or three times more Rimma. But Rimma is not offended, her father was a worker and he always received the upper bar. And she is a designer, she has a salary. Milling operator Rimma smiled, in his heart he was pleased with the product and his work. How he loved his machine! Do not retell.

Rimma called a technologist to her, and they went to the second floor to deal with the drawings. Here was a pair of wooden panels, on which they made drawings for product modifications. Technologists have always held themselves important and with great dignity, but Rimma is nothing, she agreed with them with small concessions in tolerances, sizes or materials of products.

Rimma came down from the extension of the second floor, she was intercepted by another technologist and with great pride showed a new gigantic machine, introduced her features so that she took them into account in her drawings so that the machine would not stand idle.

Security was in the price. In the ancient city, located very close, and then the guard was respected. Now we are tired of using security alarms and guards. And the little scamps are growing up. Yesterday they came from the village, picked fruit from the trees, bathed where they wanted, set fire to an ancient car. And the security? The guard is watching TV at the post. Security alarms are not used at all in the highlands. As a result, the houses have broken doors, and no information about this has been received.

So the spacecraft was brought to the start and left until the morning without supervision. Any little naughty could make a very big prank. Boys can penetrate into all the cracks of the web and into all the holes in the fences. The boys are a small but terrible force, which in the summer on a vacation from idleness can invent anything, they can overhear their elders at home and take revenge for anything in the most incredible form. Even affect the launch of the ship from the spaceport.

I need to check the tail of events, thought Rima. - We need to look at the situation at the cosmodrome, located in the steppe. As far as I know, the cosmodrome is not in the reserve, many people know the road to it, you can get to the city of Bike by bus from technically smart cities, for example, from the city of P. you can get to the city of Bike by bus, and there you can reach the rockets.

On the table, Rimma noticed familiar details, looked at how they were made, and slowly went to her place, for her wooden drawing board. Only she sat down, took a pencil, as the developer approached. With him, she looked again at the device device and its correspondence to the case, which had already been processed on a milling machine.

The developer is a beautiful and intelligent man, from any point of view, the developers are simply the smartest of the smartest people. Rimma fell in love with them from the first clever phrase, from the first glitter of her eyes.

She loved to talk with them about work, and in the next couple a new device was born. Chef approached Rimma and looked displeased at the developer, but shook his hand. Developer left. The chief added a couple of phrases to the technical requirements of the drawing, said he would call for Rimma at the end of the working day, and left.

Rimma wasn't given a quiet draw, a smart deputy chief technologist approached. He had an order for a unique product, they began to draw the dimensions of the product on the drawing board and talk about how it can be processed and generally made. Immediately a woman came from the ONS and reported on the changes. Holy cause, changes need to be made to the drawings.

Yet there comes a time when Rimma is drawing another drawing on a drawing board. Hour draws. Two draws. Sharpens a pencil, holds thin and thick lines. Compass makes holes in the tree. It's okay Outside the window is dark, the working day has come to an end. The ruby chief went out to meet Rimma, and they each went to their own place. She got off at her bus stop, looked at a poster in a book stand and walked past. Turn, road, shop, house.

Call Chef's voice:

- Rimma, I'm coming to you ...

- Not.

She hung up - and rightly, she did not want him coming, no. Itself, better all herself, although she was tired of being a man in the house. She remembered how many men in the main production and how few of them in her home life, just zero, the usual zero.

Sometimes she thought that she had got into this male profession for nothing, but she was not going to give up. She decided to go the way of a charming and attractive woman in the workplace, which is no worse than communicating with kings and shahs. Working days for love had little, but there was a treacherous Friday, on this day splashes of miracles are possible.

The chief came to her on Friday evening. Lush bouquet prompted his serious intentions. They looked at each other and did not burn with love that they did not see each other? And then from - under him the rug was turned out. How this happened is incomprehensible, but he crashed to the floor. The dog held the end of the rug in his teeth and flashed his eyes:

'Who came to my mistress ?!' asked his fierce look.

Rimma forbade the dog to bark at the guests, but the dog could not tolerate the man in the house. Bouquet when falling crumbled. The chef was in flowers. Dog released the end of the rug and it is important left from the hallway into the room. The chief spent the dog with an evil eye, got up, bent down, gathered flowers. His look of love did not express. They walked around the apartment for three. The dog rumbled at the man, and he could not stand it: he gathered and left before spring.

In the spring, green leaflets were poured out on the trees, and the Chief again flashed his eyes toward Rimma. But he didn't sparkle alone - the lake sparkled, to which the whole company came to make kebabs in devices for a kebab with their own firewood from the store.

Barbecue! It sounds good, and in the spring it also has anxious feelings of awakening. So the Chief has awakened. And the salt - was. The chief and Rimma looked into the distance on the mirror-like surface of the lake and did not think to plunge into it. Early swim. The gifts of the store appeared on the polyethylene tablecloth, and kebabs appeared on the plates.

Wine poured out of paper bags. Vodka was shaken from the bottles. Good! True, Rimma drank a couple of sips of wine for the purpose of disinfection, and Chef did the same. They were sober and filled with meat.

ABOUT! Meat! Meat and wine went for a walk on the veins, and they went on the edge of the lake in the opposite direction. They got a little lost and walked for a long, very long time. They went through a clearing with lilies of the valley. Bah! They are beautiful - lilies of the valley, of course. White flowers.

Walk along the edge of the meadow with lilies of the valley! Great.


With Nadia again there was another trouble. Someone, or rather a common-law husband Alex, gave her a chic bracelet that she lost, then homegrown detective Musin found him. He ran after the man to whom there was nothing left. Suddenly, the pursued person threw a small object at his feet to the pursuer, which flashed in the rays of evening street lighting.

Musin attacked a stupor. He stopped and forgot where he ran. He looked down at his feet, bent down and picked up the bracelet. The bracelet did not represent anything special: small rubies were surrounded by white pearls that were located along the entire perimeter of a bracelet made of white gold.

'Maybe it is jewelry?' Thought Musin. The blinding gleam of little rubies said that they were real. He recalled that he was running after a certain man in his uneven breathing. He looked where he had run, but no one was there. He looked back and saw the one from which he was running.

Nadia rose from the ground and looked at the man through a veil of tears. He approached her.

- Are you crying because of the bracelet? Here is a bracelet, take it, - and Musin extended a pearly glow to Nadya.

- Thank! She breathed, and immediately sat down, gasping in pain. - My leg hurts.

Musin looked around, saw a bench, and how a decent man helped a young girl walk to a bench that was not far from a lantern. She stretched out one leg, rubbed her ankle, groaned, and only then stretched out her hand for the bracelet. But the detective did not have a bracelet, he stretched it to her, and at that moment she bent down to her aching leg.

They both missed the third, who grabbed the bracelet from the hands of a detective

instead of a girl. He, like a leopard, approached them from the dark side and now ran away from them a second time. He did not run into the darkness, but to the highway where the car stopped, in which he arrived.

The young man got behind the wheel in the car and smiled a porcelain smile at the man in the back seat:

'Schepkin, I have your bracelet,' and twisted it in the air.

- Give it to me! - happily exclaimed Shchepkin. - Drive fast! Then we'll figure it out! - He shouted and quietly added: - They can organize a chase for us.

The car disappeared into the dark.

Musin watched the car, but did not move. Nadia stopped moaning over her leg, now she tried to cry, but there were no tears.

- Who are you? She asked the young man, as if she had never seen him.

- I? I am a free artist, in the sense that I am a free detective.

- Immediately and said that the detective! With such an appearance you could have been silent about the work, 'Nadya stretched out, clasping her ankle and frowning in pain.

- You have no broken bones? - Musin caught himself.

'I have no fracture, my leg is whole, but the bruise is strong,' Nadia made herself a diagnosis.

- You stopped crying. A bracelet is not a pity?

- Why should I feel sorry for the bracelet? Alex's husband gave it to me, and now his man has taken it from me.

- I do not understand what kind of Alex?

- Tell you everything! You know, there is the first guy in the village, and in our city there is Alex, the first handsome. Do you not know him? It is slippery, always slipping away like a ruby bracelet. Funny yes? Man and bracelet! But it happens in the world. He always wears a black ruby, illuminated by a ruby baby of good purity. No, I'm not competent in them, but I've heard a lot.

- Funny. Bracelet returned to the owner. But it was given to me by my young man Alex. And why did I run after him? I thought that something had been taken from you and, obeying the reflex, I started chasing.


Alex walked and grieved under the gray sky. Cold. Rain. Wind. They chased him day by day. He came from a warm country, but here everything seemed cold to him. I wanted the sun's rays, heat, or just to participate in his fate. It was sunny today. It seemed to him that no one loved him or regretted it. His condition was such that it was fit to go to a specialist in psychological adjustment.

The common-law wife Nadia has lately been constantly oppressing him with her irritability or positivity. He called her with good, and she answered him with evil. Not only that, she tried to throw his annoyance at him on him. Yes, that's what it means ...

Alex almost tripped over Nadia.

- What does that mean? - asked Nadia, as if she heard his thoughts.

- What am I not good for you?

- You're cute.

From this phrase, Alex straightened his back, then smiled a radiant smile of porcelain teeth. He wanted to communicate, the usual human. Then he thought that it was right that people create societies for all ages, there is where to go: to kindergarten, to school, to college, to university, to a company. "Firm" - and he thought.

'Did you want to gather all the ladies under your wing?' Asked Nadia.

- And if the ladies do not podderyut? Or from the financial security get everything?

- And you need it, to provide evil women?

- What to do so that people pay attention to me?

- Why do you need attention?

- No, I do not need universal attention to the spirit. I can turn on the heater with a warm stream of air. I can create a hall with an artificial sun and with southern plants, with a pond. Primitive for girls in swimsuits.

'No, it will not help you,' Nadya assured.


Chapter 17

Alex was embraced by the universal longing, from which to get out. There was a feeling that someone was calling him to drink beer in heaven. There was pain under the right edge, which intensified with every minute. The boredom passed, an alarming feeling of doom and frailty of life appeared. No one bothered Alex.

- And who needs to disturb you? - immediately asked Nadia.

- No one, if nobody depends on me.

Alex dismissed for the time of his people. Having come to a disappointing conclusion, he thought. He called a friend's doctor, called him and calmed down. The sky during this time has not changed at all and has not lost the gray unbroken color.

Thoughts cleared of longing. His gaze fell on the mirror table on which the rubies were scattered. The magnificent spectacle struck by its unexpected appearance. As far as he remembered, there was no such table in his house. Servants are not capable of surprises.

For surprises capable of Nadia.

Alex looked at the door that did not open and close. He looked at the ceiling, but did not notice the hatch. Then he slapped his forehead and looked at the floor under the table. Yes, it was there that there was a hatchway with an elevator. From the lower room his wife sent him this table.

So, this is already interesting.

He walked over to the table, took hold of the pen and rolled it over to his favorite chair. Near the rubies have not lost their beauty, but they seemed stupid and out of place. The mirror began to play with rubies. Reality is lost. The roof has gone. I got dizzy.

Alex woke up on his own bed with a horn in his forehead. Two people in white coats were sitting next to him. One of them said that he lost consciousness when he dropped his forehead on a table with pieces of rubies. They could not pull out one fragment and waited for Alex to come to his senses.

Surprisingly, he did not feel the pain of a foreign object in his forehead. He felt comfortable. The mood was wonderful. And he was surprised to hear that he had to undergo a surgical operation to remove a foreign object from his skull.

Alex briskly jumped out of bed, walked over to a large mirror. He saw the radiance in the center of his forehead, from which his eyes became intelligent and expressive. He liked himself!

- Gentlemen! I do not want to remove this item from my skull. I feel comfortable with him. And I did not call you!

- Mr. Alex, but it is unthinkable to leave in the forehead pearly horn! - Exclaimed the talkative doctor.

- You are free! - Alex cried with pathos.

From his words, people in white coats came out of his room, as if they were blown away by the wind.

Alex touched the horn with his hand, grinned and said:

- I am now a unicorn! This wife cheated on me with her employer!

From these words a chandelier swayed above his head and collapsed on it, wrapping it with metal rings and crystal pendants. He again lost consciousness. When he woke up, he saw the same two doctors.

- Sick! - the doctor said sharply. - We warned you that the ruby horn must be removed! Now we had to extract a hundred crystal faces from you. But two lenses stick out like horns. To remove them without anesthesia is impossible. I propose to remove the horn on his forehead and the horns on his head.

Alex was all crammed with impulses of contradiction. He again abruptly jumped up from his seat and went to the mirror. He was before him, but with crystal horns and a shining forehead. He liked himself!

- Gentlemen doctors, I like myself! And you are free!

Naturally, the doctors from the room were either blown away or unclean.

Alex was left alone. He silently looked at himself in the mirror. There was something demonic and rainbow in it. Yes, he was tired of the stock exchanges for a long time, he was tired of being a clerk. He wanted to be ...

- What did you want to be? - Olga asked, entering the room, looking at the horns and horns on the man with bewilderment.

'Not by anyone,' he answered, and touched the horns. He scratched his ear. Touched the nose. He grinned and choked when he saw the hatch open in the floor.

The mirror table with rubies reappeared in the room. But Alex did not move from his seat. Suddenly, a mirror in front of him arched in his direction and burst like a soap bubble. In a cloud of mirror fragments before him stood Nadia in a boundless dress.

- Hello! - gently cooed Nadia.

- Hello! - Alex mumbled. - To whom do I owe horns and a horn?

- To whom? The woman replied, examining herself in a dress. 'Two doctors I met in the house,' she replied. 'One rewarded you with a horn, a second one with horns,' she said mockingly, coming close to Alex.

Nadia abruptly pulled crystal horns from his head.

- Will you delete the ruby horn? - Alex asked, rubbing his head with both hands.

Nadia pulled out a horn from his forehead. Slowly blood began to flow. Alex calmed down.


Rimma has a message of safety margin. At the operation she got into a situation in which for some time she flew inside a pinkish tube. Light and speed increased. The pipe had a fairly uniform diameter. The flight was accompanied by whistling sounds.

The pinkish light changed to two white spots and human voices. Through the grave condition, her eyelids lifted, and she saw that two lamps were burning on the wall. Housemates discuss her condition and try to talk to her. She herself lay on the bed and fell asleep again.

Rimma read that paradise is in the constellation Sirius. Apparently, there is no paradise on Sirius - 1. Perhaps paradise could be on Sirius - 2. But the planet is small, there is not enough heavenly angels and angels for every dead earthling on it. Or did Sirius-2 collect the souls of the dead earthlings, and therefore its density is unusually large? Or maybe Sirius-3 hid behind Sirius-1 and Sirius-2, and earthly paradise fits on it? In principle, it is difficult to find heaven from Earth through a telescope, probably as difficult as detecting Sirius - 3 behind the bright light of Sirius - 1?

So her soul flew to Sirius - 3 for a while along the road indicated by the pinkish light of Sirius - 1 ?! That is, if there are black holes, then there may be pinkish holes for the human soul? And through this pinkish pipe the soul of a man flies to the paradise of Sirius - 3?

If Sirius - 1 gives light and heat more than the Sun, then on Sirius - 3 is always warm, does it mean that there is a garden of paradise with apples?

Rimma woke up. She looked at the snow outside the window and realized that she was still on Earth. I called the boss. After years of cooperation, they understood each other better. She told him about the idea of finding an earthly paradise. Another would have twisted at the temple, and the chief engaged in the implementation of the idea of Rimma.

People tend to heaven on Earth, and this is just a narrow strip of land on the coast of the sea. The sea with all its strength eats a narrow strip of land at the foot of the mountains.

On this strip of land, a railway was once laid. From the railway to the sea on an inclined plane just one car. People bring gravel and cover it with tons to keep the road from the sea, but it never occurs to them to add tar to the gravel.

The sea loves pitch. The waves would caress the smooth surface of the resin, and maybe it would make amber. Elsewhere on the coast, eight-meter-thick, pinkish clay covered holidaymakers on the beach, and could make clay pots out of it. It was not the gods who burned the pots, but the people. And do people sometimes move the masses of the earth from their place, or is it God's work?

With each hour, the clouds outside the window of Rimma darkened and more and more rallied above the ground, reducing the flow of sunlight. The cool weather continued even in the heavenly places on the coast of the sea, and what can we say about the weather in Cranberry Land?

The chief, Andrei Georgievich, didn't get a clever idea out of his head: to supply a spacecraft with solar batteries. For its implementation it is necessary to change the contour of the space object, the batteries must be installed on the skin of the ship, they must be stationary.

Solar panels are not butterfly wings, they are embedded planes, and they are made of light transmitting material.

If you fly to Sirius - 3, then the solar panels are what you need. Alex began developing a space flight to Sirius-3. He decided that paradise should be explored during his lifetime.

Church areas of society, it was decided not to disturb, but the social areas of a large country supported the idea of flying.

Astronomers did not promise easy flight, they only assumed the presence of the absurd planet Sirius - 3. If there is a star Sirius - 1, then there must be the planet Sirius - 3. Who is shining Sirius - 1? So let Sirius light-3.

The flight path could be planned very abstractly, the path to the constellation Sirius is known, and then it is necessary to fly around the constellation from Sirius-2 so as not to lose the landmark. There is an assumption that, having flown around this stellar object, one will be able to see Sirius - 3 the promised, or otherwise, paradise on earth.

To launch a spacecraft with solar batteries instead of fuel, a separate space platform was created. For takeoff from the Earth, it was decided to use conventional fuel.

After entering the space orbit, the first stage will have to leave the ship. Then the ship will fly solar-powered.

The team for the flight was selected from among those obsessed with similar ideas and the goal of finding the supposed paradise of the Earth. They also sponsored the program.

The spacecraft, made inside with comfort, was ready in a short time. Meals for the crew members used space, plus they added the ability to make regular food once a week from frozen convenience foods.

A television screen was installed in the common room with bolted chairs and sofas to create the earthly illusion of existence. In the unloading room, it was possible to twist and turn the simulators, while looking at the screen with earthly news.

Rimma did not particularly shine before the crew, only a few knew about her existence. As a general designer, the male designer was a pleasant appearance with an appearance that was difficult to remember because of the lack of special signs - Alex.

He officially led the search for an earthly paradise in the constellation Sirius. If necessary, the crew members spoke to him. They received answers to difficult questions with some delay, which was necessary for the imaginary and the present general designer to communicate. Or maybe there were other reasons.

The flight performed two tasks: the first was the use of solar batteries during the flight, the second was the search for the unknown planet Sirius-3. Both tasks are very problematic, for this reason the flight was not strongly advertised. For the curious, there was a simple answer: flying out of the solar system.

The crew included three people. A woman named Nadia. Two men. Engineer-researcher. And the commander of the ship Philip. The crew, tested for compatibility in real conditions.

It was important to pick people who can stay in one room for a long time and not interfere with each other.

Nadya was responsible for the food team, was a freelance nurse, grew greens.

The commander of the ship is a virtuoso, he understood all the systems of the ship, as they say with closed eyes.

Alex was in charge of all types of repairs. He could, if necessary, bring into operation all the instruments on board the ship. He was the navigator of the ship.

The launch of the ship was normal. The media was silent, since everything went well. Steps with fuel retreated in time. The ship went into open space, radio signals became weaker.

While the ship was flying around the Solar System, the team constantly sent messages to the command post. After passing through the solar system, the spacecraft hit a black hole, the main thing was to stay in the channel of the black hole and keep the ship on its course.

The spacecraft has emerged in the constellation Sirius. Sirius - 2 lights brightly and joyfully greeted the spacecraft from Earth.

The solar panels collected the energy of Sirius - 2, because they were so good in a black hole.

The vegetation on the ship has increased dramatically. The crew enjoyed eating fresh greens. The commander of the ship was looking for Sirius - 3. A small super-heavy star was discovered one day after it appeared in the constellation Sirius.

The ship flew around a small star and, to his irrepressible joy, he discovered the planet Sirius - 3, which glowed slightly.

The clouds gently enveloped the planet with a translucent shell. The attraction of Sirius - 3 was commensurate with the attraction on Earth. The ship roared happily with its motors. Two wings came out of it from two sides, and, like an ordinary plane, the interstellar ship landed on Sirius - 3.

The ship got up on a hard field. The crew looked out the window with curiosity. On all sides, the field was surrounded by gardens with bright green greenery. There were light shadows of little people in light tunics. They floated slightly in the air like elves. But not a single elf head turned in the direction of the ship arrived. The crew was worried, but not for long. They decided that the souls of people cannot see living people, that there is a kind of magnetic field surrounding the ship and making it invisible.

The devices showed the presence of air and a temperature of 27 degrees. It was possible to go out without spacesuits, but the commander suggested that there could be dangerous gases in the air and it would be better for everyone who would go out to wear light suits.

The terrestrial landscape lulled glances. The birds were singing, but they did not pay attention to people either.

Alex understood why earthly paradise is here because of the black hole that connects the solar system with the constellation Sirius and makes the path the shortest. The outer well-being of the planet Sirius - 3 is quite suitable for an earthly paradise.

The most interesting thing is that Alex did not want to leave the spacecraft. The solar panels were fully justified, they were again charged. Andrei Georgievich suggested the team return to Earth.

They fulfilled the task: they found paradise, the solar panels justified themselves. The team agreed with the commander and departed to planet Earth. For a good cause, their supreme authorities did not punish, and they returned safely to Earth.

The chef was pleased to see the return of the spacecraft with its version of the solar panels. And Rimma, the inventor of this flight, recovered. She had a strange thought that the cosmic black hole has to do with the black ball of life. But you will not take her into your hand. Rima came to the conclusion that her deceased parents are on Sirius - 3. And her drawings, which she drew on the drawing board, are her paintings. Who paints with oil paintings, and Rimma drew drawings with graphite slate, then there were no computers ...


'And after separation, life continued, albeit to the melody from the old movie. Peeked views, complete silence and financial independence from each other. The feeling of losing something close and dear gradually passed. Sometimes there were moments when I wanted to turn the history of my personal life backwards, but people, it turns out, are like rivers: they cannot turn back, and they want to turn, but less and less often, 'thought Rimma.

Schepkin went to the office, looked at Rimma and went out. 'And let there be other people who are still talking to me and laughing like sunshine. And Alex is like spent fuel,' thought Rima and put a bag of tea in a mug. She brewed tea with boiling water from a kettle and buried herself in a computer monitor. She worked until she remembered the tea. Instead of sweet tea, she had bran bran with cranberries, giving a feeling of satiety. Having washed down something with tea, she returned to the computer, pleased with herself and in complete hope that she had interrupted her appetite. The fan standing next to her monotonously sang his song.

A white helicopter appeared in the vast spring sky, he planned outside the window, drawing a heart in the sky out of clouds of smoke. It seems that the pilot was explaining to someone in love. No, Rimma had no such lyrical acquaintances! She looked at the heart, which the wind quickly dispelled across the sky, and in her soul she had a pleasant sensation of touching another's love. "People love," thought Rima and continued to work. The stomach demanded normal food, its labor impulse was hampered by petty and vile hunger. It turns out that such a small happiness, as a feeling of satiety, became inaccessible to her.

In the sky again there was a restructuring. In front of the windows hung a poster on which one word was written: "Rimma". Rimma could not stand the curiosity that arose and went to the window. The poster hung under the same helicopter. Green melancholy seized all her being and sucked under the spoon. "What does this helicopter need from me?" - sounded a sad thought in my head. The helicopter made a noise by a propeller and flew away, the poster disappeared in it, as if it never existed.

Rimma looked at her watch: dinner time inexorably approached, she coped with the work, but could not agree with the hunger.

Heels ran along the corridor. She stopped and felt that they had taken her by the elbow.

- Rimma, hello! - Said a beautiful male voice. - Did you like the show from the helicopter?

Rimma turned sharply, in front of her stood Shchepkin.

- Shchepkin, are you here again ?!

- And where am I without you, Rimma? I know that your beloved Schepkin left.

- We knew little each other!

- And beautiful! Stop making love in the place where you have never had it! We continue the conversation during lunch.

- But I do not want to sit in the same cafe with Thor!

- You give out yourself! And we will fly away to another place with you. The helicopter is waiting for us in the parking lot. This is my personal helicopter, you can say, my favorite form of transport!

'Cool and scary, but I agree,' said Rimma in a resolute voice.

The elevator lowered the pair to the floor just below the first. They went out the side door and found themselves on the helipad. Flight at lunch Rimma has not yet passed. Schepkin again took her by the elbow, and she was in the cockpit of a helicopter.

They were alone.

Schepkin confidently took the helm of the heavenly bird in his hands, he spoke to the dispatcher, and they took off. Rimma's fear was much less curious. The helicopter flew out of the city, flew over the fields and forests, flew up to the village of brand new houses. Each house was like a miniature palace.

The helicopter descended on the platform, located almost next to the house.

- Rimma, this is our new country residence, here we will have lunch, and you will get acquainted with your new housing.

- I do not want to live in the village!

'But this is a rich village, everything is here!'

- I'm afraid to live in such a house.

- Do not worry, I'll be with you.

'I don't want to be a cleaning robot for this three-story house!'

- There is a woman who comes, cleans and leaves.

'I'll think about it,' said Rimma from the hopelessness of the situation.

Rimma came out of the helicopter, looked at the valley from the fields and bushes. The house stood on a small hill, the view from the house to the open spaces was simply amazing.

- And how will I get to work?

- And who said that you will work as my wife?

- Shchepkin, I, it turns out, I know little!

- Rimma, I was joking, go into the house.

Rimma stepped over the threshold. The room shone with yellow light and color. The brightness was such that she remembered the sunglasses, which even after the winter did not reach. Suddenly, it was suddenly dark, blinds appeared on the windows. She looked around and calmed down, the table with food stood two meters away from her. Next to the table were two chairs, everything else was sinking in a strange twilight.

Rimma was again taken under the elbow and brought to the table.

'Sit down at the table,' a melodious voice sounded.

"Is he not a robot?" - flashed in her head.

- I'm not a robot, you wanted to ask?

Rimma was creepy.

- Do not worry, eat.

- And you?

- I do not eat this.

- And I'm eating! - and she picked up the spoon, but the spoon came across the glass. - So this is a dummy?

The question rang in silence, there was no one around. Rima took a fork, but instead of potatoes and goulash on plates, there was another dummy, in the twilight it seemed that everything on the table was almost edible. She took the mug, but she was part of the table.

The darkness was thickening. Silence rang. Life is not happy. Light appeared overhead. She threw back her head. The hatch slowly moved in the ceiling. A rope ladder descended into a round hole. I heard the roar of a helicopter. She got up and climbed the stairs up, into another suspense.

'Hello, love,' came the pleasant voice.

- I want to eat!

- And who chewed the pills against the appetite?

- Do you know that?

- Let's fly. I will deliver your lunch to your workplace. Lunch time is coming to an end.

- But I have not eaten!

- About this later.

Schepkin delivered Rimma on time to the office. She sat down at her workplace. Through the window I saw a helicopter, but now he did not surprise her. She madly wanted meat. She could smell him. On the table, she noticed a box in which her lunch lay. She took a disposable fork, the meat turned out to be real.

Shchepkin glanced into the room, seeing Rimma on the spot, closed the door behind him. Yes, she works mainly at the computer, for some time they worked in the same building.

In the evening, at the exit from the company, Shchepkin was waiting for Rimma. She noticed him immediately. He took her by the elbow and led her to the car. The car was white and pearl at the same time. They drove up to the white tower, the elevator delivered them to the top floor. From hunger Rimma now did not suffer, apparently, affected the meat. Now she did not care what models he had prepared for dinner. Rimma followed the man like a thread, the needle's needle was pulled in.

The apartment occupied the entire top floor of the tower. Rimma walked around the perimeter, going from room to room, everywhere was white and all the pearl shades. She looked out the window of the room and suddenly swayed with fear. It seemed to the woman that the tower was swinging. She lowered her eyes.

Paul walked. Rimma fell, trying to cling to something with her hand, but all the hard objects eluded her. She looked up and met Shchepkin's icy gaze at the threshold of the room. She felt ashamed that she did not understand anything, but she could not get up from the floor!

Rimma sat up and unwittingly realized that she was sitting on a water mattress. It was a bedroom in which the bed occupied all the space. In different places lay colorful pillows and rolled blankets.

- Like? - icy voice asked Shchepkin.

'I don't know,' Rima barely said, and went to the exit.

He grabbed her by the elbow. She rose, leaving a huge bed. His hand was so cold that she felt uneasy. Her chills struck. They approached the spiral staircase that led to the hatch in the ceiling. She was not surprised at anything. From the hatch they came to the roof of the tower, here a familiar helicopter was already standing!

Rimma regretted not using recording devices. She did not know that he had a holiday in his soul that required an exit. However, the chief stood so that he was not visible from the window.

After all, in the Warm Country at that time people were dying, who in the subconscious had no sense of danger, they went out with their bare hands on self-propelled guns of all types, on armed people, stood where everything was shot through. Amazing people without a sense of danger.


This is all so, now another question arises, what can you earn? The answer is simple: nothing. What has Rimma appeared over the years? The clothes, as well as those for decades, knitted, in order to go to work in something, but after they injured her hand ten years ago, she stopped knitting completely. Clothing is the simplest. Furniture for thirty-five years changed. She has no dachas and cars, and there is no time for that. She does not drink, does not smoke, does not walk. He works at work, at home, in his computer for the eighth year - and his pockets, as always, are empty. Does not ring.

And now, wisely on TV, they noticed that there are no designers and workers, there are accountants, lawyers, taxi drivers. The younger generation generally called Rimma a workhorse, they say, only they can work in unpaid work for thirty-five years.

Houses grow around, but she does not move in them. Who is she? Yes, no one! Not a single publisher publishes. No designer will publish, and show on TV. And the cosmos stalled, and in fact he could not do without it, and the World, and ...

Where are the men? Oh, it is simple and difficult, and is a secret that is almost revealed and not disclosed in this novel. For many years of sexual life, much water has flowed under the bridge, many lives have left this world; Rimma's men went to another world, of course, not all, but some left the best world.

In the old days, she went to a great university to listen to lectures on auto-training. She had very different knowledge of energy transfer. Currently, with wise and expensive medicines, it rejuvenates the body, but old age must be given to someone.

The fact that a man is an eternal pawn will be learned when you try to approach the king of a given locality. Who is the king? A man surrounded by official guard. Why go to him? In theory, the king should be aware of the great successes of his pieces; he must know - maybe he should, but he doesn't have to see the pieces at all. Figures they are also proud.

And numerous guards should take care of the tranquility of their king. All this can be said one thing: not really wanted, or not needed, it means. Or again: the king is a temporary phenomenon chosen by the people. Chose - enjoy the refusal of the visit, next time you will not choose.

And the weather ... almost sunny, slightly frosty, somewhat cloudy. And the hairstyle is normal. Game over? Yes and no. Where did the horse go? I was frightened of the king and did not appear in the eyes of the boat. And the elephant? Oh, this figure sometimes loves the rook. And thats nice.


Chapter 18

The piercingly cold sky opened the soul to the cosmos. Breathing enjoyed the cleanliness of the air, and his hands clenched from the cold into four figures, each with three fingers. But there are only ten fingers, and there are four figures. Hidden in their pockets, they reliably guarded Rimma from the flow of other people's thoughts.

Alien thoughts, let her in pursuit, fed up to disgrace. She felt emptiness in the soul from a conversation with her boss, who constantly kept in the mouth the fish of his skills and operated on them as he pleased. Raising over a fish flag covered with scales of knowledge, he rushed at her with another stupidity, covered with his own power.

I'm tired. Rimma was so sick of her that she bit out four figures in the depths of her pockets with bitterness. She walked resolutely. She wanted to forget her humiliation caused by the need to obey the boss. A figure loomed ahead of her that she had known for so long that remembering how much would be wrong.

The man was dressed in all the good things from all that is sold in this world. The quality of each clothes and items just squeals about their high prices. She was in her trellised coat and could not approach him. He recognized her with all the fibers of his being. He felt her through all the goodness of his clothes. But they never met eyes.

Oh, it is a great art to go near, to sit together in the same transport and not to look at each other. Figures from the fingers in his pocket fell apart. Rima clutched at her bag and looked out the window, feeling a good look on herself. No, they were never close even close. They were always from each other infinitely far. But if the sleeve of her coat touched his sleeve, then a short circuit would undoubtedly occur.

They are experts in their field and will never allow them to come closer to each other so closely. He first left the transport. And she felt good. Rimma did not watch the man get off the bus, but by his presence he made her forget the cheers of the chief. What was the name of a man in good things? Schepkin.

Despair has always forced Rimma to pick up the phone. Now, when everyone goes to mobile phones, it is difficult to understand the habit of drawing a hand to a landline phone. Many already refuse him, not feeling the urgent need for it. A mobile phone always connects with the owner of the phone, and a home or corporate phone can connect with anyone.

In the event that Rimma was keen to speak out, she automatically dialed the same number. At that end, the beeps were heard, but lately this connection seemed outdated and immensely expensive, and her call sometimes rang in the void, or someone who called didn't go to him.

They worked together: Rimma, Olga and Shchepkin. They sat in the same room next to each other. There were no computers at that time, but there were boards with rulers at right angles to each other. White paper was attached to the boards with buttons and drew with simple pencils, sometimes using compasses, which spoiled the board no worse than buttons.

Schepkin and then already walked in high-quality things and very much courted them, as well as one young woman. Was she beautiful? She was solid. In Rimma, their relationship evoked a light ghost of jealousy, which until now was between them. Why does she remember him and mention? Increasingly, Shchepkin began to fall on her way. What for? Life drives and breeds people. Rimma and Schepkina were divorced by Olga when they were young and the boards were replaced by computers.

Olga wore a dress with bright sunflowers. Her head was decorated with a braid, which she braided, twisted and twisted on the back of her head. Her chest breathed among the sunflowers, the upper part of her chest peeking out of yellow flowers and attracted the attention of men.

Schepkin - a man, but then he was young and handsome. Sunflowers bloomed next to him, through which it was difficult to spot Rimma in gray or blue clothes. Rima at that time often cried with fatigue or resentment. At home she had her first husband, who took away all her feminine energy. Could she look at Schepkina? Probably not. And he is not.

Schepkin saw Rimma's tears, but never comforted her. Olga did not reassure her, she attacked her verbally and led some kind of dominant skirmish. Olga liked Shchepkin. To get close to him, she approached Rimma.

Olga began to come to Rimma's house under any pretext, she invented a deed and remained with her without her, but alone with Shchepkina. Shchepkin told Rimma that Olga was drawn to him, but he did not like her figure, not his format.

Olga Shchepkina coldness did not stop. She began to make friends with Rimma, calm, tune and reconfigure. And, of course, she went to their house when she wanted.

Shchepkin spoke with Olga if they overlapped in work, which was quite rare. Shchepkina Rimma saw with his new lady. Rimma did not interrupt communication with Olga, she began to invite her to her home, but not alone, but with Shchepkin for all kinds of holidays. After such holidays, Rimma felt that she was deceived.

Office windows are covered with drops of moisture, like Rimma's stomach - drops of champagne. Her head is empty, like on her page on the Internet.


For some time, people stopped climbing through the mountains because of safety, and space stations were considered as mountains, encircling the Earth from all sides, which were so close to their orbits that they didn't even require a correction in height. Rich earthlings, except cottages on Earth, had their own space complexes.

The oceans were fully explored, like their own baths and pools. Settlements have grown in the shallow ocean depths. No, they were not located under water, they towered above the water. New islands in the ocean did not cause surprise, their supporting structures were thoroughly developed and were not afraid of storms and earthquakes. Earthlings have long ceased to be divided into nationalities and races, there was one kind of people - earthlings, because space flights expanded the views of mankind on the structure of the universe.

A large number of land, underground, water and air transport allowed to populate all remote parts of the Earth. The population grew insignificantly, but the demands of earthlings increased significantly, they no longer liked the old skyscrapers, they needed the expanse of the whole earth.

Thanks to transportation, people got to work quickly enough; besides this, they could work at home, maintaining communication through a computer. That is, earthlings were employed at any point on Earth without changing their place of residence.

All this was equally relevant to Rimma, she had the opportunity to go to work in the office or work at home, everything depended on the task, but they could get her anywhere and check her office performance.

The snow has gone, there are small islands pressed with mud. Green grass slowly makes its way through dry grass, it grows much faster where dry grass was gathered with a rake, making way for a new grass. On the edge of the road are white balls of the substance that was used in the winter to melt snow. The snow has melted, and white balls - pebbles lie along the road and in the grass, which is under no hurry to grow under them.

Spring is a week before May. And who says it's warmer? While the weather is April, just snowing whirlwinds of late snowfall have receded. So people fight where it's warm, where the sun is hot and the sea is cool. And here, for seven months, winter and its echoes, and three days a year of rare heat. It happens more, but not always.

Sometimes you want to go where it's warm, but the desire quickly passes after you get acquainted with the prices of tickets, accommodation, meals. You can see what are the resorts, and calm down without a vacation at all. At a time when people make armored cars on the basis of decent cars, it goes without cars. Yes, there are such mental works that give modest incomes from year to year, from decade to decade.

Fine.

What is the job? We must constantly do what is not yet. Develop, invent, draw, bring to the industrial design and again come up with a new one. There are inventions, but there is a work consisting of all inventions, while it is not considered to be an invention, just design work.

Somehow, while seeing overseas countries exclusively on the screen.

What can? Go to the gyms and pools, which are close, which can be pulled physically and financially. At home, usually people in this circle do not have housekeepers, people do everything themselves. Modesty and hard work save from moral decline.

The sky is covered with gray veil. So life is covered with a veil of cares and responsibilities to all who are near, who are close and not very, far in moral terms.

Sometimes the development does not go into the product, and sometimes fly into production with wind speed and computer equipment. Reissina, kulman, computer.

Arithmometer, slide rule, calculator, computer. Pencil, ruler, square, graph paper, computer. Paper directories went to the network, to the computer. Wonderful. The man has become multifunctional.

Once - and flew two weeks, while spring was waiting, summer came. Heat. It is light. Green Is it boring Rather, no, just in my head is empty after the end of the next stage of work. Thoughts have not yet found a new refuge.

Rimma's personal life became righteous. The time of the first computers in the life of the designer has come. Kuhlman is gone. Rimma has a new environment, new employees, new problems.

Old friends have changed positions.

Schepkin became the director of a new company, he found Rimma and returned her to his company. Lisa was ready for a new round of knowledge, to work. She was waiting for the development of new electronic components for railway transport.

Powerful computer - the main assistant. Yes, for ten years, there was a transition from notebooks to a computer. Many perceived such a transition painfully, ten-year habits were difficult to heal. Drawn to the native and beloved pencil and pen. Rimma was simply transferred to a computer: she was invited to a company, she was given the latest computer and position. The first days had to work the old fashioned way and lead product development. Then a few days to read books on working with computers. Then throw everything for a month and work on current problems. And a month later a simple miracle happened, Rimma sat down at the computer and began to work. Everything worked out. She had time everywhere. Such is life.

A new security officer came to work. His divine figure was a magnificent decoration of the company's team. Wide shoulders, smooth torso, hair for the hair, which is very pleased women of the company. They constantly squinted at him. The second antichrist in the company was a manager with a sunny name. Both of them were among the first to be taken to a firm when it was organized.

The safe stood in a niche of a dark wooden wall, where at first a huge pile of green money was constantly lying. A lot of things had to be acquired for cash, the company had technical developments, but there was no furniture, computers, components for products.

Sunny manager Alex constantly talked about his tourist trains in selected countries and on a trip almost around the world. He was entrusted with the purchase of materials for the office of the company. Materials were purchased for huge money and in greater quantities than needed.

The office was re-planned on the basis of the former laboratories, rental payment has become very high. New future walls were installed, but they were never closed with the purchased material, and the ragged floors were not covered, but money through the solar manager constantly disappeared for materials and for payment to workers who allegedly built the office. The company rented another room in which she worked on her products.

The company met the New Year on a large scale: music, wines, juices, snacks, some great main courses in the restaurant. The staff came with their families. Director from the pocket of the company all paid extra.

You understand that the guard was the best man for dancing. They danced so that the floor began to fall in places. The floorboards sagged. The emergency place was furnished with chairs, but the people danced at the expense of the company for a long time and convincingly. Money in the safe declined after meeting the New Year. The director fired a couple of people.

It was the twenty-third of February. The holiday was staged on its territory, in the photo people stand in two rows, the tables are bent from eating and drinking. After the holiday, two people were fired. The guard thought that the safe would soon become empty, and decided to take part of its reserves. He sat in the same room with the director. Once the director left, and the safe did not close. The guard took the money from the safe, but not all, so that it was not immediately noticeable. The director returned, the safe closed, did not notice the theft.

It was the eighth of March. We celebrated this day at the company: with noise, with dances, with expenses. After the holiday, the director realized that there was very little money in the safe and cut three women at once. The guard quit on the sly himself and went to another job; no one suspected him of the theft.

The director was very upset by financial expenses, the rent of the unfinished office ate up all the profits.

Somehow, the director of the premises where his staff worked was held and ordered all new furniture to be assembled and disassembled: computer chairs, tables, and wardrobes. New furniture was sold and old furniture was brought in, chairs and computers were only new, but the rent was paid for the room in which the solar manager was in charge.

Manager Alex has collected a tourist trip.

The director sold his car and paid the rent. Incomplete repair hung in the air. Nearby another company went bankrupt. The two companies have merged, work and customers came to the rescue. The director was freed from the rent of the premises, he just handed them over, and the purchased materials for the repair had faded into obscurity. But that's not all.

The director recruited many young employees, one of whom began to show attention to Rimma. And she watched the program on ultrasound. It turns out that the ultrasound is found with the internal organs of the person, and the whole picture is reflected on the screen. Ultrasound determines the fatigue of the metal and welds. Great, no fiction, everything is real. Another would be to ultrasound human relations, and everything would be fine.

Problems with problems, but most of all, Rimma was depressed by the state of the impasse from which she emerged, changing her place of work. Work was becoming more difficult, people who worked with me changed. And now she has a dead end. The work accumulated before her arrival was usually quickly exhausted, and then she invented it.

Alex, being on the coast, and met with another Nadia. A young woman found out from Alex that he was as innocent as a baby. With a laugh, she suggested he rent the most expensive hotel room for one night. He did not mind. Considering in his mind, he took a room for a day. He was worth it! .. When Alex saw the familiar ruby in the closet patterns, he realized that he had given a fortune for it, and whined like a wounded beast.

The cobbler bought his boots, but he didn't say anything to Nadia. And she said she would come to him for a couple of hours in the evening. Alex turned over in his heart: in two hours, give so much money! Take off for a day! He pulled himself together and ordered a romantic dinner in the room for which he would eat a fortnight!

Alex shaved, got a haircut at a local barber shop and realized that in the morning he had to get his feet out of the hotel while he had money for the journey. Then he decided that this would be his love debut, and he was worth the money!

Nadia appeared at nine o'clock in the evening in a black and white dress, in black and white stiletto sandals. She had nothing in her hands. Her hair was arranged in long spirals and seized from above with a black and white barrette.

- This is the number! Great! Though I will see what people pay money for!

She sat down on a chair, stretched her legs, the lower part of the dress fell down, the upper remained in the center of the legs, and her legs appeared in front of Alex in all their glory.

'Fine, boy, but my two hours will cost you ...'

Alex was ready to hold his ears so as not to hear the new monetary figure, but he heard it. A thought appeared in my head: to collect the remnants of money, to give this omnivorous woman and never see her again! But no, he decided to say goodbye to childhood today, so he took out the money and gave it to Nadya.

Dinner was already on the table in the dining room: champagne in a silver bucket, the second on plates under caps, fruit in a multi-tiered vase. Alex Nadia did not want to, he did not want anything, he had lost all desires, he was not used to spending a lot of money, he considered financial losses and did not look at a beautiful woman. Nadia opened the window, looked out into the street and began to look at the sea.

And Alex had a desire to throw her away, never to see this greedy, by his standards, creation. There was no love in his soul, but there was a universal indignation from her impassable poverty, one might say poverty, she correctly identified him when she met him.

He looked at the cupboard and smiled at the cupboard - and ... nothing happened, the cupboard became rich, respectable and did not want to joke. Alex looked at his watch, but they proudly moved the hands and did not react to Alex.

'Nadia, sit down at the table,' Alex squeezed Alex out of his first courtesy.

She sat down at the table, lifted the metal cap from the plate and began to sort out the cutlery slowly. He opened clumsily with champagne, poured it into wine glasses. She refused to drink:

- Sorry, but I do not drink champagne.

He was angry with her again, while he was still mentally, and in one gulp drank his glass. She ate a grape and walked over to him, wrapped her arms around him from behind with both hands. He did not feel the joy of her touch through her anger and just ate and chewed. She kissed his cheek. He involuntarily twitched his whole body.

- What are you bothering me ?! - Alex shouted unexpectedly for himself and for her.

She pushed him away from her. He lay face down on the plate. She left the room, throwing money into the room over her shoulder. Bills soared and fell. He sighed with relief, collected the money, put it in his pocket, and decided never to come here again. He did not want to stay in the room, he already had his small number.

Alex went outside and went to the sea. He reached the cliff and began to look at the sea. An ordinary boat swam to the shore, an ordinary girl with a small fair hair tail sat in it. She dragged the boat onto the sand and walked over to Alex:

- Boy, what are you so boring, like a pinched? Look: stars, sea, rocks. - And she opened her arms to the whole world.

- Girl, and why are you in the evening and alone? Not scary?

- There's someone here? I do not see! You do not count. You are a hallucination of your own abyss! You are absent!

- Do not hurt! Here I am, all here. I am normal, you can touch it.

- Is it true? - she touched his arm. - You see, man! She rose on tiptoes and kissed his cheek.

- Do you have to kiss your cheek here? Girls come and kiss!

- You're so white and fluffy, and they kiss you like a toy.

- I am many years old. I'm an adult!

- Yes? And you can not say for you!

She shook her tail and went to the hotel.

He pulled away from the cliff and followed her. She stopped, jumped on one leg, said that a sharp stone pricked the sole. He began to look for a sharp stone that pricked her sole. She took advantage of the moment, climbed on his shoulders:

- If you are an adult, then take me to the hotel, I have a business there, - she firmly clutched her hands on his chin.

'Why are you women so arrogant ?!' He shouted. - How could I leave here soon!

She went to the bathroom. The sound of water lulled him, he closed his eyes, lying on a single bed. He fell asleep, but woke up because someone was turning on him.

- Oh, how awkward to sleep on you! - he heard a female voice.

He finally woke up, and his blond tail stroked his face. She lay on it. He jerked sharply to the side. She was beside him. He lay on his side and held her by the waist so that she did not fall, then he threw it closer to the wall through himself.

- I have a ball for you? What do you pass me? - asked a surprised voice.

- What are you brazen!

- I'm not impudent, but poor.

It began to reach him.

- Tsirkachka, my room was paid for the day, follow me. Can you penetrate into it unnoticed?

- No problem. The hotel staff do not see me, I am amused to them. You do not think, I am not like that, I work here, but in other words, I endure the garbage.

- Okay, let's go.

They came to the room. She immediately finished her drink and finished everything that was on the table. A huge bed stood in the center of the bedroom. He offered her to lie down on this bed, and said about himself that he would lie on the sofa.

She lay down on a luxurious rookery and fell asleep almost instantly. He stood and looked at her, then lay down on the sofa, without opening it, and fell asleep.

He awoke to fresh air. She stood at the open window and looked at the sea. He froze and slowly pulled the blanket over himself. She noticed his movement and lay on top of him.

He was not at all surprised. A sure kiss held together their temporary union. There was a knock at the door.

The voice of Nadi rang out:

- Alex, open the door, I'll go to you. You are not in your room, so you are here.

- What does she need here? - whispered a girl with a tail. - Say you're busy.

'I just won't answer her,' Alex whispered.

Nadia stood at the door and left.

- Here you are! You women dry up! - said the girl and threw the blanket to the floor, then pulled it to the rookery.

He went to bed with her. Balls flickered faintly on the back of the bed. He lay down. She began to spin around him like a top, then put her hair tail on his chest and became silent. He began to slowly stroke her hands, burrowing ever deeper under her clothes.

'I haven't had anyone yet,' the girl with the tail whispered.

'And I didn't have anyone,' Alex whispered.

They were the first to wake up at lunch. Alex had to go home. They went into a small room. He collected things. She kissed him on the cheek goodbye and said:

'Leave your address, otherwise the child will succeed, but his father will not find out about it.'

He importantly got his business card and gave it to the girl. She fluttered out of the room, then returned and said through the open door:

- My name is Raisa.

- And me, Alex.

She immediately closed the door on the other side. He heard her footsteps down the corridor, they soon calmed down.

Raisa worked at the worst place in the hotel: she was collecting garbage and carrying it out. And it was she who, after one night in this room, married a metropolitan guy, with whom she was the first woman.

The guy married her, they had a boy and a girl at the same time. Her family was very poor, and now she lives like a princess. This tale went from mouth to mouth, and people stood in line to live in a mystical amber interior, which brings such a rare success, even for a day.

In fact, unimportant things were taking shape at Raisa: she could not get through to Alex. He was not constantly at home, but he changed jobs. His business card is obsolete. For three months, the pregnancy developed in a hidden version, then it became such that nothing could hide the belly.

And Alex was silent. Raisa was at home not exactly scolded, but despised. Worse was another: financial resources in her house were not chronically, money was bypassed by her house. In the hotel where Alex lived, she found out his home address, for the last money bought a train ticket. Raisa came to his house to wait for him until she appeared.

Alex came late. On the bench at his entrance sat Raisa with a big belly. He hardly recognized her. Yes, and she recognized him only because she dug her eyes into every man entering the doorway. She did not know the code of the castle and could not pass into the porch. Alex brought her to his home. Raisa's time limit was serious, and her stomach was so huge that Alex was scared from the first minute.

Raice was a bit bad after the move. She immediately went to the sofa. Now I had to run Alex and take care of Raisa. He did not deny his participation in the formation of this giant belly. After work, he was now going home. She did not ask him about anything. It was - well, no - also good.

Alex and Raisa were forced to sign, because Raisa needed to be supervised by doctors, she even arrived with her medical card. She gave birth to Paradise closer to the summer of a large boy. Alex's entire temporary gloss flew off. The money went to the son and Raisa.

Alex has a son - for his ex-lady this factor became decisive. They no longer met on a personal front.


On the soul of Schepkin, a friend of Alex, pressed the old sin. Once he came to Alex, and he saw Raisa with his son in his house. Schepkin remembered Raisa as a calm young woman with no love past. Dull in appearance, clever in technical terms, she was her boyfriend for having a rest on the sea. Or seemed to everyone like that. She grew up on the very blue sea, where vacationers relaxed young local girls.


Chapter 19

Raisa was no exception. The lively, lively girl fell in love with a guest vacationer. The novel was short, but extremely dangerous for the schoolgirl. At the age of 15 she got into maternal problems, she escaped this fate after wild tears and three shots. After experiencing, she went to the mirror and tried to make herself an ugly girl. Raisa did everything so that men did not like her, but at the same time she forced herself to study well, as if in spite of fate.

After school, Raisa studied at a technical college among boys and did not allow herself not to be carried away by herself, as if she had a counterbalance to all love interests, and in the summer she worked in a hotel at the dirtiest job.

So Shchepkin was her first, and Alex was the last. She graduated from a technical college and gave birth to a son - and now she met her first man in the house of her last man. In the evening, at the new renovated kitchen, there were two men hounded by the past: Schepkin and Raisa. They seemed to see each other for the first time, but they met by chance.

- Shchepkin, what happened? Why did you do this to me?

- Raisa, I was a fool! I was afraid that you were not 18 years old, and left, I was afraid that you would sue me! I was hiding from myself and from you!

- You are clever!

- You think so?

'I always thought of you well.'

- I am a bad man!

- Do not engage in self-destruction, it is harmful.

- I will not, but I almost did not kill myself! Because of one failed love.

- And why? Rave Go to sleep.

- Raisa, you're right. And you know, you are very beautiful today!

- For once, he noticed me! And I live here for a long time, and before that I studied.

- Forgive me, but I did not see you in this city, of course, I know you, but I did not look closely at you, I was afraid to think about you.

- Yes, and I did not particularly remember you.

- Let's drink to meet you!

- Fine! Long acquaintances, and now let's drink to meet you! Let's drink! - Raisa said, took out a bottle of wine from the fridge and took the glasses off the shelf. - What to eat?

- Than god sent. I have a box of chocolates and a piece of cheese in a diplomat.

- It's good, but tomorrow I will prepare a banquet for three, if you don't mind.

- Prepare, if Alex is not indignant.

Two people were sitting in the kitchen - drinking wine. Alex was not at home. Schepkin extended his hand to Raisa, but she promptly removed his hand.

'Schepkin, a banquet tomorrow, and now go to sleep at home,' she said, and closed the door behind the guest.

Schepkin went home to sleep and fell asleep as he fell through.

The next day, Schepkin came to Raisa again. At the banquet, there were two people with a different conscience. Schepkin came to Raisa for a farewell, and for greater persuasiveness he left money for the baby. She took the money and went to the department store to see for herself a new magnet for men - what she would say, she was not aware yet.

A number of mirror stalls with cosmetics attracted her, she glanced at the cosmetics, reached the last counter - here the prices were significantly lower than on the first. Raisa took a complete set of cosmetics for the face, for the nails, calmed down a bit.

There were relatively few people in the big trading hall, people preferred to go to the market, but on a winter evening there is one way - a store, warm, lighted.

Handbags, boots, suits ...

Raisa looked at everything that was there, but her clothes were expensive for her. Her gaze fell to the entrance to the basement floor of a department store. She descended the new marble steps. A huge hall of extraordinary beauty shone before her eyes. On expensive tables stood expensive dishes, from empty dishes they ate expensive, plump chairs. Raisa as enchanted was inside the room.

Impressive wide beds attracted expensive bed linen to her, the prices for her were exorbitant. She turned toward the exit. Before her stood a plump man, casually dressed.

The man grinned, looking at the timid girl, and confidently picked up an expensive blanket. Raisa went quickly to the exit, but lingered at the window with washcloths, even they were unusually good and expensive here. She chose a toothbrush at a frantic price. A plump man with two well-packed bags confidently walked past her. Raisa has written a toothbrush. At this time at the cashier at the exit there was a hitch, there was a sharp cry, the tramp of feet.

She saw that the cashier, holding her head, fell at her desk at the cash register. A man with two packages ran down the marble stairs. A saleswoman from the hall ran up to the checkout, she pressed the alarm button. Raisa the saleswoman told her not to leave. The man ran away from the store. Raisa looked at the weapon of attack: it was a stand for some kind of screen. She had seen them before, such stands with a screen, stand in expensive stores, and for what, she did not know.

A group of policemen arrived, Raisa was interviewed as a witness, she remembered who was wearing civilian clothes and called himself Musin. Cute such a man. His business card lay in her palm, along with a check on the toothbrush. Raisa and Detective Musin met.

Musin always worked where there was work. Raisa became his temporary partner. According to her description, he made a portrait of a certain man, but he was not found without a trace, and the cashier recovered. The man hit her casually, not fatally.

Raisa and Alex were in the apartment, which was dominated by thickets of grassy plants. There were no flowering plants, but the whole space was entwined with green foliage.

- Wow! Cried Alex, surprised. - Is there a bed here?

- But you must? - Raisa grinned. - Here, except for me, nobody comes.

'Good,' Alex grinned, leaning over the ever-present foliage, trying to get around the apartment. He found the rookery of a lonely woman, the dimensions of the beds were so small that they did not fit Alex along or across.

- Listen, how do you sleep on this? You can only sit here! - Alex was indignant.

'Buy it,' Raisa said meekly, leaving for the rescue kitchen.

Alex wanted to go after the woman to the kitchen, but he got entangled in Rimma, entangling all the space under the ceiling.

- Raisa, people stretch ceilings, and you have herbal! Can I cut the foliage? Impossible to pass!

He sat on the floor, but unsuccessfully - on the floor was a pallet with small cacti.

A wild roar echoed through the apartment.

Raisa turned on the fan, and all the cluster of plants began to move and move.

'I understand your plants are your guards!' - shouted Alex, taking off his jeans with needles from small cacti.

'Fine, you understand, you can go home after you put on the jeans.'

And what will remain for Schepkina? He came to visit them.

- Alex, you have a talent! Give money to Raisa. Hire a nanny and try to find something else, you know what.

- I need to rest, sit with my son, then I will go. I got used to my pet.

Snowdrop blossomed. Leaves appeared. December 24th. Great! The sky is constantly changing color, while there is no frost, and sometimes the rain is drizzling. Wind stubbornly drives clouds and clouds.

New Year's holiday at work abolished. Employees lead a quiet existence. Work and talk.

The story of Nikolai Nikitich:

- It was a long time ago. Three guys of 17 years old went to the forest, cut down three trees and went home.

A guard was sitting at the culture house:

- Guys, you have a bottle, otherwise I will lay you down.

The guys took the Christmas tree home and returned ... They killed the watchman because they did not have a bottle. He floated into the hole in which the linen was rinsed. The mother of one guy took the jacket to dry cleaning with traces of blood. Guys planted for ten years. So much for the tree.

His second story:

- I went on business. Two familiar guys were going to meet. They began to bully. I told them that they should not attack me, if I could, I could take a walk with them. They replied that they were going to work, if I wanted to go with them, I had to drop the hat in their direction from the passerby, where I would see a good hat, and run. I did not participate in their case and immediately ran away. Many years later I saw them. One became a normal person, and the second turned into a bum. And I go to a good hat.

Frozen. The sun is shining. No snow. December 28th. At the weekend the house was a general cleaning. Great! I've seen enough of Anfisa adventures of the Flying Lady on television, which watches the cleanliness in various places of public catering and arranged a house emergency. All raised and forced to wash and clean the apartment. Fine.

Another story by Nikolai Nikitich:

- It was a collective farm. I worked in the kitchen, all the leftover food I gave to one man who kept pigs. One day we drank a bottle of country vodka for two, and as a reward for food for pigs, their owner allowed me to ride a pig. We both saddled the pigs and rushed around the yard with a whoop until his wife stopped us.


Raisa changed the buses to the air trams, which could not get out of their way, they practically floated in the air along narrow rails made of fifth-generation material. Previously, these roads were used for climbing in the mountains, while the cabin could easily hang. Air trams had an individual delivery system, rather than a simple motor for scrolling translucent ropes.

Raisa sat in the second car of the tram and looked at the city sailing outside the window. She got used to such flights, to smooth movement, to silent operation of engines. At the moment she was driving - she flew to the store where they were selling salmon, trout, shrimps and caviar from the manufacturer. At home there was a glorious party called "Fish Day or Return".

Quite unexpectedly, two flying discs appeared and fired ropes behind the tram. Raisa only now realized why the ropes were made transparent so that nobody would spoil them. She saw the bullets fly away from the obstacle, and felt the swaying of the tram.

Disks, shoot, flew away. The swaying stopped. The ropes passed a stream of reducing material. Raisa did not fly further, but got out of the tram at the first stop and heard the lively voices of people. It turns out that some guy tried to hang on the hands of invisible ropes, and his boyfriend was shooting him on camera. The guy was removed from the ropes.

She came home nervous and without fish delicacies. The fact is that recently she again lived with her former man Alex, and as a sign of reconciliation she wanted to buy fish specialties, but everything went wrong.

Soon the air of Alex's apartment was shaken by her curse of almost one word. This universal word, transmitted by inheritance in the family of Raisa, pursued Alex in the event that he was doing a good deed.

Alex did a terrible thing: he did redecorating the room during the absence of Raisa. She did not appreciate his repair and shouted this terrible word. Where to go to the young peasant, if he is thrown out of the house for the magnificent repair, which he did himself? He lay in a layer, offended by the unjust accusations that still came from behind the closed kitchen door.

So he fell asleep.

Alex woke up at night in complete silence, a strip of light could be seen under the door, this strip prevented him from falling asleep. The condition of the offended person required rehabilitation. He thought that if he had a capsule with poison at that moment, he would certainly have eaten it. He closed a strip of light, and that was enough to continue sleeping.

The sun was shining.

Curly, reddish trees were visible from all sides. Alex walked past grass covered with frost, looked at passing cars, and did not think at all about repairing and punishing him. It was necessary to undertake something, but he knew that he had no way out. He cannot get rid of her, that is, of Raisa. Once upon a time it was the other way around. Now he has nothing, she has everything.

There were short periods of time when Raisa behaved adequately and life seemed beautiful because she cooked great. What she hated was changes in her environment. He renewed her kitchen!

She covered him with social abuse.

In the evening, Alex was to return home, which he did with great reluctance. Oddly enough, but Raisa was not at home. The apartment was empty, there was nothing from furniture, clothes, dishes. Bare walls with new wallpaper that he stuck on looked at him very harmlessly. Search, disappeared lady with furniture, he did not have the slightest desire.

Happiness seemed her absence.

He remembered the mezzanine, where he kept a sleeping bag, tent, inflatable boat. Camping gear turned out to be in place. Alex felt rich! In a backpack lay a pot, a cup, a spoon.

In the kitchen built-in cabinets there was cereal, there were frozen dumplings in the fridge. The life of a bachelor has come into its own. How it all ended well, but he wanted to end his life! It was necessary only to wait a bit, to pause the conversation ...

Unclouded life does not happen. If there are no clouds, then there is heat, cold, or something else unexpected. Raisa was offended. What kind of nonsense Alex stuck on the walls? What a variety of wallpapers! Horror! All friends will make fun of their appearance!

Nobody can be invited to visit, everyone will consider Alex's artwork. No, to buy wallpaper with one pattern and the required number of rolls and glue the walls evenly! But he did not. He bought three rolls with a pattern, one white roll and plain wallpaper in the color of the pattern. Then all this artistically pasted on the walls.

As soon as she saw his work on the walls, her entire nervous system immediately overflowed. Raisa with rage forgot all the words, except for one saint: damn it.

Now Raisa was sitting with a telephone receiver in her hands and complained about the life of her friend Anfisa among the renewed walls. Anfisa invited her to return home.

Raisa movers helped carry out the furniture that she earned for her life with Alex. She prepared him for nothing? Of course not. Living with Alex, Raisa had completely forgotten that she had a small apartment at home. From greed, she grabbed not only furniture, but also the dishes and her clothes.

She didn't think where to put all this in a small apartment. She laid all her malice on her mother's head. Sometimes she said the usual words, consisting of a set of claims of various kinds. Ultimately, she gave the dishes to the kitchen, and the furniture was revised, and the excess was handed over to the commissioner.

Unintelligibly, Raisa sat in the kitchen in her mother's apartment, and practically never left her. She was firmly convinced that the mother wallpaper in the kitchen will not perekleit.

Alex lay in a sleeping bag on the floor in the center of the room and inspected the walls.

It was he who changed the wallpaper in the kitchen, and in the room he had not yet begun to create. In his head began to be born ideas that were of a geometric nature in color. He invented how to artistically decorate the walls as long as he has no furniture.

The young man forgot the insults, he invented, and was happy. Having found a solution, he acquired materials for the continuation of repairs, which he did in the morning before work, or in the evening after work. He enjoyed what he did on the walls.

He was good.

Naturally, he often visited the store with the short name "Wallpapers". Behind the counter was a slim girl who understood him easily, and found those wallpapers that he asked for.

Needless to say, Alex and the girl from the Wallpaper store met at his home? She looked at the walls with curiosity, admired his work. He was glad to communicate on his favorite topic. They sat on a sleeping bag, and drank tea from aluminum, traveling mugs.

Raisa sat in another kitchen, looked out the window at the air trams flying in the air, and literally missed Alex. Without him, she was bored, to be honest, she had time to grow out of her mother, she was drawn into his gruff, strong arms.

She physically felt his absence, as if the earth had gone from under her feet, as if she was flying through the air in an air tram all the time, and could not reach the stop at the tower.

It happens monophonic, faceless sky of a gray shade, sometimes so bottomless days stretch. Outbreaks of feelings, like the light of the sun in a gray sky, are extremely rare. Alex, after having realized his intention to change the color scheme of the walls in the apartment, was sad about anything, or about whom. He was suddenly tired of playing with wallpaper, wanted to eat something tasty, with the heat - with the heat prepared by his only woman.

- "Who can compare with my Raisa", - he sang the unexpected for himself.

His call swirled around Raisa. She startled at the stove, began to cook, fry, hover, cut, pack food in an airtight container.

Forgetting about pride, she thought only of her hungry, single man. She picked up the baggage with food, and suddenly sank into a chair, as if thinking of something woeful, then smiled at her beloved, and left the apartment with food for her beloved person.

Alex was waiting for her. He physically felt that his favorite food was traveling to him, going, taking off in a high-speed elevator. He just walked to the door and opened it. Right, his Raisa walked to him from the elevator. He grabbed her heavy bag, pressed his cheek to her cheek, inhaling her smells of makeup and cooked food.

"The path to the heart of a man lies through his stomach" was tested by personal experience. Love after a good meal is sacred, even natural. The sleeping bag lay in the center of the room with magnificent walls decorated according to the designer's idea, who was fed to the last degree.

A sleeping bag has a good property - it will not hold together, it is dimensionless, since parts of the body that do not fit on its surface can easily touch the floor.

Raisa went to the door, looked into the peephole, saw something skinny and short. Opened the door. A thin woman stood before her. She was not even surprised, because she only remembered her with a thin word.

'Excuse me, is Alex home?' Said the gentle creature.

- Ira, why do you need it? - Raisa asked sternly, spewing flames of hatred from her eyes.

'I am not Ira, my name is Nadia,' said the young woman in the voice of a Snow Maiden from a fairy tale. 'Raisa, it was you who took the furniture out of Alex's room,' she said bravely.

- Not food, ears cuts! - Raisa was indignant. - And get out of here!

- Ugh! What are you angry! Is Alex sleeping on the floor? You can't do that to him! He's good, 'Alex's wife said, retreating to the elevator.

Alex got off the elevator. Seeing Nadia, he shouted:

- Nadia, went here again? I warned you that your feet were not at the door. I followed you, he said angrily.

Raisa, seeing that the danger in the face of the opponent is over. She slammed the door of the apartment. Left alone with Alex, she felt remorse. The furniture had to be returned, but there was nothing to return, it firmly stood on its other places. Nothing left to buy something new. Raisa walked through the apartment, glancing at the color scheme of the premises, and flew to the store with the short name "Cosiness" on her favorite air tram.

Who would be surprised, but she was not surprised when she discovered Nadia as a furniture seller. On it hung a sign with the name "Nadia." In Raisa's head, it came to mind that she correctly called Nadia a loner.

She has a flair for such things. I bought Raisa new furniture, looking at the samples in the store. While she was driving home, furniture was being brought to her from all sides of the manufacturer. They arrived at the house almost simultaneously. Alex woke to the noise. Uniformed workers brought new furniture to the house.


Chapter 20

Outside, yellow leaves flickered, so bright under the rays of the sun that they seemed implausible. The huge tent of maple leaves is growing more and more like men's hair. The first snow flakes circled above the ground. In the age of high speeds and information devices, it is best to feel the speed, rolling down from the usual mountain on a sleigh, on ice-boats. There was a girl on an ice-floe, and her cell phone easily fit in the pocket of sweatpants, to which the snow did not stick.

Shchepkin turned the whole inside out when Rima went for a massage to a massage therapist. She really had to solve the big problems of her big body. Rimma stayed at home - he is glad. Half an hour later, he lay down next to his wife modestly, then he found out where she had a pain, because she did not lie in vain, but once she was there, she was in pain somewhere. He got Schepkin out of the cabinet the right massage cream. Hands washed.

A man raised a woman's clothes, asked again: 'Didn't the masseuse touch this part of the body?' He calmed down that the part of the body that was in pain was under the triangular clothes. He turned the triangle into a strip and began to do the massage himself. Fingers stuck to the bone, he did the massage in good faith, all sweating, a drop of sweat appeared on the T-shirt.

So, let's continue the good life: in terms of improving computer technology, as you remember, Rima recently praised the flat screen of the monitor, now enjoyed the joy of communicating with the new system unit, which independently hisses under the left ear. Here is the first surprise: he eats letters when writing, although you can get used to everything. But the joy of dimming, all edits are unprofitable and destroy information. The only way to get out of this situation is to drop the sentence to a new line.

The bicycle trainer is on the right, it is painted in the same colors as the computer, but it requires physical exertion, and today Rita prefers to press black keys with white letters. She found a new button, the letters ceased to disappear. Good program.

Today is a duplicate day, once again Rimma needs to go to the solarium and sunbathe. When 30 seconds were left until the end of time, she wanted to escape from the cab, but she waited a little more, and the light turned off in the cab itself, which means that the body has its own timer. Shchepkin enjoyed his diseases and left the horizon for a temporary rest. Rimma is free. Schepkin sneezes. The bicycle trainer worked for five minutes and stopped with Rimma.

The clear sky peeped through the dark snow clouds, and she seemed to open the pieces of history, very popular among people. And then what? At work, no one noticed her historical absence, but she noticed the absence of one couple, as she was told, they went on a joint trip for a week.

Fine. And she was so far away, and there is no one to say about it, they will not understand, especially her friends, this has already been passed. Rimma looked at the staff in surprise at the mirror and felt that she was somewhat younger than her age, in which she worked with them before traveling.

Life did not continue very rapidly, but naturally. Rimma once again looked in the mirror and saw that she was still ten years younger: it is not clear, but true. Years flew from it, some sort of residual deformation from flying into the historical past affected. Her trousers suddenly became loose, her sweater was wide, the jacket seemed to look from someone else's shoulder.

Feet in boots remained in natural conditions. No one looked at Rimma, everyone was busy with their business, and she sat skinny and young in wide clothes and looked at the computer, now in the mirror.

Suddenly, a blue-eyed blond woman came up to her, well, very young, and so enthusiastically began to talk with her about work that she was somewhat taken aback. Everyone considered him an inventor. He spoke to her as a peer! Rimma blinked her eyelashes, not knowing what to do with his proposal to meet after work. She asked for a time out, she had to change into something appropriate for the occasion.

Schepkin once again lived with Rimma. His life twisted and twisted forces, sometimes pierced his chest. All attempts to pop out of the crowd are psychologically punished. For greater clarity, if you hang your photos in the bust size on the World Wide Web, you get the feeling that someone is piercing a heart area with a needle.

The pain appears piercing and there is one desire - to get to the Web, reset photos and personal pages decorated by them. And then try to relieve a heart attack. Therefore, popularity - the lot of units that can withstand the common love with the pain of hate units.

The dream of his life - to write a detective story, but he was too lazy to describe any process of investigation. Why lead, not novels? The novel is like a scythe: it consists of at least three strands of actors, and the story tells about one strand of actors, it is easier to follow the actions of people if they belong to the same strand.

Schepkin persistently went in for sports, worked, walks on foot, did homework and watched his appearance. Fantasy? No, it's his daily routine. Life is not so painful if you tack on it, as if on the way, they are maneuvering from melting streams. But frozen brooks do not frighten anyone.

What to write at his age, if the dark theme of personal love is almost gone on a well-deserved rest? But love has been preserved in others who scurry about, experience. Today it was very hard, but everything turned out to be much simpler, the atmospheric pressure was so low that the state was depressing, but not from resentment, but from atmospheric pressure. Hooray, it's nice to write on a new laptop, it does not make sounds when typing.

It is a pity that there is no friend for the soul. In response, hears the voice of readers, they say, what else do you need. It is necessary and pleasant to feel yourself even for a moment a normal man, who still likes Rimma.


Santa Claus with a flick of his fingers sketched out on the windows of small birds in huge quantities. From the frosty patterns emanated Christmas. The mood of the bus passengers slowly but surely froze to the windows. They unwittingly marked the winter fairy tale on the bus glasses with a glance. Without exception, but at different times, people looked at the scoreboard. On the electronic scoreboard, the number 7 with a minus sign ran on the LEDs.

Passengers sat taut with a mass of their own clothes, crouched, with collars of sweaters at their mouths. From them blew a cold more than from Santa Claus. Rimma ran out of the bus and dived into the stream of people walking in the open space accessible to the cosmic cold.

"What a frost," she thought, and saw on an electronic street display minus twenty-seven degrees. His gaze involuntarily dropped to his feet. In some places was visible asphalt, on which one could move without fear.

Next to the asphalt lay a strip of snow with glimpses of ice. 'It's better not to bully the nose in such places,' she thought, taking a quick step past the trees on one side and people on the other side. Street vendors migrated to the foyer of buildings with their Christmas merchandise. Christmas goods were clearly visible through the large glass.

In the evening, on TV showed the horrors of a provincial town.

Rima, lying on the couch, did not take her eyes off the screen. No, she was not dragged from horror. With a shudder, she realized that she knew the continuation of television history. Transfer left unfinished, calling it the first series. Moreover, she was able to complete the program herself, regardless of what will be shown next time.

With the heroes of provincial horror Rimma met recently. She needed to sharpen her own figure. Manual massage she was terribly needed before Christmas corporate evening. She let slip about it in the ladies' salon. And a miracle! She was heard. A middle-aged woman offered her services for a general massage. She said that she was doing massage from childhood, that her grandmother had taught massage.

Decreasing under the skillful and strong hands of the masseuse, a small lover of pies and buns was filled with stories from her life. Stories without crime did not make a special impression, except for one moment to which she didn't betray the values before the criminal TV program. The story is simple.

The masseuse, possessing higher medical education, decided to engage in the trading business. She took a huge loan, bought the goods and went bankrupt to pieces. Her duty for a provincial town was cosmic.

The son of a masseuse, Mishka, decided to leave to study in the capital, where the earnings according to provincial rumors were such that it would be easy to pay off the debt with them. The mother of the son of one did not let go to the capital, so they drove together with the father. For three rented an apartment on the outskirts of the city in a remote area. Worked in three, too, but all the money was taken by the mother of the family. Men, she gave money to travel in public transport and a couple of pies.

Bear, a young man of attractive appearance, liked his boss. She gave him huge sums of money for appearance and for life. But all his money at the root took the mother and gave out to two patties. The boss, paying the young man a lot of money, was waiting for a small investment from him in the right place at the right time.

But Mishka was constantly without money and could not pay for her coffee, he could hardly pay for his coffee.

He did not appease the lady, it did not fit his morals. So he was raised by his mother. He was fired from the monetary work for the sale of carpets of the unique work of skilled workers who woven gems into the carpets to match the pattern. And he rolled downhill from one job to another, and his mother took all the money from him.

Rima had a massage session for the evening, but after two stories, a television and a masseuse, came together in her head, she was afraid to go for a massage. She knew that the masseuse had repaid the loan with the help of her son and was able to return to her hometown, to her apartment located in the area where the series of murders occurred, which were talked about on TV.

Rimma did not go for a massage, but went to a sports club. Her road passed by a forest belt. In this place, she always quickened her pace, if there were no people around. She noticed a rolled-up carpet lying ten meters from the road in the forest belt. He looked like a big pie with a filling. She became scared. There were no people around. Behind the forest belt stood the house where the masseuse's family rented an apartment. She quickened her pace, then ran and fell without noticing the insidious fishing line stretched between the trees.

The guy quickly rolled Rimma into the carpet and dragged him to the second carpet patty. He stuck one carpet to another and walked away with a quick step.

The masseuse, seeing from her carpet that Rimma was lying next to her, and Mishka left, spoke:

'I don't know what happened to Mishka.' Furious. He no longer gives me money, he said that he would make a pie out of me. So he rolled us up like two cakes, for which I gave him money for a year. - Her voice hissed, nose snuffled. The sounds gradually disappeared into the carpet.

Rimma tried to free herself from the carpet. She began to spin and get out. Shrink and unclench. Movements were given with difficulty. She tried to roll along with the carpet closer to the road, then passers-by would have noticed her exactly. It was getting dark quickly. There were no passersby. It became cold. Rimma Ivanovna remembered that in the apartment of the masseuse there were two master carpets. She sneezed. Then rasshikhalas not in joke.

In a fit of despair, Rimma screamed in a wild voice:

-BUT! BUT! BUT!

Her voice was heard by the trainer, who was walking through the forest to the gym. He turned to two rolled carpets.

-Ale, are there any living? I see that there is. Hold on. I will promote you now. What are you heavy - the coach sentenced, rolling the carpet among the trees.

Rima felt freedom. She tore her hands off the sides, leaned on the snags and rose. The coach at this time spun the second carpet, from which the sounds were not heard. The carpet seemed much harder than with Rimma. He freed the woman from captivity, but she did not move. Rimma tried to talk to the masseuse. There was no answer.

The coach tried to catch the pulse with one hand. With his second hand, he took a cell out of his pocket. The pulse disappeared. He called an ambulance and began to make a direct heart massage to the masseuse. The coach tried to stir up the stiff woman and warm up before the car arrived.

The doctor arrived pretty quickly. The victim was taken away. Rimma went with a trainer to a sports complex, where you could work out on simulators and warm yourself in a sauna.

Mishka came to his mother in the hospital and took her home. Mother, he explained why he rolled it into the carpet. For the fact that she deprived him of money and freedom. He said that he would have freed them anyway in an hour, but did not take into account the cold snap and would linger a little in search of money at home in the absence of the mother.

Masseuse for a fault not seen. She considered it normal that men gave her earned money to the last penny. The resentment of the mother was so great that she left for her native provincial town, where a great apartment was waiting for her, which she did not even rent for the time of her life in the capital. Without debt and retirement, she could easily live.

Husband joined her a few days later. Bear did not return home.

Rimma did not take everything into account, for which the Bear rolled her into the carpet. She had her own version of the involvement of Mishka in serial murders in a provincial town and had time to tell the masseuse, and that Mishka. Mishka became angry and punished Rimma, who never saw the continuation of the program about the maniac, but it was clear that this was not Mishka.

Further events again moved to the TV screen. Bear, in order not to rent an apartment, was casting and got on the TV show "Hotel". From his first visit he declared himself as an active person.

Rima after a week could watch the master, who can make cakes of carpet. Bear immediately chose a beautiful girl in a pair. She turned out to be a sophisticatedly spoiled lady. She demanded money and gifts, while she sat like an idol. The girl constantly scolded Mishka, howled, bit, fought. She poured water and boiling water over him so that he would dress her from head to foot in new things. Such an unmodern girl turned out to be a true punishment for Mishka, who never had a broken penny for his soul thanks to a selfish mother.

Question: "Where to get the money?" knocking at his temples with new force. Somehow his girlfriend, having completely lost her conscience, screamed at him live with such force that he stopped thinking about money and began to think about revenge. Revenge is cheaper than money.

Bear had a powerful facial hair, for this reason he shaved the machine with a conventional blade. He looked thoughtfully at the blade. New Year's holidays were accompanied by feasts that were organized by different people on various occasions.

Mishka solved his problem simply. If his girlfriend humiliated him with her shrill voice, then her voice must be punished. He accidentally put the pan with meat in the oven under a glass lid. The lid fell apart. He regretted throwing out the meat. Spicy seasoning with meat and served on the plate to the girl. The result exceeded all expectations.

Small glasses damaged and vocal cords, throat, esophagus.

The girl went to the hospital in serious condition. The bear turned out to be a noble man, he was courting her. Everyone helped him. During this period of life, he did not need money, but they poured on him from all sides. Bear became heroes. Punish cooks ...

Rimma from the first minute, as soon as she learned about the problem with the girl's health, I understood that this was the work of Mishka. But who would have heard it. She remembered the coach who had saved her from the carpet, and thought that the sports club had already been opened after the holidays.

Rimma went to a sports club. Frost was strong. She pulled a sweater collar over her face, but at the same time she carefully looked at the road and waved her bag forward in case she would again pull the line. Coach hopes not justified. He was busy.

She was left alone with her thoughts and was very sorry that she had overlooked the first transfer of crimes in Mishka's hometown. Now it seemed to her even more that he was guilty of those crimes. I really wanted to talk to a masseuse, but she was not in the city.

In the evening, before going to bed, Rimma lay on her favorite couch and switched channels. The local news showed a portrait of her coach in a black frame. She shuddered. This is absolutely useless.

Mishka in the TV show "Hotel" did not show the last days. The host of the program said that he was caring for a sick girl in the hospital.

The frosts were fierce. The barometer showed 18 units. Rimma looked on the Internet of the clinic with anti-aging and other procedures. In one of them, she threw her data. She began to call and offer different courses of treatment. She came to the clinic and there she accidentally heard the news that it was here that the trainer carried out cleansing procedures for the blood, and he died of a heart attack.

Sharp changes in atmospheric pressure could not stand the cleaned blood.

Rimma refused the procedures, but noted that Mishka was not guilty of the death of the coach. She thought that the most correct thing in the cold was not to clean the body, but to fill it with meat, lard and bread. In cold weather it is necessary to eat a hearty meal so that the heart can more easily pump blood through the body. She felt uncomfortable with all the sorrowful thoughts, she wanted good news.

Constantly oppressed the idea of an unreasonable transfer from a provincial city. Wrapping the rug ruined her psyche. To blame Mishka for all sins, even mentally, she was afraid.

Rimma went to the ladies' salon. The first person she saw was a masseuse, who returned from her city and got a job again, after they began to show Mishka in the show Hotel. Rima immediately went to her for a massage, in order to find out the provincial secrets from the first mouth. She was not mistaken. The masseuse brought news from housemates. Neighbors told her about the serial killings in their area, the purpose of which was to rob. They themselves thought that the bear was guilty of the murders.

Santa Claus continued to freeze.


Chapter 21

Rimma went out into the cold from the ladies' salon and ran face to face with Mishka ...

'Why are you following me?' What have I done ?! No sooner had mother returned, and you are already here! Again, you roll up the carpet? Or so you give the money!? If you go to this salon, then you have money! Shouted a young man.

Rimma stepped aside and tried to escape. Bear put his foot. She fell into the snow. He pressed her foot to the snow, took her bag, took out his wallet and put it in his pocket.

But at that moment, a man twisted his arms.

Later, Rimma learned that Mishka was being followed, but there was no evidence against him. The police received information about carpets with a filling. Mishka was given the opportunity to go on a television project, everything is under control and under television cameras. No one noticed the blades on the plate, but they found a piece of the blade in the basket in the Bears room on the TV show. They followed him and took the cabin at the next attack on a woman.

As if sensing danger, a masseuse jumped out of the salon. She tried to wrest Mishka from the hands of the police, but her efforts were in vain. She did not know that Mishka, after talking to the police, began to work in her, but not quite in her. And next.

Winter holidays are over. Branded doors made of plastic double-glazed windows were warmly greeted by employees of the company who brought passes to electronic sensors located in the booths of the doormen and passed inside the premises. No fiction. Solid modernity. High-speed elevator. And Rimma entered her office.

The windows of the office were shining from the sun rays penetrating the room through amusing frosty patterns. She looked down through the patterns, the cars in the parking lot were clearly diminished, not all the cars were driven in such a cold. So Rimma used the services of buses with electronic conductors.

Not life - solid electronics.

Rimma lived in the most advanced city. What is an advanced city? Imagine a skier riding a classic course, bending your knees at ninety degrees, and an advanced skier bends one hundred and twenty degrees and his speed increases. So in the advanced city the speed of life is higher than in any other place of the country. Here and the Internet in every home appeared seven years earlier than in the whole country. In her city, the five-story building was demolished when, in other places, they proudly towered over the rest of the buildings.

In the evening the masseuse called and said:

- Bear released. He was checked for blood type, fingerprinted and told that he was free. For your empty wallet it was not left in the police.

Rima remembered that her wallet after the salon was exactly empty, in vain he took it from her.

-How does his girlfriend feel from the 'Hotel' project?

- It gets better. They will soon have a wedding.

-And the blade that she swallowed on New Year's Eve?

-Beddy Bear's Bride did not swallow. She has a sore throat.

'Bummer,' said Rimma. - And the fact that he rolled us into carpets does not consider a crime?

-It was suggested that Mishka pay us financial compensation for moral damage.

- No, I do not have to pay! - exclaimed Rimma, she knew for sure that Mishka had no money. Revenge is more precious than money.

One to one.


How easy it is to become a second oligarch, it is incomprehensible to the mind how easy it is to become the owner of a huge amount of real estate in the event that the main oligarch has a wife.

Mishka did not even imagine that he would become Mikhail Prokhorovich. He is a shabby young man, but infinitely loving children, became a nanny in a wealthy family.

The woman had three children, when Misha came to her to work as a tutor at her junior. Misha, the owner of three spans in the forehead and with huge shoulders, managed to graduate from the institute on pedagogical orientation. His primitive appearance did not alert her husband, he agreed to take Misha to work.

And Misha, he is Misha everywhere.

In a good family, he acquired a gloss and well-groomed appearance, therefore, quite naturally, he liked the mother of the pupil. Yes, he liked her for a long time.

And they developed a plan for divorce. Husband slipped girl, girlfriend Misha on the Pedagogical Institute, and caught them. And the wife became the owner of half the condition of her husband. Consequently, Misha automatically became an oligarch and stepfather of the children of the former chief oligarch of the country.

Quickly the fairy tale affects, but it is not done quickly. Loving a woman with several children is the same as loving a warrior who has passed the war. The nervous system of this type of people is very popular, it is not easy to maintain them. It is difficult to live in a marriage, but to be the wife of a rich man is a great happiness and a major punishment at the same time.

At some point in time, a nervous breakdown is inevitable on any side, it is not necessarily expressed by a primitive cry, each person heals nervous tension in his own way. It is impossible to live the life of a husband! To live in a marriage and not grumble at a partner in bed and finances, you must live your life. Absurd? But there is no other option. The luxury of life drags into its pool, a woman oligarch has everything except for the basic freedom to move in space. And also children, many children ...

Naturally, the wife accused her husband of her troubles. Who else to blame? Only him. Life does not give her poor! Children have nannies, tutors and other people for their service! But after all, these people must be managed! This is a job.

And if you look at life from your husband? He is a strong man with no bad habits, except for one thing: a well-developed ability to attract capital. He is a financial magnate or magnet that does not change the role. In his many homes, palaces and estates you can always live without a wife and children. He can hide in the silence from them, but what can he not? He has no right.

Yes, he has a right to everything! Here the moment is important, who is setting up his wife against him, and someone from those who are with her is setting up. His passion on the side is not the first and not the last, this is his life. He needs a woman for representation. He is not blue, but a wife with children. Who will travel with him, attend spectacles? The wife of this load will not stand. Who is guilty of this situation? Outdated laws on the matrimony of people of this level. People are always right.

The last thing the wife wanted was to divorce her husband, their children tied them, and she tried not to think about his innumerable treasures and actions.

Misha thought about the owners' treasures, because he had to think about something, he thought. The ward kid hesitated, this little oligarch knew his place in life from birth and kept the giant Misha in constant obedience. The relationship between them was quite bearable, then just to have enough patience with the nanny. No, he was not a mustache, it was stipulated in the contract. He was clean-shaven, well trimmed and fragrant like everything in this prestigious house. And walked in that he was offered.

Once he noticed that he was bound hand and foot, but not by ropes, but by the dogmas of the house of high society.

Misha strained his muscles, depicted in front of the mirror Hercules, breaking the chains, which caused the kid's delight. He sighed, introduced himself as a clown and began to make the child laugh, who was skeptical about the nanny. Then Misha threw the ball to the kid, who had just bitten through the dog. The ball was quickly blown away, but deflated, he became more docile. Misha began to throw this ball to the kid, who liked a new toy. So they played, until the butler noticed that they were playing with a lowered ball. At this their happy throws stopped.

The boy most of all toys loved men - spiders and other fashionable characters of cartoons and computer games. So Misha had to perform disk swapping in the computer. Calm came when the kid was taken away for a walk or to be engaged with a teacher.

At such moments Misha fell into a dreamy state. He practically did not see the parents of the baby, the circle of people around him was sharply limited. He recalled a classmate, sighed and put himself in order for the next meeting with the baby.

Rimma no longer saw the masseuse and her son; they left for their hometown.


A strange conversation took place between Olga and Rimma. Rimma remembered Shchepkina's kind word.

- Olga, I was just lucky that I managed to meet a real man, Schepkina. Without him, I would not know what they are - real men. It is a pity that it all happened. I loved him, I think he is still alive.

'Rimma, my opinion is that to be a 100% male you cannot: drink from your youth, you can't smoke, you have to be athletic, you have to be able to work until old age, and this is not at all given to everyone,' Olga said on an abstract topic.

'Constancy is not given to everyone,' Rimma said.

- The boys are overwhelmed with school. The Institute is not all. Army - fear. Soon the girls appear in their lives, which must be ensured and loved. And in order to love not in words but in deed, guys sometimes have no strength or courage. They can't, 'Olga continued.

- Beer and all alcoholic beverages eat up in men their male potential. They can love, but not enough, - said Rimma, a big lover of love.

- Is it possible to love 15-20 years? - Olga asked. - To my share of these men did not fall.

- Weak. Physical love is given to men as the greatest good. What is needed for that? Good age: 26 -35 years. You have to be physically active. There is meat before sex. Sober love with a drunk can not be compared. Do you remember Fedor? He drank more than he loved. Love must be sober. Men need to know the features of a woman, but not enough to teach her, but only to guide her skillfully and unobtrusively. Find with your partner what exactly suits them. And it turns out that such an ideal is not for everyone, 'Rimma replied, cutting the cake brought.

- And people of other ages? - Olga asked a question, pouring tea into cups.

'They argue more, try to find those guilty of their unsuccessful attempts,' Rimma replied angrily, sending the cake in her mouth with a fork.

- Can there be love in people more mature? - Olga asked, sipping tea from a cup.

- Yes. But they need some nourishment. In more mature people, love with a wife is often unlikely. A man needs to fall in love with someone, then come home and, as expected, love a legitimate wife, and that is rare. And poets, they love poems. And this is their way out. Sometimes mistresses appear, Rimma concluded in a fervent speech, taking out a piece of cake.

- Do men need lovers? - Olga asked.

- Sure. And it is good if there is a beloved woman, even if once or for years, Rimma answered confidently.

- Do you have a moral? I do not accept such a moral! - shortly threw the words of Olga.

- When life is partially lived - there is a continuous forced morality. Only the active years of life nourish the person for the rest of their lives, Rimma said sadly.

- What is love? - Olga asked, looking at the bottom of an empty mug.

- Love - a heightened perception of two people among themselves. Shchepkin and I were bound by the mystical power of thought transmission at a distance; we had a sharply increased sensitivity of the skin to contact with each other. We felt the field of a loved one and at close range. There was a huge force of attraction, in the absence of the possibility of a meeting, the energy passed into anything. This feeling does not depend on the bonds of marriage, but it depended on us, 'Rimma said cheerfully, shaking her breasts, as if they had eaten a cake.

- What is marriage bond? - Olga did not let herself ask questions, looking at her small bulges in the chest area.

- The marriage bond is the integrity of the person, adopted in a civilized society for survival in this society. Marriage is supported by love, if it is, if not: mentally love, the one whom God gives you, but in reality, the one whom they gave on a stamp in the passport. The situation is very difficult for millions of people, hidden by people, causing a huge amount of nervous breakdowns, Rimma said, washing down the third piece of cake.

- And what's the worst in the relationship of a man and a woman? - Olga asked, looking at the cake.

'The worst is jealousy, in all its manifestations,' Rimma said quickly and ran for the apples.

- So what is love? - Olga insistently asked, picking up an apple.

- Luck. What else can be said about the topic, written to the point of impossibility? She is boring. It bothers everyone: kisses, sex, touch. The body gets tired. A man becomes nasty and unbearable, like this cake, which no longer climbs into the throat.

- What do people do in this case? - Olga asked, biting off an apple.

- They change partners, change places of love and overtake them again - boredom. They go to places where women are shown to them in dances, songs, movements around the pipe, they add men. And again - boring. Watching a pair of movies - boring. - The life-giving power of love dissolves in boredom from its excessive use, - Rimma confidently spoke, twisting an apple in a saucer.

- What to do so that there is no boredom? - Olga asked busily, biting off an apple, and not taking her eyes off the cake.

- Keep partners. Feel when you need to stop. Love power has a great gift: the accumulation of new sexual energy, Rimma spoke beautifully, pouring tea into a cup.

- How is love different from sex? - Olga asked, choking the apple.

- The question is curious. Love originates in the spiritual sphere of intercourse, sex is a physical phenomenon, Rimma said, glancing at the kitchen.

- Then what is loyalty? - questions rained down from Inessa Evgenievna as from a horn of plenty. - The question arises: loyalty in what?

'Loyalty in love or sex,' Rimma replied. - Love is a longer storage feeling than sex. Sex is swift. Here it is, and in abundance, and here it passed, and it is impossible to return. Human physical strength is short-lived. And she can even love without sex in the soul of a person, she also inspires him, and this same notorious love gives tremendous strength for inspiration.

- Then why do you need sex if it is swift? - Olga asked again.

- Hard question. We need sex, for inner peace, just like a skin bath. One thing is to say, there is a long period of life, when it is needed as well as water, food. Without sex, a person is not a person, he is very bad, he is bad somewhere outside the description and explanation of words. Subject unusual for writing. Healthy sex is a person's health, his youth, his satisfaction with life. Well, when love and sex match in pairs. This is happiness. Love and sex with me and Shchepkina coincided for a minor period. The health of a person takes very badly the change of partners, and this difficult moment is called: loyalty or betrayal, Rimma said, pushing the plate with the cake away from her.

- Is it true? - Olga asked, arms crossed on his chest.

- Often people chase the mirage of loyalty. They do not need loyalty, they are looking for lost love in sex, and this depends little on people. Therefore, poets and writers describe the elusive happiness that Nature sometimes bestows on people, 'Rimma assured her friend.

Before leaving, the ladies talked again.

- Why do you need a husband? - Olga asked her question, feeling hunger after eating.

- Really, why? You live quietly, sort out the guys, look for one thing - the only one, and, ultimately, he chooses you. And here he found you, - Rimma answered firmly.

- And then what? - Olga asked nervously, keeping herself from the temptation to take a piece of cake.

'He begins to conquer.' And you leave him, fly away, leave. He finds. He tries to kiss - you do not resist. He is trying - to bring down - you start to fight, - answered Rimma.

'And if he doesn't like it?' Well, he can cope with their desires, and if not? - insistently asked Olga.

- Life begins to hang for the first time, like a computer, it is dangerous for person Kisses, hugs: Stop! Hell! And the devil takes, and you are not ready. No, not physically, but in your mind, in your head you have not yet matured. And he starts to process your head, your thoughts. He calls you, writes, says: notice, it's not about wine and other things. We are talking about a sober head. They have reached confessions of love in all languages, he will say three words in any language. He will carry you over the ground. And you are getting closer to him, closer. You are already sitting on his lap, but do not lie with him yet, but it is convenient to start lying: from the beach it is so innocent. And the figure: you get used to it. Time and addiction do their thing. Both recalled the registration of marriage. Attention! At this moment, you need to look after the health of relatives and relatives and friends, before your acquaintance, Rimma said and drank tea as a speaker who deserved it.

'How do they get all this news?' - Olga asked, cutting off a thin piece of cake.

- Overlap of all opinions must be heard. And he is no longer able to wait. And you unite the power of love. LOVE. And emptiness. He achieved, he confesses to all sins. You are all swallowed, you are married. He will begin to restore order in your appearance, in your actions. Everything, you are in control. The second control after the parents, and much stronger. Find out where is your favorite female doctor. The figure swam, - said Rimma, and examined her figure.

- Why does jealousy appear? Why is she the cause of the tragedies? - Olga asked, eating cake.

- Jealousy appears due to a wrong perception of the surrounding reality. She is savored, she is described, but simply, even in elementary school, children should be told: a person falls in love all her life while she lives, but she gets married (married) to one person. Not everyone learns well, they may not understand. There are no guilty that pleasant people appear, an object for another love, and this should be taken for happiness, 'Rimma said, clearing the table.

- What is family? - Olga asked, looking merrily at Rimma.

- The family is holy. Over the years, it can change and change, and the next love makes it possible to live, sometimes mentally, but normally. But there is one more thing, the nature is bad for the change of husband, lover. This is already a heavy weight category of relationships. Is it dangerous. Life threatening. With jealousy they are trying to protect constancy, affection of one person, - Rimma wisely answered

- What is love? - asked, laughing, Olga.

- Love is poetry. Love is Good and Bad, in one state of mind, choose, and find the right solution. In the set I am constantly faced with problems or relationships between people. These problems can be repelled, but in any form they can emerge where you do not expect to meet them. Sage for me was a sexual person, it is now even difficult to comprehend and see through the prism of time, Rimma said with regret.

'Why didn't you send your husband away after such a relationship?' - Olga asked.

'I couldn't handle him.' The usual relationship between a man and a woman should be, but better moderate, although I got everything, but it's always on the verge of a breakdown, 'Rimma said.

- Your wishes for yourself? - Olga asked, hard getting up from the chair.

- Prudence in love! - answered Rimma, closing the door behind her.


The house palm smiled with blank sheets to two people loving each other. Rimma smiled. Andrei frowned. Which one is a palm tree? But now is not about that. He had been waiting for her for a very long time, about two weeks. He wrote letters to her daily. She did not answer. He sent invitations to the cafe. She did not come. He wrote his own poems. She was silent. He began to lose weight, to shave a little, his face became gloomy, impenetrable. She got bogged down in work and home problems, and glimpsed his messages in the mail, and dumped them into one file.

Things clung to each other, there were foreseeable and unexpected problems, she even fell off the table, which she climbed.

At the table, two legs broke on one side. The flight into space was unexpected. All the office equipment on the table leaned over and slid out of it, like a slide. The computer survived the fall and started working again. Vertigo from falling away after half an hour. It turned out abrasion on his leg ...

They lay under a home palm on a huge rookery, the abrasion on his leg glittered with all its beauty.

- I called you, and at home you just fall, you didn't even smear the wound.

Andrei got iodine, a cream for healing wounds, smeared the wound:

- The next time you come with two new abrasions, even though this one will heal.

He embraced her. She moved her leg to the side so that the man would not touch her leg, and everything else was at his disposal.

'I am ready to marry you,' said Andrew and drowned in the depths of her feelings.

'If I were a queen,' if I were even the mayor of a city, Rimma said, lying on the shoulder of a man.

- Why do you need this? He asked, hugging her naked body.

- I would ban any construction in the center of the capital! Reducing the density of the earth inside the first ring beyond common sense. The thirst for profit is not for women, when they earn diseases of internal organs, from a collision with men, or to the earth - mother, when she is hammered with piles, they do not bring health. Dug, repeatedly built up land asking for rest. They demolished the hotel, but instead of planting a public garden do they plan to plant and no more, economic damage? But the earth will be restored.

- So, I will damage your health? - asked Andrei. 'And the land inside the garden ring doesn't bother me, and the mayor will not hold you for a day's economic damage.'

'Sorry, sorry for the land,' Rimma said and kissed his cheek.

'It is better to take poultry, they were completely wasted because about five people died,' said Andrei nervously and firmly squeezed Rima in his embrace not of the mayor, but.

'Do you know why two towers rammed airplanes?' She asked the man, getting out of bed, dangling her legs on one side of her.

'The terrorist act,' the young man answered, his legs dangling on the other side of the bed.

- Two towers are legs.

- Whose legs? Giant? - asked Andrei, going to open the door of the room.

- I do not know. If you are lying on the beach, you have legs in front of you and prevent you from looking into the distance.

'Think about it, the high-rise towers, the legs, the beach,' the man said and went into the bathroom, but he soon returned.

- Towers prevented to look into the distance, but to whom? - stretched the woman, pouring boiling water on a pinch of instant coffee in the cup.

- What did the two planes portrayed ramming the towers? The man asked, pouring water into a mug.

- Two arrows of cupid.

- Would you like to say that someone took revenge for the desecrated love? After all, the restaurants suffered greatly, and the cook flew out the window.

'Exactly, it was men's revenge,' said Rimma, leaving the man's apartment.

She waited until he closed the entrance door to the apartment and approached her, almost simultaneously the elevator doors opened. She looked at herself in the mirror on the elevator wall, turned her eyes to the man's face.

He suddenly asked:

- Why did the pile get into the subway car?

- Because I called you that I was going to you, I forgot?

- Who do you think it is?

- Yourself.

- Okay, drove, you were not in that subway car.

'I did my hair for a long time, it saved me, and I was late for that car when I approached the subway, the entrance was already closed, so I took the car, and when I approached the next subway stop, and this metro station closed, it came to you by car.

'Stop,' said Andrei, opening the door of the entrance to Rimma, 'why did you drive the pile because of you?'

'You forgot that I work in a big company, that I listened to my phone when I said that I was coming to you, Musin gave the command to strike a pile on my treason.

'Okay, the pile in the metro is local, but there are two towers, they are overseas - by the ocean, or were you who you spoke to?' - asked Andrew, going on a path covered with asphalt with occasional tides of ice.

- With Olga said.

- What?! Did you have time to talk there? I asked for a joke.

- She was in that restaurant on some sixtieth floor a day before the catastrophe, that is, on the 10th, and I met her on the 12th in the capital at one general gathering.

- You're lying ?!

- What else, the meeting is fixed, mine and her presence, too, and her flight across the ocean is even more so in Aeroflot.

They stopped on the road.

- So, what do you have to do with the birds?

'I haven't finished talking about the towers yet.'

- Speak.

And they went further.

- I'm all about the piles, if I'm your only man at this time, then what can be treason with me? - asked Andrei.

- And I think so, what? - answered Rimma.

'There is no logic,' said Andrei, putting an end to the silly topic.


2006 - 2018

(C) Natalia Vladimirovna PATRATSKAYA