Tales of Ghosts. Playing Another Reality. Edgar Allan Poe award. Alexandra Kryuchkova

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      After the surgery, which was a success and didn’t portend any complications, anesthesiologist began to wake Lyudmila up, but she remained unconscious. Her heart slowed down and… stopped. The girl’s face expressed neither sadness, nor pain, nor joy. It was mysteriously beautiful in its unearthly calmness. The anesthesiologist ran out of the room for the resuscitators. Lyudmila’s roommates remained speechless.

      An Angel appeared in the room. Lyudmila, sitting by her body on the edge of the bed, involuntarily smiled.

      “Wow! So, do angels exist?! Have you come to take me away?”

      “Hello, my soul! In fact, everything exists, both real and once imagined by humans. Now you will be taken to the intensive care unit and returned to your body.”

      “Oh, no!” exclaimed Lyudmila. “I feel great here! I see no reason to return! No one needs me on Earth, and I’m completely un-adapted to life! Everything fell out of hand! I was always approaching some goal, step by step, and bang! – at the last moment! – the world used to collapse!”

      “Every soul has its own mission on Earth. If you don’t complete it, you won’t be able to continue your journey in Heaven.”

      “And which one is mine?”

      “Just to serve God and people.”

      “To serve? What do you mean?” Lyudmila asked, having understood nothing.

      “One day you will be a famous nun. Right because you are un-adapted to live as common people.”

      “Me? A nun?!” Lyudmila cringed at the mere thought of it. “Are you saying that I am not destined to find earthly love? If you promised me now that I would become the happiest woman in the world, I would probably return! But to become a nun?!”

      A Demon showed up in the room.

      “Let’s go!” he smiled, holding out his furry paw to Lyudmila.

      “Where?” the girl involuntarily moved closer to the Angel.

      “Where? On Earth, of course!”

      “Have you both agreed beforehand?! I’ve already told that I’m not going back to my body to become a nun!”

      “No, no! Come on! Not to your body! And I’m not about the nun!” the Demon chuckled. “Let’s move into a bum!”

      “A homeless bum?!” Lyudmila cried out, mentally picturing herself freezing in the slushy mud on the street outside the grocery shop.

      “But you don’t want to be a nun!” the Demon laughed.

      The resuscitators rushed into the room and took away Lyudmila’s body, while her soul with the Angel and the Demon followed the body to the intensive care unit to continue the conversation there.

      “Listen, Valentina,” Galina turned to her neighbor, “our unbeliever must have seen the Light! She liked it there, in Paradise, so much that she decided not to come back! Oh, thank God, I didn’t get to Paradise yet! I might have been a fool to stay there, since I have four grandchildren, they will be lost without me here! Who will cook my borsch for them?”

      Valentina sighed, silently nodded in response and looked out at the street through the dusty hospital window.

      She had heard the conversation of Lyudmila’s soul with the Angel and the Demon, though she hadn’t seen them in the room.

      Valentina had no one left on Earth long ago, except for… the red puss Barsik she had saved last winter.

      “Perhaps serving Barsik is my mission on Earth. Isn’t Barsik the reason I am still alive?” Valentina pondered. “Or maybe… serving the Barsiks? I wonder how many cats I could save during my life, while I saved only one … How is he now, without me? Does the concierge remember to feed him? Probably, he has already broken a few pots of flowers, my little prankster!”

      Valentina smiled, and she wanted to return home as soon as possible to express her love and gratitude to the red puss, even if he had nothing to do with her mission on Earth…

March 1994

      4. The Wind of Changes

      “The 1^st April street, building 77, entrance B,

      the 5^th floor…”

      I knew that address by heart, having worked for over four years as chief accountant in the office of a small company, located there. The company, which I loved very much, became my almost second home, but it was going through hard times, if not to say ‘its last hours’. The Swiss owners postponed until Monday the release of the already taken decision on liquidation, that would start the painful process of dividing assets, including money, of course.

      The working day was already over, but the financial director, George, and I were sitting in his office enjoying a melon.

      “Well, tell me, Arisha, have you been conjuring?” George asked, referring to our future.

      “Yes, of course,” I muttered grudgingly, aware of his skepticism.

      “What way this time? Solitaire or coffee?”

      “You see, cards and coffee, and all that stuff are just kids’ play if there’s nothing behind. The Subtle World is called so for being immaterial; its door can’t be opened with earthly keys only, such as cards or coffee. If you can’t read signs, feel with your soul, hear your inner voice, no cards will be useful.”

      “Well, okay, let’s say so. What are you feeling right now?”

      “A Wind of Changes.”

      “Good or bad?”

      “Cardinal ones!”

      “Anything more specific? Will you finally get rid of the fear of getting fat after childbirth and agree to become my wife?”

      “Olga is coming, cut her a piece of melon,” I said calmly, not reacting to his skeptical jokes.

      In a couple of seconds, there was a knock on the door, and a cheerful and blooming Olga, the HR manager, appeared on the threshold.

      “Hello, friends!” she said and took a seat next to me.

      “From our table to your table,” I handed her a piece of melon on a plate.

      “Thank you, Arisha! And I have some news for you!”

      “Good or bad?” George asked to clarify.

      “I’m looking for a job… If we are going to be liquidated, there’s nothing else to wait! It’s better to prepare a straw in advance! So, I noticed a vacancy, published by some recruitment agency. In fact, as it turned out, they have two vacancies!” Olga said enigmatically.

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