Aragon Masks. Inga Soborova

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СКАЧАТЬ and contracting, pushing with rhythmic beats whatever came into contact with it.

      Tais took the tail. She threw it into the fire. A sheaf of sparks and the smell of burning wool. The black dog’s ear, too. More sparks and the stench of burning meat. Tais breathed heavily. No more tears covered her eyes. Now the heart. Over there it. The beating heart didn’t flare up at once. Its beats faded slowly, and at the edges of it began to burn a faint fire. The ballerina dolly and the toy car burned very quickly. Tais could hardly hold the bowl. She tilted it over the fire and poured the glass sand on the burning embers. In that second, she was gone. The sacrificial bowl, hanging in the air for a moment, fell, shattering into small pieces.

      – 5-

      Arthur woke up in the morning with a severe cold. The chimney was out. A window that had been opened by a strong breeze was filled with fine snow.

      «It’s cold. Very cold. Just unbearably cold.»

      Arthur remembered the sorcerer’s words. «When you get really, really cold, eat this candy.»

      The candy, wrapped in a black wrapper, was in Arthur’s purse. He trembled from the cold and, with trembling fingers, took the candy inside the mouth. After a few seconds Arthur stopped feeling the cold completely. Now his body temperature was lower than the coldest environment temperature. Forever.

      4 HANDS MASSAGE

      Helen had been in school since the first grade. During her years at school, she has gained a high level of general and subject-specific skills

      She is proficient in modern IT technologies. Helen is distinguished by her general erudition and desire for self-education. She is a value-oriented person with the potential of intelligence and high culture. Kind and compassionate person, responsible for her deeds. Not verbose, sometimes reticent. A modest girl, able to firmly express her position. Talks smoothly with classmates and teachers. Mostly polite.

      Positive girl with a lot of possibilities. She perceives criticism calmly. Family psychological and emotional atmosphere is favorable. Parents had full control over the girl’s free time. Listened to the advice of her class teacher.

      Reference to the place of demand.

      School Principal.

      Class teacher.

      – 2-

      Getting into a pedagogical university was easy. Helen was even surprised how little knowledge she had gained during her school years came in handy for admission. «Where’s all that knowledge going now? «It’s definitely not going to come in handy at this school. And now, school is over.

      Helen was standing at the window. The sunset was reflecting beautifully in the glass of the house across the street. It was her grandmother’s inherited apartment. Close to where she studied. The desire to feel independent. Become an adult.

      It was sunset, and the light was on in the house across the street. Helen stepped away from the window. She turned on her grandmother’s old floor lamp. The soft light filled the room dimly. From the ajar closet she could see a wide-brimmed hat that had half fallen out. Helen moved to the closet. A murky mirror, the edges of which had lost their luster over time. Slid opened the closet by pulling the jamming door to herself. A hat and a pile of things fell to the floor. Helen picked up the hat. It was a slightly rumpled, mothballed, gray hat with a veil.

      Helen put it on. Glancing in the mirror through the veil, she felt like a blue-blooded, prideful lady. Put on lipstick. Her eyelids were covered with dark eyeshadow. Helen didn’t usually use any cosmetics. However, she kept the cosmetics gifted to her, just in case.

      Grandma’s long manto. Made of a thin fabric. With fur. Even cold for the fall. Looks good with a hat. Umbrella. Not sure how to open it. Wooden spokes. Opened. Still need to look for shoes. Now they call them booties. A bit tight.

      Helen twisted, opened and closed the umbrella. Elegantly she lifted the veil. Nodding lightly, she greeted imaginary guests. Maintaining a straight posture, she walked back and forth across the room, squinting at the mirror from under the veil.

      Passing her reflection once more, waving her umbrella and honing her graceful gait, Helen glanced out the window. In the house across the street, against the backdrop of the lighted window, the dark figure of a man clung to the glass. Clearly he had been keeping an eye on the girl for a long time. The heavy curtain and the fallen ledge covered the girl. Helen rapidly moved to the window and forcefully pulled back the curtain. The heavy curtain and the fallen ledge covered the girl. Escaped, she lost her hat, and stepping over the open umbrella, Helen rushed to the lightswitch. In total darkness, away from the window, her eyes were now on the window across the street.

      «This is awkward. Stupid. I guess he saw the whole thing. And how the ledge had fallen, too,» thought Helen. The man stepped away from the window and switched off the light.

      – 3-

      A month has passed. Helen always kept the curtains closed in the evenings, glancing toward the window. But since that night the light had never come on again.

      One day, when it was quite dark, pulling back the curtain, Helen noticed two white lights, close together. Glinted in the dark window across the street. They flashed and disappeared at once. Then again. «I thought…»

      The next morning was clear. The sun was shining through the open window, and a fresh breeze was blowing.

      Helen was exercising and enjoying the morning. She approached the open window with a cup of coffee and began to explore, now clearly visible, «that window». The frame was for a long time unpainted. The glass was dark in the daylight. At the underside of the glass you could see some kind of picture. Was a picture of this window. Just like in that first evening. It was the dark silhouette of the man leaning against the lighted window. A chill ran down. Helen’s spine. «A maniac? Maybe a jester? Though, there was nothing to hold on to. After all, it is not illegal to show pictures in one’s window. I won’t look in that window again.»

      After class in the evening, Helen came home without turning on the light and pulled back the curtain. Just trying to keep the window across the street in sight.

      Her favorite dinner seemed tasteless. Having analyzed the situation, Helen realized that she had lost her peace completely.

      Choice No. 1:

      Spit it out, forget it and never look at that window again. (Doesn’t work).

      Choice No. 2: Let myself look at that window. (This does not solve anything, no

      peace anyway).

      Choice No. 3:

      Set up a camcorder. (Doesn’t solve the situation, but maybe it will clarify something). Now, when she came back home in the evening, Helen firstly watched the video tape. And just then, she dressed and ate dinner. The picture was still in the lower right window corner. Helen was mad she couldn’t stand by the open window and have her coffee in the morning. «After all, I’m at home. And I can stand at my window whenever I want and as long as I want.»

      Helen made coffee. Walked over to the open window. While drinking coffee in small sips, she kept her gaze on anything except that window. «Don’t think about the white monkey.» СКАЧАТЬ