The Island of Charon. Playing Another Reality. Antoine de Saint-Exupery Award

He held out his hand, looking pitifully into my eyes, and said, “Lantern!”

And at that moment my brain seemed to be completely hacked.

Yanis got up from the table and took the boy by the hand. Speaking in the local dialect, they went towards the village. I thoughtfully followed them with my eyes, but I suddenly remembered my last nightmare – the Giant Ship. When Yanis came back, I decided to share my mysterious dream.

“Yanis, listen! Tonight!”

“You couldn’t fall asleep…”

“Yes, I went out to breathe the Ocean. I was standing on the rock, by the stairs, when suddenly the Wind appeared! It looked like hurricane! The Sky instantly became so scary! Huge clouds were moving back and forth! Lightning, thunder, and it started to rain, or rather, it was a tropical downpour, and a Giant Ship entered the bay! But people on board… I saw through the wall of rain, I swear to you, I saw them descending from the Ship, but straight into the Ocean! And they walked towards the shore on the water surface!!!”

“And how else do people arrive on Camotes, if not by ship or by ferry?” Yanis chuckled. “How did you get here, Alice? By a flying carpet?”

My mind went blank again. I got a glitch in the brain, I perfectly understood that there was no other way to the Island. But for some reason the picture on the internal screen split in two. I saw the old ferry that brought me there with Alex, many years ago, and I also saw…

…water… everywhere… all around me… water… and a panic horror seizes me… I try to float up to the surface, but for some reason I can’t and…

…no, I’m not suffocating! – I see a face of a Man before it, a face, pulsing through the double image on the internal screen – the last thing that flickers in my nightmare…

3.4. Voodoo Procession

It was suspiciously quiet at night with neither wind, nor clouds in the Sky. I took one of the torches from the reception and went for a walk around the gloomy Island, aimed to reach some specific “point”.

I turned towards the pier, as the previous night, and walked for about ten minutes along unknown to me species of shrubs and the long-legged palm trees piercing the black-book starry Sky, when at first the tambourines and then drums roll with chilling chants were heard in the distance.

However, curiosity got the better of fear, and after a couple of minutes I saw a shocking procession of almost naked native magicians with painted faces and feathers on their heads, with frightening jewelry and scaring accessories, with skulls on thin sticks and a huge straw doll on the central thick one. Several people provided the musical accompaniment of the ceremony, manipulating with tambourines and drums, the rest were singing incantations and dancing.

I took a step back, out of the road, to skip the procession and immediately felt someone pulling my dress sleeve, and the already familiar magic word rang in my ears…

“LANTERN!”

“My God!” I exclaimed, turning around. “Look, my dear, I don’t have any lantern! Only a torch, this one!”

I gave it a glance.

The Boy pointed at the Sky in response, but I had no time to think what it meant, because I saw Yanis on the road, wandering towards the pier with fishing nets and gear. The procession of black magicians was moving away.

“Hi,” I breathed out. “Are they Voodoo people?”

“Yes. But you’d better not…”

“Do they really shamanize here, or is it just a game?”

“Really, but…”

“Every night?”

“Yes…”

Yanis was too laconic, but I felt that the topic of Voodoo did not excite him, while it would be very curious for me to attend their ritual.

“Where are they going?”

“To the Portal… However, I categorically advise you not to contact them.”

I was about to ask, “Who are you to advise me something?” But I stopped in time, because Yanis, fortunately or unfortunately, was the only one local resident, with whom I could communicate, speaking the same language. I thought, “The voodoo ceremony would wait for me till tomorrow. No one forces me to inform Yanis about my plans and to report to him about their implementation.”

“Okay, Yanis. Let’s say the Portal does exist. But what about… lanterns? Why does the Boy keep asking me for some lantern?”

Strange things happening on the Island didn’t fit into the standard frames of my mind.

“He doesn’t really ask you for a lantern,” Yanis sighed, “but for a light bulb.”

“A light bulb?” I was surprised even more.

“Yes, a light bulb for the lantern. But it is okay also without lantern. A light bulb is enough…”

“What for?” I exclaimed understanding nothing.

“To hang it up on the Tree.”

Apparently, Yanis decided to make fun of me!

“I see… There are no light bulbs even in the hotel! There are no lights on the roads! There is no electricity here at all!”

“But we have a Wish Tree,” Yanis smiled and asked, “What are you dreaming about, Alice?”

I clenched my fingers into a fist because of my powerlessness to understand something.

“Walk me home. Please.”

***

I returned the torch to the reception and went into my hut, lit a candle, took out the notebook and continued…

“Michael was the captain of a ship. At first. And then he became an important person in political circles…”

Chapter 4. The CAVE of MAGICIANS

4.1. Life is too short

Michael… I wished he had been with me on the Island!

We never spent vacation together… I used to send him my erotic pictures from the Greek islands asking, “Which girl do you prefer? Choose!” to get in response, “Let’s take them all!” He had a good sense of humor…

Yes, perhaps Michael was the only man sent to me from Above, whom I would marry immediately, quite consciously agreeing with the fact that he would cheat on me after the wedding in the same way, as he cheated on his wife with me.

It was strange for me that many girls were lost in deep illusions concerning the possibility of changing a man via some stamp in his passport. I never understood those who used to read phones, to look out for a strange hair on clothes, to sniff out foreign smells and to perform other functions of a private detective. Having noticed the evidence, probably I would have say something acrimonious, asking not to bother me with it any more.