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

Svetlana hadn’t been there for ten years, but she went to her old friend’s house party with a light heart and absolute peace of mind. It was only out of simple female curiosity that she wanted to have a look at Artyom, what if he still lived there and was at home.

He worked in a commercial company then. At first, everything was great, they had clothes and food exclusively from luxury supermarkets, the most prestigious car, and not a dacha, but a palace. However, soon a bottomless void appeared in Svetlana’s soul, and she felt lonely. She loved her husband, who left home early in the morning and returned at night, with all his constant meetings, negotiations, friends, partners, clients and business trips, but she missed his attention, care and, probably, love. Repeatedly and in vain, Svetlana asked to devote more time to her.

“You don’t understand anything, everything in this world is managed by money!” Artyom used to say, and nothing changed.

One day Svetlana left for nowhere, but quickly enough she got a good job, began to earn decent money and to live no worse than before. She stopped being sad, soon got married again and gave birth to charming twins. However, at some point, she caught herself thinking that she no longer cared what time her second husband came home, whether he devoted free time to her or not. Negotiations? Okay. Business trip? Okay as well.

They had money, that really managed everything.

“Just think about it! I became an ideal woman for Artyom,” Svetlana came to a conclusion, passing by his doorway, and noticed light in the familiar window…

Artyom opened the door.

“Wow! What way?!” he said in surprise. “I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately. Come in!”

Svetlana went into the room and looked around appraisingly, but everything was the same: luxury brand furniture, paintings by cool artists … Although… in a cage on the table by the window she noticed a small bird.

“I bought a canary not to feel lonely,” Artyom admitted.

“Aren’t you married?”

“Can’t married people feel lonely? My wife with kids enjoy the Canary Islands every summer. And how are you? I hope your new husband spends more time with you than I did?”

“No, imagine. I don’t need that anymore. I don’t ask him to come home early so that we spend our free time together … I became what you wanted me to be ten years ago.”

“What time makes of us! Back then, I thought you were too demanding. I wanted freedom. I suppose I didn’t know to love true yet. My second wife is ready to live without me for her own comfort. Now I wish she would ask me, like you, to come home early, to walk with her in the park and go to the theater, but money is the only thing she is interested in… So life made me understand how much I had been mistaken… I would pay much to return to the past and bring you back.”

“One can’t return to the past because one doesn’t have to return.”

“So, you couldn’t fall in love with me again, could you?!”

“I have to go.”

They said goodbye and disappeared from each other’s lives again.

***

Six months later Svetlana found herself in those places once more, already for business.

Having parked the car, she went straight to the office building for a business meeting, not knowing yet that it would end suddenly and simultaneously with the breath of her life, according to the decision of the Judges to transfer Svetlana’s soul in Heaven by thromboembolism. Chances to change destiny in order to remain on Earth are not always given to people in unlimited quantities, sometimes it even seems unfair that, for example, a worthless drunkard lives to a ripe old age, while an admirable business woman is recalled prematurely.

Passing by a liquor store, crowded with not quite sober people, Svetlana noticed the gaze of an unattractive man.

“Hello,” said Artyom, approaching her staggeringly.

“I didn’t expect to see you… here! What’s happened?”

“My canary’s damn dead,” he muttered.

“Who is dead?” Svetlana asked to clarify the unheard.

“My last friend… He used to wait for my returns home from work… He tweeted something in his own language … And … he died, unable to live in our damn family! And now he visits me at night. As a ghost … Do you believe in ghosts?”

“Do you mean your canary?” Svetlana asked again, and Artyom nodded.

“Run away from money!” he whispered in her ear. “I’m going to spend all I have not to spoil my children!”

“What are you talking about?!” Svetlana exclaimed, recoiling from him in horror and thinking, “What a blessing our paths diverged!”

“Yes, our paths diverged,” said Artyom as if reading her thoughts. “One can’t return to the past because one doesn’t have to return… However, who knows, if you hadn’t left me then, perhaps it would have been you walking in my shoes now…”

    September 21, 1995

10. A Cats’ name

She had a cats’ name that no dog could pronounce, but she never smelt like a cat, so I didn’t mean her any harm. I remember her as pretty: kind dog eyes and dark fur … sorry, I mean, hair! If you count, as people do, she was young, but dogs don’t live that long. I can’t say she looked so beautiful for a dog like me to fall in love with her, but for my master it was a completely different matter! When she was calling, his face suddenly changed, his hands began to fiddle with the telephone cable, and if my master had a tail, he would definitely wag it! It always happens to me involuntarily when I communicate with those I like …

They didn’t talk for long by phone – they made appointments. I don’t know why he took me with him, but I was glad! I found it nice to have a company of good people, and I wagged my tail at the sight of her for two, both for myself and for my master.

I remember every meeting of them. We used to wait for her under the trees in the courtyard. She always smiled approaching us, seemed to be so happy… We walked along the road leading to the park. They talked about things that, in my opinion, were not worth talking about. In fact, dogs are silent, because there is really nothing to talk about. Everything has already been said a long time ago. You have to either howl when you are sad, or bark when you are nervous, angry, annoyed, if you want to attract attention or rejoice, that depends on the intonation … However, people still talk, they just don’t understand yet a lot of things in life, unlike dogs…

I didn’t know where and when they had got acquainted, however, a long time ago. They used to remember the days they had been together. Despite the fact that all conversations of these strange people were limited exclusively to the Past, there was something that connected them in the present.

At first, I could not understand why they were not together. Imagine my surprise when, during our walk one evening, she took off her gloves and I noticed a gold ring on her hand! You know what that means, don’t you?! And who on earth would think of such a nonsense as getting married? Dogs never get married, because it’s not serious at all! What does a ring change? A few extra grams on your finger! Rings mean nothing in life, as well as a lot of other things. That’s why dogs don’t wear rings. No kind at all. By the way, not dogs only, mind you…

The master told me the strangest love story I’ve ever heard. That would never happen to a dog, that’s for sure! He loved her, as you see… secretly! And he never told her about it… Well, they called and met, wandered here and there, walking around and… walking around! But there are a lot of men among people, and not all of them prefer to love secretly! Someone can call, meet, take a walk and… move on! And one day this someone appeared in her life, met her, went for a walk and offered her an ill-fated ring! Of course, she told my master about it. He was stunned naturally, but he didn’t even lift a finger to stop her! How do you like it? It was obviously not ‘wow-wow!’ but ‘woof-woof’! In the end, she never knew he loved her, and I never understood why he didn’t tell her anything. Was he so greedy not to buy her the ring?

The last time, I saw her in late autumn. We met in the courtyard, as usual, and went to the park. She looked even more beautiful, but quite sad. In the park, suddenly citing tiredness, she sat down on a bench. I watched her carefully. She was about to say something very important. For her and for both of them. There was an excruciating pause. She was silent. And he was silent. I tried my best to make her talk. I was twirling at her feet, wagging my tail, hypnotizing her with my eyes, and then I couldn’t stand it anymore, and, as a result, I even barked! However, she didn’t understand me! She sighed heavily, got up abruptly and said she had to go…

We stood outside her house, saying goodbye. She left us… forever… At first, I thought he would call to say he loved her, because he really loved her! Yes, he did. You should have seen at what speed he jumped up from the sofa every time the phone rang, and how hopefully he said “Hello!”, and how dark he grew immediately, having realized it wasn’t SHE.

Now, tell me, do dogs behave like that? And one day I became so brutalized that I walked up to my master and bit him. He didn’t understand why, apparently, and got offended…

I tried to do my best to reconcile them. When my master took me for a walk, I dragged him to her house, and we were wandering under the trees of the courtyard where she had used to come out smiling. I tried to find her by smell, but remember the winds that were blowing that autumn! Soon the snow began falling, sweeping away the traces of the Past, and winter came. She left us forever. And mind you, without ‘woof-woof’…

I have never understood human nature and probably I will never do. But why people, who, unlike dogs, have the gift of speech, are not able to understand themselves and each other just to be happy?

    August 1996

11. Come on!

I worked at a luxury college as an elementary school teacher. I was twenty-five years old, full of hopes and plans for the future. Life pampered me. I never denied anything to myself and got all I wanted. Troubles bypassed me, and I felt happy.

That college was located not far from the city, on the shore of a beautiful small lake in a pine forest. We accepted children whose parents could pay a substantial tuition fee for a year, carried out according to the usual school curriculum, apart from optional courses and extra-activities, and the children lived there for the whole school year, although parents could, of course, take them home for weekends and holidays. We had very tasty food. The dormitories were furnished as well as luxury rooms of the five-stars hotels, but in various fairy tales design. The pupils used to pass their free time playing, going for walks and generally doing whatever they wanted, since almost nothing was forbidden to them.

That year I was recruiting the first class, afraid of being unable to communicate with the kids ‘in the same language’. However, I adapted quickly enough, and everything went perfectly. The class turned out to be friendly, the children were capable.

***