Imprint of Heart. Illumination with love

“Your friends are just as proud,” Igor said when they were already calmly going to swim. “My job is to teach you how to swim.”

The love story ended literally when she boarded the plane. Many-voiced and multicolored Moscow met Lucy hospitably and happily. Lucy took a taxi and asked to bring to the hotel near the exhibition, hoping to stay three days in the capital. The hotel administrator – a pretty dyed brunette – smiled and said:

“There is one luxury room in a double room for hundred dollars a day.”

She did not have to choose, and Lucy paid ahead in three days. She went up to the third floor, opened the door of the hotel room and looked around. From a small but spacious hallway with a refrigerator and wardrobe, the door led to the bedroom, living room and bathroom.

In the bedroom there was a bed, two bedside tables, an armchair and a chair. The room could be called “blue”, as the wallpaper, the bedspread on the beds, the upholstery of the furniture and the curtains on the windows were blue. The furniture was modern, low, polished. In the living room there was a high cabinet, a table, a sofa, four chairs, a plasma TV and a telephone. Lucy put things on and, without undressing, lay down on the bed. She wanted to rest after a tiring road.

She seemed to doze off. The feeling of hunger made her wake up. She took a bath with pleasure.

“I’ll put on something especially elegant to look more attractive and cute than ever,” she said aloud.

Once again, having reconsidered her things, Lucy opted for a bright colored blouse with short sleeves-wings and a light, sports skirt; she put on her shoulders a colorful, shortened jacket.

She went to the mirror: a young, elegant woman was looking at her. Lucy combed her hair, slightly tinted her lips with a toned lipstick of Yves Rocher, picked up her purse and thought.

“We have to figure out where to go first. Dine and then… Cover as much as possible, so you need a solid plan,” she reasoned.

For three days Lucy managed to visit many places: the Tretyakov Gallery, the Moscow Art Theater, and the Beauty House at her plastic surgeon; managed to bypass the hypermarkets and department stores, bought some of the things for father and herself.

From Moscow she called Alex twice. At the airport he met, helped carry the suitcases. The taxi was already waiting at the bus stop. Alex admired the works of contemporary artists, the appearance and tan of Lucy.

“Next time, we’ll go together. It’s bad for you to sunbathe a lot, you look like a movie star, and it scares me. I can imagine what was going on in Moscow when you were walking down the street.”

“Stop joking. I was so looking forward to this meeting, hoping to see you more intelligent. We will never find a common language. I realized…”

Lucy did not finish, as the taxi braked sharply. Because of the sudden stop, she lost the thread, what she was talking about, yes it was and to nothing, since he did not listen, but looked out the window.

“You seem to be interested in something more than I do. Then why come to meet me, since we do not understand each other,” she added.

Then he distracted from the examination of his hands and said, hypnotizing the girl:

“Come to me.”

Everything became clear to her, and she decided not to tell her father about the time of her return and agreed to stay with him for a couple of days, but changed her mind.

4. Visible Windows

Father met Lucy as usual with questions: “How did you get there? How did you rest? Where did you go to Moscow? What was the most memorable? How is your health?”

For a long time she retold the screenplay “Like the gods…” with the participation of folk artists, and herself tensely thought: “What has happened? Whence this cold? Alex was right, why did I go to the south? It would have been better if I stayed in the city to avoid conflict.”

Her father took the excitement with which she talked about the performance she saw, fatigue and overwork of her daughter, but, despite this, he asked:

“Lucy, what happened?” It seems to me that you are ill. You do not say something. Maybe you have complications at work? You’re very worried. Before you left, you had not been so nervous.

After these words, she could not stand it and burst into tears: “Here’s how it always is. My father understands me even more than I do myself.”

The next day she felt unwell. She wanted to call Alex, but he did not say if he wanted to hear her.

“Perhaps during my trip to the south he had another girl. No. So it can not go on. You can go crazy with the unknown. It is necessary to find out the relationship. Does he want to continue meeting or decided that I no longer want to see him? Let it be so, but I will say this first…”

This day Alex was loaded to the limit. It all began in the morning. He did not have time to appear in the shop, as a replacement master came up to him and said in a businesslike manner:

“You know what, Alex, two newcomers will come to our workshop today and we’ll have to debug the machine tools with programmed control. Actually, I already have watched them. They’re fine, but without you I can not let the guys go to work. You, Alex, have ‘golden hands’, ” she patted him on the shoulder. “Check the machines, please. Do not forget safety. In a word, do everything as expected. Young people need to be taught!”

“Young people need to be taught,” the last words of the master sounded in Alex’s mind.

He sat down at the computer. He had to check every machine in all working positions.

While he was working, the cell phone flashed Lucy’s number several times, but he was busy and did not answer. When released, he dialed the number himself, but no one picked up the phone.

After work, Alex went to her house: “Maybe something has happened? I am guilty myself, did not agree to a meeting in a human way.”

Lucy was alone. She met him in a light blue home dressing gown. Her hair was neatly stabbed; she looked very cute at home.

“I want to talk with you seriously,” she began first, when he came and sat down at the table in the kitchen, but Alex felt her voice tremble. “What kind of change? If you decided to part with me, then tell me honestly, and we will stop seeing each other. If you have another woman, tell me, why did you come to me?”

“Do not worry, I like you as before, but I thought that after a trip to the south, you had no desire to meet. I was busy, so I did not answer calls, but I came to you myself. If you want, we’ll go, take a walk or go to the movies, or better to a concert. The ensemble ‘Young Voices’ came on tour.”

“No, I see, you’re tired, sit down, I’ll pour you some tea and, please, do not refuse!”

Lucy set before Alex a plate of soup and a hot dish with meat. He ate everything, because he was really hungry.

“Yes, Lucy, you are an amazing person,” he said. “I love girls with a character.”

“I have adequate feelings for you,” she laughed.

Never did any of the girls with whom Alex was familiar before her liked him so much. The desire to make her an offer to marry him appeared with him when she was in the south, but he decided to wait.

“It is necessary to check the feelings. Lucy is a very nice girl and she will surely find a boyfriend, so if I’ll be in a hurry, can cause antipathy,” Alexey reasoned in a secret.

He stayed with her not for long, they still sat in the hall on the couch, listened to the music, Lucy showed him the albums of painting brought from Moscow.

They kissed and feelings seized Alexey when she offered to show him a red night dressing gown.

“French, look how handsome! Chanel,” she pulled out of the bedroom a coat rack with a nightgown on straps. “Try it on?”

“Let me touch,” Alexey got up and moved towards the bedroom, but then she blocked his way. “Come on… You allow me to smoke with you?”

“As you want.”

He lit a cigarette and went out into the kitchen again. He began to shake the ashes into a metal ashtray in the shape of a snake. Then he came back and pushed the curtains in the bedroom, and she was already dressed in a silk, blood-red shirt and lay on the bed on her side, leaning her elbows on the pillow. All the bends of the fragile body loomed. He imagined a fire in the snow from the sight of such a dazzling and burning picture. They actually froze from the air conditioner, which was switched on at full power. It seemed to him little – plus sixteen, but she forbade increasing degrees, and to smooth the trouble, she said:

“I have Crimean wine. Let’s try?”

“Prepare me something stronger to drink. Vodka can be mixed with this compote.”