Читать книгу The Island of Charon. Playing Another Reality. Antoine de Saint-Exupery Award - Alexandra Kryuchkova - Страница 14

1.1. Fishing nets

…Water, water, all around is water, and a panic horror seizes me. I try to float up to the surface, but for some reason I can’t, and… I am suffocating!

He woke me up. I opened my eyes and saw before me only the boundless starry Sky.

It instantly got dark on that Island.

«The Ocean comes here silently,» said the man grimly and held out his hand to me.

I got up from the white sand, just a little bit more and the hide tide would have swallowed me.

Besides…

«What’s this? Brrr! Whoo! What a nightmare! The Ocean threw a… fishing net on me?!»

I twitched and squeamishly threw it off.

«Hey!» I shouted to the man, who was moving away into the distance.

He turned around. I ran up to him and…

«Sorry! It seemed to me…»

He smiled. It was a strange feeling that I’d seen him somewhere… before. Probably… A familiar face? Or even a look? Otherwise, nothing special: tall, thin, black-eyed… without distinctive features. In a light shirt and blue shorts, with rosaries on the wrists and a pirate bandana on the head…

«Do you speak English?» I asked the stranger, and he nodded.

We slowly wandered along the Ocean to the beach cafe.

«I was on this Isle once upon a time,» I said. «I happened here accidentally, although… there are no accidents in life. I went on vacation to Cebu, met a compatriot, he spent the winter there, and we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood. We got on the ferry. We didn’t even know where it was sailing us. But I liked Camotes. There is some mystery in this Island!»

«And you have dreamt of coming back all your life?»

«Yes, but not all my life.»

«So, the man decided not to come back, didn’t he? That’s why you’re sad here all alone. Did you love him?»

«No, we didn’t have any relation, although, oddly enough, I sunk into his soul,» I smiled. «But did he have a soul? It’s a big question. He reminded me the main character of Charles Dickens’ „Christmas Carol“.»

«I haven’t read it.»

«An old man, an avid atheist and former financier. Many people called him a „secret millionaire“. He considered himself a brave Robinson, cause after retirement he leased a cool apartment in the center of our city, traveling abroad around Asia: Thailand, Indonesia, Bali, Philippines and so on. He aspired to female companionship. I think he felt very lonely. His parents died long ago, he got a divorce, and his only daughter emigrated to Italy. He certainly lacked love, care and attention. Perhaps, because of the internal conflict „I want to, but for my age I can’t“, he became so angry and intolerant towards others’ opinion. Everyone around annoyed him, everything went wrong. By the way, his name was Alex. And what’s your name?»

The man stopped and looked into my eyes.

«Yanis. And yours?»

For some reason, his gaze made me feel uneasy.

«Alice. But is your name a Greek one?» I asked, and Yanis nodded smiling, and I supposed, «So, you moved here from Greece, didn’t you?»

«Yes…»

«I often spent my holidays in Greece, on the islands. It is your cafe on the beach, isn’t it?»

Yanis nodded again and offered to come in for a bite to eat. I sat down at a table, he brought me his fish menu.

«Are you a fisher or just buying fish in the market?»

«I fish myself,» Yanis grinned.

«So, it was your net that the Ocean threw over me!?» I got laughed.

«Correct! I set up nets around the Island every night!»

«Isn’t the net too big for the fish? Do you catch mermaids?» I joked and thought that I wasn’t hungry. «Would you bring me some shrimp to try?»

Yanis nodded again, and at the same moment I heard children’s sobs.

1.2. The Girl who was looking for her mother

I turned around and noticed, as if from nowhere, a dark-haired small girl of about five in a translucent pink dress appeared on the shore. She looked out to the Ocean, but no one was near her.

«MA-MA-aaaa!!!» her heart-rending scream rang out.

I looked at Yanis. His face seemed to get darkened, but he didn’t even move.

I jumped up from the table and ran to the Girl.

«Hey!» I hugged her by the shoulders. «What’s happened?»

The Girl sobbed, repeating just one word «Mom!», but she did not pay any attention to me.

«What’s about your mom?» I asked. «Where is she? In the Ocean? What is your name?»

The Girl either did not understand, or did not hear me, she continued to sob. And the Ocean was still quiet and completely empty. Not a soul. Neither in it, nor on the shore. Except us, of course.

I returned to the Yanis’ cafe, but he disappeared, apparently, left for shrimp.

The Ocean had already flooded part of the shore, and I rushed to the stairs by swimming. I climbed up the rock, ran to the reception of the strawy hotel and rang the bell. But no one showed up.

«Hey!» I screamed. «Is anybody here? Help! There’s a small girl on the shore! She’s lost her mother!»

But an ominous silence was rising in answer.

I ran back to the stairs.

«Poor Girl! And what if she became food for fishes in this Pacific – from all points of view – Ocean after her mother?! God forbid!»

But when I got out of water to a piece of the not yet flooded shore, the Girl was nowhere to be seen…

Shocked, I stood on the shore and looked into the Ocean. It continued to swallow the Island silently, when the voice came suddenly from right behind me.

«Shrimps?»

«The Girl…» I whispered in despair.

«She’ll be back!»

Yanis gently touched my hand and led me away.

1.3. The Boy who asked for a Lantern

By 10:00 p.m. I became definitely alive. Firstly, the 12-hour time difference between the Island and my country affected. Secondly, during the day it was incredibly hot here and absolutely unbearable to stay out on the Sun.

It seemed that life on the Island had not changed at all over the years, as did the strawy hotel, consisting of small-sized guest houses, in one of which I had spent the night waiting for the ferry to Cebu during my previous visit. But that time, following Alex, I was ready to call the guest house a «hut».

Thatched roof, bare walls, a small window, a table with a candlestick, a tiny bed and a narrow wardrobe… I noticed even then that there were no light bulbs in the lamps, and so far no one guessed to insert them!

As before, there was no tap for hot water in the shower, although the cold water got warmed naturally under the scorching Sun in storage tanks outside the house.

And what to say about air conditioners! – in the room I found only an ancient fan, but the electricity in the network disappeared somewhere.

And more! I double-checked, including the reception, there was still no Internet there.

However, perhaps the charm of the lost in the Ocean Island, the riddle of which I had to solve, was precisely in such wildness and complete isolation from civilization…

Planning my vacation, I decided to explore Camotes thoroughly, because the last time we had had to escape from the Island the very next morning for having no cash. By the way, no cards were still acceptable there.

I stepped out of the hut into deep darkness and wandered towards the light of a torch burning at the reception like an eternal flame.

In fact, several torches were always available there so that any tourist could take them out if felt like walking around the Island at night.

I got the opportunity to light my path and stepped out the gates to a dirty road, on both sides of which towered long-legged palm trees, piercing the black-book Sky.

Turning to the left, I walked towards the pier, getting used to the darkness, but suddenly a boy jumped out of unknown to me species of the tropical thickets. He seemed to be about seven years old and looked like a homeless grimy beggar, easily found along the streets of big cities. The Boy grabbed my hand and began to beg, shouting out the same word in almost all languages of the world. And that word was…

«Lantern!»

Understanding nothing, I took a couple of coins out of my pocket and handed them to the Boy.

However, to my greatest surprise, having seen the coins, the beggar squeamishly threw them into the thickets, twisted his finger at his temple giggling, and then he shouted out again,

«LANTERN!!!»

1.4. The Old Man with black birds

I felt uneasy, but at the same moment I heard someone’s steps from the left. A hunched male figure was approaching us from the pier side, and soon a barefoot, gray-haired Old Man in linen clothes, with a wooden walking stick in one hand and a cage with black birds in the other, stopped near by.

«Good evening,» I said to break the oppressive silence. «Can I help you?»

The Old Man chuckled and continued to scan me, and the Boy giggled again.

Suddenly, a woman, apparently the boy’s mother, appeared out of nowhere. She bowed deeply to the Old Man, muttered something in the local dialect, then grabbed her son by the arm, and they instantly disappeared into the thickets.

I felt completely uneasy and stood as if paralyzed. I could not move from fear.

«What do you want, my dear Soul?» the Old Man asked distinctly, in an authoritative voice.

My heart began to beat wildly.

Complete chaos reigned in my head, but for some reason I thought about the Fisherman. I wanted Yanis to appear right next to me, but I kept silent.

The Old Man, realizing that he was unlikely to wait for my answer, turned around and hobbled further. I looked after him, still unable to recover, as someone’s hand fell on my shoulder, and I screamed in surprise.

«Alice?» I heard a familiar voice, turned back and saw Yanis.

He graciously escorted me «home», said goodbye and disappeared.