Читать книгу Trilogy of Dhana and the Earth. Book one. End of the world - Andrey Prudkovskii - Страница 9

From the notes of Radek Reksovich about his childhood

Today I received a passport; I had to come up with a middle name. I couldn’t say the true name of my father! I told them to write Reksovich, because really the dog Rex was in my childhood instead of my father… This can be said to everyone. But the fact that it was my father – no one is supposed to know.

I decided to write down everything that happened to me in those years, especially since the fabulous events of my childhood are more and more covered with a veil of unreality, so soon I myself will stop believing in them… And one more thing: Valya’s mother gave me a present for my maturity – a crumpled student’s notebook where my father’s story is written in the clumsy handwriting. For many years this notebook was kept secretly from everyone… So, it’s time to put these notes in order!

Readers have already read Raa’s notes in previous chapters of the novel. Next are the diary entries of his son.

Our life in the city went according in the usual track: my mother left for work in the morning, my father was concerned with me. He told me about his homeland Dhana, and not with words, but directly with pictures through the mental channel. In addition, he read me fairy tales, which my mother bought for us. But he did not like to do this, because he did not understand how the plot of fairy tales is connected with his system of four TRUTHS. And we were happy, but our mother wasn’t…

Father thought that she would be pleased with his zeal in studying all, as he said, demonic secrets. He even found the technology for making pencils and paper in the encyclopedia, but he did not please my mom with it. Often she scolded him, as it seemed to me, for no reason. Father began to go on night walks so that mom could get enough sleep and rest from abuse.

Ra fell in love with the city at night, its deserted dark streets, bridges over a dirty black river, mysterious dead ends and stone stairs, still keeping the warmth of the day… He got acquainted with vagabonds, spending the night in the street, beggars – so he knew the life of the city.

Mom cried at night, hugged me tightly and it disturbed my sleep. The reasons for my mother’s insults were different, but, in my opinion, they were not worth her worries. One such case remained in my memory, as it led to tragic consequences.

Once, my mother reproached my father that he did not make money, like other husbands do. She said that he could have gotten the documents and some job, and that I could already be sent to the nursery. My father was very afraid that they would give me to a day nursery and make me a real demon there, so he decided to get money in the evenings when my mother came home from work. Once he even brought the money, and his mother was very pleased, kissed him and slept calmly that night. She would not be so calm if she knew how he got this money. The next night, my father returned home wounded…

For many days he laid sick, his mother looked after him and felt sorry for him. Then he told me what happened to him:

“I already knew what money looked like and why demons use it; from beggars and vagabonds I knew where to find it.” It was not difficult to get it with my abilities to transform my body! The source of the money was not far away, in a public building called a “store.” It is enough to stand on the side of the house where the young demoness was sitting and where the money was stored in a wooden box, and then, imperceptibly extending the hand, put it into the slot… and… you can safely take money when the demoness turns away to talk with the demons who approached her. I was sure that I did not offend the young demoness with my act, since I noticed that she did not need the money at all, she gave them to other demons before leaving her “work”. I was proud and hurried home to once again demonstrate to Alexandra my money, – my father told me.”

Bandits chase Ra.

And suddenly I noticed three demons who were following me. I involuntarily became interested in their thoughts. They talked about me:

“Dexterously stole!”

“He does not work on his territory!”

“Will we cut him in?”

“Too deft and too stupid. So dangerous!”

“So we’ll waste him?!”

“Yes, now he will turn to a wasteland. We’ll bury him there.”

I did not understand anything from their conversation. What kind of wastewere they talking about and why bury me? One thing I realized was that I had violated some demonic laws on hiring, unknown to me, but no one had explained them to me. Apparently, if I had been correctly hired, they would have determined the right territory for me, but I violated some territorial rights. By analogy, I remembered the battle of ants from different anthills for the territory, and I was scared. I ran.

Three of them rushed to catch me, but they have no chance. I was able to overtake even the ant! Then one of them took out a small object and, with it, made a small hole in the center of my body. At first I didn’t even understand why he did this, but then suddenly I felt that I could no longer run at the same speed. The hole in the body required me to concentrate on changing the blood flow through the vessels: some I had to squeeze, others, on the contrary, to expand. And when he made a second hole in me, I was no longer able to stay on my feet – this concentration required me to work on transforming my body. They came very close, began to inspect my clothes and took all the money I had earned. I held my breath.

“Well, dead?”

“Does not breathe.”

“Put him here – to the pit.”

Some rubbish was thrown over me. This, as I understand it, was a burial rite adopted for those who work in the foreign territory.

Only in the morning I got out of the pit and hardly stumbled to the house. Alexandra met me with a curse. I explained to her that I went to earn money, but unsuccessfully, and showed two holes in the middle of my body. She gasped and started processing these holes. Then I felt that I was dying – and died. So the malediction of Radogast happened for the third time.

I was again a spirit and soared over my dead body. But now I was not afraid to stay dead, because I knew the power of the magic of my demoness and believed that she would definitely bring me back to life. In addition, it was only the third attempt to kill me, and I knew that it would be truly deadly – the fourth.

This time I was not a spirit for long. The very next day, I noticed that my body relaxed unacceptably and that a thin stream of blood flows over the bandages with which Alexandra wrapped me. What will happen when all the blood flows out? Despite the pain, I had to crawl back into my body and put it in order. So, flying out of the body, and then coming back, I laid for about a month.

A month later, I got up. But then a new attack fell upon me. Alexandra brought a paper in which a face similar to mine was painted. She said that she could no longer protect me, since everyone was looking for me, and if they found her at home, she and her son would appearin a very bad situation. I realized that I needed to go somewhere, but I did not know where.

“It would be better if I had not a husband, but a dog! – she said in warm blood.”

This was the way out. I silently left the house and turned into a dog. That was great. I walked along the street and was not afraid that the so-called “law enforcement officers” recognize me, who, as Alexandra said, hunt me. But everything turned out to be not so simple: on one of the streets I felt a close danger and rushed with all my legs into the nearest gateway, thunder came from behind – they wanted to make a hole in me again. I heard disappointed thoughts of my pursuers behind the fence.

“What a huge and roving.”

“This can be very dangerous, we must trap it.”

The life of dogs in the city, as it turned out, also was regulated by the laws unknown to me, without knowing which I again found myself on the verge of death. My hope was again only on Alexandra – the only being who was kind to me. Having slipped out on the other side of the gateway, I set off back and laid down by the familiar door on the landing. I was not mistaken in my hopes. Alexandra let me into the apartment, fed and treated me very kindly.

Since then, a calm, happy life began. Alexandra loved me and often made me sleep with her in bed. My son immediately recognized me in the shape of the dog. When he was one year old, he already possessed a double, and perhaps, a triple vision, inherent in real people. Seeing how I love the child and take care of him, Alexandra calmly went to work, trusting my son to me. In order to prevent foreign demons from attacking me on the street, Alexandra bought me dog amulets (a collar and a leash) and explained that while my son is holding me on a leash, other demons have no right to offend me. I didn’t mind. And they gave me a dog name – Rex.

When my son grew up, I began to teach him everything that I knew myself. He turned out to be a wonderful student and soon knew about the four TRUTHS no worse than me.

Every summer we went to the village to see sister Masha. Sometimes we were taken by Alexandra herself, and sometimes by Aunt Valya. Valya and her daughter Lyubochka perfectly understood that I was not a real dog, but they did not tell anyone about it. Walking in the forest, we trained in transformations. My son learned to turn into a cat, similar to the one that lived with Aunt Masha. And Lyubochka could not turn into anyone but a chicken.

From an Alexandra’s letter to her sister Masha

Hello, Masha. I haven’t written to you for almost a year. A lot has happened here. In many ways, of course, it’s my own fault. As we returned from the village, my Rashka began to annoy me greatly. A healthy man, but he does nothing. Moreover, he began to walk at night somewhere. In general, I decided that it was time for him to get a job. Moreover, he has not only learnt to speak well, but also to read and to write. So one miserable morning I sent him to look for work. I wish I didn’t do that!!! He returned the next day, shot in two places.

As I later realized from the conversations of the neighbors about the robbery of the store, he “got a job” with the bandits. They used him and then shot him.

Now he is sought by both law enforcement officers and bandits. If they find him, it will be very bad for us. I went the entirestaircase in search of blood traces on Rashka’s way home, but found nothing. For a whole month I nursed him. And then I seriously talked to him. He understood everything and left.

Sometimes I really miss him, I think, how is he there? Where is he? For some reason, it seems to me that he is alive and well – then I am happy. And sometimes again despair flashes over me. I would probably be completely crazy, but here we got Rex. Imagine a beautiful adult intelligent dog that loves me and my son. I loved him just madly! Sometimes I feel ashamed that I love the dog more than my poortroubled Rashka. Nevertheless, this is so.

Soon I discovered that Rex is very good at caring for children. And then Valechka came, looked at him and said:

“A very smart dog. You cannot give your son in a day nursery, but leave him at Rex. I see that he is specially trained to care for children.”

I believed and do not regret.

My son is constantly with the dog. They walk together, play together, and they are never bored!

In the summer, I hope that the three of us will come to your place, and you will also meet our wonderful Rex.

Write, kiss you!

Yours, Alexandra.

From the notes of Radek Reksovich about his childhood

Radek and his father Ra, turned into a Rex dog.

I think that few people had such a happy childhood as mine. My parents not only loved me, but also my father was always a companion of all my children’s games. And he had much more opportunities for games than other people. After all, he was “transforming”, that is the one who can change his appearance. Usually he lived in the guise of a Rex dog, and even my mother did not know that he was he. In winter, we walked along the streets and backstreets of our city or sat at home, and he told me about his native land and about the magic of the number four. In summer, we spent whole days in the forest with the neighbor Lyuba, who was also “transforming” – she could turn into a big hen, but dreamed someday to become an eagle. I envied her for several years, since I myself did not know how to turn into anyone, and then I really liked Aunt Masha’s cat, and played with it for the whole summer. At the end of that summer, I managed to turn into a cat without much effort. Surprisingly, in the image of a cat, I also got claws sharp enough to climb trees easily. Now Lyuba was envious of me, and my father laughed, reassured her and said that he also did not know how to climb trees.

Yes, I forgot to say that the three of us communicated with each other only mentally, and in mental speech it is very difficult to hide any shades of our children’s feelings. So in the early years there were quarrels now and then, and father hardly reconciled us. He always said that this is the result of adherence to the number two, that we quarrel only because there are two of us, children. And when he is with us, then there are three of us, and quarreling is already more difficult. But when Aunt Valya, Lyuba’s mother, came, there were four of us, it was a real bliss. Lyuba’s mom did not know how to transform, but she was kind and was able to speak mentally. In her presence, Lyuba immediately ceased to envy me. The four of us walked through the forest, showed her our childish successes, sometimes, having played a bit, ran away, and Aunt Valya kept asking my father about his distant homeland. He was a complete mystery to her. She said that she could at first glance determine which country one or another person came from, but she could not “determine” my father.

Aunt Valya taught us all that even my dad couldn’t do – she taught us to play hide and seek. Do you think what is special in this? All children play hide and seek. Yes, all the children know how, but Lyuba and my dad didn’t know how, because it was too easy to think of someone who is hidden. And the whole point of the game was disappearing. Aunt Valya showed us how to defend one’s thoughts. It turned out to be very simple – just mentally “put yourself in a pan and cover with a lid.” Then you can’t hear anything yourself, and no one can hear you, and you can play hide and seek. And you can mentally drill a small hole in the pan wall – then you hear everything yourself, but still nobody hears you.

One day, dad heard a shepherd playing on a horn. He liked it so much that I had to go to the shepherd and find out where to get the horn. It turns out that the shepherd made it himself, so he made the same for us. Now dad sometimes retired on some glade, already in human form, and tried to learn some melodies on his horn.

But all good things come to an end. I remember the last summer of my childhood. I was already seven years old, in the fall I had to go to school. The weather was rainy, there was no Lyubochka. She had already finished fifth form, and she was sent to agricultural work with the whole class. Mom was sad and silent – her head hurt. Dad and I left for our favorite forest. It was damp and cold, and dad said we had to make a fire. I did not know how to make a fire without matches, and dad showed me how to mentally reach out to the invisible sun and, like a magnifying glass, focus its rays at the right point. I really enjoyed it. We trained with him, probably, for a whole week, while I began to make it a little.

And then on a rainy gray day we were back in the city. I thought that tomorrow my mother would lead me to school, but she did not lead me – she was completely sick, and I stayed at home to look after her. Doctors came to see us and examined mom, called from work, worried about some kind of report. Mom answered briefly and again lay indifferent, only asked to change a rag with cold water on her head.

So September passed, and in October the doctor came again and invited mom to go to the hospital for surgery. He said that the operation would definitely help mom, but my father and I saw his thoughts. The doctor was sure that mother would die soon, and he was very interested to find out what kind of disease was in her head.