Читать книгу Summer. Day. Butterfly. Stories - Эдуард Диа Диникин - Страница 2

It happened when I was seven years old. For some unknown reason, I was alone in the cemetery – my parents were far away. Actually, I had never liked to walk in such special places, looking at flowers, photos, dates, and other nonsense. But something brought me there that day. Maybe it was a white butterfly which I tried to catch unsuccessfully…

There was quiet, deserted and cool despite the summer heat. I felt happy as always when I was alone – no one taught me how to live and what to do. No restrictions, no permits, no guilt, no regrets. The butterfly whirled carefree in the air, pulling me further and further. I wasn’t a collector – I wanted it just for fun. And in that moment when I was ready to grab my prey, I heard a strange noise on the left, a rustle of some kind.

I looked down and froze with the horror – there was a big man with a naked torso who had half climbed out of a grave. He was dark gray – I saw it clearly, it wasn’t a nightmare. And the contrast of his unnatural color with the outside vivid world terrified me more else. Despite the stable position, the body of the dark gray man was very tense – obviously, it took a lot of effort for him to struggle his way out from the underground…

Of course, for a seven-year-old boy, it was too much. So, if I wasn’t seven but seventy-seven then I would die from the surprise. Anyway, my emotions from the meeting with the living dead are unforgettable: fear covered me like a huge cold wave, an internal shiver swept through my body, the ice clenched my throat so I couldn’t even breathe much less to scream.

The dark gray man was stuck and his struggling arms rested on the ground as if some mighty force prevented him from completely freeing himself. He looked forward ominously as he searched something or…somebody. A sudden thought pierced my mind – he scanned me! May be, to return to this world, he had to leave a replacement in the grave – a sacrifice who would atone for his sins!

Time had stopped. I understood this was the end. No one could help me to survive. There was nothing except death and me. My short life as a kaleidoscope picture crumbled into many colored pieces before me – only a small white spot flashed in front of my bleary eyes…

And in that moment when I had almost lost consciousness the white spot whirling carefree in the air, finally fell down on the face of the dark gray man. He didn’t even move to brush the butterfly away.

And then I realized at once that the man was not the living dead.

Actually, it wasn’t a human at all but a big piece of dark gray marble. Someone “smart” made the original decision to install a half-body human figure monument on the grave. And the strange noise that I heard was merely an ordinary mouse’s rustle. That’s it.

I turned my head up to the sky, took a deep breath, felt the blood running through my veins again, and understood that time is the same illusion as our fears. Since the whole event seemed like an eternity for me but really it took the same amount of seconds as it takes to read these words: summer, day, butterfly.