Читать книгу Maitreya. The Connection the Visible and the Invisible - Elah - Страница 10

The alarm rang on my phone. I woke up with a feeling of something important that I should understand. Something important was in the dream… I laid there for a few minutes, trying to remember – did not happen. “Maybe I’ll remember later in the day,” I consoled myself and went to wash.

Today it was cloudy. The last days the sun was shining far too often for my city, and now, as usual, the rain will be. I was surprised by my internal discipline in my mind today: “first I wash my face take a shower, then want to cook for breakfast: salad toasted bread with cheese and coffee. Arthur comes a quarter to nine in the morning. I have an hour; this time is enough to prepare.”

When Arthur called, I was almost ready. I finished tint my lips and took one of the folders in the drawers of my desk to put in it yesterday’s sheets, printed on work, and my sketches that I promised to show Arthur. Then I quickly put on my raincoat and shoes, went out, closed the apartment and went down to the yard. In fact, the new job was close, I could walk there, and not ride, but in this weather, I was glad to get in the car.

Arthur got out of the car towards me, and I instinctively ran into his arms. He became the very close, dear person for me for just a couple of days.

“Good morning, I’ve missed you,” Arthur hugged and kissed me.

“Hi! I’ve missed you too,” I clung to him and felt the pounding of his heart.

Time seemed to have stopped. I closed my eyes and disappeared in a wave of warmth and love that enveloped us both, and woke up only when heard the voice of Arthur,

“Let’s go.”

“Yes, of course.”

At work, Irina already sat behind the reception office. Maxim and the two boys were in the mini kitchen; her door was wide open. We said Hello Irina and went in the office of Arthur.

I put my folder on the table, and then took off my raincoat; Arthur hung it in the wardrobe.

“You promised to show me your drawings today.”

“I took them, as promised. You can see,” finding the folder I gave the sketches to Arthur.

“Wow, you portrayed us! We are very similar to ourselves here. I haven’t even seen Irina with glasses; now she will buy the same glasses for sure. You noticed how to work in a pair Yegor and Mironov. Usually what happens: Yegor holds everything, and Vasily determines the installation point according to the drawing and puts a mark there. And Max’s favorite position is to sit on the desk chair in the office, holding hands behind the head. How did you know, if you’ve never seen him like this? And I love going through the rooms with a cup of coffee.”

I devoured every word of Arthur. When I give someone to look at my work, I worry every time. And yet I observe how a person watches, what he says.

It is important to be able to feel another person to capture its image not only with the eyes but with the heart. When I was able to feel another person, I can draw it. I don’t think about how I’ll draw someone. I’m just starting to draw, and the image of the man himself evolves and begins to manifest itself on paper, canvas. The images of each of you appeared as you see. I wonder what else Irina and others will say about these sketches. Did I be able to catch their images?

“In the morning we usually meet in the kitchenette. All employees gather there; everyone is drinking coffee or tea, and at the same time, we discuss what we have done and not done, make a schedule of work for today. Let’s go to all, and show drawings, you not against?” Arthur offered.

We went to the kitchenette.

“Hi!” Arthur said when we came in.

“Good morning,” I smiled.

“Hello! Hi!” everybody greeted us.

“Coffee-tea – join us,” Maxim gladly was drinking coffee from his cup.

Indeed, all gathered here, except the Vasily and Yegor, who still worked outside of the city.

“We discussed something here; I’ll say you later in my office. Tell us, how are you doing? Alexandra, how was your first day of work went?”

“She portrayed us,” Arthur answered for me.

“This is something new on the firm. Can I see pictures?” Maxim asked in surprise.

I handed him the drawings.

“You just look at our Irene – no one can even come close to her if she wears these glasses,” Maxim gave the drawing Irina.

The others quickly crowded around Irina; they wanted to see, too.

“Folks, I want these glasses. I’ll wear them, and you will unquestioningly obey me,” threatened Irina.

“In the picture, you are very similar yourself, but you seem very strict on it,” replied the collective.

“Irina, we love you. You can pretend to be arbitrarily strict, but we know that you are good,” said Armen Georgievich; he was the eldest of us. I already knew that he is engaged in supply issues.

Irina smiled, and beautiful dimples appeared on her cheeks. She replied Armen Georgievich,

“You are a wise sparrow who knows life, Armen Georgievich. No one can cheat you.”

“Why does the sparrow take the above – I’m an eagle,” said Armen Georgievich. He tried to pretend to be the eagle and thrust out chest. His belly still left more than his chest, and it looked funny. We all laughed, and Armen Georgievich, too.

The other two drawing went hand.

“View at least, what the Vasily and Yegorka are doing; we haven’t seen them for about a month,” gathered said about the drawings of the manor. “Wow, here is a great mansion. And who only builds such mansions….”

“You caught to the point our leaders – they are always looking for something new. And Maxim Vitalyevich loves to sit in his chair, holding hands behind the head.”

“And I like to walk with a cup of coffee at the office,” Arthur has joined the conversation.

“It’s true,” confirmed Irina. “Alexandra, can I show at home how are you have portrayed me?”

I looked at Arthur and realized that to decide me.

“Of course, Irina,” I said to her.

“Sasha, what can I do to have you paint my portrait?” Armen Georgievich immediately asked.

“Nothing specifically, Armen Georgievich. I’ll be watching you and the others whom I haven’t painted yet. If you want, I can portray each,” I replied.

“Of course we want,” the others said me.

“No one has still ‘joined’ so in our company. Well done, Alexandra,” Maxim said. “Well, friends, lifted spirits, now for work.”

All began to disperse. Arthur and I returned to his office.

“Take my laptop. What’s in it, you know,” Arthur unfolded to me the laptop. “Turn it on; I’ll show you the password. Now I have to go to Max; you are left to work alone. You can work with my laptop or walk around the office, chat with people. I’ll be back by noon, and we are getting somewhere for lunch. After lunch Maxim and I will tell you our ideas for advertising. And you will think how to show these ideas. I propose this plan of work for today. Do you agree?”

“Yes, I agree.”

“Here’s my password,” Arthur showed me the password. “I went: I’ll be in the office of Maxim.”

Arthur left, I looked at the information on security systems, which the firm Absolute offers. It was hard for me to understand and remember it, so I decided to leave it as is until a conversation with Maxim and Arthur will take place, and turned off the laptop. As proposed by Arthur, I walked through the rooms of the office and talked with people. I did some sketches of the employees, starting with Armen Georgievich, and left them for a while with me. Half a day passed quickly. Arthur came out of the office Maxim and found me chatting with Irina at the reception desk.

“Let’s go eat,” he called.

“On the first floor, Pancake instead of Sushi bar was opened. Besides pancakes, there are also soups, meat, fish, and salads. The food is delicious; we have already explored. Visit, not regret,” advised Irina.

After listening to her advice, we went to the Pancake. As she said, there was a wide selection of everything, not only pancakes; it was possible to take something to your taste.

When we chose what to take, an unknown man began to pester me. He behaved casually, tried to clasp my shoulders, it was to me very unpleasant. I had felt a smell of alcohol – the drunken man, how he could be here. It all happened suddenly. Arthur quickly removed hands of the man from me and took him to the side. He said something the man, and it was gone. Arthur came back to me.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Where did he come here?”

“He left and never dare again to approach you,” Arthur took my hand and looked me in the eye.

We embraced and stood like that. I felt the heat of Arthur; it was just okay.

“Let’s eat; lunch ends,” said Arthur.

“Let’s otherwise we’ll stay hungry.”

We took pancakes with different fillings quickly ate and went back to the office. Armen Georgievich was sitting instead of Irina behind the reception office. Probably, Irina left to lunch.

Arthur and I went to the office of Maxim; Arthur opened the door.

“Maxim, we came.”

“Come in, I’m waiting for you,” said Maxim.

He pointed us sit down. I remembered that I left the printing sheets with an advertisement the office of Arthur.

“I forgot something, come now,” I apologized and walked out.

Taking in the office of Arthur sheets with the advertisement, I’m back.

“What did you forget?” asked Arthur.

“Sheets with the advertisement, we need to start with something,” I laid the papers on the desk.

“Maybe you’re right,” Arthur took the sheets, looked and handed it to Maxim.

Maxim did the same thing.

“I will not now ask your ideas, Alexandra. I will tell our thoughts,” Maxim said.

“The first thought is we gave the company the name Absolute. This name does not indicate the security system. The Absolute can be anywhere. There is even vodka Absolute. However, the absolute is our name. It came as if by itself, and we didn’t even have other options. Do you remember, Arthur?”

“Of course, I do, Max.”

The second moment: What can be the advertising company dealing with security systems? It can be a picture of a house with a slit, to show the location of sensors, and their functions; the other option – the image components of the security system in a circle; or an option that we see a man with a remote control, maybe something else. I am not going to list them all. Companies mostly use similar images for advertising, and they are not individual. Third thought: what could be the company logo? Many companies use their name as the logo, applying one of the standard fonts for writing name. But in this case, the firm does not have its own image, and she is one of many that are difficult to remember. By the moment we don’t have its image. Arthur and I chose for the main page of our company website the picture of the house with a cut, and our logo now is just our name in a particular font. Now you say, Arthur,” Maxim gave the floor to Arthur.

“Well,” said Arthur. “About the fact that we already have, Maxim said. I’ll tell you what we want now. We are not going to change the picture on the main page of the site for a while. The first thing to do is to develop another logo. We saw once, for example, the logo in which was depicted a tiger and company name on the right vertically. This logo is already something individual, memorable. We would not want really like an animal, but we need something that will unite the security system and the name of the company Absolute in one memorable image.”

I had thought for some reason about the man and threads, even imagined them for a brief moment.

“If it is not an animal, is that man?” I asked.

“That might be so. But we don’t want to limit you,” replied Arthur.

“Alexandra, we understand that this is a difficult job. We don’t know what it should be: people, house, alarm system. Maybe it’s so because we didn’t see these images. I suggest you think about and draw what will come to mind,” said Maxim.

“Well, I’ll try.”

I realized that the conversation was over, and stood up. The condition was odd; I wanted to leave and be alone. Arthur stood up too; I went to the exit; he followed me.

We went back to his office; he tried to hug me and say words of support,

“You can do it. You can see the main thing.”

“I’ll try, Arthur,” I looked at him, smiled and kissed him on the cheek. “Can I use your laptop? I want to see something.”

“Yes, of course. Then I’ll be back to Max; we need to continue working.”

“Okay.”

Arthur came out; I sat at the table and turned on the laptop. I was ashamed to admit it, but I didn’t quite understand what means the logo. Searching the Internet, I found that it is “the sign, emblem or symbol used by the enterprise… to increase awareness in society”, etc.

I also decided to see what mean the security system, the security, and the protection, but it gave me nothing. Then I began to look at the different logos what I found on the Internet. I wanted to see many different logos. Tired of viewing, I started to look the advertisement of security systems. Watching ad nauseam, I went to the mini kitchen to make some coffee. After a few minutes, I returned with a cup of coffee and a sheet on which were the mobile phones numbers of all employees. Irina gave me this sheet.

I took a blank sheet of paper and tried to paint a human and house. The security system would be too big for a logo, so I didn’t draw it. I put aside what drew, “was meditating” for a while over a cup of coffee, drank it. Then I took my sketches with the staff in the office; I had to finish them. Arthur came into the room and saw me doing it.

“How are you doing?” he asked and leaned over to me, hugging me by the shoulders.

“I don’t know yet.”

“The working day is over; I can take you home. And again I will need to return: there are unresolved questions”.

“I understood. If you still have to work, I go home by myself, walk at the same time. And then you, maybe, will be released sooner,” I suggested.

“Today I will take you home. You will go on a walk the other day and with me, okay?”

I remembered today a drunken man accosted me during lunch. Probably, an insistent offer Arthur had a relationship with it. There was something odd in the behavior of this man then, but what I could not realize.

“Well, let it be so, only you don’t stay out here too long.”

“I’ll try.”

I gathered my pictures, deciding to take it; Arthur turned off the laptop and found another folder for my drawings. I returned a coffee cup in the kitchenette.

We went down; Arthur took me home. He came on with me from the car and came to the entrance of my house. At the door, he kissed me hard on the lips. I was okay with it and didn’t want him to leave.

“Bye for now. I’ll call,” he said, releasing me from the embrace.

“It’s a pity you can’t stay.”

Standing on tiptoe, I kissed him on the cheek and then went up to my apartment.

Opening the door, I entered, thinking about Arthur. Again, swing: only that he was here, and now I’m alone. Sweet, aching feeling of love – I wanted or to be with loved ones, or tell someone about my feelings, or at least watch a movie about love.

I took off my coat and shoes, went into the living room, threw a folder with drawings on the coffee table, slumped on the couch with the remote and began to search a film about love, going through channels. Love, love, love… I was caught, like “fish on the hook.” Finding what I was looking for, I went to the kitchen to turn the kettle – still decided to have dinner.

In the kitchen, I made myself a sandwich, got chocolate, made tea, and took it all on the tray into the living room. I watched the movie, had dinner and thought about what Arthur was doing at the same time. Love in the film was very beautiful but unhappy. So many films are about unhappy love. I watched the movie and cried, and waited for a call Arthur.

He called almost as soon as the movie ended.

“Don’t you sleep yet?”

“No, I watched the movie and waited for you to call.”

“What is the film?”

“About love, it just ended. How are you?”

“There are issues, but we will solve them. Everything is fine in general.”

“Did you tire?”

“Your kiss would have quickly cured my fatigue.”

“Then come.”

“Not tonight, Sasha, although I wish you were here. Now go to sleep, sweet dreams. Tomorrow, as usual, I’ll pick you up.”

“And sweet dreams to you. I kiss you.”

“I do, too.”

It’s good that Arthur called me. He is the best! It’s a pity that he’s not coming. I looked at the table which was a tray of dishes from the dinner and the folder with the pictures – I took them with me and did nothing today. “How do I draw this logo? Now I couldn’t think about it. ‘The night brings counsel.’ I go to bed, and tomorrow we shall understand.”

I took the tray to the kitchen, washed the dishes, then bathed in the bathroom, brushed my teeth and went to bed.