Читать книгу Chronicles of the Coast, or Solveig’s Song. Realistic fantasy - Larisa Sugatova - Страница 3

Life doesn’t stand still, everything flows, everything changes. It would seem so simple, a river of time flowing. But sometimes something unexpected happens that we never thought it would.

People have always strived for the unknown. I, too, wanted to go on a distant journey. When the opportunity arose, I really hoped that it would be exciting and enjoyable.

Construction detachment was to be my summer practice. I transferred to the second year of the paramedic department and in the near future I planned to tie my life to work in the ambulance service. The choice between working for a month in the admissions office of our college or going to the cold Sea of Okhotsk to harvest fish for two months was almost obvious to me.

Some vague doubts tormented me, but I did not listen to them, and I decided to go halfway across the country to the Far East. I should have wondered if it was necessary to leave my family and home and go to the ends of the earth.

I wanted to see the world, I tried to think so, although there was a more compelling reason. I didn’t know how things would turn out at the time.

At the end of July I packed my simple luggage – a small bag with things and went to the regional center, where I studied at the place of our meeting. There we got on a bus and drove to the next town, where the airport we needed was located.

At first the streets of our city floated by the bus windows, then large wide fields, birch woods, sometimes alternating with small towns and villages. In Novosibirsk, at the airport, we were pleased to see a large plane. It is much more pleasant to fly on such an airplane than on a small one. After a few hours during our connecting flight we were able to relax and have a snack. A couple of hours later the plane was waiting for us again.

A few hours of flight and finally the clouds disappeared, then there were little boxes of what looked like toy houses, the plane shook a lot, and my ears perked up occasionally. The long-awaited landing.

In Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk we found an unpleasant grey sky and drizzle. We left the warm, dry plane and immediately felt the full brunt of the wet and dampness all around us.

The air, filled with moisture, seemed to envelop us in watery dust, turning now into a dense fog, now into rain. From the airport in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk we took the bus to a local hotel.

For a few days we had to wait for the boat, as it turned out, it sailed twice a week to the island we needed to get to. The three days passed pretty quickly. Walks around the small town brightened up our wait.

We arrived at the seaport in the morning. The warm rays of sunshine warmed everything around us. They were a surprise after the constant shallow, cold rain. A bright yet translucent light flooded the pier. It was an unimaginably beautiful sight. The turquoise-colored light came from the water and was striking in its splendor, the hint of green in it adding to the mystery. Apparently so much green hovered in the air because of the sun reflecting off the sea water. Fat seagulls were loudly shouting over each other like bazaar vendors. We had to wait half a day to board the ship.

During the wait everyone managed to get burnt under the scorching rays of the sun. My clothes were sticking to my chest and back, and my stomach was rumbling. The girls and I were propped up in the corner of the building by the water, which was also green with a faint whiff of mud. I leaned my back against the wall, hoping to get some coolness from the concrete slab, but it didn’t help much. My short, dark blue shorts, tight around the hips, and the white T-shirt allowed some of the breeze to blow. These are my favorite shorts. My father brought them back for me from a business trip when he went to Belarus. A white T-shirt in the heat was the best thing I could choose from my poor closet to wear in this heat.

A light breeze occasionally brought a little relief, pleasantly cooling my bare neck, arms, and legs. I gathered my soft blond hair into a ponytail the morning before we took the bus to the port.

– Girl! Hey!» I turned around and saw a strange-looking guy from our troop smiling at me. Embarrassed, I smiled back, nodded and looked questioningly at my traveling companion Lena. She shrugged her shoulders:

– I don’t know him. I think he’s from Polytechnic.

A few students walked by, chewing pies as they went. The smell of food hit my nose, aggravated my hunger, and my mouth filled with saliva.

– I suggest we run out for pies, girls,» I looked questioningly at my new friends. We discounted and sent messengers. In ten minutes the delicious pastries were melting in the mouth of each of us. We were very hungry, and the pies were delicious.

Finally the boarding was announced. A buzz of excitement swept through everyone. Half-asleep, soaked from the heat, we stepped onto the ship. I felt that my life was somehow incomprehensibly changing. Something had happened, though nothing had changed around me. The sun was still shining brightly, and the glitter of the water hurt my eyes a little. With relief and joy we went to our cabin. With one of the girls we had stuck together all the way from the point of departure. She was one of the girls I became friends with, Lena from Polytechnic. We were joined by two other girls from another department at my college. We get acquainted, Alla and another Lena. They are midwives. It doesn’t take us very long to swim. They say it won’t take more than a day, tomorrow we’ll already be there.

The ship departed from the pier, everything was so unusual. I stood on the deck for a long time. There are many of our students here, I did not know all of them, but I recognized their faces. Our construction team is made up of students from different universities of the region. From my group I was the only one, but it did not embarrass me. We got to know the girls from our cabin and a few others, and we kept in touch, because in the days before we had shared a room in the hotel, while waiting for the boat.

The water surface behind the stern was blue-black, with no hint of green. The ship was in the open sea, there was black water all around. How everything changed when the shore disappeared from view. We were standing next to a boy from our troop. He was from Biysk. We admired the view, discussed the water and the sunset. A sunny road now appeared on the black smooth surface.

– Beautiful, isn’t it? – he asked, pointing with a nod at the setting sun reflected in the water.

– Yes, it is! – I nodded.

– Have you ever noticed that names have colors? Every name is different, he asked.

– Always. For example, Vladimir’s name is light blue, Peter’s is black, and Marina’s is red. We discussed this at length. It was strange that someone shared my thoughts on the matter. I hadn’t encountered people like that before.

Touching the locket around my neck with my fingers, I put my palm around it. The silver one, with the blue stone in the middle, was a gift from my father that reminded me of home. My father passed away three years ago because of a heart attack. I took it very hard. Now my mother and little nephew Maksimka were at home, and I missed them desperately.

By the evening of the next day we saw land on the horizon. Hooray! I really do not mind the trip, but poor Alla since sailing yellow-green, not eating anything at all due to nausea. And the girls and I went to a restaurant, where we ordered ourselves a crab salad.

When the ship stopped, everyone was waiting for their turn to leave our temporary shelter. We boarded the barge, sailed up to the pier, and went ashore. «Whale Village» I read the inscription in big letters above the entrance to the pier. We were swaying mercilessly from side to side on the ground, and we walked and laughed merrily.