Читать книгу Ruby Chef. Prose in English - Natalia Patratskaya - Страница 5

The day was frosty. The sun was shining. The snow creaked under my feet. Rima went and did not feel the cold. Serfdom of personal dependence on Alex collapsed in an instant. She sighed freely from sheer independence. She poured all the beads of words in front of him. And he arrogant.

Yes, elementary arrogant. She was sad for about five minutes, as if lost, then she realized that everything was normal. There was nothing to praise him. The laudatory friend Alex quickly deteriorated. Or maybe she wanted it?

There is no need to talk about it now! She drove the station called “Alex”. And the frost quickly cooled her involuntary annoyance. What she didn’t want was to write and tell him the praises. She was exhausted in this regard, but she didn’t want to scold either. That was, that was, and there is nobody.

At the end of a frosty day, Alex appeared. He was waiting for Rimma at the entrance door from the street. He walked through the creaking snow like a pendulum. He gazed with hope in his eyes at the people coming out of the beautiful building. He knew that he had a happy rival, and how he felt that he was no longer his rival.

He loved Rimma through the mist of relationships.

Alex deftly grabbed Rimma’s arm and led him along the old alley. Linden Alley saw a lot of couples in her lifetime, and this pair was familiar to her. They reached the old cinema and stopped. The snow-covered square was decorated with a magnificent likeness of spruce. The green cone shimmered with lights of garlands of all colors of the rainbow. People were not around. Lonely couple.

Festive cone spruce. Evening frost. Cars shone with headlights along the roads. Alex touched Rimma’s hand. He looked into her eyes. But her eyes declined to meet. She stood next to him, but was clearly absent. She wriggled out of his hands. She didn’t want to tell him anything. She was afraid to speak, so as not to praise him, and went along the linden alley with gnarled branches of time. He went near her.

A screen appeared in front of their eyes.

The bluish screen with flying snowflakes was a little different from reality. Rimma involuntarily touched the screen with her glove. The screen swallowed her. Alex tried to enter the screen after Rimma, but the screen rejected it.

Rimma rose on the screen above the festive square. Alex saw her disappearance, but could not do anything. He was powerless over incomprehensible power. Well, the flying saucer would have taken Rimma from him, but she was nobly carried to the cold sky by a screen with snowflakes.

The screen hovered for a second over the cone of the holiday fir and disappeared into the dark sky. A single flying screen could hold one person, and he chose Rimma. And she, accustomed to flying on a computer screen, was not afraid of small flying objects. Now she was sitting in a narrow chair in a narrow cabin with transparent walls. The girl felt the utter unreality of the moment.

Surprisingly, she was very comfortable. She saw below the lights of the city, flashing garlands of highways. Fear did not have time to appear. The surprise of the unreality of what was happening was replaced by the question: where is she? But this question also disappeared as soon as she touched the glove wall with her hand.

No, Rimma did not fly out of the cab.

Transparent walls with floating snowflakes did not swallow it again, it remained inside an incomprehensible aircraft. The flying screen landed on a forest clearing among wonderful fir trees and quite real ones.

The girl felt cold and got up from the chair, which quickly moved away from her to the side along with the screen of the outer wall of the cabin.

She was in the dark of the night in an old forest with huge firs. Giant tents fir surrounded her from all sides. From – under the tent of spruce – two dwarfs came out in bright caps. They simultaneously worshiped Rimma. She shuddered in surprise. The dwarves led her along a frosty path.

A small palace with a large number of spiers on the roof appeared among the firs. The gates went in different directions when they appeared, and the company entered the courtyard of the frosty palace. Rimma noticed that the spiers on the house resemble inverted icicles. There was no one inside the house except them. A flat screen monitor hung on one wall. Rimma took the remote control, turned on the screen.

A face with long, gray strands of hair appeared on the screen.

– Rimma, I am Nikolai Nikitich, president of the Association of non-standard aircraft. How did you like the flight in the snow screen?

– I liked your gray wig, – barely opening her lips, said Rimma.

– Well. In this house you will stay until morning. The gnomes, or rather the Lilliputians from our squad of testers of small aircraft, will go about their business.

The screen went blank. Gnomes are gone. The light was on. Rimma examined the strange house, but did not find the doors and windows. They were not there. The control panel no longer turned on the screen. Silence surrounded her from all sides. She involuntarily lay down on a single sofa, accidentally pressed the remote control button. A round screen appeared overhead and lit up, familiar snowflakes appeared on it. When the snowflakes disappeared from the screen, the face of the great equipment tuner Andrei Georgievich appeared.

– Rimma, hello! Rest, dear.

– For what? She said.

– You think I’m jealous? No, I’m fine.

– Why did they bring me here? She asked dejectedly.

– And who were you walking along the linden alley? With Alex. I had to disconnect you in this way.

“And this is all my fault?” For this, should I spend the night alone in the woods in a strange palace with icicles on the roof?

– Yes! We must be consistent in their relationship.

– It’s cruel! – with tears in her eyes shouted Rimma.

The screen on the ceiling went out. The light of the lamps has diminished. The girl was in the half-gloom, but she had no fear. She realized that she was under the control of Andrew, and just fell asleep.

Alex – a person with a higher technical education, fluent in two foreign languages, was an expert in his field. Any young man could envy his appearance: he was 180 centimeters tall, his eyes were rubies, his hair was dark, his nose was straight, of a pleasant shape.

He supported the muscles on his body with three workouts a week in a gym with mirrored walls. His weight was within fifty percent of growth, that is, ninety pounds. He loves mystery, it was she who surrounded the creators of new flying objects.

Yes, he sometimes helped Rimma in life, but now he was worried about other problems. He also worked in a corporation consisting of several small firms producing a wide variety of apparatuses. Units, including him, knew the new look of the aircraft, the launch time was always surrounded by humor with a bit of secrecy.

Alex was so good that he was used on a private television line to handle people who happened to be in a closed area.

Aerial vehicles used in different areas. Customers – they are always customers and are covered with the secret of investing money. Considering that many secrets can be downloaded through the World Wide Web, the appointment of secret agents somewhat dulled over time, but they certainly appeared near the aircraft.

Two agents, Senya and Venya, were waiting for the release of a two-seater aircraft capable of taking off from any balcony and windowsill. Therefore, the agents were two gnomes, or, more precisely, a midget, their small stature made it possible to make a small device with a steep engine. They landed in a flying bobsleigh with three motors and flew from any skyscraper. The wings were extended from three sides, and the flying bobsleigh easily tacked in the air currents.

Thanks to the versatility of the aircraft, Alex was not in trouble. He liked Rimma, who has a beautiful, elegant appearance and obstinate character.

Rima woke up from the three-story cry. An unknown lady screamed at her in a black fur cap, in a black coat in the form of an hourglass. Rimma looked at the overall young lady and could not figure out why she was being scolded.

In the next portion of the scream, the name sounded – Alex. So, here she is guilty. The screams and curses stopped. Rimma got up on her feet and appeared on the ear of a screaming person, who unexpectedly quietly said:

– Rimma, I am Nadia. I’m Alex’s girlfriend. Let it be known to you!

– Alex told me nothing about you.

– Oh, so you know that his name is Alex! So why did you go with Alex? – Nadia asked nervously.

– Quite by chance our roads coincided, and we walked about five hundred meters together.

– Yes, but these five hundred meters of yours constantly showed on the TV screen and added about some new aircraft! On all television channels showed your disappearance in the screen with snowflakes!

– How did you find me? And I could not find the doors in this hut with icicles.

– I wish I didn’t know this house! Nikolay Nikitich is my uncle, “added Nadya.

– I heard this name from the screen located on the wall. But I do not know the secrets of this house.

– So, baby! So that I no longer see you next to Alex! Otherwise, again I will ask Uncle to use you as a guinea pig!

– Nadia, we are with Alex…

– Without “we.” Alex, let it be known to you, my young man.

– After all, he was…

“Ha – ha – ha! – the lady in black furs laughed loudly. – I brought him to the divine form. He is sleek, handsome, pumped, assured!

– But where does a young girl have such money? – sincerely surprised Rimma.

– I have roots, and very wealthy! Do you understand this?!

– Sorry, I remembered. Your uncle…

At that instant, the side screen lit up. Good-looking Nikolai Nikitich laughed and said:

– Nadia, leave the girl alone. She did not touch your Alex.

Immediately on the ceiling, a round screen appeared, on which Alex’s face appeared:

– Girls, do not make noise. Everything is good. Do you want us to ride you on a new flying device?

“Alex, would you go…” the beauty in black furs firmly cursed.

– Do girls swear so? – Rimma was surprised.

“Ha – ha – ha! – laughed gray-haired uncle. – Nadia shows her knowledge in the second language, and she has not said everything yet.

The walls of the house spread out in both directions, and the girls were among the snow-covered tents of fir trees. A cone with seats located around the perimeter fell into the clearing.

The strange cabin was closed by a transparent protective glass. Rimma and Nadia sat down on different sides of the cone. The flying cone, slowly rotating around its axis, quickly began to rise vertically upwards. Glade with a house of two halves remained in the silence of the forest.

A flying cone landed on a town square with a cone of a festive fir. Reporters came running. TV arrived. Rimma and Nadia were in the middle of the day.

Nadya answered the reporters in a very correct language, she spoke beautifully and without a mat, which made Rimma very amused. Rimma once again realized how important it is to own beads of words. That is because Nadia can throw beads in front of reporters!

And she will hurl beads of words in front of people, but where to go?

Nikolai Nikitich could stand on his head, he had a good body control, did a lot of joint exercises, and easily ran up the stairs. It cost him nothing to pour cold water, he did this procedure daily. Due to the physical perfection of his body, he remained the head of a corporation of flying objects.

Nadia least of all followed the example of her uncle. She loved warm baths with salt and foam, enjoyed eating candy from fancy boxes, drank liqueur, reminiscent of coffee with cream. As she grew up, only God knows her uncle. He made enormous efforts so that she graduated from the school, he turned gray from the burden of this burden. He pulled her through life, realizing that this was a labor of Sisyphus. Apparently, he was a genius, and on Nadya nature rested, which he did not want and could not realize.

It so happened that Alex had mentally chosen one girl – Rimma. There was in her that power of thinking that fascinated him with its mystery. And Nadia was just cute and energetic. He did not climb to the girls in the soul, but guarded as much as he could and kept the one and the other in sight. He rarely attended casinos, restaurants and bars, rarely visited theaters and concerts. His dedication in the work required from him a full return.

Nikolai Nikitich would love to marry Alex on Nadya, he understood that she could get bored with the procedure on the very first day with unrestrained words. She succeeded in speaking, and Alex needed a more silent fairy.

From this point of view, Alex was attracted to Rimma. He was not an agent, he did not follow anyone, but was forced, at the request of his elders, to intervene in the life of others within the television company. He did not carry a pistol with him, knew the techniques of hand-to-hand combat and could evade an accidental strike.

The secret agents and testers of the corporation were the recognized Liliputians Senya and Venia. Nikolay Nikitich, once having been at their concert, came to the conclusion that the uniqueness of little people is poorly used. He selected a dozen Lilliputians, whom he gave out to all as gnomes: they wore caps on their heads for greater persuasiveness.

For them, courses were created broad profile. The gnomes, realizing the importance of their purpose, learned seriously and with inspiration. For greater importance, they were called agents, although two zeros in front of their number did not indicate their danger to people.

And here a strange, unexpected thing happened: Nadia, a young girl, fell in love with the gnome Senya. He was a permanent leader among his gnomes, his authority was not subject to verification. Maybe it was that she got used to them. The combination of high and low people did not shock her. Senya did not take their relationship seriously, she was so tall for him! He led small talk with her.

The views of Nadia and Cenis were warmer when they met, their voices trembled. The gnomes surrounding them only smiled. In order for Nadia to come out of this love, Nikolay Nikitich found Alex for her and with all his strength took care of him, encouraged him and promoted him. He got them married. At Alex’s and Nadi’s wedding, Nikolai Nikitich, with good intentions, introduced Rimma to the famous inventor Shchepkin. As if she didn’t know him!

Rimma, with surprise, opened her eyes wide: in front of her a triple-screen type screen appeared on the table. One flat screen of the monitor was in front of it, and on both sides it was surrounded by two equally large screens. Besides the screens she saw nothing. It became stuffy. The fan was behind the screens.

A confident young man appeared on three screens, his eyes looking derisively into her eyes:

– Are you jealous? Be jealous I don’t need you anymore, I don’t want you!

The image returned and disappeared, and the screen went dark.

“Who would have doubted this,” Rima thought, gulping airless air. The screens lit up, a young man appeared on them himself in three forms: a front and two profiles. Rimma shuddered in surprise.

– Rima, we are checking the settings of the new generation of computer screens, how do you see me? How do you hear?

“Good, but too unexpected.”

– Before you are screens for the development of the internal design of fighter cockpits for one pilot. Order from the director of the film Shchepkina. Everything in the film should be really, apparently, convenient! Do not rush to conclusions. The task is more serious than it can be assumed. The fighter is designed for space maneuvers. It will lift into orbit in a capsule with a thermal coating, and in space it will fly between space stations. So consider yourself flying in the sky.

– Cool. I hope I’m not alone will be engaged in the design of the fighter?

– You will be three, you know nothing about each other, your developments must be independent of each other. All that you come up with, snapping up and dragging away from the screen through their books and inventions. How many times has this already happened!

“Where are the cosmic forces of the fighter?” This is a small plane.

– It will fly along the energy carrier channels between the space links.

– So if he will fly along a certain route, then why does he need three control panels?

– You are thinking, reduced to a minimum the number of buttons of all kinds and purposes.

“Then why do I need three screens?”

“To be there,” the young man said and disappeared from the screens.

Rima turned off the side screens, bent them in a straight line with the main screen, sent a stream of air to herself.

Alex Rimma met in the winter. That he was on the screens of computers. Where winter is, the New Year always happens. How could she captivate a young man? An absolute coincidence that is more common on New Year’s Eve. Do not believe?

At the end of the year, there is a general emotional upheaval in anticipation of the unknown. Everyone is waiting for something, and this expectation has supersaturated the air of parties of all levels. And one more important moment: on New Year’s Eve drink champagne. Shock drink! The mind becomes cheerful and allows you to fall in love with half a word.

Often it is not recommended to use it – it will lose the magical properties necessary for dating. The party fit in the banquet room. Alex came in black trousers with a belt, in a black shirt, and even in a black and gold tie. The belt is great. The figure – Rimma’s heart sank, squeaked and melted with surprise. She could not take her eyes off him. He felt her attraction and sat down beside him. For two, he put one bottle of champagne.

The audience at the table quickly switched to spirits, began to shake the bottles over the table, fill their glasses. Rima and Alex drank bubbles of champagne, these magic bubbles brought them together with incredible speed. A thought flashed through her mind: would she invite him to her house? But how beautiful is it to do?

She called him a long number and then asked:

“Alex, did you remember what I said?”

– Remember. Repeat?

– If you remember, then you can come to me, this is the code of the electronic lock.

They danced in a common crowd. His body springing down to Rimma, he was filled with desires, like a glass of champagne. She felt it… Desires must be realized. But for every “necessary” is Nadia.

Summer. Heat. For a moment she closed her eyes, and when she opened, all three screens in one straight line depicted the control panel of a space fighter…

The clouds, the wind, the cold.

Rimma came to work in the office of the company. The first frosts were accompanied by a gentle, pinkish-bluish sky. At other times of the year she did not observe such a miracle in the sky. Only the second time in her life she had seen such beauty, and only a few minutes in the morning, and even from a certain height. As if feminine and masculine melted in the sky and shone with the glow of love.

Office life reassured. Rimma left the playgrounds. Eternal her friend and rival Olga took the courses of accountants and began to work in the office.

Foreign life subsided. Olga and Shchepkin passed sexual age. Tender relations they had rarely and lasted a few minutes.

Rimma also wanted to keep his moments of happiness, but they melted into life as quickly as the pinkish color of the sky disappeared. The ghost of happiness attracted its human warmth of relationships, but quickly dissolved in everyday life.

Rimma entered the office, tapping the key of the electronic lock.

Andrei Georgievich Shchepkin was sitting at a table with a computer, next to him was a bench machine. Their eyes met – that’s all the greetings of congenial people.

– Andrei Georgievich, how are you doing with the new product?

– There are not enough two chips in the product. Rimma, there is a new task, sit at the table, discuss.

The guest table stood apart from the chef’s table, it was possible to sit on both sides, spreading out all the drawings of the new product. Rimma sketched a new device. She understood the task and decided to discuss all the issues with the developer. Then take everything you need from this still life and carry it to your table, like loot.

At her table, Rimma could remember the words of Andrei Georgievich, get a blank sheet of paper and draw, draw a drawing of a new product. And only when the valuable thought appears on the sheet, again to meet and discuss the result of the search for a new technical masterpiece.

And all love is one joint work.

Computer screensaver revealed secrets by lightly pressing a key or mouse button. A list of the developed design documentation for the products appeared on the screen. Rimma found clean formats, they received new names, numbers, and a new product began to be born in green and white lines against a black computer background.

On the right, on the table, on metal shelves were old reference books and new catalogs from exhibitions and instrument displays. On the top shelf was a flower that never bloomed. With his bush, he hid Rimma from an employee, whose profile would otherwise loom in front of her face.

Yes, manager Alex sometimes worked in the office, and it was impossible to allow their eyes to meet while working. The foliage gently and unobtrusively hid Rimma and Alex from each other. To the right of Rimma was a favorite mug with a lid. Forget-me-nots, cute flowers were depicted on the mug, and you can’t call them flowers, but only gently – flowers. A crocodile lay behind a mug – a dark green phone tube. Rimma least used the services of a green crocodile, most e-mail.

Behind his back was an old cabinet in which new folders with drawings and documentation for new items were hidden. The old documentation was sent to the bowels of the closet and did not loom before my eyes; what was depicted in it, has long been produced and hidden by buyers anywhere from the dungeon to heaven.

Olga, a very pretty woman, came into the office. She handed out a piece of wages, stopped next to Alex. He had for her a certain attracting force. They both radiated smiles, glowed with the joy of communication. She did not linger next to the object of her adoration and walked to her workplace.

Olga for Alex – a cloud of fleeting happiness. Rimma’s gaze returned to her desk, she worked intently. By chance, she looked up over the computer and saw the sky with white clouds of clouds, and her eyes returned to work again.

Silence reigned in the office. Everyone worked. Behind the glass wall, Alex’s firm manager’s voice was heard, suddenly his voice grew stronger, and he shouted:

– Philip, why don’t you come to work? You have absenteeism and no sick leave.

In response, there was a male rumbling. Philip turned out to be a Christmas present for the company. He got a job in December. They took him as a material handling specialist, but he exceeded all expectations. A very interesting man, quite tall, well-fed, with gray hair and not bald made a good impression on everyone.

On his desk was a desktop machine for the manufacture of prototypes, on the shelf there were instruments for monitoring the finished product. His business was to lead the work of several products of the company.

The day he started with telephone conversations.

– Hello, honey, – said Philip, – we will meet at 16 o’clock at the store…

Or:

– Hello, honey, how are you? You know…

Alex looked at his neighbor on the left and did not know how to shut himself off from him. But Phillip knew that. He moved cabinets, rearranged appliances. Within three months, he erected a fortress of ancillary items. An old glass-covered table appeared inside the fortress. On the glass was a favorite phone. Before his eyes on the poster hung products of the company, but the production is not the company for which he worked. Philip did not like to work at the machine. All of Alex’s new folders were slowly transferred to Philip’s closet.

Philip filtered the water in a glass filter, heated the water in the kettle, poured boiling water into his liter mug, and threw many spoons of sugar in it. The attraction began: tea drinking in a fortress from devices. Whistling, smacking, sipping tea, Philip melted with pleasure.

Inside his fortress passed a riser with a three-phase current, the wires covered the metal casing. In this casing, Philip drilled holes to hang a bundle of wires. He had one hole, but when drilling the next hole, he managed to get into one of the wires. Shine, crackle, smell! A 380 volt toggle switch failed and the instrument test cabinet burned out. This was the beginning of the end of Philip.

Alex looked at him, and sometimes it seemed to him that Philip remained under socialism and missed perestroika.

Spring has made its own adjustments in the behavior of Philip. He only called his wife and lived in the country. Dacha punished him with dampness and cold. Three meters from Alex, there was always a man with a cough, plus tea, and even a whisper from a mini-receiver.

Tired of Philip withering in the fortress, he left for a couple of weeks, then completely disappeared from Alex’s sight.