I was ready for his cold-blooded reprisal. But the dragon did not do this. Frozen, he followed me with an unblinking gaze, enchanted, and could not kill. But I didn't know it then: he was partial to birds.
The Legend of the Earth
The morning began as usual: for the third day in a row, large black ornate snowflakes, up to 1.5 cm in diameter, fell from the sky. They enveloped the cities in their black glow, sparkled, as if covering the roofs of houses, schools, hospitals with a mourning cap. And people, all in black, with dissatisfied faces, hurried to leave the open air, hating and condemning the snowfall.
– Ugh! – a breathless voice rang out in the hallway. – It's snowing again! – and Rida, deftly throwing off her outerwear, hastily began to wipe the black streaks of melted snow from her face.
– What I'd told you? You bought an orange hat in vain! You hardly would be able to wear it all the winter: there's a lot of precipitation this year! – Greg shouted her back from his room.
– Hi, Kant, – Rida entered the room. – What are you doing?
– Hi, – Kant responded. – Your brother has gone crazy!
– Yeah? And that happens to him… – Rida drawled thoughtfully.
– You don't understand anything!.. – Greg was indignantly ardent, rocking back and forth in his chair. – Imagine, Rida! If only the snow were transparent, how nice it would be! And you could wear your favorite orange hat!
– …but the gloves will still have to be washed… I went in green today, to match the color of my boots… What are you saying? Transparent? – Rida smiled broadly at her brother. – You're a dreamer…
– Greg, come down from heaven! There is no such thing as transparent snow…
– Why not?! After all, the rain is transparent!
– Well, freeze the rain and make snow out of it! And I'd better go to wash the gloves… – Rida left the room, completely upset by the stains on her gloves.
– Okay, Greg, I have to go home too. What do you say you want? To create a small planet with snow?
– Yeah!
– And there will be people on it?
– Of course there will be!
– But if snow turns from rain, and rain from snow, then it turns out that certain laws will exist there…
– In general, all the laws of physics will exist there! I'm telling you: I thought of everything.
– All the physical ones? Wow, no way! Well, good luck to you!
– You'll see. Bye!
– Look at the snow falling! – Greg exclaimed.
Kant hung over the small blue ball, fascinated and surprised, watching the snow falling there, just like theirs, only white.
– White snow! Fantastic… – he whispered. – And the planet! Just like a real one!
– I called it Earth.
– …but what about the people?! They can't create at all!
– Ah, the people… – Greg drawled indifferently. – They didn't work out. But look at their snow! – he was amazed and surprised by his own creation, staring at the white fluffy flakes.
– Greg, but you can't do that… – Kant objected. – Snow is, of course, good… but you'd rather remake people than admire the snow! Why are they so cruel?
– What are you so attached to these people for?! Have you ever seen such a miracle? Completely white, melts – and becomes transparent! You can't see it on your skin or clothes… It turned out even better than I had thought!
– Look… – Kant didn't let up. – Can you see? – He stretched out his hand and pointed at a small man standing on the roof. – The guy wants to jump off the roof. He doesn't care at all about your snow…
– Yeah… They turned out a bit silly. The people didn't work out! But what snow it turned out to be!!!..
A Memories Cemetery
With my head bowed, looking at my feet and my jacket collar turned up from the wind and rain, I walked quickly through an abandoned, unremarkable park to escape the cold, because today I decided to take a shortcut home.
At first I was running at breakneck speed, immersed in the state that is usual for all residents of the metropolis: I was thinking about tomorrow, about the unfulfilled obligations to the boss, about the fact that it was time to drop everything and go on vacation… Drops of rain trickled like a nasty chill, getting into my collar. Everything was as always: mobile, familiar, not new.
But soon I noticed the silence around me, unusual for a big city, broken only by the rustling of the rain, and the mysterious abandoned corner suddenly seemed more than just a park. I stopped. The smells, the sounds – everything here seemed familiar to me. It seemed to me that I had been here once before, but I was equally sure that I was seeing this park for the first time. And yet, something – a sensation, a feeling, or a hidden premonition – made me linger.
Having chosen the most stable of the rickety benches, I brushed the cold rainwater off it with my hand and sat down. I recognized it: it was the park where I had spent my entire childhood.
Black bare tree trunks stood and broken or simply fallen from old age benches lay upon the wet black ground under the grey autumn sky – the current park now reminded me more of a cemetery, the only thing missing was the crosses.
The gloom I saw did not fit in with the pictures of the past in my head. Where did all the colors go? Another reality kept popping up before my eyes more and more persistently: our youth, student years… Everyone who entered this park then, 20 years ago, was greeted by colorful groups of young friends, evenly scattered throughout the park, their cheerful laughter and voices. There was life here once. Then I thought that it would always be like this…
– Hey. Are you here, too?
I looked back. My old good friend stood behind me, whom I probably hadn't seen since then. He stood a step away from me, and I clearly saw how drops of rain were running down his face, which hadn't changed at all. His eyes had also grown dull over the years, just like this park. He smiled a slight, sad smile. And yet, I was very glad to see him.
– Hi, sit down? – I slapped my palm on a small puddle on the bench next to me and swept it aside with one movement. But he only grinned and shook his head:
– It's unlikely able to hold both of us!
I turned away from him and looked into the distance:
– Look what happened to our park…
He was silent. The rain was gradually ending, it became completely quiet, and I heard, as clearly and distinctly as a clap of thunder, his voice, which had not changed at all: "Do you remember how we!.." – and suddenly I remembered that my friend, the one who was standing next to me now, died 2 years ago. I turned around, cutting off his phrase. There was no one behind me.
I realized it was time for me to go home, got up and wandered out of the park, kicking the wet fallen leaves with my foot. I was sure that I had just spoken to him, and this made me want to see my old friend even more.
Shuffling my boots through the clear puddles on the asphalt, I saw in them an inverted reflection of the old park – like the inside out of my past life – against the backdrop of a ghostly gray sky. The wind blew at my back, and crows flew in from somewhere and began to caw anxiously and threateningly.
I walked along the alley alone, and in my head I could still hear the familiar, pleasant voice of perhaps my only true friend: "Do you remember how we…".
The Doll
The cold autumn wind howled anxiously outside the windows, lifting the colorful foliage, that was not yet pressed to the ground by human boots, high above the asphalt and throwing dust and fine sand onto the glass. Matthew was reading a book. It was rare lately that he could just sit and read a book like this, without rushing anywhere and without worrying