the mark A on it. Denis grabbed it and hurried after Lisa.
The teacher sat at his desk, looking at the closed door after Denis.
«He thinks he can get away with anything, if his father…»
He looked out the window, then folded his arms, while leaning back on his chair.
Coming out of class, Denis saw Lisa walking the corridor towards Peter. He heard an SMS sound and looked at his phone – unknown number. He read the text,
«You disappeared so quickly yesterday… Coming today?»
Denis started to type «No», but erased it, without sending. He saw that Lisa and Peter started walking together. Denis threw the phone in his bag and quickened the pace.
What’s wrong with me?
«You heard? About Masleniza…»
«Would you stop with your celebration!» Peter held his phone in his hand. He was still red in the face after the conversation with his father regarding the B in math. «This interview is the most important thing!»
Peter almost cried,
«Honestly! We are talking about our future now! Celebrations?! Get serious!»
Lisa looked at him and sighed.
«Lisa!» Sveta ran towards them.
When she heard about Masleniza, she tried to cheer Lisa up,
«No worries! We’ll figure it out!»
But Lisa was sad. «Why do I always fail? Really! What’s wrong with me?», she ruminated. Her best friend Sasha started to hang out with a group of cool girls. They were always engrossed with their phones; often Lisa couldn’t even understand what they were discussing. When she told this to Sasha, her friend responded that it was Lisa who was weird. That nobody got Lisa’s ideas and that she was just embarrassing herself.
Sasha was not the only person telling her that. Lisa’s mom found her ideas weird as well. She also called it a fantasy, when Grandma said that Lisa had «a gift.»
Grandma! The only person who got her was Grandma. Lisa wanted badly to believe her. She told Lisa so many interesting things. How they celebrated Spring, Midsummer, the traditions of Harvesting times. Lisa’s face lit up when she thought of it. She wanted so much to make a big celebration as they did in earlier times. A huge happening, and to have someone to share this joy with…
«Hey! Let’s go to Roma’s Cafe!» suddenly Sveta said.
Lisa turned to her and smiled,
«Yeah! Let’s go visit him!»
«I’ve got no time!» Peter sounded irritated.
«Please!» Sveta jumped around.
«Ok – five minutes!» Peter already regretted that he gave in.
Roma’s Café
Roma, a sixteen year old kid, was making pancakes. He wore caps, a grey striped long-sleeved shirt, jeans and black apron. Roma put a pancake on a plate. He smiled, while painting on it with sauce. Then he grabbed the plate,
«On the house!» he put it in front of Sveta.
Sveta ate it at once.
«Mmm… delicious sauce!»
Roma smiled.
«Take it easy, man!» Roma leaned towards Peter. «You think she’d fancy you with this… face?!»
Peter jumped up,
«What? Look at you, dropped out of school! What would you know…?»
Roma looked at him in a thoughtful way,
«You know, many great personalities considered a high school education to be totally useless as for helping them to manifest their dreams.»
Roma kept silent for a while, then he looked at Peter and added with a tone of mystery,
«Knowledge of another kind helped them to acquire success.»
«Loser! Just admit it, instead of covering up your failure with nonsense.»
Roma didn’t answer. He went back to the stove and started on a new pancake.
The door by the bar rack opened and a strange man entered the coffee shop. He was wearing a weird costume. Peter, Sveta, and Lisa exchanged looks.
«Roma, make me a coffee to take away,» he turned to kids and smiled. «Just love take away coffee here!»
Roma handed him a paper cup. The strange man took it and exited.
«Weird,» mumbled Peter.
Sveta looked at the door as it was closing after the man, and for a second in the tiny wind draft she saw golden lighting. It dissolved quickly.
«Just like this morning,» she whispered.
Sveta looked at Lisa, then at Peter. «Did they see?» She looked at the door again.
«Don’t even think about it!» Peter knew what was about to happen.
Sveta jumped to her feet and ran towards the door.
«I have no time,» Peter screamed.
But it was too late. Sveta ran out. He didn’t have a choice but to follow her.
A Place of Light
Running out the door, Peter and Lisa stepped into the tunnel of trees. Lisa looked up where the crowns met,
«Wow! It’s like a gate.»
They went through the gates and found themselves as if in another world, bright, colorful.
Peter blinked. Lisa breathed in the light and smiled.
In front of them was a beautiful meadow, framed by trees. A huge happening was going on. Music, competitions, contests, people laughing, enjoying themselves. The meadow overlooked a lake, covered by snow.
Lisa knew this place. She would often come here to chill out and to dream. It was always full of light, even in the rain it kept a kind of clarity of space. But she didn’t remember trees in the form of gates.
In the middle of the meadow there was a colorful whirl; a tall stick and bands of different colors attached to it. People caught the ends of the bands and ran around the stick, creating a colorful vortex. All this swirling looked like waves, giving the sense of space to be real and unreal at the same time.
Lisa watched it, mesmerized, feeling a growing sense of joy.
«Where is she?!» Peter searched for Sveta in the crowd of people.
Lisa didn’t hear him. Slowly, in step with the swirling, she moved towards the colorful vortex.
«You know, this interview…» Peter looked down, «Lisa, you think… Am I a loser?» he blurted out.
Peter didn’t dare to look at her, and when he raised his eyes, he saw Lisa running towards the colorful whirl.
«Lisa!»
Why should I waste my time on something that is not for me?
Denis entered Roma’s Café. He looked around – no customers. Rather perplexed, he ordered a cappuccino and took a seat, looking around one more time.
Roma put a cappuccino in front of Denis,
«They joined the Masleniza celebration,» Roma waved in the direction of the door by the bar rack.
Denis gave a look at the door. In his head he repeated Lisa’s question, «I wonder why handsome, rich Onegin, he who has all this success… Why is he depressed?» Denis smiled bitterly.
Masha entered the coffee shop.
«Masha! Long time no see!» Roma went forward to greet her.
Masha