with death…
All in blood and rain.
– And what is left for me?
We will not be together…
Killed for a coin,
The whole sky in dust,
And there is no life for me,
Since there is no love in it!
She stood silently at the abyss,
And the abyss opened to the very bottom.
And the unceasing rain poured on her head,
It will not save her from the passion of her heart.
Marianne knew the sorrow of love,
Marianne threw herself into that abyss in delirium.
And just as her feet left the ground,
A trail of blood remained on the pile of stones.
She flew over that abyss,
And no longer saw, she found peace…
Only the echo carries over the abyss:
Marianne will return at the appointed hour!
The woman in white
Two girls were playing in the backyard. One had fiery red hair and was arranging toy figures on a set of scales made from a wooden fence plank. The other girl, with expressive big eyes, was playing with a small jug.
“Tell me, what do you want to be when you grow up?” said the Red-haired girl.
“I don’t know yet…”
“I want to be a shopkeeper,” said the Red-haired girl, placing a child’s sand shoe on one side of the scales.
“I don’t know yet…,” said the other girl.
“What do you have in your jugs?” asked the Red-haired girl.
“It’s water. Did you know that in the future, there will be very little water, so you have to stock up…” said the big-eyed girl.
“Impossible!” said the Red-haired girl, surprised.
“But what will happen in the future?”
“I know that people will be led by a woman in white.”
“In white?”
“How interesting…”
The girls spoke, their voices getting quieter, like in fog…
Boy or Girl
A boy was probably supposed to be born, but a girl was born… Marianna.
A private house, a yard. Grandfather is fixing the fence, holding a hammer. Grandma Klavdiya appears on the porch.
“Anton, they called from the maternity hospital, a girl was born!”
Grandfather put down the hammer, frowned, paused.
“Go call again, there must be some mistake.”
A minute later, Grandma Klavdiya returns.
“A girl! They said it’s a girl!”
“Oh my… call again later…”
Fear of God
A room in my grandfather’s house. White walls, low ceilings. A little five-year-old girl sits on the bed with her legs tucked up and stares into the corner – it’s Marianne. Half darkness. The girl looks at a large icon in the corner. From the icon Jesus Christ is looking sternly. Marianne looks frightened, she stares intently at the image, Jesus seems to threaten with finger.
Girl
Rural road. Grandfather is carrying Marianne on the frame of his bicycle. She is about five years old.
“When you grow up, will you feed Grandpa?” – Grandpa asks as he walks along.
Little Marianne replies: “I will take you to Moscow.”
“To Moscow?”
“Yes! And I’ll feed you porridge!”
Grandpa laughs.
A grey-haired old man
“She has a fever,” Marianna’s mom said, touching the child’s forehead. “We need to call the doctor tomorrow.”
The girl shivered, her face red.
“Lie down, lie down,” Grandma tucks Marianna in.
The girl drank a sweet mixture and drifted off to sleep.
In the next room, the light was still on, and in her half-dream, Marianna could see it.
It seemed she had already fallen asleep…
Everything was foggy… Marianna felt very bad, she didn’t know why, she just felt it. The girl opened her eyes. An old man with a long gray beard stood by her bedside and looked at her. Marianna could see the old man, but very hazily. Closing her eyes, she drifted back to sleep.
Morning came, and the girl woke up completely healthy.
Later, Grandma said it was Saint Nicholas who had visited. Who knows… maybe it was another old man.
Deaf
Marianne was eight years old. Hospital. Ear, nose and throat doctor’s office. Grandfather brought Marianna to the doctor’s office.
The doctor: “The girl does not hear at all, this is nervous deafness, a complication after rubella. Give her to a school for the deaf-mute. There is no cure, you know…”
Grandpa: “What school? Are you crazy? She has to be cured.”
“We can’t do anything, this happens sometimes, all these children are in schools for the deaf,” said the doctor.
Grandfather stood puzzled for a long time, then took Marianne’s hand and walked towards the exit. He sat Marianna on the back seat of an old Zaporozhts and thought. His hands gripped the steering wheel with anger and despair.
“No! This will not do!” said the grandfather and pressed on the gas.
Marianne spent a fortnight in the Ear, Nose, Throat ward. Her arms were pricked all over, bruises appeared on her wrists, and antibiotics were painfully injected into her veins. Marianne couldn’t hear, but she could see, walk, but she couldn’t hear anything.
Probably, really – a school for deaf-mutes and that’s all…
But a miracle happened, which always comes when you least expect it.
In the afternoon, Marianne stood in the hospital ward, looked out the window and thought that now everything is fine, it does not hurt, doctors do not stick needles in her hands. It had become warm. Around her head, her whole body was enveloped by an unknown force, her head seemed to expand in the glow of invisible ions, and her eyes were like a big screen through which she felt and saw. Marianne began to hear. There were loud noises coming from the corridor. At first she caught the sounds with her nose, other parts of her body, felt with her whole body what the interlocutor was saying, but most importantly she looked at his lips when he spoke. A miracle happened, Marianne was healed by an unknown force.
A Part of That Force
Beach.