home again so badly. With your own people. It was as if she had looked at the whole picture.
your life on the other side. There was a desire
to spend time with my younger brother, help him with his lessons,
come to my mother’s shop after school, do something
useful, and in general, hug her and whisper in her ear that
she was doing great. Sit down to dinner with them, listen
to Michael’s ridiculous stories, and have a nice chat with him, too
.She switched from running to walking. It suddenly became
very important for her to tell her friends that they were wonderful and loved
.Tears welled up in her eyes. «Probably everyone
is asleep right now, and I will have to go quietly and unnoticed into the house
and wait until morning until everyone wakes up to remind
them how much I love them!» -some wave of kindness and tenderness washed
over her.
She thought of Mara, and she wanted to hug
her friend and tell her everything, all the strange things that had happened
today, but then something tinkled behind her. The girl looked around.
A few feet away from her was a broken mirror,
which reflected the moon brightly.
20
When she came closer, she was very surprised to see that it
was not a mirror at all, but a sword lying in front of her. Her heart
began to pound again, and Lina recognized it, for it was in the hands of an-
gel, who had descended from heaven. The girl looked around —
no one. She looked up at the sky and shouted:
– You’re lost here…
But her voice broke, and she didn’t repeat it.
No one responded.
Lina crouched down. She’d watched a lot of movies and decided not to touch such things with her bare hands.
With one finger, through a three-fold
handkerchief, she touched the sword – nothing happened. Then,
without letting go of her handkerchief, she took
hold of her hand with two fingers. The cloth slipped, and Lina almost dropped the sword, but
when she reached out with all her hands, she caught it – again, nothing.
«Ugh,» she breathed out in relief, and took a
more comfortable grip on the hilt, twirling the sword in the air.
It was small and very light, but it still
felt balanced. The girl felt the handle
shake, changing its shape, and now
lay as comfortably as possible in her hand. It didn’t seem cold, even though
it looked like the sword was made of a solid piece
of metal. And the metal was strange, unknown. Silvery
as a mirror, it reflected everything around it. The blade was very sharp.
The handle on top was quite
simple: a slight bend and curl to the right and left.
It ended in a curve at the bottom, a strange head
with open, empty eyes. Nothing more to note-
It was empty, and Lina hurried to put it
back in her backpack, but the sword fell out immediately, cutting a small hole in the bottom
.Then the girl wrapped it in a jacket and, having already
stuffed this bag into her backpack, went to the house.
In front of the house, Lina checked to
make sure the sword was wrapped up well, to see if there was a glint anywhere. She
didn’t want to tell anyone about the strange find just yet.
21
Everyone was asleep at home. The girl tiptoed
into her room, kicked off her shoes, flopped down on the bed
,and fell asleep.
22
CHAPTER 6. THE AWAKENING
Inhale and exhale, inhale and exhale, then faster, faster, even
faster. Reana woke up and sat up in bed. It wasn
’t bad, but it was also restless. It seemed that something was wrong. The girl
got up, went to the kitchen and drank cold water. I lay
back down. I couldn’t sleep. Hot. Opened – cold. I rolled
over on my pillow – it was hot. I slid down to the floor – ho-
lodno. She sat up, leaning her back against the bed. Sleep was gone with
everything, I wanted to get up and run somewhere far away, right
into the night haze.
Reana threw on a long button-down shirt and
went downstairs. Turning on the TV, she quickly ran through 25
channels and, not finding anything interesting for herself, turned it off.-
I found him and stood by the window. She was always drawn somewhere, always
feeling that she had to do something
important and necessary right now, but what exactly —
did not occur to her.
She was looking up at the dark sky, trying to remember
if she had forgotten something, when she saw
that a meteorite had fallen into the garden. Or a comet. Or something else.
It gave off a bluish light, but she couldn’t see
what it was. There was only a flash, and then she
heard a thud. Right in her garden, just a few
steps away.
23
Reana had always wanted to find a meteorite, so her
first thought was to find it. And the fact that he fell very
close to her made her so happy that she forgot about everything:»
This is such an incredible event! I will have my own space kuso-
check! I can go to exhibitions with it if it
’s big enough. Running,
knocking over a stool that got in her way, she rushed into the
corridor, pulled on her sneakers and jacket, and ran out through the veranda
into the garden.
When she opened the door and jumped down two steps
at a time, the girl suddenly stopped. Exiting the do-
As she stared into the darkness, for a few moments she could see
nothing but the foliage of the lush garden shrubs.
«And why didn’t I bring a flashlight or smartphone to
dedicate? I won’t find anything, she thought.
But his eyes were beginning