no wars for a thousand years, and the average life expectancy of people has now reached an unprecedented maximum in a hundred and thirty-three years. However, travel and take a look for yourself. If you need my help, please contact me. I will help!″
So our first session of communication was held. Everyone was happy, except Zinka.
″I want to get into the world network and look at my sites,” she said.
If she wants, we’ll help her, decided all of us. This time Zinka was the main one. We all connected and, to my surprise, easily got in the world network without a computer. Zinka moved the invisible mouse and knocked on the invisible keyboard. And around us, there were red warnings about unauthorized intrusion into the network, about the work of an unknown dangerous virus that could damage computers.
I thought I could really ruin any computer on the network if I wanted to. Before Zinka enjoyed her sites, the World Wide Web began to clot, and one by one the servers were going out against the danger of unknown threats. Thousands and thousands of anti-virus programs were falling on our heads, which were blinking, like mosquito clouds, but couldn’t do anything. Finally, we had to interrupt the session when the web completely turned off.
In the morning, the angry Petr Andreevich came to us. It turns out that we were disclosed, but all the blame was laid on him. Now the order to dismiss him has come.
″Don’t worry,’ I said, ‘you won’t be fired, and everything will be fine.″
″Girl, you don’t understand how serious this is! ″
″Wait until tomorrow,’ I replied, ‘they must have rushed. The order to dismiss you, I think, will be canceled tomorrow.″
I contacted Gilk immediately. Actually, now it was easy for me to do it alone, without the help of my friends. Gilk promised to help. So the next day our teacher was smiling and said that he was not blamed for our hooliganism in the network. Moreover, he was ordered to keep a close eye on underage telepaths and to prevent them from taking any more unauthorized actions.
″This means,’ he said, ‘that all your telepathic games should be under my supervision. And telepathic access beyond the borders of the settlement will be carried out only after the appropriate permission from the city.″
″What’s the point? ″ I asked. ″After all, we do no cause harm to anyone.″
″because″, Petr Andreevich answered ″that everything should be in order. And you don’t have the appropriate diplomas of telepaths yet, so you have no right to engage in telepathic activities.″
All this was for me and my friends above our understanding. I asked Terra what to do.
″It’s simple,’ Terra replied, ‘engage in your telepathy in a different range. Try to feel the trees think. You can also talk to them. And then no one will bother you. But don’t tell Petr Andreevich about it, because he is obliged to report everything to his superiors.″
″You can also talk to them″; the air above was flickering with the laughter of little people.
″Who is this? ″ Petya asked with surprise.
″Look how beautiful they are! ″ Zina was delighted.
″We see and understand them,″ Kolya added.
″And the rest don’t see and don’t hear us, though they are called telepaths, ″ laughed the little men flying over us, ″ if you play with us, and we will help you! ″
Chapter 6. Petka
I was very unlucky in childhood. My father beat me very often and so painfully. I remember some situations especially clear. Here I am sitting on my father’s desk and making the little planes from the papers that lie there. Dad comes in and pulls up my pants. I’m already used to it: no matter what I do, it all ends up the same way. Here I’m on the floor making a small lake of stationery glue and a beautiful ink island on it. Dad comes into a room and without looking at my lake squishes it. Then everything is as usual.
If I had time, I was hiding in my mom’s skirts. She was kind and didn’t let my father beat me. Sometimes she took offense at me too. One summer I caught a beautiful grasshopper bigger than my palm. I couldn’t help but bring home such beauty to show my beloved mother. Unfortunately, mom went to bed after lunch, and I let the grasshopper to play on the window net. I went to the kitchen to see what was edible there. Before I had time to eat half of the sausage, I heard my mother scream. It turns out that the grasshopper sat on her nose and woke her up. Was it worth shouting? Besides, she really crushed the grasshopper… I let him go, would he survive? And my mother didn’t talk to me that day. I guess she was offended. I wonder if she was offended by me or by the grasshopper.
When Mom got tired to keep an eye at what I did in the house, she kicked me outside. There I had a dog called Bulka, with whom we used to run through the streets of the city. Most of all, we were attracted by abandoned wastelands and ravines “on the backside” of houses and streets. The ravines were full of weeds above my height, there were big green grasshoppers loudly chirping in the evenings, and Bulka found a large pile of garbage nearby. He liked to dig in it, and I watched with interest what he dug up. He liked the bones, and I liked the green glasses… A little further, on the first floor of one of the houses, lived an amusing girl who said all the words in the wrong way. It was so funny! Sometimes I remembered what she said and I, singing it in different ways, was running down the street and making friends laugh.
One day, my parents kicked me out again:
″At least, give us a day or two of rest,” my beloved mother told me.
So, I saw real horses and carts at the girl’s house. The girl’s grandmother, who she called Bella, was packing their things, and the girl was already sitting in a cart. I made up my mind, came up and asked:
″Where are you going?″
The girl turned her back and didn’t answer, but her grandmother said in a gentle voice that they were going to visit her great-great-grandmother.
″I don’t have a grandmother,’ I said sadly, ‘and all my parents want to do is take a break from me. Can I go with you?″
″Ask your mother: if she allows it, you can.″
I ran quickly to my house and called my mother. It turned out that she and father were just discussing where to send me while they were doing some re-registration. This was the most important event that changed my whole subsequent life.
The cart first drove through the streets of the city, then turned towards the forest and drove for a long time along the edge of it and the field, then turned into a thick forest. All the way the girl turned away from me diligently, and her grandmother handled the horses. At some point she said:
″Then the horses know the way, I’ll take a nap, and you can hold the reins. Just don’t stretch them too hard! ″
The last part of the way I drove the cart, although I did not understand why horses sometimes turned from one forest road to another at the intersections.
That’s how my new life began. There were no kids in the village we came to. I had to play with a little girl who deformed all the words so ridiculously. Soon I found out that her name was Mila. I went with her to the scary dense forest for mushrooms and berries and was always afraid to get lost, but Mila always knew the right way home. I was also afraid of wild animals, and Mila wasn’t afraid at all, even when we really saw a huge bear on the other side of the meadow. After that, I began to treat Mila quite differently. One evening I even caught a big green grasshopper for Mila.
″What a beauty,” she said when I put it in her palm. Then the grasshopper flew into the bush, and we were listening for a long time for his chirping with other grasshoppers.
Yes, I didn’t write of how adults tried to get