it happened that I went everywhere with Mila, and then other children of our age joined us. Mila didn’t pay much attention to me, she probably remembered me teasing her in the city, but I wasn’t offended by her. She was always interesting anyway. And after she taught all of us how to listen to each other’s thoughts, things became even more interesting. Now we all had no secrets from each other. Everybody already knew that Zinka loved Fedka, and Fedka, surprised to hear about it, seemed to agree. But nobody could read Mila’s thoughts. And I’d like to know how she treated me!
Then Mila taught everyone how to connect mentally, and Zinka got into the computer network. A month later, a flying saucer flew from the city with the commission, which was very eager to meet Zinka. Mila invited us all to her house and asked Zina not to tell the commission about her. That’s where I got stuck:
″Don’t talk about me either! ″ I decided that I would always do the same as Mila. The edited Mila’s story looked like this:
″We were taught telepathy by the postman Petr Andreevich. One day the six of us were sitting next to each other on the porch, holding hands, and Zinka wanted to get into the network and look at her site, and she suddenly did it″.
This story was remembered by all our friends, who were questioned by the commission.
Then Zinka came running to us:
″Mila,’ she said really fast, ‘we are all invited to learn telepathy somewhere, and we will have free access to any sites there… Can we go with this commission?″
″Well, if you all really want it, you can do it,’ Mila replied, ‘go! ″
″And then, when you come to the city, will you find us?″ Zina added in apologizing tone.
″Of course I will! ″ Mila answered. ″We just need to put a mark on all of you.″
″Which mark? ″ Zinka was afraid. ″Does it hurt?″
″It doesn’t hurt,” Mila replied, ″ everybody is invited to the farewell dinner.″
The dinner was sad: we were letting our friends to the big world and we didn’t know if we could meet them again. When everyone left, I asked Mila:
″And what about the mark you wanted to put on us? ″
″Everything’s fine with the mark,’ she replied, ‘Terra put on the marks, and now I’ll always find my friends.
But Mila didn’t tell me who Terra was.
Everyone’s gone; it was just the two of us with Mila. Mila was sad without friends, and I was even glad she was spending all her free time with me. I went skiing with her to the forest to listen to those, who couldn’t be heard in the village. I didn’t hear anything, but Mila said she could. One day she even grabbed my hand:
″Look! Look!″
A branch of bushes on my left swung, and something big and furry flashed and disappeared.
″It’s not a bear!″ Mila said. ″The bears are all sleeping! ″
Then it was summer. Mila and I went into the forest together. Mila said that we don’t have to take our food with us because long ago all the people on our planet were instilled a culture of alien bacteria, which allows us to eat any kind of greenery growing in the forest. Mila said we need to find dryads in the woods. That she knows where to go, but she doesn’t know how to convince the dryads to make friends with us yet. It was just amazing! Mila was walking ahead, and I was looking and looking… I was looking at her little legs, skillfully jumping from the root to root, at back and head with a long braid hidden under the headscarf… So, imperceptibly, it slipped under the feet, and we were already jumping from bump to bump.
″No, that won’t do,’ finally my companion said, ‘we’ll have to fly.″
″How can we fly? ″ I was surprised.
″That’s it,’ my friend replied, ‘imagine that you can do it! Let’s go!
Mila slowly went up in the air. I had no choice but to try to do the same. To my surprise, I followed Mila.
″And here are our friends,” Mila pointed to the clear sky above our heads, sparkling with the sun’s rays.
″Probably, she is overheated,’ I thought, and here, among the sparkling air currents, I saw little laughing men, ‘Unfortunately, I am overheated too.″
We sat down on a high hill under the big tall pines. My head kept fizzing and I clearly felt bad.
″It’s just because you are not used to that,’ Mila reassured me, ‘have a rest, everything will be fine.″
I put my head on her lap and really fell asleep. I dreamt I was lying on Mila’s lap, and little funny people were playing and singing around us. And then I dreamt that a walking bush came out of the forest, came up to us and extended a hand-branch to Mila. I wanted to reach out to him too, but I couldn’t do it.
″He’s very tired and sleeping,” Mila said ″ let him have a rest; he’s already got impressions more than enough″. I really fell asleep, so I haven’t seen anything else. I woke up from a gentle swing. A big strong man was carrying me like a little child.
″Say hello,’ said Mila, ‘this is Kubess the Seventh. And behind him is his girlfriend, Besska the Fifth. Get used to them, they’re not people, they’re dryads, but nobody should know about it besides you and me. We will just call them Kubess and Besska. Let’s say we met them in the forest, and they helped us to cross the swamp. From now on they will also live with us in our village.
How Mila persuaded her grandmother, I don’t know, but Kubess and Besska really stayed to live in their half of the house. However, most of the day and night, as Mila told me, they spent in the garden near the house. My parents were even happy to have garden assistants. This summer made us happy with an unprecedented harvest.
Chapter 7. Pavel ivanovich
How great and successfully my adult life began. The winner of the school competitions, then an excellent student at the institute, interesting work, defense of a doctoral thesis… And in my personal life, I also have luck, I met my dear Frosenka. Even if she is just a teacher of literature at school and cannot participate in my studies, but so much heat comes from her large body! And she loves me! The first year after the wedding was a year of absolute happiness! This year I proved a theorem that made me famous throughout the scientific world.
But, as always happens, then a losing streak began. Firstly, Frosya has had an unsuccessful pregnancy, after which the doctors said that she would no longer have children. And she wanted a son very much! I thought that it was nothing serious, it would be over, and Frosya would become the same. But it didn’t work out: Frosya sank further and further into despair. I decided to take the child from the orphanage. It turned out to be very difficult, I had been getting the necessary documents for more than a year, and Frosya left work and came down with an unknown illness. I came home from work, fed her from a spoon. Finally, we were allowed to take a boy at the age of one and a half, the name of the child was Petya. When I brought the child home, Frosya got out of bed for the first time and was fussed with the housework. I was happy because my wife was babbling with happiness. Possible approaches to solving another mathematical problem were already swarming in my head, but it turned out that my notes were cooked in soup. Frosya didn’t see how our son put them in a pan and cooked me a soup along with math. Unfortunately, this was only the first reminder that now our life has changed dramatically. Most importantly, our son never did the same, I and Frosya was waiting for something new and unexpected every day.
Especially I remember the case when I, happy, came from work: I finally managed to prove the theorem that the others could not. I threw the drafts with proof on the table and went to have dinner in the kitchen. Having back in the room, I found Petka sitting on my desk,