.

Each chain (without branches) was easy to write out – only 6—7 pages. Taking into account two dozen branches, it was already two in the twentieth, that is, about a million chains. A million variants of chains from the entrance, and towards them is a million from the exit. I had to prove the hypothesis that somewhere in the middle, at least, one of the chains of entry meets with the chain of exit. I would use computer-assisted variants here, but how could I explain to the computer the most complicated logic of the task and the construction of the chains? Sometimes it seemed to me that in those missing fourteen pages I found this unique pair of chains, and then I started sorting the possible variants again… And sometimes I said to myself: “Get over it because on those pages there could have been a mistake”. Then I forgot about the problem for a while and had a quiet life a bit of time…

      I also remember slipping on a puddle of black inked glue! It was not easy to clean up the suit. There were a lot of other things… That’s how we put up with it until our home monster turned six years old. A year later he had to go to school, but there was no thought of giving him to a public school because our Petenka could not sit still for two minutes. Of course, he could not read or write.

      Then we received the summon to appear before the Child Rights Protection Committee. This summon completely hit my wife because it was clear that we had failed, and Petka would probably be taken to a boarding school for the underdeveloped. Visiting the committee had a bad impact on my beloved Frosya. We were told that we couldn’t cope with the child’s upbringing, that he always ran around in the street, and that the neighbors heard that we punished him harshly. Now we had to pack his things for three days and bring him to the appropriate children’s institution.

      When we returned home, Frosya was just desperate.

      ″Let’s hide him,’ the wife suggested, ‘is the last way out″.

      ″Frosenka, where can we hide him?″ I objected. ″Alien technology allows to find anyone!″

      Here our conversation was interrupted by our Petka:

      ″Mom, can I go with aunt Bella?″

      ″Where, my honey?″

      ″They’re going to visit their great-grandmother in the woods.″

      ″Go! Go, my dear! ″ Frosya answered and went to see him off.

      Happy Petka left.

      ″What have you done, wife? ″ I said when the happy Frosya returned. ″You know we’ll have to pay a fine for every day we’re late.″

      ″ What’s more precious for you? Child or money? Let him have a rest before this boarding school for a while! ″

      This way our life has changed once again completely.

      As you know, we never managed to bring Petka back to the city, and I with my wife stayed in a forest village for years… At the beginning I was desperate. I had to quit my job. There was no salary! How to feed a family? The neighbor girl Mila offered me to set up a school for her and Petya. At first, I took her offer as a joke. However, the real situation made me look at this offer seriously. After all, I lived in Mila’s house, my family ate food from their supply, so I had to work! At least without a salary. To my surprise, six months later, the school was recognized and my salary was started to be paid.

      And now let me tell about the son. The change of residence has had a miraculous effect on Petka. He followed Mila everywhere, and he simply did not have time for disgusting behavior. The discipline at our school was not monitored at all: if Petka left the class, nobody paid attention to it. But Petya got used to being with his friend all the time, and Mila did not skip lessons. So he had to sit and listen to his teachers too. Over time, other children came to the village, so our robber walked around the village with seven more of the same brats. I tried to leave them as little free time as possible. In summer I set up the agricultural disciplines at school: care of pets (cows, goats, pigs, chickens…), care of vegetable gardens, fields, gathering berries, mushrooms… There were also lessons in weaving and knitting – for girls, carpentry and construction work – for boys. All this, except for usual school disciplines – physics, chemistry, mathematics, literature, music… Strange to say, though no one made them study, the children coped with it and did not skip lessons for no reason. In many ways, it was connected with little Mila. Somehow it turned out that everything around this girl was getting the way she wanted. And she wanted to learn! And this desire she spread to all her friends.

      One miserable day, Mila got it in her head that all her friends had to become telepaths. I knew it was an empty wish; one must be born a telepath. Otherwise, officials wouldn’t be looking for telepathic children for special training in all the towns and villages, otherwise, they could have taught anyone. And my Petka is far from the telepathy, he can’t hear my words, even when I shout in his ear. So, Petka and the group of friends started going to our postman’s telepathic lessons. Of course, it was illegal, but I didn’t mind because I knew they wouldn’t make it.

      One day Petka came home happy and said:

      ″Dad! We did it! I’m a telepath now!″

      ″It can’t be!″ I didn’t believe it.

      Petka kept silent for a while and looked at me as strangely as he’d never looked:

      ″Dad! I know now why you don’t love me! I’m not your own son. But I forgive you because you can’t love anyone by force. Mila doesn’t love me either, but I still feel good with her.″

      I just fell numb and didn’t know what to say. Now I knew exactly what my son became a telepath. Where would that lead? Maybe even for the better? Well, they’ll take him to a special school! He will get a good salary because telepaths are valued!

      A month later, the commission came to us from the city and picked up all the telepaths-children for further study. Only Petya and Mila stayed in the village.

      ″Petka! Why didn’t they take you and Mila? Aren’t you telepaths?″

      ″Dad! Mila didn’t want to fly with the commission, and I didn’t want to fly away from her. We didn’t tell the commission that we were telepaths, too.″

      ″What have you done, son? You won’t have a diploma of telepath without study in a special school, you won’t be able to work as a telepath and get a big salary.″

      ″Dad, it doesn’t matter! The main thing is that I stay close to Mila! Let my life be just like hers. ″

      Oh! How small and dummy they are! They don’t know life at all! What to do, everyone should make mistakes in his own way. I can’t help my son here!

      I told about all my dear Frosya, and she just smiled:

      ″It is so good that Petenka did not fly away, but stayed with us!″

      Well, what should I do with them! They don’t understand anything!

      In two years, in any case, we will have to take Petya and Mila to the city to take the final exams for the school course. I will try to prepare them, although I feel insecure about it. School curriculums are always changing, and I am not aware of the latest changes. Although the last year’s test papers are always available. Maybe, that will be enough?

      Chapter 8. School graduating

      This is the last year of our school studies. In spring we will go to the city to take the exams. We have to prepare – and not only for exams. By nightfall, I called the dryads to the forest with me. Petka, of course, went with us. This time I decided to talk to Gilk again: you never know ahead of time what will happen and who you will ask for help. Of course, I could have contacted Gilk alone, but I wanted to introduce him to our shrunk team. Besides, I wanted to make sure that Gilk could receive messages on the dryad’s frequency. I thought it would make our connectionless accessible to other telepaths. At the same time,