My first book (part 1).

BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT

Massimo Provenzano

Yea, though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, I will fear no
evil: for You are with me; Your rod
and Your staff they comfort me.
(Psalm 23:4)


Bandy

The story was told to Mike by his cousin Andrew, who then got drowned in Jenisej river breaking down through the spring ice. So, he might not confirm it. As for Nick, he would probably keep his silence on it, not being a talkative person. Anyway, it was as follows. Andrew came with a visit to Nick. He lived just several hundreds feet yonder off the hostel. He came to watch a spy movie about a Second World War time resident in nazi Germany who passed over through a radio station the secret files to Moscow. A subsequent part of the movie was to begin. When the pathetic music was about to play. Small Mike who barely was a year old took a toy wooden bandy for Russian hockey out of his toys box and approached Nick who sat on an armchair from behind under the watch of Andrew who sat on the divan. Andrew just looked what way the events would develop not paying much attention to small Mike’s intentions. He did not take it serious because Mike was a small one. Mike moved back and a bit aside the bandy to make a better blow. He knocked upon the head of his elder brother who had been unawares of any danger. Mike put all the forces of his small body into the strike. Nick wailed of pain and spoiled fun of watching the TV set. He wept and threw himself on small Mike who held the bandy to make another blow. Andrew jumped and tackled Nick down. Through much tears and snots it got calmed down however.
It was not clear why small Mike did it. Did he understand that Nick was a kind of being a stranger having been born of another man from the mom’s first marriage? He loved Nick all the same. Or was it a struggle for a bigger share of power in the home? Nobody knew.

Sauna

That day Mike had to go into the sauna along with his mom. He was still in an age when he just began to understand the meaning of the things. He wanted to go with his dad but his parents decided that he was too young yet to go into sauna as a man. So he should go as a baby, with his mom. When they got into sauna, the mom put Mike on the concrete bench into a metal washbasin the administrator gave out to the people in the sauna. It was the first time Mike visited the sauna. But, the first time with his mom and in a female day of the sauna as it functioned. Mike tried not to look at the naked white bodies of the women. But, he could not help getting turned on. The women began to protest that Mike was in the sauna among the females.
‘He’s just a child yet,’ objected his mom.
‘Look the way he’s gotten, and then understand he’s no child,’ protested the women.
It was the last day Mike was in the sauna among the females.

Sun hares

Once Mike along with the other boys tried to catch up the sun hares. They called so the bunches of the sunny beams reflected off a hand mirror upon a wall or something else. The girls were held up one by one by the female kindergarten teachers from taking part in the game. The sun hares could not be caught. They had jumped on the wall at all unthinkable heights. Even if taken over they had strangely eluded out of the hands. Then, Mike turned around to see he was left alone to play. All other boys stood near the teachers. Mike looked at the sun hares still jumping on the walls. They approached him one by one waiting for a snatch. A real hare would not have done so.
‘Why don’t you catch the sun hares, they’ve come from the sun and want to play with you, Mike’, asked one of the women.
‘No’, said Mike, ‘They jump off your hand mirrors.’
‘Mickey, don’t cheat the other boys, it’s an honest game, go and look if there’s some sun hares hiding in our mirrors.’
Mike approached the kindergarten teacher, and said ‘Give me the hand mirror and I’ll show you.’
She lifted up the mirror for Mike not to be capable to reach it.
‘No deal, Mike, the hand mirrors are not for the boys to play with.’ She said.
‘Give me’, Mike jumped trying to take the small mirror out of the hand of the woman.
‘Vow, you are unruly boy.’ She commented.
‘Give the mirror to me and then let him go to see if there’s some sun hares in it,’ said the other kindergarten teacher that sat in the shadow.
The first woman smiled and passed over the mirror. Mike went up to the woman in the shadow. He took the mirror. After this, he had made a few quick steps to get under the sunlight. He moved the hand-mirror. A sun hare darted across the wall. It jumped over the window.
The first woman wrested the small circle mirror out of the Mike’s hands. ‘You are a smart one, Michael.’
A short moment of silence passed.
Then the woman, who possessed the hand-mirror first said, ‘It was a crazy sun hare like Michael himself is.’
Girls laughed. Some of the boys laughed too.
‘Mike’s going to the corner and does not spoil the game with the sun hares for the rest of the boys’, she sentenced.
He sat in the corner and watched other boys jump up the shadowed wall. While the girls laughed. His humiliation was subdued by the pride that he knew why the boys could not catch the sun hares.

Signal flags

An April day was in his full strength. The sunshine changed into the cloudy grayness and returned again. A group of kindergarten children went from medical test in the local child polyclinic. They went in a column of two rows. Mike went in the middle of the column. He was clothed in a brown and yellow checked coat, black small trousers and a black rabbit fur hat. Mike wanted very much the small red flags that were given to a boy who went at the right side of the column with those flags in his hands. He asked the teacher to allow him to carry those small red flags and move them in the wind to make the red cloth wave but she did not allow.
So, they went by along a road between two rows of garages and were about to come on to cross the road. The group stopped at the commanding shout of the teacher. The women checked the rows and one of them getting in front of the column they ordered the kids to come along. The children moved. When they were on the road appeared a heavy truck that came from the right side. The women did not think it a peril because the rules of the traffic obliged the driver to stop and let the column of the children to cross the road.
The driver indulgently pushed the brake out of an ease of a man that knew little trouble. But, the truck did not react. The man pushed and pushed on the brake pedal but there ensued from it no response of the mechanisms. He grabbed the handle of the gearbox and tried to get on a lower gear. The truck went on the column of the children on the full speed.
Some kids stood still and watched the fast approaching truck, the other tried to run but struck upon the backs of the other kids. The boy with the red flags tried to run forward having no obstacle ahead. But Mike got out of the ranks and took the boy by the scruff of the neck. He made him to turn over to the right with his left arm and took the small red flags out of the hands of the boy first one then the second. Then he let the boy to run. Mike imagined himself to be a military traffic regulator. Be began to move the flags in the combinations of signals he made by his heart as he knew from the films he had seen. A spirit of a military traffic regulator fully came upon him. He went along the road on the approaching truck that signaled itself with the honk. The signals of Mike’s flags resulted so that the truck had to turn to the right, left of Mike. Mike made all his movements by an instinct led by a mighty spirit of the answer to the oncoming danger.
The driver looked at the approaching boy and had nothing to do but to turn right. The truck struck a big poplar tree after it got down off the road and the driver hit the front glass with his head. The truck was not damaged much but small clouds of vapor beat up out of the hood that opened a little.
The children began to run off the road in a straight column. Mike himself stood near the car. The driver jumped out of the cubicle and began to curse rubbing his head. The teacher ran from behind and grabbed Mike into her arms. She cursed back and called the driver bad names. Then, she turned around and after making several steps put Mike on the asphalt. She went along holding him hand by hand. It was all over. Nobody ventured to remember it in the kindergarten. And, after some time Mike himself forgot about that valiant deed of his.

Arson

Anastasia, Mike’s mom was not a completely obedient girl in her childhood. Once she and Gloria, the girl of twelve and her classmate to boot, had a vengeance plan against an old man whom they deemed to be a miser and who by their common opinion deserved some evil to be made to. It was rather not a plan but a spontaneous action of revenge. The girls walked beside the wooden fence of the household of that old man whose name was Brian and one of them took out of the pocket a box of matches. It was Anastasia. She ignited the matches one by one and approached them closely to the wood as if to put on fire the wooden fence. In reality the girls just played in a revenge of arson. They did not have the definite intent to make the harm. But, when old Brian saw the occupation of the girls it was enough for him to cry wolf and grab both girls to carry them to their parents for a matter of the due punishment. He brought both girls to the house of the Gloria’s mom Margaret and delivered them to the family justice. Margaret upbraided the girls and rebuked they had made such an evil act. Listening to all the reproaches, Anastasia took a piece of chewing gum and gave it to Gloria that stood beside.
‘Yea, share it, share. You’ll have to share all the things between yourselves when in the jail.’ Commented Margaret.

A prophet

From his childhood, as far ago as he remembered, Mike always wanted to be a prophet. He played a prophet. He said that he would be a prophet when he got grown up. He told it due the Lord said him to do so, because he heard the voice of the Lord. It was as natural for him as to hear everybody else say.
Once a girl played among other children in the hostel. It was September. The leaves fell on the ground and spotted it with the gold. Mike said that he was a prophet and was to be a son of God when he grew up. The girl laughed wickedly. She went somewhere into the hostel. After a few minutes, she came on the small asphalt playground that was the place where the people went in and out the hostel. It was the gates of the hostel.
‘Come to me, Mike,’ she said.
She held a glass filled with something yellow.
‘Come to me, Mike,’ she said once more.
Mike was afraid to come to her, feeling there was some mischief on her part. He started to go off backwards. But, some elder boys ran from behind and held him by the arms.
‘Hold him fast, I’ll anoint him with the oil, if he wants to be a prophet,’ she said.
She approached Mike. One of the boys took off Mike’s hat and threw it on the dusty ground. The girl poured the sticky oil on Mike’s head. It flowed down Mike’s head and even down the back between the collar and the body. The boys let Mike arms and kicked him once. Mike tried to pick up his hat, but the boys shoved him from the place where the hat lay. Mike faced them all, but one of the boys gave him a strike on the cheek with his hand, and shoved again. Mike fell on the ground, flat on his back, and struck off his bowels. The boys and the girl ran on him and began to throw the dry dirt and leaves on his face and rubbed all that stuff into the oil on his head. Then some of them kicked once more upon his left side and threatened to blow on the face with a boot. Mike moved back his head by an instinct. Then they tried to shake their hands of the oil mixed with the dust. But, could not. They called Mike by cuss words and went into the hostel. Mike stood up heavily; his belly ached and gave the nausea of the guts that had been struck off. Mike went into the grove of the yellow trees that was in few feet off the gates. He took the golden leaves and tried to dry off the oil and dirt mixed up. He took more and more leaves and tried to dry up his head but could not.
Suddenly, he heard a voice, ‘Michael.’
He got up. He knew it was the God.
‘Michael. The way you won’t be able to get rid of the oil and dirt on your head, they won’t be able to wash it from their hands,’ said the God.


Two potato pies

This day Mike did not go to the kindergarten. His elder brother Nick did not visit the school, either. So, eight years older Nick was to look after Mike, a little boy as yet. Nick did not like it much. Still, he was obliged to, because their parents left home for the work. Anyhow, Nick could bear it, on account he was not yet aged enough to be totally parted with the childhood interests.
They both lived in the hostel of an agricultural college where their dad taught chemistry to future agronomists, machine operators and accountants. Their flat was on the first floor, which was completely reserved for the teachers’ families. The female students occupied the upper stories of the building.
At the beginning, the boys hang about on the first floor. Mostly, near the reception room of the hostel. The still atmosphere ruled the place. Almost nobody went in or out the door. It was the morning. So, all were whether absent for the lectures and work or slept in the rooms.
After all, Nick took Mickey into a dark corridor as far from the concierge lady as it was necessary for her not to be able to eavesdrop what he was about to say to his younger brother.
‘Look, Mickey, stay a little while here when I’ll go and see what it is like on the upper floors,’ offered Nick with an outward enthusiasm, but little real hope.
‘Nope, I’m gonna tell the mom if you leave me here alone,’ stated Mike not giving a chance to reconsider it.
Nick was experienced enough not to argue with a kindergarten boy, whose last reason – the tears in the presence of the concierge lady, or then, much worse, before the mom was to count with, if the elder boy did not want to reap the harvest of the consequences.
So, Nick simply said, ‘Ok, let’s go to a reconnaissance, I’ll go first, you’ll follow a few steps behind.’
‘No, you shall run away from me and leave me alone down here,’ answered Mike, ‘That’s no deal.’
Nick invited Mike to follow with a hand gesture like people did when they were on some important mission that was not to be much noised about. They climbed the stairs and got on near a window that let the sun to lighten the place.
‘Well, you’ll go with me but first let’s make a deal. I’ll be a lieutenant, and you a sergeant. Anyhow, I’m much older than you are. So, you’ll listen to what I say, and execute my orders. Then, no matter what we do, we will keep it from the mom and dad ‘cause it’s gonna be a military secret.’ Nick bargained now with a reasonable assurance that his superiority of age will let him control the situation.
‘No, I don’t want to be a sergeant. You better be a general and I’m somebody a bit lower than you in the rank just to execute your orders.’ Mike knew there should be somebody he spoke of, only he had forgotten how this rank was called. That left more than enough of the room for maneuver to Nick.
‘Ok, Mike, you’re gonna be a colonel,’ said the elder boy now sure that he caught Mike on his craving for adventure.
Mike was glad he was a colonel, the more so on account Nick acknowledged him to be in this rank. Now, Mike felt his importance. The common task to reconnoiter the upper floors somehow shortened the seemingly insurmountable gap of age between the boys. Though Nick was a general, Mike felt himself to be only as little lower in the imaginary rank as could be. This condition added him some rights to influence the situation. It was not because Mike would use his last resort of a capricious whimper or else to threaten an appeal to such an instance as mom. But owing to they were somewhat more equal with Nick now, two partners in a real deal Mike sniffed Nick was up to because of all his cautious diplomacy. Usually, he was not that kind with Mike. Anyway, Mike was going to hearken to what Nick said not because he was of something no more than a iron ball chained to his elder brother’s leg, which prevented the last to have some real fun. But because he was obliged so due to the military discipline that made even the adults to comply with what the higher rank officers said as it was in the army.
Then, they got on the second floor. Now, it seemed Mike knew what attracted Nick to the upper floors. A smell of fried pies penetrated the halls of the building.
‘Thus, we gonna ask some pies from the girls?’ asked Mike now sure he was close to the solution of the riddle why Nick acted so suspiciously.
‘No, Mike, they won’t give us some even if we beg for,’ said Nick, ‘Don’t forget we’re gonna make a sortie and a pair of pies will be our trophy.’
Mike felt dizzy of the abundance of new words the real meaning of which he did not know for sure. Also, he was afraid to get in a mix with the adult female students for a pair of pies. He knew their army’s forces were not enough to grab the pies by force. He felt afraid of his elder brother’s idea.
‘I don’t wanna mix up with the girls. They’ll punish us and tell it to our parents that we fought with them,’ he sounded his apprehensions.
‘Don’t worry, Mike. Leave it to me. We’ll take the pies by ruse. We won’t fight with the girls, who fry the pies,’ explained Nick.
Still, Mickey felt a kind of fear, knowing that the girls, who were adults, were much slier than even Nick had ever been. Nick saw that Mike was frightened because of the absence of the information about his design.
‘Mike, you are a colonel, don’t forget it. Where’ve you seen a colonel to be afraid of a bunch of girls,’ admonished Nick.
‘But, they are stronger than us,’ said Mike what it seemed for him to be a deadly argument.
‘Don’t fret over it, Mike, we’ll make the whole operation from an ambush. If there’s some wrong, we’ll retreat,’ assured Nick.
‘Even if we are a general and a colonel two of us, the girls are stronger, and they tell the mom and dad,’ said Mike still full of doubt.
‘We’ll make the subversion while they don’t see us,’ assured Nick.
Now, Mickey felt as though Nick was right, anyhow all said his elder brother was a smart boy. So, he nodded consent.
‘But, promise me first not to look at what I do,’ asked Nick.
‘Ok,’ agreed Mike now sure that Nick was up to some clever thing that would cover up his mischief.
Mike was left at the shadowed place where the staircase went on the second floor. He closed the eyes leaving a narrow space between the eyelids enough for him to see what Nick was going to accomplish.
But, Nick turned around and said, ‘Turn your back on me, it’s sure you don’t peep at.’
So, Mike had to turn about. Nick approached an electricity plug. He put down the sleeve of his sweater to cover up his right hand. Then, he took out of the left pocket of his trousers a piece of the copper wire and put it into the right hand covered by the wool cloth of the sweater. After this, he put that copper wire into one of the two holes of the plug. Then, he made the same with the other hole making use of the second piece of the copper wire. Mike saw it because from time to time he would swiftly turn his head around to watch what Nick did. Suddenly, Nick turned around his head himself. He saw Mike spied on him.
‘Mike, you promised not to look at,’ warned Nick seriously and a bit nervous, ‘You’ll spoil the whole deal.’
Mike turned around to watch the staircase. After a moment of silence, he made a few steps back and tried to see what was going on behind in the obscure picture reflected from the open glass door. Nick took the third piece of the copper wire and posed it above the first two poked into the holes of the plug at a distance of about ten inches. Then, he let the copper wire go down, previously closing the eyes and turning the head aside. The copper wire just fell on the wooden floor, not having touched the other pieces of the copper wire poked into the plug.
‘Shit,’ expressed Nick his disappointment with a cuss word.
Then, tried it again getting a little closer to the electricity plug. All of a sudden, Mike saw a flash in the glass and heard something blow up not very loudly. Dazzled, he stood straight, not having courage to turn around to see what was what. He felt as Nick grabbed him abruptly from behind his back as a good wrestler would have done, and got downstairs with him, into the shadow of a dark corner.
‘Hist,’ said Nick in a low voice, ‘Keep mum.’
As the local custom was the pies were fried on the small portative ovens that were, as it was the real case, prohibited to use. It was because the wires of the hostel were not calculated for such a charge. The rulers of the time pretended that students should eat in the dinner room of a college campus, and eat there enough.
Nick was already grown old enough to take over the female students on how the electricity works. The fuses cut out. Several worried girls appeared from the rooms, bereft of the electrical energy. The ones guilty of the prohibited trade of cooking got nearly desperate because they thought that the oven, smuggled into the hostel as a most illegal item, had over-charged the circuit to get it broken. In such a case concierge would not be a good guest on the place of the disaster.
‘Shit… What’s the hell around here with the electricity?’ exclaimed one of the female students.
‘Seems like the fuses could not stand it no longer again,’ stated the common opinion the other one.
‘What we’re gonna do with that this time?’ asked some of the girls.
‘It’s not good an idea to call the administrator,’ said the one guilty of cooking pies.
‘But, who’s who can arrange it with the electrician to fix the fuses?’ insisted the one, who had the alibi. ‘Even if we set down a bottle to him he would not get through the concierge lady unnoticed,’ she added. ‘There’s gonna be a lot of stink out of it.’
‘I’m ‘fraid to get into the switchboard,’ as if excused herself the other one from the room where they cooked the pies.
‘I am not also keen on burning up my fingers,’ remarked the one that seemed to make too much of an affair of it, as if she never cooked anything herself.
At that moment, Nick got in on the spot from around the corner. Mike dragged himself behind. All looked like the boys happened on the second floor by a mere chance.
‘What’s going on down here?’ Nick asked with quite enough cheek to cover his jitters.
‘Oh, Nick, what’s a lucky strike you’ve gotten over here,’ happily said one of the girls. ‘You’ll help us to fix the fuses, won’t you?’ said she to add, as though wanted to make avail of her feminine charms to allure the boy into helping them to solve the problem with the electricity.
‘To help you to fix the fuses?’ repeated Nick as if with a doubt, to add the importance to the whole affair. ‘I don’t know if I might help you. Never tried it with the fuses in my life.’
‘Come on, Nick. It’s Ok with you. You always fix the electrical stuff like them lamps or irons, don’t you?’ insisted the one, who did not want to make it a public affair.
‘ ‘Tis not the same. The wires are under the tension. It’s 220 volts,’ said Nick not without a success to show himself skeptical.
‘Nick, we were just about ending to cook the potato pies and all of a sudden the electricity went off,’ expressed herself one of the girls, the tears were about to appear on the eyes now when the rescue seemed to be at hand and the first stress got off. ‘We’ll give a pair of pies to you and your brother Mike. Whether you don’t like the potato pies?’
It seemed to Nick that the fish might get off the hook now when the gentle was already about to be sucked off totally.
‘Ok, ‘tis Ok, I’ll fix it. Don’t worry over it,’ Nick announced promptly.
‘We always knew you’ve been a good boy,’ relaxed herself the girl.
Nick went up to the switchboard, opened it.
‘Well, what can be done in here?’ said Nick to denote it as a serious case.
The girls watched him unscrew one of the fuses, and look at the backside of it, which was burned. Suddenly, he turned a bit nervous. He recalled that there was no copper wire to fix the matter except in his pocket. It would be suspicious just to pull out a piece of the copper wire out of his pocket to trim the fuse.
‘I gotta go get some copper wire there’s in our room,’ said Nick a bit fretful that his mischief could be detected.
He went downstairs. Mike was left in the company of the girl students. The image of the enemy did not dissolve totally in the fuss over the fuses. It seemed to Mike that Nick just deserted him because the sortie got a bad way. All the same, he tried to chase away these thoughts from his head and stay natural. Anyhow, he believed in the military genius of his general. It was all that was left to him.
‘So, Mickey, whom we’ll be when we’re grown up?’ inquired one of the girls.
‘Who is we?’ mumbled Mike in a loss forcing himself to stand still and not to step back.
The girls laughed.
‘Maybe, you’ll be an electrician to help the poor girls like us if the fuses get burned out?’
‘Try, Mickey,’ said the other, ‘Go fix it in the switchboard.’
Mike felt the nausea of fear to come into his soul. His body got week. He was about to confess. It seemed as though the girls guessed why the electricity had gone off. Then, he remembered about the mom and that she would have been ashamed. So, he found a source of the interior strength to hold out anyhow.
‘I’m too small yet. They don’t allow the boys like me to make such things,’ explained he, not even afraid now to look as a coward.
‘Good,’ said the interrogator, ‘Let’s wait till Nick brings the copper wire.’
Mike backed away to the opened glass door. The girls began to speak with one another about the stuff Mike hardly understood. A few minutes it took for Nick to go to their room and back to the second story to make it plausible that he looked for some copper wire, seemed to Mike to be as long as just can be. Then, Nick turned up.
‘Ok, let’s trim it,’ said he when approached the open switchboard.
In a rather short space of time, Nick fixed the fuses as though he was occupied with such business the most part of his life. It was like Nick lost the interest to be up to the level of playing it the right way the needs of the conspiracy required. After the fuses were fixed, he closed the switchboard.
‘It’s all with them fuses,’ said he.
‘So, now the pay,’ told the girl. ‘Will you wait till we warm up the pies?’
‘Nope,’ simply said Nick.
The girls went each one into their rooms and the cookers gave Nick a pair of pies. The elder boy delivered to his brother his part of the loot. Mike tried the pie. It was cold. As a rule, he liked potato pies most. But, this one did not seem good to him. The cold pie tasted of starch. Mike’s stomach refused to digest the potato-dough stuff properly. Though Mike ate not already for a long time, the hunger disappeared almost totally, leaving only a soft nausea. In a word, the boy did not have the appetite for the pie.
‘‘T would be better if we just asked our mom to cook some potato pies on the weekend,’ complained Mike in half a voice.
Nick did not answer.
Seeing off the boys, one of the girls said, ‘A good one of a husband some fortunate baby’s gonna get.’
‘Yea, the boy really knows how to handle the things around the household.’ Added the other one.
The boys disappeared around the corner to get downstairs.
After they went to the first floor, and it was not possible for the girls to overhear them, the younger boy told, ‘It is not tasty, the pie. We’d better just ask some pies off the girls. Anyhow, they’d allow us to bite a morsel off a pie. This one is bad. We even did not ask them girls to warm up the pies. We’d better just ask the mom to fry some potato pies.’
‘You don’t understand it ‘cause you are too small yet. That was fun,’ affirmed Mike, but without sounding real happy with the spoils.

A choice of two

Once a grown-up man offered Mike a choice between two candies. One was chocolate, the other caramel. He held them behind his back in the hands.
Mike said, ‘I take them both.’
The grown-up man got somewhat upset and pronounced, ‘Mike, that’s no deal, it’s a choice…what do you like best, the chocolate one or caramel?’
Mike said, ‘I better like chocolate, but I wanna take them both.’
‘Ok, Mike, but that’s a choice, all depends on what candy you like best, try it again.’
Mike repeated, ‘I choose them candies both.’
‘Mike, do not play a fool. Whether you do not know what you want?’ the young man asked, ‘Seems like you want too much.’
Mike kept silence. The young man turned about and went away.
The tears dropped off the boy’s eyes, ‘I knew what I wanted, I wanted both, them candies.’
He lost the chance to take at least one of the candies. He imagined how he would eat the chocolate one first lest it should melt in his hand. Then the caramel one after the taste of chocolate would disappear in his mouth. To say that Mike was simply disappointed meant to say nothing at all. However, the thought he could take both sweets at once somewhat comforted his soul. Simply, he was not fortunate enough.

Armenian girl

Mike heard this story when he was yet a small boy and went into the kindergarten. It was told him instead of fairy tales. His grandmother, the dad’s mom, made it known to him the events of her own father’s life connected with his presence on the Turk Front during First World War. Then, he got a rather cogent story of his grand-grandfather’s life, by what he knew from the grandma’s other tales, or some other details he received from other people like his own mom or dad.
His grand-grandfather Nick had been rather an average man in respect of his morals except for an acute sense of equitability that was intended to defend and justify his own wishes and needs the same as Mike himself had. Mike heard it from somebody that his grand-granddaddy Nick had believed in the God like it also was with the grand-grandson. Though grand-grandfather Nick had not been so scrupulous on keeping the strict letter of the word of God as it was with Mike when he got grown up.
Nicolas Nagibin was born in the European part of the Russian Empire. There he got married and conceived several children. The place he lived in was scarce of land. So, like many peasants, he listened to the call of the government to go East to Siberia. He received a subsidy from the government and a dray to move to Siberia. After several months of travel he made it to a place he was allotted to. It was situated near the taiga forest, in the upstream tributes of the great Jenisej River. It was a settlement where he knew nobody and nobody knew him. No kith or kin. Just a bunch of hunger mouths that sat down on the cart that had been drawn to the place by a pair of scraggy horses he was obliged to return to the local authorities. He had neither house nor home. The Siberian winter was ahead. There were only left three rubles in his pocket. Enough to buy a heifer and start a household. Instead, he went to the bar and drank off the money.
Then, he got a job on the gold mine. He worked in the bunker for about a month without seeing the daylight. The food from above was the only remembrance about the life on the surface. They slept underground. The rock was lifted on the surface by ropes. No ventilation but for the air draught. From the instruments a small crow-bar and rock-axe. The shift was a whole month long. After Nick got above, he drank without a stop for the other month provided for the rest. Then, a new month of hard work. Thus, all year round. So, the household was left totally to the care of his wife, except for the hay collection season reserved to get the fodder for the numerous cattle, when Nicolas had to show who was the man and the master in the house and whom was all held on.
After Nick settled down a bit, the First World War broke out. He was sent to the Turk Front. About three long years of dugout war ensued. Then, the February Bourgeois Revolution. The army began to get on its loose. The self-rule of soldiers’ committees sapped the military discipline. The soldiers got on frequent leaves. On one of such leaves Nick met that Armenian young woman. He himself was at that time already a man advanced in the age. He had had a family in Siberia. But, here on the Turk Front he was very long without any feminine company. The chief obstacle for a romance of Nick with this young woman was that she had been a private prostitute of a young Armenian nobleman. The last had not wanted any children from this poor young woman. So, he had abused of her. The woman had been sick with an ignoble venereal disease, though was no more contagious. The medicine of the time did not have enough knowledge to cure her totally, besides she was poor to pay a good doctor. So, the excuse of the young Armenian nobleman had been that she could not have born him healthy progeny. He had prevented a possible pregnancy with as measures as he had might.
The old soldier and young Armenian woman pleased each other. The problem of the ambivalent marital status of the young woman was solved with a fist scrap when two pretenders met at the young woman’s room. The scandal could be bounded to such a dispute:
‘Do not play any jokes, you beard. We southern guys have hot blood and may not to be able to contain ourselves! So, you better be careful,’ threatened the young Armenian nobleman.
‘You are hot blooded, I am cool blooded ‘cause I’m from up North. So, I won’t strike first, and try simply to explain to you what’s what now with this here woman, and wait you understand and go away from this place. If you try to strike all the same, I’ll punch second. And, if you don’t lie dead on the floor, it’s only because you have your brains put into the right way not to argue and go away from here.’
The young Armenian nobleman made an instinctive movement to clutch the hilt of his dagger that was hung up to his belt. Then, his eyes caught the sight of a three-angle- bayoneted rifle that stood in the corner on its butt end nearby the old soldier. So, the hot-blooded southerner just threw himself on the old soldier with bare hands. The old man had to make good his threat.
The young nobleman getting up the dusty floor hawking off the blood and the fragments of his teeth, hissed, ‘You dirty beard, don’t understand what you’ve gotten in. It’s my country and I’ve got a lot of friends here. You are a dead man.’
‘If that’s your country why are you not able to protect it from the Turk yourself and I’m stuck here for three years in a row,’ hollered the softly drunk angry old man, and kicked the young Armenian nobleman upon his unprotected belly, ‘You time is over to suck our blood, you dirty counts!’ brought the old soldier forth the fruits of the Bolshevik propaganda. ‘Anyhow, I’ve got a lot of mine friends also and if I don’t return tomorrow morning to the positions, they will come here and pick you up for a talk.’
So, all the trouble with the young woman’s quasi-marital status was settled down. She begot and bore a daughter to the old soldier, who visited her on his leaves. But, then the October Socialist Revolution got about. The Soviet Russia went out of the war, concluding a separate piece treaty with the Germany and its allies. The Civil War was on the threshold. They said to Nick that the bands of the natives were at large in the part of Siberia he lived in. All the same, he decided to stay in Armenia to protect his new wife and daughter from the Turk as long as need be, and then to decide what to do concerning his second family in Siberia. Anyway, he got quite a few new acquaintances among the Armenian, who invited him to stay taking into consideration that any rifle was counted in the Armenian emergency volunteer corps they collected against Young Turks.
His regiment was almost totally recruited from his Siberian local friends whom he wanted to charge with taking care of his family back in Siberia. He went to the railway station to see off his friend to come back to Siberia. There the soldiers had a farewell party and drank much. When Nick was already drunk enough his fellow countrymen tackled him down. As much as he tried, now knowing about a conspiracy against him, Nick could not withstand the efforts of his many friends. They tied up his arms and legs with soldier belts and poked him into the door of the military wagon, where they got themselves. The officers shut them up.
It’s hard, but still possible to imagine the predicament Nick got into when the war got over such a way and he had to decide what to do. However, he opted to stay in Armenia, because there was his new wife and small baby daughter. But, to woke up sober after a hard drinking and realize that he was forced to leave his Armenian family alone, a war ahead, and the Armenian themselves unable to protect their land against Young Turks, it was a real anguish. Then, the matters got only worse. Back home, Nick turned a Red guerilla and waged a war against White Guard troops of the general Koltchak in Siberia. After the Civil War was over somebody from his Armenian wife kindred, sent him a telegram to the effect that Young Turks killed his Armenian family. To say that Nick was just sorrow stricken meant not to say much about what he felt. It was a kind of his personal fault, it seemed to him, to get a new woman, and such young and beautiful in that troublesome time. He grieved much, and told everybody how beautiful was his Armenian baby, even to his own Russian wife and children. Such dark and deep eyes she had had. Still, he had a hope that it was a lie about his Armenian woman and daughter to have been killed, in that her kinsmen disliked Nick much. It was on account Nick was the cause of her break-up with the native young nobleman, as full of abuse as their relations were before Nick stepped his foot in the Armenian woman’s room. It might be that they spitefully cheated him to make him bad. Then, one of his Armenian friends sent him a letter to Siberia, that it was all well with his Armenian wife as Nick called her and his small daughter. In the letter there were even the childish scribbles his Armenian friend asserted to be made by his daughter’s hand. His Armenian wife was illiterate and might not write herself. Though she sent a few words written by his friend announcing that she was now his friend’s woman. All it was to the effect that they managed to run away and find a refuge before Young Turks occupied a big part of Armenia and the massacre of Armenians ensued. First, Nick was relieved and could not believe it because it was so good to hear. But, then a real doubt came into his soul that his Armenian family were murdered and his friend just cheated him in his turn to give Nick an illusion. Then the jealousy drove him to think that the Armenian kinsmen did not leave blackmailing him. This doubt ate with canker his soul. Afterwards, when several years passed Nicolas Nagibin alleged that he made an official inquiry into the Interior Affair Ministry. He got an official certification that the woman he had counted for his second wife in Armenia and who had born him a daughter was alive and settled on the shores of the Black Sea on the Russian territory. She was registered under a new surname of the Armenian man that had been his friend after she had officially married him. But, even now Nick feared that the guys in the local office of Interior Affairs simply falsified the paper to get rid of the old man’s solicitations. Somebody told that it was not a reasonable thing to believe old Nick at all because he heard voices of angels and did not consent to go through a medical treatment. He alleged an angel said him that he was forgiven by God, because his grand-grandson would be a righteous man and punished for old Nick’s sin of making it together with his Armenian woman.
Anyway, for Mike all this story about his grand-granddaddy’s love affair was the source of a personal shame and doubt as to the bad repute of his pedigree. He had an obstinate will to prove that it might have been possible to have two wives and do it in a sure way to prevent any tragedy whatsoever. And, to show it by his own life, as though his grand-granddad was his adversary in the competition of proving the truth. Nonetheless, Mike felt as this sin of the past on the part of his ancestor loomed over him. He had the same poison of doubt when tried to imagine that all was Ok with that Armenian girl. It seemed to Mike that the blood of the small Armenian girl was on him.

Moment of truth

The dad held Mike’s hands by his own big palms.
‘But, dad, why you accept all this? That’s a lie. They are not your daughters. And, all those harlots, they just created the semblance of giving birth to your children. That’s not your children. You are no more a fornicator than others. You just keep down and don’t hurry. Who made this witchcraft on you? They want to make that to you only because you’ve got a good immunity because your grandfather Nick had been a prophet and you got vaccinated before Vietnam.’ Small Mike reasoned.
‘The whole thing is not so simple as it seems, Mike. You know I would never accept it, but they pushed on me. You know I am a strong man, but that’s profitless when all are against you. They all conspired…And, it’s not the right word that they have pushed on me. They threatened to slaughter our family, they are frightful men.’ The dad told.
‘Who they are?’ Mike asked.
‘The Chechen, they are frightful men, Mike. I saw it when I served in the army. They always keep together and do not give any one of them to any offence. They are like ‘cosa nostra’, but more frightful. They said, they’d cut out our family.’ The dad related. ‘I’ll take those pills, Mike, we need to win the time.’
‘You do not have much time, dad.’ Mike said.
‘You know, Mike, I see how I make rounds about that hostel building and the small girls and boys tease me, but I cannot keep my nerves and try to swear them but only the froth comes out of my mouth. I see how the adults smile with disdain looking upon me. And…’ The dad began to weep. ‘So, Mike, I am also a prophet and can see the future…But, what you see, Mike?’
‘I see how they poke you into a black cellophane bag with a zipper and take out of the room…But, it’s only what can happen. That’s only the possibility. There always is the other way around.’ Mike said.
‘I see no other way around, Mike…And, only if I just would die like others would do, but that humiliation that’s worse than death. All that pain…Of course, I will not sleep with your mom not to contaminate her. But, all the same I’ll have no chances. You should forgive me, Mike.’ He said.
‘Did you have the friends, dad? I see that that’s impossible to find a man with good immunity among so many people, and the other adult man did not give the blood for the tests. I see that somebody sold you, and it was not just one man.’ Mike asked.
The dad sat silent for some time shaking of anger, then said, ‘You, Mike, promise me that you’ll never have any friends and never serve in the army. I was a good soldier, Mike. I never killed women and children like others.’ The dad began to weep again but it was the bitter tears. ‘I served them, Mike. I served them well.’
‘You, dad, you be sure I won’t leave this that way.’ Mike promised.
‘They promised they’d put you into an orphanage house. Be a good boy, Mike.’ The dad demanded.
‘But, father, the grandma told that when the Chechen women and children were sick while they transported them in the wagons to the Middle East, the granddad Nick gave his blood and they made the bread with it and gave this bread to the sick women and children to recover, and the elders of the Chechen knew it.’ Mike said.
‘I did not know. The grandma never told me about it.’ The father told.
‘But, dad why they make you do all this?’ Michael asked.
‘Michael, I committed a wrong act. I slept with the wife of a very high man.’ He said.
‘And, she told to her husband about it?’ Michael asked.
‘No, Mike. I narrated it to a friend and he sold me to KGB…You, Mike, promise me you’ll never serve in the army and make friends with anybody. And…And, you better invest in people not in pleasures if you’ll fortunate enough to have the money. If I had the money, I’d pay off. Or, if I had the friends they’d help me.’ He said with the tears on his eyes. ‘You, Mike promise me that you’ll kill a Russian and a Chechen for my sake. But, do not tie up with the mob… It was not enough blessing for them.’
‘I won’t, daddy. But, I promise that there’ll be so much blessing that the Russian and Chechen will quarrel over it to kill one another. I promise you. And, I’ll revenge to that who sold you to the KGB.’ Mike said, though he was sure that the dad was taken by a common conspiracy in which the fallen woman took her part to make profit on the dad’s good health.
‘Do not say stupid things, Mike. They are all in common.’ The father pronounced in despair.
Mike knew that the dad was not so guilty as to pay with his life for it, including the shame of madness. So, Mike wanted to revenge and defend his dad.
‘They promised him a flat and dacha in Moscow.’ The dad said about his friend.
Mike knew he would ruin that man.
‘But, why dad you don’t go to the KGB office and kill them all? You’ve got a shot gun in the cupboard.’ Mike demanded.
‘That’s no use. They’ve got the machineguns and they’d kill me all the same. But, I want to leave something to you that you remembered me. They said they’ll take care of you.’ The adult man said.
Mike knew that his dad had not enough guts to give him an example that would have lasted for his whole life.
‘Ok, dad, let’s leave it till tomorrow. I want to see you healthy one more day.’ Mike proposed.
‘I do not have much time, Mike. They said they’d cut out our whole family.’ The dad warned.
‘Just do not make it right now.’ Mike proposed.
‘Yea, I wanted to make it now on the dinner break, but I’ll do it in the evening after I pass some time with you.’
‘Ok, that’s a bargain.’ Mike said.
The dad put the box of the vaccine pills into the cupboard under the cloth and left the hostel room. Mike put the stool and took it out of the cupboard. He went to the other room and ate them all one by one drinking no water, just swallowing them with saliva. But, he took only one pill with the strong synthetic drug in the black holder of pills. He would keep those pills in reserve. He knew that he had the benefit of childhood metabolism. The pills would not act so fast with him because he did not have high hormones level. The sicknesses would give him more time before he would be a man. So, he could do nothing but bail out his dad. Had he done contrary he would have never forgiven it to himself. He would have had no respect for himself in such a case, for the whole of his life. So early in his life, Mike crossed his Rubicon. The moment of truth had come in his life. He had no way back.


Girls

Once upon a time Mike’s elder brother Nick was in the school, he himself happened not to be taken over to the kindergarten. He was old enough not to be shut up in one of the rooms of his parents’ flat. Which evolutionarily developed out of a number of the rooms that were previously occupied by somebody else, who left the hostel for some better place. Plus water closet and bath room. Every room had its own key. Their “flat” had no hall but for the common one of the whole hostel itself that went up into the darkest corners of the higher floors. But Mike would be usually on his loose. It would have been hard for him to get through the concierge lady, out the only porch door of the building.
That day, Mike was looking up for some interesting business to get occupied with. To make him surprised he found one of their chambers not to be shut up. He stood up for a moment afraid to look at the narrow space of the door. He apprehended it were some thieves, of whom he was warned to be as farther as can be. Looked like somebody wanted to get their hands into his parents’ property. But, what he heard was the childish voices possessed surely by some girls about his own age. Now, he knew it almost certainly the concierge that was an old woman herself gave some young mothers the keys of the room to put in the girls, to spare them from listening to adult talks. The young mothers probably came to some girlfriends living in the building. The guests were older or somehow otherwise were already with children. So, they were counted to be more sage about life. They were maybe even capable to give a piece of precious advise to the solitary female student about how to get the same way and keep to herself the boy, who happened to be the happy father, to make up a family. Negative experience was also considered and judged by a jury of unmarried girls. They would usually sentence it to be a mere mistake on the part of the fortune that the poor mother was lonely. Although, such unhappy mother would complain and call the girl, who had not babies, to leave alone completely the males of any sort. To leave them alone to drink and gamble. The other girls were maybe reminiscent of the days when they peacefully played with puppets. Being of age now they wanted to have babies. Not just to sit and play with another young woman’s baby, but to have her own one. So, they did not care. Perhaps, they hoped that in the worst case another young man would appear and take care of the baby. Maybe, because he was guilty of some bad end love affair with another woman. So, the girls would usually want to know how it was with the man, the romance and all like. It seemed like there was a kind of trade union agreement between women. A part of the worldwide complot against the men and boys as Mike thought it to exist. Why the government did not care? Mike did not know it. It had all kind of measures and forces: teachers, concierges, policemen. It seemed to him that all could be arranged. A prospective bridegroom should have come to the hostel’s windows, as the boys usually did. Throw up a little stone to strike gently the glass. Call his beloved one like a knight would do to his princess. Then if all should be Ok, the girl would go down to the hall of the hostel under the eyes of the all-controlling concierge lady. And, if it was winter to arrange for the marriage in there. Or, to do all that on the porch if it was the summer. Then make up a family to live in a hostel for family united students. All public forces seemed to be present. Young men were not let into the girls’ hostel even at most artfully devised entreaties. Teachers were ready to punish students for being unfaithful, drunk, absent from courses. But somehow all the love affairs went wrong. Every girl seemed to compete with another one for the guys. Every one wanted to get a better boy before she got disappointed in him. Then tried to get some guy another girl had. The guys also grunted against such go of the life. They also complained that the women tried to be bosses and so on. Mike also was somewhat jealous that girls dreamed of good jobs like a manager, accountant or judge. They were ready to study assiduously for it. Indeed, Mike never saw or heard that a woman would have been a plumber, mechanic, or coal miner. So, he in his turn was a kind of a chauvinist pig. Girls always wanted to be teachers, concierges, and so on. Mike himself wanted to be an aviator, when grown up. Mike often imagined himself to fly among the clouds. It was his loveliest daydream. He tried to imagine how he lay down on a cloud as upon a heap of cotton. The cotton cloud would be moved by a soft wind toward he did not know where. He was always afraid to fall down. He felt uneasy as if exerted himself not to fall down. In his dreams Mike always had invisible wings that would help him fly and feel the freedom that birds possess…
Suddenly there came a silence and Mike realized that these unbidden guests detected him. He collected up his spirit and went into the room. Two girls played on the floor with whatever they could find in a bedroom. The room itself was full of sunlight. It was warm in there, not as in the hostel hall where he had just stood. The room was almost empty of furniture except a bed under the window and a closet to the right of it. A cardboard box lay in front of the door. No paintings or photos did cover the walls. Mike entered to see the two girls. They were his age.
Mike had no plan how to handle it with the girls. In a short space of time, Mike decided to be up to his watchman duties and inquired, ‘What do you make in our family’s room?’
It was hard for the girls to explain this, so they got intimidated and stopped playing.
‘Tis our flat,’ declared Mike.
Mike felt himself a possessor. The atmosphere seemed to be intimate. The hostel was almost empty. All were gone to the lectures or work. But for a few rooms in the whole building flat. One of the girls was blond the other was brunette.
‘What’s your name boy?’ asked the blond one.
‘Mike,’ stated he, ‘And what’s your names?’
‘This is Tina, I’m Inna,’ said the blond girl. She seemed to possess the personal quality of boldness that would allow her in the future to become a leader in a feminine company she would be part of.
The brunette said to the blond, ‘Let’s say him to play with us.’
So, Inna invited Mike to take part in their game.
‘What do you play?’ Mike questioned.
‘We’ve just played kindergarten teachers,’ said Inna indicating the things that would make a poor semblance of puppets. ‘But if you want to play with us we can play something else’.
There was a regular list of the games a boy might play with two girls: hospital, school, or kindergarten again.
So, Tina said, ‘We might play kindergarten once more, you Mike may be a kindergarten boy…’
‘We’ve left our puppets home,’ added Inna.
Mike had this special feeling of being close to the feminine beauty. It made his hormones begin to play a song of love. Mike felt that he stood now near to the source of the earthly love that enlivens the life of any man and helps it not to be dull as it certainly should have been bereft of this fleshly passion of romance, family, home, and hearth. He felt as though the sweet honey of love melted down and flowed upon his heart. It was the streamlets of sweetness and bliss. His spirit seemed to flap its wings, get a-flying to hover cheerful and happy. All it inebriated Mike. The felt his legs to get week and slow of movement. The boy’s heart began to beat faster the same as a car engine would rattle more merrily if fed with a gasoline of better quality. Mike was sure he beheld a real treasure of which all other material riches of human life were intentioned merely to serve as a measure of value. It was the main earthly asset any man could possess in the days of his life.
The boy said, ‘Right, but only you be kind kindergarten teachers.’
‘Mickey is a good boy,’ said Inna and tenderly stroked his head. The contrast with the real kindergarten teachers’ handling of boys was sharp. He felt as though a small caressing barrel organ played its music in his belly. Now Mike was far away of any sullen thoughts. His soul was felt to be as sunny as the chamber itself filled with the dazzling light. While the window protected against the coolness of the outside April weather. The sunshine gave the warm presence of spring. It brought about the energy of life and love that drove the boy to be soft and kind.
After this, Tina proposed to play a family. Mike was to be the son. Inna was the mother. Tina was let to be the aunt. Mike brought some spoons and cups from his family’s main room. The girls fed Mike with imaginary portions of meals: a bit of meat, then milk. Mike felt how nice it was to be taken care of by two beautiful girls.
Suddenly, Tina said, ‘Let’s I’m gonna be the mother in my turn’.
‘No! That was I who invited this boy to play with us…’ opposed Inna.
‘You always choose what’s best! Like it was with them puppies. You invited to play like it was your children. But when it was my turn to be the mother you said, ‘‘Tis my aunt’s dog. ‘Tis her puppies. I have no interest no more.’ But, it was my turn to be the mother like it’s now.’ Argued Tina.
Tina sat silent for a moment, breathing deeply and frequently. Then she splashed her hands with an akimbo movement, and cried out, ‘I also wanna be the mother, that I, who thought of for this boy to play with us, that’s no matter you invited…’
Inna answered nothing. They both stood up from the carpet. After this, sat down on the bed. They quit it. Mike got up also. The girls were about to begin the dispute again.
But, Mike said ‘Let’s play it a family again… but I’m gonna be a husband now.’
The girls looked at Mike.
‘No deal’ said Tina ‘This one’s gonna want to be the wife again before me.’
The boy approached the girls. Mike felt as though his legs turned cotton. The sweet and easy nausea made him infirm on his feet.
Then, he pronounced. ‘Let’s you’re gonna be my wives both…’ He swallowed a saliva lump there was in his throat, and added, ‘Then no one of you is going to be an offended.’ A strange shadow he hardly discerned passed over the girls.
Mike felt himself getting a patriarch way. He loved both girls from the first look. He could not make a choice. If one of the two girls had been homely, he would have offered to play a family only to the beautiful one. But, both girls were real beautiful. To choose between them was the same as to choose between warm day and cool night. The girls looked to each other’s eyes.
Then Tina said, ‘No good. Who’s gonna be the aunt? Me again?’
‘Nobody’s gonna be an aunt. You two shall be my wives both,’ Mike proposed again.
‘Such things don’t happen,’ said Inna, ‘Somebody’s got to be a mistress… I won’t’.
‘Nobody’s gotta be a mistress, ’ explained Mike, ‘You’ll be my wives both.’
‘That’s not interesting’ said Tina.
Mike had no arguments. Then, he went into the main room. He took a tankard, found the bottle of liquor and poured a little. He appeared before the girls with the metal cup in his hand.
He announced, ‘Your health’, and drank the bitter contents of the tankard. After this, he threw the cup upon the wooden floor as he saw the men do in the movies. The cup made a hollow sound, and jumped aside. Mike felt as the liquor burned his gullet. The girls did not laugh.
‘Let’s play a hospital’ he proposed.
He sat down on the carpet. The girls got down on the floor and began to cure him with imaginary syringes and medicines. Then, Mike lay on the carpet for the girls to make an operation on his belly. Mike lay on his back and looked upwards. The ceiling began to flow to and fro.
Inna whispered, ‘Look, he got worse because of the operation.’
‘No, this is because of the liquor… it was the same with my daddy once,’ explained Tina.
‘He’s gonna vomit out?’ asked Inna.
Mike turned his head right and looked at them. Now, the sun was under the clouds. The girls helped Mike to get up and go to sit on the bed. Mike felt real groggy now. At this moment, a girl walked into the room. She was a bit more older than Inna and Tina.
‘I’m gonna tell your moms, you play with a boy, who drinks liquor,’ she threatened.
‘Come on, Jane, don’t be a sneak, you always tell tales,’ accused her Tina.
‘Let’s play a hospital again while he is sick yet,’ proposed Jane.
Sitting on the bed Mike heard a noise in his head as their TV set had done when switched out of channel. He realized that the elder girl eavesdropped. The girls took Mike under his arms and got him down on the carpet to played hospital.
‘I’m gonna get real pills we’ve got in our home. There’re special ones for soldiers against any disease,’ said the boy.
‘Don’t be silly,’ said Jane, ‘They do not play with pills.’
So, instead of the pills Mike just brought some things from his family’s medicine chest. The girls drew with a red pencil an imaginary scratch on Mike’s arm beneath the elbow and turned a bandage around it. Jane left the room for the upper floor.
Mike felt as if there was some discomfort in the lower part of his belly that would engender the fluxes of blood upon his heart. It brought about a dull pain that made him feel uneasy. The tickling of nervousness around his navel became so keen, he was unable to withstand it. So, he went ahead.
‘Whose wives you’ll be when you are grown up?’ inquired Mike of Tina and Inna.
The girls looked at Mike with surprise. Then, the charms of their beauty seemed be stricken by withering like a flower under the frost. They stood up from the carpet and went to the bed to sit down on it.
After this, Inna pronounced with the left and right ends of her mouth getting down a bit, ‘Nobody’ll want to marry us.’
Mike felt as though he was on the threshold of an emotional revolution in his life. It seemed to him to be a lucky strike that nobody wanted to marry these two glamorous creatures.
‘Why?’ asked the boy.
‘’Cause we’ll be harlots,’ stated Tina as if teasing Mike, but offended of something.
Mike felt a protest and insult grow in his soul. He took it personal.
‘Harlots are bad women,’ he said with disdain. ‘Why such pretty girls wanna be harlots?’ added he after a while with cruel derision thinking that he was mocked at.
Tina began to weep.
‘That’s because our children will be sick or even die,’ said firmly Inna. ‘Do you want that your child die?’ asked she with a challenge of despising.
Tina sobbed even stronger and hugged Inna to hide her own face in her girlfriend’s bosom. The tears began to appear on the eye of Inna also. Mike was about to get a-weeping himself. He did not want that his child died when he was grown up.
‘Why?’ simply asked Mike now when the affair tended to turn completely bad.
‘Because the mom told about a doctor to say so. Tina’s mom said the same,’ explained Inna.
‘Don’t believe it!’ said Mike trying to be cheerful, ‘Doctors always lie.’
‘No, that’s real true,’ continued Inna, ‘Nobody’ll want to marry any one of us.’
‘No one will love us,’ added Tina with much of tears.
Mike wanted to help and encourage the girls. He loved best Inna so he decided to propose her to be her husband when they would grow up. He was afraid that the boys and girls, who called themselves to be his friends, would mock him because of his choice. But, he overcame the fear.
‘I will marry you, Inna, anyhow,’ he offered.
‘You are a good boy, Mike. But, we are too girlfriends. Even if you marry one of us, the other would stay alone. It’s a swear, we’ll be harlots.’
It was not the time to tell the stories, but Mike went on one, ‘My grand-granddaddy had an Armenian wife when he was in the First World War. That was his second wife, the other stayed home in Siberia. So, maybe you’ll be my wives both like it was with my grand-granddaddy?’
‘No, we’ll better be harlots!’ said Tina after she had stopped crying.
‘It was because we had been sick with staphylococcus when we had been babies and they made us blood transfusions,’ commented Inna, ‘They contaminated our blood.’
Mike did not intend to boast, but he blurted out due he was in a loss because of all the story, ‘When I was a baby, I also was sick with it. But my dad had some friends in Moscow, ‘cause he’d been a party secretary. So, they sent him homoglobulin by airbuses to the airport. And, they did not need make me blood transfusions.’
It was his dad’s source of personal pride, but Mike always knew it was his dishonor that he had been treated preferably before girls, who were also sick.
‘So, your daddy had the pull?’ snapped Inna with righteous indignation. ‘But, our moms did not have. So, we’re sick now.’
‘You also have the pull?’ asked Tina with disdain.
Mike was not happy he had the pull. He said, ‘I did not mean that.’
This moment Jane got into the room.
‘Say him, Jane, that you are also sick with it,’ proposed Inna.
‘We’ll be harlots anyhow while we’re beautiful still. Before our noses fall off and the hairs fall off the same as the doctor said. As long as they pay us the money for it and we can buy the food, as the mom have said. Then, we’ll look if you’ll love us.’ Tina cried out.
‘We won’t marry you anyhow. Nobody of us wants that our children should die. So, we’ll be harlots.’ Inna accused more.
‘You won’t save us by your love. We’ll die the same in the end.’ Tina sobbed covering her face with her hands to hide she was crying.
At this moment, Mike felt it was the deadline. He pitied and loved the girls truly. It did not matter for him that they were sick now.
With imperceptible tears on his own eyes, he pronounced, ‘I will marry any one of you, if there’s nobody who want to be a husband of any one of you.’
Mike believed in pills and medicine, and was sure it could be put right with the girls. However, he was superstitiously afraid of the sickness the girls implied. He was afraid that his children could die. All the same, he wanted to share the girls’ fate as a husband of one of them. But, something returned him into reality that he was not able to leave alone the rest of them. After all, he knew that harlots were bad women, who spoiled his parents’ matrimonial life by frequent scandals because of them. He hated harlots. They caused him to be unhappy in that his dad and mom often quarreled on this account. Mike did not want that the girls turned harlots when grown up. But, he understood why they wanted so. If Mike never met those girls, he would no doubt dream to love some beautiful girl his eyes had pleased. It was the way he understood his future life happiness he so longed for. But now he was at the point where he could not avoid making a decision. It was a moment for him to show whether he was a real man or not, as small as he was then. But, it was not most important. Simply, he loved them all, and wanted to help them all three. However, he apprehended that he could be accused that it would have been a bargain on his part to propose to take a matrimonial care of all three girls. If it all had been Ok with the girls, then he would have known his offer was a kind of a game he played to feel himself a patriarch for just for some time. But, the two girls were sick. It made the things serious and meaningful. He felt that he had a certain power over the girls, and he clearly understood that he wanted not to misuse it. His idea was to offer them to be his wives to all three when they would be grown up. But the girls had a problem with childbirth, and Mike was afraid for his future children’s fate. He knew that the girls would impute him the guilt of taking avail of their problem. He also remembered the story his grandma told him about her own dad. How he had had relations with an Armenian woman that was also sick with the same disease he feared the girls were infected by the first stage of. Before it she had been a private concubine of a local noblemen, in that though sick she was very beautiful and no more contagious. It was when Mike’s grand-granddaddy had been at Turk Front during the First World War just after the February Bourgeois Revolution. The army was at that time self-ruled by soldiers’ committees. The story had a bad end as Mike made the conclusions. It was more than a good lesson for Mike. At the same time, Mike reasoned as a child, who had parents. He knew the girls’ sickness was their mothers’ fault. His granny told him how it was with the sickness and why. But, Mike could not impute this guilt to the girls themselves. It seemed to him to be an inequitable thing that the girls were sick for their mothers’ sins. Still, he knew it was a punishment.
‘I’ll be your husband,’ said Mike. ‘But promise you won’t be harlots.’
‘Are you not afraid that your children should die?’ asked Tina with a hope in her eyes.
‘They won’t die,’ firmly replied Mike.
‘Why so?’ teased Jane.
Mike did not know why.
‘Maybe it would be so, because you die instead of them,’ challenged Inna. ‘Or else, you’ll take pills and get some injections that they were not sick as it is with us as the doctor have said?’
‘He wanted to bring about the pills,’ Tina said in derision, ‘Maybe, he’ll take them also that our children did not die.’
Mike could not understand why the girls got so angry with him. Anyhow, he meant good and pledged his own life for their sake.
‘Let’s see if he will have enough guts to eat up the pills for soldiers he spoke of, that his children did not be sick themselves and need take medicines,’ proposed Jane to other girls.
Mike was offended that the question of his courage was put into what they had talked about. He was afraid of taking pills, but he feared more that the girls would think he was a coward. He was ready to prove his intentions not because of the pride. He simply wanted to show he was serious in his sympathy and week attempt to comfort the unfortunate girls. He decided to be up to the challenge. Anyhow, he was insulted because they disputed if he was ready to suffer for the sake of his prospective children as a real man should do.
‘I’m gonna get real vaccines there’re in our home,’ said the boy.
Mike stood up and went toward the door.
‘Let him go and take the pills,’ mouthed Jane, ‘We are going to see if he got enough courage to eat them up.’
Mike went fast out of Nick’s bedroom toward his family main room. Jane looked at him with a smile of a girl superior in age, to see if he would keep his promise. The girls followed him. The blond and brunette whispered something to one another’s ears. Mike opened the door, and got into the room. The girls exchanged winks to each other, to show they were sure it was a bluff on Mike’s part.
‘He’s going to show us some flour or semolina,’ commented Jane.
But, Mike took a chair and getting up on it opened the cupboard. He took out a small red box with some inscription his dad brought home from military exercise he was involved into as a reserve officer, absent from the home for a month’s time, turning up short bearded and drunk. He stepped off the chair, and stumbling nearly fell. The younger girls laughed. Jane just smiled. Mike went up the door where the girls stood, and approaching them opened the small red plastic box, that was flat, to be easily put into a pocket. It contained a number of tiny differently colored plastic bottles accurately poked into little white holders the same as a hunter’s belt has. The bottles could be called so rightly, if not for the fact that they were not glass ones and had a wind-up lid each. Jane took the opened box out of Mike’s left hand, and closed it…
Afterwards, during long dark nights, after Mike got older and was taught to read, he daydreamed the story to be as follows:
Jane took the red plastic box more close to her eyes and began to read, ‘De set of de me-de-cines and vac-cines for a sol-dier’s use in case of a nuc-…’
Inna began to weep, ‘I wanna go home… to my mom’.
She went back to Nick’s room crying while Tina consoled her embracing Inna in her own arms.
‘Listen,’ said Mike suddenly with conspiracy tones in his voice, ‘Let’s play a nuclear war… I’ll be a soldier and you a medical orderly.’
‘No, Mike, it’s a foolish game…and otherwise they are simply ordinary pills, Mike…it’s not good to play with them pills,’ answered Jane.
‘No,’ said Mike, ‘This is a soldier’s kit. My dad brought it home from the army exercise. Read what’s written here on this paper.’
Jane were afraid now of Mike’s promises. She began to read, ‘That is de mi-li-ta-ry me-di-cal set in-ten-tioned to pr-o-long the battle-field capa-bility of a So-viet sol-dier in case of a to-tal war with…’ Jane swallowed a saliva lump that stood in her tiny throat. ‘Mike, the letters are too small ones, it’s hard for me to read,’ said she in a supplicating tone.
‘Ok, look what’s here’s written about vaccines,’ said he.
Now, Mike was somewhat in a different mood. The matrimonial disputes seemed to come far away from his mind. Now, he felt himself a male ready to defend his tribe, its females, children and old ones, maybe giving his life a ransom for the surviving of the last. From the day his dad brought this small red plastic box to their home, Mike always wanted to find out better what was there in it. He only knew about its contents by the conversation the dad had had with his mommy. He knew there was something important, and his was jealous to the dad, who simply stored it into the cupboard under the heap of tablecloth. It seemed to Mike that the dad did not honor the essence of this soldier’s kit, and he was just jealous.
In the next room, Inna wept in full tears, hugged by Tina, who tried to calm her down sobbing herself from time to time, both girls having overheard what was there about in the main room. Jane had tears on her eyes now herself and began to read under the vaccines subtitle of this medical instruction, ‘The vaccines are arranged according to the color of the container in which they are packed…’
‘Stop it,’ interrupted her Mike, ‘Read better how to use them.’
‘No, Mike, it was a joke, we agree to play your wives,’ smiled Jane.
Mike suddenly recalled the whole story.
‘No, Jane, read it how to use them vaccines,’ said Mike sharply and as though by an order the girl could not neglect.
Mike felt now that he was a man and superior to any girl no matter how aged she was. The issue of war was now in question. The war is always a thing that makes a man to be really a man. The war kills a part of the men. After the rest get home nobody argues if they may have more than one woman taking up the widows. Nobody then argues if they have a right to rule a family fully on their own. The children do not call them bad names, obedient and respectful, grateful for their survival.
‘Read,’ ordered Mike.
Jane sobbing herself now began to read ‘In case…of a bac-te-rio-logical contamination… of the terrain… the vaccine pills… packed …in the blue container should be taken one by one …after each half an hour …without any drinking of water, taking into consideration that the water reservoirs may be penetrated by …’ here she stopped for a moment, Mike looked at her eyes with a earnest and threatening expression, and Jane followed ‘…a virus or bacteria; this medicine prolongs the battlefield capacity of a Soviet soldier for 32 hours in case of a full plague contamination of the terrain due to a presence of a critical mass of antibodies. This allows to a Soviet soldier to lead successfully a warfare in the territory polluted by the plague bacteriological weaponry, defending Soviet Union against the external aggression on the part of the capitalist countries.’
After she read the subparagraph to the end, Jane stopped. A silence hung over the place. Even Inna did not dare to cry aloud.
‘You really think the capitalists will be afraid if you eat up these pills,’ asked Jane with a smile.
Inna began to weep again. Tina sobbed also. Jane put the instruction into the red plastic box.
Then, rubbing her eyes to do away with the tears, said, ‘Mike, you may not stop them to do a nuclear war, even if you’ll eat up them pills.’
‘No,’ said Mike, ‘They are no good now. A man who works at the sanitation epidemiological station said to me that first I gotta get sick of plague or something else. Then I should take them pills with antibodies, and I can get an immunity for my children not to get sick and die after the nuclear war, ‘cause I get them antibodies into my blood and my children will have them in their blood, too… My dad gonna be killed, and I’ll become a son of the regiment and fight instead of him.’
Mike had in his memory this scene when the mom asked his daddy if he was going to be killed if there’s a war after he returned from the military exercises. The dad tried to persuade the mom for the contrary with an insincere scheme of logic conclusions he always used if cheated.
‘But, you are in the anti-missile defense,’ was her deadly argument.
‘That does not depend’ he said…
But the real story was quite different. Mike swiftly grabbed the box out of Jane’s hand to make good his intention of making use of them. Jane in her turn ousted the red plastic box from Mike’s right hand. Then, she went to the bath and water closet room. She had turned on the water from the faucet, previously having shut up the door. She unscrewed the plastic containers one by one. Then, shook the pills out into the sink and accurately, but fearfully, putting back the cotton packing into the differently colored containers: black, violet, deep blue and the like.
Mike got afraid of his treasure’s fate. He stood up and tried to push on himself the doorknob. ‘What do you do there, why you’ve shut up the door?’ Mike was sure now there was something wrong.
‘Don’t pull the door, Mike, I’m pissing,’ responded the girl.
‘Why have you taken the box?’ asked Mike again.
‘To look better what’s it like’. She answered.
Mike waited for a few minutes. Then the girl went out with the red plastic box in her hand.
‘Mike, I’m gonna ‘turn you the kit, but promise you won’t open it,’ proposed Jane with a cunning smile.
Mike understood there sure was some wrong with his dad’s red plastic box, he neglected so much. He tried to grab it out of the girl’s hand.
Jane defended the box, repeating ‘Promise you don’t look at, first promise you don’t look…’
Finally, Mike managed to wrest the red plastic box out of the girl’s hands. Then, keeping it closely to his chest opened. Jane, who just kept silence unmoved, made a snatch and knocked the small box, now opened, out of Mike’s hands. The red plastic box fell on the floor like an opened chessboard full of chessmen, knocking the floor to let a few containers fly out of it and touch the floor again with a jump of a hollow sound off the wooden planks painted deep brown, which testified they were empty. Mike squatted and took one of the containers, he quickly unscrewed the lid, and taking out the cotton packing saw there was no pills. Mike already saw in his mind the perspective how he was going to strike Jane with his fists aiming her face. But, a grown-up female student appeared in the hall to prevent Mike’s beating up Jane.
‘What’s wrong?’ she inquired.
‘This boy was going to eat up the pills out of this box and them containers, but I threw them out into the sink’ replied Jane full of tears now, the presence of an adult letting off the stress.
The grown-up female student gave a smile, ‘Mike, whether you don’t know they do not play with pills?’
‘He wanted to make us be his wives, three of us,’ Jane complained.
‘Don’t cry, girl, they would have saved him,’ said the grown-up girl with a laugh.
‘But, they are very dangerous pills, for the plague, he wanted to eat them up,’ insisted Jane.
‘Let me have a look at,’ accepted the student with a more indulgent smile.
She forced the red plastic box out of Mike’s hands. Her anxiety grew after she had a look at the box’s cover inscription. She took up the instruction paper.
She read a little of the paper’s contents and then asked Jane, ‘Did he eat some of the pills?’ afraid to approach Mike.
‘No,’ answered Jane, ‘He just threatened.’
The female student entered into the bathroom and turned on the water to flow into the sink.
‘Don’t play with him, girl…what’s your name?’ asked the girl student.
‘Jane,’ responded the girl.
‘Don’t play with him Jane,’ warned again the young woman.
After this, the student collected the differently colored small plastic bottles, with as much carefulness as she could show. She turned inside out Mike’s pockets and took a small brown container out of the boy’s left hand, tightly clenched, making the fingers to un-clutch one by one, Mike unable to withstand. After this she went hurriedly away in a stretched hand as though trying to hold the box off herself as farther as possible. Mike, felt himself empty as a bottle void of its contents of the aerated water. The girl approached him.
‘Mike, don’t get offended,’ Jane tried to arrange, ‘It was for your sake.’
Jane saw drops of the blood on the boy’s hand scratched by herself.
‘Mickey, I gonna cure your wounds,’ said she recalling their recent play of hospital.
Jane came to the bath and water closet room and took a tiny plastic bottle off the shelf of the wall-mirror. After it, she washed the vial of its contents, which she squeezed into the water, which ran from the faucet and went back to Mike.
‘Look, Mike, I’m gonna make you a shot of vaccine,’ announced Jane.
She unscrewed the lid and squeezed the water on Mike’s scratch that let out a little streamlet of blood. The blood got washed off the scratch due to a portion of water spurted out of the flexible plastic vial.
‘That’s the drops for eyes!’ let out Mike with alarm.
‘Don’t cry, the patient,’ warned Jane with a seriousness of a good junior nurse.
Mike was subdued by her severe voice. Then, the rest of the girls turned up from the Nick’s room, and gave advices to Jane how to cure Mike, the elder girl drying Mike’s hand with a rub of her right hand, as careful as she could. Again and again, Jane would run to the bath and water closet room, filling up with water her imaginary medical tool, after having left the wounded boy to the care of her younger girlfriends. Mike felt how the despair was about to take over his heart. He wanted to cry over as many mistakes as he had committed during this so short a space of the spring day that tended to change its mood from sunny shining to shadow cloudy. Especially his stupid smiles when the girls had wept because they were sick. But, the presence of the girls did not allow him to let out his emotions. So, he just sat down on the cold wooden planks of the floor painted deep brown against a green wall, cold the same. Mike felt his soul to be almost empty but for the bitter feeling of disappointment of all this story with the girls. He had a kind of hangover that led him to repent of his hasty offers of a marriage. He knew that he was attracted by the beauty and charm of these slender creatures, which were full of grace. It seemed to him that he was so stupid in that a thought of forbearing of his doubtful actions did not come into his head. He announced right away what was there in his heart toward these girls, as though there had not been even a chance to do the contrary and edge slowly into the go of the circumstances. He thought that then he would have had more success with the girls. He knew that his sincerity exposed him too much. It was a mistake. He should have kept his temper and made real friends with the two girls first, instead of going a fool rush where the angels fear to tread. He should have taken the full avail of this happy chance of meeting two girls, one blond the other brunette. He was a fool to spoil the whole game by his greediness. Why he wanted so much? It was because he loved them both. If he met one of them, then he would be happy the whole life of his own. But, he met them two. And, it was impossible for him to decide whom to choose. He felt now that he was going to lose them all two, not able to make a choice between night and day, cool and warm, restful and busy, dark and light, fresh and dry, dew and sunshine, moon and sun…He apprehended as though he was going to lose them all two, because he saw and heard them in the vision of his imagination as they two said to him, ‘Mike, we cannot be your beloved ones. Because we are both two girlfriends. If you marry one of us, the other will be unhappy, ‘cause we both love you. You are very good, but we are girlfriends, two of us. We cannot be your beloved ones…’ Mike sharply felt that he could not prove his love to any one of them, because he might not say to any of the two girlfriends, ‘You are my only one…’ The tears began to appear on his eyelashes. He tried to stop them, but they treacherously flowed down his cheeks. He turned around to hide his face from the girls, though did not feel the shame. The green wall swam in his tears. Then, he remembered that the girls were sick and turned firm. The tears stopped trickling.
‘Mike,’ he heard behind his back, ‘Don’t cry…’
‘I don’t,’ he objected.
He felt as the two girlfriends, whose warm presence he felt by his heart, looked guiltily into each other’s eyes, and one of them pronounced, ‘That’s just a scratch…don’t cry, Mike…’
Afterwards, he daydreamed as he would enter into the room and both girls sat on the bed, and he had a firm decision he did not have in the reality to choose namely blond Inna.
He would approach her and say, ‘You will be my wife, Inna.’
She tried to protest and say, ‘I won’t, I will run from you so far you won’t find me, you will never meet me again.’ She would say this in a sweet and calm voice.
‘No’, Mike would answer, ‘I run faster and I will take you over and we both would be together.’
‘No way,’ would she argue again, ‘I’ll wait for the winter and run all the same from you, you shall slip down and fall on the ice.’
‘No,’ Mike would say, ‘I have good boots that are not slippy, I’ll take you over all the same.’
Then she would say, ‘I gonna take on ice skates, and you’ll have no chance even with your unslippy boots.’
Mike would take the good white leather ice skates there never were in Nick’s room, put them on her feet and make a bow tie of strings on each ice skate, what he was not taught yet how to do.
‘Try now,’ he would offer her, ‘Walk upon the floor.’
She would try with Mike’s help, and say, ‘That’s so hard, I cannot make fast in them.’
‘How then, if you cannot hold yourself on the wooden floor that is not slippy, will you stay on the ice, so slippy a thing?’
Tina would laugh and be happy for her girlfriend. Then, Mike would help Inna to take off the skates and play with both girls, throwing glances to Tina’s eyes full of glamour and sweet consent. After this, the hangover would come again, when he recalled that the girls were sick and the unreality of the situation would be so acute. He knew it was impossible for him to make a choice. To choose Inna, to leave Tina or Jane.
Mike, then would change his mind and say to Inna, well holding his tears and offence, ‘You can go where you want!’
He would tie the strings of the ice skates with so many knots that it would be impossible to untie them even for an adult, only to cut and make no good of the white firm strings.
‘Now, go where you list, run that I never meet you again. You like freedom, so go where you list, and never come back, I won’t admit you all the same.’
Then Mike would feel this bitter and hateful hangover of soberness of reality after the dream had been over. He swore that he would never put on the ice skates. Never.
Still, he felt himself guilty, because he was sound in that his dad had some pull and friends to find a good cure for this baby plague that made the girls contaminated with an even worse sickness because of the blood transfusions. He was not a girl, who would get pregnant when grown up and sick to infect her own baby as Mike’s grandma explained him. He was safe, but Tina, Inna and Jane were sick.
Somehow, the dad found out about the story with the red plastic box. The girl student related it to him perhaps. Jane had not shaken out into the sink all the pills having little time and being worried too much.
‘Mike, I won’t punish you, but promise you won’t tell anybody about this red box. Ok?’ said the dad.
‘But, she, the student knows about it’ replied Mike.
‘Let her know, Mike…but don’t tell about it to some alien men.’
Mike tried to beg his dad to allow him to play with this red plastic box, considering it was spoiled now by the girl anyway and seemed to be no use for the dad any longer. But the dad did not agree, and hid the box as best he could. Mike often recalled those days just before he had met the girls in Nick’s room. When he had often put on the chair against the cupboard and taken out this box not daring to open it, feeling all the importance of this thing for a soldier, he wanted to be so much. He would touch the small red plastic letters protuberant of the surface of the box. And, then rub the red five ends military star. He again and again begged the dad about the box.
‘It is because of the military star,’ he repeated.
‘Mike, I’ll bring you a real military star, next time I’m on military exercises. We’ll put it on your cap above the visor like it is on soldier caps.’ The daddy offered.
‘No, they are not the same, this one was on the box. I need the box. It was better than a star.’ Mike argued.
‘Mike, I’ll bring you a real small projectile, and a lot of cartridges.’ The dad said.
‘No, I need the box,’ ended he firmly.

Smoking pot

This day Mike hang about the hostel as he usually did in his childhood. He went out the door and turned left around the building to the backside of the house he lived in. There were a few native students from a land beyond the blue-and-white mountains. They smoke the pot.
‘Mike, do you want to have a smoke?’ proposed a native.
‘Yea, sure,’ answered Mike. ‘But what’s it?’
‘It’s a special medicine against stress you should take if get blue.’ One of them said.
‘Ok,’ said Mike, ‘I’ll have one.’
‘First try to have a cigarette smoke,’ proposed a young man.
Mike did not agree, and showed it by turning his head.
‘Don’t worry, Mike, it’s not tobacco. It’s a special Tuvinian grass. Don’t worry, it won’t make worse,’ they assured.
Mike took a cigarette butt from the hands of a native. He drafted it to his lungs. A bitter smoke made him cough. The tears flowed out of his eyes. All laughed.
‘Do you want some more of the bluish smoke out of a pot?’ proposed the natives.
‘Yea,’ the boy said.
One of the natives took the butt’s smoking end into his mouth and blew the smoke into the pot and closed the pot with his hands.
‘I’ll hold the devil in the pot,’ he said.
Mike put his mouth on the pot. All he wanted was to catch the devil into himself that he did not hurt the other people anymore. Then, he thought he would not let him out at any entreaties.
‘Inhale, Mike,’ said the guy.
Mike inhaled the smoke and tried to hold it in his longs as much as he could, but the smoke blew out in a moment with a harsh cough. All the natives laughed.
‘Mike, why did you try to hold the smoke? Somebody taught you?’ asked one of the native girls.
‘I thought I would hold the devil in myself,’ Mike said and everybody laughed.
‘Next time hold on the devil fast, Mike,’ said one of the students. ‘Try again.’
‘No,’ said Mike.
He began to feel dizzy. He laughed also because he wanted to inhale up the devil. He went somewhat away and laughed. Then, he took a twig into his hand.
‘I’ll conquer you all,’ he affirmed brandishing the twig as a sword.
‘Why so, Mike?’ asked one of the girls.
Mike put his index fingers on the corners of his eyes and made them apart to make a semblance of the natives’ narrow Mongolian eyes, ‘Because you’ve got such small eyes,’ then he made his eyes broad with his fingers, ‘And, I got such big ones.’
All laughed.
One of the girls asked, ‘Do you want to marry?’
‘Yes, but when I’ll grow up,’ he answered.
‘Do you want to marry a native girl,’ the girl student asked.
‘I don’t know, I should look at first,’ Mike said.
‘Do you want to marry a sick girl?’ she asked, ‘There were a lot of sick girls in our land, but the doctors healed them.’
‘Yea, sure, Mike, come to our land and be a king among us, you’re a good boy. They give you a lot of wives from natives and you’ll live as a king among us, ride horses. Eh?’ they tempted.
Mike did not answer.
‘Mike, do not love sick girls. It’s bad.’ The young woman said. ‘I know what I say.’
Mike said not a thing.
‘Let’s play cards, Mike.’ She proposed.
Mike turned his head negatively.
‘Mike do you want a chocolate?’ asked one of the young men.
Mike wanted to take it, but the God said, ‘Don’t take it, he is a fornicator.’
Mike stopped.
‘You’re a fornicator,’ he said. ‘I won’t be your friend.’
‘What did you say, you small bastard? What did you say?’ he hollered madly. ‘Shut up your mouth and do not say it any more.’
‘Say him again he is a fornicator,’ said the God.
‘You are a fornicator,’ said Mike through his lips.
The mad native ran to him and kicked upon his belly. Mike doubled.
‘Don’t say this,’ he hissed.
‘Say him once more,’ said the God.
‘You are a fornicator,’ pronounced Mike through the pain.
The native took Mike by the scruff of his neck and hauled toward the building where the broken glass lay in pieces on the ground. He threw Mike on the ground and took a piece of glass into his hand to put it against Mike’s throat.
‘Say him once more,’ said the God.
‘You’re a fornicator,’ he said calmly.
‘Don’t say this, don’t say this, you bitch,’ hollered the native with a long piece of the glass in his trembling hand. ‘Promise me you won’t say this any more or I’ll kill you with this piece of glass cutting your throat.’
His eyes were mad and muddy. He pushed the piece of the glass closer to Mike’s vein.
‘Don’t say him a thing,’ said the God.
Mike hated this man, because of such ones his girls were sick. He spat on the face of the native. The native rubbed the spittle off his face in astonishment.
‘I’ll cut off your nose, bitch,’ he bawled.
Mike spat once more. He was not afraid. If he could he would kill the native himself. He fumbled for his own piece of glass by his right hand. He felt for longer and better pieces of glass that lay on the asphalt below the window by his hand. The young man put the glass piece against Mike’s left eye.
‘Promise you won’t say it any more,’ he hollered.
Now, Mike held a good piece of glass in his right hand himself. He made a fast movement aiming the native’s eye. But, struck somewhat above it, and cut the young man’s skin. The native jumped up and threw his piece of glass. Mike stood up and took another piece of glass in his left hand. The young man went from Mike back first. Mike understood he could not kill him. He turned right and went home for a real knife. On the corner of the yellow brick building he felt as his own blood trickled from his left palm and fingers. He handled the piece of glass more cautiously. He understood that he wouldn’t be able to kill the native even with a knife. He said to himself that he would kill this native when he would grow up.

The sixth sense

Mike thought he himself was a clever boy. He often would get interested in some clever things. In the time Mike was taught to count, somebody said to him that people were seeking for sixth sense. He explained to Mike that a human had five feelings: he could see, hear, touch, taste or smell. The dad said in his turn that some women or men who were called fortunetellers could see the future. That was sixth sense, the dad said. But, Mike could see his future the same. Like he was a grown-up man and did something. He felt even the smells of the future, heard its voices. Touched the pleasurable things he could not afford himself now, being yet a little boy. Tasted the things he only smelled or heard of in his life that did not make a long time as yet.
A female student said to Mike that she could touch Mike’s karma and feel it was dense and ‘sleeky’, making accent on the last word, pronouncing it fast. Mike tried to understand what this meant but could not. Then he heard of witches, who spoke to the souls of the dead women to torture the men, who behaved bad.
Once, he heard a man say, ‘Betsy, seems like we can smell the stuff is fried…’
Mike could see no pan and did not smell any fried stuff. He understood the guy meant simply that something was going to get even worse. The female student wept, and the guy said her something to bring her back into senses.
Afterwards, he once heard a man to say that they don’t argue about tastes. The guy had said it like it was something important. So, Mike just got interested. He approached the young man, who leaned on the wall of the hostel reception room, and asked him to explain what he had just meant.
But, the guy only asked Mike in a derisive tone, and before the girls laughed he knew it was a joke, ‘Mike do you have the taste for the clothes?’
Then he returned his back on Mike and began to crack jokes again to please the girls. It was sure Mike could not taste the girls’ dresses, as he understood the conversation to be of. He could not take the hem of a girl’s dress into his mouth and feel what’s like. It was so because he already tried to taste some cloth when he had been even younger, as young as he was now. It was bad in the mouth and surely had a taste, but was not tasty. The grown-up girls and young men did not taste the cloth like babies. So, Mike realized what the guy meant, on account of his often glances on the girls’ clothes and some commentaries that girls laughed at even stronger. He meant something about what he looked at and reasoned of, the boy could not see as yet.
Thus, all men would talk about something extraordinary they could see, smell, hear, taste or touch. It implied they had sixth sense. Mike tried once to speak to the souls in the hell. They complained and asked the God to forgive them. Mike told it to his mom, and asked if it was good to console the dead souls provided the last had some common affairs with the witches. The mom explained it was just Mike’s daydreams, the play of his imagination allowing him to see the things there was not in the real existence. So, Mike saw it now clearly that implying the sixth sense the people spoke about what they saw, another could not see, what they touched, smelled, heard or tasted some other men might not imitate. It was the same five feelings a man had told Mike about.
Mike, went into his parent’s room when there was nobody there and getting on a sofa tried to get it present in his mind what he might feel if he saw not, did not smell, heard anything, could not taste and did not touch. It was easy. Mike realized clearly what he could feel. It was to feel if he was turned left or right, upside down, or downside up, back or forth like he had felt it when his elder brother Nick had played with him turning him up and down like an aviator, when he had been a baby yet. Then, Mike asked his mind what he could feel next, and he surely could feel if something was hot or cold, if he even did not touch it. He got frightened at a thought that he would have lost this feeling. Then, Mike sat on the sofa a little bit yet, afraid of his wisdom.
After all, Mike asked himself what was important in his life to see, because he knew now that to see was most important. And then, he knew what was most important to see, and pleasurable in the same time. It was to see what was beautiful. You do not strain your mind to see if a thing is beautiful or not. It’s in your senses. Mike could now realize why he loved the girls he pleased, and did not like the other girls that were homely. He knew that the first ones simply were beautiful, and their beauty pleased his sight, when he brought into his memory their faces. Beauty was most important, he concluded.

Immunity

It was a Sunday. Mickey was left by his parents to be on his own in the hostel. They went somewhere to pass the weekend time. Mike just was under the impression of his encounter with Tina, Inna and Jane. He rambled along the lengthy corridors of the hostel, but primarily on the first floor. Mike was a communicative child as his mom had said of him. So, when he saw a middle-aged man was leaning on the windowsill in the end of the corridor, he went up to the man. The place was filled with early summer sunlight.
‘Hello,’ Mike greeted the man.
‘Good afternoon,’ the man reciprocated.
‘Whom you’ve come to?’ asked Mike.
‘I’ve come to visit my niece,’ answered the man.
‘Where you do you work?’ questioned Mike again.
‘I work on the sanitary epidemiological station,’ replied the fair-haired man.
‘What’s your name?’ Mike went on his inquiry.
‘Harry,’ the man said.
‘I’m Michael. I live here with my parents on the first floor. We’ve got four rooms. My dad is a teacher in the college,’ Mike continued the conversation.
The man nodded in a token of acknowledgment.
‘I was once on the sanitary epidemiological station. They’ve got some tests off me,’ related Mike.
‘Yes, of course. That’s good. But, I live and work in another town. I’m just got to your town to visit my sister’s daughter,’ commented the fair-haired man.
Mike always had in his heart this practical question after he had met those three girls in Nick’s room. Now, he had a good opportunity to ask it. At the moment, he was face to face with an expert in the medicine of contagious diseases, who was a stranger and whom he most probably would see no more. That’s why Mike overcame his intimidation and the natural feeling of fear that somebody in his neighborhood would know about his secret.
‘What if my children are going to get sick when I’m grown up and be a daddy. Because their mom is sick. Can I make so that they would not be sick, for example, if I take the pills myself instead of them?’ asked Mike.
‘What the mom’s sick with?’ interrogated the man with a professional attentiveness.
‘That does not matter,’ said Mike without hesitation, ‘Simply, they are going to contaminate their children during the pregnancy.’
‘It’s a bad idea to take pills yourself,’ said the man with a mixture of soft anger, alert and disappointment. ‘Because, you are not sick?’
‘No,’ said Mike, ‘I’m not, but the girls…’ here he realized that blurted out too much.
But the man relaxed a bit and told, ‘Michael, that no good for you to take pills instead of the girls, who are going to be your moms. They should be cured themselves if possible. Perhaps, it might be even impossible for them to get healthy at all.’
Suddenly, Mike got an apprehension that it was the same doctor, who had said that the girls’ future children would die. But, after a moment he dismissed it, because he thought it was impossible for the man to have any links with his girls, in that he was from another town. All the same, he felt a strange few seconds long hatred against this man, because it seemed to him that the man lied.
‘That cannot be so. They say that if the girls are future mothers they had to take pills that their children should not die. And, if I’m going to be the father, I should also take the pills. Because it will be my children also,’ insisted Mike.
The man smiled. Mike could not understand while the lean fair-headed man did so. Mike felt in his turn how tears were about to appear on his eyes. The insult could be discerned from a bit lachrymose change of the boy’s voice intonation. Mike felt himself offended. But, he tried not to show it.
‘Anyhow, Michael, it’s no use to take pills if you’re not sick with what disease these pills are intended for to cure. But, if you are sick then it’s quite well if you consent to take pills. Then, your children will have the immunity, because the microbes would be defeated by your body and you’ll have the antibodies in your blood, which your children will inherit. So, if you’re sick you should take pills,’ told the man.
Now, Mike felt that the man explained well what Mike knew by the senses of his heart. It made sense, and the boy understood he had not been cheated by the adult.
‘But, you’re not sick with anything contagious?’ asked the man again attentively.
‘No, I’m not,’ said Mike.
‘So,’ the fair-haired man said again with a wan smile, ‘Eat better the sweets and do not think about that stuff. Leave it to us, the sanitary epidemiological station doctors. And, try your best not to get infected with some heavy disease,’ concluded the stranger with a straw color hair.
Mike felt a shadow of uneasiness and remorse that he was healthy come over his soul. He left the man. Mike knew now that he was able to get immunity. Which meant his children would not be sick or die. But, it could not be brought together properly how he could practically get such immunity. He was not sick and he understood very well it was no use to get so. He was afraid for his mom, what she would have felt if he had got infected. Anyhow, it was an ignoble disease. Surely, he would not have got the things better, if he had got infected. Still, a doubt and remorse stayed in his soul that he did not make any practical steps to get such immunity. All the same, Mike had a strong hope that he somehow would solve this problem, provided the events developed in a way to show that there was a certain progress. Mike counted that he would have about eighteen years ahead in average to cope with this. He was sure he would somehow fix it with the sick girls. He understood it was his mission in the life. Mike felt how hard it was. There was a strong want to quit it. But, the boy knew he could not. And, the more so, it would have been a shame for him to dismiss himself of it. Then, it seemed to him he would not be capable in any case to feel himself to be really a man with the full meaning that this word implied, if he chose to dismiss himself of this misfortune on the part of the girls. A misfortune he was ready to share. He wanted to preserve his self-esteem. To lose it seemed to be even more impossible and fearful than all that loomed over Mike ahead.

Angels

Once upon a time when Mike was in the village with his grandma, his dad brought some fish that he had caught with a holed mesh box in the small streamless river. Somebody, maybe his mom mistook some stuff there was in the kitchen for the salt. Mike ate it up with his dad, and after a little time felt bad. He vomited the same as his dad did on his way to the town, near a car that stood on the road. First, Mike vomited as much stuff out of his stomach as he could, then unable to vomit something else but for the water his grandma brought him to drink. He entreated the grandma not to make him drink it. Then, he tried to vomit it out, but there was nothing in his stomach. The grandma went to the granddad’s niece, who lived nearby and had a phone. Then ambulance rode up to their house as Mike heard it, and the white clothed nurse made him an injection of some stuff. Mike went sleeping.
Then, he woke up deep in the night, and feeling that there was not enough air for him in the house filled with the fusty atmosphere came outdoors. Then opening the orchard’s gate he came into it. Then, made a few steps on the lane that went along the house’ basement and when the house ended stopped and sat down on the lime whitened basement. A fresh wind blew on his face, and he breathed as much of the cool air as he could. Then, he looked forth. He saw several pale light feminine figures clad in long gowns. He opened his mouth even broader in astonishment. They went on him in a row, slowly as if they sailed by the wind. Their long hair undulated on the wind and also the hems of their white gowns. They pronounced something in a low voice as if from far away, what Mike could not make out. The leaves of the orchard trees also whispered in the tone of the women’s muffled voices. Mike felt as if he was mesmerized of those women’s beautiful looks, and their whisper. Mike might not see how they were able to walk on the air because he could not discern their feet under their long pale weightless gowns. They were already at about thirty feet.
Suddenly, he heard his grandma call him with alert, ‘Mike…Mike…where you are?’
He looked left and saw his grandma standing on the porch. A flame of fire was burning in her dark silhouette.
‘Mike,’ she called him now without a fear, ‘Come to me, let’s go back to the house.’
She approached him, the flame disappearing. Only a dark figure stood by. Mike looked forth, there were no pale women.
‘Mike! What you’ve seen over there Mike? What you’ve seen?’ the old woman shook him…
Then, Mike recalled often how his dad came just when the ambulance had left, and his grandmother repeated and cried, ‘Jack, what I’ve done, Jack? …What I’ve done! Poisoned my own grandson, Jack. What have I done?’
‘Don’t say this way, Mary. Don’t say this. He’s gonna understand it the wrong way. You also ate the fish.’
‘No, Jack, I did not…just a few fish…This is your son, Jack… This is your son…’ she wept ‘Don’t touch her, Jack… Promise me you won’t touch her, Jack, before he dies…’ cried she in a loud voice.
‘Don’t say this, Mary about him, it’s Ok, whether the nurse did not say ‘twas Ok…’ then he said seriously, ‘You know, Mary… I’ve never touched her…’ then after a while, ‘I’ll take care of myself, Mary…I’ll take care…’
‘Promise me, Jack… Jack… give me a word you won’t do that…give me a word…’
The following morning, Mike saw the white gowns clothed women again. It was his girls, grown-up.
They wept and called Mike, ‘Mike go with us, let’s go to where we live…into a country where the milk and honey flows…let’s go…’
Mike also wept and said he wanted to stay here in the grandparent’s bed room.
‘Come with us, Mike, come with us…’ they repeated and invited him to come over the windowsill.
They were four now, the fourth young woman he did not know.
Mike tried to climb the windowsill, but then said, ‘I’m afraid…I’m afraid to jump upon the land’.
He tried to cheat, really afraid to go with them pale grown-up girls. The grown-up Tina and Inna wept, while the fourth young woman wept most of all lowering her head to her bosom. Jane stood afar and contemplated it with a smile ready to go away anyhow, even without Mike.
‘Promise first, you are gonna be my beloved ones…’ bargained Mike, ready to go anywhere and become even such a pale figure.
‘No,’ wept girls, ‘We won’t…’
‘I’m gonna be a harlot,’ wept the fourth unknown young woman most, ‘I’m gonna play a harlot, Mike, take me a wife anyhow, promise you’re gonna take me.’
Mike wept also and called them all bad names, cursing them and ordering to return back where they came from, now not afraid of their paleness.
Afterwards, his grandma brought him to a female psychiatrist that worked in the town where Mike lived.
‘It can be two ways,’ explained she to the grandma, ‘Whether by attacks or slowly and irreversibly…the first is better in that the reason will come back to him, though the defect will grow up gradually…but the first is better, then he won’t marry and spoil the life to some woman…so, he should not date the girls, and drink… then maybe there will be a chance he will get adapted to social life…he should not drink, or otherwise it will come in an easy way, and before they find he is sick, he will have a family and children, he’ll spoil life to…you understand, Mike…’ the old woman addressed the boy now, ‘Never drink, never date the girls and never marry and have the children, Mike…whether you want that such ghouls visited your children, Mike…there’s no way but only if they’ll be like you…live us with the boys for a moment, Mary.’
Mike’s grandmother went out of the room. Then, the woman asked Mike in details about his “angels” as he called the grown-up girls that had come to him in white pale spirits. Suddenly, she made a movement as a cat does when feels some bad, after Mike stated that it all began because he had wanted that the girls were his wives, all three.
She began to holler, ‘So, you want to marry them all, but what about other boys? They’ll cut them balls off like they Muslims do?’
Here the grandma ran into the room and delivered a scandal to the fat old woman, who told bad things about Mike. They said afterwards about her, that she went crazy herself because of her work, and got shut up in the madhouse.
There was a girlfriend of the granny’s. She read Mike the bible, about David and Solomon, who had many wives and it all ended up the bad way. She told like it was better not to have a wife at all as Saint Paul did. All Mike remembered about her when grown-up was her red old a bit scaled legs he looked at as he would sit down on the floor listening to what she said and read in the saint scriptures about his case.
Then, he met a fortuneteller once. It was a sunny day, and Mike went on an asphalt lane to the shop to buy some bread. The dark-haired woman suddenly stopped as Mike approached her on his way to the shop. The boy stood by also.
She stood silent, then began to tremble and cried aloud, ‘I see the darkness in your life…I see the darkness in your soul… I see the darkness in your future life…’ repeated the young gypsy woman hysterically.
Mike heard a story about a fortuneteller, who went into his family’s flat. When the mom was just pregnant with him and made a sorcery on an egg that turned black to show like there was a curse on Mike’s elder brother Nick she said she was able to take off. The mom paid her as much money she could find in the flat. Then she said that she was as though hypnotized, but the young gypsy woman did not take the dad’s marriage ring because as the mom said about herself she had enough brain to warn the fortuneteller that he was a party secretary.
It was her, who told Mike his fortune on this sunny day when he was bound to buy the bread. When Mike was grown-up he met her in the bus, before this he met her only once in his childhood, when he met her with another blond woman, and they showed to Mike there was also the blackness in the egg they made their witchcraft over.
She had an angry and distorted face, and hollered to Mike, ‘What’s about the egg? Black, isn’t it?’
A man, who also seemed to be a bit crazy, laughed at her. He repeated to make some fun to please young girls that sat near him in the rear of the bus, ‘Look at, she’s from the Mountain Street…a woman from the Mountain street…’ he laughed too much merrily, as people do not laugh naturally.
‘How’s about the egg, you’ve got it…black one!’ spoke the mad woman that sat opposite to Mike.
Mike was a bit apprehensive that she was about to snatch at him, but somehow felt that she did not intent to do it, afraid of something. On the next stop, she went out.
The man who made fun about her also left the bus, repeating, ‘A mad woman, from the Mountain Street.’
Michael tried to stay as natural as an ordinary man would do on his place. Not to let it understand somebody that he was also once in this yellow brick five storied madhouse building on the Mountain Street. Where a woman advanced in age, who also seemed to be a bit crazy of the company she worked with, said to him, ‘There won’t be a family in your life, the young man, you will not have a wife…the sooner you understand it the better…it’s your responsibility not to spoil the life of other people…not to bother them…’
On that sunny day of his childhood, when Mike met the young fortuneteller gypsy woman, he stood on a bridge made of concrete blocks covered with bluish asphalt and with the red painted metal railings. It seemed to him that his life was like this runless river he did not know where was the start of, like he did not remember about his birth and what had been there before it. But he knew where was the end of the runless river, just over there after it crossed the road through big pipes and curved left. The same there was with the death that surely his life would end with. He was not afraid of it, so many days of his life ahead. Even, his granddad was not afraid of his own death, as he had answered Mike once. But, Mike apprehended much what those two women said about his future, that even the old woman with the Bible could not explain so as to made void and of none effect. Mike did not see it, as he did not see the end of the runless river stinking of slime, though he surely knew there was the end of it, like in his life an end, the death.

To call upon the name of the Lord

Little Michael was afraid of all that happened to him because of the girls he had met. He was afraid of the angels of the girls he had seen and mostly of the ghosts that haunted him during a night after the visit of the pale women in long gowns and with long hair. He wanted a protection and he knew about the Lord. It was a summer day but it seemed to be also pale for Mike maybe because of the clouds. Mike sat in the orchard on the basement of the house under an old wild apple tree. He needed to call upon the name of the Lord.
‘Lord, please if You hear me, give me the answer what I have to do to help those sick girls I met and… and please promise me that You will protect me from those bad angels and ghosts because You are the Lord to all them.’ Mike said and waited for an answer of the Lord the first time in his life.
‘I hear you Michael and I will prohibit all them angels and ghosts to come to you,’ said a voice that surely was that of the Lord.
Mike was happy even before he was afraid. He was happy that the Lord really existed notwithstanding all that the people had told about Him. Then, he felt respect for that eternal voice.
‘Lord, what have I to do to help those sick girls that I met in the hostel room? They need help and they said they wanted…’ Mike felt uneasy to continue. ‘I want to suffer for them and instead of them, Lord. I love them so much.’
‘But, they shall cheat and betray you, Michael,’ the Lord warned.
Mike felt offended that the Lord who should tell the truth said that badly about his girls whom he deemed to be most pure creatures of the world.
‘Lord, but they are good and they promised to be my wives,’ Mike opposed.
‘It was only to seduce you Mike and it was possible because you wanted to take avail of their bad luck to acquire them as wives for you,’ the Lord explained to accuse Michael.
Mike felt even more uneasy and even painful of the truth he had heard of the Lord. He knew the Lord was right about him and probably about the girls. But the sense of the bargain still drove Michael on. And, on the other hand he really wanted to help the girls. He knew that it was bad to help the girls for the promise on their part to be his wives. He knew that the righteous way was just to suffer for the sake of the girls for free. He was ashamed of his lucrative way oriented mind and he wanted to expiate his guilt before the Lord. He felt a soft remorse and a strong pain for the girls.
‘Lord, I promise you that I will suffer for them just for free and not because I’ll make them be my wives,’ said Michael.
‘But, then you will not have your own wife for a long time because they are punished for the sins of their parents and they have sinned much and still sin and did not repent. Very much curse shall come upon you and you will suffer much.’ The Lord warned.
Mike felt anguish and insult that the parents of the girls by their sinful life bereft them of a happy life.
‘But, Lord, why you punished those girls for the sins of their parents? That’s not equitable.’ Michael tried to argue with the Almighty.
‘I punished the children for the sins of their parents for the parents to repent and for the children also to repent and not to commit the same sins as their parent committed for the sake of the saving of their souls.’ The Lord answered.
‘It was that they did not take the example of their parents?’ Mike asked knowing that the Lord was right.
‘Yes,’ the Almighty answered.
Mike felt that the Lord was equitable and he repented of his accusation to the Lord. He was now on the side of the Lord. Still, he wanted to help those girls and give them a chance to live a happy life.
‘Lord, forgive me, what I said you was inequitable. I’m sorry. Still, I want to help those girls. Should I eat the pills from the red military box?’ Asked Mike.
‘No, Mike, that’s bad to eat those pills as the girls tempted you to do. But, if you choose to suffer for those girls you will have to eat a lot of pills, because then you would need to fast of marriage and your reason will be troubled.’ The Lord said.
Mike was happy that there was a chance for him to suffer for those girls and help them. Still, he hoped that maybe some of them would be his wives and he would earn them that way. However, he already felt the bitterness of the poison of treason that those girls would pay him for all his good. The tears were about to appear on the eyes of Michael.
‘Lord, forgive me, I have to go home,’ said Michael and got off the basement of the house to turn around the corner and go home.
He went and wept on account that the life was so complex and the people so avid and evil seeking the profit at the detriment of others. And, that his own feeling of love towards those girls was spoiled by the alloy of the material interest. He knew that the girls did not love him but sought only how to put a curse on him. But he pitied them and loved and hoped that he would somehow earn them by his sacrifice of suffer.

Police office

This story of Mike’s was a stumbling stone for many, including Mike himself. Nobody believed him. As nobody believed the whole report of his own life of the childhood. Maybe, it was really just a stratification of his daydreams on real events that took place during his childhood and left a strong impression on him. Mike read in his university studies to become a lawyer that criminologists said how sometimes when the people did not lie by giving an affidavit, still their relating of the facts was biased by their imagination. It was because the human memory has a tendency to change the real report of the events of the past into something else. So, it’s better to read this tale with a certain doubt of the common sense as to whether the story was namely the way it is written. It might be said that the essence of Mike’s daydreams is put into the form of the real events nobody can doubt. But, it would be too big a concession on the part of Mike to tell that the story was twisted by him. He was sure that it was namely the way as follows further on. It was believed by him that the people who heard this story would overcome the reasonable doubt for the report to be stated as a truth.
The prehistory of the summer events should be given. Mike was born in a family that hardly could be called a totally regular one. It was a second marriage for both his dad and mom. The dad had a daughter from the first marriage, whose name was Jane and who lived with her own mom in the very same town as Mike’s grandma, his father’s mother. The mom also had a son from another man, her first husband. It was Mike’s brother Nick, who lived with Mike. So, there was a certain division in the family. The more so because the mom kept her first husband’s surname for herself and Nick. Mike himself was surnamed after his daddy Jack. The grandma Helen was certainly angry against Mike’s mom Anastasia, who did not allow it for Jack and another Anastasia, who was his first wife now divorced to reunite to give a full family to Jane. Mike’s mom also used to say to the effect that she would be more happy if not for Mike, then she could divorce and reunite with her former husband Antonio. So, Mike felt certainly some conditional character of his family status, like he made everybody unhappy, including Nick and Jane. However, it was all in a civilized way. Nick often visited his own father’s parents in the nearby city, and a pair of times even his own dad himself. Mike’s dad Jack had been brought up by a stepfather himself, and had seen his own biological father only when the last was a-dying and Jack was already a man of about thirty years old. So, he had rather good relations with Nick and the last called him not Jack but daddy. Anyway, very often on the quarrel occasions Mike’s parents brought all this stuff out. So, Mike was unhappy because of it. His parents said that he was somewhat late in his intellectual development that’s why he did not speak, but afterwards suddenly began to speak clearly without any distorting of words. But, the real story was the other way around. Mike was so much offended at the assertion that he was the cause of the unhappiness for almost all people that was around him that he did not want to communicate with his parents. He made the exclusion only for his grandma Helen, who was a bit touched upon the head herself.
‘You do a right thing. Do not speak to them, or they’ll poison you as she wanted,’ encouraged the old woman.
All the offence of Mike was strengthened by a real apprehension that this accident with his getting poisoned along with his dad Jack because somebody had mistaken the poison for the salt was a retaliation for a witchcraft Helen along with her elder sister Ann, alleged to be a witch, had made on Mike’s mom Anastasia in the town where she had met Jack, not without a success as they said. All in all, it was just a common story, without anything melodramatic to spice it with.
To make things worse, Mike granddaddy John, his father Jack’s stepfather was killed by the policemen. The old man was a drunkard and debaucher during the last days of his life, and chased his wife with a shotgun, the last saving herself in the neighborhood with just a nightgown on. But, Mike’s grandma Helen told it like he had just sat on the bench near the house of many flats. The policemen rode along picking up the drunk. John sat down on the bench not touching anybody. The cops decided to tote John into the police van. The old man fell on the floor in the back of the van upon a log and crashed his head. The policeman did not render first medical assistance and the old man died. That’s why Mike hated the policemen.
On this summer day full of the sunshine, Mike was again scolded by his mom. Perhaps she said something insulting to him. So, he went out of the hostel and went to his dad’s garage that the man constructed. It was just in three hundred feet from the hostel across a road. Mike looked left then right as he had been taught by his grandma. But, the dad was in the cellar of the garage, and Mike did not find him. He went further on in the same direction towards his aunt Jane’s flat. But, there near her house he met a seven or eight year old boy with a bike for adults.
‘Where do you live, boy?’ asked the elder boy.
Mike did not answer the question, but asked one himself, ‘Could you give me a ride to the town for this thing?’ he produced out of his pocket a small souvenir knife. It was a good self-made one. It had a blade of about two inches long, which could not be bent or broken. A bone hilt resembled ivory work. The scabbard was made of leatherette. As a truth, it was intended for an adult to possess. But, Mike somehow got into wielding it.
The elder boy hesitated a few seconds, then said, ‘That’s a deal,’ and asking no more invited Mike to get on the bike.
This way Mike arranged it with the boy to be carried on the bike from the campus to the town itself. Mike got on the frame of the bike, while the boy managed to turn over the pedals from under the frame staying askance the way small children drive adult bikes. Mike had often to get off the frame because the boy, who turned the pedals, would be tired. On one of such stops near the hospital park the elder boy began an argument as to whether it was right to tote Mike to the city. The elder boy was already much tired and about to repent of his hasty consent to sell a ride to the town for the small knife. It was Ok with the knife itself. It was a precious possession, but the boy was afraid he should be up to some wrong.
‘Say me now where do you live,’ said the little driver very loud, ‘It’s a bad thing not to say to your parents where you go. I suppose you live on the campus.’
Mike kept silence. All of a sudden, he caught the sight of the dark figure of a man that approached the boys from the direction of the hospital park.
‘Come here, little boy,’ ordered the man in dark clothes.
Mike walked up to the stranger.
‘So, you live somewhere else?’ then after a moment of silence, the man asked with more of a rum agitation, ‘Do your parents know where’ve you come?’
The man, who had rotten teeth, seemed to be a queer one to Mike. Nobody else had any interest where he along with the elder boy was bound to. Mike recalled what he had heard about maniacs that kill the children. He poked his right hand into the pocket and clutched the hilt of his tiny knife, putting down the scabbard off the blade with his index and middle finger.
‘Don’t harass the boy,’ said the elder boy, who had driven the bike, ‘I play with him. If you harass him I’ll call the adults for help.’
The man with black coat jacket and brown trousers turned about and hurriedly went away. The elder boy called Mike to get on the bike. Thus, they rode near the bus station. Here Mike climbed down the bike. He took the small knife out of his brown shorts’ pocket and stretched the hand to the boy with the bike as a recompense.
‘You need it yourself,’ said the boy and wheeled away.
Mike got on his own. He heard it from his grandma Helen, who worked as the director of an orphanage house during the war and from then on, how her sister Claudia got from Central Siberia to the most western part of Soviet Union after the war by getting on the top of a wagon. The soldiers who were transported by the train had pity on her, helped her descend off the wagon’s top into the interior and fed the adolescent girl with what they had. Somehow Claudia connected her life with the railways, and retired as the manager of the railway station of the big city of Brest. Then, the grandma told as two boys from her orphanage house tried to go astray by getting into the boxes under the train wagons just of a size for a child to put himself into, which were intended for some instruments maybe. But, they were caught on the railway station before the train left, by a worker, who made rounds.
However, when Mike got into the bus station, he had to realize that the times changed and the people would not be benevolent to help a runaway.
He had five-kopeck coin in his pocket. He did not know how much it was. Still, the coin had respectable weighty looks. He wanted to buy a ticket himself, but the small window through which the tickets were sold was too high for him. He would not have been able to reach it, even if he had tried.
Mike approached an old man, and asked politely, ‘Would you be able to buy me a ticket?’
‘Boy, do not play a fool,’ grouched the old man.
Mike thought that maybe the old man was simply one of a bad temper.
Then, after he had passed some time by sitting on the bench, he went up to a woman and asked, ‘Could you buy me a ticket and say to the controller that I am your child?’
‘Where’s your parents, boy? You’ve been here on your own? Where’s your parents?’ she interrogated getting closer with each question.
Mike knew that it was about the time to get out of the big hall of the bus station, if he did not want to be caught. He went out the door endeavoring not to be suspected to be alone, trying to walk not hastily. His heart beat heavily. He got around the corner, came to the road and sat down on the border. It seemed that there was no way out in his life. He began to weep loudly and sincerely.
A woman went to Mike from behind him and asked, ‘Why do you cry, boy? Somebody has hurt you?’
Mike tried to stand up and go away, but the blond woman grabbed him by his arm. Mike stopped weeping and got angry. He struggled to get free, now realizing that the affair was going to get a bad turn.
‘Stop it!’ exclaimed the blond woman. ‘Are you lost, ain’t you?’
Mike knew he could not get at large. The woman firmly held his hand in her own, and made him follow her across the square toward a police car that stood over there. The blond woman and Mike approached the policemen.
‘Officer,’ said the woman to attract the attention of one of the police.
‘What’s up?’ the driver said to the woman’s address.
‘I’ve got this here boy I think has gotten lost,’ answered the woman.
‘Ok, we’ll take care,’ assured the other policeman.
The driver got out of the car and received the boy into his charge. Then, he put Mike on the back seat of the car. He closed the door and got at the steering wheel. The tall policeman on the front seat drank the beer out of a brown glass bottle. The car gave the rear go and drove on the rode. It turned right and went on its way to the police office.
‘I’m Uncle Stephan the Policeman,’ announced the tall policeman on the front seat opening another bottle of beer. ‘Did they read you about me in the kindergarten? About Uncle Stephan the Policeman?’
The driver laughed at this. Mike heard about Uncle Stephan the Policeman, what they read to the children in a book. How Uncle Stephan the Policeman who was tall saved the children off a ice-floe on a spring river where they had got by neglect and other stories about the same. Mike was a little boy yet, but he understood well that Uncle Stephan the Policeman was just a literary hero. The more so, the tall guy on the front seat did not match the positive image of the policeman created by the author of the book for children about Uncle Stephan the Policeman.
‘What about the harlots?’ asked the tall policeman. ‘Maybe we’ll drop in tomorrow?’
‘I don’t think so, Stephan. The wife harness me to work on the kitchen garden?’ replied the driver.
‘Whether you are a little boy and don’t know what to say? Say her you’ve already arranged for us to go fishing,’ advised the tall one.
‘You know this bitch. There’s no possibility with her to get relaxed,’ excused himself the driver.
‘If I had such a wife, I’d kick her out of the house,’ alleged the tall policeman to testify he was a bachelor.
Mike recalled the story of his granddaddy’s death and grew angry. It was only the second time in his life he rode in a car. His family did not have one yet. But, he did not feel comfortable.
The tall man turned on the radio and took a microphone close to his mouth.
‘Base, base, this is fifth, how do you here me, receiving…’ said the tall man.
‘Fifth, fifth, that is the base, here you well, what’s up with you?’ answered the voice from the radio.
‘I’ve found a stray boy about four years old. Am going toward you,’ said the policeman.
‘Ok, am waiting you. Drive at,’ concluded the base.
In five minutes, the care wheeled to the police office. The tall policeman got out of it. He opened the back door.
‘Get ouda ‘ere,’ ordered he to the boy.
Mike sat still.
‘Get ouda ‘ere,’ said the tall policeman growing angry. ‘I’ve said to you to get out. Did not you here, you fool?’
The last presumptions of an intrigue that it could have been Uncle Stephan the Policeman disappeared. The tall man stretched his long arm into the car to take Mike out. When he put his hand on Mike’s arm, the boy bit his hairy arm to leave a distinct teeth-print on his flesh.
‘You bitch,’ exclaimed the tall policeman and hauled Mike out of the car. Mike tried to scratch his hated face with his fingernails. The tall policeman afraid of further damage threw Mike off himself upon the asphalt. Mike jumped up off the road, which he had just painfully landed on and tried to flee. The tall man made a pair of steps and caught Mike by the scruff of the neck to lift him into the air a little and put again somewhat backwards. Mike knew he had no chance to escape. He turned himself toward the door and clenched his hands behind as he had seen the criminals or any people to be arrested to do.
‘Look at this one,’ said the tall man to the driver, who had got out of the car.
Mike wanted to take the steps of the porch on his own, but the tall man obstinately took him into his hands. He entered into the building. In the interior of it, he made several steps along the dark corridor, and stopped near a door. He had to free one hand to open the door. So, he held the boy now only by one hand that gripped the cloth of Mike’s brown shorts. Mike felt an acute pain when the middle part of his shorts, where the two short legs met, pressed his right ball. The boy put forward his hand to the policeman’s face now at an easy reach and aiming the eyes scratched. The tall man threw the boy off himself again. Mike got on his feet and ran toward the other end of the corridor hoping there should have been the same door in the other end of the building. The door of a room opened and a smiling man, who seemed to be kind, walked out of it to block Mike’s way. There was the only way to escape now. Back along the corridor to the only open door, because Mike had seen that the end of the corridor was a blind one. He turned around and dashed himself through the place where the tall policeman stood. The tall man rubbed his wounded left eye to see if it was whole. Viewing the situation by his right eye, he tripped Mike up with his long right leg. The foot hit Mike’s belly and he flew over it as an unfortunate quarterback driven forward by too much of an impulse. He landed flat on the wooden floor. Mike felt his guts to be struck off. However, he put first his hand on the floor then left knee, after it the right one, got on his feet, and was about to rush out the door toward the sunny day. But, unexpectedly the driver appeared in the door-case. Mike had forgotten about him. He turned around and ran back. No other way out. The tall man tripped him again. Mike fell flat and his head struck the wooden floor to make a hollow sound.
‘What do you do, Stephan?’ said the man with a file reproachfully.
‘Look what this bitch has done to me. Seems like he scratched out my eye!’ complained the tall man to excuse himself before an officer of a higher rank.
During that time, Mike managed to get afoot once more feeling a bit groggy and ran into the open door of the room toward the open window. But, he had no chance to get through the iron bars painted yellow. The window was open, Mike felt the soft draught of the fresh air. The freedom was at hand, but Mike could not get through the yellow iron bars. Mike felt an acute pain in his soul and despair that he was not able to get free.
‘Have perished as a dolphin,’ said Mike about himself.
The officer and tall policeman came in. Mike got left of the window upon the floor and poked himself under the bookcase. He kept still in the corner.
‘Stephan, take the boy outa there, but please without these Nazi cruelties,’ ordered the officer.
‘This beast will bite me again,’ presumed Stephan a bit ashamed because of the comparison and that it was not groundless.
He took a ruler off the table that stood in the middle of the office room. Then got his try in raking Mike from under the bookcase. Mike bit the wooden ruler like a dog, and felt the nasty taste of the wood that made him feel cold right away. He spat to get rid of the aftertaste.
‘Look at this wolf-cub!’ Stephan said.
‘Boy, don’t play a fool, get out of there!’ said the officer in an imperative tone.
Mike counted the seconds his heart overcame in beating and got from under the bookcase, though was afraid that Stephan would kick him upon the face. However, he knew for sure it was impossible in the presence of the officer. And, Stephan himself was not so bad. Mike got up and sat down on a chair that stood under the windowsill, climbing it with an effort.
‘What’s your name boy?’ asked the officer.
Mike kept silence.
‘What’s your name, I ask,’ said the officer more loudly.
Mike could not keep down his hatred.
‘You killed my granddaddy, bitches!’ shouted Mike.
‘Well,’ said the lieutenant in astonishment.
‘We did not kill your granddaddy,’ laughed Stephan now feeling it was funny what a stupid way the events developed.
‘You police, you killed my granddaddy!’ exclaimed Mike recalling his granddaddy whom he had seen only on the photos, and who had never seen Mike at all, having been killed at a time when the boy had been just a month old. The tears began to appear one by one on the boy’s eyes because of the pity for his granddaddy and himself, now when the struggle was over, and a certain relaxation came.
‘We did not kill your granddaddy,’ opposed the lieutenant sternly. ‘Do not say this way.’
Mike did not say anything else.
‘So, what’s your name, boy?’ inquired the officer again with much rigor in his voice.
Mike maintained silence.
‘We’ll play it mum?’ asked the officer now with a smile on his face. ‘He does not answer,’ addressed the lieutenant the tall policeman, who had a few stripes on his shoulder straps. ‘Seems we’ve got a hard core one. So, you’re a hard core one, boy?’
‘I’m not a hard core, you’re hard core yourselves!’ snapped out Mike.
‘Ok, boy, let’s not offend. We’re here on the execution,’ strictly warned the officer getting even more merry.
Mike did not answer.
‘Well, we’ll make up a protocol as it is required,’ said the man and got a paper out of the file.
It all was turning a kind of a funny game for the policemen, who got into such a mix-up on this Saturday afternoon that had not foretoken much trouble. Nobody else there was in the police office. Just this officer of the day and the tall unfortunate policeman, who rubbed his left eye with a smile. The things took place so fast that the policeman even did not have the time to get surprised at the strange behavior of the boy, now realizing in what a stupid situation they were.
‘Maybe, you terminated somebody yourself, if you wanted to flee off us?’ surmised Stephan.
‘He did try to escape?’ asked the officer with a feigned interest as if he was not the witness of it himself.
‘Yea, there on the street,’ played to explained Stephan.
Mike knew they were making fun of him and his feelings. He could stand it no longer.
‘Bitches, murdered my granddaddy,’ he repeated his accusation.
‘Murdered, and what of it?’ provoked Stephan with a smile.
Mike did not say anything else, offended even more. A few seconds of silence passed. The driver appeared in the door.
‘What’s here of your boy?’ asked he.
‘Here, see it yourself. Looks like the guy is a hard nut. Does not get cracked,’ the lieutenant explained the situation.
The driver shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘So, there’s no way out but to call parents.’
‘Where’s your parents, boy?’ asked the interrogator.
Mike kept silence for about ten seconds.
‘Ok, we’ll call for Allis. Seems like that’s her client. Where does Allis work in our organization?’ said the officer addressing the other policemen.
‘She works in the children’s chamber of the police,’ answered the driver.
‘And what she does do?’ the lieutenant shammed not to know.
‘She puts on the register such hard cores as this one,’ the driver gave the answer.
Mike kept silence and tried not to look at the policemen’s eyes owing to he knew for sure he was mocked at. A few seconds of complete silence passed except the ticking of the clock on the one of the shelves of the bookcase.
‘Thus, there’s no way out but to call by phone the comrade minister,’ said the officer.
‘Yea, sure, we’ll have to call Moscow,’ expressed the common consent the rest of the policemen.
‘How’s the code of Moscow,’ asked the officer.
‘Naught nine five,’ prompted the driver.
‘The number of the comrade minister of the interior affairs we know,’ commented the officer. ‘Anyhow, he will be glad to know that we’ve napped such a boy, who behaves himself bad.’
The officer took the phone and began to dial a long number that should be presumed to be a Moscow one. Mike felt as his stomach commenced to get on frets. He was really afraid that the whole affair was getting so bad. However, he had enough instinctive common sense to feel he was cheated again. However, the comrade minister did not answer. The phone uttered frequent sounds as though the line was busy.
‘Ok, the line is busy,’ said the officer, ‘Maybe, we’ll make do without the comrade minister?’ the officer addressed the boy.
Mike did not answer.
‘Well, though the comrade minister has a lot of affairs: conferences with the deputies, meetings of ministers, reports to the General Secretary. There’s no other choice but to call him,’ said the officer severely getting a bit angry of Mike’s keeping silence. Mike himself felt uneasy and feared that his family could be damaged.
‘Michael, go see what’s it with the car while we call the minister,’ said the officer to the driver, who stood leaning at the doorjamb, giving him a wink Mike did not notice.
Mike instinctively shook at the hearing of this name, afraid that the policeman knew it was his name. Then, realizing the officer called to the driver, he made a few movements as if it was uneasy for him to sit on the chair to cover up a possible clew to his identity.
‘Yea, I’ll take care,’ he assured.
The driver went out of the room and closed the door. But, instead of coming outdoors, he went into the room, where the officer had come out when they had brought Mike to the police office. The officer took the phone. He dialed the five numbers of the local telephone net. Then, trying to be unnoticed pushed the small horns of the apparatus and dialed the five numbers again as though it was a special Moscow number. Mike heard a short phone bell somewhere in the building.
‘Whom they call, maybe you?’ asked Stephan.
‘No, it’s for Petroff, he should have been the orderly officer today instead of me, I’ve taken his shift. It’s from his room,’ explained the officer a bit nervous.
‘Yea, the accident system shift-over on his home number has worked,’ told Stephan the nonsense, which Mike thoroughly believed for its technical complexity.
‘Yes, comrade minister? That’s they’re calling you from Shushenskoe. Yes, that’s where comrade Lenin was in the exile. We’ve got a boy down here that delivered a resistance during the arrest. Yes, wounded a policeman. Seems like the guy lost his eye. Yes, comrade minister, he does not answer and maintains the silence. The bloke despises the authority,’ related the orderly of the day.
The voice twanged something in the phone strangely doubled by a voice somewhere far away in the building. Mike took it for the accident system. Stephan smiled and softly laughed from time to time. The intonation of the twang and hollow voice in the building signaled that the comrade minister took the matter very seriously.
‘I’ll give the phone to the wounded policeman. I have to hold him up the phone, he cannon take it himself,’ said the officer and approached the phone to Stephan’s ear.
‘Yes, the comrade minister, he scratches, bites. Nearly scratched out my left eye. Bit upon the arm,’ he rubbed the teeth print now swollen, ‘Yes, the comrade minister, it’s all, I’m dying.’
Mike had a sure opinion that he was mocked once more. But, the voice went on seriously.
‘Well, we’ll take the measures along the party line,’ assured the voice very distinctly in an imposing fashion of a comrade minister that was accustomed to exert the power. ‘We won’t leave it this way. We have long arms.’ The minister hanged the phone. The frequent sounds were heard once more. Mike felt himself in a fear for the fate of his parents again.
‘Don’t you see, the matter gets a serious turn,’ said the officer to Mike.
Mike did not say anything.
‘Whether you don’t respect even the comrade minister?’ questioned the interrogator with a personal sense of injury.
‘Why do you lie?’ pronounced Mike with disdain, ‘He is not wounded. He kicked me himself.’
‘Here we decide who is wounded and who’s not,’ said the officer rigorously. ‘Stephan, go shake him into a good shape.’
Stephan stood off his chair, went around the table by the officer and approached Mike from the left. Mike was ready to use his teeth and fingernails again, and it could be seen by the impression of his face. However, Stephan went up to him and took by the scrub of his neck. Mike clawed the policeman’s arm with his right hand’s fingernails and got left hand along with his jaw upon the Stephan’s hand.
‘Bitch,’ exclaimed Stephan and jerked his hand back fast, ‘He bites again!’
Stephan raised his hand as if to strike hard. Mike screwed up his eyes and lifted up his left hand to protect his head. But, Stephan fiercely kicked with his right boot one of the legs of the chair. Mike felt as the chair made a movement as if to go from under him, but Mike held himself not to fall off the chair.
‘Stephan, do not make a Gestapo down here. Leave the boy. We’ll somehow handle him,’ said the officer.
Stephan left Mike on the chair and went to take his seat again. At this moment, the driver appeared somewhat alerted.
‘What’s up down here?’ he asked.
‘Nothing, Stephan just tried to bring him up a bit.’
Stephan rubbed his fresh wounds and smiled through the tears of the physical pain and despair. The situation seemed to be really comical.
‘It burns,’ complained Stephan as if excusing himself for his wrath.
‘There’s the only solution left. We need to inform the Attorney General office. But, first we’ll make a protocol of arrest as requires,’ the day officer continued to threaten.
It was a strange mixture of fun and duty for the policeman in this Saturday shift that should gave been a dull, but not heavy one.
‘Why you’ve scratched as a girl?’ interrogated the officer.
‘You’re girls yourselves!’ Mike smarted.
‘But, that’s not us, who’ve scratched as a girl,’ said the officer.
‘Yea, sure,’ added Stephan with a laugh that showed that he was intimidated in an apprehension that somebody would have counted him stupid to get into a scrap with a little boy. He hid his eyes looking into the floor.
‘I did not scratch as a girl, but as a tiger,’ retorted Mike.
‘So, we’ll put you down on the protocol as a tiger?’ surmised the officer.
Mike stayed mum.
‘Ok, let’s put it down on the protocol,’ continued the officer. He began to fill in the form with a red pencil to make a stronger impression on the boy, pronouncing what he wrote in the same time. ‘Arrested a boy, who delivered a resistance in the time of the detention. He wounded till blood a policeman on duty. Insulted the police officer by the word ‘bitch’. Behaves himself off-hand. Accused the policemen with a murder of his daddy…or granddaddy? Eh, boy, that was your daddy?’
Mike tried to keep his temper, but now he was really afraid for his daddy, viewing the guns of the policeman. He went on a verbal offensive as the best means of the defense.
‘I’ve got another granddaddy, my daddy’s uncle. His name’s Leon. And know what he said?’ asked Mike sure he was about to leave a serious impression of his relatives.
The officer turned his head first right then left negatively, ‘No.’
‘He’s a hunter. He also lives in Sorsk. He’s got a hunting rifle that’s rather bigger than your guns,’ rejoined Mike.
‘So, what of it? Our guns also shoot well. Isn’t it so Stephan?’ said the officer.
‘I am not sure after all this,’ said Stephan and lifted his hand for other to contemplate.
‘That’s not a time for jokes, Stephan,’ said sternly the officer to prove a proverb ‘beat your own ones to make afraid the alien’.
‘So, what’s more about your granddaddy?’ the officer stimulated Mike’s talkativeness.
‘So it is that he said to my grandma Helen ‘I forgave to those bitches that they killed your husband, but if they make something to your son, I’ll shoot out the entire police office with my carbine.’ Mike was proud of his granddaddy Leon.
‘What he said more?’ inquired the officer.
The other policemen grew serious.
‘How’ll he shoot us, if we’re many and he’s alone?’ added he.
‘He said that he’d take as much cartridges as there’s enough place in his coat’s pockets. And, he will enter the police office and shoot down everybody he meets in the corridors, and hide in the rooms when the bolt is empty to fill it up again. And then, go out the room and shoot the policemen that there would be in the corridor. So, he said, ‘I’ll shoot down the whole police office. I’m not afraid to go into jail,’ the boy menaced emotionally.
‘It’s not possible. We, the policemen shoot well,’ commented the officer.
‘Quite possible. ‘There we’ll be a panic in the police office,’ he said, ‘I’ll simply shoot as much of the policeman as there’re in the corridor. I won’t even check the rooms, they run out themselves. Then, I’ll hide in one of the rooms. Be sure, I’ll shoot down the whole police office of the district.’ So, he said I heard it myself,’ told Mike.
‘The boy got a criminal background. Surely, he’s from a criminal family,’ commented the driver.
‘Now, it’s sure that we won’t dispense with the comrade minister,’ said the officer. ‘Michael, go out and see what’s about the car. It stays alone on the street for long already. The comrade minister said he was busy and would call later himself.’
Mike’s namesake went out the door. After a minute the phone rang. The day officer took off the receiver.
‘Yes, that’s you, comrade minister of the interior affairs. Yes, yes, that’s Shushenskoe district police office. Yes, yes, we’ve got a special information. There’s a diversion act that’s prepared in the town of Sorsk.’ The voice in the phone snuffled in the intonation of astonishment and blame. Mike was able to discern clearly an alert ‘what do you say, what do you say’. ‘Yes, the name is Leon, about sixty or seventy years old. A hunter. Has got a carbine. Yes, you think it’s necessary to form in the arrest officially. Yes, yes, send a storm group. Yes, yes, Ok.’ He hung up the receiver.
‘Are you not afraid your granddaddy Leon will got an infarct after he get a know of all this,’ the officer tried to bring about a sense of remorse in Mike’s heart. But in vain, because Mike himself did not know what the strange word meant. He only understood that the officer was threatening again.
The driver opened the door and appeared in the jamb.
‘So, we’ll put more into the protocol. The information has come that there’s a terrorist act prepared in the town of Sorsk. We’ll get cracked down or not?’ asked the officer of Mike in a cop jargon. Then, after a pause, ‘The storm group is already sent, in a few minutes they’ll shoot down your granddaddy Leon. Are you not afraid that you’ll be guilty of it?’ asked the officer.
‘No way,’ said the boy, ‘He’ll shoot ‘em down themselves.’
‘I doubt it, they have the machineguns and are specially trained. Your granddaddy Leon has no chances. He does not know about a storm, does he? That’s you, who blurted it out?’ concluded the officer.
Mike kept silence. He did not feel himself guilty. He was sure the granddaddy Leon would be able to take care of himself.
‘Yea, we’ll call the comrade minister again. But, now by a special line, the way you won’t be able to hear his voice. So, Michael does not have to look for the car. Stephan, switch into the special liaison,’ said the officer.
Stephan leaned to the floor and stretched his hand to the wall behind the bookcase and put out the plug of the phone. The lieutenant took the receiver.
‘Hello, that’s Shushenskoe again. Yes, very bad boy, behaves very bad. We’ve got to call for the parents…’ he hung up the receiver. ‘And Allis, your granddaddy would kill Allis also?’
‘No, he said ‘I will make an exclusion only for the women,’’ responded Mike.
‘Well, it’s Ok with Allis? But, what about us? We’ve got also families and children, little ones like you…’
‘Don’t say for all,’ warned Stephan.
The officer looked at the smiling Stephan sternly, but smiled himself nervously, ‘And, what about them, they’ll be brought up without parents in the orphanage house,’ insisted the officer.
Mike had a question why his wife would also be dead in that nobody threatened to her. And, an impression of a question appeared on his face. But, the officer was quicker.
‘Because, she’d die of sorrow if they said to her that granddaddy Leon killed me because this boy asked him to do so,’ said he.
Stephan laughed. The driver smiled also and carried his weight over on the other leg.
‘I’ll bring myself a chair also,’ said he and went out.
‘Are you not afraid that your parents will be ashamed of you?’ asked the officer.
Mike was sure that his parents would not be ashamed of him. He grew into feeling himself a hero.
‘We’ll call your granny Helen by the phone and tell her how you conduct yourself?’ said the officer.
‘Why do you know how’s my grandma’s name?’ asked Mike in surprise having forgotten that he had said it himself.
‘Oh, we know all, my dear friend. We know all,’ the officer assured, ‘We have informers, sneakers. Everybody work on us. We know all about you. We only pretended not to know. We know your name, where your parents live. We know all about you,’ went on the officer. ‘The girls in the kindergarten complain about you that you hurt them. We wanted to arrest you, but you came yourself. That's good. We’ll call your grandma Helen in Sorsk.’
‘Ha, she’s got no phone. If you knew her, you’d know about it.’ Mike said.
‘Do not hurry, boy. We know it. We’ll call to the neighbors and ask to invite her to the phone. Michael, go again into the street and look what’s about the car, while we’ll call his grandma Helen by an ordinary telephone line that he could hear what she says about his behavior,’ said the officer. His professional eye managed to notice how Mike shuddered at the mentioning of his name. ‘Let’s make her listen how behaves her grandson Michael. The girls in the kindergarten complain much about his behavior. Now, ‘tis the time to take measures on this hooligan. Don’t close the door it’s stuffy in here.’
Mike got afraid that they really knew all about him, and just pretended to be ignorant of it. The officer dialed the number. The phone rang somewhere in the building. Mike did not understand why the driver came left and not right to the direction of the door that led outdoors. Somebody answered the phone call. It was a strange voice that should have been a feminine one. The voice in the phone strangely echoed with the same in the building itself, from somewhere to the left.
‘Hello, that’s granny Helen? This is the police officer from Shushenskoe is bothering you. Yea, yea, ‘tis a very serious matter. Yea, that’s concerning your grandson Michael. He’s here in our office. Yes, behaves very bad, very bad. Yes, he plays pranks. We ask you to take measures and inform the mom and dad. Yes. I’ll give the phone to the policeman, who suffered from his hands,’ he passed the phone over to Stephan.
At this time, the voice that should have been that of the granny Helen uttered numerous ohs and ahs, ‘We won’t leave it this way. We’ll surely punish him.’
Stephan took the phone, ‘Yes, this is granny Helen? Yes, he scratched my eye, bit on the arm and hand. Yes, several times. Yes, yes, very painful. Hurts much. Very much. To punish with the belt. Yes, it’s a good idea to punish him with a belt. Behaves himself very nasty. Very much of damage. Very much.’
The officer took the phone out of Stephan’s hand, ‘Yes, yes, goodbye… So, you see Michael we won’t leave it this way,’ Stephan asked with a gesture the phone.
‘Yes, grandma Helen, we don’t have the plenary powers to punish him as we usually do. He is not of the age of the penal responsibility,’ Stephan continued to talk with an expression of the forceless anger on his face. He hanged the phone.
‘That is not my grandma,’ said Michael confidently, ‘This woman has got a young voice…’
‘She got younger because of our special phone liaison,’ commented Stephan.
Here the driver entered into the room with suspect looks of a man who feared he was about to be disclosed in his mischief.
‘It’s all, I understood, that’s the driver called from your room you’ve came out,’ said Mike with disdain because they tried to cheat in such a serious matter.
The driver had a guilty look, and it could be discerned that he was afraid.
‘Yea, you’re really a hard nut to crack we’ve gotten,’ said the day officer. ‘Seems we’ve got no chances to crack you down by force. So, maybe, we’ll negotiate the conditions of the future collaboration? Do you want to collaborate?’
Stephan smiled again to this travesty of a serious police fashion talk.
‘I don’t want to collaborate with you, let me go,’ reciprocated Mike.
‘We cannot let you go. You are a child that has gotten lost, and we should deliver you to you relatives,’ commented the chief officer of the day.
‘Are you not afraid for your daddy? He’ll surely have problems because of your conduct. Are you not afraid that we bring your daddy to the book for your behavior and put him to the jail?’ asked Stephan irrigated, able however to keep down his anger.
‘He’s a boxer,’ assured Mike, ‘He’ll knock you down.’
‘We also got boxers down here in the police. Say, Stephan,’ addressed he the tall policeman.
Stephan smiled, giggled and nodded in consent to go on acting this foolish play.
‘He’ll knock him out,’ said Mike without any doubt.
‘So, you father is a boxer. We don’t know such a one. Where does he work? Maybe, Stephan would like to have a match with him?’ tempted the day man.
Mike did not say anything else. The policemen passed a few seconds in silence themselves.
‘What girls do you like in the kindergarten? Have you got a fiancée?’ asked kindly the officer.
‘I do not like the girls in the kindergarten,’ answered Mike. ‘And, I love three girls.’
The policemen sniggered in a chorus.
‘Three at once? Isn’t it too much for a boy?’ asked the day officer.
‘Nope,’ said Mike, ‘Nobody else would marry them. They are sick ones.’
‘And, what they are sick with? A flue?’ sniggered Stephan.
‘Stephan, keep mum,’ the officer warned him seeing that Mike was getting into a loss, ‘Say, Mike, what they are sick with?’ said the man seriously.
Mike named the disease. All the policemen shuddered at once to the nomination of this ignoble illness.
‘Mike, don’t play a fool,’ said the officer seriously and sympathetically, ‘There’re so much healthy girls. You’ll find a fiancée among them. You are a good boy, a valiant one. Any girl will love you, Mike. Don’t be silly.’
Mike kept his silence.
‘Why did you love them? They promised to be your wives all?’ asked the officer sternly.
‘No,’ said Mike, ‘they want to be harlots when grown up.’
‘So, why do you love them, Mike. They’ll abuse you and give a slip. They’ll be harlots anyhow, if they say it,’ said the officer.
‘No,’ said Mike, ‘I’ll be their husband.’
Stephan and the driver tittered.
‘Where’ve you seen, Mike, that a man had three wives? That’s not according to the law,’ the officer expressed his thought.
Mike answered not.
‘We’ll surely put you into the jail for the polygamy,’ pronounced Stephan merrily, hiding his eyes down as if he showed that he knew he was guilty.
‘No,’ negated Mike again, ‘that’s legally. Solomon had a thousand wives. And David had many. The God allows for the polygamy.’
‘We don’t know for the God, but the Soviet law does not allow for it, it’s a crime,’ said the officer.
‘Nope, it’s when a man does falsify the documents and bring into delusion the women,’ said Stephan to show his wits and support for the boy.
‘Seems that Stephan is an interrogator, not me,’ said calmly the officer to Stephan. ‘So, Michael, how do you intend to have a good progeny from them?’
‘They’ll got healthy because the Lord will heal them and because I’ll try to make something for Him,’ explained Mike.
‘Seems that somebody teaches you bad things, Mike, isn’t it so?’ questioned the officer.
Mike was silent.
‘We’ve arrested a preacher down here for the humiliating soliciting to the citizens,’ said Stephan, ‘And, got a Bible confiscated down here on the shelf. Let’s see what’s there in it about the polygamy,’ said Stephan and stretched his long arm to the shelf to take a small book in a self-made leather cover with rosy wool threads on the hem of the cover.
‘Stephan, you’re about to start a religious propaganda?’ asked the officer reproachfully. The driver also reproved with his face expression.
‘It’s Ok,’ winked Stephan. The other strangely agreed not able to withstand the extraordinary idea of this teaching method. ‘Let’s see what there is about polygamy.’ He looked for a certain place in the Bible. ‘Isaiah 4:24,’ announced he and began to read. ‘And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be a stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness, and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty…yea, here…And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by your name, to take away our reproach.’ Here he ended. ‘See, Mike, there no way to get several wives, but except if they are bald, stinky, and without a nose to boot. Do you like your girls when they’ll get this way? They’ll be stinky, bald and without a nose.’
Mike felt a flux of hatred in his heart. He was ready to defend the girls.
But, he withstood the anger and said in return, ‘David had many wives and they were beautiful and of a sweet smell.’
The policemen guffawed all at once, they laughed till the tears began to show themselves on their eyes.
‘You say of a sweet smell, ‘tis like you do understand the sense in women,’ commented the officer.
‘My grand-granddaddy had a wife, she was an Armenian woman, and she was also sick with it, but she born him a beautiful baby girl, she was Ok and lived a long life, and was never sick,’ Mike continued to support his argument.
‘Yes, it’s Ok. We’ve ascertained it for sure that ‘twas Ok with your grand-granddaddy’s Armenian daughter. We’ve heard much about your grand-granddaddy that lived over there in Sorsk. That’s he, who prophesied that you’d come here to us. Yea, surely,’ went on the officer with a growing respect for Mike, ‘So, you are his grand-grandson?’
‘Yes,’ said Mike, ‘He was my grand-granddaddy.’
‘Yea, but, Mike. It’s no good for such a good boy like you, who had a grand-granddaddy like yours to get in such a way. It’s not a good idea to love those girls, the God will take care of them.’ The officer surmised.
Mike now knew for sure that all he heard from his grandma about her father was for sure. He felt this swift change in the policeman attitude, though Stephan could not understand what was what and just followed the suit. Mike felt this strange respect and he surely wanted now to be as his grand-grandfather Nicolas was. He wanted that his children and grand-grandchildren had the same respect. He knew what it was to be a prophet. He wanted to be one. The policemen waited for the reply. But, Mike wanted to justify this respect by his own deeds.
‘I wanted to take some pills to get an immunity for my children not to die, if these girls bear me some, because they asked me so, ’ Mike inched on. ‘They said I won’t have enough courage to take them, but I would do it.’
The policemen did not have what to say.
‘Mike, whom do you want to be when you grow up?’ asked the driver.
‘I want to be a son of God,’ responded Mike.
‘There’s certainly a progress in the family. The grand-granddaddy was a prophet and Mike wants to be a son of God,’ smiled the officer and withheld his laugh to express a kind humor.
‘And, why you want to be a son of God? To couch on a lounge and see how the children die,’ Stephan put a question angrily.
‘Where on the lounge?’ asked Mike in a loss.
‘Over there in the paradise,’ snapped out Stephan.
‘Easy, easy, Stephan,’ the officer tried to hold his spurt.
‘That’s because of the devil,’ explained Mike.
‘But, where your God, in the heaven?’ hollered out Stephan.
Mike did not answer.
‘I’m gonna go out to have a smoke,’ said the tall man.
‘I’m with you,’ said the driver with a wrath withheld by fear.
They went to the corridor. The light was now pale one, because the sun hid under a cloud.
‘Mike, did you eat the pills?’ asked the officer.
‘No, a man from the sanitary epidemiological station said ‘twas no good until I’m sick myself. But, if I’m sick, it will be even worse.’ Mike said.
‘That’s no good to get sick with it you know it, Mike,’ told the policeman.
‘I’ll suffer for them,’ said Mike about his plans.
Stephan appeared in the jamb, ‘And, where’ll you suffer, in the paradise?’ asked he angrily.
‘Shut up, you Stephan!’ said the officer.
The tall policeman disappeared behind the jamb case.
‘Mike, that’s no good to have anything common with those girls. The God has punished them for their mothers’ sins. They want to be harlots as their mothers have been. Leave them to it.’ The officer advised the boy.
‘I cannot,’ the boy simply said.
The policemen returned into the room. A bitter smoke of the cigarettes penetrated into the room by the air draft.
‘So, Mike, you’ll be a prophet as you grand-granddaddy Nick was?’ asked the policemen. ‘But, are you sure you’ll be the way he was?’
‘Yes,’ said Mike.
Stephan was ashamed of his anger again. He kept silence.
‘Mickey, how you wanted to suffer for those girls? Which way?’ asked the young merry man in blue shirt with short sleeves, however now he was grim.
‘I wanted to get sick with this disease, and then to take pills that I’d get the antibodies, then they’d take my blood and make vaccines for the girls that are sick for them to be able to marry. Like they do with them apes. But, then the old Claudia said that I can take their sin on me and be punished for them only if I’m their husband.’ Mike reported.
‘So, you wanted to be as an ape?’ asked the officer with a pity.
Mike kept silence.
‘Mike, ‘tis no good to say such things. Let the doctors to heal them. Then, if it’s all Ok you can marry any one of them.’ The officer advised.
‘I thought I could suffer this way for them, but that’s no good,’ the boy said.
‘Mike, but why you do not suffer this way. Then they can marry any one they like. And, you can save millions, girls and boys. Then, you’ll be a real hero,’ Stephan edged on the boy.
Mike did not answer.
‘Why you think about yourself only?’ Stephan asked.
Mike said not a thing.
‘Then, you’ll make something really good for the people,’ continued Stephan.
No answer. A few seconds of silence ensued.
‘Mike, why do you want to suffer for them?’ inquired the officer in his turn.
‘Because nobody else loves them,’ answered the boy.
‘But, how is there a relationship if you suffer and they’d get healed?’ insisted the man to drive Mike off his idea.
‘I’ll be an insane. They say ‘tis worst of all,’ he answered.
‘Why do you want it, Mike?’ asked the officer with a protest.
‘I simply want, and that’s all,’ answered Mike.
‘So, you want to be insane that the girls were healed?’ interrogated the officer again.
‘Yes, I’ll fast and go mad,’ responded the boy.
‘You think you’ll go crazy because you do not eat yourself?’ asked the officer again.
‘No,’ said Mike, ‘I won’t marry, that’s most hard.’
‘I also do not marry, but I’m sane?’ joked Stephan.
‘Do not act a joker, Stephan,’ said the officer. ‘Continue, Mike.’
‘I’ll go crazy and suffer. They say that the treatment of the insane is most painful.’ Mike said.
The tears began to appear on the eyes of the policemen. Stephan gave a sob. The driver also tried to hide his face, but then turned again to the boy, capable to weep without a grimace. Mike felt ashamed that the adult men wept. Then, one by one the policemen were able to cope with tears and their eyes went dry.
‘Mike, we’ll surely put you into jail for such thoughts. We’ll correct you from those ideas,’ Stephan said with a firm decision.
‘No, they do not put into the jail for it,’ Mike laughed.
‘No, Mike, they’ll put you into the jail for such talk,’ assured the driver with a false firmness.
Mike laughed again. Stephan chuckled also.
‘Yes, we’ll say to a judge and he’ll put you into the jail,’ said the driver.
‘They do what we say them to do,’ affirmed Stephan.
‘No,’ said Mike, ‘that’s not so. The judges are more chief,’ replied the boy in hot temper.
Stephan laughed, ‘That’s not so. For example, Bobloff, she does what we say her to do.’
‘It’s the time to involve KGB,’ said the officer as if he lost his temper. ‘Keep here this one while I’ll go for a special apparatus that will change his mind by influencing his thoughts.’
He went out. Stephan tried to show he had no interest in the events that took place. The driver sat down on his chair. After a little time, the young officer appeared with a video camera. Mike had never seen one.
‘What are you going to do?’ asked the boy.
‘We’ll going to shoot you down with this thing,’ joked the officer.
Mike put his hands on the collar of his small shirt and tearing it aside to make his chest naked exclaimed, ‘Shoot, bitches, into the chest of a communist!’ his face had a expression of a firm decision to die for what he had thought to be true.
The small white buttons fell on the floor and rolled into the different way. He had seen some people in the movies to do so, before they were executed by the White Guard or Fascists.
‘We’ll better tape down how you behave yourself down here,’ informed the officer with a smile.
The other policemen also cackled from time to time. The officer put the camera on a metal color safe and plugged it into the electrical net. However, he did not push the play button. Mike did not know how it functions. So, he got himself into a shape and tried to behave himself well. The policemen smiled a few seconds.
‘Let’s shoot him down with a real gun?’ proposed the officer.
He took a gun out of his holster.
‘Down out the bolt for sure,’ warned Stephan. ‘And check the chamber.’
The young officer took off the bolt and a cartridge out of the chamber.
‘We’ll shoot you down and show it to your parents,’ he said.
Somehow, Mike understood it was a joke. The officer stood up and went somewhere closer to the camera. He stretched his arm with the gun and pulled the trigger. It made a click. Mike did not blink.
‘Misfire,’ he explained.
He pulled the trigger again, the gun clicked once more. Nobody did laugh. The young officer sat down on his chair again, and looked into the floor for a moment.
‘Ok, Mike, whom you want to be?’ he asked. ‘Do you want to be a thief-in-law if you are such a hooligan?’ he put a question. ‘We can make you a thief-in-law, Mike. Let’s phone the comrade minister about it.’ He proposed to the rest.
Nobody nodded or expressed his consent in any other way. The officer took the phone.
‘Stephan, switch into the special liaison line,’ he said.
Stephan pulled out the phone plug.
‘The comrade minister? Yes, that’s from Shushenskoe. We’ve got a good boy. Yes, right according to the requirements of your program. Yes, very bold. Does not cheat. Yes, yes. It’s arranged.’ He hung up the receiver. ‘So, it’s arranged for you. You’ll be a thief-in-law.’
‘Who is it, a thief-in-law?’ asked Mike.
‘Oh, it’s a chief gangster, who rules the other criminals. He’s a real authority. Do you want to be one?’ asked the officer.
‘Nope,’ said Mike, ‘I want to be a Christian.’
‘But, think, Mike, a thief-in-law has got a lot of pull, he collaborates with us to keep down the other gangsters. All respect him. Do you think Jesus Christ has got more pull?’ asked the officer.
‘He’s a Son of God,’ answered Mike.
The policemen laughed.
‘Mike, we’ll read you what are the requirements for a thief-in-law. Stephan, take the green book on the shelf. No, not that. Yea, this one. Find what’s there’s about it,’ said the officer.
Stephan took out the book and found the page that was necessary.
He began to reed, ‘First, a thief-in-law should be an authority among the criminal society. Second…’
‘Don’t reed it,’ said the chief policeman, ‘Begin with sixth.’
‘Yea, sure, a thief-in-law should not carry on himself any weapons except a knife…’
‘Mike, have you got a knife?’ asked the officer.
Mike forgot about his white hilt small knife there was in his pocket. He did not answer.
‘Continue,’ the officer ordered.
‘Yea, seventh, a thief-in-law should not marry.’ Stephan ended reading.
‘You see, Mike, I thief-in-law should not marry. If you are a thief-in-law, you won’t have to marry.’ The officer said.
The other policemen showed their approval of the idea by smiles.
‘No, I don’t want to be a gangster. I want to be a Christian and suffer for the girls I love.’ Mike affirmed.
‘Seems he’s uncorrectable,’ concluded the officer. ‘How do you intend to get them all three, Mike, how you will compensate their parents for such a bargain?’ asked he.
‘I’m gonna get the foreskins of maniacs to pay the father of some of them, like David did, ‘cause there’re no Philistines in our days,’ the boy made plain.
Stephan guffawed, then said, ‘They don’t need foreskins, Mike, you’d better get some dolls for the girls to please you.’
‘The foreskins are better, because the maniacs won’t kill the babies then.’ Said Mike firmly.
All the policemen tittered.
‘We’ll you get a foreskin off Stephan for what he’s done to you?’ asked cunningly the officer.
‘Nope,’ said Mike, ‘he’s a policeman.’
‘He also does not like children. Have not gotten any.’ Continued the officer.
Mike did not answer.
‘Mike don’t do it, or we’ll certainly put you into the jail for the foreskins,’ warned the officer through the giggling.
The other laughed also.
‘Do you like to have a smoke, Mike?’ offered the officer.
‘No, I tried to smoke once. That’s bad,’ answered Mike.
‘Who treated you with a smoke?’ asked the officer.
‘Tuvinians, they’re my friends,’ said Mike.
‘So you live on the campus?’ asked the officer.
Mike could not understand how the officer knew he was from the campus. An idea that the clue was that the campus was the only place where the natives from this tribe might live did not get into his head. The Tuva was very far away beyond the mountains Mike had seen once on his trip to the village on the dad’s motorbike. They were blue and covered with snow. Several peaks towered above the horizon. So, only young people from this land lived in Shushenskoe. In contrast with Kyrgizs that lived in the town by several families. Mike knew the officer snuffed where he lived. But, he could not understand how.
‘What common business you’ve got with the Tuvinians? Maybe they gave you the ganja?’ interrogated the officer.
Mike did not answer recalling how he smoked pot with the native students and then felt bad.
‘We’ll take measures to punish your friend Tuvinians,’ assured the driver.
‘Yea, say more about it,’ proposed the day officer.
Mike had a moment of hitch, but then sure of the rightness of his opinion said, ‘There’s a Tuvinian. He’s not my friend. He said he’d say to other guys, the Tuvinians, to kill all Russian women in the town with knifes during a dark night.’
‘They’ve got knives?’ asked the officer earnestly.
‘Don’t know,’ Mike gave out.
‘So, Mike, what’s about a handshake?’ asked the officer.
‘What handshake?’ asked Mike having never heard this word.
‘A handshake with your future friend,’ said he.
‘Who’s my friend?’ asked Mike in a loss.
‘Your friend Stephan. Do you like to be in peace with him?’ asked he.
‘Yea, for sure,’ said Mike.
‘Stephan, go get reconciled with your fellow,’ proposed the officer.
Stephan stood up from his chair and went around the table to shake hands with Mike.
‘But no biting this time,’ said Stephan.
Mike felt easier after he shook hands with Stephan.
‘So what’s about a pair of bottles of beer for each?’ proposed the officer. ‘Michael, ride to the gastronome to buy a pair a bottles of beer each and some aerated water for the bloke.’
‘Ok,’ agreed the driver and went out.
Mike was always afraid that the policemen would leave him in the office and maybe put into the cell for a fortnight as the concierge threatened him once for his hooligan behavior.
‘Would you like to play dominoes with us?’ proposed the officer. ‘Do you know how to play this game?’
‘No,’ answered Mike.
‘We’ll teach you, but first you should look at how we play it ourselves,’ explained the officer.
The officer helped Mike get his chair to the table and stand up on it to have enough height to look on the table how the policemen played. The two policemen gave out the dominoes and began to play. Mike grasped very fast how the game was played. It was necessary to match the dominoes with equal quantity of white spots. He was quick in it, however was not taught to count as yet. He looked for some dominoes in the marketplace where the policemen went when did not possess a necessary domino. He took and looked at the picture of the domino he held in his hand.
‘That’s your turn, Mike. Make it.’ The officer proposed.
‘Fish!’ exclaimed Mike and hurled the domino on the construction made of other dominoes with as much effort as he could. He heard that they did this way when ending the domino game.
At this moment, the driver got into the room with sixth bottles of beer and one of lemonade and a packet with candy.
‘So, Mike, let’s have a bottle of beer each?’ proposed the officer.
‘Yea, sure,’ accepted Mike.
They gave him an opened bottle full of beer, but it was hard for him to hold it. So, they poured the beer into a glass. Mike took a swallow. It was bitter and burning. However, Mike forced the gulp down his stomach.
‘I don’t want it,’ he said, ‘give me better a bottle of lemonade.’
‘Ok, sure,’ they gave him a bottle of lemonade.
Though it was hard for Mike to hold the bottle with the soda, he tried to drink straight from the bottle, as he had never been authorized to do by parents. He tried to drink this way, but he spilled some lemonade and spotted his shirt with the yellow. They gave him a glass, and poured the soda into it. Mike felt the anxiety as to what way his parents were without him. But, he kept silence.
‘Mike, what are your girls like?’ asked officer. ‘Beautiful?’
‘Nope, only Jane is beautiful,’ answered Mike.
‘And whom you love best?’ he went on his inquiry.
‘Inna, she’s blond,’ answered Mike.
The young officer laughed and the beer spilled on the floor as by a squeezer. He laughed long. The others smiled also. Mike did not understand why.
‘Do you want us to help you with them,’ asked he after stopped sniggering. ‘We’d render you a protection. Eh?’
Mike did not answer feeling some mischief on the part of the officer.
‘He also wanted to go to harlots,’ said Mike indicating Stephan.
The policemen laughed.
‘Don’t worry Mike, we’ll make an interior investigation and look what common business he’s got with them,’ said the officer through sniggering.
‘You’ve understood it wrong way, Mike. Don’t tell it anybody. We just wanted to make an arrest of them,’ defended himself the tall policeman.
‘And, do they like you, Mike?’ asked the officer.
‘No,’ answered Mike with regret, ‘they don’t.’
‘Why?’ asked the day man.
‘They don’t love me, they simply want that I suffered for them, and then they’d marry other guys,’ he replied.
The officer’s countenance turned somber, ‘Why they don’t love you, if you suffer for them?’
‘I don’t know but I love them,’ explained Mike.
‘And you are ready to die?’ asked the officer with a soft despising.
‘No, I’ll suffer that they should be healed and then, when they grow adult, they’ll make a choice,’ said Mike.
‘We’ll help you, Mike,’ assured the officer.
‘I know them, they’re the girlfriends of a woman’s daughter I know,’ said Stephan with a grimace.
‘Surely?’ asked the officer.
‘Yea, that’s Sally’s daughter Inna and her girlfriends. She’s got a job of a waitress in the bar. That was her, who brought the bloke over to us on the bus station square,’ said Stephan. ‘I’ll ride for them with Michael.’
‘Mike, don’t think that’s our fault,’ excused the officer, ‘That’s those capitalist with their plan of Marshal. That’s CIO that contaminated the girls. Yea, there’s no prostitution in our country. We look after it. That’s they, the capitalists.’
‘Mike, allow me also to suffer a bit for those girls,’ proposed Stephan trying to put it in a jocular way.
‘You want to be their husband?’ asked Mike with surprise.
‘No,’ laughed Stephan with the rest of the policemen. ‘I’m somewhat feeling guilty also. I’ve got a romance with Sally. And I want to redeem my guilt.’
‘No,’ said Mike, ‘that’s not possible.’ Then, after a pause, ‘You are not their father, that’s no good.’
Stephan got silenced. He stood up and they went out with the driver Michael. It was heard how the car engine started and they got a-riding. Mike felt intimidated because he was stupid enough to expose the girls’ problem. Seemed that the investigator knew all. Especially, he felt shamefully because the moms of the girls would be involved. Especially, that of Inna, whom he knew now he met on his way from home, and whom he called bad names.
‘So, Mike, we’ll make a confrontation of you and the girls because we don’t know if you took the pills or not. They’ll bring them over here.’
Mike did not know what to do, so he asked, ‘How did you know my grandma Helen’s neighbors’ phone number?’
‘Oh, Mike. We’ve got a card index down here in the police.’ The officer answered.
The rest of the time before the girls arrived, Mike passed in silence, in jitters over the future encounter with the girls.
Only once the officer asked a question, ‘Mike why did you say ‘I’ll perish as a dolphin’, when you ran into the room.
‘I thought it was a net on the window,’ the boy responded.
The policeman laughed for a long time, then said, ‘Don’t get into such nets, Mike.’
The car arrived. Mike, heard a bunch of the girlish voices get out of the car and ask hasty questions as to why the policemen arrested Mike. They went into the room. Stephan closed the door. It was only the interrogator, Mike and the girls left in the room.
‘So, Mike did you give the pills to the girls?’ asked the officer in an official tone.
‘No,’ answered Mike.
‘Girls, did you say to Mike to eat the pills?’ asked the officer sternly.
‘No,’ said Tina, ‘He wanted to eat them himself.’
‘Yes, we just played in the hospital and he decided to eat up the pills,’ added Inna.
‘What’s your name, girl, you’re most aged of all,’ asked he from Jane.
Jane did not say.
‘Ok, so just answer me, whose idea it was to propose Mike to take the pills and say him to eat them?’ asked he again with growing severity.
‘He wanted himself, nobody asked him to do it,’ Jane answered.
‘Ok, we’ll put it down into the protocol this way. But, if you give the beforehand false affidavit you we’ll be brought to responsibility for it.’ Warned the officer.
‘We did not give him the pills, that he himself wanted to eat them up,’ cried out the girlish voices in a chorus each trying to be louder than the others.
‘Well, why do you think he wanted to take the pills, if you say he wanted to do it himself?’ asked he.
The girls did not answer.
‘I ask you, why you did not answer?’ a minute of complete silence passed, ‘if it will be repeated once more we’ll punish you,’ he assured, ‘we’ve got all the evidence down here that you provoked him to take pills.’ The girls kept mum. ‘You are much older than he,’ addressed himself the officer to Jane, ‘Do not you feel yourself ashamed.’ Nobody answered. ‘If it’s repeated once more we’ll punish you. Mike do you want to say something to the girls in your last word?’ he asked the boy.
The officer helped the girls to stand along the wall between the bookcase and the table, right of Mike. Mike stood up on the chair.
‘Be fruitful and multiply. Don’t be afraid, the Lord will heal you. Don’t marry the bad guys, you will be healthy. You will have the children. All we’ll be well, just believe it.’ Here he stopped to stay laconic.
The officer helped the girls to get out of the room. The driver and Stephan rode the girls and Sally home. The officer commenced to fill in some papers about Mike’s visit in the police office. The flies flew into the open window of the room. It was deep afternoon. At this time, in Mike’s home, the dad returned from the construction place, and asked Anastasia where his son Mike was. She said she thought he should have been in the garage with his father. There was a scandal. The dad was very much afraid for Mike, due there were many dugouts about the hostel, which were prepared for lying down the pipes into them. He was afraid lest Mike should have fallen down in such a dugout and gotten covered by the dirt or sand and died. He went into the college administration and asked to take off the courses a few groups of students to comb the terrain. Only after half an hour of the unsuccessful combing he phoned to the police. The officer in the duty room took up the phone.
‘Police, I’m listening to you,’ he said. ‘You say a boy of four years old. In the white shirt and brown shorts, red sandals, brown cap.’ Here he smiled, ‘You say does not speak as yet? Ok, Ok. We’ll take measure. No, no need to send a policeman with a German dog. Ride right here into the police office. We’ll have a go into the problem here on the place. Yes, don’t worry. We’ll take measures.’ He hanged the phone.
‘They got you lost,’ he said to Mike, ‘Your dad is coming here. Don’t say much, Mike, about what has been down here. Keep mum as you know how to do.’
‘Yes, I know how to hold the tongue behind the teeth.’ He assured.
The young man smiled, ‘Don’t bully in the kindergarten or we’ll take measures.’
‘I don’t,’ said Mike.
After a few minutes, the car arrived to the porch. Stephan and the driver went into the corridor. The officer came to meet them in the corridor and closed the door of the room. They had a talk about a space of two minutes.
The dad told that when he heard the cheerful voice of the duty man and an invitation to ride into the police office, he had a decisiveness to break the whole office into pieces. In that the question was one of the seconds, if Mike should have gotten heaped by the sand. He got on his bike and rode into the office in several minutes. He went into the corridor and greeted the smiling policemen. He guessed what was meant by this invitation. The officer invited the dad to come into the duty room. Mike sat there on the chair, his mouth full of the candy pie. The dad came into the room smiling and sat down on the chair, he said afterwards that his legs turned cotton. He looked on Mike how he ate the pie. Mike played a dumb boy that did not know how to speak or understand what happened around. The policemen became serious. They had a smoke and talked about some abstract matters. After ten minutes of looking on his boy, the dad said that he had to go home. He invited Mike to come out. The boy climbed off the chair and went out the corridor. It was cloudy now. The dad helped Mike to get on the bike. Mike was happy the dad was about to carry him on the bike. And, the more so he had already rode in a car today.
The dad asked, ‘How he behaved himself?’
‘Normally,’ the policemen hastened to assure, ‘just played pranks.’

Second half

They said to Mike like he should have had a predestinated half, a girl that should have been his wife by the providence of the Lord. But, Mike loved many girls. So, that doctrine did not make good sound with his feelings of equitability. He wanted to be a good boy and to earn many girls as his wives. So, he thought what to do with that predestinated monogamy half that they touted always to him. So, he realized that it was a kind of imagined girl. Mike decided to sacrifice that imagined girl that never existed for the Lord instead of those sick girls he loved around him. Many girls wanted to be Mike’s wives, but they pretended not to like the life in the harem. But, Mike knew that the girls loved the girls the same way as some wicked boys loved the other boys. But for the boys it was a sin, but for the girl to love the same sex never was counted for a sin, because a girl might not defile a girl. So, when the girls found that Mike was a natural boy they turned wild as the cats.
They said like a man should love his predestinated half and to die with her never knowing another woman. Mike on the contrary did not want to die. He wanted to live forever and to grant the immortality to his wives and daughters, which he would also take as wives as the Christ should do according to the Psalm 45th. Mike decided to be the Father of Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost and the God, it was the only way to become immortal. But, the old Claudia said like it was a great sin to call oneself the God the Father, but Mike’s argument was that he wanted to suffer instead of his son Jesus Nazarene. Mike did not want to be a bachelor as Jesus Nazarene, he wanted to be a Father and a Husband. He liked Isaiah 53th, he knew it was about him, because Jesus Nazarene never suffered instead of the other man or ever was sick, he healed because of the Holy Ghost that rested on him, but Mike’s way was to suffer for the sins of the whole humanity dead and alive, and to grant the immortality to all the living souls. No doubt, only a living man could do it. It was a way of suffer. And, the Messiah should have the children and progeny, but Jesus Nazarene never had had. That is why the Jews and Muslims did not accept him as the Messiah. That is why Michael wanted to be the Messiah and the Archangel Michael. It was hard but possible, he had read a scientific article in one of his books about it. It was simple, Jesus was the son, Mike was the Father. Genetically, it was so, he read about it in the article about the immortality. It was the influences of the stars and so on in the time and space continuum. So, to be the Father of Jesus was quite possible for Mike, who had the whole heaven and universe in his heart instead of a star as any mortal soul has the same as Jesus Nazarene, whose star the wise men from the east had seen. Mike knew his own star was the star of the creation of the universe that blew up to create the other stars giving them the mass and light. It was only the darkness of the jealousy left to Mike and the same as the star of the creation took back the other stars into the black holes in the universe, the same was with Mike who wanted to take all. All the girls of the universe. And, the boys should die and become the girls his daughter to receive the immortality. So, immortality as Mike saw it was the natural process in the universe and Mike was in the center of it. His predestinated second half was many girls in the whole world. And, he knew he would take only virgins. But, he also knew that the girls would cheat him that they are not such virgins. It’s to boost up the personal price and to make Mike suffer of the jealousy in that when Mike suffered all around him felt good and relaxed. Mike absorbed the bad energy. The demons and angels worshiped him when he was poisoned up in the orchard. And, they could not make Mike do anything as it was with the other man. Instead, Mike made them serve him. In return he promised to adopt them as his children. They liked it and almost never bothered Mike afterwards. So, it was only natural to give the immortality to suffer and to burn all the dead souls and spirits in his body as a Lake of Fire, to genetically adopt them. So, Mike needed many girls for that and an idea of a predestinated only one girl as his future wife was a stupid and incompetent one. And, the girls know who has the kids in his loins, they go to the witches and fortunetellers just to know how to get the kids, the kids are the most precious goods in the universe. So, by an agreement with the world of the dead, which was the hell on the earth, Mike was doomed to have a harem. It was his predestinated second half.

I wish that it should make a sausage out of you

There is short story for the kids written by a Russian writer. That’s rather a fairy tale. It’s about a girl who found a flower of seven petals that were of seven different colors. A fairy told her that when she would tear off a petal she could have a desire to be accomplished by the magic power of the rainbow flower. So, the girl ordered and cancelled three desires of hers having spent six petals. Only one petal was left. Suddenly, she saw a boy in a wheel chair. And, taken by the conscientiousness she made a desire that the boy was healed. The boy was healed and left the wheel chair and they played together.
But, in reality the story turned out the other way. Once Mike met Inna and some other girls that played with eight petals garden flowers. Inna pretended to have a seven-petal flower ripping off and hiding a petal. She called Mike.
‘Boy, come here. I will have magic upon you.’ Invited Inna.
Mike approached the girl. Inna in her turn got into a mood of a capricious girl that made grimaces and played pranks. She tore off a petal.
‘I wish that it should make a pancake out of me,’ ordered Inna. ‘Vow, how it makes a pancake out of me, oh, a pancake…I don’t want that it should make a pancake out of me.’ Said Inna and tore off the second petal.
She kept silence as if a spell of bliss was upon her. Then she ripped off the third petal.
‘I wish that it should make an opened bottle of soda out of me.’ Ordered Inna. ‘Oh, how it makes a bubbling bottle of soda out of me, oh…I wish not that I should be made a bubbling bottle of the soda myself.’ She tore off the fourth petal and tried to show a complete satisfaction all over her soul and to conserve a boost of the energy of the bubbles that stopped going out.
Inna kept serious a bit looking at the magic flower. Then, she took off the fifth petal.
‘I wish that it should make a sausage out of me,’ ordered Inna and showed a languor of being made a sausage: a pleasure that could be stayed only for a moment because of its depth. She picked off the sixth petal and said, ‘I want that it stopped making a sausage out of me.’
She breathed deeply and showed a relaxation of stopping being made a sausage. Then, she abruptly tore the last seventh petal.
‘I wish that it should make a sausage out of you!’ Ordered she to Mike and spat upon his face throwing at him the remnant of the flower with a soft blow of the girlish hand.

A country morning

The first beams of the summer morning sun streamed into the chamber through the windows that looked east. The twilight still ruled in the orchard shadowed over by the house itself. It was ready to gradually give way to the go of the sunshine that would change from warming up in the cool of the first hours and minutes of the day into the scorching heat of the afternoon. The earth was yet drunken with the dew by the token of which the night bade its farewell though not forever.
The early birds got bolder chirruping in their triumph over the retreating power of the darkness. They preferred the art of songs to the business of taking up the worms. The worms did not yet hide their tender bodies into the soil and grumbled against this necessity to make moves engendered by the presence of the light. Still, they realized it was about the time to make it toward their common resort – the land.
The first sounds of the human activity began to destroy the idyllic symphony of the nature. The gates of the village creaked signifying that the people were busy with their work. The dogs stopped being suspicious and barked only occasionally taking rest before the day shift when unexpected visits of the neighbors would disturb them from the slumber of the midday heat and oblige to show they were angry with them. The cows lowed somewhere in the distance under the cracks of the shepherd’s whip, anticipating a good meal of the grass of the land. They were somewhat in a worry to make it faster to the pasture to eat enough before the sleepy hours of the afternoon.
For the adults, the day was already in advance. But Mickey was still wondering how the twilight and sunrise were able to make an agreement and share the first moments of the morning. The open window that was most to the right side on the eastern wall of the house gave the gay beams of the sun that played on the floor making an offensive toward the bed. It also let in the sounds of the herd of the cows that left the village upon and across the road. There the trucks and cars should wait for these queens of the field to make it faster, not giving up a chance if there was one to dart through the cow mass when it got scarce. The most left window looking to the north gave view on a big wild apple tree that overshadowed the whole part of the orchard close to the wall of the house. It preserved by the sight, which it opened the impression of the night calmness that hid under the tree branches clad with thick gown of the leaves.
The grandmother got into the house that endued its hall with dinner room obligations. She bustled in the kitchen to make the breakfast and serve the table.
Mike called to her, ‘Granny… I’m awakened.’
This seemed important for him to inform her of. Everybody seemed to take care of him at that time. All he needed was to open his mouth to be fed. However, he considered it rather a duty of his own, on account that sometimes it was hard to chew what they put into. Little time passed since the period when the bits were not measured by Mike himself, but his mommy or granny. So, if he could not chew then, it was not his fault. All the same, when the time of the capability to bite off the bits from the main parcel came, it only added responsibility. Sometimes, it was hard to eat, because he did not choose what to. Still, when the moment from which the choices began to be made came, it added again even more of responsibility. What was sweet was sometimes measured in its own turn, but now not by bits, but volumes, or even prohibited at all. What was advised as healthy and nourishing seemed to be stale of any taste at all, and it was a pity that the privilege of being fed measured again by the stomach capacity was wasted on such more than merely simple things like porridge or potato mash, rather stuffing. Still some power to make a choice remained, and it did not linger to bring about the notion of guilt, especially for unauthorized access to the some tit-bits. He could not yet to be fed on his own. For example, to eat only the sweets until he felt sick, or to be nourished just by healthy and wholesome food getting a kind of self-esteem out of this asceticism. However, he could already be called a person with his own duties and rights, not to forget again about responsibility. Anyhow, the life of any man is like this owing to that everybody seems to be controlled and rebuked by somebody else. Yet, he was a child, in that might not understand why the grown up ladies and gentlemen used their power to make choices to drink bitter things which they also got sick of the way only a big bunch of sweets eaten up on a empty stomach could bring about. It seemed to him to be a paradox, whose solution laid in growing up and becoming an adult in his own turn.
On a question why, his daddy said namely this, ‘Grow up and live like mine own, and you’ll understand why I drink this bitter thing till getting sick”.
And, still it seemed to Mike to be a show of honesty just to declare frankly as he did that he was awakened from the saving hours of dreams to take what was prepared for him of his granny, and not to hide in the bedclothes, playing opossum.
‘That’s the time already,’ the grandmother said, ‘Take on your clothes and get up.’
Mike stood up and took on his stockings, as it was the manner of the time for little boys. They really sapped the feeling of male superiority and special status, and were the source of many scandals between him and his parents and also among the children themselves. They seemed to Mike to be the dying off rudiment of the past, of his own and humanity as a whole. For a boy it is always an insult to be called to be like a girl. And, these stockings put him in obvious danger of it. Then, he took on his shorts. Another dubious thing that made him inferior to his older cousins, who wore trousers. The shorts made an exhibition of the stockings. He also took on his shirt. Then, he looked upon his cap. It was a piece of wardrobe that made him look like an adult, even in a military way. It had a red military star in the front of it, above the visor. It compensated in a way the deficiencies of his other clothes. He took it on not only when it was necessary because of the sunshine heat, but also all day long. It underlined his male status – girls do not wear the caps like this.
‘Granny, can I get out on the porch for a moment as you have not made the meals yet,’ asked the boy.
‘Yes, but do not go far,’ permitted the old woman.
Mike went out on the sunlit porch. It faced southeast. That is why the sun always made it cozy and a good place for to play toy soldiers and cars. But, now he just sat on the steps like it was the custom in their household. He looked upon the courtyard the farther part of which was grown up with raspberry bush that by its last flowers and already shaped up green small berries promised a good harvest and regale provided the ox would not be muzzled. The raspberry bush was protected from the sunlight by a sauna, summer kitchen and a farmyard cabin making in a whole a semblance of a prolonged barrack. The cool of the night still breathed under the leaves. The bees began to fly over and upon close by the bushes of wild rose. The penthouse to the right was beginning to give its smells of dust that covered innumerable things of no urgent need. Like granddaddy’s motor bike, which he rode on only for special occasions - in hay collecting season, to make up the birch tender-leafed branch bunches for sauna or to pick up mushrooms. The other more old motorbike which the granddaddy used when more young, was hid under the tarpaulin cover whitened by dust. An accurately stocked heap of bricks that lay over there under the penthouse from the days of old, contained strange ancient ones with seals that modern bricks did not have. But, he saw the things under the penthouse only with his mind’s eye, because they all were hidden from his sight by the overall planks little wooden wall as high as he himself was. Further right, around the penthouse was the rest of the farmyard with a small corral, where the cows passed the warm part of the year. Further on, almost directly to the west was their land lot, where they grew potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, carrots, beans and other vegetables Mike knew and might tell one from another. Mike contemplated his world, which was not big yet and grew in size gradually as he grew up himself to understand more and see wider.
The granddaddy appeared and took the steps of the porch. ‘Seems the granny prepared us a breakfast,’ said the old man.
‘Seems it’s ready, look if ‘tis so,’ answered Mike. Grandfather entered the veranda and then the hall. No voices of him and granny were heard. It was not the manner to take meals without the granddaddy. But, now Mike waited for the breakfast itself to be completely prepared and served on the hall table. The flies hummed and hovered around more intensively making it understood the day was taking strength. The granny called in.

A friend that was not chosen

Once, when Mike and his grandparents were at the dinner table, the grandma said, ‘You know what Mike? I have found you a friend, his name’s Sam. He lives over there further by our street with his granddaddy and grandma.’
‘He’s as old as me?’ questioned Mike.
‘No, he’s a bit older than you, a year or so,’ answered the old woman.
It was good news for Mike. However he was a self-efficient child. In the age, when the children only began to long for playmates. He already knew how it was lonely to sit on the sand with the toy pails and spade. Near a wooden bench gray colored by the years of sunshine and wind, in front of the house. And, to look on the far away road beyond the square field compassed by streets, for a cousin to arrive in his parents’ car.
The boy turned out to be a smart and snappy one like you should not put a finger in the mouth. First, he wanted Mike to go through a flock of geese. He tempted him and showed there would have been no harm. But, was bitten himself by a goose upon a leg. Then, he tried to persuade Mike to measure with his rubber boots the depth of a small river. It defined the curve of the street. The river lay behind the land lots to the direction of the main street of the village, at a distance of about three hundred feet. The river was stale of its forces and runless. It let its bottom to be covered with silt. Mike understood it well that the depth was not like it seems to be. A test with a withered branch of poplar tree showed it clearly. But, Sam was sure that Mike should be more stupid than he was himself, in that the last was younger. Thus, he tried to persuade Mike by taking avail of the accusations that the younger boy was simply a coward. As well as it should have been apprehended Mike got a boot full of water. Still, Sam edged on Mike to go further falsely predicting the depth to get less. After all, Sam lost his temper being rebuked by Mike in the lack of courage in his turn. He made a ride on his small two-wheeled bike, which was a token of its own of being grown-up. He did it from a steep a dozen feet thirty degrees’ angled bank into the river to end up wallowing in the mud attempting to pull out his bike from the silt and dirt. The play day was surely over for him. It evidenced well that Sam was yet not old enough and advanced in age to make jokes on Mike.
Next day, Sam made himself abhorrent for Mike from just merely dangerous. He did it by his act of throwing a puppy into the muddy water of the small runless river, from a bridge made of wooden planks. After this he threw over the struggling little dog an old washbasin, whose bottom was holed up and eaten by rust.
To Mike’s reprehensions Sam just responded, ‘Tis my own puppy my granny gave to me. I’m gonna make what I want with ‘im.’
Mike knew that for a country boy a puppy is not of the same value as for a town boy, who can be in the village only on vacation. In town such a pet would be a treasure. But, even here in the village it would be quite an opportunity to play with a puppy till it is not grown up into a dog.
Maybe, it was just a small grown up dog? Why then it did not bite in revenge? As they say small dog is a puppy all its life referring ordinarily to little ladies that play it young. Ordinarily, they take the same advantage of their size as a small dog does. Really, they don’t commonly put small dogs on a chain. Such ones just hang around in the courtyard or even house. Often play with children, being fed with sweets and what is more tasty. Little ladies sometimes bring about the same kind of exaltation, being capricious. They state it, not without reason, that they are not created for hard work and duties, but amusement and fun. But, Sam perverted the natural course of the affairs.
From this time on, it became even harder for Mike to find common language with Sam. Eventually, this puckish thing Sam was in his very nature, threw from above a big stone upon the front of Mike’s shank when the last got into a pit dug up by an excavator, that seemed to be a great one for the boy. Then, Sam fled home leaving Mike in the pit. This way first part of their friendship ended in a few days.
Mike felt sick from pain. The nausea seemed to take over all his existence and senses but for the acute shin pain. Anyhow, he had enough courage to get home, and entering the house climbed upon the bench near the brick wall of the stove. Mike was afraid that his mother would worry over his trauma and even weep. So, he did not weep himself not to show up his trouble knowing it was serious. But, when the granny asked him why he sat over the bench suspecting something bad and Mike could not stand up on his leg because of the pain, he realized he was cornered and went on tears. This way he got into the hospital.

A cup of water

Mike got into the hospital in that his friend Sam threw a stone upon the front of his shank.
Mike loved to be lame while walking, after the pain seemed to have gone away. It was easy for him to presume he was a soldier wounded in the battle that licked up his wounds in these here boon-docks. Lame walk imposed respect like he had himself toward old men that mostly limped. This wound added him nobleness and importance.
Almost all hospital rooms were filled up with adult patients. So, Mike had little choice whom to pass his time with. He would not call it “to play with”, in that it would be impossible to name this way the dull presence in the company of the grown-up people whose interests and talks were more than boring for a little boy. Still, there had been some fun of new impressions.
Once a boy about Mike’s age without any signs of being sick peeped into the open door of his chamber. After some verbal measuring of forces, he said his dad was the boss around here and that he would ask him to cut off Mike’s wounded leg, as it is the custom of the boys to bring about the reference of their fathers as the last resort and argument.
In the hospital he sojourned with his mom, who often left him alone in the chamber, where there was their bed. Here few other women passed the time of sickness. One of them once asked Mickey to give her a cup of water, owing she was not able to make it on her own to the faucet, being freshly operated on. She got a guts turn-around as his mom said, and had a scar across her belly. The surgeons did not let her drink. Mike was persuaded by the thirsty woman that it was an evil decision of the doctors not to give her drink. He wanted to commit a good deed. He always knew that a cup of water meant much. About bad people they said, ‘This one would not give a cup of water.’ So, he got a cup full of water and was ready to give this unauthorized grace to the poor woman, not understanding that it could wind up to be the last one to be delivered to her. An older lady began to protest against this decision asserting, not without reason, that the first one might die because of it. Mike had watched some movies about war when the wounded soldiers asked to drink fresh water and were given. It was all he knew before it about the relationship between wounded ones and cool water. But, the woman with a scar upon the belly promised to drink just a little and not to die at all. Mike stood near her bed, which he had ducked up to. He held in his hands a cup filled with water and hearkened to the arguments of the thirsty woman that solicited him to do this important act of kindness notwithstanding all risks involved. After all, the older lady, who was also bidden to stay in bed for the same reasons got up and took the cup out of Mike’s hand.
But, the next day, the old woman that forbade Mike severely to give the cup of fresh water to the middle aged woman with a scar on the belly, said it was Ok now if Mike wanted to do what he had intended yesterday. She filled the third part of the cup with some cooled boiled water mixed up with a little of the mountain cranberries jam, and gave it to the boy. Mike approached the woman, who was athirst. The old woman helped Mike to put the cup against the lips of the patient. And, he gave her drink like they do with sick chickens. Mike was happy he gave his cup of water.

The girl in the hospital

Mike was in the hospital. They took his blood from the left arm vein.
‘That’s to cure the girls,’ announced Mike.
‘Yea, we know,’ said the nurse.
Mike wanted to see the girls whom he would suffer for. Seemed that all counted Mike already a dead man. They looked at him as at an apparition. He went into the section where there were the girls with their moms. Mike went into a room. There were two mothers and two girls. One was a baby. The other was about two years younger than Mike. Mike looked into the small bed. There lay a girl with beautiful dark eyes.
‘Can I marry your girl when I’m grown up?’ asked Mike. ‘I don’t know, Mike, it all depends on her.’ Answered her mom. ‘But, you know she likes a boy named Jack. She was in a perambulator and he built her the eyes. And, she also liked the other boys.’
‘I can buy her off you,’ Mike said.
‘Look at this slave trader, he’ll buy this girl,’ said the woman with the baby girl in her hands. ‘Those times are over, now the women are free to choose what they want. I was a virgin when my husband took me, and what’s of it. He cheats on me every day. This girl should better decide herself what she wants. If she wants to have many boys that’s her choice. Don’t interfere.’
‘I’ve seen the angels and they said they’d be my wives and your daughter was among them; they were four.’ Mike tried to explain.
‘Mike, ask the angels a new flat for us and a cottage on the board of the river,’ suddenly asked the woman. ‘Whether you don’t want our girl not to be poor and have a free choice.’
‘Why do you know my name?’ asked Mike.
‘Mike, all know your name. I’m a fool you know it. ‘Tis because my daughter is sick. They also heal me with your blood. Please promise me I’ll get healed.’ The woman begged.
‘You will, but the girl…’ barely said Mike.
‘Mike, take her with her bowels, but promise she will not rot and die,’ she asked.
‘I promise, but you should take this five kopeck coin in the token she’s mine,’ said Mike.
She took the coin.
‘And, what about the angels, Mike? You ask them,’ insisted the woman.
‘I’ll ask of the God, the angels are bad,’ said Mike.
‘What are the angels, Mike, the people with epaulets?’ asked the woman.
‘Nope,’ said Mike, ‘they were in pale gowns. They were cheaters.’
The woman began to weep, ‘Mike, don’t die. Who’ll marry my daughter if you die? You’re her husband. You should live and bear me the grandchildren, isn’t it so, Mike?’
‘Yea, sure, but simply don’t let her marry another man. I cannot marry till twenty-three years old. She should wait.’ Said Mike.
‘I cannot promise for her, Mike. That’s her choice. She cannot wait so long, and if you die.’ Here she put a hand on her mouth.
‘I won’t die, simply she should wait,’ said Mike and went out the door.

Jewess

Mike met a girl on the recreation island. She was in the perambulator, however she was rather big. She had swollen legs in the lower parts. She was bald. Mike approached himself to her.
‘What’s your name,’ he asked.
‘I won’t tell you. It will be no good. I’m an ugly girl. Nobody loves me.’ She said.
‘You’re just sick. You’ll recover and be healthy and beautiful. I’m the God’s prophet. Do you want that I took your curse on me. And, then you’ll decide do you want to get married on me or not.’ Mike told.
‘I agree,’ she answered.
‘Are you Gypsy or Jewish, or somebody else?’ Mike inquired.
‘I don’t know,’ she answered.
‘Then, you’ll be a Jewess,’ Mike said. ‘I see a vision: you are young and beautiful and you have accurate brown feet in beautiful shoes. We meet here on the stadium during a singing festival.’ Mike said.
‘Please show it to me,’ she begged.
Mike showed her. She began to weep.
‘You’re with a beautiful girl, but I’m more beautiful. Why you chose her?’ the girl cried out.
‘Simply, she’s also sick,’ Mike said.
Her parents, who watched the scene, first with a kind of shame, got an interest in it. The woman began to drop her tears on the asphalt lane. She lifted her hands to her eyes. The girl in the perambulator took a small hand glass. She looked at.
‘I’m not this beautiful now. I have strong black hair in your vision. When I’ll get them?’ she asked.
‘Soon, don’t worry, it will be soon. Good-bye,’ Mike looked at her and went backwards cheerfully.

Foreign singer

Mike was four. He played in the hostel vestibule. He saw a young woman stand near the wall. Mike knew why she was sorrowful. They said that a policeman that was the deputy of the town sheriff had raped her and they did not want to take her for a good work and nobody would want to marry her also. They said she had the poison for the rats and wanted to commit a suicide. Mike went up to her.
‘Give me your poison. I’ll take it instead of you to take the curse off you. I’ll kill that policeman that offended you.’ Mike proposed.
‘Kill ‘im. I’ll give you a golden kirby-grip… He should come here today. I wanted to kill myself not to see him one more time.’ She said and took a yellow metal kirby-grip off her hair.
‘You should also give me your poison for me to be sure you will not kill yourself.’ Mike said.
She gave him a capsule with the poison. Mike went outdoors and sat on a small concrete block near the building. He took the granules of the poison and put them into his mouth one by one. He felt as though the blood was about to come out of his nose and the noise zoomed in his ears.
‘You cub, what she said to me about that you threatened me?’ The man in the blue uniform asked very loud from Mike.
Mike took the needle of the kirby-grip into his mouth and made the poisonous saliva moist the metal.
‘I’m gonna kill you sticking that poisoned needle into you.’ Mike warned.
The man laughed and approached his finger to the boy, ‘Stick it into my finger if you say it’s poisonous because you ate the poison.’
Mike left more saliva on the needle and stuck it into the finger of the policeman. The man went away a few steps and fell on the ground. Mike went up to the body of the dead man and took his gun out of the holster. Then, he went to the hostel room and hid the gun in the box for his toys.
After some time, the pair of young Armenian men who repaired the electric wires in hostel took shower in the hostel shower room. Mike knew it was not according to the rules because it was the female hostel. He took the gun and entered into the shower room.
‘You Armenians, bitches, why you wash yourself in the shower room for the girls? Go out of here or I’m gonna shoot you down with the gun.’ Mike warned.
‘You’re gonna kill us with that toy,’ one of them said and laughed.
Mike pulled the trigger and a bullet shot into the tiles of the opposite wall.
‘You forgot about my grand-grandfather Nicolas Nagibin who fought on the Turk front?’ Mike asked.
One of the young men washed the soap off his eyes and looking at the boy said, ‘We know your grand-granddad. Who does not know your grand-granddad in Armenia. You say he fought on the Turk front? That’s your father’s gun?’
‘No, that’s my own. It’s a trophy.’ Mike answered.
That way the quarrel got stale. After some time the police arrived and asked for Mike’s parents to come out of the rooms into the hall. They looked in the box for Mike’s toys and took out the gun. After that a policeman asked for the yellow kirby-grip Mike played with on the steps in the hostel vestibule. Mike knew it was to prove the guilt of that young woman.
‘I’m gonna stick that needle into your flesh and you’ll also die if you approach me.’ Mike warned.
After some senseless talk that policeman had to go away. Then, already after Mike’s family got the flat in the house near the restaurant, the boys said a foreign singer arrived and asked for Mike to come to him. Mike came to the place. The talk began.
‘Why you killed the sheriff?’ the man asked.
‘It’s because he raped a young woman,’ Mike replied.
‘The policemen ordered the death of my friend to the venal Mafiosi. They sold him a poisoned drug. It’s because he sang a song about a young man who shot the sheriff. They said it influenced the level of murders of the policemen. I want to sing it also to revenge for the death of my friend. They say you also have the unsettled scores with the police.’ The singer asked.
‘Yea,’ Mike consented, ‘they killed my granddaddy John.’ An idea suddenly visited Mike’s head. ‘Let’s become the alleys and unite to struggle against the bad policemen.’
‘Yea, let’s become the alleys,’ the foreign singer accepted with a smile.

The honor of the family

Mike ate the pills with the military vaccines instead of his father. They said that his father should have done it because he had slept with the wife of a regional party secretary. But, Mike knew it had been all planned by the KGB and the woman just seduced the dad specially. Then, three gangsters arrived to the college campus and stood near the hostel where Mike lived. Their nicknames were Butthead, Ace and Valet. They said they were going to rape Mike’s mother to make her pay for the family debts. It was already after Mike killed the policeman, his first murder. A KBG officer came to the hostel and approached Mike.
‘Gave it to your mother,’ the man said and gave a small glass vessel with the white powder to Mike.
‘What’s it?’ Mike asked.
‘It’s a special poison we have in KGB. She will first experience the bliss as from a strong drug and then die. Give it to her if you want to save her from what should happen to her.’ He proposed.
Mike took the glass vessel.
‘You will give it to your mother?’ the man asked again.
‘You’ll know what I will do with that.’ Mike promised.
The man left the hostel. Mike went to the room and took the deep blue plasticine out of his toys box. He made a kind of pancake out of it and poured the white powder of the poison onto the plasticine pancake. After that he carefully wrapped the white powder into the plasticine and made a ball. He hid the ball in the pocket of his shorts. He took a knife. The girls from the hostel put him into the baby carriage for the bigger children that was made so as to allow the boy to sit in it like an armchair. When the gangsters arrived, the talk started.
‘You’ve came here on a pram and you threaten me with a death, you stupid baby?’ The Butthead as the head of the band demanded.
‘I came to the appointment on a vehicle. I’m gonna pass a curse on you with that plasticine ball,’ Mike warned. ‘If you take that plasticine ball and knead it you will die.’
The man took the ball and kneaded it in his hand, ‘You are glad? Let’s see if I die. Can I keep that ball?’
‘Yea,’ Mike said. ‘But only you will die.’
The man laughed. He went away and kneaded the ball. After the poison began to act as the drug he offered to the other gangsters to have their try in kneading the ball. They laughed and joked it could be the magic really. Then, Butthead began to feel bad. He approached Mike. Mike took the knife into his hand.
‘What kind of the poison is it?’ He asked Mike.
The young women bawled in a chorus and tried to chase the gangster away.
‘I’m gonna kick you and smash on the wall,’ the gangster said to Mike.
He kicked first with one foot then with another, but both times Mike cut his legs with the sharp blade of the knife. At that moment, the other two bandits doubled in agony. The gangster went away. The young women left the place when they saw it was a murder. The Butthead went round the building. Mike followed him.
‘Cut me the throat please. Kill me.’ He demanded Mike.
Mike cut off his head and went to the hostel vestibule to play with it. The concierge lady called for the police. Mike pulled the tongue and sinews to look how the head changed its expressions of the countenance.
The policeman entered into the hostel.
‘Boy, give me that thing in your hands.’ He asked.
‘That’s the Butthead,’ Mike said.
‘That’s not the real butthead,’ the policemen said, ‘Give it to me.’
‘No, that’s the real Butthead,’ Mike objected and pulled on the tongue.
The policeman vomited his breakfast out.

Party secretary

Mike was four years old when he heard that a regional party secretary would come for his female relative that lived in the hostel to take her into a trip she did not wish coming to. They even said that she would be raped for some family debts and the mob was involved into it. Mike was very small and he could not go to the other city to have a talk with the gangsters or other people who insisted on that against the will of the young woman. But, he might save her from the imminent threat, from the regional party secretary. Mike took the hunting shotgun that his father inherited after his own dad and brought it on the platform of the vestibule. When the man appeared Mike drew the gun upon him.
‘Go away accursed Philistine or I will shoot off your fingers. That’s my hostel and I myself decided there whom to give to be married and whom not.’ Mike threatened.
But, on the man it made little impression. He moved one more step. Mike shot and the buckshot tore off the fingers on the left hand of the party secretary. Mike threatened another shot into the balls of the party secretary. The man was shocked by the pain and was indignant at what happened.
‘What a hooligan! What a hooligan family? They are all like you in your family.’ The man said very loud.
Still, he had to go away and the girl from the hostel conserved her independence. Then, when he got into the police office they asked him about that event in a half serious half jocular way. Two years after it his own brother and cousins threatened to cut off his own fingers with an ax because of that and beat him severely.

Archangel Michael

Gray geese and ducks waddled off in the dirty yard.
‘You say you want to forbear from marriage and carry on yourself the sickness of the girls you said you loved?’ asked the old man with a gray beard from small boy Michael that walked beside him and stretched up his neck for the head to reach higher to seem older.
‘Yes, that’s that they did not be sick and be harlots,’ said Michael. ‘I will fast and I train myself now in pissing and the other wants.’
‘So, you say that you will keep without women for much time? Even the soldiers cannot stand it and asked that they killed them when they are tied up to the beds in the army.’ Said the old man. ‘Do you want that we try your strength of will? You said you smoked the grass with those students. Ok, we’ll try it. I’ll help you to train your strength of will.’ Said old Muslim Gypsy man.
Then, when they were near Mike’s grandparents’ house, the old man gave him a briquette of brown pasta as small as a candy. Mike ate it.
‘Say nobody that I gave it to you,’ warned the old Muslim Gypsy man.
Mike left the man and went into the home. He felt a bliss and happiness. He even did not want to laugh due he felt so deeply good. It seemed that he hovered above the ground instead of touching it by feet. He looked to the sun and the clouds and it was so beautiful that it was strange how he had not noticed it earlier. So, he rambled for an hour, after which he came home to the bed and fell asleep.
When he awoke, he felt as though all the spell of the eaten briquette was gone. He went out as it was arranged with the old man with the gray beard.
‘Do you want it again?’ asked the old man.
Mike wanted in his soul to come again in the dream world of the bliss, but he said, ‘No, I have the strength of the will.’
‘You are a really good boy, Mike. I wish you should get through your abstinence and become a shahid. Do you want to be a shahid, Michael?’ Asked the old man.
‘Yes,’ Mike replied.
The next day, the old Muslim Gypsy man went to Mike’s grandparents as a neighbor and talked with the granddad Peter on religion and Islam. They talked much sitting at the table in the hall while Mike played with his toy soldiers on the floor.
‘But, you say me clearly who is this Archangel Michael,’ asked the granddad Peter with putting in much of questioning intonation as he used to do playing a bit as an actor.
‘That’s the God Himself, the Father of the Prophet Isa who was hanged on a cross. He’ll come to the land and win the battle with antichrist.’ Explained the old Muslim.
Mike wanted very much to be this Messiah, Archangel Michael, to have the power to destroy all evil and harm on the earth. It seemed a pity to him that Jesus who also called Himself the Lord allowed crucifying Himself. Mike knew that he would instead fight and destroy his enemies if he were god. Mike dreamed that he would turn out to be this Messiah when he would grow old enough.
When the old Gypsy went out, Mike asked him, ‘Could you anoint me to be a prophet?’
The old man laughed, ‘I don’t have the oil this time with me, but if I happen to be near you with enough oil I’ll pour on you a whole bucket of it that you was very great a prophet.’
Then, he bid farewell and came to his house rented in the neighborhood.
But, Michael always thought on this possibility to be the Archangel Michael. To destroy all the evil and wicked men and women.
He even said once to his mother, ‘Mom, I will become the Archangel Michael when I’m grown up.’
But, he paid bitterly for these words some time later.
On the encounter with Tina, Inna and Julia, the girls cried accusations to Mike, ‘We know what you told your mom, that you’re the Archangel Michael, God the Father. You kill the children and wound men to be cripples! That’s all the evil because of you. You’re a bloody killer! You killed your own son Jesus because of jealousy. You could not share the power with him. You are evil because you make the evil. You are crazy. You are the trinity. You don’t know yourself whether you are the Son, or the Father, or the Holy Spirit. That’s why you are crazy and do the wicked things. You will go crazy when you’ll grow up, because you will not know who you are…’ With these words, they punched Mike and threw the dust and the bits of dry pressed earth upon Mike, trying to hit mostly the face.


Conversation

The Tadjik old man told Mike that his son wanted to murder his own daughter because she was sick. Her name was Catherine. Her mother was a Russian woman. The old man said that his son lost his daughter Catherine in a card game. He put her life on the card and lost. He wanted to film a movie on the video because he thought his small daughter played a harlot seeking for anybody with a good immunity to survive. The old man tried to persuade his son to change his opinion, but he said that now there was the only one choice, between his own life and the life of his sick daughter. His brothers and brothers-in-law held their opinion for the same: the girl should die.
‘I’m gonna defend her and kill her father and uncles,’ Mike firmly said to the old Tadjik that sat near him on a wooden bench.
‘But, why you just do not tell it to the KGB? They say you’ve got the good relations with them.’ The old man said.
‘That’s my own business. They cannot control it if a father wants to kill his own daughter. And, you say he’s a thief-in-law?’ Mike asked.
‘Yea, first I was a thief-in-law. Now, he is a thief-in-law. I bought him that status. Still, they’ve got the guns and a machinegun. How will you kill them all? Where you might get the weapons?’ The old man doubted.
‘I’ll do it by a sudden and quick attack with a razor blade,’ Mike assured.
‘No,’ the old Muslim said, ‘That’s a bad idea. Whether it is not better just not to resist the evil and let her die as your Christ teaches? You’ll be a rich man according to what you said about your future. Whether it is not better just to weep over her dead soul and build a church in her name when you’ll earn your money?’
Mike felt indignation because the old man derided him and his faith, ‘There’s no choice for me but to defend her as if she was the dame of my heart. It’s like as if I was a knight. And, I could not be a noble man if I was not a knight and acted accordingly.’
‘But whether the life of a sick girl that will die the same because she’s addicted to the heroine by her father is worth the life of ten adult men?’ The old man demanded.
‘That was their choice. And, I’ll heal her the way I know. I’ve already healed a girl that way.’ Mike responded.
‘But, you just tell to the KGB and they’ll investigate,’ the old Muslim proposed.
‘That’s no good, he already said what he said, that whether he dies with the rest or that girl without any alternative for her. He should respond for his words or else I would have no possibility to defend her if I apply to the KGB when he would want to revenge that to her and you that you’ve told me that. They will not believe just words in the KGB. The words are material also and they influence our life because they are filled with the sense. So, there can be the cases when there’s no choice.’ Mike replied.
The old man moved his hand up and down to show he was skeptical to what Mike said, ‘I did not know you were so obstinate. You’re just throw the words to the wind.’
He went away. Two years afterwards, Mike made his words true and killed the Tadjik gangsters in a fight near the kindergarten where they came to make a kind of a bad actor of him. They began to film him on a video camera to bring the intrigue to their movie they wanted to sell afterwards. Then, when Mike was an adult he could remember how much he killed the gangsters for the sake of the honor and life of the women including his mother once. But, he did not remember how many he killed due he always smoked much of drugs for the sake that the microbes in the human blood spilled by him did not infect him. He also did smoke for doping. After all that, he could not recall precisely what he did. He turned crazy finally when the ganja adding to a year of the complete sexual forbearance made the thoughts of his head mix in a mess of delirium.


A man in the hat

The last sunbeams of the Indian summer played on the yard of the kindergarten among the trees. Mike saw as a lean man with black moustache and a hat on his head pushed the metal gates of the railings and entered in. Mike stopped feeling that the man came for him as the men from the distant places sometimes came to him to ask about the future. Katherine also stopped waiting for Mike as a good obedient cow would do. The man approached Mike and Katherine.
‘Where’s the boy whose name is Mike that visits this kindergarten?’ he inquired.
‘I am he,’ said Mike.
The man with the hat kept silence for a moment.
‘Why you lead this girl with that stick in your hand?’ he asked.
‘I took her captive, and she will be my wife,’ Mike explained.
‘And, she consented?’ asked the man with the moustache.
‘I said I took her a captive,’ Mike repeated.
‘Ok, Mike. I’m on business to you. You’d better let your captive come somewhere else to play. For example, with other girls.’ Proposed the man.
‘Kate, go to the other girls,’ said Michael.
Kate went off hardly able to conceal her curiosity. Then she stood still in a distance of ten yards and tried to take a position to eavesdrop the conversation ahead.
‘Girl, you better go and play somewhere else, farther from here. Please go play to some other place.’ Said the man.
Kate went to the door of the kindergarten building that was another ten yards further. But, at that moment the other girls went from the playing lot and added to her to stand on the porch. They whispered to one another’s ears and looked at Mike and his guest.
‘Michael, I am from a far land, and they said to me that you tell the future because Allah says to you what to answer to the people. And, you should know that I sinned much against Allah. I am a military officer and I was in the war with my own fellow Muslims. Many people died because of me. And, I want to know what punishment Allah has prepared to me, and what way I could atone my guilt and redeem my sins. Say me, Michael because they say you’re the prophet of the Lord. Whether Allah is not your Lord?’ Asked the man.
‘The Lord is my God. You only call Him Allah. I will ask the God about you.’ Mike promised.
Then, he began to pray in his heart, ‘Lord what should I say to that man and what is your answer to him?’
‘Say to him that he will be a king of his nation and wage a war against the Russian shoulder to shoulder with those whom the Russian ordered him to fight, and he will die the same way as he devised the Muslims to die in the far land.’ Answered the Lord God to Michael.
‘The Lord said that you will be a king of your nation and fight against the Russian along with those with whom the Russian ordered you to fight and you will die the way you devised the people in the far land to die that were the Muslims. That’s the punishment of the Lord.’ Mike repeated to the man what the God said.
The man kept silence for a moment, then he said, ‘Thank you, Michael. That’s what I wanted to know… We’ll you come some time to our land?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Mike, ‘I’ll try.’
The man approached Mike and leaned forward to shake Mike's hand.
He shook hands with Mike and said, ‘Goodbye, Michael, try best to come to our land.’
He turned and came away.
Then, two other young men came to Michael. One was a foreign student and the other from the same country as the man with the hat and moustache. Mike also said to them what the Lord ordered to him. That they would fight with Russian and be the chief men.

Chicken

Michael and his cousin Jim looked down at the small yellow chicken that basked on the floor under an electric lamp.
‘Let’s take a chicken and break him the bill,’ Jim offered.
‘No, that’s a bad thought,’ Mike said.
‘Don’t be a sissy. Let’s have the fun,’ Jim insisted.
‘If you do it I’ll tell the grandma Mary about it,’ Mike warned.
‘Ok, let’s go home then,’ Jim said.
They went home along the gray wooden planks of the lane. Then, the boys entered the veranda. Here, Jim stopped to tell something.
‘I’ll do it the same when I’m alone and say to the grandma Mary a pussycat did it,’ Jim said. ‘Or, I better say that’s your job. All know you’re crazy.’
‘If you try to hurt the chicken I’ll beat your muzzle!’ Mike had the courage to say though he was two years younger.
‘You, bitch!’ Jim cussed and grabbed Mike.
Mike beat him into the belly with the fist of his right hand. Jim breathed out and beat Mike into the face. Mike tried to trip Jim down but Jim was stronger and began to strangle Mike pressing him against the wall. Mike also stretched his hands and grabbed the throat of Jim. The struggle lasted for about twenty seconds. Then, Mike kicked Jim and made him unclench his hands off his throat. After that, he pushed Jim and the cousin flew three feet towards the opposite wall. There, he hit the can with the poppy-seeds and made it fall to make the contents pour on the floor. The grandma Mary ran out of the house to the noise.
‘What’s the matter? Why you fight with each other?’ she asked.
‘He wanted to break the bill to a chicken and say it was the pussycat that did it,’ Mike said.
‘You grandma, do not believe that crazy fool. He thought of the whole thing.’ Jim tried to avoid the responsibility.
‘Let’s come in for a talk, Jim,’ Grandma Mary said.
They came in and closed the door. Mike heard their muffled voices while the grandma Mary rebuked her grandson Jim.


Preaching

Mike’s grandma’s girlfriend Claudia, an old woman, read the Bible to Mike, about David, Solomon, Joseph and other man of God. She also read him with the tears on her eyes how they crucified Jesus. Mike himself was a little boy, so he wanted to be somebody. He wanted to be like David, Solomon, Joseph and others, however he did not want to make the same faults as they did. He did not want to betray the God. The only perfect example of behavior was Jesus Christ himself. Mike wanted to be like Jesus Christ and save the girls she loved from ignoble sickness and fornication as a result of it. He told everybody that he wanted to be a Christian and suffer for the God that the girls he loved were healed by the Almighty. His cousins and brother Nick, who lived the same as he in the village in the grandparents’ house during the vacations, did not like his talk about the God and his girls. He told them much about what he heard from old Claudia.
Once Mike went from the land lot where he was sent by his grandma for a bunch of parsley. On his way to the house, he saw that under the penthouse sat the whole assemble of his cousins. His fair-haired cousin Andrew, the eldest William, the guys, who ended the school already, the youngest Jim and Chuck, two and three years older than Mike, and Mike’s brother Nick.
‘Where’s you going, Mike?’ asked Jim.
Mike did not have time to answer because he was tripped up by his cousin Jim. Mike fell on his belly and felt his bowels struck off. He tried to stand up but Jim and Chuck kicked him on his belly a time each. Mike stood up, but Jim struck him on the nose with his fist. Chuck kicked him on the thigh and pushed. Mike fell on the planks, but the back of his head struck upon the first step of the porch. Chuck kicked once more on Mike’s side. Jim kicked with his sandal on Mike’s face. Mike felt a taste of dust and leather mixed with that salty one of the blood. The boys kicked Mike as much as they wanted until got tired. Then they spat on Mike’s face.
‘Come back,’ said William as the eldest. ‘Don’t touch this beast no longer.’
Jim and Chuck went back under the porch. Mike lay on the planks and first and second step of the porch afraid to stand up.
‘Get up, crap,’ said William.
Mike stood up. Jim and Chuck ran on him and kicked and gave blows with fists. Chuck wrestled him down on the ground with a trip. They spat on Mike again.
‘There’s not enough saliva for you,’ said Chuck.
He took a fistful of soil from the bed and tried to poked into Mike’s lips. But Mike managed to wrestle him over himself. He got over and began to strangle Chuck with his hands. Jim kicked on his liver all the time while Mike tried to strangle Chuck. Mike thought that he was going to strangle Chuck first and then kill Jim. He felt he was about to terminate Chuck, though his liver belabored by Jim’s sandal ached as if they poked a knife into it. Suddenly, Mike felt as a hand grab him by his collar and a violent blow went on his backbone. Still he held Chuck by the throat. The scum began to appear on Chuck’s lips. Mike heard alarmed voices.
‘I cannot get him off,’ cried somebody Mike knew but could not tell at the moment who it was.
Others ran from behind and hauled by the collar of Mike’s sweater to suffocate Mike himself. Somebody pushed on Mike’s right wrist. Mike felt an acute pain. His right hand got weaker and they managed to get it off Chuck’s neck. The left hand slipped itself. Somebody kicked on his liver again. By the force of it, Mike knew it was not Jim. But, he realized it was the same who had struck him on the backbone. Mike flew into the raspberry bush. And got scratched by thorns. Somebody struck with his fist on Mike’s cheekbone. It was Jim again. Mike tried to attack Jim with his fists but the same who had struck his backbone and liver lifted him up with his hand on himself and threw off on the plank that held the raspberry bush. Mike felt as his back struck the plank near the neck. He flew off the plank and struck again with his teeth on the sandy planks of the lane. Jim kicked on his left eye, and Mike felt as a light flashed in the darkness of his left eye while the right was open. All he might see it had been Nick, who struck his backbone and pushed on the narrow plank that held the raspberry bush. Somebody kicked on his right eye and Mike was in the total darkness. He felt how they violently kicked him with as much force as they had. On his head and sides. Somebody stepped on his back and jumped on it. Mike tried to protect himself with his arms bent in the elbows, to cover his temples and sides. But, they tried to pull his arms off his body to kick better. It helped Mike that he was not heavy and flew right and left as they kicked him to spend the impulse of the blows. He tried to open his eyes and stand up but they hailed him down with blows. The liver ached most of all. Unexpectedly, he felt as somebody struck him on his right kidney. Mike could not understand what he felt, pain or nausea. Strangely, but the kidney did not ache much. Though, he felt a strange mixture of interior pain and rum feeling as if something got ripped in his right side. He stopped protecting himself with his arms because of the astonishment that it was possible that something got ripped and hung by itself in his body. All retired under the penthouse. The sun began to hide itself behind the horizon. The twilight was to come. But, it was still about an hour of the evening gray light before the dusk would come. He recalled about the girls he loved and it helped him to cope with the pain. He stood up realizing that he won’t be able to kill anybody tonight. Though he wanted much. The kidney began to ache with a dull pain that though was not so acute as that when he got the blows on his liver, but did not go away, as if was to stay for ever. Mike stood and did not know what to do. He wanted to kill all, but could not. He felt as his fingers began to ache as if somebody pulled them each for an hour. He did not want to show his back. But, he knew that if he would go forward they would strike him again. He did not have the forces to hurt them. He felt as something in his right side tried to draw by some string in his body the other something but could not. Because of it, a tender pain came over along a rib on his back and made a point in the backbone ache strangely as if tugged on it when his heart beat. He could not kill them all because he was a Christian. He felt a forceless pain in his soul much worse than those in his liver and back. The pain in the kidney came off and returned again, dull and pulling. His grandma appeared from the house and went on the lane on Mike. He stepped aside to the right toward the raspberry bush.
‘Beast, nearly strangled my baby,’ said the grandma and went through the gates.
She went to the neighbors to phone for an ambulance. It arrived to take Chuck to the hospital.

Talk

The day over they belabored Mike, his cousins and brother Nick, called him under the porch again.
‘Come over here, the fool,’ said William.
This day Mike decided to be a Christian no matter how they handled him, because it was a sin to render the evil for the evil. He said to all he would act this way. He went toward them all.
‘Mike, you behaved bad yesterday,’ Andrew said, ‘a Christian should not behave himself this way.’
‘Let’s make it again, but that he did not fight back,’ proposed Jim.
‘Yea, Mike,’ said William, ‘Let’s have it again, but this time you don’t kick against.’
Suddenly, Mike felt again this piecing pain in the left side of his belly he had begun to feel in the morning when he had awaked. The pain grew and grew until it seemed that it was impossible to stay it longer. It was as though some big needle was pieced in this point of his body. It brought about a sharp wanting to run fast to stop the growing cutting pain. Mike had tried once to run in a spurt on one place and it had helped. It had been in the morning as he had just awakened. The first time Mike had felt this pain, it seemed that a man should die of such one. But, then it had grown shorter and shorter each time until Mike could stand it without an expression of pain on his face. Now, he felt it again. He stood on one place until the pain was over and then walked toward them.
‘Go again Mike and Jim will trip you,’ said Andrew.
‘It’s no good,’ Mike answered.
‘What do you say, you crap,’ Jim laughed and squatted down with a grimace at this word pronounced by Andrew. ‘Don’t talk back, or we’ll kill you ourselves this time.’
Mike did not answer.
‘Go and Jim will trip you up. This time we’ll see that you did not strike him,’ said Andrew.
Mike did not move. Then, William stood up off a chuck and took Mike by shoulders. He made him stand on the same place as yesterday and ordered Jim to put a foot so as to trip Mike up. Then William pushed Mike forward and the boy tripped by Jim fell on the gray wooden planks. William held Mike’s hands behind his back until the last moment before he pushed Mike on the back of his neck with his left hand. So, Mike did not have enough time to protect his face. He struck with his nose and forehead against the planks. He felt this strange pain in his kidney again, but this time it was stronger. He put his hands on the planks to stand up. William grabbed him with his own left hand and hurled over. Mike fell on his back and felt his guts to be struck off again. William took him by the bosom with his left arm to make him stand up.
‘Stay still,’ he said.
Mike felt a splitting pain in his head. Jim went to him and struck with his fist on Mike’s nose. A streamlet of blood trickled from his nose.
‘Now, lay on the ground,’ ordered Andrew.
Mike did not move. Andrew approached him with a hasty walk. He pushed Mike on the face and the boy fell very fast on the steps again. He felt his back and head to strike on the corners of the wooden steps of the porch. The pain in the left side of his belly grew again even stronger then in the morning. Andrew took Mike by the bosom and made him stand up.
‘Now, lie down,’ he ordered.
Mike stood still. Jim went on him and kicked on Mike’s balls. The pain was even stronger than this in the kidney, liver, and left side of the belly all together. It was very painful, but Mike managed not to double and stand straight though he bowed a bit. Jim wanted to come on Mike and kick on the balls again but Mike struck him upon his eye with his right hand as strong as he could. All Mike’s bowels ached sharp because of it.
‘He fights,’ Jim wailed out.
‘Ok, Mike, you don’t listen to what they say you,’ said Andrew. ‘Help me,’ he addressed William.
They both took Mike by a hand and leg each on the left and right side and made his legs to part aside.
‘Jim, don’t be afraid, go and make what you wanted,’ said William.
At this moment, Mike began to pray to the God, ‘God, please don’t let him kick on my balls or I’ll have no children. Please…’ it was all he had time to ask the God.
Jim approached and struck with his hand on Mike’s belly upon the solar plexus. Mike felt as if he soul was about to leave his body. He knew it was also against the rules.
‘Jim, don’t be afraid, go kick him upon the balls or I’ll do it myself,’ said William.
‘No, I’m afraid,’ replied Jim.
‘What are you afraid of, you small fool?’ asked William.
Jim did not answer and ran under the penthouse.
‘Well, Mike, will you lie down?’ asked William.
Mike did not answer.
‘Ok, Mike, stand still,’ they let Mike and he descended on the step of the porch.
Mike sat on the step unable to stand up because of the nausea.
‘Nick, go try to persuade him to lie down on the planks.’ William said.
Nick approached Mike and said trying to be calm, ‘Mike, lie down, or they’ll hurt you more.’
Mike stood up instead. Nick went under the porch.
‘Ok, Mike, you don’t listen it seems.’ William said.
He went to Mike and kicked on the boy’s left foot near the sandal from behind to make him lie down. Mike fell on the steps but managed to cushion the strike by putting his arms under his sides.
‘Stand up,’ said Andrew.
Mike stood up. Then, sat down again not able to stand.
All except Nick laughed.
‘He does not hear,’ said Andrew. ‘Stand up, the fool.’
Mike stood up.
‘Now you listen,’ Andrew commented.
Mike felt a dull pain in his balls as if they were heavy and hung on his body.
William and Andrew approached him and were about to take Mike by his feet to make him fall. He was afraid to get struck upon the steps again. He tried to go back, but his cousins were faster and he fell on his back again. All his body ached. He decided not to stand up this time and lie down on the steps. But, the weight of his body entailed him down the steps and his body touched the ground. Andrew and William took him by socks and hurled down the steps. Mike’s head struck each step before it struck the gray wooden planks of the lane.
‘Now, lay still,’ said a voice.
At this moment, he viewed in his memory how his girls wept in the room where he had met them, ‘My mom said she’ll poison me, because she loves me and does not want to see how I’ll be rotten up alive.’ ‘I’ll commit a suicide because I won’t stand the shame,’ said the blond one. Mike could not see what was above him because of the darkness in his sight. He only felt as something heavy flogged upon his head with a dull sound. When he might see he only caught the view of a hairy leg in a sandal that lifted up from his face.
‘Lie down,’ said Andrew, ‘Don’t move.’
Jim approached Mike and stepped his dirty sandal on Mike’s face. Mike punched his leg with his right fist, he wanted to stand up and kill all his cousins, but somebody he did not see buffeted on his face. He tried to fight back, but could not reach. So, he knew it was not Jim. Somebody battered on his belly. And, from this moment he saw all in dark light as if dark points covered all he could view. Nobody kicked or beat him anymore. He heard some voices, but could not discern the words. It seemed to him that he stood up and went home to see his grandma. Then he flew up through the roof of the house and hovered in the air. He flew toward the blue sky and white clouds. He saw everything from high above. He saw the house of old Claudia. He sat there on the chair and Claudia read him the Bible.
‘You’ll be punished for these girls, only if they become your wives. Because you’re not Jesus Christ to suffer for others. So, the God will punish you only if you marry them. Then, you’ll take their sins on you. And, if they made a promise to the God, you can make it void only if you say it won’t happen when you heard it, but only if they are your wives. You cannot be punished for a strange wife. That’s the only way you can suffer for them…’
Mike felt as cool water splashed on his face. He opened his eyes. But, the darkness in what he saw all things did not disappear. He stood up when somebody helped him. He knew it was not a dream because he felt the heaviness of his body. He made a few steps toward the wild rose bush but fell under it. He wanted to stand up, but might not. All the rest seemed to be a dream also. Somebody took him up and carried into the house. They laid him on the bed. He heard a noise in his ears. The bed flowed up and down. The darkness came on him, then he opened his eyes and the bed flowed up and down again. He saw as the ceiling came on him, and he was afraid that it would knock him. Then, he fell asleep.

Ordeals


Mike could not say whether the day was gray or he saw it this way. Anyway all was but boring. The brethren called Mike to answer again.
‘Ok, Mike, we need to talk to you all the same no matter what you did yesterday,’ said one of them.
‘Jim, go speak with him again,’ said the other one.
Jim approached Mike and took him by the bosom. He jerked Mike on himself. Mike felt as though somebody bored upon his navel. Jim let him off. Mike saw the whole picture he viewed with his eyes to always jump up and appear again from beneath like it would be with a bad TV set. He managed to stand on his legs and not to sit down on the step of the porch. Suddenly, he felt as though something ached in the left of his cranium to make a splitting pain. Mike felt nausea and a dull pain below the waist. He could not help sitting down on a step. Jim went up to him again and jerked him up. Mike felt hatred to come into his heart again. He stood up but the impulse entailed him forward and he landed on the hands and the knees of his legs he managed to bend not to fall flat on his belly. He felt a humiliation that was so bad that it would be better if Jim kicked him on the left of his head. Somebody big moved toward Mike and taking him by the bosom of his shirt made him stand up. Mike did not discern who it was. He managed to stand still, however it seemed to him that he would fall down, but instead of turning his arms as wings just backwards he turned them toward his fore and bowed a bit because he feared most of all to fall on the back of his head. The father said a boxer should not let it to be done in that it was the most vulnerable place of the head. Mike waved the wings of his arms forward and backward with a strain expression on his face. He heard them laugh.
‘He’ll wave so till the evening, go make him stand,’ said somebody to a dark silhouette that approached Mike and jerked him to lift Mike’s sandals off the ground a little.
Mike stood. All his substance was filled with nausea and a splitting pain in the left part of his cranium that was somewhat balanced with the same in the right part of it. Mike felt a hatred that brought him to feelings. A boxer should feel it to win as his father said. Mike felt his chin go left as if he exposed the right part of his brain instead. The muscles began to play on his face.
‘Look, guys, how we’re scared,’ said somebody.
Somehow Mike felt Nick was not there. Really Nick was his half brother due he was born by another man. Jim went to him. Mike anticipated that Jim would take him gently by the trunk and push on the foundation of his back, but instead the boy shook Mike again. Mike felt as if a small metal rope of acute pain connected his liver and right kidney. He felt hatred to bring him into feelings again. He made a soft movement of his right hand as to punch Jim on the head. But, he was not there. Mike fell on his belly again and knocked his head right on the left upon the wooden planks of the small platform in the front of the porch. He saw the darkness come into his eyes again but just for a moment owing to adrenaline spurt Mike felt to gently scorch his stomach. He wanted to stand up first hands then right knee but somebody kicked upon the left of his forehead. Mike squatted to stand up but somebody struck upon his face. And he fell on his back and the left of the back of his head only having time to put a hand on the wooden planks while he was just on his squats. He lay on his back anticipating that somebody would come to kick him on the left of his head and on the right of it. Strangely, nobody kicked him on the left kidney but it ached. He felt a tickling pain in his navel and below it as if he had a diarrhea. He breathed heavily. The noise in his head grew to softly cut upon the membranes. Mike felt a gentle and pleasurable pain in his left kidney. The cold sweat covered his whole body. The shirt stuck to his skin. He did not really hate his brethren even if they knocked him. It was because he had said he would marry the sick girls. The brethren said it would be a shame on the whole family. So, they meant good to Mike. Only they did not understand that Mike already could not back down of it. He had made his choice and pledged his own health. There was no way back. He had burnt the back way bridges. He was in a strange land. Like the troops of the Caesar he had to win. Still he hated them all because they tried to get into his personal business.
Somebody took him up by the scruff of the neck. Strangely but though it was the darkness points in Mike’s eyes he could see with the eyes of him who held him by his left arm. Mike’s feet dragged upon, the left one on the gray wooden planks the right on the land until it struck the wooden lane. Mike anticipated that his right foot’s toe and other fingers wood get into the metal trap of the staple of which they cleaned the dirt off the soles before they went to the house. But it could not be this way because it stood on the way to the house, on the right of the porch. But the porch itself was right of Mike and the same who held him on the scruff of his neck. It was too much to think about. Mike felt dizzy…
He played with a toy truck, put the sand into the back with a small metal spade painted green. The sun shined above…
Then he played on the porch. The grandfather said something hurtful to him and gently kicked him on the ass. Mike rolled over the steps head before legs, turned over a few times and struck with the left side of his scull on the gray metal glistening staple knocked into the wood of the thick fresh plank before the porch. It was because before the granddaddy wanted to kick Mike on the ass, he stood up and got the old man’s foot on the back of the knees. The grandy was angry because Mike spilled the sand on the yellow painted porch. Mike felt an acute pain in the left of his head. A horn grew on this place. Mike did not weep. Nausea took him over…
Mike loved his toy truck. It was made of metal. It had a red driver’s cab, a deep blue back, a black platform with the glistening of metal, four black plastic wheels. First disappeared a pair of the rear wheels. Then the two front ones. He knew who did it. It was his cousins, and he hated them. However, he prayed to He who created him to give them good real cars when they were grown up, not to touch Mike’s toy truck. But, one day it disappeared. Mike missed it. He was looking for it. He found it in the metal washing basin that was used formerly to bath the babies and wash linen. Now it was full of the rust stricken metal things of different forms and weights. The white ones were lighter. They had ribs like skeletons. It was the dead motorbikes and the pieces of other things that moved on the roads with much rattling. Mike took out his truck that lay in the heap of the metal things. It was squeezed as if something heavy was struck upon it. Mike took it and played with it on the yellow sand below the porch. The grandma wept and said something to Mike. He understood she promised him to buy a beautiful plastic one truck, and she promised that Mike’s mom would buy the same one but even better…
‘Who did it to you,’ asked the grandma with tears, ‘show me with your finger.’
Mike did not show. All the same there was a scandal in the house…
The dad took the grandfather by the bosom of the green military shirt. The even greener buttons flew into the air. It was a sunny summer day. It was on the porch. The dad threatened with the right fist that could make a deadly blow, ‘cause the dad was a boxing champion before he was contused in Vietnam.
‘I woulda killed you, but I ‘ave to feed this son of mine if he goes crazy,’ the dad said.
The granddaddy talked nothing back…
Mike longed for his toy truck though it was squeezed as if they made blows on it with a cobble stone. He felt that they hurt his friend. He knew where it was. It was in the cemetery of the trucks, but he was still alive. He did not ask anything, however Mike knew he needed help. Trucks and tractors never die. You can collect their prices and put ‘em on the move again. But his metal truck had only a few pieces. So, he could not live in other toys. Mike felt the pain of the truck, who had it because his wheels were ripped off his little metal shafts. Them the shafts disappeared also. Mike decided to take this pain on himself. He found the truck in the heap of the reddish metal bones that lay deep in the ground because of the time passed. The grass grew between them like it is on the tombs. They were still living. The small baby truck also lay under the scorching sun. Mike did not take it into his hands.
‘You’ll be my bride when you become a girl,’ said Mike with his mind’s voice.
The baby truck consented, but first he asked to get rotten down in the dirt, because he was afraid to become a girl all at once. Mike promised to bury him on the bank of the small runless river full of all kinds of creeping things. The baby truck was afraid of them. Mike explained that the worms do not eat the metal. The truck was not afraid any more. Mike took it into his hands and brought home. Mike decided to protect his future bride. It was about the time when Mike began to speak to his kinsmen.
‘Don’t touch this toy truck, it will be a girl in the second life and I’ll marry her,’ plainly said Mike.
Everybody laughed at this statement except wise men. However nobody touched his toy any more. He promised to the toy that when she would be a girl she would not die any more. It basked under the beams of the sun that penetrated under the penthouse until Mike made his promise good. The trucks and tractors loved him from hence on…
Mike felt as if he let something go out of his mind. Something burnt on his right hand’s skin. He felt the liquid on his whole body. It made him fresh. It was not the blood because it curdled not. It was not the sweat also, because it was not sticky. Somebody cut the back of his left hand with something sharp and tried to pour the burning liquid into the bleeding wound. Mike opened his eyes. It was sunny and it dazzled him. He heard the worried voices, but he went back…
He did not know where to land, however he happened in the room of the hostel where he had met the girls.
‘My mom’s gonna poison me and kill herself not to go into the jail,’ wept Tina. ‘She’ll kill me that I won’t get crazy because of my sickness. Nobody’ll love me because I’m sick. I’ll try to forbear and go mad. You won’t be able to marry me, because I die before.’
‘Yea, sure, you won’t be able,’ added Inna.
‘Nope, it won’t happen,’ sharply said Mike…
He opened his eyes again because of too much burning wounds on his left hand’s back. It seemed to be dark. Nobody were before him. He fell asleep…
‘You’ll eat up this fish, I say to you,’ said the grandma.
‘She’s poisoned,’ said Mike, because the fish smelled of something bitter and uneatable.
‘I don’t want that my daughter was unhappy with you being crazy. And, it would be better for your dad to pass some time in the jail. Myself, I don’t be afraid to be in the jail. I’m an old woman. They’d not put me into the jail…’
‘It is better for you to die, Mike, than to be this way. Please it the fish,’ wept grandma…
A knife was put to Mike’s throat.
‘You gonna eat this fish, or I’ll kill you with this knife,’ threatened grandma.
Mike knew it was a lie…
‘Mike, please eat up this fish that your girls did not die and go crazy,’ begged grandma.
It was a deal. Mike ate the full black pan of the small bitter fish…
‘Vomit, Mike, please vomit,’ entreated the ambulance nurse.
Mike pressed his jaw to the upper teeth not to let the water to get into his gullet…
Nobody made any harm for it to the grandma, in that she wept and said that an angel came to her in the night before this and said that she should do it, because Mike was the antichrist…
The day after tomorrow, Mike went in the night into the orchard to see the angels. The angel, who said that Mike was an antichrist prayed for the forgiveness and said he was an antichrist himself. The women in long pale gowns also wept and promised to be Mike’s wives…
The third day Mike went into the orchard again when it was dark. The dusk exposed the figures of the ghouls that approached and worshipped Mike as their master. A horseman without a head appeared moving slowly. He invited Mike to get on the horse with himself and fight against infidels.
Then, appeared a big entity. It was a collection of pale bodies. It was a giant as if it was made of snow. When the giant approached him he fell into the pieces of the pale figures. It was the vampires. They begged Mike to be a part of his people also. Mike consented. They confessed their sins to Mike. Mike forgave them.
After a while appeared a man with a she-goat. They were pale and tried to get connected with one another. Mike said to the man to go away from a distance of about one hundred fifty feet…
Something shook Mike with a force. It was men but it was a strange feeling like he was not able to resist this shaking. It was good to stay in the dreams, but some force returned him into the reality. Mike opened his eyes. He saw that his brethren put a pair of wires from motorbike accumulator to the wounds on the right and left hand. It shook him. Mike always blinked and could not resist it. He tried but could not.
‘Well, the buddy’s got home from the hell,’ said Andrew.
‘Ok, Mike, let’s talk more, but this time without this rolling of eyes,’ William warned.
They were somewhat scared and by their intonation it could be discerned that they tried to flatter.
‘So, Mike, you said the grandma Mary poisoned you?’ asked Andrew.
Mike did not answer. He got a blow on the nose from somebody big and fair-haired. It was Andrew.
‘Yes,’ said Mike, ‘she did poison me.’
Somebody knocked Mike. The whole picture he saw got stopped as in a video recorder. He got a blow on the solar plexus. It was sure the one who knocked him pulled his fist. Mike opened his eyes.
‘You say you want to marry (here he named the disease) girls?’ asked one of his elder cousins. ‘Think better, Mike, do you need to dishonor our whole kin?’
‘That’s no deal of yours, you’re no kin of mine. Only those who…’ here Mike got a blow on his teeth.
Somebody fair-haired that was not his kinsman shook his own hand.
‘Bitch, I’ve knocked off the knuckles…’
Here Mike got a blow on the bridge of his nose…
Mike never knew whether he ate the pills from the red plastic box or not. Maybe he gave them to the girls…
Mike fell on the back of his head upon something metallic and hard by the left side of the head…
To give the pills to the girls would be a bad idea on account that they were intended for the men who were soldiers. He knew how they’ve got those pills. The soldiers signed a paper and they contaminated them with some infection. They died and the people in the white robes took their blood to make a vaccine with antibodies. Then, those white men took these antibodies and shot them into the blood of another soldier who wrote the other paper. He lived longer, but died. So, Mike knew why it was written this way in the instruction of the red box: that it prolongs the fighting capacity of the Soviet soldier for only thirty-six hours, it was because a soldier would die after it. But, then the bacteriological weaponry was less harmful for them, because the soldiers who died already took their pain on themselves like Jesus Christ did. So, Mike knew he could take the pain of others on himself if he ate them. Mike understood that they wanted to give those pills to his dad. It was because he was in Vietnam as a military adviser and they shot him vaccines and got good results as the grandma Helen supposed on the dad’s often visits to the clinic. Mike saw how the man in the white robes and gas-masks laid his daddy into a thick transparent packet to see what the virus worked with the dead body of his father. Mike knew that if he only disposed of the red plastic box, they would give his dad a new one. So, Mike decided to eat them up instead of his daddy. He knew it would be better. Because any disease is less harmful to the children. The children have strong heart, lungs, liver, kidneys and spleen. Mike knew why his daddy had a good immunity. It was because his grand-grand-father Nick slept up with a sick Armenian woman to have a baby. He got sick himself, but gave a life to a baby.
Mike stood in room and his dad said to him that it was bad to leave for the tomorrow what could be done today. He held the red box in his hands. But, then he said that he wanted to see this day through and then make what was necessary. He laid the box into the cupboard. Mike knew his dad could not survive because he gave his spirit to his children. He got a lot of curse on himself and was losing his strength. He would do it for his children to take the pills in this red box. Mike knew he would survive if he took it himself instead of his father. He would survive because he was young and his spirit was full present in him. He understood why the soldiers in the transparent zip bags died. They did not want to live and stay the pain. They had no stimulus. Mike had. He wanted to have children. But, the pills contained the sicknesses the men did have a weak immunity against. So, Mike knew he should fight himself. The wolves would not eat him because the pills were very contagious. He knew the diseases would wait till he would be a man and then attack him. Any disease gives a child a chance to survive. That’s why ADIS infected children live more than an adult contaminated with it. The spirit of the father protects them. But, Mike knew they wanted to kill his dad because he was strong and equitable. His dad simply did not understand it. So, Mike knew the dad would help him by his word, because a word is an information and has a material effect even on the viruses and bacteria. If you have faith and say my child won’t die, he won’t but the sickness would attack you. Because anyhow a father gets infected by a disease when he gives the seed no matter how it was transferred. His spirit strengthens his antibodies to fight against a sickness that afflicted his children. So, the viruses and bacteria attack him by an instinct feeling the danger to their kin. And, after all they get subdued by the spirit of the father and become the antibodies. His dad would have died because his spirit lived in his children. Most of all Mike was afraid for them, because then there would be nobody to protect them. Maniacs would come and kill them not to infect the other humankind. Mike wanted to be a father himself. He knew how hard it was. So, Mike took the pills. He easily understood that the plague for example was afraid of the spirit of the father. A force applied bring about the same force that withstands until it gets broken or not because the first force gets broken. Plague, malaria, hepatitis and so on fear the spirit of the father because they also feel the pain. So, Mike knew that somebody survived in the Europe in the plague of the Middle Age and gave the seed to the women that were their females. So, Mike had the immunity even against the plague. He knew it. He decided to challenge the diseases. He threw them the call for the battle, and eating of the pills was the declaration of the war. His antibody fought against the weakened plague, hepatitis, cholera and so on. His body killed the viruses and bacteria easily because he did not have the plague of the oldness in himself. The viruses would wait till this deadly plague of oldness would weaken him. The sicknesses hated him, because he hated them. They were not afraid because Mike was not. What are the viruses and bacteria. That’s simply the antibodies of the dead animals killed by the man. They want to revenge their own blood. The same with the blood of the killed men. The blood always makes a vengeance when spilled. It may be a family curse. In generations of generations until a man strong enough would say you are healed and withstand the attack of the cancer.
‘Mike, so you ate up the pills?’ asked the man that occupied a room in a gray building with the shield and sword coats of arms.
‘Yea,’ Mike said, ‘that’s for the girls not to be sick.’
‘Ok, Mike, that’s what you did. Now, I’ll say you what you’ve got to do, you’ve to go and hang yourself, and we’ll utilize your body. ‘Cause you don’t understand what was in those pills. You’re a living bomb. But, Mike, be sure you’ll get a zombie. Do you realize it?’ the man in the civil asked.
‘Yea,’ said Mike, ‘I won’t go crazy.’
‘You will Mike and we’ll take care of you. We won’t let you die. We’ll make the vaccines for our soldiers out of your body…’
‘Nope, ‘tis for the girls, I won’t die,’ simply said Mike.
‘Ok, Mike, I like the way you reason. Seems you’ve got some guts the other men don’t have.’ He said. ‘We and the American have done a lot of bad stuff to scare one another. Somebody’s got to rake aside this crap. I’ve come from Moscow specially for you. You’ve volunteered to a thing even big guys don’t want to get. Ok, Mike, we’ll take care. Don’t worry. Even, if you’ll get crazy, you’ll have a lot of children. We’ll take care of it.’
‘Nope,’ said Mike, ‘I won’t go crazy.’
‘Sure, Mike, sure. That’s it. Never forget we’re looking after you…’
‘So, Mike you said you did not eat the pills?’ asked the day officer.
‘The girls said I did not,’ Mike answered.
‘Let’s leave it with the girls for some time,’ said he.
They were tete-a-tete in the densely smoked room of the police office.
‘Mike do you know what kind of girls should please you? Nope? Some with a good southern metabolism. With a quick exchange of the matters. Thus, your antibodies would work well. We do not say about hundreds of thousands. We say about millions. Ten millions maybe. Would you be able to do it?’ asked the men in the blue uniform shirt. ‘Women understand what immunity means, Mike. ‘Tis better than money or candy. Be sure the girls would like you. I hope you’ll survive to see your children. What you say about AIDS Mike, aren’t you afraid of it?’
‘Nope,’ said Mike, however his throat made a swallow.
‘Don’t worry, Mike, say what you want for your girls.’ Proposed the man in the blue shirt that did not fit his intelligence office manners. ‘We wanted you to come to us, and you came. That’s good. It’s better than to send for you. Then your parents would sniff up some bad, and I’m afraid you’d turn up in an orphanage house. We’d take care. Don’t worry, but that’s not it. You should live an average life. Don’t believe all this stuff about you getting into the jail. That won’t work. You can do what you list, simply don’t expose yourself. That’s good you crashed this boy with a stone. What it was for?’
‘He wanted to make friends with rebels in Afghanistan to kill the women and children,’ Mike explained.
‘That’s good, you should protect your future…’
‘He said he was a Mohammed, and would make friends with Muslims,’ Mike said.
‘Don’t worry, Mike, he’ll never make friends with them. You’ll do it.’ he said. ‘So, Mike you should know what kind of girls you should like. With dark eyes and beautiful features: Jews, Gypsy, Georgian, Caucasus, Italians, French, Spanish and not Armenian. Your grand-granddaddy took care for it. Only with a circular nose like this,’ here he made a circle with his finger around his own nose. ‘So, Mike what you want for your girls?’
‘I don’t want anything, simply what they wanted themselves,’ the boy said.
‘Yea, Mike, we’ll help you. But, ‘tis up to you to make your children live. Don’t believe the girls, Mike. Like they’d love other boys. They don’t need their antibodies. Those boys gonna get extinct. Women always know where’s the real profit, Mike. That’s their own health and the health of their children. They’re all turning lesbians because there’s bad times looming ahead. They’ll cheat you like they’re not the virgins. Never believe this crap. ‘Tis only to cheat you like somebody shared your job. Don’t believe this crap. That’s the way they seduce the guys like you and me. You should know, you’re the part of our organization, a very ancient organization. Your grand-granddaddy was a knight of it. That’s the order of the Saint Michael. Do you want to become once a Master of our order? Your grand-granddaddy Nick was one. He killed vampires, zombie and other bad stuff. Do you want to do the same?’ asked the man that was not natural to have a blue shirt.
‘Yea, sure,’ said Mike, ‘I’ll be one.’
‘That’s good. ‘Tis bad times ahead. Old knights are old, and the males don’t want to get into our rows. They all turn gay. That’s easier. I hope you won’t turn this way?’ asked the man closely.
‘Nope,’ said Mike turning his head, ‘I won’t.’
‘That’s good. We’ll take care of your girls. Don’t worry. Simply be a good man, and never give up. Your girls will wait for you. Nobody will take you into the jail. We take care for it. There’s a provision in the Penal Code for it. They’ll only cure you with the medicines. We’ll look that all stuff that originates from your actions was not given a go. There were vampires, very strong guys. Zombie. Tibet guys. But, we killed all. Our own order only survived. But, ‘tis bad times ahead. Nobody wants to get in our rows.’ Here he breathed deeply. ‘They’re losers. They won’t survive and give the seed. They’ll work and invent all bad stuff, but they’ll be your slaves, Mike, if you become the Master of our order. You’ve got good chances. But, simply protect yourself on your own. That’s the greatest rule of our order. Otherwise, we would not be strong enough to kill the bad boys, and cure the bad girls. The knight of our order is always alone. Otherwise, we would not be able to control all. We know when a brother is in the peril and we go to the rescue. But, you should know, Mike, we’re few. We cannot control all the things. We get fewer and fewer. Old knights go to heaven and the young don’t want to come into our rows. They all turn gay. That’s why the girls turn pink. Somebody’s got to give the seed.’ Here a tear appeared on the eye of the young man that seemed to be old and wise. ‘You should take care, Mike. Never say much about us. Only after the enemy would be defeated. Take care…’
Mike felt as something burning was poured into the mouth of his pressed teeth. They tried to open his jaw. He opened his eyes. It was sunny. Somebody wanted to kick him, but Mike looked at him with his sharp look and the man went back. They helped Mike to stand up. It was Andrew and William. Mike did not hate them. He knew why they hated him. He was sick and weak. They put him on a chunk. An ax was in the hand of William.
‘Mike, say that you’ll quit it with your sick girls, and we’ll let you go…’
Mike, collected the saliva and spewed into the face of the man with the ax. The man got a-shaking. He put Mike’s hand on the chunk and lifted the ax. Mike began to pray to the Lord to protect him from losing his left hand’s fingers. The ax struck the chunk. All went on their seats under the penthouse. Mike forgave them. They hated not him or his girls, but the evil that was in him and them. They were afraid to kill Mike.
‘Ok, Mike, don’t tell your dad we knocked you. That’s because of your girls, you want to dishonor our kin.’ William said. ‘He said to knock you to shake this stuff out of your head. You know he’s a boxer. Whether you don’t want your dad to get into the jail.’
‘I could ‘ave killed you all,’ said Mike. ‘I’m young and they would not put me into the jail. And, they’d do nothing to my parents for it, but I promised the grandma not to do it.’ Mike said calmly.
All were afraid because Mike meant business.
‘Ok, Mike, we’ll surely sell you into the Egypt like this man from your tales. You know in our country they put into the jail when they beat the hooligans, but they don’t put into the jail those who beat the Christians. Let’s go into the Egypt land. They took Mike by the hands, and let into the orchard. Near the porch somebody got his left hand to wrench it to make a cracked sound. They pushed him into the gates.
‘You’ll have the time to think. You said you prayed not to piss with the blood? Now, pray for your arm to get a good way.’
Mike knew that they jerked the wrenched arms. But, he simply put it into the joint when on the basement of the house. After half an hour, the cousins went again.
‘Mike, you said you will stand on your opinion?’ asked somebody.
‘You’ve bothered me pretty much,’ said Mike, ‘I’ll gonna take a knife and castrate you.’
‘But, Mike you promised the grandma not to kill us,’ said the guys with an alert.
‘I did say nothing about the balls.’ Said Mike.
‘That’s you, Mike, or that bad man that settles in your soul?’ asked they.
‘That’s me, I’m this bad man.’ said Mike.
‘Ok, ok, that was a joke,’ they excused.
They took him and put into a small door in the basement. They closed it and put a lock on it.
‘Let’s wait till he gets into himself,’ they said.
Mike was in the darkness. He knew he was a part of a secret service which FBA, CIA or KGB had no information of. But the knights of his order knew all about what was done in there. He was a knight. And, he was the Master. It was the order of the Saint Michael that fought all kind of the evil.

Vinegar

The evening of the day of ordeals, Jim continued to tease Mike, because of all the happenings before.
‘I know,’ he said, ‘why you did not wrinkle up when they put you the vinegar into the teeth. That’s because it is sweet. They say that even the vinegar is sweet when gotten gratis. I’ll take some to show you were a coward not to drink it.’ He announced.
He took the bottle and screw off the lid, however a cork was in it. He pretended to drink, then screwed the lid back.
‘See, it doesn’t burn, ‘tis sweet. Take a bit yourself.’ He tried to allure Mike into drinking the vinegar.
‘You want you can drink, I won’t,’ said Mike.
‘Ok, I’ll show you are a coward,’ he said.
Jim took a bottle of essence vinegar and screwed the lid, then tried to take the plastic cork out of the neck, but could not. He took an awl and made a hole in the cork. Then, he cautiously approached the bottle to his mouth, opened it and let a little of the vinegar to flow upon his tongue. A few drops fell on his tongue. He squealed and through the bottle off himself. He screeched as a pig or a woman would do. He sat on the porch. Mike stood under the penthouse. It was near the dusk time. Mike thought how girls loved such guys as Jim. But he guessed Jim would have no wife with such an attitude to pain. The grandma ran on the porch and took Jim into her hands like a baby. She looked askance on Mike and took the baby home. Mike knew he was a kind of a ghoul for his grandma. She always tried him.
‘That’s you, Mike, or somebody got into your soul again?’ she would ask if Mike had got real angry.
This time, Mike knew he would be to blame for the scorched throat of Jim. He went to the door of the house. It was locked. Mike stood for some time. Then, he went back under the penthouse. They had to bring Jim into the hospital whereto Chuck had already been transported. The two brothers should be together. Both had a problem with the throat. Mike waited till all the fuss was over. Then tried to go home. He opened the door, but the grandma hurled it and shut with a great force. Mike stood for a while, then decided to go into the forest to live with the wolves as he always dreamed. They would understand him. He recalled the day when he ate the pills with vaccines. He felt very bad. He went into the open place near the hostel and sat on a concrete block. This day a man went up to him and proposed the mint tablets. Mike agreed. They were bitter. Mike chewed them and swallowed.
‘That’s for your girls,’ the man said and not able to hold the tears went hurriedly away.
He recalled the day he ate the pills out of the red plastic box. He felt the same but could manage not to say the mom about it. There was a plastic container with strong antibiotics, but Mike did not take it because then he would have had less immunity.
He sat on the concrete block. A gray she-wolf that was a virgin approached Mike and wanted to lick on his hand. Mike withdrew the hand.
‘That’s no good to lick my hand,’ he warned.
He knew that even his sweat was infectious. The she-wolf whined a little.
‘Can I be your bride, when I become a woman?’ she asked with her mind’s voice.
‘Yea, sure,’ said Mike in the same mode.
‘Can I have a wolf?’ she tempted.
Mike felt a goose skin to appear over his body.
‘No,’ he said.
The she-wolf began to play and jump looking at Mike as if occasionally. She played a little. Then her hair stood on end. She growled. She ran away with the tail put between the legs. Nobody was around Mike could see. But felt the cold to intensify. It was chilly. Somebody went for him. But, Mike was so much poisoned that even the death itself did not want to take him. He got warmer…
Mike went into the land lot and directed himself toward the bush. He was to get over the fence and never turn back. Somebody called behind. Somebody alien. Mike stood still. It was his grandma. He stood for a moment. Then, remembered about his girls. And, turned back.

Jihad

To say that Mike was not afraid was not proper. He was afraid. He had known from the Tadjik old man that his sons and son-in-laws had been very limitless as they said in the criminal world about the gangsters that did not respect the law of thieves. The old Tadjik had worked when he had been middle aged man in the preparation of the military vaccines against the bacteriological weaponry. It was a simple process. First, they contaminated the animals with the bacteriological weaponry, then they prepared the vaccines and infected with those raw vaccines the soldiers that had some kinds of mortal guilt before the State. Then, they tied the soldiers to the beds and treating them with the medicines did not allow them to let out the natural human male libido as the only way to drive up the testosterone and immunity. It was a dirty job because most of the soldiers died while the rest went crazy. Thus, the old Tadjik had earned the right from the Soviet State to trade in heroin. But, his elder son dishonored the old man to take the business into his own hands. When Mike heard it he promised to revenge the old man. But, then the old man told that his elder son had incest with his little daughter when she was yet out of the age to understand what was what. He infected her with son heavy sickness and gave her the heroin to make her addicted to the drugs mixing the drug with the poison for the rats. But, it was not enough for the man. He also wanted to end up with his sick daughter that was dishonored claiming that it had been she who had seduced him having been an inborn harlot. He put the life on his daughter on the card and lost in having gambled her to be killed. But, he also wanted to make a profit with the affair and make a kind of sentimental movie that would star him as a father with the strict sense of honor whose daughter made him murder her because she played a harlot. The movie should have ended with the scene when the daughter would have been laid in the coffin in the dress of a bride and the sentimental father would have cut her the throat. Mike was five years old, but he already killed the men and said he would kill them all instead of telling about the matter to the KGB in which they knew him because he had eaten the pills with the military vaccines and invented some things for the military industry. The old man was disappointed due Mike did not want to inform the KGB and did not believe there would come out any sense of Mike’s words. Still, Mike persuaded the old man to make his daughter-in-law, a Russian woman, to come to Shushenskoe with her sick daughter and enlist her into the kindergarten where Mike was enlisted. Mike said how he would kill the gangsters and what wounds he would get not to be a sportsman in the future but to forbear of sex to survive. He knew that what was said would happen and he would live to tell the tale. He even saw in his dreams how he killed those men and he knew it would happen. Still, he was afraid of what was going to happen because he made an appointment to the band of criminals. And, because Mike had already murdered some men he knew his words would be taken serious.
When Catherine was brought to the kindergarten in Shushenskoe Mike helped her get healed of her sickness and drug addiction. Mike said and thought something to make the gravitation and electric-magnetic field come upon his body. He felt as though a screw turned over to make the pressure upon him increase. Then, he touched Catherine on the pretence he was a prophet and healer and the current of the natural human body electricity came to the girl’s body to make a back induction of the feminine orgasm. Mike knew it would happen on account he had experienced it himself when he had made the gravitation and magnetism come upon him to produce the current on his hands. When he had touched his own body with the hands the current produced in his body the effect that very much resembled the female orgasm. It had been enough for Mike to imagine he had been a girl in this condition and he felt the female orgasm. He knew it would heal Catherine. But, owing the girl would get intimidated by it Mike made such a charge of electricity of the necessary frequency on the seeds of the dill. He had made it already in the kitchen garden when the dill seeds had been green. Thus, Catherine and the other girls played in drug traffic when she distributed the seeds among the girls. They also asked Mike to pray for them and put on the hands. It was not easy because the heavy energy was left in Mike’s body and he even exerted himself not to allow that energy to pass over on the girls. But, he needed it to drive up the testosterone.
Then, there was a test of the IQ and Catherine gave a good score and they did not send her to the special kindergarten for the mentally debilitated children. Mike sat beside her and helped her on the complex questions. The KGB officer said that the specialists made a conclusion that for Mike to think of the military inventions Mike had made it was necessary to have an IQ of about four hundred points. But the officer said Mike had all five hundred according of what he knew about his perfidy in murder. Mike made himself think of such inventions first because he wanted to earn money for a harem and many kids and second to drive up the testosterone in surmounting the obstacles in thinking of something new to kill the microbes in his blood. So, they left Catherine in the kindergarten in Shushenskoe.
On account, the father of Catherine wanted to make the money on the movie, he had informed his daughter and her mother about the scenario and its final for the girl to play her role better. The woman applied to the police but they said she was crazy and after the talk with the psychiatrist they declared she was obsessed with that idea as the fruit of her sick imagination. It meant first nobody wanted to get in conflict with the drug traffic Tadjik Mafia, second they had been paid or hoped to be paid. Seemed that all wanted to watch that movie if there would be a chance and the society accepted the idea that the gangster could do with his daughter all he wished.
First, Mike offered to the other kindergarten boys to make the real swards out of the wooden ones splitting the wood and putting in there the safety razor blades. Then, he proposed to assail the group of criminals with a sudden and quick attack as Jacuzzi. But, the boys excused themselves out of it saying that such a collective attack would have been possible only if the gangsters had wanted to kill many girls and Catherine was not enough for it. So, Mike was left alone to protect the girl.
The idea not to resist the evil and let what should happen to happen tempted Mike also. Even if he had said he would defend the girl a year ago there was a chance for his to back down. But, he was afraid that if he had stepped back on that case he would have never respected himself and let the others not to respect him also. Mike was even afraid that he could have become a gay if he had refused to defend the girl. He knew from what the old Tadjik and others had said about the gangsters that they were armed with guns and even a machinegun there would be in the bag. Mike’s idea was that he would propose to smoke the opium with them for a kind of wager as to who would smoke more. Mike wanted to smoke as much of the opium as to make it act as a kind of doping for him to move faster in the condition when he would get the state close to the pathological inebriation. It was not to get infected by the blood spill because he wanted to make a sudden and quick attack to cut the veins and arteries on the legs, hands and body if the last would be possible. He also wanted to revenge the dishonor of the old Tadjik man proposing to play black jack putting his life on the card in return for the ass of the eldest son of the old Tadjik guilty of the dishonor of the last. He had a plan how to make them pay that way.
Mike said to the mother of Catherine that he was going to kill the gangsters that had to arrive that day. He asked for a carpet to pray to the Allah. Mike knew he was going to be a shahid in that the task was on the border of death and life. When they brought the carpet to Mike, he began to pray. He promised to the God that he would fast and forbear in the future in return for the victory he asked for. Catherine entered into the empty room where Mike prayed alone.
‘I’m gonna kill them,’ Mike said.
‘But, they are the important men in Tadjikistan. Tadjikistan will declare you the jihad if you kill them.’ She said having forgotten for that moment that what she said meant that she herself should die.
‘I’ll declare the jihad myself,’ Mike said.
She began to hiccup because of the fear she might be murdered and went away. Mike continued to pray and take the vows upon his soul to make the gravitation come upon his body to raise the testosterone he needed to make the opium act as the doping instead of inebriation. He knew he would smoke very much by his manner that allowed for a strong dose without the nausea. It was necessary to inhale by the mouth, then slowly exhale by the nose to drive the empty air out of the lungs, after that to inhale deeply by the nose exhaling slowly by it after the blood imbibed the drug. That way the smoke would dissolve completely to act as a doping.
Mike continued to pray imagining he declared the jihad to the much stronger, armed and numerate enemy. He had to achieve a complete victory or to die. Catharine came into the big empty room again. Mike insisted that she should pay him for the murder and she promised to give all her savings, which were two rubles, seventy-two kopecks. According to the scenario of the movie that ought to be filmed she had a razor blade that she kept to find a knight that would defend her. Mike asked for that weapon and she brought it in the plastic soap-dish. That razor blade was to be his sole weaponry for many years. By prayers and incantations, Mike made the fear leave his heart.
‘There’s no God but Allah. Allah is the Almighty and most powerful.’ Mike repeated in Arab as the old Tadjik had taught him.
He felt the spirit of warrior to come upon his soul. He doubted in his victory less and less. He knew he would win. Then, he walked several rounds about the building of the kindergarten. He did it to make the gravitation and magnetic charge to come upon his soul and make the testosterone increase even more. After that he sat on the border of the asphalt lane that came around the kindergarten building. He recalled how a few days before it a Russian Orthodox Church preacher had come to the kindergarten. He had preached about the heavenly kingdom and repentance of sins. He had been hired by the Tadjik father of Catherine to make her play better her role in the movie that ought to be filmed. Mike had insulted the priest and now the Christianity seemed to be discredited in his eyes. He knew he would not pay the good for the evil and let Catherine die because the priest had taught not to resist the evil. He had said the God had brought the evil to the people and it had been necessary to accept it with obedience. But, Mike did not see much of sin in the life of Catherine. Yes, she had weaker sense of honor but it was only because she was sick and needed the antibodies and testosterone from the males. Her father was guilty of her sickness himself because he had not fasted to give life to a healthy baby but fornicated instead. He wanted to pass the buck to Catherine to make her pay for his own faults. Mike did not think that Catherine should die because she showed she would be a harlot in the future.
Then, Mike did not remember the all things. He had in his memory the picture of the ten Tadjik gangsters in the tyubeteikas that filmed him on the video camera. Mike threatened to the thieves that he was going to harm them if they did not go away. The father of Catherine kicked him on the belly.
‘Move away from here the shoe string,’ he said in derision.
‘I’ll knock you and you’ll fall down and never stand up,’ Mike warned.
‘I’ll say I’m a Tadjik and make myself stand up,’ the man said with a wicked smile. ‘I’m a thief-in-law, boy, choose the words,’ the man warned in his turn.
‘Let that one be the thief-in-law who will kill all.’ Mike proposed.
They laughed. Then, Mike proposed to smoke the opium on a wager that if Mike would smoke more opium then they all ten together they would go away and leave Catherine alive. They smoked.
‘You do swallow the smoke?’ the bandits asked. ‘It will go out of your ears soon.’
Mike lost his fear. He said he was a girl and was lesbian that is why dressed like a boy. He proposed to play the black jack and put his life on the card in return for the ass of the father of Catherine. He proposed for the father of Catherine to be serious on the game the same way as he was serious on the lost Catherine’s life. An old thief had showed to Mike how to cheat in cards a pair of the years ago when he had visited the hostel where Mike had lived then. So, Mike won. He had promised to play a bitch to show to the Catherine she had not been a bitch really. Mike played the girl and said the things that got the thieves turned on. When Mike imagined that he was a girl and a very bad girl he felt the female orgasm. It was because he touched himself with the hands on which there was the charge of the current he had collected when he had made the gravitation and electric-magnetic field go around the axis of his body. One of the gangsters put the knife at the throat of Mike but he just had a female orgasm to prove he was a girl. Mike promised to get filmed in the movie instead of Catherine. The mother of Catherine was on the brink of hysterics because Mike was about to cross the line of no way back. She tried to persuade that Mike was a boy and demanded him to stop it but the drunken gangsters were sure Mike was a girl. Catherine came now and then to the place to say to Mike not to do it but he went on. He said that they were just afraid he would lose his virginity. First, they asked Mike to show his genitals to be sure he was a girl but then when Mike had the female orgasm they saw he did not simulate and were sure he was a girl. All in all, Mike recalled afterwards that one of the gangsters fucked Catherine’s father in the presence of the children and kindergarten teachers. It was because Mike made him turned on with his words on what a girl feels when making love. It was also because Mike promised to put his life on the card further provided they would acknowledge the fact that he won back the life of Catherine. Then, Mike began to tell the stories that he was a girl and his father was a head of the local department of the Attorney General office. Mike felt the orgasm after orgasm because of too much of opium. It made him recover his forces like a woman would do in his place but much more than a woman. The gangsters on the contrary were inebriated and dull in thinking. In that moment, they asked what Mike saw and Mike said that he saw that his father cut off the skin from the neck of a man. They said what it was for. Mike said it was for the rope to slip on the bloody muscles and strangle the man. They asked again whom Mike’s dad was, maybe a butcher. But, Mike said he was an official of the General Attorney office. They asked why Mike’s voice was alike to that of a boy, but he said it was because he smoked much. Finally, the gangsters believed that Mike was a girl. And, because Mike was a very bad girl they thought the father of that girl should be a real somebody. So, they got afraid and wanted to wind up with the whole affair. Mike would let them go but he knew that they would kill Catherine later and also him when they would know he was a boy, and to boot an ordinary boy. He did all that comedy with playing a girl and seducing the father of Catherine to be fucked by another gangster only to revenge the dishonor of the old Tadjik, the granddad of Catherine. Then, there was no way back. Mike stood up from the border of the asphalt lane and turning around to the kindergarten teachers and the rest of the children put down his shorts and underwear and showed clearly he was a boy. Then, he recalled that he stood amongst the gangsters and quickly cut the leg of a gangster with the razor blade.
‘Well, you see they already cut the leg of an honest man,’ Mike said with a false astonishment.
After that he hid the razor blade in the sleeve of his white shirt. He made it move from up down in his sleeve the way his father had taught him while they searched for a knife.
‘He’s got a razor blade,’ the kindergarten boys cried.
Mike said it was not he but Gabriel, the gangster who had fucked the chieftain and was very deft in the knife fight. Mike said it was because he was afraid he would be punished because he dishonored a thief-in-law, the father of Catherine. The gangsters were what might be called intimidated and demoralized by what had just happened and kept too serious demanding Mike if he knew what ought to happen with him for what he had done. Mike said that he had the syndrome of Candinsky-Klarambo, the diagnosis that was bought with the money for Catherine and the preacher had accused the boy to have when Mike had insulted him. They asked what it meant in much anger.
‘That is Candinsky,’ Mike said and made a cut on the belly of a gangster like the letter ‘C’. ‘And, that is Klarambo.’ He said and made another cut to make a ‘K’ from ‘C’.
After that, Mike remembered only that he cut the arms of a gangster when the last tried to pull the machinegun out of the bag. The gangster was able to shoot out only two bullets before Mike made many cuts on his arms, face and body. He moved fast among the legs of the gangsters making the cuts on their legs and bodies. The bandits asked the kindergarten boys where Mike was, the boys showed with the fingers where Mike was but it only doubled the mess because Mike moved very fast. Then, he maneuvered to cheat Gabriel who was best of all in the knife fight and whom Mike left to be the last to be killed. One of the gangsters was able to stand up and took a guitar. He made a blow upon the back of Mike’s head. Mike saw the movement by the shadow and squatted to dodge the blow. But, still the guitar hit him upon the back of the head. At that moment, Mike felt the death to breathe into his back. He was so close to it that he even felt its presence. In the ears, there appeared the noise and Mike felt nausea. But, the guitar slipped and hit Gabriel also and Mike was capable to cut his legs and arms with his razor blade while the man fell against the wall of the kindergarten building. Michael did not remember in the detail how he killed the gangsters. The last he remembered was how he cut off the dick of Catherine’s father and taking a string from the broken guitar he poked it into some vessel in his groin.
The boy pulled the string and said very loud, ‘Jump up, come on, jump up.’
The man was still alive and stood up because of pain. Mike did it because according to the scenario Catherine should have begged her father to leave her alive because she should have promised to become a champion in jumping to the heights because she was high for her age. Thus, Mike killed all the gangsters. The mother of Catherine took the video camera that had filmed what had happened before. She demanded Mike and Catherine to make an interview.
‘I hired him myself,’ said Catherine. ‘I even did not doubt he would kill them all. He burst into the crowd like a whirlwind. My father, he dishonored me and wanted to kill, but Mike saved me. He healed me. My father gave me the drug that made me feel nausea, but Mike gave me a real drug that produced a kind of current over here,’ She showed to her groin. ‘And, it made me feel so good all over the body. And, my underwear gave a good smell after it and we smelled it with the girls during the dinner sleep and then I and the other girls…’
Her mother made her stop talking with a gesture. She stopped talking in half way with an open mouth due she wanted to say more. Mike began to say that he was just an occasional passerby and he did not participate in the murder. Then, he said that he had been led by the Holy Ghost and the last occupied his soul and body to kill the men that lay on the asphalt nearby. He said that the blood of those men was not upon him. He did it in a blatnoj manner. Catherine took the brush and imbrued it with the blood. She covered Mike all over with that blood.
‘Say, their blood is upon you. Say it.’ She required.
Mike acknowledged it. After that he addressed the Sicilian Mafia and said that he would come over there and close down the shop if they did such things as those dead men had wanted to do. He recalled afterwards that Catherine seduced him and made love to him to pay for his bravery. Her mom gave her the advises and filmed it to make an evidence Mike was compensated for his valiancy by the true values and to bring the movie begun by the gangsters to the logical end for it to be maybe sold better. It was because as Catherine had said just before the sexual act she had been afraid to stay a virgin. It was due according to the scenario of the movie that should have been filmed, her father had wanted to kill her when she had been still a virgin to prevent her dishonor.
‘I want to lose my virginity lest they should kill me because I am a virgin still,’ the girl had said in much passion.
No matter that Mike was just six years old boy he enjoyed fully the feeling of domination and the first male orgasm in his life. He knew the woman so early in his life, but the way it was he had earned it. Then, Mike recalled that a pair of the policemen came to the place and wanted to disarm Mike. Mike killed them also with a sudden and quick attack like he had done with the gangsters. He wanted to revenge them that they had not reacted properly to the phone calls of Catherine’s mother that had tried to save her daughter.
‘I thought they were for the people, but they are for the bandits,’ Mike said with the mad eyes.
Then, they said he killed three male nurses also that came to take him to the hospital because he had smoked opium and killed the gangsters and policemen. Mike only remembered that a male nurse wanted to throw the straitjacket upon his hands and Mike cut him when he tried to tackle him down. He did kill the male nurse because he knew that they would bring him to the hospital and kill him with an injection to cover up their crime that they had not reacted properly to the application of Catherine’s mother. They said that all in all he killed fifteen people in that day. The driver of the ambulance said that he would not bring Mike to the hospital but the home when the other officers of the police arrived. Catherine followed Mike in the ambulance on the ride to his home.
During the interview, Mike promised to buy on the money he had received from Catherine for the murder of the gangsters a bottle of vodka, a loaf of black bread and some fumed fish for the rest of the money. It was to make less sharp the sorrow that Catherine had been dishonored. The woman that was the vendor that day in the nearby shop in the brick walls of which a pair of bullets from the machinegun had been shot by one of the bandits the day before, sold the vodka and food to Mike with the due respect. Mike drank it with one of the kindergarten workers while the mother of Catherine filmed that talk on the video camera. Mike persuaded that he was ready to marry Catherine no matter of what had happened between her and her father. He said he would drink enough of alcohol to disinfect the microbes and would kiss the girl all the same. The kindergarten teacher persuaded Mike that it was a bad idea to offer the marriage to Catherine because then they might tell Mike killed her father to get the family property and business. Still, they allowed Mike to kiss Catherine as they said. They led Mike outdoors. They put him against Catherine that was much more intimidated than the day before. They tied a cloth upon his eyes not to let him see what would happen. Then, they turned him around for some time and after that he kissed a girl. But, though Mike was drunken he was suspicious they substituted some other girl for Catherine. That is why when they took off the cloth he tried to hug and kiss Catherine with a sudden snatch. But, the girl was defter and managed to avoid a kiss. They said that Catherine had been dishonored. That is why she could not marry such a hero as Mike. Mike pitied it. He was angry that he could not change it. And, though he revenged the honor of Catherine, still what had happened could not be changed. All the same, Mike hoped that he would be able to take Catherine into his harem and give birth to a baby with her.
Then, they brought him to KBG. They told to Mike over there that the radio station ‘The voice of America’ told of Mike’s deed to all the country. But, then they began to upbraid him.
‘Why you’ve killed the policemen? You made the vengeance for your granddad John again?’ Sternly asked the KGB officer.
‘I did it because they were paid by the gangsters. And, I killed the very same policemen who should have come to the kindergarten to protect the life of Catherine. But, they protected those criminals instead. They are also guilty that those criminals had a possibility to film that movie in a Soviet town. The policeman that takes bribes is no more a policeman but a criminal himself.’ Mike explained.
‘So, you struggled with the criminality?’ The officer wanted to get a more precise reply.
Mike nodded.
‘What comedy you played pretending you was a girl. It’s the perversion. We watched the video material and we were shocked.' The officer said.
‘But, they let the men play the roles of the girls in the time of Shakespeare,’ Mike excused himself. ‘I did it to dishonor that man before his death lest they should kill me because I killed a thief-in-law. I made him lose his status by that owing to after that he was no more a thief-in-law due he had been dishonored.’
‘It’s perfidious. The same as the rest of what you did.’ The officer commented.
‘But, they were ten and I was alone, they were armed while I had only a razor blade,’ Mike said.
‘You did it alone or there were some adult men who might murder those gangsters?’ the officer demanded.
Mike got offended because they put into doubt his deed presuming there could be some men that might kill the gangsters instead of Mike, ‘No, I was alone,’ he said.
‘Somebody hired you to kill them?’ Mike asked.
‘No,’ Mike answered.
‘So, you killed them just because you wanted to stand up for a girl?’ the officer put the question.
‘Yea,’ Mike said, ‘they wanted to kill her and film it on the video.’
‘You know, Mike, the Italian Mafiosi say, ‘Business, nothing personal’ when they kill. So, there should be a business in it if somebody kills. Money, property, business. They do not kill just for the girls. I mean the real Mafiosi.’ The officer told.
Mike got into a kind of a stupor shocked by what he had heard from the officer. He had been taught by the simple rule that it was necessary to defend the girls. Now, he had heard that the real Mafiosi whom he no doubt respected defended the girls only if there was a business and they would not do it just for the personal matters. Mike even opened his mouth in a gape of astonishment. The officer saw his reacted and the tears appeared on his eyes.
‘I cannot speak with him any more. Change me.’ He addressed another officer.
The last sat on the freed seat at the table against Mike.
‘It means that the Italian do not kill if it is not personal?’ Mike asked. ‘That there is nothing personal for them, only business.’
Mike understood that it could be true because the Mafia was based on finances as any organization for the adult men who needed the money and whom they did not pay the ordinary salary. The expression of the deep disdain appeared on Mike’s face. He scorned the Italians because they did not defend the girls just for the sake of it.
‘You say there is nothing personal for the Italian, only the business?’ Mike asked again.
‘Do not worry, Mike.’ The fair-haired officer said to Mike. ‘It’s all deeply personal for the Italian.’
Mike got relaxed when he heard it.
‘You just answer us if somebody told you to do it or else you had a material interest in that murder. We heard about an old Tadjik who related you about that story. Maybe, he promised you the money for it. Perhaps, somebody promised you the money. Or else, you wanted to become a drug dealer yourself and wanted to take over that business of selling the heroin and other drugs.’ The officer made the questions more understandable.
‘Yea, Catherine gave me two rubles and seventy-two kopecks. Almost three rubles…’ Mike said.
‘You do not get mistaken. Three rubles, not three hundred rubles?’ The first officer asked when he returned smoking a cigarette. ‘And, what you could buy with three rubles? Serious money. You say, maybe, you wanted to inherit the business from that old Tadjik after his death if you wanted to restore him in his rights as they said about your intentions. Did not he say you to kill them.’
‘No, he just said to tell it to you, to apply to the KGB office, but I said it was my own business due you would not be capable to provide for Catherine’s security. And, I wanted to restore the old man in his rights and stop the limitlessness. I wanted to establish the good relations with the Tadjik nation because I want to be a politician and propose the Tadjik not to sell the strong drugs that kill but the antidepressants or very soft pills from the opium under the prescription of the doctors. It is because when the oil is over the alcohol will be costly and the Russian could consume more of heroin and it might be damaging for the nation.’ Mike told.
The ‘limitlessness’ meant the absence of any respect of the criminal world notions.
‘But, maybe you wanted to marry Catherine and take over that business of selling the heroin to feed your children?’ the officer asked.
‘No,’ Mike said, ‘that’s bad to sell the heroin.’
‘And, you know what they say about this trade, them Tadjik? They say they will make the Russian addicted to heroin and then after that take over the flats and houses to occupy Russia.’ The man told.
Mike knew he became the participant of the politic games of the nationalist character. But, for Mike it had been only to protect the life of a girl and to restore the old man in his rights. He was not nationalist. So, he kept mum.
‘You forget for now about your intentions and just study and visit the kindergarten, then the school. It’s necessary to learn many things to become a politician.’ The officer said.
‘And, you do not risk your life any more,’ the fair-haired officer said. ‘So many things are tied upon you. Next time you tell us if something happens. Ok?’
‘Ok,’ Mike agreed. ‘It was only necessary because they wanted to discredit me and show I was not able to protect a girl. I could not become a politician if I did not fight for Catherine’s life.’ He explained.
‘And, what about they say you played in the drug traffic with the children in the kindergarten. We gave the stuff to the experts and they say it’s the dill. It’s a special sort?’ The officer asked.
Mike explained how it worked.
‘So, it’s placebo? I mean it’s mere suggestion?’ The man asked.
Mike said it really worked to cause the bliss and relaxation.
Thus, Mike received the respect of KGB and many other people. However his parents did not know about it. He knew that when he would be adult and tell that story the mom and dad would not believe him.

Rat

It was when Mike was five already after his family had got new flat. Near the restaurant he met the group of criminals.
‘So, you’ve killed the Butthead, Ace and Valet? But, you should answer for it.’ They said.
‘But, I stood up for my mother.’ Mike said.
‘No matter you did it in a dishonest way. You cheated them. It was not according to the notions. So, we’ll give you a knife and put you in sparring with a Rat. You know which size he is? He’s more than a meter long. That size.’ One of the gangsters showed by his hands. ‘When you are the same height as he we’ll look who is better one of you two. Let’s see how long we should wait until you are the same size.’ The man measured Mike and looked how much it will need for him to grow the same size as the Rat. ‘It will not take more than one and half a year.’
‘There does not exist such big rats in the world.’ Mike said in doubt.
‘But, the Rat is not the animal. That’s a dwarf.’ One of the men said with a laugh.
‘I’m gonna kill your Rat,’ Mike said without any doubt. ‘My dad had shown me how to handle a knife. He was in the special forces detachment in the army. I need it for a deal. I’ve got an appointment. I’ll kill your Rat after that if he would want to fight with me.’ Mike assured.
‘Do not say ‘hop’ before you jump over,’ the criminal said. ‘The Rat is also very good in the knife scrap. Let’s live and see…’
Max, the boy from the kindergarten approached Mike about a month after he had killed the Tadjik gangsters.
‘The Rat stole the cocaine from the stock in the jail and they lowered him. It’s because he got afraid to get into a knife sparring with you.’ Max told.
It meant the Rat stole the cocaine from the common reserve of the jail cell and they dishonored him for that. So, he was not obliged to keep his word of honor any more and risk his life in a knife scarp with Mike.

Five rubles bill

It was after Mike had killed the Tadjik gangsters near the kindergarten. Max was the boy who visited the same group in the kindergarten. He brought into the kindergarten a five-ruble bill.
‘It’s my input into the thieves’ stock. Five rubles. Are you ready to become the pakhan of our band of the boys in the kindergarten.’ Max offered.
Mike accepted the payment and brought it home to his father and said that Max had given him that banknote. Then, he did not know its fate. Whether it was spent by the parents or given to Max’ parents. The last was more agreeable because Mike was afraid to declare himself a pakhan as the chief of the band of thieves was called in the jail slang. Even if it was a child play.

Umpire

It was near the restaurant. A group of criminals started a conversation with Mike.
‘So, you say you’re the prophet? Say us our secrets and we will believe in God.’ One of them offered.
‘I’ve heard what you talked about and I will say the secrets of your hearts not because I see the visions but because of the deductive method,’ Mike explained.
‘Then, we will maybe believe in Holmes and Watson,’ the other gangster joked.
‘The youngest of you wants to use the mob in his private interests and kill somebody for his personal matters,’ Mike said.
‘But what you say, he exchanged the circus college and wife with kids for the mob deal. You better do not say that he wants to let us down.’ One of the gangsters said.
‘No man would change the circus college and wife with kids for the mob deal if he would not need a protection to commit a personal matter. Most of all, he wants to kill some guy for a personal insult because of a woman. Most probably, his own wife.’ Mike concluded.
The youngest man got changed in his countenance. The other gangsters looked into his eyes.
‘It’s the truth?’ One of them said.
‘Do not hurry up,’ Mike said, ‘now, I’ll tell your secret. You wanted to use him for some case for him to pay with his life for the benefit of your band. That is why you took into your band a man that had not been in the jail. It’s the hypocrisy when you say that you respect much a man that was not in jail for much time. You want to cheat him.’
Now, the gangsters began to look to one another’s eyes and threw the glances askance towards the youngest thief. In the eyes of the youngest thief could be seen the indignation. The rest of the thieves felt ashamed.
‘And, what’s your opinion of how to solve that matter?’ a thief asked.
‘A woman is also business. Especially, if to say about a wife. In the past they paid the money for a wife. You do not understand that because you passed too much time in jail and slept only with the occasional women. But, the times change. Soon, there will be the capitalism and the gangsters would have the families and it will be according to the notions. It’s necessary to protect the honor of the wife and family even for a thief. You should help one another in that. But, I bet the problem is that he wants to kill not a criminal for some otherwise justified business but some guy or guys for a personal matter. It may cause damage for the reputation of the mob when they know that the gangster from your band will kill the ordinary people not involved in the criminal affairs. Still, he should be allowed to do that and pass a term in the jail for some other matter that would benefit the mob. The other criminals can kill him for that in the Russian jail. So, you would be better for him to pass the term in the foreign jail. For example, an American prison. Then, it would be equitable.’ Mike expressed his opinion.
‘But, how you know all that?’ a gangster asked.
‘If you did not have anything to conceal you would have no hazard to ask me if I may tell about your secrets.’
The gangster began to clear up the matter with the youngest thief. The talk began about the stock money of the band. It meant they wanted to part with the youngest thief. One of the gangsters put the money on the border of the stone flowerbed on which Mike sat. It was five hundred rubles. Twice the monthly salary of Mike’s dad. They quarreled. Mike took the money and put in into the pocket of his white shirt. He sympathized to the youngest thief. The gangster saw the money had disappeared.
‘Boy, did you took the money?’ one of the thieves asked.
‘Yea,’ Mike confirmed.
‘Boy, do not joke with that. That’s the stock money.’ A thief warned.
‘I did it to offer you a deal,’ Mike said. ‘I will give you a lead for an affair.’
Mike told that the mother of Inna that worked as a bartender in the local bar collected the big sum of money from tips and speculation on the prices of liquor she sold illegally. It was about nine hundred rubles. She hid the money in the niche in the wall right in the main room of the bar that it always should be under her view and the sum grew. She was afraid that one day the police would come and arrest her along with the money as the evidence. Mike said that he would give the stock money of the band he had put into his pocket to the woman that provided Inna’s mother with the liquor illegally to share it with the last. And, the gang would have nine hundred rubles instead of the five hundred. Nobody would take the money from the women and even the police would not interfere even if they knew the full details of the affair because the women would have the mob stock instead of illegal profits. Mike said that if the gang would do the same things in the future, they would have a big profit. And, the youngest well educated thief would be not substitutable in that business of finding the people who would give the part of their illegal profits in exchange for the protection of the mob and status of the roofed businessmen in an intelligentsia way without any violence. It would be a good business Mike said. The thieves stopped to quarrel and the profit and usefulness of the youngest gangster seemed to make void any accusations against him that he had wanted to let down the mob. They went to the bar and took the money from the niche in an open way during the day and while the clients were present. So, Mike solved the matter as he had promised to Inna’s mother. In the same day, Mike met the woman that supplied Inna’s mother with the illegal liquor and gave her the money having said that it was the stock of the mob. Thus, the business of selling the liquor in the time of the partial prohibition was established in the local bar under the criminal roof of the mob.


Sister

After Mike ate up the pills with the military vaccines the grandma Helen told him that his granddad Jack also had been vaccinated in Vietnam and visited the hospital to give the blood tests. She said that her granddaughter Jane was sick because of that.
‘I will marry her also,’ Mike said to receive the slaps of the grandma’s palm on his lips, ‘but Abraham married Sarah.’ Mike argued.
All in all, Jane was Mike’s half sister. She was the daughter of another woman. They had only the common father like Sarah and Abraham had had. Mike knew that if he did not marry Jane her daughter would be even sicker and surely a harlot and her son would be most surely a passive homosexual to acquire the necessary antibodies to survive. It was the honor of the family and Mike did not want to allow for Jane to have the sick children of a bad reputation.
Once, he was about six and visited the flat of grandma Helen in another city. Jane lived with her mother in it. That day she and her cousin Ann played in the flat. They sat on a big wooden chest, which stood near the window and gossiped about something. Mike entered into the room.
‘Will you marry me when I will be adult like Sarah married Abraham?’ Mike popped the question.
‘He wants to take you into his harem,’ Ann commented.
‘I will tell the father about that,’ Jane said after the tears appeared on her eyes. ‘He will punish you for that.’
‘Foolish girl, I will arrange with the KGB that they should help my dad to earn the money for a big two-storied house for it to be inherited by our children. And, you will not live in a harem. You will live distantly in a separate big flat.’ Mike said.
‘But, what about Nick?’ Jane demanded.
‘We will leave him a flat instead of that one which his father and the mom earned together and give him the money for the business.’ Mike said.
‘But, my mom will say no,’ Jane said and rubbed her eyes.
‘I will arrange with the KGB that they should give a good job in gold mining to your mother and she will earn the money for a good flat in a big city. But, first you should live in the hostel for some time that you should not marry early and give birth to the sick kids.’ Mike said.
‘And, I should wait for you after you will be crazy and stay a maiden?’ Jane asked with expression. She was six years older than Mike.
‘You may have the boyfriends, only you should not bear the kids from them,’ Mike said.
Jane kept silence. Ann nudged her.
‘Consent,’ she persuaded.
‘I consent,’ Jane said.
Thus, Mike got the principal agreement of his half sister to bear him a kid. Now, he had to arrange it with the spiritual and temporal authorities. First, it was the church. He sat on the gray dry wooden bench near the house of his grandparents in the village. Three Orthodox priests approached him. They said they came for Mike’s blood.
‘But, will the monks forbear?’ Mike asked.
‘Yes, they will,’ one of the priests said. ‘Do you believe in life eternal?’ He asked.
‘Yea, I will be clonned in Argentine that they should take the blood from my new mom and vaccinate the other pregnant women. It’s because she will not be able to bear the healthy ordinary kids.’ Mike told.
‘And, will they clon us?’ a priest asked with a smile. ‘We preach about it, the eternal life, and it could happen that a cobbler might stay without the boots.’
‘You only should have a high level of testosterone that an otherwise barren woman may give birth to you. That’s not the question of the money only but also of the physics. You should fast and pray for that.’ Mike explained.
‘Seemed like the gospel,’ the other priest said.
‘Can we take a syringe of your blood to vaccinate the nuns and monks?’ The eldest priest asked.
‘I only wanted to get your blessing for an affair,’ Mike said.
‘Which is it?’ the eldest priest asked.
‘Can I marry my half sister Jane if she cannot bear a healthy child to another man and there’s no choice for us but to marry like it was with Sarah and Abraham. We have a common father. I will fast much and pray for that. It’s because my father served in the army and had been vaccinated before Jane was born. I will wait but when she will be aged and there’s no choice may I marry her with your blessing? Can I marry her like our father Abraham married Sarah.’ Mike demanded.
The priests smiled, ‘That’s what you want our little Judah? You say your father Abraham.’
‘I never betrayed my friends and I will never,’ Mike sternly said.
‘Don’t get offended, we simply looked in our church books and saw there were the Jews in your ancestry.’ One of them said.
The priests began to speak with one to another. They went to the distance of a few steps to whisper to one another. Mike prayed. Then, they came to Mike.
‘It’s according to the grace of the Lord but you should fast and pray for it not to be worse than the ordinary way,’ the eldest said.
‘I will,’ Mike said, ‘I will take vows upon my soul and I will fast when the lust will take over my body with the Eden’s sin not to allow my body to sin. It will be for several years.’ Mike promised.
‘Ok, you should not let us down. We blessed you but all depends on you.’ The priests said.
They took Mike’s blood into a plastic syringe. After he got the blessing of the church and society he also needed the blessing of the State. Next time when he was in KGB he demanded about that.
‘Only, you should not bear the freaks and you should not do it in an open way. I mean the relations with your sister.’ The officer said.
‘Ok,’ Mike said.
Thus, Mike knew they would not put him in jail for the incest because it would be the extreme necessity for the healthy kids to be born by his sister. He also knew that his half brother Nick might be infected by the close communication with his stepfather Jack, Mike’s own dad. Nick himself promised to give to Mike his only begotten daughter when the fortuneteller who worked for KGB had frightened him that Nick could die if Mike did not keep a vow and stay virgin to twenty three and fast.
‘But, will you be enough a hero for her to fall in love with you?’
‘Yea,’ Mike said, ‘I will.’
He promised a financial help to Nick before he would be married and to let a flat be given to him. They also arranged that Nick would steal the case with the money from their dad Jack when the last would be a businessmen and Mike would stand up for Nick and persuade the dad along with his mom not to apply to the police. Thus, there was a chance that Mike would marry his niece also provided for he would be a hero enough.

Evil

‘Boy, what you want as a compensation for the evil we caused to you,’ demanded one of the Chechen men, that one who wore a hat.
‘I should be given three girls, each one from every most influential clans,’ Mike said.
‘Boy, don’t you ask too much? There may be left not enough Chechen girls for the Chechen boys.’ The man objected.
‘Then, I will revenge and I along with the Russian will kill the Chechen boys that there were the free girls for me to marry as a war trophy,’ Mike said.
‘Boy, what you say? You don’t know what the Chechen vendetta is? We will revenge even if we die as long as it is necessary to level the scores. We are not like you the Russian.’ The man in the hat said.
‘They simply do not kill you enough. I know what the Chechen vendetta is. The Russian will kill you more and more and there will be more free women for the harems and the vacancies, jobs and property. So, those who will stay alive won’t be angry and revenge.’ Mike just said.
‘Boy, are you really ready to take so much evil on your soul?’ the man with the hat on his head asked in a challenge after a moment of pondering.
‘Yes, I’m ready.’ Mike assured though he felt how heavy it would be.
Then there were the reciprocal threats, curses and insults between him and the man with the hat. But, the other man that sat nearby seemed to be serious and sad.
‘Boy, do not worry, we will give you three girls from the clans that accept it. Only do not participate in the war against us.’ He said.
Mike promised that. In return, he promised to build in a Chechen town the factory producing the tea beverage from the coca leaves for the Chechen to have the special restaurants all through Russia and control that business in a certain share.


Standing up for a girl

Mike went near the restaurant when he heard a girl weep. A gangster tried to feed some pills to her. Mike came fast to the place.
‘What you do, that’s my territory,’ Mike said and took a souvenir knife out of his pocket.
‘That’s none of your business, boy. That girl will eat those pills and have the sick skin when she will grow up.’ The man said.
They said that a boy had eaten the pills also, but it was not sure whether he did it because his parents also were guilty or else he stood up for the girl.
‘Give me your pills,’ Mike said. ‘I will eat them instead of this girl and you will leave her in peace.’
The man gave the pills to Mike with a smile of challenge and the boy ate them up.
‘You are glad? There’re no more pills for the girl?’ Mike asked.
‘Boy, what you did? You are of no concern in here. Vomit it out. Let’s vomit it out.’ The gangster said nearly with tears on his eyes.
‘I will not,’ Mike said. ‘I ate those pills instead of this girl. Ok?’
‘But, you will have the sick skin when you’ll grow up. Please vomit it out.’ The gangster tried to persuade.
‘I will have no sick skin due I will forbear and I will be Ok,’ Mike said.
‘Boy, please vomit it out.’ The man said to the small boy in the pram who had got the pills first to eat maybe because he had protested to the idea that the girl should eat them, or more probably his parents had been guilty themselves.
All Mike recalled about the event was the smell of the childish vomit. The pills had to do something with the metabolism and balance of sugar. So, the girls had said that Mike should have a scorched leg in the future for the sickness not to develop because according to the medicine a scorch did not allow the skin sickness to develop. Then, after several years the sister of the girl for whom Mike stood up said that she would not take Mike for the job in the chamber of the registration of the rights and deals in real estate in which he would be the boss if he did not become the friend of that boy who had eaten the pills first. Of course, it was a valiant deed, the fact that he had eaten the pills first and Mike had enough time to stand up for the girl and happen on the place in the right moment. But, Mike knew he did it for his parents were guilty also and he knew he should do it the same. Still, the ultimatum of the woman made Mike become the friend of that boy after his sickness and the work in the chamber of registration. But, it did not last long because the boy was cheeky.



Fraternization

It was cool in the hall and it was easy to breathe after the hot and damp atmosphere of the public sauna. Mike sat on one of the row of wooden chairs. He knew Jack because their fathers worked together in the local communist party committee. They talked about small matters then Jack turned more serious.
‘Let’s fraternize,’ he offered. ‘Let’s exchange our blood.’
Mike hesitated for a second, then said, ‘It’s a bad idea, you can get sick if you get my blood into your body if we rub your wound and my wound against each other like they do in the fraternization.’
Jack tried to think of some other argument. ‘But what if I swallow some of your blood. I cannot be your peer then, but a vassal. And, we’d have the women in common. Like I’m a vampire.’
‘That’s no deal. I’d better have my own women and you your own.’ Mike objected.
‘But all the same, if one of them chose first me then you?’ Jack asked.
Mike kept silence, then said, ‘That depends on her but that’d be bad.’
‘Still, let me swallow some of your blood, I also want to have the immunity,’ Jack insisted.
‘Ok,’ Mike agreed.
They found a nail protruding from the wood. Jack took Mike’s finger and tore a small wound against the nail. He sucked the blood. Then, his father went out of the sauna and a man told him that Jack had sucked Mike’s blood. Jack’s dad turned angry and said it was not a good play the boys had called the fraternization. They chased Mike and Jack into the corridor of the building where the women and girls could contemplate their naked bodies. They squatted to hide themselves. Then, Jack, who was always full of tricks and jokes like his own father, took a sheep skin coat from the hat-and-coat-rack. Mike felt relieved that somebody shared his fate.


Baby

A she-wolf told Mike a story of her human baby that had died in the winter. It was the summer when she acquired him. Some men hid in the bush with rifles. She knew they were waiting for somebody, not wolves. So, she ran closer, and sniffed. They were homosexuals. Her hair stood on end and she snarled.
‘Here’s a dog!’ said one of them with alert.
‘Go make it go away,’ said the other.
A man with a rifle went into the bush. The she-wolf could kill him, he was a bad hunter. But, he had a rifle and she was afraid of it. She knew why the men were homosexuals. They were held in small stuffy rooms without any females, because they made evil. They were waiting for somebody. A wolf told her how a rifle could wound. It was before he died. He ran the hunters off the den, and finally died not able to come to the den to see his cubs. She was afraid of the bullets. She hid in the bush.
A sound of a cart driven by a horse with jingling bells appeared in the cool air of the night. The she-wolf got cheerful because of the prey. But, then she remembered about the men in the bush, she wailed acutely to prevent the evil. The man in the green uniform stopped the horse with a sudden movement. He stood on his rear legs. The man moved his right hand toward the holster with a gun. But, at this moment a rifle cracked and a bullet hit him on the liver. The blood splashed from the right kidney, and gored from the front wound. The men fell on the ground over the turquoise bench of the cart. The pregnant woman squealed.
‘Shit!’ cried a man in a cotton coat. ‘You gotta shoot into the heart!’
The man in green uniform took the gun with his right hand and shoot at the sound. The bullet hit a speaking man’s head and went through his brains to strike a tree. The speaking man fell off the tree on the place where they made the fire. Another man in the black cotton coat shot but missed and the bullet struck the turquoise bench spotted with the blood. The woman squealed again. Her husband shot to the smoke of the powder and the bullet went through the belly of the man with the rifle. It struck the backbone and broke it. This man was the chief to this moment. He wheezed, and let out the saliva bubbles that after some time mixed with the blood.
‘Go away,’ cried a man with a womanish voice. He wanted to jump down the log but a bullet shot him through the right temple and he fell on the ground.
The other men in the cotton coats began to creep off their nests. The man in the green uniform shot and killed another one through the temple. He got on his legs and went forward. He shot another man in the black cotton coat through the left temple. The other one through the forehead. He counted his bullets left they were a few in the bolt. Suddenly, the stallion that stood still got on his rear legs, he menaced the enemy with his front ones and ran into the darkness of the night with the woman in the cart.
‘Go, go, the Faithful, don’t turn back…’ at this moment a bullet went into the man’s spleen and he fall on his back.
The Faithful ran into the night but a man in the cotton coat with a carbine began to shoot. First bullet struck the right side into liver of the stallion. The second one into the head through the temple. The third one through the right rear leg. Here a bullet killed the man with the carbine through the temple. It went out the left temple and broken the skull. The man with the carbine fell on his side. The other man in the cotton coat got shot through the left temple. It was easy for the man in the green uniform to shoot from the ground.
The stallion heard the order of his master in his memory, ‘Go, go, the faithful, don’t turn back…’ here a bullet struck the Faithful on his right kidney. The shooter got a gun’s bullet into his right temple. Before he died he felt an acute nausea. The other man in the cotton coat got shot through the right temple. The man in the green uniform easily saw the figures in the gray light of the full moon. The Faithful ran as fast as he could, it seemed to him that the man in the gray cotton coat always shot into his kidney. The navel ached. The bullet gave a splitting pain in the right part of his brain where it struck the bone of the cranium. He ran and ran, he turned his head the forehead to the right to somehow balance the splitting pain. The blood gushed out of the wound on the right temple. The bullet in the right rear leg got stuck, and he always felt it when he struck the hoof upon the ground. Somebody wanted to shoot into the cart, but the bullet went through the back of his head and went out his right eye to prevent the evil. The men with the rifle made a pirouette to the left and fell on his back. The last he felt was as though the bullet went through the left temple to go out the cheekbone. It was strange he thought, because he felt as the other bullet should come into the right part of his forehead to go out through the right part of the back of his head, but it went out the right ear. Then, the man realized that it were three bullets that hit his head all at once. But where came the fourth to go out the left part of the forehead. The right drum membrane ached most of all and hindered the thinking. Where had got the bullet that was in his upper right part of his brain and another one in his upper left? It was too hard for him to think and he died.
‘You said he shot bad,’ shrieked a voice.
The man in the green uniform took the empty bolt out of the gun. He threw it off. Then, he surmounted the pain in the liver that had been shot through and took the other bolt out of the holster. He put it into the gun. He cocked it.
‘He’s got no more cartridges, let’s gonna kill ‘im,’ said a hollow voice.
The man in the green uniform smiled. It was bad that he did not kill them before, when they said they’d do it, thought Mike. He himself would surely prevent the evil.
A dark figure appeared from behind the log. It approached the man in the green uniform and tried to see if he was alive. The wounded man shot into the figure’s left knee and then into the head. Before the hollow voiced man died he tried to realize what eye the bullet went into his head. Or maybe there were two shots? He fell first back on the bent knees, but then forward when the body hauled him into the front of him. He fell left of the wounded man.
‘Don’t get out, let’s wait till he dies!’ ordered somebody.
The man in the green uniform knew some of them ran after the wounded Faithful to kill his pregnant wife. He tried to stand up, but fell on his back. He pulled the trigger and shot into the air. The men in the cotton coats got lower to the ground.
‘Seems he’s giving off his ends,’ said somebody. ‘I’d like to kill ‘im myself.’
He stood and got a bullet into his head that went through his left eye out of the right it seemed. He did not die. He wheezed and asked to kill him. A young thief stood up to help him and got a bullet into his left temple. He died right away. The thief wounded into the head panted.
‘For the pakhan, for the black, for the brethren, bitches, forward!’ he hollered in a hoarse voice.
The bullet had stuck somewhere in the head, and did not let the thief to close his left eye.
‘For the pakhan, bitches, the blood for the blood, for the pakhan.’ He croaked.
The pakhan as they call the major thief lay on his belly. His blood poured all over the log.
‘For the pakhan, bitches,’ he hollered.
A six as they call a thief on errands, who tried to take a blood spotted rifle with his left head, got a bullet into his left temple. His left eye popped out of its place. He did not die also. He wailed.
It was a talking place of thieves. So, there were many thieves, even more than rifles they got in the village.
‘For the pakhan, bitches, forward,’ croaked the middle-aged thief. ‘For the black!’
The black were the thieves in the whole that lived on their notions and did not acknowledge the state, its law, and the jail administration.
‘What, bitches, got bitched, turned red?’ he croaked.
The red are the thieves that acknowledge the state, its laws, and collaborate with the jail administration, though respect the notions of the black.
‘Bitches, got bitched!’ he hollered.
To get bitches meant to turn red for a black thief. A thief should be killed for it, or to kill.
‘Bitches, go ahead…’ a young thief stood up but got a bullet into his left temple. His both eyes jumped out the cranium. He also did not die but wailed. The men who went along the bloody trail of the Faithful stood still. They thought the man in the green uniform killed the wounded.
‘We should be faster and find his wife before he comes to us.’ Said one.
Another thief tried to take the rifle that lay on the ground but got a bullet into his right temple. His head waved and he fell on the ground, wounded. He cried.
‘For the pakhan, bitches, damp the master, bitches,’ that was the looker the man standing after the pakhan in the complex hierarchy of the thieves.
‘The blatnoy, for the blatnoy cause, ahead,’ croaked the looker.
The blatnoy were the men, who had the pull in the terms of the jail existence.
‘Forward, bitches…’ he stood up himself, but got a bullet into his right temple that went out the right one. He fell on his right side not able to say anything more.
The thieves that went after the cart felt to be close to it. The bloody trail got thicker and thicker. Suddenly, they heard the chilling voices of the wolves. The wolves cried one by one signaling they came to battle. They were many. They forgot about their kindred quarrels. They went to save a man according to their spirit. A man that was a brother of them, according to their hearts. A man who killed the sick for the young and old to live. The wolves gave out their battle cry one by one. It were males. They went to protect the man in the green uniform and his pregnant female. Those cries turned the blood into the ice, except you were the same.
The man with the gun heard these cries of his brethren. He got calmer and weaker. He knew they’d protect his wife. They were many and strong. But, he felt the pain of his wife, he was going to deliver the baby. She bit her tongue and was silent, fearing the man with knives. The man wept and left all it to the Lord. He died.
The thief felt his hands to get sweaty and sticky. The knife always slipped out of his shaking hand. Last he saw was a wolf’s silhouette that jumped from the night. He wanted to stab the wolf into the right side with his feeble hand, but the beast struck him on the places where his shoulders met his chest with his sharp paws and before he fell on his back, the wolf’s teeth tore out his Adam’s apple. The second thief saw nothing. He closed his eyes and let the knife fall off his right hand even before a bigger wolf jumped on the upper part of the shoulder blade and crunched his neck with a cracking noise.
The thieves got out of their ambush. They approached the dead man in the green uniform.
‘So what, master, got encountered? Did not suppose? Are not glad, yea? We wanted to talk to you. ‘Tis our time, ‘tis our turn to call to the answer,’ said a young thief. He shot into the head and body of the head of the administration of the jail, middle aged man from the North. But, before he shot his last cartridge a wolf jumped from the bush and broke his neck squeezing the Adam’s apple. The thieves, who were wounded but still lived, got eaten up alive. They wailed while their muscles and bones ended up in the stomachs of the wolves.
The woman cried and tried to deliver her baby. She tried to let him go through, but only the blood ran from her womb. The cart was broken into pieces after it struck a chump. The Faithful lay dead on the ground after the harness tore his mouth and broke the lower jaw. A piece of the wood from the cart’s right stick went into the Faithful’s right side below the navel. He hit a tree with his head and died. The brains and blood covered the trunk. The woman knew she would not be able to give birth to her baby.
‘Help me, please help me, he should live, my baby should live, you understand,’ she cried to the she-wolf. The she-wolf wailed and tore the woman by the sock of her leg. The woman fell on the ground not able to protect her from the fall with her hands. Her navel ached very hard, as if a knife was stabbed into it. The woman lay on the ground. She breathed not deep and frequently to get off the pain. She was dying, she knew it.
‘You should help me, you should. Give me the knife, give it to me,’ she cried through the bloody swallows of her throat.
She tried to get the knife by her right hand, but could not attain to it.
‘You should help, this baby should be born, you should know it, you should help me…’ cried the woman.
And, before the woman died the she-wolf tore her belly and her womb with the sharp teeth by a few jerks on herself. And, took out the bloody baby as gently and only a female that was a mother could do. She tore the navel of the boy baby even before she took him out. The last the woman saw was her baby that a she-wolf held in her teeth. He wailed and asked to be taken care.
‘Run, run,’ the woman whispered with her last force. ‘They should not see you. He should live. That’s a boy. He should live…’ here she gave up her spirit.
The she-wolf ran off the battle place afraid that the wolf males could have killed the boy baby in the heat of the warfare. She heard the cries of the eaten up thieves. She was pregnant herself and was about to deliver her cubs. But, first she had to get into her den. She remembered the eyes of the woman spotted with tears.
‘He should live, you know, he should live,’ cried the woman in her memory’s mind’s eye.
While in her den she delivered her cubs. She licked them along with the human baby. When her husband came from the battlefield with a belly full of human meat he snarled at the smell of the human baby. But the she-wolf snarled also in a menace, and the male did not argue with a mother. The boy ate and played with the cubs. The she-wolf did not let her male to get into the hole for fear of the human baby. Her male just left the meat in the front of the hole and went away for a new portion. The she-wolf swiftly took the meat and ran into the whole with a tail between the legs. Then came the autumn. The game got scarcer and scarcer. Then, came the winter. It was cold, but there was little snow. The game disappeared, the hunger came into the she-wolf’s den. First died one cub, then the other, third also died, then fourth. The human baby died fifth. She licked him remembering the promise she gave to his human mother. It was not her fault, or her husband’s. The neighbors’ cubs died even sooner. Her husband had tried as much as he could. He brought chicken and once a sheep. But, it was too cold. It was so cold in the den that it was almost the same as above the hole under the root of a big tree. She could not imagine how her husband was able to breathe this frosty air that scorched the lungs. Then, died all the cubs. She buried them in the snow along with the human baby, whom she licked long until she was sure he was dead. She would wait for the spring to bury them in the ground. Nobody would take them, her husband would look after it. Her male went home, he seemed to be forceless and weary. But, he was not desperate. They were not old yet, and they’d have more babies. Her husband was to console her of her lost children. He approached her and played. She knew it was hard for him, because he also regretted his cubs. But, he wanted to give life and they had sex again…
Mike heard this story and was silent.
‘Can we revenge?’ asked the wolves.
‘No,’ said Mike, ‘The evil will return on them itself.’
‘But, how we can temper it?’ asked the wolves.
‘I’ll give you of my spirit,’ said Mike.

Salt instead of sugar

It was a snowy winter. A sunny day of January. Mike decided to visit his cousin Alex. A cousin of Alex, a pretty brunette girl two years older than he and a year than Mike, went to visit Alex. They played in the summer kitchen. A small house that was often rented on a timely basis but now was vacant. It had a burner, so it was warn in it. Mike went into the small house. He greeted the both cousins. Though, he did not consider the girl as his relative. They played a home and a family. So, Mike was a bit of excessive for the company. But he liked much the girl and could not help staying over his welcome. He tried to joke and be popular with the girl. He even cheated in his fantasy. However, it could be true, he did not know.
‘You know once, I put some salt instead of sugar into the sugar-bowl. And, imagine, the granddad put the salt into the cup instead of sugar and it did not dissolve in the tee cup. He mixed, mixed but it was on the bottom, he could not dissolve…’ Mike made too much of it.
‘But, the salt does dissolve even faster than the sugar in the water,’ the pretty brunette girl commented.
Mike knew he had met the feminine creature on her ground, and got caught in his outreached fantasy that could be called a lie. The girl went and whispered something to Alex. The boy got cocky.
‘Let’s get clothed,’ he proposed.
They all took their clothes on, and went out. Here the boy began to play the cock. He pushed Mike to get out of his household. The pretty brunette girl went after him and silently encouraged him by her presence. Mike decided to retreat by the way they along with Alex had often got out his household, by over the fence. When Mike got into the barn and near the place where there had been a window, Alex suddenly pushed Mike into it. The last rolled over on the frozen heap of pig dung. Mike got up and tried to get over the fence, but Alex pushed him again and he fell on the ground. They were no friends with Alex since this time, simply cousins…
Mike met this pretty brunette girl a summer night in a supermarket, he was sure. He was twenty-four years old. She stood near the shelves where she packed some vegetables or fruits. Mike was with Julia. The suntanned beauty watched Mike to pass through the cash machine. There was something strange in her look as though she had some interest in Mike and appealed to their being acquainted in the past. Mike got out of the market, and took Julia by the hand. However, he kept the brunette beauty for some weeks in his memory.

The enemy of the State

There was a girl in the kindergarten whose name was Olivia. It was arranged with her that she would be a nurse and take care of Mike when he would get sick. Her father got a move on his job as an advance. But, then she came and said she wanted to be a doctor and would not heal Mike. She said it was because her own father David was sick and would have a tumor in his brains to be operated on afterwards. There was a quarrel in their family and Olivia seemed to be offended much. Little time had passed since Mike had killed the Tadjik father of Catherine. So, the kindergarten teachers began to persuade Mike that he should revenge the insult of Olivia.
‘Why you quarreled with your father?’ Mike asked.
‘He said to the mom that he had nothing to lose and did not want to be a fool in his old age. He said he would sleep with the harlots and get infected with some bad illness to die faster. My mom’s afraid he will infect her also. I’m afraid they will divorce and let me in the orphanage house.’ Olivia told. She was so shocked she could not weep.
‘It won’t happen,’ Mike said, ‘I’ll find a way to arrange for it.’
When Olivia’s dad came to the kindergarten Mike approached him.
‘Olivia said she would not take care of me. Why it’s so? Whether they did not promise you to help you and already did something to help you?’ Mike asked.
‘Olivia is a successful girl. Leave it to your other girlfriends to help you, those that are syphilitic. Ok?’ David said.
Mike felt hatred because the man insulted his girls.
‘They say you also want to get infected with something sleeping with the harlots and also to infect your wife?’ Mike asked calmly. ‘I could arrange for it even if you do not infect your wife.’
‘You threaten me? Maybe you think I will be afraid of you friends from KGB? I’m not a coward. I have nothing to lose. I will not keep silence. I know that you said to that boy that a girl would infect him with the hepatitis C. You think it will come off your hands?’ David demanded.
‘That’s his own business. I only said to that boy he should pay a debt, but he was avid and said he wouldn’t. He even wanted to earn some money on it. That’s his right. KGB will protect that girl, only. And, maybe you also want to earn some money on getting infected with the hepatitis C?’ Mike asked.
‘And what you can offer me, you cub?’ David asked with disdain.
‘I’m not a cub. I can offer you something. I may speak with my dad and with the KGB officers that it should be arranged that you get a four rooms flat and then a cottage instead of my father and our family on the grounds you’ve got the children of the different sex. I mean Olivia. You may sleep with the other women, only do not risk and infect your wife. Then, they will infect you with the hepatitis C during the operation on your brains. You’ll die faster before getting very old. Is it not what you asked for? Do you agree?’ Mike proposed.
The man strangely laughed and said, ‘If you can arrange for that, boy, the way you say it, I may agree.’
Mike understood him literally, as was his principle…
In the next presence in the KGB office Mike asked the officers to arrange for that deal.
‘You’ve got an enemy?’ the officer asked with a smile. ‘Seems that we become friends because we got common enemies. Do you know that we promoted that man on his career but then he gave us a slip and said he was a simple Soviet metallurgic worker that had got all on his own. He said he would not collaborate with us. I got a lot of upbraiding from my bosses for his behavior like I was guilty because he is such a guy. It’s hard to accept your offer because we’ve decided not to promote him anymore and help him. You know it’s very hard for him to get something from us now.’
‘It’s because he knows he is sick, he looks for a conflict because he is not afraid to lose his health or even to die,’ Mike explained. ‘He wants a bargain. He wants to sell his own health in return for a credit of property. I’m afraid for Olivia that she could have been left without the parents or inheritance. David wants to propose himself to produce the immunity and fight the hepatitis C for the sake of the humanity because he wants to die before very old. That’s a bargain, I simply speak with you on his behalf.’
Mike knew why they traded the health on such heavy sicknesses as hepatitis C and syphilis. Those sicknesses always were under the mutation and got stronger and more dangerous. So, somebody had to get sick with them and work out the immunity for the humanity and make a kind of vaccination for the rest with the weakened microbes. David wanted a bargain. Only, Mike was in a stupid situation because David wanted to play on Mike’s participation in that deal, to make the people think Mike was a kind of his enemy. Formally, Mike was pushed to pay privately for David’s getting sick with the hepatitis C in which he hardly was interested because he could make no business on David’s future illness and death. Mike was just an intermediary in that bargain. So, he wanted for the people around to understand he would invest really nothing in that affair. Still, he lost because he offered to David what he own dad should have received otherwise, a big flat and a cottage. But, he hoped he would earn and get his share of the real estate otherwise in the future. He would ask also for what he needed.
‘Ok, it seems to be a sure bargain and my authorities should approve it. Only he should not infect anybody.’ The officer said…
Mike said to Olivia he arranged for her not to become an orphan without the inheritance. She went away and wept. Then, she said that when Mike would grow adult he should come with a hat on, the one like the gangsters wore, to find out if her dad would be infected with the hepatitis C during the operation on his brains.

Chernobyl

Mike went by the place where the beer bar was situated when a man called for him.
‘You are that boy who ate the pills with the vaccines?’ the man asked.
‘Yes,’ Mike responded.
‘But you are a fool because of that. Do you know that you’ll be able to bear only the freaks owing to it?’ The man put the question.
‘I’ll bear the healthy kids because I’ll fast and pray, I’ll receive the God’s blessing,’ Mike firmly said.
‘I doubt. And, we’ll womanize while you’ll go crazy because of that.’ The man alleged.
‘I’ll stop fasting and become sound,’ Mike said.
‘I bet you’ll hide under the refrigerator to pretend afterwards you would give birth to the freaks because of the radiation. I know what I say, boy, I work on an atomic electric station in Chernobyl. The whole city was vaccinated with your blood and we will live and bear healthy kids while you’ll go crazy and give birth to the freaks. You’ve granted a lot of God’s blessing to us the guys from the chemical military forces. We’ll fuck the girls while you’ll fast.’ The man assured.
‘I’ll blow up your atomic electric station and you’ll all die about whom you said repairing it and cleaning the place. Or else you’ll turn impotent because of the radiation and stop womanizing.’ Mike said.
‘Ha-ha. How will you blow it up, the fool?’ the man asked.
‘I’ll do it with the force of my spirit and make you pull some lever the wrong way to make the station blow when you’ll be on your shift. I’ll do it with my spiritual power.’ Mike assured.
Then, they said that Mike blew up the atomic electric station in Chernobyl by his telepathy. Even the woman that was the psychiatric doctor asked him when he grew adult why he blew up that station. But, Mike knew he did not blow it up the way it happened. Only, he was in tact with the go of thing. Mike knew why the soldiers and officers in the chemical and military forces were sent to Chernobyl. Those that still served and those that were called from the reserve. They had been vaccinated and the same as it was with the vaccine made of Mike’s blood it cost the pain and health to somebody else. It was because those detachments would have been used in the case of the bacteriological war or terrorist act. But, instead of forbearing of sex and giving birth to the kids with a much stronger immunity, they womanized alluring the girls with their antibodies. Then, they turned sicker and dangerous to cause the headache to the authorities to how get rid of them on a common basis. The best solution was to send them under the influence of the radiation for the microbes to get weaker and assumed by the rest of the population as a kind of vaccination. Also, the soldiers and officers would lose partly or wholly their sexual potential not to be able to infect the women and through them the rest of the society. The sickest who womanized most should die first being sent to the place of the accident in the first days. The choice of those who would be sent to the place should be made on the basis of the blood tests. If somebody pondered on that problem in Kremlin such a solution of the problem might be possible. So, maybe somebody really blew up the station in Chernobyl. However, even if it was just an accident as a case of a common curse the fact that those people died was quite natural. Thus, Mike got afraid for his future. He was afraid that if he had fasted of sex not enough time and just fornicated then they could have sent him to repair some blown up atomic electrical station like it was in Chernobyl. It would have been to get away with the danger of the microbes in his body by the radiation. So, he preferred to be a responsible citizen.

Nightmares

Once in the KGB office, the officer laughed and told Mike about a cancelled command from the Kremlin to kill him.
‘The general secretary of the central communist party committee himself gave a command to kill you. But, then the nightmares tortured him too much and he cancelled the order. He did not want to take on him the innocent blood.’ The man laughed.
Then, Mike saw the general secretary of the central communist party committee only a pair of years later when the last visited the museum of the Lenin’s exile. The bald man looked with a smile upon him.



Visit

The father of Constantine went up to Mike in the kindergarten. It was a few days after Mike had killed the Tadjiks. That time, Mike had said that he had been led by the Holy Ghost.
‘Mike, Constantine feels bad. Could you visit him for a comfort?’ the adult man asked.
‘Yea, I can,’ Mike consented.
They brought him to the house of Constantine by a car. Constantine lay on the bed in the fever.
‘Hello, Constantine. How you feel?’ Mike inquired.
‘I’m afraid that the Holy Ghost may make me kill my parents,’ Constantine said.
‘No, it won’t happen. The Holy Ghost does not do such things.’ Mike assured.
‘Ok, but I’m still afraid,’ Constantine said.
‘It’s because the microbes attacked you. I’m the God’s prophet. I will pray and the sickness will leave you.’ Mike said.
‘Yea,’ Constantine said. ‘You’ll pray now?’
‘No, I’ll pray in the night at home. And, I’ll fast that my prayer should be heard by the Almighty.’ Mike explained.
‘Yea,’ he just said.
‘Mike, Constantine is weak. It’s enough.’ Mike heard the voice of his mother from behind the door.
‘Goodbye, Constantine.’ Mike said.
‘Goodbye,’ Constantine followed the suit.
Mike went out of the room and they brought him back to the kindergarten. It was the evening. In the night, he would pray that the bad spirits should leave his friend.


Tadjik soldiers

Michael went along the potato field to the opposite side of it. He went there to greet the Tadjik soldiers that worked on the furniture factory of which Mike’s dad Jack was the director. Now, they helped the dad to dig up the potatoes.
‘Hello, how’s the army service?’ Mike inquired in a merry mood to start a conversation.
‘Why you’re so merry and amicable? They say you do not like the Tadjiks because we are bad and even killed some of us.’ One of the soldiers said.
Mike was a bit surprised but said, ‘There are the bad Tadjiks and good Tadjiks, I did not tell I do not like the Tadjiks.’
‘But, you’ve killed them Tadjiks for a Russian girl,’ The other one said.
‘She was a half-breed, her father was a Tadjik,’ Mike answered.
‘So, you just stood up for a girl?’ The other soldier asked.
‘Yea,’ Mike assured.
‘They say you are an authority in that village Subbotino. Could you compensate us for a work and organize for a party in the sauna with the local rural women?’ One of the soldiers asked to joke and make all the other laugh.
‘I cannot organize that but there’re ten widows in Tadjikistan. They are rich and you could marry them. They are just not more than thirty. I could arrange.’ Mike said. ‘Only that you should get vaccinated with my blood yourselves because the widows are sick a little. I may write a letter to their father provided you forbear at least half a year. Then, you will be able to take a young second wife after these women become aged not to divorce with the widows.’ Mike proposed.
‘But, the communists will not allow us to take a second wife,’ a soldier objected.
‘But, there will be no communists to that time in Tadjikistan because it will be independent,’ Mike explained.
‘You’ll arrange for that?’ a soldier asked Mike with a smile to make the others smile also.
‘It’s simply the logic of the materialist historic process,’ Mike said.
‘Thus, you could write a paper to that old man with an offer of marriage with your recommendation?’ another soldier asked.
‘Yea, just give me a piece of paper and a pen,’ Mike said.
They gave him a paper with a pen and he wrote a letter to the old Tadjik he knew. The soldiers reminded him to put the word “Agly” before the name of the old man, which meant “Reverend”.
‘We’ve got a syringe with us because we’ve got a medical orderly in our squad. Could you give us some of your blood?’ the sergeant asked.
Mike gave his right hand and the soldier took the blood from his vein.
‘Do not worry the syringe is boiled through,’ the medical orderly said.
‘I do not worry. Simply, you vaccinate the sick girls with my blood.’ Mike said.
‘You want to take a Tadjik wife into your harem?’ asked the medical orderly.
‘I want to give birth to a child with Catherine if she agrees. She’s half Tadjik. And, I will not need to take many Tadjik wives because you promised to forbear and produce the immunity for your nation.’ Mike said.
‘Do not worry for us, we will forbear. It’s an honor to become the sons-in-law to such a reverend man. It’s worthwhile.’ The medical orderly said.
After the soldier took his blood into the glass syringe, Mike bade his farewell and went away happy that he could arrange for the wedding of the daughters of his acquaintance, an old Tadjik, a reverend man.

Lunatic

They said Mike was a lunatic. Like he killed the people in the nights. Mike did not argue against it. He only knew he was caught two times before he got more cautious. First, he got caught when suddenly an electric light appeared in his eyes. He was in the land lot. The wolves jumped over the fence to greet him. Their eyes glistened to reflect the electric light from a lump above the gates he had just opened. It was his granddad who ignited the light. Mike knew he watched after him all the night. He said with his mind’s voice to the wolves to come back into the forest. They went back…
Second time Mike got caught getting over a fence of the land lot into the orchard. He could not tell getting out of his second self too fast whether he was getting into the orchard or out of it. It was the grandma Mary, Jim and Chuck. The boys were afraid, but the grandma was just careful to take Mike into the bed…
Mike promised to the wolves that the blood of the human baby would be revenged till tenth knee. He promised that he would stand into his stead, and be a called son to the she-wolf that had taken care of this baby. It would be his brother Sleep that would come to him to sleep in the same bed in the nights as his parents had said to him. He had blue eyes and fair hair. Mike was not so, he was just Mike. He promised to fight well. The vendetta began…
Somebody said to Jim that they killed his she-wolf mother.
‘That’s a lie. Nobody’ll touch her, I’m her son.’
This day the wolves came and slaughtered some cattle in the street.

Lenin

It was the first lesson of history in the school. That is why, it was a special day that was filled with special feelings. The teacher, the old woman, stood up near the board. She told something about the Great Socialist Revolution.
‘Children, what you know about Lenin?’ she asked.
Small Mike stretched his arm to signify he might tell what he knew about Lenin. He shook his arm a bit and stretched it as long as he could to make his sign of knowledge more acceptable.
‘Ok, let’s ask Mike what he knows about Lenin,’ she proposed.
Mike stood up and began to tell, he felt exaltation and pride for the fact he lived in the country of soviets. ‘Lenin organized the Great Socialist Revolution. He was a very clever man. He helped the peasants and workers. He thought of the electric lamp, tractor and hydroelectric stations to electrify our country. Before Lenin and revolution there was no electric lamps, tractors and hydroelectric stations because the king was wicked and did not want that the people might live well. The king and his counts and barons were avid and wanted only the more wealth for themselves. They were stupid and could not invent the electricity and automobile. The peasants had to plough the land with horses and bulls…’
‘Stop, Mike. I have to put you right. Lenin was not an inventor and did not think of the electric lamp or tractor. But, he was a politician and showed to the ordinary people the source of their bad living. It was the king power and the exploitation of the bourgeoisie. Who wants to express his thoughts next?’ The teacher asked.
Mike sat on the bench. He might not believe his own ears. Lenin did not invent the electric lamp. But, why they loved him so much? It was a cul-de-sac for his mind and he could not answer that question on the basis of what he knew. The image of Lenin was shaken in his eyes. He understood there was something hidden from his childish eye he did not know yet and could not understand. Still, he was able to realize that Lenin simply succeeded in taking the power from the king with much of the blood spill and victims. The first time in his life, he thought about the daughters of those counts, princes and traders that were left orphans or even killed by the communists. He felt as the dark substance covered his soul. He almost could see it with his eyes. He felt it was something wrong with the history of his country.

Trap

Michael and his friend Constantine in the age of seven years old each happened to visit the chess club for the children in the house of scouts of their town instead of passing their time in the school in the group of the prolonged day. It was brought about by their bad behavior in the very same group of the prolonged day in the school. They had chosen to hide and lie in ambush waiting when they would be declared lost and sought for, instead of playing on the stadium under the sight of the teachers. The reaction was that the teachers refused to accept them further in the group of the prolonged day and presented it to the hands of their parents to take care of them after the lessons were over. Thus, they got enlisted into the chess club in the house of scouts. The way to the club from the school was full of adventure. One day, they would tease the man on the crane to drive him mad to the degree that he would descend down to show to the boys how angry he was. Other day, they would get into a mess with some elder boys that belonged to that part of the city through which they had to come through.
One calm winter day, when the white stillness ruled in the town, they had to come to the chess club again. The route lay through the place where they had leveled to the ground the log houses to free the place to the planned building of the concrete houses. The underground rooms that belonged to the log houses which had been on the place some time ago played the role of the wolf holes for the unaware pedestrians. Constantine and Michael got interested in those underground rooms that the builders did not fill with the land to remove the danger as yet. Constantine first fell into the hole. Mike had to help him get out. Constantine was not a strong boy and even could not climb on a kind of step in half the way up. Mike cautiously descended and stepped on that small platform half the way up. He gave the hand to Constantine and pulled him up on the platform. Then, he helped him get up on the ground pushing him while he climbed on the ground level out of the hole.
When Constantine was on the ground he said, ‘Mike, what if I leave you down here in that hole? Then, I can divide your harem with my friends after you die of hunger. Or, I better we’ll bring with my friends down here some stray dogs to look if they’d devour you like it was with the prophet Daniel. Yea?’
Mike knew that they said that in every joke there was the portion of the truth. Constantine was vaccinated with Mike’s blood when Mike had been in the hospital and they had taken the blood from him to prepare the vaccine for the sick girls. It was because his father was the chief doctor of the hospital and used the situation in his private interests. So, Constantine was a competitor.
‘You’d better give me your hand,’ Mike said. ‘Stop playing a fool.’
Constantine lay on the ground and began to trick Mike with his hand stretching it now and then to try if Mike would be able to catch it. Mike caught it finally and pulled him down into the hole. Now, they were both in a trap. However, Constantine was guilty. That is why, he had to help Mike get out first. Mike helped him second.
In the end of ends, Constantine did not become a friend of Mike for his whole life. They parted. It was on the one hand because they both knew that Mike would grow sick when he would be a young man because of the fasting of sex, food and sleep to fight the microbes he had gotten into his organism after he ate the pills with the army vaccines. On the other hand, it was because Constantine having been also vaccinated by Mike’s blood was a kind of competitor for the rest of their lives. Though unsuccessful, because he did not intend to fight the microbes with fasting. But, it only made it all worse due they had less in common.


The force of a prophet

Once, in the talk with some man Mike said that he would fast of sex for the sake of California, that it did not come under the water.
‘I will fast and the Lord will listen to my prayers and strengthen the land of California. Because I may change the time and space continuum with my words and my prayers.’ Mike said.
The man began to laugh in despising, ‘So, you want to hold the California on your dick? Ha-ha-ha!’
Mike was insulted. He really wanted to save those Californians and especially beautiful Hollywood actresses that lived there. Maybe, the God especially made them Hollywood actresses inhabit that land, to save it for the sake of their beauty.


The only begotten son

Mike’s grand-grandfather Nicolas Nagibin had many children, but only one son, the elder child. His name was William. The rest were the girls. Mike’s grandma was Nick’s last daughter he had begot after he had returned from the First World War.
The family had a lot of the cattle. The pantry was full of barrels with clarified butter, sausages and sun-dried venison, because Nick also went hunting into taiga forest. All the children worked during the hay collection season on the meadows that were placed deep in taiga forest. A small scythe was made even for the little Helen, Mike’s grandma, a girl of about ten years old at that time. It was a hard labor that did not take less time than a month. Nick himself was an obstinate man, in his life, in his drudgery work. Once when the hay harvest was over, the family was about to move back home. Everybody except Nick showed to the right direction. But, he was of the contrary opinion and turned the tired horses deeper into the taiga. Thus all the family had to feed a month time on berries and last year cedar nut cones. So, they got along the first ten years of Soviet regime.
About the time of the collectivization, the family possessed about fifteen cows and bulls, four or five horses, including a stallion. The adults of the family were informed about the time when the local communists would come to take away their cattle and horses to the collective farm organized after a socialist fashion. They could not stand to watch their cattle being taken off. Only two youngest sisters, Helen and Annie, stayed at home. The communist proposed the girls to indicate a cow they wanted to be left home. The ten and thirteen years old girls showed on a gray old cow, which their cattle originated from. This old cow was the first family possession they had bought when they had settled in Siberia, before the revolution. She was about twenty years old, and Nick and his wife did not want to kill her for the meat because they cherished her much. Thus, she lived her last days not milked or getting with a calf, but much loved and taken care of. The two girls indicated this gray old cow to be left to the family. They reasoned her to be the most precious animal of their household. This way Nick was deprived of what he worked for his more than twenty years of life in Siberia.
The time of massive repression came. Then, a big fat boar was the only beast of their numerous family, counting about ten human souls. Once, when Nick was in the gold mines. Two drunken communists, big bosses in the measure of their small village, a pair of party secretaries, began to break into Nick’s house and bawl that they needed the boar, family’s only possession, and were going to expropriate it. They were about to get through the window into the house. Nick’s son William already had a wife and a small baby that slept in the cradle hung up to the ceiling of his father’s house. The young man took a rifle and shot into the air to shoo off the drunkard not knowing whom they were. He was sentenced to ten years of prison camps for the armed resistance against Soviet power.
Then after three years the Great Fatherland War began as they called the war that broke out after Hitler decided to attack Soviet Union. It was the first months of the war very hard for Russia. William that was promised freedom in exchange for his blood got sent to the front. All the prisoners who were promised freedom if they volunteered to the army were inscribed in the special detachments call penal battalions. Such soldier had bad weaponry and scarce ammunition. They were put to the hardest places of the front. They attacked to imitate a big offensive, or stood on defense for the German to spend the ammunition on them. They were just cannon fodder and had almost no chance of a survival.
After Nick got news of his son having gotten to be recruited to the army, the old man went in to the enlistment officer and required that he should be sent to the very same detachment where his son William had fought.
‘Take me to the front,’ besought the old man, ‘I have much experience, and I shoot well as a hunter. I am not afraid to die as I was there in Armenia during the Imperialist War, when I was younger. I promise you I won’t go into a retreat, I’ll go into an offensive. All I need is a dugout, and I won’t go back. I’ll shoot as long as I can. But, I should be with my son William,’ went on the old man emotionally.
‘You are too old, Nicolas, we cannot enlist you into the army. You are more than seventy years old,’ said the officer to him.
‘But, I am a strong man yet. I have sharp eyes. I could be a sniper, I shoot very well, I’ve got to be together with William. He’s my only son,’ old Nicolas tried to persuade.
‘It does not matter, Nicolas, we’ve got an age limit for volunteers,’ explained the officer.
‘I was good to fight against Koltchak and defend you communists. I was good to toil in the gold mines. You have taken all I had during the collectivization. You’ve put into the prison my only son. I’ve got nothing from you. Now, I ask the only thing from you to be sent to the front to my son William and you refuse me. What dickens you are for then, what dickens are you for!?’ yelled the old man.
The officer kept his silence.
‘I was a fool to betray the king and let you take the power. I swore an oath to him, and I betrayed as Judas. The God severely punished me for this. He was the anointed one of God. I’ll put on the two Georgian crosses he gave me and take my rifle and go to the front all the same,’ ended to holler Nick and went out of the military office.
Anyway he might not make good his threat owing to the railways worked in the laws of the military time. His Georgian crosses he lost somewhere, because of his neglect. Maybe his son William had stolen them when he had been a boy and chopped for some trinket. Then, the postman brought home an official paper that Nick’s only son William died valiantly on the approaches of Moscow.
Nick died when he was about ninety-five years old after the war ended a long time ago. He went into the grassland to fence the stacks of hay to protect it from stray cows and wild animals, for them to stay till the winter. The autumn rains made the road muddy. That’s why he went upon the railways. An out of schedule locomotive approached him from behind. They said that old Nick was deaf and did not hear the signal of the engine driver. But, Mike tried to realize why his grand-grandfather felt not the vibration of the rails that an approaching locomotive would produce. Whom he thought of more at this moment? Of his only son William that had been killed in the war, or his Armenian daughter he had left on the Turk Front when Russian army had left the positions? Mike did not know. Maybe he really did not feel the locomotive to approach. Anyhow he did not die right away. The engine driver tried to prevent the accident and stop. But, could not avoid striking the old man. Nicolas had a rucksack upon his back and an ax in it with which he chopped off the young trees to make the spars to enclose the hay stacks. The ax broke his ribs and went into the lungs. The engine drivers brought him into the village. They took him into the hospital, but he refused to be operated on. He died after he bade a long life to his children that were left to him by the God.

Dancing girl

In a vision about a girl he had healed with his blood, Mike saw her dancing of joy.
‘I will not marry a sick husband, but I’ll live with a sound one,’ she said to her parents.
‘Good girl, you think right,’ her parents supported her.
Mike felt pain and bitterness because that girl did not want to marry him because he would be sick suffering for the curse he had taken for her sake.


Cocktail bar

This day, Mike with his friend Chuck had a lot of money. Chuck made a boy that had been in their class before he got left for the second year in the same grade to steal three rubles in the school wardrobe. Then Mike found a treasury of several coin rubles. Somebody played a game and left the coins in a hole in the soil covered with a toy riddle. So, they got into the cocktail bar. It was the dry law. The prohibition ruled all over the country. Previously, they sold the beer in this place. Now, it was called the cocktail bar. They made cocktails from the milk and chocolate or jam. That was also a place where they sold the ice cream now. So, it was a bar for the children. But, children don’t have much money. So, Mike and Chuck were the only visitors in the bar, except Tina and Inna. Inna’s mom was a bartender in this establishment. So, it should be presumed that Inna and Tina were the patrons of the bar. They had a scare menu of a pair of candy and tea glasses.
Mike recalled Tina and Inna. But, maybe it passed too much time for them to be called acquaintances. So, Mike kept aside. They took with Chuck a lot of ice cream and cocktails.
‘So, Mike, what’s about the chess club? Will you go there?’ asked Chuck.
‘You know, Chuck, I cannot I said you,’ answered Mike.
‘Why so, Mike, my brother said you play chess very well?’ he insisted.
‘No, Chuck, that’s a bad idea, let’s not talk about it,’ Mike said.
‘Ok, ok, but the coach said me to talk to you. He said you’ll be a champion one day.’ He told.
‘I’ll be one, but ‘tis not the way to get it,’ Mike said.
‘Why? Everybody goes to the chess clubs,’ Chuck tried to persuade.
‘I’ll go crazy, Chuck, I have to say it to you. That’s not good to be my friend in this time. I have one friend he promised to come to me when I’ll be crazy, but I want you to stay a friend of my childhood. I don’t want that you would be a sitter for me. You’ve been my friend that’s enough. You’ll stay one. And, when all’s over I’d like you to come, but not when I’ll be crazy.’
The girls at the nearby table began to weep. Inna’s mom hid also under the bar and sobbed. Chuck was upset.
‘Mike don’t say this trash, you won’t be crazy. That’s a joke, isn’t it.’ He ventured.
‘No, Chuck, that’s not a joke. I’ll be so for some time.’ Mike assured.
‘I know why ‘tis so,’ said Chuck, ‘ ‘tis because they gave your blood to the sick girls. My dad said it to me.’ Chuck blurted out.
Chuck’s dad was a chief doctor of the district.
‘You know, he guessed it himself, he signed no paper so he spoke to me.’ Chuck said.
The girls at the nearby table got strained a bit.
‘That doesn’t matter, Chuck, I simply warned you,’ Mike said.
‘Mike, you’ll have a lot of girls when grown up, you only play chess, that’s all,’ he insisted.
‘That’s a bad idea, I said you. Nobody needs a crazy chess player. That will attract the attention.’ Said Mike.
‘Do you want to go abroad?’ asked Chuck.
‘There’s a girl in Italy, I need to help her. She’ll arrive here this summer, I prayed for it. She’s healed, but she needs my blood also. She’s somewhere near Sicily. She’s very beautiful, she has a good Italian name.’ Mike said.
The girls at the nearby table began to laugh and play pranks, ‘Look at this stupid guy, he decided to marry a girl from Italy. That’s why he’ll go crazy. A girl from Italy, but she won’t even look into his side. A crazy boy.’
Inna’s mom went from behind the bar and took her daughter and her girlfriend into the hall. She slapped her daughter’s cheek with a right palm.
‘Never make fun of this boy, you small bitch. You understood?’ she jerked her by the left arm and slapped on the ass.
‘I only said that he should not marry this Italian girl…’ she tried to explain.
‘That’s no business of yours. You understand. He’ll be your husband, that’s enough. And, yours also,’ she addressed Tina, ‘Your mom should have said about it.’
‘We know but about this Italian girl, he should not do it, he’ll feel himself even worse of it. ‘Twould be better that our children survived and went into Italy to live when they all die.’ Said Tina.
Inna’s mom got afraid because of this genuine cruelty of these small girls. She went back behind the bar. The girls took their place at the table.
‘Don’t worry, Chuck, nobody’ll get dead in Italy. Simply it would be hard. It will need a lot of blood.’ Said Mike.
‘I don’t worry,’ said Chuck, ‘They tell the truth, why should you give your blood to these capitalists. They’d die themselves even without a war.’
‘No, Chuck, there’re a lot of beautiful girls over there in Italy and all. I’ll take it.’ Mike said. ‘If they choose me, I’ll get into it. If not, that’s their choice.’
‘They won’t choose you, Mike, they live better and have better life. You’re just a Russian.’ Said Chuck.
‘I said you, Chuck, that’s their choice. I won’t interfere.’ Mike answered.
‘You’re not a patriot?’ questioned Chuck.
‘I’m a patriot, Chuck, it will be a part of Russia, when they consent to take my blood.’ Mike calmly said. ‘I don’t say about language or state. I say about my children. There’re a lot of good boys, too.’
‘Better friends than me?’ asked Chuck.
‘Don’t play a fool, Chuck, there’s not a friend like you. Simply, you’ll leave me,’ said Mike.
‘Like it was with Judas? That’s because I’m a Jew?’ challenged Chuck.
‘I’m also a Jew by blood, simply I’m baptized. It will be not like with Judas, but as with Peter. They were all Jews, Chuck. Simply, ‘tis too hard to see when you friend gets crazy.’ Mike said.
Chuck waited for a minute.
‘Why you simply do not become a donor of the sperm? Like it is in the capitalist countries?’ asked Chuck.
‘I don’t want to be a donor of sperm, Chuck. I want to be a father.’ Said Mike.
Here Inna’s mom began to sob. The girls sat still.
‘There’re always more girls than boys that’s why the kings have harems. Count how much of girls are in our class, how much in the parallel ones, and you’ll understand that somebody has got to take care of them. Especially, sick ones.’ Explained Mike.
‘But, in other cities there’s more boys.’ Asserted Chuck.
‘No, Chuck, ‘tis throughout the whole land, I know it.’ Said Mike.
‘So, you die for girls not for friends?’ tempted Chuck.
‘No, Chuck, I’ll also suffer for you,’ said Mike.
Chuck got a-weeping, ‘I’ll bring you oranges and soda.’
Mike felt nausea, ‘No, Chuck, thanks I said if you’re my friend you should stay off me. I wouldn’t look how you go crazy at your stead, I’d wait till you get healthy.’
Chuck took the money out of his pocket, ‘Mike please take it,’ he produced a bill ruble and a heap of coins.
Mike took it.
‘Chuck, I gotta make a present to you.’ Mike took a penknife and gave it to Chuck. It had a white cross on it. Chuck took it.
‘I gotta go home,’ he said.
He went out. There was left a few ice cream portions, Mike took them and gave to the girls. They ate. Mike ate at his table.
Mike went to the bar, ‘Please, Auntie Jane, take some money to buy a few things for the girls.’
‘No, Mike, keep it to yourself, you’ve made a lot for us already. They gave us a good flat.’ Here she looked at her daughter with an earnest look. The girl hid her eyes.
‘Ok,’ said Mike, ‘Simply feed them better, and they’ll be healthy.’
Here Auntie Jane’s lower jaw began to tremble and she sat on a chair behind the bar. Mike went out the bar. On the street he wanted to go off, but Inna called him from behind.
‘Why do you cheat?’ she spat into Mike’s face. ‘This Italian girl won’t love you. I’m more beautiful.’ She was ready to punch Mike.
‘You over there, don’t touch the girls,’ said a man in a sailor’s vest.
‘That’s my wives,’ said Mike, ‘you’ve got no business in my personal affairs.’
The man was drunk and directed himself into Mike’s place. Mike took a stone from the road.
‘Don’t move or I’ll strike your head with this stone.’ Warned Mike.
‘What, I’m an Afghanistan vet, I’ve killed more people that you’ve seen in your life. You won’t hit my head…’
Mike threw the stone into an electric lamp that was hung on the nearby wall to the right and it broke into pieces. Mike took another stone. The man charged Mike with hasty walk. Mike threw the stone and it hit right on the man’s forehead. The blood appeared on the place where the stone hit the man’s head. The man got giddy and fell on his ass. A woman ran to him and took into her arms to get him off. The young man in the sailor’s vest cursed Mike but went away.
‘Mike forgive me,’ said Inna and got on her knees to take Mike’s left hip with her both arms not to let Mike go off. Tina also got on her knees and held Inna by the trunk to make a more heavy weight.
‘Please let me go,’ asked Mike.
‘No, no, Mike, don’t punish us,’ she begged.
‘I won’t,’ said Mike.
They loosed their arms and let Mike go. Mike went away turning back his head now and then.
‘Will he punish us?’ asked Tina.
‘I’m punished already,’ said Inna and rubbed the sand on her hands off on the light dress.

Judo tournament

When a boy, Mike visited a judo club. It was because his elder brother Nick was a judoka and his dad Jack had helped to organize the training room for the club in the vacant place of the housing exploiting office of the city. First, he did not have a sparring partner but then they gave him an elder boy almost of the same weight to wrestle with. Some time, very long, Mike predominated on the carpet. But, about after a year the elder boy began to deliver a considerable resistance to Mike and sometimes even won. It was mainly because Mike lost interest in always winning the sparring matches, and because the coach said to Mike to kind of train the elder boy. Then, the time of a tournament with the other judo club of the city came.
The pair of the boys from the rivaling club were bigger than Mike and his sparring partner. The coach spoke on the matter like it was necessary for Mike to lose his match to his fellow club member and let him go on the match with the winner of the match among the heavier boys from the other club. It was a kind of common agreement of the two coaches that it should be that way because Mike was least heavy of all the participants of the tournament among kids and he sort of had no chances to win. And, if he would have won how he would represent the city in the regional tournament being almost twice less in weight than the norm? So, all was against Mike. He lost his match to his fellow club boy and did it as the coach said to him, without much waste of the forces on the part of the main challenger of the champion title from their club. Then he had to wrestle for the third place. He maneuvered much on the carpet not letting the opponent to use his prevalence in mass. He tried to pass on the judo tricks but the opponent surely had too long arms and legs to let on the winning throw. After all, Mike decided to end the match by a winning throw when the back of the rival would happen on the carpet. So, he griped him and they balanced trying to make a trick each. But, finally, Mike caught the rival off balance and simply pushed him backward making him fall on flat on the back. However, it hardly could be called a throw. The spectators began to express their opinion by the cries of approval or disapproval depending on to what club they belonged to. Mike thought that he won. It should have been called a pure victory.
‘Genius of judo!’ commented somebody.
‘Jiu-jitsu vasari japon,’ said somebody with Mongolian eyes as his expert opinion.
But, somehow the judge did not give to Mike any point at all for that trick. Finally, Mike lost the match because the rival managed to earn the least point in the evaluating system, one eighth of the victory called koko. Thus Mike had only fourth place in four. But, his fellow club member broke his leg in the final grip for the city championship with the much heavier and taller boy. It was a touching moment when they gave him a diploma and carried out on their hands to an ambulance that waited outside. After that tournament Mike lost the interest in the judo because of all its rules and agreements. Mike felt by his instincts that the fists did not count much and in the society the other qualities prevailed. He was not already a boy and growing older he did not want to risk the jail by causing the damage to somebody by the prevalence in the wrestling or punching techniques. He felt that the main grip was the grip of the word.

Japanese girls

It was the man with the Mongolian eyes whom Mike had seen during the judo tournament in which Mike had participated. They started a talk and the man said he was from Japan. He arrived for Mike’s blood to vaccinate his daughter and nieces.
‘They are beautiful?’ Mike asked.
The man turned sour.
‘But, I’m even ashamed to show them to you, so stricken of the sickness they are. It’s encephalitis. I even think sometime that your blood should be spent for some healthier girls for you to please them and marry them.’ He said with the passion of his Japanese temper.
Mike got angry with the man because he had said so.
‘But, you should understand that the most sick girls should be vaccinated. It’s no use to vaccinate a healthy girl. She’s already healthy and wouldn’t produce the antibodies from vaccination, but I sick girl would produce and transfer the immunity to the other girls by kisses and otherwise.’ Mike explained.
The Japanese man grew what could be called glad.
‘I know it’s a family curse. It’s because a samurai from your ancestry made a seppuku and felt the ecstasy giving out his spirit, but the DNA of his wife and children got under the strain because of it instead. It’s vise versa. That is why the girls in your family lost the immunity against the encephalitis. You just buy a porcelain cat and put it in a chamber in your home. When the stress would get off the genes of your daughter because of the vaccination, she should touch the porcelain cat with her left hand to make the bad energy pass over to the porcelain cat. I will come a day and take that porcelain cat into my hands when I’ll take her as my wife to get that heavy energy accumulated in it into my own body. I’ll fast of sex, sleep and food to make your daughter get healed.’ Mike told.
The man got merry. Mike rolled up his sleeve and the man pumped the blood from the vein into the plastic syringe.
‘But, how you will feed and take care of so many wives?’ he asked with concern.
‘I’ve invented the engine on coal powder and the companies bosses agreed to allow me to establish my own bank and trade with Japan. It’s for me and my sons.’ Mike said.
‘Ok,’ the man said with a smile.
They bade farewell to each other and parted.

Chinese question

After Mike had unsuccessfully tried to persuade the Chinese women from a delegation that came to visit the museum of the exile of Lenin in Shushenskoe that it was necessary that the Chinese girls also should be in his harem, a quarrel arose.
‘But what the Chinese boys will do if we give you the Chinese girls?’ asked one of the pair of the Chinese women in high tones. ‘We’ve got more boys than girls and the Chinese girls are in the great deficit!’
‘I don’t care for the Chinese boys. That’s their own problem, but I’ll fast and have the immunity and it’s the only way if you want to get the healthy kids to be crossbred with the Chinese nation to pass on that immunity. I mean only the sick girls that are known to be sick from the moment of their conception.’ Mike calmly said.
‘But, we better tear these Chinese girls from the wombs of their mothers that the boys should be born instead to fight against you the Russian!’ said the Chinese woman and clenched her fist to show her decisiveness on that point.
‘That’s your choice. Then, you’ll go extinct as mammoths.’ Mike said.
The Chinese woman began to weep and went off. Mike went away from the restaurant…
Mike stood leaning on the stone flowerbed near the restaurant some time afterwards. He saw a Chinese man, identified by the yellowish color of the skin. Mike knew the criminals and spies by their self-assured countenance. He was sure that guy was from a gang or the Chinese intelligence office. Mike poked his right hand into the pocket of his trousers for the razor.
‘Boy, do not take what you’ve got in your pocket,’ the Chinese man said. ‘They simply sent me to you to ask a question.’
Mike took out his empty hand, ‘What’s that?’
‘They want to know if you will give your daughter to a Chinese boy to be married,’ the man with the yellowish skin said.
Mike saw the matter turned serious and he hardly would win the bargain for more wives from the Chinese girls. He would have to pass the immunity to the huge Chinese nation some other way, for example, to give a girl to a Chinese boy into a wedding. Mike preferred to agree.
‘Ok, that’s a deal. I’ll give my daughter to a Chinese boy in the marriage.’ Mike informed.
Then, they talked with the man on the ideas of what business the prospective family would live on. However he did not get the Chinese girls, he was happy because his instinct of caring for multiplying of his progeny was satisfied. It was a compromise.

Sting

Mike picked the raspberries into a small blue plastic bucket. Jim went up to him and began to tease.
‘We’ve already eaten the yogurt with Chuck from the berries you’ve picked up. But, you are still here, hungry and working. He eats who does not work.’ He badgered.
‘That does not matter,’ Mike said. ‘I can treat you with more berries if you want.’
Jim stopped talking because of the astonishment, then said, ‘Ok, let’s try it.’
‘Close your eyes and open your mouth,’ Mike proposed.
Jim closed his eyes and opened the mouth to receive the blessed berries. But, Mike took a wasp that sat on a raspberry bush flower by its wings and put against the red tongue of Jim. The sting went into the human flesh. Jim squealed and began to weep. He went away to complain to the grandma Mary. The grandma Mary appeared from the house.
‘You terrorize my grandchildren again!’ she cried out.
Mike felt the insult, ‘But, I myself am not your grandchild.’
‘You stop it. I will bring not Jim and Chuck into the injury. I will curse you. The murderer! The violator! Where it was seen that a boy raped an adult woman. You’ve already come to the extremities with your KGB friends. Do you know what they did in the thirty-ninth?’ The grandma Mary asked.
‘I know, they shot the enemies of the nation,’ Mike cried out also.
‘I see you know too much. How I will look into the eyes to the people around? My grandson raped a woman.’ Old Mary demanded.
Mike recalled the feeling of the ultimate power he had had when he had held the waist of that American woman in his hands. It had been a real fortune for a ten years old kid.
‘But, she gave me the way herself because she was a spy,’ Mike tried to excuse himself.
‘What they’ll think about that woman now. You’ve dishonored her.’ Mary rebuked.
‘But, we became reconciled the next day and I promised to take her into my harem. She said she would bear me a daughter even before I begin to forbear for the case if I die.’ Mike said with the tears appearing on his eyes.
The grandma Mary’s anger seemed to be subdued, ‘You promise me you’ll marry her, or I will not bless you.’
‘I promise,’ Mike said.
Old Mary went away and Mike was left alone. He turned to the raspberry bushes and the sight flew in the tears. He tried to hold himself strong and not to weep. Why all thought him to be a monster while he just wanted to live and take what he earned? He threw the small blue plastic bucket into the bushes and made the berries fall out. He came to the summer kitchen to hide himself from the world.

Pledge

The KGB officers have called their own daughters into the office room from the hall. They entered in. One was blond and of ordinary height, the other one brunette and tall. They both sat down on the chairs along the wall opposite to Michael’s seat. It could be discerned that they were also intimidated by the situation they had got into.
‘Michael, promise in the presence of these girls that you will forbear, the way you say it.’ One of the officers said.
‘I promise,’ Mike said.
‘You remember, Mike. That’s important because there will be a repeat vaccination from your blood when you’re adult.’ The man said.
‘Yea, I understand.’ Mike said again.
‘So, you can go through what you’ve got in?’ The man asked.
‘Yea, I got into it myself and I will come through it all the way. It was my decision.’ Mike told.
‘Now, we have the witnesses of your words.’ The other man said. ‘You can go.’ He said to the girls.
After dangling their feet out of the ostensible nonchalance, the blond one had to leave the office room. After her the tall brunette went away also. Mike himself felt uneasy. They said about the sexual life, though in its negative form of forbearance. The more so, Mike understood that the girls had a plain view of the problem, including the craziness as the necessary part of the whole thing.
‘I have to go now?’ Mike asked.
‘Yea, Mike you can go.’ The man said.
Mike went out of the office room, then the building. After he had come few steps on his way home he heard the girlish voice from behind.
‘Hey, guy, you stop!’ One of the girls cried.
Mike stopped and turned around.
‘You, cheater, why you have said you was a volunteer. It was my dad who forced to eat those army vaccines.’ The tall brunette said.
It was hard for Mike to hear all that. He recalled all. He recalled the way it all had started. How he saved his own father by taking those army vaccines instead of him after all was against his dad: KGB, Chechen Mafia. They refused his right to deem himself generous. Like he was a kind of bondsman now. Mike grasped the left hand of Alice, as was the name of the tall brunette. He squeezed it with his right hand. She moaned and the small wrinkles of pain appeared at the corners of her eyes. She had to lower on her knees.
‘Hit me, hit. You can only hit. You, the murderer.’ Alice cried.
At that moment, Mike left her arm.
‘I’ll call for the boys!’ cried blond Olivia.
Mike turned around and went to the direction of the home. When Mike was at about ten yards from the place where he had left the girl, he heard the voice of the boys.
‘You, freak, stand still!’ They called.
Mike stopped going and turned around because he heard one boy running after him. Mike met him with a judo technique and the boy lay on the ground after his head hit the border of the road. Then, Mike went back to look better to the eyes of that boy, who called him ‘the freak’. Mike went up to him.
‘You, freak, you think that they’ll be afraid of you only because you’ve eaten those pills? But, you’ll die of cancer before you grow up.’ The blond boy said to Mike with derision and spat onto his face.
Mike spat himself into the face of the blond boy and said. ‘I will get over it and have the immunity for myself and my kids, but you’ll die yourself because I spat on you.’
The boy tried to hit Mike’s nose, but Mike dodged and the fist slipped along the skull. Mike was about to hit himself but the boy ran away into the building of the KGB office. Mike ran behind. Still, the blond boy was fast enough to close the door and hold it not let Mike in. Mike pulled on the doorknob with his full strength but in vain. He let the doorknob and belabored the door with his fists. It was useless. Mike sat on the steps of the porch. He tried to cope with his feelings. Nonetheless, he could not make away with indignation. He heard some voices inside. Then, he realized nobody held the door from inside. He stood up and jerked it. He saw the uncle of the blond boy rub the face and mouth of the boy with his handkerchief with much force. The air was filled with a strong smell of the eau-de-Cologne. Mike was stunned. He closed the door slowly. He stood for some time outdoors, then he went home.


Italian girl

This story should be put into the question as to its reality. The more so, the honor of an Italian girl is involved. Even more of it, this girl was a kind of acquaintance of Mike in his adult days. So, there should be a question of whether it was just dreams or the play of the imagination. However, it is true.
That day Mike knew he would meet his Italian girl. He went near the restaurant where there stopped a foreign delegation. They came to visit the museum of the exile of Lenin in Mike’s town. Mike turned on a lane. A blond girl with blue eyes ran lightly toward him. Her straw hair waved in the wind. She called the name of her disease. Mike took her by the arm. A boy appeared from around the corner. He was bigger than Mike. He said something warning and insulting in Italian. Mike took his small souvenir knife out of the pocket and demonstrated to the Italian boy.
‘I gonna tell the adults,’ the boy said in Italian.
He went into the restaurant. Mike took the girl and went toward the hospital. First, the girl gently chirruped something in Italian. Then, stopped it. She turned sour and tried to oust her arm. Mike only squeezed it more. She stopped trying to get off.
‘I won’t make you harm,’ said Mike calmly in Russian.
After it, the girl pretended to look at it as a mere stroll. However, Mike was on his alert, not to let her run away. Once she tried to eel herself out of Mike’s left hand with her both hands and teeth, Mike only squeezed her arm tightly. Then, she did not try to free herself out. The more so they went into the courtyard of the hospital. He helped her took the steps of one of the porches, that on the right side. She asked for some guarantees in Italian before she would consent to come into the doors.
‘It won’t make you harm,’ said Mike.
‘They won’t kill me for the organs,’ asked the blond.
‘Don’t worry you’ll keep your organs,’ said Mike.
They went into the hospital, up the second floor to the right end of the hall. Here, they went into a room.
‘Here, I’ve got one. She’s Italian.’ Mike said.
‘Ok, give your arm,’ said the nurse in a cotton-gauze mask.
Mike gave his left arm. They took the blood from his vein into a syringe.
‘Give your ass,’ they asked gently from the Italian girl.
She did not move. Mike took her and made the skirt with her pants go down. He caught the sight of her rosy pussy and turned his head aside. They made her a shot of Mike’s blood. Mike left her in the hospital and went toward the restaurant. Here he met a crowd of the foreign people alarmed with the disappearing of the Italian girl.
Mike appeared on the place. The Italian boy whom he threatened with his knife showed on him. Mike went into the crowd of the foreigners and after having passed through it sat on the bench.
‘Where’s her father?’ he asked.
They called for the interpreter who was a young woman.
‘What you’ve said, boy?’ she asked to make it more precise.
‘I’ve asked where’s the father of this girl I’ve taken into the hospital,’ Mike repeated.
A rather young man appeared from the crowd. He was fair-haired and of a middle height.
‘I’m her father. Why have you taken her for?’ he asked by the interpreter.
‘That’s for a need,’ Mike said.
‘She’s an honest girl from Sicily. Do you know what they’d do to you in our country for it?’ he charged.
‘Don’t worry, it was only to put into her a little of my own blood,’ Mike said. ‘I just wanted to ask you to give her me as a wife.’
‘That’s your Satanist rituals?’ he went on.
‘No, that’s for her good,’ Mike said. ‘Is she going to be my wife?’
‘Nobody needs your dirty blood. You sucker. She’ll never be your wife. She’s the bride of the Lamb.’ He raged out.
‘Who’s the Lamb? He?’ Mike showed on the boy who watched the Italian girl.
‘That’s her brother in Christ, you dirty bastard. Say us where she is.’ He insulted.
‘I’ve said you she’s in the hospital.’ Mike said. ‘I want her to be my bride.’
‘No way. She’s the bride of the Lamb. She’ll die a virgin. The Lamb healed her.’ The Italian man said.
‘That was I, who prayed for her. She was sick and the God healed her. Now, I want her to be my own bride. She won’t die a virgin.’ Mike said.
‘What impertinence. We’ve here to preach the Message of the Prophet. Not to visit your dirty Satanist Prophet. He’ve prayed for her. What do you know about my daughter?’ The man charged. ‘You’re the seed of the Serpent, the son of the devil, you cannot marry my daughter.’
‘I’m not the son of the devil. I’m the God’s prophet.’ Said Mike.
The man got his lower jaw weakened.
‘A God’s Prophet?’ asked the man.
‘I know how your prophet knew the sicknesses of the people the Lord healed. His son distributed the cards. The people wrote their names and sicknesses, where they lived. And, he said it aloud after his son collected the pray cards when the people got into the prayer line.’ Mike told.
‘What a blasphemy?’ the Italian man said in a loss.
‘I can tell you why your daughter is sick. ‘Tis because you went to a witch to pass your curse on her.’ Mike stated plainly.
The fair-haired man went back into the crowd. At this moment a woman led the Italian girl into the crowd. The girl smudged her T-shirt and skirt with the red lipstick she had.
‘What’s up with you, my dear?’ her father asked.
‘He raped me,’ she answered.
‘What? What is it on your belly?’ he asked.
‘That’s the blood,’ she answered.
‘What the blood?’ he touched her belly. ‘That’s the paint.’
‘No, ‘tis my blood. Now, he’s got to get married on me.’ She said.
‘No, girl, you know you’re consecrated to the Lord. You’ll stay a virgin.’ Her father retorted.
‘I’m not a virgin. I’ve said he raped me.’ She said.
‘Let’s go and ask the boy himself,’ he said.
‘No, daddy!’ she cried and grasped his arm.
It was necessary to communicate through the interpreter, so the Italian man wanted to use euphemisms instead of plain expressions.
‘Did you take my girl by force?’ he asked through the interpreter.
‘Yea, sure, I took her by force,’ Mike answered.
The man bent to Mike and slapped him on the face. Mike did not wait for it, so he let the blow, but he threw out his right arm in a hook still sitting on the bench and hit the man on the jaw, but the hook was somewhat blurred. The man waved and went back.
‘Boy, don’t fight,’ said the interpreter.
The Italian man rubbed his jaw. Mike was a boxer for about three years after his dad said he should not let him be punched on the head, because of this word that resembled the plasticine. So, Mike studied hooks, uppercuts, and jabs not to let him be struck on his head. Especially, by some stronger men. The adults of the crowd argued about something. Then they went into the restaurant.
‘So, you’re a boxer?’ asked a woman in French. ‘Let’s see what you’ll answer to the junior champion of the France. Go, show him the stars, boy.’
A white boy went up to him in a boxer’s position. When, he went close enough Mike made a false uppercut movement with his right arm and then made a right hook to land on the champ’s jaw after he lowered his left arm to protect his spleen. Mike pulled his fist a little because it was just a boy. The champ lowered on his ass on the asphalt cover-up. The other boys dragged him off.
‘Let’s look if he’ll win a vice-champion,’ a boy proposed.
A black boy approached Mike dancing on the asphalt. Mike made the same fib, simply he was faster and the blow was stronger a bit. The vice-champ fell on the pavement and hit the asphalt lifelessly. The boys took him off the place. The champs’ moms cursed Mike and the major champion wept getting closer to his mom’s hip. Mike was sure there was going to be a one against all scrap. A woman went into the restaurant. A tall man went into the street to look what was up.
‘Don’t worry, boys will be boys,’ he said in English. He went into the building.
Mike also visited a judo club for three years. So, he was ready to protect him. He knew why they hated him, it was because he was sick and defended a sick girl they themselves did not want even to eat with. Mike got into a position at attention though did not expose his hostility much. It was rather a ready position. Some of the boys were bigger and taller than Mike. The first boy ran on Mike but he was able to punch him with a right hand blow. The other one hit on the left part of Mike’s chest, he flew on the ground after Mike tricked him with a judo technique. The other one hit Mike on the belly. Somebody tried to catch Mike by the neck. Mike freed his neck and hit on the open liver with an uppercut of his right arm. Somebody tried to hit Mike on the head but reached only to knock the nose a bit. Mike pushed the boy in white T-shirt fibbed upon the liver under the legs of the opponent. The boys tried to get their rows into a battle order again. Here a big adolescent not able to be called a man before he graduated from the university and got a job went out the building.
‘You cannot tackle down this rat?’ he questioned. ‘Take aside.’
He went up to Mike and threw out his long hairy arm, Mike ducked but got a slipping blow on the left of the forehead. He sat down a bit on his legs and hit the adolescent who charged him on the liver. The blow was not hard, though the youngster was entailed by the impulse of his own blow. He cursed in an unknown language. Then, he wanted after he recovered his breath to kick Mike on his trunk but Mike stepped aside. The leg went into the vacant air and the whole body of the youngster jerked because of the unspent impact. Mike knew he made all the gang real angry on account of all his tricks. He knew it would be a final assailing on him. A few more youngsters got from the building. Mike knew how the events would have developed if these people were not Christians. He knew what they wanted and how they would act if their faith would not prevent them. So, he knew what the way the events would have followed if some adults had not gone out and said the boys to let Mike go where he wanted…
Why, Mike thought this story to take place in reality? He had a few clues he could not doubt. First, his dad told once a story how they lost an Italian girl, called the police but she just played in the sandlot with some Russian girls her age in a court near the restaurant. Then, an acquaintance of Mike told how somebody once brought a girl into the hospital and her name was strangely the same one he remembered and then met when was grown-up. He recalled in his dreams how she ran up to him and called her sickness and daydreamed how their meeting should be. And, strangely but when he really met her in the age of about twenty-four it was the way he daydreamed four or five years ago. So, there surely was a connection maybe just spiritual one. Then, he had clear memories of his childhood connected with this girl. He asked the people he thought he had met in his past, but they said they never were in his place. Maybe, they forgot or something. Or maybe it just happened in the parallel world of the daydreams where people are very fast travelling.
The other clue was that once a teacher laughed how Mike led to them an Italian girl. She recalled something Mike did not remember at that time. She did not tell where he led her and when.
‘What an Italian girl?’ was interested a Mike’s classmate girl that afterwards became an interpreter, and also of the Italian language.
‘Mike knows what girl.’ The teacher said meaningfully.
So, Mike had all the evidence to say that some of his memories were true. That was the way how Mike recalled the story. It made a kind of hero of him as the rest of his memories. Every man is a sort of superman in his dreams. And, the dreams do not appear on an empty spot…

Knock-out

Mike stood against the mob, ready to defend. Somebody big and hairy threw out his fist and struck on Mike’s nose. The tears got into Mike’s eyes. The blow it seemed made a wave of impulse go by the curve of Mike’s skull to meet in the back of the head and return to the nose. Mike knew he knocked the one, who ventured to strike him on the jaw. And, he knew he knocked better, because in pugilism what means is the techniques and deftness, not mere muscles. He knew the one, who tried to strike him strongly would not try it again. Some other boy tried to kick Mike on the balls. Mike managed to catch the leg and lift it quickly, then the boy lost his balance and fell on the asphalt by the back of his head. If Mike did it very fast as he could, the boy would never stand up. But, it was not in Mike’s plans to kill anybody, because he wanted to be righteous before the Lord for the sake of his children. Somebody else, hairy and big struck Mike on the nose again. This time it was stronger. The blood in the head rushed into the left-upper part, and the splitting pain in the left of Mike’s head appeared. In his turn, Mike struck the attacker on the left side of the belly. They say that it's worse to get a blow on the liver, but to catch one on the spleen is also little good. He knew that this man would not hustle himself into the scrap for some time, rather long. After he felt the splitting pain in the left of his head, Mike knew that if he caught a leg of somebody who would try to kick him on the balls he might not bear to make the deadly trick. Mike began to pray not to make the evil. The splitting pain in the left of the head beat with the pulse. Somebody kicked Mike on the liver, because he had no room for a maneuver having run up against a stone flowerbed of a height of a park bench. Mike let it because the splitting pain in the left of the head made everything turn around. Mike got more attentive. Some of the mob tried to buffet Mike on the head. Mike turned his shoulders right around a circle and moved his head to the right also, then returned his shoulders to the left by a circular movement but now with a right hand fist alighting on the jaw of the buddy who tried to fib. The attackers had longer arms, but their common mistake was to let the head go after the arm when striking, on account they were not boxers. So, Mike was successful in making them receive hard blows on the jaw or some other place. After such a blow, the individual usually reconsiders his position in the life, because the strong blow brings about the calmness and fear after hormones stop playing. But, Mike himself let a blow land on the left part of his forehead. Simply they were too many. Somebody else struck on the nose. The blood began to seep from the left nostril. Mike knocked somebody with an uppercut but got a blow on the right of the forehead. Then, somebody struck him on the left side of the head. Probably, they kicked…

Brick

Mike returned into the conscience even before they buffeted him on the face again. He collected his forces to get up along the surface of the stone flowerbed and stand up. Somebody kicked into his chest and hit on the nose. Mike recalled about his girls and it gave him forces, giving a rush of adrenaline into his head to fight off the giddiness. Receiving a blow on the nose he managed to deliver one on the head of the attacker. They hit him on the nose again. Still Mike pulled his fists, afraid before the Lord for a possible spill of blood. They hit him on the left eye with a fist. Somebody delivered a blow on Mike’s right eye, a splitting pain cut on the apple of the eye. Mike threw across a hook, but got one on the bridge of his nose…
Mike sat in the room of the shield and sword coat of arms building. His right eye strangely ached with a cutting pain.
‘Mike,’ said the man in a deep gray civil suit, ‘You know you’re sick, because of the infections your organism got through the pills. That’s a kind of vaccination. Simply, your body got too much of the infection. Though, the microbes are weakened and your body struggles, you’re sick. The people feel it, Mike. That’s why the maniacs kill the children or women, they like wolves feel the weak specimens. And, before wars and any military conflicts the outbreaks of serious diseases are registered. That’s a source of the hatred, Mike. We’re afraid that the people also feel you’re sick. We know how they treat you in your family. That’s because they feel, you’re sick. That’s a demand on our part, Mike. Don’t go in some places where they could kill you. If they kill you we need your body. So, don’t go in some places we won’t be able to find you, if some bad happens to you. And…’ Here he stopped to think better what he was going to say. ‘And, we would need some of your blood, Mike. Would you give us your blood?’
‘Only spilled on a battlefield, with arms in the hands,’ Mike said.
The man in the civil suit turned uneasily on his chair and said, ‘You’re a good guy, Mike. It’s bad that it happened to you. But, you know it was your choice…’
Mike opened his eyes. A blow alighted on his nose. He sat on the asphalt his back against the stone flowerbed. They gently kicked him on the right temple. They said some words in different languages to show their scorn. Mike recalled again about the battlefield and spilled blood. The anger grew in his heart. He stood up briskly. The head was dizzy a bit, but he saw well now. His rivals were surprised. Somebody tried to knock him on the nose but Mike caught the arm by his right hand and turned his own wrist and this of the unlucky boxer against clockwise. By this he twisted the arm of his adversary and made him turn his rear to Mike. Then, Mike kicked on the ass of the boy. The boy fell on the asphalt. He knew that by this he really irritated the mob. But he was ready to make the conflict sharper. Somebody tried to hit Mike on the nose, and did it well. A spoiled TV set noise appeared in the ears again. And, the picture flew in the eyes. The images melted in the sight. He felt nausea and a bloody nose. They hit Mike the right of the forehead. Then, gently on the left jaw…
Mike sat in the main room of their flat and watched a box match. It was the amateur world championship. The boxers maneuvered on the ring and fibbed each other covering their own head by gloves. It was a black-and-white picture TV set. Then the gong sounded and the boxers lowered their hands…
Mike also lowered his hands after he heard the gong but got a strong blow on the upper right part of the skull. Then he got a combination on his jaws. First right, then left…
Mike rose up above the place where he stood. He saw how they belabored him on the asphalt below. Though he flew up above all it. He still felt how they hit him on the head and sides and was dizzy. He got lifted up above all the terrain. He saw the small houses from the height of a bird’s flight. His head ached. There was a splitting pain in the skull. Mike saw the house of the automobile amateurs where his mom passed the exams for a driver’s license. He saw the bus station and the bar behind it. Suddenly, Mike got into a dive and flew fast toward the ground, into the darkness of the land.
‘God save me,’ Mike had time to say.
He returned into his body that sat on the asphalt his back against the low stone wall of the flowerbed. He saw a half piece of a brick that lay on the asphalt right of him. He grabbed it. Then stood up. A fair-headed boy dashed on Mike to kick him with the full impulse of his run. Mike let the piece of the brick to be put on the border of the flowerbed. He caught the boys’ leg into his hands. Then, getting his hand on the cloth of his trouser leg first then of his shirt tackled him down, paying no regard to weak blows and jerks. Holding him fast by his left hand and keeping him down to partly lay on the asphalt, Mike took the brick piece. Mike looked at this fair hair and already knew how he would crash the brick on it. The boy screwed up his eyes.
Suddenly, he heard a gentle voice he could not disobey, ‘Mike, don’t do it for the sake of your children. Let him go.’
Mike let up his grip on the scruff of the neck of the fair-haired boy and let the brick fall of his hand. The boy jumped up and ran off. Somebody hit Mike on the collarbone left of the head with a stick to make his left hand less swift. Then, somebody hit Mike on the left upper part of the skull with something heavy and hard…
When Mike opened his eyes he lay on the flowerbed and the right part of his head hit on the orange brick lying on the land of the flowerbed. He could not understand why the brick lay on the right side, on the flowerbed, because they hit him on the left part of the skull with it. Did the brick break into two pieces? But, why then Mike struck upon it when he had fallen on the flowerbed? Was it possible that a piece had broken off the brick and was faster than his head to get on the flowerbed for him to strike upon it with the right part of his skull. Somebody grabbed Mike by the bosom. They held him, and the one whom he did not see kicked him on the balls. The pain returned him into the conscience a bit. Why he could not see? Especially with his left eye? He only saw it clearly enough with his mind’s eye. They beat Mike on the head, liver, spleen, stomach and balls. He was afraid that they would break his bones…
Mike’s mom poured the milk into a cup and gave it to Mike, ‘Drink it, Mike, that’s for your bones to get harder. The calcium that is in the milk will strengthen your bones…’
Mike wanted to say ‘milk’ to ask the mom to pour more of it for him to drink to make his bones tougher that they would not break them. But, instead he pronounced ‘m-m-m’.
‘Look he calls for his mom,’ somebody said in a temperamental language.
Nausea came into Mike’s soul with the thoughts about milk. But, still he wanted to ask the mom to pour more milk. Then, he recalled from the scriptures that the bones of the righteous one would not be broken. It gave him the assurance that they won’t hurt his bones. The splitting pain in the left part of his head made Mike make grimaces. Still, they laughed at it and battered Mike all the same. The only thought of Mike was to protect his right kidney, most of all he was afraid that it would be necessary to piss with blood again. That’s bad because first you should make away with the curdled blood in the way that urine should take. He knew it by the experience when he was beaten by his cousins. But, all the same somebody punched on the right kidney, then on the left. Then, they kicked on the balls, but it took some time for the pain to be felt. Still, Mike kept a grimace to somehow balance the strange feeling in the left upper part of his skull. The muscles of the face moved by themselves. Mike knew that the children were in the loins, not in the balls so he decided to protect them most. A cold sticky sweat got all over Mike’s body. They battered him on the face and stomach, but he felt it as if it came from the past. Only a splitting pain in the left of the head pervaded his feelings. He tried to invigorate himself by this pain but now it was no good, because he could oppose nothing to the blows that came upon him. He could not discern precisely where they knocked him, only a cutting pain in the right of his belly testified that he got beaten on the liver. They kicked upon the balls, but Mike only tried to pull them closer to the body.
An aged woman cried nearby, ‘Help, people, the antichrists kill the Christ.’ But, they did not let her stand from the ground.
Mike felt cold sweat and moved his jaw left as far as possible and tilted his head to the right to balance the strange feeling in the left of the head as if something pulled from it on the whole head.
‘Look, he’ll bring forth a child now,’ said somebody in a foreign language Mike was able now to understand.
He felt a noise of the running liquid in the left of his head. It made him cold sweaty. Then, it stopped, and a jelly was in his head, in the left part. Mike kept calm that they did not pummel him to break this jelly in his head and make the liquid flow again. To somehow balance the changes in his head and the whole body, Mike squeezed his right fist.
‘Why have you squeezed your right hand? You got something in it? That’s the knife?’ asked somebody.
‘He’s the Lamb himself, he’s got the book of the Lamb in his right hand, that’s why he doesn’t want to unclench his fist.’ A voice joked.
Now, they did not beat Mike any more, only held up that he did not fell down.
‘I better get married to a brother in Christ,’ said the voice of a girl in a temperamental southern language resembling French which Mike studied, so he understood it. ‘He’ll forgive and get married to me even you raped me and I’m not a virgin any more.’
She spat into Mike’s face. Then, somebody threw the dust into Mike’s eyes. He could not see well because his left eye got rolled up. It would be natural to blink for Mike, but instead of it a spasm kept his left eye open, and he could not blink his right eye alone. Here the police siren got heard in the hot summer calmness, then, the squeal of the brakes. A car door slapped. And, the sound of the hasty steps was heard.
‘Where’s the hooligan? Who called the police? You’re the hooligan, boy? Which boys he has beaten? Show me.’ Asked the policeman in the blue shirt and deep blue trousers hurriedly.
Mike got afraid of that the police got involved into all the story. They let him stand. His head first shook, then began to move around along with his whole body, as if it was a snake dance. With his right eye, Mike could see a lot of blood spilled on the asphalt before him. He was not able to stand up and sat on the stone border of the flowerbed.
‘You’re the hooligan, boy? Show me the boys you has beaten. That’s their blood? Where these boys?’ The policeman inquired.
Mike saw a vision of the tombs of the boys whom he had beaten and who had beaten him. He saw their names on the monuments. He saw how he threw a fistful of the soil into the open tomb where they had just laid the coffin as the Russian do when they bury their dead.
‘I’ve buried them,’ said Mike and began to pronounce the names, which he read on the monuments.
‘Stop playing a fool, boy,’ bawled the policeman. ‘Where’s the boys, whom you beat? Show me?’
‘I said I’ve buried them.’ Mike said.
Here he again began to enumerate the names he saw on the monuments in his vision.
‘Where’s your knife? Show me where’s your knife.’
Mike sat on the border of the flowerbed and constantly swallowed the blood and made it flow by the nose, especially the left nostril lest it should seep in the left part of his head. He was afraid of it. The policemen jerked Mike by the left hand to make him stand up. Mike got off the stone border.
‘Don’t touch the left hand, it’s a broken.’ He said to the policeman.
‘Speak to me more,’ the policeman said firmly.
This expression meant in Russian police lingo that the policeman did not like that Mike spoke at all, and wanted him to shut up. He searched in his pockets and took out a souvenir small knife with a white hilt.
‘That’s the knife?’ He asked with a mock doubt.
Here the complete darkness came upon Mike…
He had to open his eyes because he felt something of a pungent smell to be put up to his nose.
‘They hit him with a blunt heavy object, probably a bludgeon.’ Said the woman in white medical gown.
Mike understood that it was an ambulance nurse. The policeman wrote something down in the protocol. The nurse put a cotton ball into Mike’s left nostril. The blood ran less because of it, and Mike felt that the splitting pain in his head grew. His head shook, and his could not keep it in one position. It always moved along with all the backbone.
He saw his girls standing somewhat off. Most probably, they saw it all.
‘That’s this foolish girl. He wanted to make her an injection of his blood as they did to us. And, she thought of that he had raped her. They should not beat him upon his head even in boxing gloves because of this thing in his head.’ One of them narrated.
Here the doors of a car slapped from behind the corner of the building. A man in the civil suit appeared on the spot. He held a walkie-talkie.
‘Yea, that’s surely he. Who looked it over? Moscow will turn my head off because of it.’ He pushed a button on the walkie-talkie, and approached Mike.
‘Ask him if he may go home on his own,’ he said to the ambulance nurse.
‘But, there’s a criminal case. What does it mean ‘go home’?’ asked the police officer.
The man in the civil suit showed a red card to the policeman.
‘But, he’s hurt and beaten up, how can I let him go?’ objected the policeman.
‘What the talks, officer?’ demanded the man in the civil suit firmly. ‘There should be no noise about it. Shut it up. You understand?’
‘That’s the consul,’ said a boy in foreign language.
‘But…’ barely said the policeman.
The man in the civil suit tore the protocol paper off the policeman’s hands. Here the men in respiration masks appeared on the place. They ran out from a van that had wheeled to where the car which the man in the civil suit had got out stayed. They began to strew some white powder on Mike’s blood on the asphalt and scoured it off with plastic scrapers, collecting the substance into the plastic bags. They did it with a professional deftness, and they did it fast.
‘But, he’s wounded,’ said the policeman.
‘Don’t worry, the officer, they’ll take care of him.’ Said the man in the civil suit.
He looked at the ambulance nurse. She looked first at his eyes with fear and then turned her head toward Mike.
‘Can you go yourself, boy,’ she asked.
Mike nodded. They let him go. Mike felt a splitting pain in the left of his head. He was afraid that the red jelly in his head could break and then the blood would seep again. He tried to keep the balance. He went slowly, keeping himself a bit lower than usually as old man who are afraid to fall do when walking. Mike went along putting his legs broadly. He made along on somewhat bent legs and held up his arms also bent in elbows to be more steady on the go. He feared to shake up this red jelly in his head.
‘He’s got a head full of shit,’ cried a girl in a southern language. ‘Don’t spill it.’
Mike understood it clearly, though it was said in a language he did not know. He tried to imagine that there was indeed the shit in his head instead of the red jelly, he also could see. He went tilting his head into the right. Thus, he made across the road. And up the little asphalt slope on the way to his house. Now, it was felt that it was a slope. The cold sweat again appeared all over Mike’s body. He felt nausea and the cutting pain gave off into his right eye. It was heavy to make steps. Almost when it was necessary to turn around the corner, though it was yet fifteen feet to it as it was really, Mike felt dizzy and knew he would not be able to stand on his legs. He fell forward on the asphalt barely having time to put forth his arms. From the impact the cotton ball fell out of the left nostril. The blood began to flow out of it along with the clots of it. The pain in the left of the head was now burning, and it got splitting only now and then. The same splitting pain appeared in the right upper part of the head, just opposite to it. After the blood ran out of Mike’s nose, he felt better and stood up. He did not remember how he got home and what he did when he got home, he only remembered himself when he sat on a stool in the guestroom. His jaw was pulled into the left side by a spasm. The dad just splashed some water on his face and waved a towel upon it to make a constant draft of air.
‘Mike, why they beat you?’ cried the dad loudly.
Mike heard it as if from a very long distance.
‘That’s because of a woman,’ Mike replied.
‘She’s a virgin?’ the dad asked.
‘No, she loves Natalia. That’s her brother in Christ.’ He answered.
‘Mike, go jump into the window,’ the dad cried nearly into Mike’s ear.
Here Mike clearly saw it that it was not possible to bereave a maiden of her virginity the way they told it, because the virgin membrane was too thick for it. It was necessary for a doctor to cut a half circle piece of it with a surgeon scalpel. He laughed at it. At that moment, his eye began to roll up again. Mike got a-trembling. He grabbed the left and right edge of the stool with his both hands. Here Mike felt a strong willing to close his eyes.
‘Mike don’t close your eyes, or they’ll stay this way always because the sinews will be torn,’ warned the dad crying very loud as Mike heard easily now. ‘Mike, don’t close your eyes. Look on my finger.’
The dad led a finger below Mike’s eyes on the level of the stool. By the other hand he held Mike’s left eye open by putting his thumb on his left eyelid.
‘Don’t be afraid, Mike, it always happens after a strong knockout. Easy, easy, Ok, don’t blink, don’t blink.’ The dad advised. ‘You’ve lost too much blood, Mike.’
At that moment, Mike felt again a dull and then splitting pain in the left of his head. It was strange for him to hear that it was bad that he had lost much blood. Because of that, the red jelly in his head was able to prevent a sound of the running liquid he would hear now and then. At this moment he felt a sharp pain in his ear. His head jerked back a bit now and then. It seemed to Mike that his heart was hardly able to pump the blood through it. It seemed to him that a red jelly began to appear in his heart also, in the part where the vein connected to it. Mike thought that the red jelly from his head got into his heart. He felt nausea and wanted to vomit. He breathed deeply to get off with it. His dad got his right leg on the knee, getting beside Mike. He got his right hand on his left shoulder blade and the left one on the left side of Mike’s chest and began to push with his hands, now and then to help Mike’s heart pump the blood. Then he rubbed Mike’s left arm and then leg. After he got away with the creeps in the left part of Mike’s body, he helped Mike to get to the bed.
After a while, the ambulance arrived. A nurse afraid and jittery of all it, and keeping herself a bit farther of Mike than it would be if naturally, looked at Mike.
‘Mike, how do you think, where’s sand that was behind the apple of your eye?’ She demanded to see if Mike was in a good reason and memory.
‘It’s now in my right kidney. It got there through some ways of the liquid in my body, but that’s not through the blood.’
She got surprised at this reply. She looked toward the dad.
‘He’s Ok,’ she said hastily to get away with it as fast as possible, ‘He’ll surely recover.’
After all it, Mike fell asleep.

Brochures

Mike lay in the bed and felt an acute pain in the depth of his skull. He knew it would be hard for him to cope with this pain.
‘Lord, let me feel that pain later when I will be older and stronger and let me not to feel it now, please,’ Mike addressed the Lord.
He felt as the pain subdued. At that moment he had a dream. His dad slept in the hot atmosphere of the Vietnam jungles. Suddenly he heard a drone of the aircraft engines. The days of monsoons were just over. The military adviser allowed the southern sun to dry him up asleep. It was Mike’s dad Jack. First he thought he was back home in the Russia. Then, he ran and grabbed the handles of the paired flak machineguns and put his right thumb on the trigger. He looked into the dazzling sky of the Vietnam to find the source of the heavy sound of the approaching aircraft. Then he saw a dot in the sky. He could not realize why he had heard the sound from such a distance. He rubbed his right eye. They were deep in jungles and the machineguns did not even have a support of a radar. Jack gripped the handles tighter. The aircraft began to get closer to the land as a hawk going on the prey. It hid from the rockets on the low height. So, the missiles that were deep in the territory of Northern Vietnam could not put down the aircraft because the radars would not be able to identify it. Jack felt a fear. He felt it not for himself but for the Vietnamese settlement that was behind the machineguns. He held the handles tougher. He pushed a button to make the platform to get drowned into the shadow of the jungle trees. He waited. The aircraft was surely big for a machinegun platform to put it down. And Jack was afraid that the aircraft would be able to drop the bombs very fast if he fired from below right into the belly of the air dinosaur. But it was the only way out. It was a lucky but natural that the aircraft came a little to the left of Jack. Now, he had big chances for his hunt. Jack lay in the ambush. When the aircraft got into the reach of the machineguns Jack began to shoot into the belly and board of the big aircraft. The bombard aircraft was now getting closer to the machineguns platform. The aircraft machineguns began to fire upon Jack also. He heard as the bullets originating from aircraft pierced the air cutting the leaves and breaking down the trees that stood in the way. Many bullets hit the machineguns’ platform. Then, the aircraft began to drop down the bombs. The trees shook and some of them got broken in the middle of the trunk because of the impulse of the blowing bombs they got from the earth through the roots. Jack pushed the trigger heavier and heavier. But, it seemed that the aircraft had no guts being so big. Then, the electric charge-offs began to appear on the board of the aircraft. At the next moment the flak platform shook and it was heard the sound of the breaking and bending metal. Jack kept on the platform so far only because he grabbed the handles very fast. He did not lose up the firing at the aircraft not taking into account that he fell backward along with the whole platform that was ready to bury him getting over it center of gravitation. But it fell on some trees and stood still tilted. Jack pushed the trigger no matter that the aircraft was out of the reach of the machineguns. Then, he tore off a machinegun and took the heavy barrel into his hands. He made a kind of support with the isolated wires that hung on the barrel. He roped them over his right arm and getting them over his back tied to the barrel of the machinegun. He got his left leg on the knee and put the belt into the machinegun and stood up keeping balance of the platform. He held up the machinegun to shoot better and began to fire. His muscles shook and at each shot of the machinegun he had to blink. He did not know where to shoot and fired on the sound. Then, he did not know what happened. Whether he ran to the radio station to tell the missile detachments farther to the rear or he continued to shoot while the platform turned around against clockwise which was impossible. It seemed to him that he ran along the plank firmed dug-out. But it also could be easily felt that he flew in the air also against clockwise. He knew the truth only when he hit the standing up log of the dug-out with the right part of his head in the metal helmet. The left ear drum burst and the blood spurted out of the ear. At that moment a young man in the black coat approached Jack and made an order to be put on his chest.
‘Welcome into the order of the knights of the Saint Michael,’ said the man.
At the next moment a man stood in the front of the military adviser and held him by the right wrist. It was sure that he strained but the spasm in the right arm did not allow Jack to feel the push. Then, his head began to turn against clockwise into the left as the dogs often do. Somebody grabbed his left wrist. The spasm in the left eye ball made it to roll into the skull by the bridge of the nose. Somebody cried to Jack and said him to open the eyes. Jack opened them to make his head shook.
‘Look at my finger, Jack, look at my finger,’ cried the man.
Jack used his forces, which still remained and followed the finger with his left eye. His body shook and he felt the sweat to get through his skin pores to be imbibed into the uniform. He opened the mouth and closed it. The blood gushed from his left nostril.
‘Where’s the aircraft?’ asked Jack.
‘Which aircraft, Jack, which aircraft?’ laughed a girl with the ox-eye daisy wreath. ‘Come to play with me, come to play…’
‘I won’t tell it,’ said Jack, ‘I won’t tell it. Only to that man in the black coat that gave me an order.’
‘What order,’ wept the man opposite to Jack. ‘Get out, Jack, get out.’
‘Where’s the aircraft?’ asked Jack again.
Then, he turned his head left. The aircraft flew toward the Vietnamese settlement. There were kids and women that Jack had to protect while their husbands were made to fight against their former masters. He recalled that it was for them to be protected that he pushed the trigger. At that moment of the dream Mike himself strained to make the aircraft blow up. He used his left forces and the aircraft blew up and fell keeping its bombs as a dead fish would keep its roe in its big belly. It was now a dead fish. At that moment Mike was able to fall asleep…
Next day the dad called Mike into the main room of their two rooms’ flat and wanted to have a talk with him.
‘Mike, why you fought with those boys? That’s not good. It’s not a fair scrap. One against many. But, you know I could have been able to protect you, simply I was on my job. Listen, never fight with those boys or any other ones. Use their own methods. They do not fight with our boys. They just go around and distribute the brochures. I have much communist literature in our home. Next time they meet you and propose you these their brochures you should have a pack of communist literature. Fight them with their own methods. Never go fighting this way. Give them communist books. I can give you ones in English…’
‘I said you dad. I was because of a girl. They Italians they did not want to give me this girl and edged on the others to assault me.’ Mike explained.
‘Ah, it was because of a girl. But they said to me these tourists distributed the religious books in Russian… Ok, but never fight with them again.’ He said.
‘You know, dad, that’s my own business.’ Mike claimed.
‘Yea, surely, if there’s a girl, that’s your own business, specially this Italian one. Ok. So on.’

Blood

The boys called for Mike and said there was a man from Italy who wanted to talk to him. Mike went to the restaurant. It turned out that it was a doctor of a gangster family, he operated the wounded gangsters and healed the sick harlots. He came to Russia to ask a portion of Mike’s blood to vaccinated the hookers whose whoremongers were the gangsters of that Sicily family. After a preliminary talk in front of the restaurant when the doctor told Mike about his boss, who had also stood up for the whores when the other bosses had talked about a decrease in the prices for the hookers’ services, they went behind the building. But, before it Mike promised to pray for the boss, who was wounded in the criminal war, which started after he vetoed prices decrease for the services of the priestesses of love. For Mike, it was a very good example of valiancy and he said he would make an invisible operation on the wounded spleen of the family boss making use of his extra-sensorial abilities. In his eyes to defend the hookers was a noble business because only those women turned hookers who were not fortunate in their lives, poor and sick, not able to have a family. Mike rolled up the sleeve of his right hand and allowed the doctor to take a syringe full of blood. Mike advised the doctor to dry the blood to powder and mix it with the flour to make the special candy they did in the church to purify the whores with that candy during a catholic ritual. It was to keep it a secret. The gangsters did it that way. During the ceremony the whores wept because they saw their future that they would have the kids and all. A whoremonger laughed and asked if they had a saint protector in the heavens to pray to. At that derision, the whores put in use the sharp fingernails and heels. They said they had a saint protector now. They meant Mike.
But, near the restaurant, Mike explained to the doctor in the mixture of French and Italian that it would be hard to vaccinate the boys with that blood. That it would be a perfidy and his blood could be also perfidious with the boys.
‘Perfidious?’ asked the doctor with surprise.
‘Yea,’ Mike confirmed in Italian.
‘Ok,’ said the doctor and put the syringe full of blood into the interior pocket of his coat…
The Italian girl stood her back against the cast iron bars of the hospital fence. She spoke in Italian but Mike understood her because he studied French in the school.
‘All Italy says about your ignominy. You gave your blood to the whores when the small babies die in the hospitals without it. You wanted the money for your blood from the trade of the whores… You are a murderer and violator. I know that you raped that American woman before the eyes of many people, on the street…And, I’m ready to suffer as Saint Cecilia if you rape me, only that the small boys and girls should receive the vaccine to be healed…All know that the gangsters allowed you to rape any girl from Sicily. What do you look at? Go ahead! You, dirty murderer.’ The Italian girl cried aloud.
She spat into Mike’s face. Mike licked his lips covered by her saliva and swallowed to dampen the dry throat. What if he would die and know no virgin in his life while he did so much for the humanity? She offered business. She knew also she would benefit of it…
Next day, after Mike was belabored by the throng of angry Christians, the Italian girl came to Mike’s home to ask how he felt. She painted a big mouth with her lipstick that hardly could hide the blue lips, a token of her punishment…
Mike sat in the KGB office and wrote a letter to the Mafia boss in Sicily. They had said to him that he could have raped any girl on the island of Sicily for his services for the Mafia. It was because Mike had given his blood to the hookers and the daughters of the gangsters. Such honor had been allotted before it only to Garibaldi, but he had refused. Mike did not refuse hurrying to take from the life more before he would be sick and could die. In the letter, which he wrote himself by the knowledge of French and availability of an Italian dictionary, he complained that Sicily turned out not to be hospitable as he anticipated. It was a joke. They said the boss was angry that Mike did not wait till he would grow aged enough to come to Sicily and choose a girl to play a fictitious ritual to get recruited by a gangster family. Mike had shown he had been good as a fighter when he had killed several adult gangsters near the kindergarten. He did it with a razor blade being six years old when they had planned to kill a girl, the daughter of one of them, and film it on video because her father had lost her in the card game. All the same, they said the Mafia boss took the family of that Italian girl under his personal protection.

Application

A KGB officer tried to hold Mike, who was not able to cope with his anger and wanted to get free and continue the fight with the foreigners. The nurse was not able to take his blood as it was necessary to do right now when the adrenaline level in Mike’s blood was the right one to prepare a vaccine from his blood for the foreign girls, the export one. To make such a vaccine it was necessary for Mike to be beaten up and the collateral idea was to create an international scandal to make the foreigners to accept the medical help and pay the currency for the vaccine. Mike did it all fine, but now he squirmed as a worm trying to get free to continue the fight. He could not quench his anger. The other officer took the gun and taking out the bolt unawares for the boy put it upon the head of Michael.
‘May you get calm? Stand still, or I’ll shoot you down.’ The officer cried to make Mike stand still to allow the nurse to pump out the blood from his vein.
The other officer appeared.
‘Oh, glory to the God, you’ve come at last. He reacts to you better, try to calm him down.’ The first one with the gun said.
‘Calm down, Mike. All’s over. You’ve done it the excellent way. Do you wanna smoke a cigarette?’ The other officer asked.
‘Yea.’ Mike said.
‘You’ve fought a good way for a ten years old boy. And, that’s not a pity that you lost against the crowd, including adults.’ Said the officer taking out a cigarette from the packet.
‘I did not lose the fight,’ Mike said, ‘I’ve made more blows than they. I lead with seven blows ahead.’
‘You counted the blows?’ asked the officer.
‘Yea, I did it not to lose the consciousness.’ Mike said.
He gave a cigarette to Mike. He smoked and the nurse was capable now to pump the blood into the small medical bottle. The adult foreigners rubbed the wounds and tried to explain the situation to some other men from KGB. Now, they understood it was all planned and they got into a very bad situation. Mike felt bad now, and the noise filled his ears. He smoked and felt better. The blood trickled from the nose notwithstanding the common efforts of the people around to stop it.
‘Why you did all that massacre?’ asked the officer looking at the wounded adult foreigners.
‘You said it yourself to provoke them?’ Mike said.
‘But, we did not intend that much.’ The officer said.
‘I got carried away by it.’ Mike joked.
The foreigners began to speak much bad about Mike and the situation was inclined to the point when it was necessary to justify Mike. The officer took the plastic red box with the order of Lenin. It was seen that he was much in concern with Mike, who was beaten up. He wanted maybe to somehow justify himself also from the involvement into that affair owing Mike was severely belabored. He took out the order to show it to the throng of compatriots whom the KGB officers had not allowed to get into this barehanded scrap from the very beginning having blocked all the ways to the spot.
‘That boy have helped me to earn that order!’ He said.
‘So, cram into your ass!’ Cried one of the crowd.
Mike got afraid for his adult friend.
‘Say you’ll carry it with the pride on your chest instead.’ Mike advised by a whisper.
‘Yea, the boy is right. I’ll carry it on my chest instead without any doubts.’ The officer said after a moment of silence. ‘And, we will send into the prison camps all these men, who beat that boy unless they will ask the pardon from that boy.’
The adults did not say anything, which would testify of their repentance, because they were Christians and Mike blasphemed against Jesus Christ too much being angry that he had originated such a doubted organization as the church. But, the girls who had seen that they had pumped Mike’s blood now knew that it was Mike with whose blood they had been vaccinated to have been given good results in curing their sicknesses. They began to ask the forgiveness one by one, and some of them even stood on the knees weeping because they repented of their efforts to have caused Mike pain just before the police and KGB arrived. Mike felt himself a bit of hero…
Michael was called into the KGB office again. But, he met the men he did not know.
‘Those guys have got the progress in their careers.’ The men informed. ‘And, what about your girl whom you abducted. Seems she kind of fallen in love with you. Says she got a husband and nobody would ever hurt her anymore and slight her because of her sickness.’
‘But, what with the adults?’ Mike asked.
‘They got under a court trial in Italy. And, we wanted to ask of you if you would give some written affidavit or anything.’ One of the officers asked.
For Mike, those men were not only the enemies but also the fathers of the girls who had been vaccinated with his blood. So, he decided to write an application to the president for the last to show mercy on them.
‘I’d like to write an application to the president that he would pardon them.’ Mike said.
‘An application?’ they laughed. ‘Ok, you want that we should write it from your words?’
‘No, please give me an Italian dictionary. I’ll write it myself.’ He said.
He was taught French in the school and was quite able to write such a letter in Italian with a dictionary of Italian words.
He began to write. ‘The reverend President of the Italian Republic, I acknowledge fully my guilt at the provoking the conflict with the people that are under your court now. I promise that I will compensate in the future when I will grow up and become an adult myself. I ask you to pardon them all. Michael Lukin.’
His idea was to pull the guilt upon himself. And, it brought the good fruits, the president of Italy pardoned them all.

Wall Street

Mike went through that calm street where the KGB office stood. A man went up to him from before. He began to talk in the broken Russian language.
‘You boy, you are wrong if you think that we will let you oppress the women with your polygamy ideology. Though I am a Jew I share the modern values of the civilized society and the values of feminism. We will not let you propagate your ideas. You will not be able to publish your stupid books and get filmed in the movies as somebody promised you. We, on the Wall Street control all. And, we will be able to defend the democratic and Christian ideals. No publishing house or studio will collaborate with you to let you profess your wrong ideology. You’ll have no way in USA.’ He said.
‘But, those girls in USA got vaccinated with my blood,’ Mike said astonished by the anger of that foreigner. ‘And, I helped the American economy also.’
‘You do not tell your nonsense about your shady deals. While the Wall Street stands on Manhattan between…’ He said before interrupted by Mike, who resumed his courage.
‘Do not swear by the things that do not belong to you. Whether you are the owner of the Wall Street you put it at stake? You’d still more swear by the heaven. Whether the Bible does not say it’s wrong to swear?’ Mike asked.
The foreigner stood astounded by Mike’s answer for a moment, then pronounced, ‘They said you were a religious fanatic and they were right.’
He went forward and Mike went his way also.


Tithe

Mike met Vitally on the stadium of one of the schools in the center of the town. Their friendship just got conceived. An argument on the religion arose.
‘I’ll pay the tenth part of my earnings to the Lord that He should say to me what to do,’ Mike announced.
‘You better pay the tenth part of what you earn to me and I’ll say to you what to do,’ Vitally proposed instead.
Mike was angry because Vitally had proposed it. He knew that the Lord would say by his mind’s voice what would be good for him. But, Vitally would give a biased advice. He would seek his personal profit. So, it was a bad comparison. How a man might substitute the God?
‘I can be your guru and give you the advices on how to make better your karma. You may even not to pay to me at all, but you do not listen to the voices because that’s bad. They can say you are crazy because of that.’ Vitally said.
Mike passed a few seconds in the silence.
‘You better be my friend if you want. Then, we can help one another.’ Mike suggested.
‘Ok, that’s a deal,’ Vitally consented.

African girl

All Mike recalled about the African girl was that she stood at the leg of her black father and tried every now and then to hide behind her dad’s legs. Her father also felt much bad impressed by Mike’s story. He tried to hide that he was deep in a feeling of nausea at the tales of Mike’s valiant deeds. He pleaded for the equitability and offered Mike a say of the truth. It was Ok anyhow. He withstood the level of the information Mike had given to him. As it was always with the representatives of the other races he offered much to Mike. It was the same as with Mongolian tribes’ men. ‘Arrive in our land and have as much as it is for you to stay enough not to return back home fast.’ Mike liked it. He liked also the manner of this African girl who thought that her father could protect her from Mike. As it was often with Mike it was near a restaurant Mike’s home was close with. They parted as friends with that high black man. He said that he had arrived to Mike’s land to find out about Russian hydroelectric station up the river. All was settled down.

Popping the question

Mike met Jane on a cloudy day in the end of the summer. Near the building of flats where she visited her relatives or somebody else. She arrived from Abakan. Mike approached her.
‘Will you be my wife?’ he asked.
‘Whom you’ll be that I be your wife?’ she retorted.
‘I’ll be a God’s prophet,’ Mike stated.
‘I better curse my beauty than to be your wife. A prophet, in a goatskin, stinky and with a beard. No way!’ She said.
‘Who’ll marry you. Look at your Greek nose,’ Mike jested.
‘You’ll confess your love to me because of my nose and write me the loving letters,’ she said, ‘I better be a widow than the wife of such a boy like you. A prophet! Look whom I’ll marry,’ she went toward an adolescent a bit older than her who came by the road beside the building. She approached him and took him into her arms.
‘That’s who’ll be my husband. He father’s a director of the construction trust. And, he’ll be an engineer, not a stinky prophet. I’ll marry him, you go your way…’ she bawled out.
Next day on the way somewhere, maybe on the judo exercise, through the court of the building where Jane had stopped, Mike met two boys.
‘What kind of a game you played with Jane? She sent us to find out if you want to play a Napoleon and Josephine if she divorces. Then, we’d be your marshals.’ The two boys said.
‘No,’ said Mike, ‘I don’t want to marry a divorced woman.’
‘Then, you’re a fool. She very beautiful.’ One of them said.
Mike went through.

The blind strike

When Mike was a boy he loved to close up his eyes and pass by for some distanced to open them after this and see what change happened.
Once, Mike went along the street with his mom Anastasia. They went to the flat of his uncle Victor, the mom’s brother.
‘Mom, I will close my eyes and go on but you should take care of me,’ warned Mike.
‘Ok,’ said the mom pondering on her problem of the middle feminine age.
Mike closed his eyes and entrusted his way to his mom. He went in the darkness and opened his eyes only once when he nearly fell into a hole leading to the underground of the condominium where his uncle Victor lived. Then, he closed them again. He walked and walked in the blackness of the full night. Suddenly, he heard a knocking sound and a flash in the night. Then the pieces of the painting fell on his hair. Mike opened his eyes, now full of tears. The mom said that she had forgotten that Mike was with the eyes closed and trusting only her tender hand that held Mike by his own hand. From that time on Mike was afraid to come in the darkness. He groped along and put his right hand forward afraid of the hidden barrier ahead. That fear was always in his mind. Then, it passed away.
What happened? He struck the concrete slab of the porch giving out a ringing sound.

Encounter

It was a sunny summer day just after Mike had met his Italian girl. There had been a quarrel over there and Tina and Inna were the witnesses of it. Mike never presumed he would meet his girls at this place. They lived there but Mike was not aware they were looking for him. Mike tried to come through the pass in the fence. It was welded of the pipes and painted yellow. A few small pipes were used for buttresses and long ones connected in the top to make a barrier. The blond Inna stood in the pass holding her hands on the ends of the long pipes.
‘Can I go through?’ asked Mike.
‘No,’ said the blond girl, ‘first of all you should decide whom of us three you’ll marry.’
‘I cannot marry, I’ll be a thief-in-law till thirty-three,’ answered Mike.
‘So, what you’ll do, molest the other boys in the jail?’ asked the girls.
‘No, I simply cannot marry for some time,’ Mike said.
‘Then, whom you’ll marry after that is over,’ asked Inna hanging on the pipes and turning left and right on her heel.
The choice was Inna, Tina and Julia the girl Mike met in the hospital whose mother bargained for a new flat and cottage.
‘I’ll marry you all,’ said Mike.
‘How, you’ll marry us? First one, then the other after you’re divorced and the third after all?’ asked Inna.
‘No, I’ll marry you all at once,’ said Mike.
‘Mike you’re a good boy, we don’t want that your child died before he is born. You’re a good boy. So, we’ll first marry somebody else and you’ll be the father after the first baby dies.’ Inna dealt.
‘No,’ Mike said, ‘the God will heal you. You simply should stay virgins and wait till I can marry.’
‘Mike, we cannot wait virgins till so far, I’ll be twenty-three then. Tina also, and Julia twenty-one. We cannot wait so long, Mike.’ Said the blond girl.
Mike recalled how he said to his friend Chuck in the presence of Tina and Inna in the cocktail bar that he’ll provoke the disease by sexual forbearance to get a better immunity and prevent getting soft headed the quiet way. It was for the antibodies to work well. The girls knew about it.
‘You should wait lest your children should die.’ Mike said.
‘Why, you’ve got to have three wives and also Jane. She’ll be even older at that time. The women and men are equal in rights. You cannot marry more than one woman at once.’ Inna said.
‘The woman is not equal to the man because she was seduced by the serpent…’ Mike had not time to end his thought.
‘Where was your God, where He looked at, and also your Adam. Where he was when his wife was seduced. She was left lonely that’s why the Devil had chance with her. It’s the fault of Adam. Eve was just a woman. She felt lonely. She’s the victim.’ Cried the girls one before the other.
‘She was a harlot, and you also want to be harlots. That’s why you don’t want to wait.’ Said Mike.
‘So what, you’ll sneak to KGB that we don’t want to marry you? But, the doctor said we’re healthy now and can marry anyone we like.’ Said Inna.
‘So, you can marry, give me the way,’ said Mike calmly.
The girls stopped Mike by jamming his way with their tender bodies.
‘You should marry her, she’s not healed totally. That’s your fault.’ They showed small Julia, two years younger than Mike.
‘What’s the problem, I’ll marry her. Simply, she should wait till I can marry,’ Mike said.
‘She also got a beloved one of her own. You’re not her beloved. She’ll marry you just because she has to have children of you. But, she loves him.’ Inna said.
‘ ‘Tis no good, she’ll get sick again, because of the antibodies. Your doctor is a cheater.’ Said Mike.
‘This English preacher was right. You’re a liar, a dirty liar.’ Tina added her accompaniment. ‘That’s the Lord, who healed us, you’re not of the business at all in here.’
‘She can marry anybody she likes. Simply give me the way.’ Mike said.
‘You should marry her afterwards. After she’ll be divorced with Jack.’ Inna said.
‘Who is Jack?’ asked Mike.
‘Her future husband. He’ll marry her before you, he consented.’ Said Tina.
‘I won’t marry a divorced woman, and, not a virgin. It would worsen it,’ answered Mike.
‘You’ve signed a paper. You’ll marry her all the same. You have to do it. Simply, she’s got a beloved one. She wants to love him first, then marry Jack. She’s a free woman. She can do what she likes. You’ve only got to let her get over it when she’ll be sick, because your blood was no good enough for her the doctor said.’ Inna told.
‘She simply has to wait for me and she’ll be Ok,’ Mike asserted.
‘No, she wants to have the diversity. That’s her choice. And, she’s got a beloved one. I also got a beloved one I’ll marry. And, Tina will also make her choice.’ Inna pleaded for Julia’s case.
‘Who’s her beloved?’ Mike inquired.
‘I won’t tell you. And, I will not show you mine own. That’s no business of yours.’ Inna let it out.
‘I don’t want to marry a (here Mike called the name of the disease) girl.’ Mike said. ‘I don’t want my children to get sick.’
Julia got tears in her eyes and struck Mike with a toy bucket on the front of the ankle. She scratched Mike with her fingernails and then sat into the sand and wept. Mike had a sudden feeling of compassion on her. He stood nearby and did not move. Then, she got calmed.
‘We’ve prepared something for you,’ said Tina.
They took a toy bucket and got out of it a piece of the dog crap. They tried to poke it into Mike’s mouth.
‘Are you ready to eat it that your children did not die!’ the girls tempted. ‘Vow, we’re choosers. What you can offer us?’
‘I can help you get saved and go into the rapture. I’ll save you from the hell if you marry me,’ Mike said.
‘Vow, look at this Jesus Christ. He’ll save us. What else can you do? We don’t want to get saved. We love the devil. Your father is the God and he forbids you to pay the evil for the evil, you’ve got to pay the good for the evil. But our father, who is the devil, allows us to do anything we want, we can cheat, hurt, we can do anything we like. We don’t want your God and be Christians. We want to live the way we like.’ The girls hollered.
Here appeared the mother of Julia, she took her daughter into the arms and said, ‘Don’t play with this boy. He’s a schizophrenic.’
She went away with her daughter in her arms. Mike wanted to go away. But, the girls stopped him again.
‘Mike,’ they said in a seductive low voice, ‘don’t go away, we just heal you with the shock therapy. That’s for your good. Look what we’ve prepared for you. Your thirty pieces of silver. You’ve got to take them back.’ They took out of the pocket thirty kopecks in two nickel fifty kopecks coins. Mike did not take it.
‘Why you don’t take your thirty pieces of silver. That’s what you bought us with. Take it back.’ The girls insisted.
‘That’s not mine. Hold it to yourselves.’ Mike answered.
‘Mike, you know you are not a real husband. You’re a so-called husband. Just to take our curse on you. That’s the way the fortuneteller told. But, the real husbands will be the others. Say it, Tina…’
‘Yea, I’d better get married to a first-met one.’ Tina confirmed.
‘Mike we’ve prepared something for you. That the cup of our sins. You should drink it if you want to be our husband.’ Inna proposed.
The girls took a toy plastic red bucket full of sand, grass and dog dung. Mike silently consented to drink their sins for a presumed marriage. They imitated the drinking of it by Mike.
‘Now look,’ said Inna. ‘Tina, make your choice. You should look, Mike.’
Mike sat on the log swing till a boy went on the lane.
‘Do you consent to be my beloved one,’ asked him Tina.
‘Yea, sure,’ the boy said.
‘Wait here, boy,’ said Tina.
Then there came a young man.
‘Mister, do you want to be a husband of mine,’ asked Tina.
‘Yea, why not?’ The youngster said.
‘Look at this boy,’ she showed at Mike, ‘This boy wants to marry us both with my girlfriend Inna.’
‘That’s bad. So, beautiful girls should have a better choice.’ The man said.
‘And, you’re not proud. You we’ll not protest if this boy,’ she showed at the fair-haired boy she had met first, ‘is my beloved one first?’
‘No, I’m not proud,’ cheated the man.
‘You can both go,’ Tina said.
The boy and the man went their way.
‘So, Mike, they ain’t proud while you are proud,’ Tina said. ‘So, you have to go away.’
Mike stood up and went his way. After he went about a hundred feet, he stopped and turned around at the girls, who watched him.
‘You said down there in the hostel room you’d be harlots. It’s because you’re really harlots like your mothers. The God made good to punish you.’ Mike said.
Here the girls got at the stones that lay near the concrete blocks lane and began to throw them at Mike. He got under a hail of small stones. The girls could not throw the bigger ones at such a distance. Mike went off. He passed for some distance. He loved the girls really, but he was happy because he hoped it wouldn’t happen, what they said, and they’d stay his brides.

Is it hard to know the future?

The summer coolness played in the shadow of the concrete buildings. It was past meridian time. Mike went along and he saw the whole bunch of the girls to stand in a small herd along with a small boy in a red woolen hat. It was surely a kind of show intended for Mike as a spectator.
‘Is it sure that your parents will have a cottage and a flat? You said he prayed for it… Then, I accept to be your husband after him…And, you will not be sick?’ he asked off the girls as Mike passed by.
‘Yea, hush, the small fool, I will bear you seven children. And, he will pay for all it with his suffering. Whether he is not for his God?’ Said Julia in contempt.
Mike went by with a hard burden to know that a girl whom he would love would not stay with him, no matter that he took the curse on himself for her, and should suffer for that. Mike felt the pain in his soul. The equitable way would have been if Julia accepted to be his concubine with a right of his to marry the other girls further on the time, whom he would also suffer for. But, now his suffering was as if in vain for him. He was going to receive no personal profit of it. Was it the way of the Christ? The girls said he should be consenting to all that owing he was a Christian. Mike knew they hated him. It was because the Lord had punished them for the sins of their parents and maybe the whole ancestry, and Mike was for the Lord. But, Mike went to the Lord also because he wanted to find favor in His eyes that his prayers for the health of the girls were heard.
‘And, that only if he does not die sooner. Then, I will marry you even sooner.’ Mike heard a voice from behind.

The day of pondering

It was a warm summer day, but the sun did not scorch everything under it because it was already near the horizon and the grayish light made all the things around liable for a more critical view. Mike sat on the border that divided a small square and a yard of the rear of the building that offered such services as a haircut or watch repair. He sat on the warm concrete border and pondered on his life. Or maybe he did not think of anything at all. Because when he did not strain himself and let his mind wander on his memories and dreams, at such moments they often asked what he thought of. It was like he weakened the reins and let the horse find its way home. He did it the same way with his mind to get relaxed and find a source of comfort. He began to think about his life and the choices he had made so far. He invested so much that the sick girls did survive and were happy. He invested his future, health and comfort into a business that hardly attracted anybody for its very huge demand of the sources of energy and love. And, now he got not what a man should reckon for in such an honest loaning of love pledged not only by words, but by deeds. Why he had eaten those pills that should give the immunity to him and his kids? The police and then KGB sniffed about it and tried to make their own game on it. But, whether it was not his own game? He had did it that the girls he had met in the hostel did not become the whores and drug addicts or else drank their beauty off. Did he commit a mistake? He knew that the girls could cheat him, and they really did it. How many girls were vaccinated with his blood? He did not know for sure.
He knew how hard it would be for him in the future when he would be an adult and fight against the sicknesses. It is good to have an alliance with the animals of the forest and field, but very much better with the microbes, viruses and bacteria. But, the girls got better, the doctors said that it was now Ok with them and they boasted of it, claiming that Mike had signed a paper with KGB and anyway he should behave himself a good boy. They did not want to be the harlots any more, or better to say they wanted to be the harlots, but they needed not a whoremonger anymore, they were the free women and could drink and smoke at their pleasure in that Mike had paid for it with his blood literally. It had been when he had got into the hospital and at the pretence of an everyday postponed operation they had taken a full syringe of the blood out of his vein. The nurses had asked if Mike had not been a kind of a miser and if he had granted the blood for the girls off a free heart, and hinted that the other boys would take them as wives. Mike did not tell to his parents about that story with the military pills and those that an adult man gave him instead of the mint pills near their hostel.
He kept the offence in his heart that grandma Mary had wanted to poison him. But, he knew it was because he had been sick after had eaten those pills that had promised immunity. He was afraid that his parents would decide to give him off into the orphanage house and then he would have had fewer chances to survive. The girls and all around him now despised him in that he was doomed to go crazy. Mike wanted to provoke his disease and make it go away by affects not to allow it gnaw on his soul his whole life. It was his chance. Mike was happy that he did not loan the money, for example. In such a case they would surely kill him not to pay the debts. He was happy that it had been just his blood and love. Otherwise, they would surely kill him. But, the guys that had interrogated him in the KGB office really sympathized with him. But, they said that for the purity of the experiment they would not interfere much and that Mike should build the road for himself by himself. Really, Mike did not want to transfer the sicknesses to his kids, he wanted to give them the immunity instead. So, Mike should suffer and fight the sicknesses when he would be adult and strong. But, he was sure that those uncles from the KGB office would die in that deeply in his heart he had cursed them that they did not want to help him making a lot of the profit on his blood. He knew that microbes were his friends now and that they attacked those that were aggressive towards him. He knew why his girls wanted to be the harlots. Julia had said that she wanted to have seven husbands instead of Mike alone, that they all seven answered for her sins and the sins of her ancestry. But, whether they wanted to suffer, the other boys? No, they wanted to take what was best in the girls: youth, beauty, virginity and honor. But, they would receive the sicknesses in return. A harlot played a harlot for two reasons, now Mike knew it. First she wanted to infect as many as possible not to die alone, secondly, she really hoped for somebody to suffer for her to give her the immunity. But, in the case of Mike, they simply felt an overdraft. Like Mike already suffered for their sins and would do it all his life in that he had signed the contract with his blood. They were the harlots, unfaithful wicked girls that wanted to make the profit on his blood. Without his blood and suffering, they were doomed to get worse. But, now they took the credit line off Mike. All was against Mike, many people owed him and that is why they hated him. Mike was happy it was not the money. But, the fix was that Mike should live owing if he had died, then it would have been much trouble how to dispose of his sick body, due the antibodies in his blood would have been then no more antibodies but the microbes fortified by the suffering and pain, that would have known nothing but to kill and destroy. So, they needed to count with Mike in that he was a living bacteriological bomb. But, they hated him. Especially, those who knew all the truth, the uncles from the intelligence office. And, really their only help could have been if they accepted the idea to prevent the girls to have sex with the other boys to make a conflict of interest between the antibodies of Mike and those of the other boys. But, the girls were too many. So, to localize the outbreak of the crawling death they needed to make a kind of harem for Mike, but they said like it was a free democratic country, the Soviet Union, and that Mike had been the originator of the problem, so it was his own problem. But, Mike knew the truth. They vaccinated their own daughters by a privilege being much afraid of the wars and conflict in that they knew that the sick should die in such wars. But, Mike did not have enough money to take care of his financial problem, so it was all natural, betrayal and all this. He took hostage many people around, and he was a hostage himself. They used him and he was ready to use the people around him. He would not confide in anybody any more. The girls and all around him cheated him. He loved the girls but they did not give what they owed him. His only aim now was to survive and to have some career and kids all the same. They had cheated him, and he would be wiser next time, however to recover and put his mistake right he would need much time and sacrifice from his own self. Now, it was his own private problem. They never liked the heroes the sort as Mike was and they paid the evil if they were paid the good. Would they answer for their dishonesty? Mike hoped that yes. Simply, Mike pledged too much and that was a lie that they paid the allegiance for the allegiance, credit for credit. If they could cheat Mike they did it. If they were able not to acknowledge the truth and the debts they did it. Still, Mike knew that all his trouble would not be in vain. He should receive the love and revenge, the first through the last, and his blood would make the whole job. He had an alliance with sicknesses, gotten through the fight. The sicknesses would penetrate into the organisms of those that would kiss, hug and love those girls for whom he paid a pledge of his blood. The sicknesses would be strengthened by his jealousy. It would be a genetically modified AIDS that cannot be spotted by blood tests. Mike was against many boys and girls and the whole society, but many microbes were on Mike’s side. It was his army and friends that did not cheat. Mike took them captive. And, they would fight to death until somebody even stronger than Mike should take them captive. But, it was very hard to take captive the microbes. To make them turn the antibodies, viruses and bacteria. It was necessary to go crazy and suffer being treated by the psycho-drugs. Such drugs really do not make anything with the mind, but blood. They torture the patient, but the same way they make to suffer the microbes, that is why they turn the antibodies and obey their master no matter if they already live in the blood of others. Mike reckoned that the microbes were really honest, no matter enemies or friends. The microbes were better than the humankind. At that moment Mike turned his head left and saw the mother of Inna that went from the cocktail bar. She looked at Mike and the boy turned his head back on the earth and was now watching the dry remnant of the mud from the former puddle picking it with a small stick that unnoticed happened to be in his right hand. Mike hoped that the woman would just go by and not to speak with him about anything. But, the woman went straight toward Michael and stood still. Mike looked askance at her white legs.
‘Hello, Michael. How do you do?’ she asked to start a talk.
‘All is normal.’ Mike said.
‘I want to talk with you, Michael. It is a serious talk…You are still a boy, but I will talk to you as to an adult. I want to talk about Inna, my daughter.’ She forwarded it on.
Mike nodded to show his cautious interest.
‘You know, Michael. She loves a boy and he wants to marry her when they will be adults.’ The blond woman said.
‘Yea,’ Mike said.
‘But, you know that she promised to marry you and… But, now, she wants to get married to another boy. They love one another. If you are a Christian you should forgive her and bless.’ She spoke.
Mike knew that the only thing left to him was to bless Inna and her beloved one. Mike was sure that he would do it sincerely in that to suffer and make oneself to forbear of sex it was necessary to have an unhappy love. A dame of heart that did betray, that was what he needed to hate and fight for survival. Now, it was necessary to get out of the fix he had gotten into. So, he was ready to bless as sincerely as he could. ‘Yea, I bless.’ He pronounced with a mix of sincerity, slyness and sure vengeance. ‘Yes, if they love one another.’ Here, he felt a sense of sweet pain, made more acceptable by a true understanding now that if was not possible to cheat the nature, blood. It was possible to cheat Mike, but it was always that way in that he got carried away too much by the game they offered him. His blood would kill his enemies and rivals in a gentle and sure way. ‘Yea, I loved her, but she said she loved another boy and…’ At that moment, Mike recalled that he was sick. Mike wanted the name and power, and he would use the girls for it. But, most of all he wanted to live and to somehow cancel his mistake of being too credulous. But, they also were too credulous thinking that a man could do anything for free.
‘You know what is the case? She is afraid to marry you. Because, you may die in that you are sick. It is Ok that you helped the girls to get healed but … They want to be happy.’ She announced.
‘Yea,’ said Mike, ‘I understand. Simply, I want that he loved her the same as me…Really, loved her…I loved her.’ He kept himself from evil laughing. ‘And, I will not die. I said that I’ll go crazy, but I will recover, the doctor said. Good bye.’ Said Mike and stood up to go his way.
The woman sat on the border for some time, then pronounced loud enough, ‘Boy, maybe you want the candy or ice cream? I will buy you some candy.’
‘No thanks, I do not want the candy.’ Said Michael and went off trying not to look back at the woman that sat on the concrete border…
Then, many years later, when the sickness was almost over and Mike’s soul began to find its peace, he recalled Inna, how she hollered out, ‘But, I need a real jealous husband that would kill me if I betrayed him. Only this can prevent me from a betrayal. I don’t need such a Christian like you that forgives everybody,’ she spat. Mike knew why she needed of him to be such a jealous husband, she wanted that he would get into the jail killing the rival but she himself would find the third male and share with him the family assets. Mike could not accept it…
‘And, your Brother Branham said that it all began the way that a woman had two man as husbands and it should be this way. That’s the way the God established it.’ Inna argued. Mike hated that small bald man, who had told such trash.

Restaurant

That day of the sunny summer, the dad took Mike with him and they entered the doors of the restaurant, which was just three hundred feet from their home. The dad said it was going to be a treat and they sat at one of the tables. Mike liked to dine in the coffee shops where the kitchen was always different from that of the home one. The restaurant kitchen promised to be special one. The waitress put on the table the ordinary dishes: cutlets, garnish and soup. But, they had a taste of the professionally prepared food, which Mike liked very much.
After a pair of minutes, the dad asked, ‘You, Mike, do not tell to the mom that I’ve invited you to the restaurant. She does not like such expenditures. She would not understand it.’
‘Ok, I won’t,’ Mike said.
‘Mike,’ the dad addressed after some time, ‘were you ever in this restaurant before?’
‘Nope,’ Mike answered.
‘And, you never fought in this place?’ The dad demanded.
Mike searched his memory for the stuff like that but did not find anything, ‘No.’
‘But, do you remember what you did last year in the middle of the August?’ He asked.
Mike realized that he did not remember that period of his life, but it did not seem to him to be something special. ‘No, I don’t recall. But, why do you ask?’
The dad kept silence for some time, then said, ‘They just say there was a brawl down here last year about the same season and like you fought down here.’
‘No,’ Mike said, ‘that’s nonsense, I never fought down here with anybody.’
‘Ok, I thought you remembered…Have you ever heard about amnesia?’ He asked.
‘It’s when the people forget about something?’ Mike asked himself.
‘Yea, that’s it. How do you think you ever had amnesia?’ The dad asked.
‘Nope,’ Mike said, ‘I never had…’
After Mike had fallen on the asphalt and the blood poured from his nose for him to feel better. Somebody helped him to stand up. Mike argued with Him and showed his blood and then indicated with his bloody finger toward the girls that were among the crowd in the restaurant. His body moved involuntarily and the One who helped him did not let him fall. He helped Mike to come along, opened the doors of the condominium building and after He had led him to the third floor He put Mike’s key into the lock and turned it. After Mike had stepped into the flat He disappeared…
Mike lay on his bed and it was hard for him to breathe. All his body ached much and he could not inhale enough air because when the air got into the lungs the liver and back hurt. So, he breathed frequently and not much deep.
‘Lord, please, let me experience all that pain when I will be adult and strong. Just postpone it. Please, let me forget about all it as if it did not happen, that I should not feel that pain. I will experience all it when I get stronger. Do not let me die. I will pay you all my debts. I will behave myself very well. You just give me a chance and help me get asleep.’ Mike pronounced with the mental voice before he got asleep.


Christian girl

Mike went by the way to the main square of the town where all the major administrative buildings were built in a square including the management building of the museum of the exile of Lenin. There always were many people from some other places of the country or even the world. Near the museum was a souvenir shop. Mike sat on the porch of the police office. A one floor rectangular building that looked on the square by the House of Culture edifice. A company of men and women came to him.
‘Hello, boy, God bless you. What’s your name?’ an old man asked.
‘Mike,’ the boy answered.
‘Good to meet you, Michael. And, we know you. The brothers told us about you. How you met them and stole the Italian girl.’ The old man said.
Mike knew the people were from this sort of Christianity that believed that there is two races of people, sons of Adam, and sons of the Devil, through Cain, born by the Eve from an adultery with the Satan. Mike knew they would not beat him, the delegation was too few and there were no boys.
‘We know why you had stolen this Italian girl, but Michael that was a mistake to part with your church. Whether you was not in the local church in the Message?’ the old man asked.
‘The old Claudia led me a few times to those people. A young man said he was a pastor there.’ Mike answered.
‘That was a bad idea to get married to the girls from the world, Michael. There’s a lot of your sisters in Christ that would like to marry you and be virgins. Mary,’ he addressed his granddaughter as it seemed, ‘would you marry such a good boy?’
The girl turned her head negatively.
‘Why, dear,’ the old man asked, a little surprised, ‘why you don’t want to marry this good boy?’
‘He’s not a foreigner,’ the Christian girl said.

A half-bred Gypsy-Jewish girl

Mike met a sad man on the porch of the Cinema Theater. He looked somewhere far and was broken hearted.
‘What’s up?’ asked Mike.
‘You know, boy, I’m a Gypsy and I fell in love with a Jewish woman. And, you know about the Jews, they have no common business with us the Gypsy. So, I have a sorrow.’ The brown man told.
‘I’ll fix the matter. Simply promise you’ll give your daughter to me that will be born of your marriage.’ Mike said.
‘I don’t know, boy, it will be up to her to decide whom to get married to.’ The man said.
‘Ok,’ Mike breathed deeply. ‘I’ll fix it.’
He went about three hundred feet toward a car with an opened door. Here sat a peroxide blond.
‘I’ve found you the husband.’ Mike said.
‘Does he know about me?’ she asked.
‘He does not, but he loves you much,’ the boy affirmed.
‘Thank you, Mike. I’ll take him…’ the woman assured.
Mike met the daughter at the Cinema Theater when she was about six. She approached Mike.
‘We’ll you marry me?’ she asked.
‘Yea, I’ll marry you,’ said Mike.
‘Is there any other girl whom you’ve promised to marry?’ she asked.
‘Yep,’ Mike said.
The brunette girl with a white countenance spat on Mike’s face and kicked him.
‘Only in the heavens I’ll get married to you!’ she bawled out.
‘They don’t get married or divorced in the heavens. You’ll be a wife of mine down here or not at all,’ Mike answered.
The girl spat once more and ran down the steps into the rest room. Mike waited for the seance.

Virgin

A woman called Mike to her. She held a girl Mike’s age in her hand. It was in the court where the girls lived. At the place, where it could be called the boarder of this court, she stood to have a deal as it could be seen from her attitude.
‘Mike, come here, I need to talk to you,’ she invited.
Mike went up to her.
‘Mike, my daughter wanted to make friends with you, and to marry you if ‘tis all Ok. How do you like it?’ she asked.
‘Simply, I promised to marry the other girls if they will have the problems in their future life,’ Mike said.
‘Mike, whether you’re an insurance company? Why do you need to mix up with those girls? They’re bad, Mike, if they do not want to wait for you.’ The woman affirmed.
‘Yea, they did not want to be virgins. They said they did not want to wait for long.’ Mike said.
‘My daughter is ready to wait for you. You simply dismiss those girls and it shall be Ok. Accept my girl, she’s ready to wait. And, forget about those sick girls. You’re a good boy, you’ve got to be happy. My daughter is ready to wait for you and stay a virgin, Mike.’ The woman went on.
‘Ok, but I simply will be sick also. I took a part in all of it, so I’ll be also. I shared their punishment, because I thought that I’d be their husband. They said nobody else wanted to get married to them. They said they wanted to be harlots, and now they decided to be harlots. I simply cannot get out of it. I shared their shame. I knew they would use me the bad way, but I hoped they would be honest, because I was honest with them. I really wanted to be a father of their children. Simply, I was afraid for the children to be sick. It’s too late now. I will take much time for me to recover. I’ll be for the case if they lose their love, to be in the reserve. ‘Tis like in football when you stay in the reserve. I cannot change my choice because I’ve made it already. It’s bad for your girl to wait for me. I’m sorry I cannot be a good husband for her.’ The boy explained.
‘Mike, you’re a clever boy, you talk well. I’m also sorry that you would not be able to be a husband for my daughter. It’s bad that you chose to support those bad girls. You wanted to have a harem?’ the woman asked.
‘Simply, nobody wanted to marry them. I was the only who chose to help them. But, now there’s a lot of bad boys, who want to be their lovers and spoil their health, and make the babies sick as it had been with the girls themselves. I tried to help them, and I only have to follow doing it. I’ve simply lost very much. I have no way back. That was a choice, I made it. Your daughter is very beautiful, but I would not advise her to wait for me, that’s not her duty but of those.’ Mike said.
The girl was really pretty. She had blond hair and pretty eyes. She tugged her mom several times to get on going. It was sure she was brought up in a strict way. It was sure also she would wait for some time when she would be real grown-up and then live on her own. Though, the strict breeding would influence her future life for better. Mike regretted that he did not meet her earlier, and that those girls got into his life. He knew there were real good girls that wanted to stay virgins and wait for a husband. And, surely there were very few boys like Mike. He knew he in a kind of a way reduced the freedom of this blond girl. Would she accept Mike’s sacrifice for the sick girls, even if she decided to be his wife? Mike knew one day all would be over. He would play the role of the creditor of the last resort and then he would be free, though his health weakened. They said there was no immunity for the schizophrenia, and he could not transfer the immunity to his children, only a hereditary inclination for the disease. Mike knew it was a lie, but was this girl able to believe it was a lie? Mike knew she wanted to stay off it. Except her moms strict bringing-up she was maybe the same as the other girls. She was feminist her own way. And, she was not a believer. Mike watched how the blond girl with her mom went away. He regretted even that he met them. Not to say about the other girls.

Brotherly kindness

Nick returned home this day afraid and oppressed. He could not find a place for himself. Then, when Mike got into their common room, Nick went into it and closed the door. Mike sat on Nick’s bed. Nick sat down on Mike’s.
‘You know what, Mike.’ He said with calmness resulting of the despair and fatalism. ‘You know, Mike, today a fortuneteller called me to tell my future. She said that I will be rich and successful, but she said…she said that I would die young. Mike, forgive me…’ Here he fell on his knees and was sore afraid.
‘Nick, don’t do it. I am simply a man, repent before the God.’ Mike said and walked to Nick to help him stand up.
Nick stood up and sat on the bed.
‘What did she say, Nick?’ Mike demanded.
‘She said that I will live only if you do not lose your virginity till twenty three.’ Nick said with a vain hope.
‘Ok, Nick, I’ll do it,’ Mike said.
He knew it was the price of not only Nick’s life. And, really Nick was not a main person in all this.
‘Mike you don’t understand how hard it is,’ wept Nick. ‘Mike, promise me you won’t do it, you won’t sleep with those fucking bitches…’
‘Nick, please don’t curse. Help me at least in this.’ Mike said.
‘But, Mike you don’t understand. What if you forget?’ Nick said with mad eyes.
‘Nick, I simply promise you before the Lord I will do it. And, the Lord will help me in it.’ Mike assuaged.
‘Mike, please don’t forget. She said I would leave my daughter I’ll bear an orphan. Mike, do it not only for me, but for her also.’ Nick asked getting again on the knees.
‘Don’t feel guilty, Nick. You know that’s not only for you. That’s also for the girls. And, you know what girls…’ Mike barely said.
Nick began to weep, ‘Mike, forgive me, and us all with the boys that we beat you.’
‘Nick don’t worry, I forgive. I said to you it was because of the girls. That’s for the girls, not only for you. Don’t worry, Nick…’

Vacuum

Mike went home from somewhere. He passed through the place where Jane announced her matrimonial plans. It was a dreary day of the Indian summer. Mike felt so deep a vacuum in his soul that it seemed to him it was the same as the vacuum that brought about the existence of the universe as the wise people said. A vacuum that had so much of the energy of emptiness in it that created the matter. It was the emptiness of the unshared love of the Creator. Mike thought that this energy of hollowness would be able to produce the white light of the eternal life in his soul for himself and those that would make a oneness of love with him. But, now this emptiness brought about the pain of the unshared love. Mike counted it for a kind of engine that would work off all the trouble. He always felt it as he passed through this place and recalled Jane’s words. Then, he did not remember almost nothing as he grew older except this feeling of loneliness and bitter disappointment of a man, who invested all the liquid assets he had had and got out no profit but only the feeling of the inequitable handling that compensated a bit all his offence. Mike felt he was lonely. He tried not to recall all the story. And, after all, the place became void of any informational charge, only the spirit of the bitter emptiness mixed with the jealousy and darkness of the absence of the colorful emotions.

Twins

This day Mike went into his brother Nick’s working place. It was a video salon, where they showed American movies. Nick sold tickets there and looked after the video recorder. They showed some thriller in the room of the cocktail bar. It was the time of the prohibition. They sold only ice cream and milk cocktails in the establishment. Mike kept in the hall. Two faces of the twins peeped out of the room, where they showed the movies. The girls smiled.
‘We’ll you marry me after my beloved one loves me?’ one of them asked.
‘Don’t say such evil things,’ said Mike.
The girls were not very beautiful, so there weaponry was not the charm but insolence.
‘Then, I’ll get pregnant of my beloved one and you’ll feed my baby if you’re a Christian,’ she teased. ‘You’ll have to feed my child instead of his father. I’ll walk up a child and you’ll feed it.’ She showed her tongue wickedly.
Mike did not answer anything. He simply left it the way it was.

The feats of Hercules

It was a day when one of the kindergarten female workers read the book about the feats of Hercules Mike had brought from home. Her name was Tamara. Suddenly, she stopped reading.
‘You know what, Mike?’ She waited for Mike and other children to switch from the feats of Hercules to what she was going to say. ‘You know, Mike, that with all your feats you will not match the glory of the Hercules if you do not commit a certain feat. There’s nothing written about it, because that’s a book for children, but I read it in the book for the adults, about the thirteenth feat of Hercules. He loved a sick young man and passed the immunity to him to heal him from a sickness. So, you also should do it, Mike, if you want to be as valiant as Hercules. You do so much things for the sick girls, but you forget about the boys. To avoid the talks about your avidity as to your harem you should love a sick boy that he might have a wife and family also on account they cannot vaccinate the boys with your blood…Ok, Mike?’
In was said in the presence of the whole kindergarten group. Which signified about its utterly importance.
‘Consent, Mike.’ Said one of the girls.
Mike kept silence intimidated.
‘The silence is the token of acceptance.’ Said the other girl to make most of the girls laugh. Some of the boys laughed also…
Vincent was a boy from the other school and he was present in Mike’s school because of some event. He began to talk with Mike. Finally, he came to insulting matters because as it always was the talk was about a girl who should be in Mike’s harem because she was vaccinated with Mike’s blood when seriously sick. Vincent wanted to take her as a wife on the contrary.
‘But, you will not refrain from anal sex. All say that’s impossible for a man to hold himself from it for the whole life. All try it at least once in their lives. You’ll also not be able to hold yourself from it and you’ll acquire the valvular disease of heart and die if you forbear from it. So, it is I who should take Martha as a wife. That’s a solved deal. She’ll bear me a daughter and some other boy will save her.’ Were Vincent’s arguments.
Mike knew it was a curse and he did not want to live it that way. Vincent thought about himself alone. And, what about a new possible ‘Vincent’ for his possible daughter instead of an honest boy. He recalled about the prohibited hand-to-hand techniques that were intended to bring about a valvular disease of the heart in the future. All of a sudden, he grasped the right arm of Vincent and hit upon his chest with his right fist to make Vincent gape because of the lost breath.
‘I bet it will be a son and he will piss upon your tomb.’ Mike said after he left the arm of Vincent…
Then, he met Mercy, who was two years older than himself, and asked. ‘Why you want to bare the sick children of that guy?’
‘It will be a boy.’ She said.
‘And, what of it?’ Mike asked.
‘Whether you forgot about the feat of Hercules?’ Martha demanded.
Mike felt bitterness, still he could not find a contra-argument.


Soccer tournament

Mike never knew for sure if there was this soccer tournament in his life or it was the play of his imagination. He recalled only how he was called into the gray house with the sword and shield coat of arms near the entrance door and a man in the civil suit addressed him.
‘Mike, do you want that we sent your vaccine to our communist friends in capitalist countries? That the other sick girls of our comrades in Italy, France, Spain and US were grafted with your vaccine?’ asked the man.
Deep in his soul Mike felt love toward all those beautiful girls that lived in the far lands of the West. He wanted to help them and give them a chance to live a life free of the curse of the ignoble sicknesses. Mike knew he would readily agree.
‘Yea, sure,’ he simply said.
‘Then, Mike you should win a tournament as a captain of a your soccer team. You know it is not possible to do all it if you don’t win those games against the teams of the boys of our friends from these countries. We rely upon you, Mike you should win.’ Said the man in the civil suit.
Mike hardly recalled how he played all the tournament through. He only remembered very much how they were a band of barbarians having no special soccer equipment. Their adversaries had soccer leather boots. But, Mike’s team had just rubber soled sports boots. They were all differently clothed and made not a team by their tea shirts and shorts. Mike recalled how they had to play four matches for thirty minutes each. With fifty minutes times. The adversaries were a bit older. Mike recalled how they played as barbarian warriors having no armor against the Roman army forged into the metal. How they did not pity their legs in crashes with the legs of the rivals defended by plastic. How Mike’s status of captain was challenged when they won much and how he returned to lead when the other team equaled the score. Mike recalled how he fell on the dust very often tripped by losing rivals who lost the interest in the game. The dust got into the mouth when Mike made a spasm breathing in and how it creaked on the teeth. How, a lean man that sat on the bench connected with handcuffs to a policeman said that Mike would surely not be capable to play soccer again because he overstrained his lungs. Mike felt the taste of the blood that originated of the interior but did not believe the man. At the break the boys said that there were the rumors that the lean man on the bench handcuffed to the policeman was the coach of the local team who was ordered to lose the agricultural teams league championship to a Moscow region team in a final game that meant the leadership for both teams. But, he refused, the local team won and he was sent to the jail on a falsified accusation of the rape. It gave the necessary strength to the boys. They wanted to revenge the freedom of this bold man. It was as if that man was their coach. It was once he had visited the training of Mike’s team and gave advices to the beginning soccer players before he was put into jail. It was on the main stadium of the town named ‘Harvest’. First, the boys of Mike’s team thought that their adversaries were the boys from the Soviet Caucasus republics. But, when they knew the truth the shout ‘to tear up the Italians’ carried the day. Finally, Mike’s team won all the games of the tournament. The other teams did not play with one another because they said that they would do it later and only Mike’s team had to play all the games in a day. They said that the tournament was in the framework of the club of Leather Ball. They promised diplomas but gave none.
What Mike remembered best of all were the beautiful girls that sat with their moms on the few benches of the school stadium. They were blond and blue-eyed or brunette with dark deep eyes. But, they all were what Mike fought for. For Mike it was not a soccer game. It was a fight and he fought and encouraged all his team with that spirit, they did not spend their legs and lungs and they broke down the other teams. Most of all, Mike remembered a young beautiful woman with blond hair and an aquiline nose that sat farther of all to the left. She wept but tried to hide her tears. All in all, it was a strange tournament. The girls were there to support their friends and brothers in foreign teams and they were present there to be a stimulus for Mike. Mike had to gift his blood and soul for them but they wished he should lose. Mike’s boys were as a bunch of wolves in a village fighting with dogs.
After the tournament was over Mike approached the lean man that sat on the benched handcuffed to the policeman. Mike spat on his left hand and made a hand shake with the free hand of the prisoner while his team sat squatting in a circle near a goal-post. Then, they made the lean man stand up and put the handcuffs on his both hands from behind. He was put into a truck with a gray box and they shut up the door. They gave no medals or diplomas to Mike and his team. So, Michael decided to have his own prize. He approached the granddads’ medals that hang on the wall carpet on a red square cloth and took off a medal with the profile of Stalin. He picked the coin off the plank and put a red ribbon into the small ear. The medal was yellow and resembled the gold. Mike put it over his head on his neck. He looked into the mirror. Then, he sat on an armchair and watched TV set for a space of an hour.