A Guardian Angel. Oscar Wilde Award. Playing Another Reality

L. Kuzminskaya, “Venice in the works of Alexandra Kryuchkova”

Venice is one of Alexandra Kryuchkova’s favorite cities, as she tells us in her novels in the “Playing Another Reality” series. In particular, Venice is practically a character in the novel “A Guardian Angel”. Alexandra has visited Venice many times, both on business trips and for creative performances, “I’ve just come back from a business trip there,” I sighed, still looking at the paintings. “My favorite city. I often go to Venice. On business and on my own. There is something magical about the city that keeps me coming back.”3

The author’s most important trip to Venice, described in “A Guardian Angel”, took place in March 2012. It was a tour from the Booker Laureates’ School in Milan, where Alexandra was taking a poetry seminar of Evgeny Rein, a friend of Joseph Brodsky. Together with E. Rein, the seminarians also visited Brodsky’s grave in the San Michele cemetery4.

“I found myself at the cemetery! Surrounded by tombstones! I came up to one of them and read, ‘Joseph Brodsky’. ‘How did I end up in Venice? What am I doing here? Perhaps it’s just a dream.’ Some voices were heard in the distance. They were calling me. I caught up with them and… Suddenly, I remembered joyfully that I was there with a group of writers and poets, at the seminars of E. B. Rein and V. Erofeev! Dmitry Nemelstein, a poet and historian, came up to me, ‘Alexandra, don’t be sad! You’ll succeed!’ ‘I’m not sleeping! Yes! Exactly! He addressed me by my earthly name! We were there for a tour of the places of Brodsky!’ My memory returned, I gradually remembered how we had left Milan by bus, got to the pier of San Marco and arrived by boat to the cemetery island of San Michele.”5

Italians have a superstition. You shouldn’t come to Venice with your loved one, otherwise, after the trip, you’ll break up for one reason or another.

“You should go to Venice with your loved one!”

“I thought so, too. But an Italian, the CEO of the factory, with whom we communicate at work, said that Venice was considered in Italy to be an unhappy city for lovers, bringing eternal separation. He gave me some examples from his own life and the lives of his friends. Even engagements had been canceled after such trips, and one girl had even died!”6

Perhaps that’s why Venice appears in Kryuchkova’s poems as a city of ghosts, and in her prose as a theatrical stage with cardboard decorations, where even “the Moon in the sky is cardboard”7, and is reflected in “cardboard water”8, “Venice, the mystical city to which, according to the Italians, a trip together with the loved one threatens eternal separation, appears in the novel as a sinister black city, mourning ghosts. The description of the cardboard Moon in the sky and its cardboard reflection in the cardboard (!) water make a strong impression – like plunging into madness at the moment when, experiencing the main character’s feelings, you become aware of shifting edges in your own head.”9

“What’s this?” I burst out involuntarily.

“I paint,” the composer said, embarrassed.

There were paintings on the shelves by the window. A lot of them. There was a black city on all of them, with black houses, small blind windows, gray Mist and Full Moon, on every picture. It was the city too familiar to me, my favorite city, the City-on-the-Water. But in those pictures it looked completely cardboard, like the scenery on the stage – artificial, frightening, sinister.

“Have you been to Venice?”

“Never.”

“Why is it black?”

“Maybe it’s… crying.”10

In fact, both the poems and the central part of the novel “A Guardian Angel”, “A Dreams’ Trap”, are connected with the writer’s mysterious dream about her own funeral in Venice, which is described both in the novel and in the poem “Chimera”.

“I had a strange dream about a year ago. I was being buried in Venice. I completely forgot about it, but remembered recently, during my last business trip, while I walking around San Marco. I went to the pier and saw a boat sailing away from the shore. Just like in that dream…”

“So will you be buried in Venice?”

“I don’t know. It was early morning. It looked like spring. A misty haze. There were only two people in the boat, the boatman and the Man in Black with gray, almost white hair. They were carrying my body or ashes. I don’t know, I was scared to look inside the boat. They were going to the opposite island. I don’t even know what island it is. I’ve never been to it.”

“So who is he, your Black Man?”

“I don’t know.”11

And so the waxing Moon, the symbol of the Subconscious, reaches its “cardboard” culmination in Venice, “We docked at San Marco at night. The Man in Black brought me to my favorite City-on-the-Water. But stepping on the square, I saw it differently, as a black, sinister city, completely drowned in pitch darkness, and cardboard, like scenery on a theater stage! The whole earthly world is a huge theatrical stage on which people play performances for ghosts. Dressed in costumes of earthly bodies, they live on the stage surrounded by cardboard scenery, which can be instantly destroyed by the One who keeps prescribing in the Astral Tablets the plot threads of the plays of their destinies. These strange creatures – people – are so enchanted by the magical illusion of changing scenery that only Death is able to rip off the Venetian masks fused with their faces. I stood on San Marco in pitch darkness, trying in vain to find at least a lantern. The city was de-energized. I didn’t see any light in it. There were only black dead houses around me. Everything there was unreal. Cardboard! Frightening!! Sinister!!! So I ran away in a long dress woven by the Mist, into the distance, along the bridges, trying to find the River that took souls into the sky. I ran, suffocating, along the scenery of black cardboard houses, with no light in the windows <…>. Finally, I found the transition point! I got to the place where there was no bridge, but steps going right into the water, and similar steps coming out of the water on the opposite side. One wouldn’t be able to jump there. It was the Looking Glass, reflecting everything there. It was a pity that no one could see what I saw, and how I saw the earthly world then. It had become cardboard, black, an ominous monster! I sat down on the steps leading into the water, waiting for my parents, who were about to come for me. I looked at the black sky, where the huge Moon was hanging. But it was also… cardboard! I turned my gaze down to its reflection – wow! – someone had cut out a cardboard copy of the Moon and put it on the same cardboard (!!!) water <…>. My parents appeared out of the Looking Glass. They came up to the steps on the other side of the River. But suddenly, booming footsteps were heard behind my back. The Man in Black gently took me in his hands, like a little girl, and carried me away.”

“San Marco. Morning. The sunshine. The square gradually came to life, flooded with people. I was standing by the column not far from the Cathedral, so I could see the sea and the island of St. George opposite. I was in a white dress. Cheerful music was playing. And gradually, I began to see Venice the same as I had seen it before. But… how had I got there? What was I doing there? There were ghosts around me, my friends from the Library of the Universe and my parents. The Man in Black smiled and invited me to dance with him right on the square. The ghosts surrounded us. Nobody saw them but me. It was a pity. I began to see ghosts even during the daytime and much clearer than whatever ordinary people saw. The ghosts whispered, ‘Alice, come on, smile! Dance, please! That’s what you wanted so much! You need him!’ And I realized that it was my wedding, that was why I was in a white dress. But only my ghosts would be among the guests. So I was dancing on San Marco with the Man in Black. The ghosts picked up pigeons throwing them at us and making me smile. Suddenly, my memory restored completely. I remembered my world collapsing <…>, and despair overwhelmed me <…>. And again, everything became cardboard, fake, sinister! That city was like a prison! And I decided to get outside…”12

The conflict between Love and Death, inherent in Kryuchkova’s prose, also manifests itself in her poetry cycle about Venice, and its magical attraction not only captivates the writer but also enchants the reader. On the one hand, Venice, to quote Alexandra Kryuchkova, is a trap, a labyrinth, a poet’s apocrypha, a dream, a chimera, a bad omen, a house of tragedies, a last refuge, the music of the rains, it serves an ominous star, and its bridges lead to disaster. The city’s name itself is polysemantic, though, besides its association with the Veneti tribe, after which the Romans named the region as Venice (Latin: Venetia), there are no other official meanings. But the poet’s imagination is boundless. Venice evokes various associations: Ophelia’s wreath from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, with its ambiguous flowers symbolizing unhappy love; and Venus, the planet of love, with its two images: Lucifer, the Morning Star, and Hesperus, the Evening Star. Perhaps for some, Venice evokes other associations. And yet, “my bridges haven’t seen us yet together!”, “…Murano glass has poured in me a symphony of delicate nuances…”, “Would you paint me… A café, a tail-coat for lanterns, which are sparkling through years with hope, that the happiness surely happens prior to hearts are drowned in darkness.”

Love wins – the writer is confident of her return.

“Let’s go back to the touch to that city,

where songs are still sung to the water,

just to laugh at the ringing gold coin,

dancing there, among masks and faces,

and to glow in sunshine with bridges,

self-aligning with spirits and pigeons.”

“Let’s fly into the portal, let’s escape!

Still lulling Life, the waves await us there!

I’ll pass to you my Venice as a gift, —

keep it forever like a thread between us.”

“Mark sleeps, still unaware, through the dreams I will return, an earthly hostage of his spring…”

Despite the melancholy permeating Alexandra’s “Venice” cycle, the main leitmotif remains life-affirming, “Let Venice separate us, but like a ghost at dawn, still smiling, my hello will silently flash up…” But it’s better to read the novel yourself. So, Venice by Alexandra Kryuchkova…

Larisa KUZMINSKAYA,

poet, member of the Union of Russian Writers,

head of cooperation unit of the “Poets of Moscow”

“Literary News”13, No. 1 (211), 202314

PART I. A GUARDIAN

This book is dedicated to

Marina Tzvetaeva,Anna Akhmatova,Alexander Blok

Thanks to

all the characters of the novel, including:

E.B. Rein & his wife Nadejda,V.G. Boyarinov,E.V. Stepanov,S.M. Makarenkov,Y.V. Myshonkov,V.G. Shiltzyn,N.Y. Smirnova,N.P. Savkina,E.G. Lisichkina,R.A. Mansurova,S.E. Gryzunova,the Man in White& everyone else!

Angel on the bench

When tickets are heavenly stamped,the clock hands will leave their circle.The Angel, relaxed on a bench,was counting stars to a hund.“A ladle15 is there. A spoon?I’m kidding, just give me your hand,my Angel.”“I’m tired a bit,You’d better sit down as well…”“It seems a dead end, doesn’t it?‘A bad mark’ in gradebook of yours,since happiness passes me by,when you are in such awful mood!Oh, Angel! Don’t be a recluse!It’s time for the brightest night hunts!The Weds are still catching the Tues,so shouldn’t we take a detour?My best friend, you are so smartto argue with each evil fate!What’s there? And what street is this,we are now on? Do you hearthem singing? – yes, under the bells,they praise Christ with all their might!Unable of falling asleep,I’m nannying the Moon – born again.Stop sitting and frowning at me!The Joker will save any game!”…The Angel was silent, – on Earth,that street was so simply called “Death”.April 28, 2009

***

Angels are not found on the road. At least, because there are far fewer of them than people… Angels, they are all in short supply, thus, in great demand. There are not enough of them. So many people dream of them. Some spend their whole life just dreaming.

Angels have much more to do than the people to whom they were assigned from Above. They are the guardians. They even have no time to take a nap. If suddenly one’s ward starts to behave like a pig, then again, because of the catastrophic disproportion between winged and piglets, the Higher Forces send that one’s Angel to another human who needs help more and, most importantly, deserves body and soul guarding.

The queue is here, on Earth, for the Angels, even if you can’t see it with your earthly eyes. Perhaps you are the next one. But when an Angel is given to you from Above, treat your Angel with care, as if it were you a guardian. Become the guardian Angel of your guardian Angel. Of course, your Angel will take it with a smile, but will be very pleased… And never offend your Angel to avoid being at the tail of the queue again, because… Angels are not found on the road.

I know I’ll be definitely sent someone who needs an Angel and who will appreciate the Angel in me…

Chapter 1.0. Prologue

February 14, night

Moscow, on a skyscraper roof

Deep night. It was snowing. Two spirits in white clothes were sitting on the roof, dangling their legs and talking quietly. Suddenly, a third one appeared. A very handsome and slyly smiling, he came out of the blizzard towards them and hung in the air.

“Hello, Glamorous, long time no see,” one of those sitting on the roof said calmly, showing no particular joy at the appearance of the latter.

“Hello, White! I have something to do. Let’s step away to talk,” the spirit hanging in the air said.

White and Glamorous walked away into the blizzard, slowly wandering through the air over the city.

“Listen, well, I’m all about my ward,” Glamorous said, sighing heavily.

“What’s up with him? Is he flirting with the Dark ones again?”

“Well, nothing special, but he must return some debt to your Alice.”

“Did he think of that himself?”

“No, it’s me to worry about. He’s getting old, not as you and me. He’ll die one day. What will it mean for Alice? Many of her sins will be paid by him. But how can I justify myself for his deeds?”

“What do you want? Say it straight.”

“We need to bring them together!”

“That’s funny.”

“What’s so funny, bro?”

“My Alice is always around. Your sinner is always out there. It’s not my question!”

“Let’s replay that situation, okay?”

“How many summers, how many winters have already passed!”

“On a new level!”

“What has the level to do with it? Have you looked at her dial?”

Glamorous instantly disappeared and appeared in one of the rooms of the skyscraper, where the light had long been turned off, and on the bed, wrapped in a blanket, a girl was sleeping peacefully. Glamorous looked at the watch on her hand. The girl, as if sensing something, shuddered and opened her eyes half-asleep.

Glamorous disappeared from the room. He was again next to White and, still smiling slyly, twisting a lock of golden hair around his finger, purred joyfully, “Swiss!”

“Glamorous, are you an angel or a human?! I mean Zodiacal one.”

Glamorous cast a glance up at the sky. White pulled away the falling snowflakes with his wings, as the curtains. Against the background of the black sky, a ghostly dial appeared, the Zodiacal one. The planets took their places in the circle divided into 12 sectors, Hours or Houses (in the language of Heaven), or Spheres of human life (in the language of Earth).

Mentally highlighting the most important, Glamorous read, “A person is separated from the world by a wall visible to others. Death walks nearby. Change of job or, with bad aspects, oncology is highly likely. Maximum of creativity or love is the goal for the year.”

“Bro, it’s the goal for the year!” exclaimed Glamorous, dematerializing the Zodiacal dial. “My ward will help her!”

“He has already helped. It’d be better no help at all!”

“Well, it’s not my fault that all the time your Alice keeps trying to combine both lines of the 5th Sphere. Wasn’t it you then, on the eve of their meeting, who allowed her to make two wishes to the Japanese one-eyed god at once, meanwhile it used to fulfill only one? So everything went wrong! Both wishes were from the same Sphere, and each came true exactly in half. Anyway, only one thing is realized in the 5th – a human gets either Love or Creativity. Actually, as in any other Sphere: in the 6th a human serves the world or gets sick, and so on, you know!”

“Hasn’t she created enough in your opinion? Why are you pointing me at her Rahu? Open your eyes to her Pluto!”

“White, she can’t leave! Have pity on me! Keep her in their world! Let they meet again. I’ll do my best! I swear on the Bible!”

A ghostly book appeared in the air, Glamorous put his palm on it, and the book disappeared.

“I’ll help you get Alice out,” Glamorous continued to beg. “Let’s think together about the way! There is still enough time before her birthday when the next New Year program starts! Today is February 14, and her day is April 5! Moreover, she is an advanced user, not like my ward!”

“I’ve just saved her from Saturn in 8. You can’t imagine what it cost me! Having scanned all the options trying to find at least someone to warn her, I flew to another city on a business trip to negotiate with a local guardian. The date of the car crash was given to her on the eve! And she, the ‘advanced user’, understood nothing! By the way, do you remember what your sinner said to Alice when he called her then?”

“Sorry, bro! I didn’t foresee it, didn’t stop him, didn’t inspire!” Glamorous looked away in embarrassment.

“Yes, you didn’t inspire! My Alice, hardly breathing, with a concussion, and he said something like, ‘Do you have your ear sewn beautifully or not?’ Damn aesthete! Ugh, forgive me, God!”

“White, are you an angel or a human? Why are you scolding? So, I’ve made up my mind, look!”

Glamourous returned the dematerialized Zodiacal dial, held out his hand and turned the dial just a little.

“Don’t mess around!” White sighed and took Glamourous’ hand away from the dial.

“I don’t! I’ve just moved the Sun out of her 12th Sphere. On the right side, there are the coordinates of the place where she needs to be on her birthday.”

White read the word appeared in the sky.

“Elabuga, a funny place for a birthday party!”

“Your Alice hasn’t celebrated her birthday for many years. Anyway, have a look! These planets are now at the same places as they were when our humans met!”

Chapter 1.1. The Man in White

February 23, evening,

Moscow, a cozy coffeehouse

Alice was sitting at a table in a coffeehouse. White, her guardian angel, was sitting across the table. He looked at her sadly and sighed. Her fingers were typing a text message. She wrote, then erased, then re-wrote and looked at each word for a long time. As a result, she put the phone aside and drank coffee.

In the distance, the hazy outlines of a grey-haired Old Man’s guardian appeared. That angel, called Elder, was walking slowly along the windows of the expensive boutiques of the shopping center towards the coffeehouse. People didn’t notice him, they ran about their business, passing through the ghostly figure. White recognized the Old Man’s guardian and waved to him. Elder approached their table, and they greeted each other.

“I’m just for a moment, White.”

“Has something happened?”

“Not yet in the earthly reality, but in the Space of Options. Do you remember my ward helped your Alice in due time?”

“Unforgettable! We owe you much!”

“He is going through hard times. No way to avoid. I’ve tried this and that way. Alice should hold an official event with him as the protagonist. It has to be planned urgently, because he’ll get into trouble soon.”

A movie screen appeared in the air and the incident frames were projected onto it.

“After this date,” Elder continued, and the date instantly appeared in the air, “neither Alice nor anyone else will ever think of organizing such an event. And if it turns out to be planned before the incident, he’ll have to appear on it at all costs. He is very responsible! The event will make him feel needed by their world, you know.”

“Yes, of course… What date of the event will suit? The end of March?”

The ghostly Book of Life appeared in the air. Elder flipped through it slowly and stopped somewhere in early April.

“What do you think about her birthday, the 5th?”

“I can’t this day, sorry, Elder. She has to be in Elabuga on the 5th. I’m starting to organize her transfer. The 6th only.”

“Are you transferring her to Elabuga? It’s interesting! You are moving the planets, I see. Isn’t there a brighter place?” Elder smiled kindly, White spread his hands. “Okay, deal. Let’s fix it on the 6th. Around lunchtime. And don’t plan it for too long. A couple of hours as maximum.”

“All right. I’ll inspire her today. I hope, he’ll be aware of it already tomorrow.”

Elder looked thoughtfully at Alice and said, “Your Alice has the same gaze as my Elder. It’s turned into the depths of Heaven. Both their souls are kind. The angel, who told the publisher to name her book after the Great Ones, was right. And it’s good we made our wards get acquainted! What do you think? There’s a certain continuity of times: Anna-Eugeny-Alice.”

White nodded. Alice took the phone in her hand, re-read the text of her message again, then abruptly clicked the “Send” button, and the message flew away. Elder patted White on the wing.

“Well, I have to go. Fly to the one she has sent this message to. Take care of Alice, White, so that the Dark ones don’t get her.”

Elder and White disappeared, each in their own direction. Alice finished her coffee and asked for the bill.

***

far from Moscow, a house by the sea

White appeared in a luxurious house and searched for his colleague, scanning every room on every floor. Dim, an angel who, unlike many guardians, emitted a very faint light, was kneeling in the darkest corner of the building.

“Hello, Dim,” exclaimed White joyfully. “Happy defenders’ day! Defenders of the Fatherland, Heaven, I mean! You don’t look good, who put you in the corner?”

“Happy day, bro! I’m praying here. Day and night, night and day.”

“You’re withering before my eyes! You don’t pray well! Where’s your ward?”

“The same problems, he’s surrounded by the Dark ones! It’s time for him to think of God, but… As I come a little closer, the Dark ones throw me out. So I have to stay at such a distance from him. Every time, as soon as I get strength, I go straight to him, trying to drive the Dark ones away. But as you see, I don’t last long enough. Why are you here, White? What do we owe the pleasure to?”

“Alice suffered out a message for him. He’s reading it now. Let’s go.”

“The Dark ones are there!”

“Get up, Brother, let’s go. One Light is good, but two Lights are better!”

Dim stood up from his knees and, without ceasing to pray and make the sing of cross along the way, went to his ward.