Guardian of the Dream

Are you capable of fitting in?

Lisa and Sveta stopped at the open doors to a classroom.

«It will work out fine!» Sveta looked at her friend with a cheerful smile.

«Yeah…» Lisa was thinking how to present the idea of a Masleniza celebration.

«Ouch,» Sveta started back.

A small eddy of gray dust flew from the classroom right at her.

«This dust is even here!»

Lisa looked around – no dust.

«Do you think I made it up?» Sveta looked at her friend.

Lisa just sighed.

«Anyways, good luck!» Sveta ran away to catch her class.

Lisa stepped into the classroom and looked around. The majority of the students were sitting at their desks, pale and tired, looking at their phones. Somebody stared at the wall; another looked up things in books.

The window was open a bit. A group of girls chatted by the window. Lisa approached them, searching for words to start a conversation. The girls ignored her.

Loud voices came from the corridor. Peter entered followed by two boys. He was showing them some notes.

«Man, you are good!» one of the boys couldn’t hide his admiration.

Peter smiled.

«Yeah, I know!»

Peter looked around. He met Lisa’s gaze and smiled even brighter. Lisa smiled back.

«Close the window,» the teacher marched in with a pile of papers.

Everybody hurried to their places.

While closing the window, Lisa saw Denis. He stood outside, leaning on the banister and drinking coffee. In his hand he held her «Onegin». Obviously, he was not going to attend the class. He flipped through the pages, raised his head, and looked into the distance.

Lisa smiled as she sat down at her desk.

«Believe me young lady, you have absolutely nothing to smile about!»

The teacher threw a paper on Lisa’s desk, with the mark C on it.

«It concerns all of you!»

He shook the pile of papers with results from the previous test and looked at the class.

«Talented children are waiting in line to study here! And you have the nerve to occupy their places!»

The students kept silent.

«As you know, the best High Schools have their reception desks at our school these days. They interview students. Of course, not everyone will get the chance!»

He stopped by Peter’s desk,

«Here you go, genius boy!» he put a paper in front of Peter.

Horrified, Peter saw the mark B.

«Think twice, are you worthy of the time of these highly respected people? Are you capable of fitting into the culture of these schools? Will you manage to meet their expectations?

It was total silence in class.

«Get to work!»

The students studied their books.

Lisa turned to one of the girls from the group, she tried to approach her earlier,

«Hey Sasha… I got this idea… what about making a big celebration… of Masleniza?»

«Really? I have a better idea. Masha throws a party tonight and I think Denis is coming.»

Lisa wanted to say something, but was met with Sasha’s pitying look, so she turned to other girls.

«Oh, stop embarrassing yourself!» whispered Sasha at Lisa.

«What’s going on?» sounded the teacher’s voice.

Lisa kept silent, looking at her desk.

«I asked what’s going on here?»

Students turned their heads to Lisa and the teacher.

«It’s about the celebration of…» Lisa could barely think.

«What’s wrong with you?» the teacher stared at Lisa. «Will your celebrations help you getting into college? Make a good career?»

One girl burst out in laughter. Others echoed her. Lisa stiffened; she just wanted to disappear. She opened her textbook on some page and stared at it.

Long after the lesson was over, Lisa still kept sitting, staring at her textbook. Students were packing their things and exiting the room.

Masha, the girl who first started laughing, gave Lisa a look, while passing by her desk. Lisa felt this gaze, slowly coming out of trance. Masha didn’t say anything. She just looked at Lisa and passed by. Lisa started to collect her stuff, slowly she put her books in the bag. Without looking at anyone, she went towards the door when she heard the teacher,

«Grades are your guarantee for success! Not some silly celebrations!»

Lisa got distracted and bumped into Denis, who just entered the classroom. He looked at her, then at the teacher,

«I came for my test.»

The teacher gave him a paper with the mark A on it. Denis grabbed it and hurried after Lisa.

The teacher sat at his desk, looking at the closed door after Denis.

«He thinks he can get away with anything, if his father…»

He looked out the window, then folded his arms, while leaning back on his chair.

Coming out of class, Denis saw Lisa walking the corridor towards Peter. He heard an SMS sound and looked at his phone – unknown number. He read the text,

«You disappeared so quickly yesterday… Coming today?»

Denis started to type «No», but erased it, without sending. He saw that Lisa and Peter started walking together. Denis threw the phone in his bag and quickened the pace.

What’s wrong with me?

«You heard? About Masleniza…»

«Would you stop with your celebration!» Peter held his phone in his hand. He was still red in the face after the conversation with his father regarding the B in math. «This interview is the most important thing!»

Peter almost cried,

«Honestly! We are talking about our future now! Celebrations?! Get serious!»

Lisa looked at him and sighed.

«Lisa!» Sveta ran towards them.

When she heard about Masleniza, she tried to cheer Lisa up,

«No worries! We’ll figure it out!»

But Lisa was sad. «Why do I always fail? Really! What’s wrong with me?», she ruminated. Her best friend Sasha started to hang out with a group of cool girls. They were always engrossed with their phones; often Lisa couldn’t even understand what they were discussing. When she told this to Sasha, her friend responded that it was Lisa who was weird. That nobody got Lisa’s ideas and that she was just embarrassing herself.

Sasha was not the only person telling her that. Lisa’s mom found her ideas weird as well. She also called it a fantasy, when Grandma said that Lisa had «a gift.»

Grandma! The only person who got her was Grandma. Lisa wanted badly to believe her. She told Lisa so many interesting things. How they celebrated Spring, Midsummer, the traditions of Harvesting times. Lisa’s face lit up when she thought of it. She wanted so much to make a big celebration as they did in earlier times. A huge happening, and to have someone to share this joy with…

«Hey! Let’s go to Roma’s Cafe!» suddenly Sveta said.

Lisa turned to her and smiled,

«Yeah! Let’s go visit him!»

«I’ve got no time!» Peter sounded irritated.

«Please!» Sveta jumped around.

«Ok – five minutes!» Peter already regretted that he gave in.

Roma’s Café

Roma, a sixteen year old kid, was making pancakes. He wore caps, a grey striped long-sleeved shirt, jeans and black apron. Roma put a pancake on a plate. He smiled, while painting on it with sauce. Then he grabbed the plate,

«On the house!» he put it in front of Sveta.

Sveta ate it at once.

«Mmm… delicious sauce!»

Roma smiled.

«Take it easy, man!» Roma leaned towards Peter. «You think she’d fancy you with this… face?!»

Peter jumped up,

«What? Look at you, dropped out of school! What would you know…?»

Roma looked at him in a thoughtful way,

«You know, many great personalities considered a high school education to be totally useless as for helping them to manifest their dreams.»

Roma kept silent for a while, then he looked at Peter and added with a tone of mystery,

«Knowledge of another kind helped them to acquire success.»

«Loser! Just admit it, instead of covering up your failure with nonsense.»

Roma didn’t answer. He went back to the stove and started on a new pancake.

The door by the bar rack opened and a strange man entered the coffee shop. He was wearing a weird costume. Peter, Sveta, and Lisa exchanged looks.

«Roma, make me a coffee to take away,» he turned to kids and smiled. «Just love take away coffee here!»

Roma handed him a paper cup. The strange man took it and exited.

«Weird,» mumbled Peter.

Sveta looked at the door as it was closing after the man, and for a second in the tiny wind draft she saw golden lighting. It dissolved quickly.

«Just like this morning,» she whispered.

Sveta looked at Lisa, then at Peter. «Did they see?» She looked at the door again.

«Don’t even think about it!» Peter knew what was about to happen.

Sveta jumped to her feet and ran towards the door.

«I have no time,» Peter screamed.

But it was too late. Sveta ran out. He didn’t have a choice but to follow her.

A Place of Light

Running out the door, Peter and Lisa stepped into the tunnel of trees. Lisa looked up where the crowns met,

«Wow! It’s like a gate.»

They went through the gates and found themselves as if in another world, bright, colorful.

Peter blinked. Lisa breathed in the light and smiled.

In front of them was a beautiful meadow, framed by trees. A huge happening was going on. Music, competitions, contests, people laughing, enjoying themselves. The meadow overlooked a lake, covered by snow.

Lisa knew this place. She would often come here to chill out and to dream. It was always full of light, even in the rain it kept a kind of clarity of space. But she didn’t remember trees in the form of gates.

In the middle of the meadow there was a colorful whirl; a tall stick and bands of different colors attached to it. People caught the ends of the bands and ran around the stick, creating a colorful vortex. All this swirling looked like waves, giving the sense of space to be real and unreal at the same time.

Lisa watched it, mesmerized, feeling a growing sense of joy.

«Where is she?!» Peter searched for Sveta in the crowd of people.

Lisa didn’t hear him. Slowly, in step with the swirling, she moved towards the colorful vortex.

«You know, this interview…» Peter looked down, «Lisa, you think… Am I a loser?» he blurted out.

Peter didn’t dare to look at her, and when he raised his eyes, he saw Lisa running towards the colorful whirl.

«Lisa!»

Why should I waste my time on something that is not for me?

Denis entered Roma’s Café. He looked around – no customers. Rather perplexed, he ordered a cappuccino and took a seat, looking around one more time.

Roma put a cappuccino in front of Denis,

«They joined the Masleniza celebration,» Roma waved in the direction of the door by the bar rack.

Denis gave a look at the door. In his head he repeated Lisa’s question, «I wonder why handsome, rich Onegin, he who has all this success… Why is he depressed?» Denis smiled bitterly.

Masha entered the coffee shop.

«Masha! Long time no see!» Roma went forward to greet her.

Masha ignored him. She walked straight to Denis’s table and sat down in front of him,

«Hey.»

«Do we know each other?»

Masha looked puzzled at Denis, not knowing what to say. Denis left money on the table and walked out through the door that Roma showed him, without looking back.

Memories from the previous evening – the party, streamed through Masha’s head. He was with her and then left, without looking back, just as he did a moment ago. She remembered his spine, how he walked down stairs.

Sasha’s voice, «Denis, are you leaving?» No answer – of course.

Masha was not aware that she was crying.

Roma made some tea, walked up to Masha, and put a tea cup in front of her. Then he went back to the bar rack, sat on it, and observed Masha for a while,

«Why cling so hard to that which is not for you?»

Masha came to her senses.

«You don’t cling to anything. Dropped out of school. Happy now?»

«Of course… I don’t cling, I don’t worry… What do you think? I got it! I was aware of all the opportunities that our school opened up for us. Golden career opportunities, money… so what? It didn’t fire me up – none of it!»

«Yeah, we all thought you were a complete idiot!»

«I enjoy cooking!»

Masha grinned bitterly.

«That’s what I love… And I can do it right now,» he looked at her.

«Why should I waste my time on something which is not for me, no matter how golden and promising it is?»

«And I love…» Masha stopped, «We will be together!»

She got up,

«Talk about wasting my time – here, with you!»

Masha looked angrily at Roma and went towards the door.

«Well, are you enjoying it, this… at all?»

Masha exited without answering him. The door smashed; Roma felt a cool breeze. He watched her through the window, how she crossed the street. Then he looked at her cup. She didn’t even touch her tea. He jumped off the bar rack, walked to the table to pick up the cup, and saw her phone laying there. He ran outside, but Masha was already out of sight.

Pick wisely!

Lisa swirled in a colorful vortex, laughing. Letting go of the end of the band, she looked at the sky. Through light clouds she could see bright blue. She stopped and looked around.

Not far from her was a small tea house. On the desk, there was a samovar and sweets. Bagels hanging on the wall. A few customers. They drank tea and made small talk. Lisa approached and bought a sea-buckthorn drink.

«Lisa!» Peter ran towards her.

Steam was coming from Lisa’s tea cup. She took a sip, holding her hands around the cup and exchanged smiles with other customers.

She looked around. In some distance away, guys were climbing a huge pillar. It looked difficult – nothing to attach to, to grab – just a naked pillar. The majority just slid down straight away. But it was funny – Lisa laughed together with other spectators. Suddenly one guy managed to climb up to the top of the pillar. People started applauding. Lisa felt a wave of joy. She started to dance a bit for herself, as she drank her tea.

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «Литрес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на Литрес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.