“What a huge and roving.”
“This can be very dangerous, we must trap it.”
The life of dogs in the city, as it turned out, also was regulated by the laws unknown to me, without knowing which I again found myself on the verge of death. My hope was again only on Alexandra – the only being who was kind to me. Having slipped out on the other side of the gateway, I set off back and laid down by the familiar door on the landing. I was not mistaken in my hopes. Alexandra let me into the apartment, fed and treated me very kindly.
Since then, a calm, happy life began. Alexandra loved me and often made me sleep with her in bed. My son immediately recognized me in the shape of the dog. When he was one year old, he already possessed a double, and perhaps, a triple vision, inherent in real people. Seeing how I love the child and take care of him, Alexandra calmly went to work, trusting my son to me. In order to prevent foreign demons from attacking me on the street, Alexandra bought me dog amulets (a collar and a leash) and explained that while my son is holding me on a leash, other demons have no right to offend me. I didn’t mind. And they gave me a dog name – Rex.
When my son grew up, I began to teach him everything that I knew myself. He turned out to be a wonderful student and soon knew about the four TRUTHS no worse than me.
Every summer we went to the village to see sister Masha. Sometimes we were taken by Alexandra herself, and sometimes by Aunt Valya. Valya and her daughter Lyubochka perfectly understood that I was not a real dog, but they did not tell anyone about it. Walking in the forest, we trained in transformations. My son learned to turn into a cat, similar to the one that lived with Aunt Masha. And Lyubochka could not turn into anyone but a chicken.
From an Alexandra’s letter to her sister Masha
Hello, Masha. I haven’t written to you for almost a year. A lot has happened here. In many ways, of course, it’s my own fault. As we returned from the village, my Rashka began to annoy me greatly. A healthy man, but he does nothing. Moreover, he began to walk at night somewhere. In general, I decided that it was time for him to get a job. Moreover, he has not only learnt to speak well, but also to read and to write. So one miserable morning I sent him to look for work. I wish I didn’t do that!!! He returned the next day, shot in two places.
As I later realized from the conversations of the neighbors about the robbery of the store, he “got a job” with the bandits. They used him and then shot him.
Now he is sought by both law enforcement officers and bandits. If they find him, it will be very bad for us. I went the entirestaircase in search of blood traces on Rashka’s way home, but found nothing. For a whole month I nursed him. And then I seriously talked to him. He understood everything and left.
Sometimes I really miss him, I think, how is he there? Where is he? For some reason, it seems to me that he is alive and well – then I am happy. And sometimes again despair flashes over me. I would probably be completely crazy, but here we got Rex. Imagine a beautiful adult intelligent dog that loves me and my son. I loved him just madly! Sometimes I feel ashamed that I love the dog more than my poortroubled Rashka. Nevertheless, this is so.
Soon I discovered that Rex is very good at caring for children. And then Valechka came, looked at him and said:
“A very smart dog. You cannot give your son in a day nursery, but leave him at Rex. I see that he is specially trained to care for children.”
I believed and do not regret.
My son is constantly with the dog. They walk together, play together, and they are never bored!
In the summer, I hope that the three of us will come to your place, and you will also meet our wonderful Rex.
Write, kiss you!
Yours, Alexandra.
From the notes of Radek Reksovich about his childhood
Radek and his father Ra, turned into a Rex dog.
I think that few people had such a happy childhood as mine. My parents not only loved me, but also my father was always a companion of all my children’s games. And he had much more opportunities for games than other people. After all, he was “transforming”, that is the one who can change his appearance. Usually he lived in the guise of a Rex dog, and even my mother did not know that he was he. In winter, we walked along the streets and backstreets of our city or sat at home, and he told me about his native land and about the magic of the number four. In summer, we spent whole days in the forest with the neighbor Lyuba, who was also “transforming” – she could turn into a big hen, but dreamed someday to become an eagle. I envied her for several years, since I myself did not know how to turn into anyone, and then I really liked Aunt Masha’s cat, and played with it for the whole summer. At the end of that summer, I managed to turn into a cat without much effort. Surprisingly, in the image of a cat, I also got claws sharp enough to climb trees easily. Now Lyuba was envious of me, and my father laughed, reassured her and said that he also did not know how to climb trees.
Yes, I forgot to say that the three of us communicated with each other only mentally, and in mental speech it is very difficult to hide any shades of our children’s feelings. So in the early years there were quarrels now and then, and father hardly reconciled us. He always said that this is the result of adherence to the number two, that we quarrel only because there are two of us, children. And when he is with us, then there are three of us, and quarreling is already more difficult. But when Aunt Valya, Lyuba’s mother, came, there were four of us, it was a real bliss. Lyuba’s mom did not know how to transform, but she was kind and was able to speak mentally. In her presence, Lyuba immediately ceased to envy me. The four of us walked through the forest, showed her our childish successes, sometimes, having played a bit, ran away, and Aunt Valya kept asking my father about his distant homeland. He was a complete mystery to her. She said that she could at first glance determine which country one or another person came from, but she could not “determine” my father.
Aunt Valya taught us all that even my dad couldn’t do – she taught us to play hide and seek. Do you think what is special in this? All children play hide and seek. Yes, all the children know how, but Lyuba and my dad didn’t know how, because it was too easy to think of someone who is hidden. And the whole point of the game was disappearing. Aunt Valya showed us how to defend one’s thoughts. It turned out to be very simple – just mentally “put yourself in a pan and cover with a lid.” Then you can’t hear anything yourself, and no one can hear you, and you can play hide and seek. And you can mentally drill a small hole in the pan wall – then you hear everything yourself, but still nobody hears you.
One day, dad heard a shepherd playing on a horn. He liked it so much that I had to go to the shepherd and find out where to get the horn. It turns out that the shepherd made it himself, so he made the same for us. Now dad sometimes retired on some glade, already in human form, and tried to learn some melodies on his horn.
But all good things come to an end. I remember the last summer of my childhood. I was already seven years old, in the fall I had to go to school. The weather was rainy, there was no Lyubochka. She had already finished fifth form, and she was sent to agricultural work with the whole class. Mom was sad and silent – her head hurt. Dad and I left for our favorite forest. It was damp and cold, and dad said we had to make a fire. I did not know how to make a fire without matches, and dad showed me how to mentally reach out to the invisible sun and, like a magnifying