“Go!” and we moved away from the village. The ribbon of the road ran fast, and the first traces of a man in the forest, and another village… The horses got up, and Petka’s father grunted amazedly.
“Where did we arrive?” the horse was standing next to our house which we left this morning.
“I see it!” Petka said. “But we didn’t turn anywhere, we were only going straight!”
“We chose some roundabout road,” Petka’s father summed up. “What to do, we’ll rest and have dinner, and we’ll be more careful tomorrow.”
But we left this place neither tomorrow nor the day after tomorrow… Eventually, Petka’s mom said to his dad:
“Let’s explore the road first without us, and then we’ll all go with you. There’s no need to torment us every day.”
So Petka and I went to the forest again for mushrooms, but Petka’s father left and never came back. Our village telepath came and brought a telegram in the evening: “I got to the place, everything is fine, but I couldn’t come back for you.”
Petka’s mother did not like telegram very much:
“Why couldn’t come back? What does he mean?”
“Aunt Frosya,” I said,” is it clear, isn’t it? He came to his home, but he couldn’t find a way back to us! We have a dense forest here —one can easily get lost!”
“That’s all right, they’ll call the placers and they’ll take us out of here! However, it will be expensive! But there’s nothing else that can be done! I didn’t know how it would turn out when I let Petka go with you.”
A day later, indeed, a spaceship arrived which was driven by sapiens. It was the first time I saw them. Two were dressed in grey flight jumpsuits with lots of pockets. We plunged in a plate and flew into the night autumn sky.
“Will not you get lost?” I asked the pilot cautiously.
“Sapiens never wander, we have a navigator,” the pilot said and pointed to a flickering map on the panel.
We flew for a long time and finally landed. I was not surprised to see a familiar house of my beloved Granny. Sapiens swore for a long time with quiet voices, then they unloaded us from the spaceship, said that it is faulty; therefore they have no right to carry passengers. After that, the spaceship disappeared in the night fog and did not return.
Three days later, Petka’s father Pavel returned on his horse. He hugged his wife, Frosya, and said:
“I can’t live without you! There is a madhouse there. All run and want something. They require money for the rent of the spaceship. But I didn’t give them anything! I said that they didn’t bring my wife because of the compass breakdown, I’m not responsible for the breakage. What is going on: ‘You interrupt studying process! You have two children in the wild forest! We will deprive you of your parental rights!’ I let it all hang out and came to you. As you can see, I got there without any problems.”
“Pavel,” I asked. “Could you teach the children at school?”
“I think I could!” he replied. “I’m still a Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences,” he said.
“That’s good,” I continued. “You will be the headmaster of our rural school!”
Paul smiled and patted my head.
“If it was possible, girl, I’d love to do this. But who’s going to let me run a school for you and my Petka here.”
“I think other children will come here soon. You know, relatives are going to come to all neighbors in the autumn, for the harvest, and to see their older. Children will surely be with them.”
By that time, I had already believed my little friends and ordered them:
“Let the children who come here stay here! And those who want to take them from here getaway themselves!”
A month passed, and everything turned to be as I planned. There were already ten children of different ages. Paul organized something like a school on the veranda of our house. Frosya helped him. And my grandmother Bella taught me how to read and write.
A month later, the commission arrived. A big fat man explained to us why our school is illegal, that its certificates will not be valid anywhere and we need to urgently get home. He ordered all the children to sit in his spaceship. The spaceship was big! It was much bigger than that one which flew the first time. We all sat down, but the flying saucer didn’t take off.
“Mister,” I said. “We’re all too heavy for this spaceship! It can’t take off! It will lift you easily.”
“It’s ridiculous, girl,” the mister replied. “Spaceships just sometimes break. Now the sapiens will look and fix everything. Mister climbed into the spaceship to see how it was being repaired. The spaceship took off! It never came back to us again.
Then the snowy winter came! Everyone has forgotten about us, as the flying saucers did not come to us anymore. The telepath postman gave us a congratulatory telegram from my parents in the New Year time:
Happy New Year! How are you going there? Is everyone healthy?”
Granny Bella said that we are all right, all are healthy, the girl goes to school.
Nothing more remarkable happened. I made friends with all the children. No one laughed at me, perhaps because it was getting easier and easier for me to talk to people every day. Even when I spoke to that fat man, I wasn’t worried at all. I even laughed at him in my heart.”
In the following years, our lives were without much change. Our school was admitted unexpectedly. Even a music teacher was sent to us. New children came, and those, who had graduated from school, went to the big world. My parents came a couple of times, but they were always late somewhere. They had children besides me – two of my older brothers, whom they had to help in arranging their life.
I often went alone into the forest and alone talked to Terra there. Once I asked to show me how I can fly. And Terra showed me. And my beloved Granny used to talk to me a lot in my dreams. She soothed me and asked me not to tell anyone, even my grandmother Bella. She also gave me the task of teaching all the local children how to talk mentally.
I turned to our village postman telepath to give a few lessons at school. At first, he refused, because he needed special permission, but then he agreed. So, telepathic joint trainings began in the evenings. We tried to merge our thoughts with our teacher and then tell everything about his thoughts. It wasn’t hard for me, but I tried not to stand out and sometimes made mistakes deliberately.
Chapter 4. Summer
″Nice!″ Mila stretched blissfully and wiggled her toes. A hungry mosquito took off.
″Mila! It’s unfair! Why mosquitoes bite me and not you!″
″Zina! Um, how can I explain it to you? If you read my mind, I could show you. Unfortunately, it can’t be showed with words.″
″And who showed you?″
″My beloved Granny- she is my great-grandmother, she died when I was seven.″
″Did she teach you to read thoughts?″
″No, I could read thoughts since childhood.″
″I wish I could do that.″
Two girls stretched on the hay and sleepy listened to the bells ringing. Today at school they were asked to herd cows all day long. Unlike other children, Mila loved this activity, although it was not easy to herd cows in the wood. Of course, if all the cows grazed quietly in the meadow, there wouldn’t be any problems… Unfortunately, the mushroom season