«You are a redheaded cat.»
Arthur moved Tais from his lap to the couch and sat down at the computer. Taia was talking, joking, and asking something trivial. Kept quiet and talked again. Took funny photos. Showed them to Arthur. She had fun. She enjoyed Arthur’s company. She didn’t stop, guessing Arthur might need to rest.
Several days passed. Arthur was working on the computer. Tais, in her typical manner, kept on inventing, joking and laughing at her own jokes, asking Arthur to play the games she had invented. Arthur could spend hours or even days not answering or even reacting to Tais’s joyful appeals. «She’s not real. Not real. But she pulls attention like she’s alive.»
Arthur’s tension was growing. He answered Tais less. She noticed it. Slacked off, but not for long. She saw his reactions well, but once she felt how much she loved him, she couldn’t stand it and approached him again.
– 3-
One morning, looking at Tais asleep, Arthur went to the sacrificial bowl and began to take out, one by one, the objects that were lying there. He took them out and placed them next to each other on the table. A tail, an ear, a ballerina, a toy car, a swan’s heart. Sleeping Tais began to look translucent. She began to shimmer, like a shoddy hologram. The last thing, the pile of crushed glass from the mirror was placed next to on the table. And Tais disappeared completely.
The room became very silent. Although the sleeping Tais made no sound, it was the silence without something that had just filled the space.
«Now I am free. As alone as before, but free. That closeness almost consumed me. If I give up pleasure, it will make me stronger. Only weaklings go along with pleasure.» Arthur reasoned that every time he passed the table with the empty sacrificial bowl and the pieces extracted from it lying on the table.
Sometimes Arthur thought Taya was sitting in the chair behind him, smiling. Even thought, if he doesn’t turn around for a long time, he could hear her breathing.
«Tais,» Arthur said quietly, not noticing he was speaking aloud. All the pieces were placed in the same order at the bottom of the bowl. When the last speck of crushed mirror fell into the bowl, the familiar voice came from the middle of the room.
«Hi»
Taya was smiling as if nothing had happened. Arthur admitted to himself he missed her.
For days, Arthur kept Tais close to him. And the more he sank into his affection for her, the more resistance grew to capture this «unfree,» which created tension. Tais had the memory of how Arthur erased her from existence. And the awareness of her creation by him also clearly stayed with her. But she wasn’t mad at Arthur. Only sad about it. A swan’s heart and a dog’s ear kept her from leaving Arthur forever.
Tais knew for sure that after that night with Arthur, such a beautiful night, he would erase her again in the morning. It had happened more than once before. Each time, before Arthur had erased Tais in the morning, she wept quietly, without showing it. «What am I crying about?» Tais asked herself, «Yes. I’m so afraid of never seeing Arthur again. Stupid swan heart.»
– 4-
Yes, that was the night after which Arthur would erase Tais again. Looking at the fire, either from the light, or from realizing Arthur did not want to see her and hear her near him, and from annoyance at the way the swan heart lying in the sacrificial bowl was used for, tears flowed down the Tais cheeks, and dripped somewhere on the floor.
«Taya, could you keep an eye on the fire?» Arthur asked, falling asleep.
Tais couldn’t hear him. She looked at the fire with tear-filled eyes.
«Tail. Tail first,» said Tais. She got up and brought the sacrificial bowl to the fireplace. Through the bowl’s clear glass she could see the tail changing its position. Twisting now into a bagel, then into a spiral, straightening and curving again. Ballerina looked at the fire through the bowl glass and did not stop spinning the wheel of the toy car. Her ear lifted upward and turned to sound. And the heart. The swan’s heart was beating more often than usual, expanding and contracting, pushing with rhythmic beats whatever came into contact with it.
Tais took the tail. She threw it into the fire. A sheaf of sparks and the smell of burning wool. The black dog’s ear, too. More sparks and the stench of burning meat. Tais breathed heavily. No more tears covered her eyes. Now the heart. Over there it. The beating heart didn’t flare up at once. Its beats faded slowly, and at the edges of it began to burn a faint fire. The ballerina dolly and the toy car burned very quickly. Tais could hardly hold the bowl. She tilted it over the fire and poured the glass sand on the burning embers. In that second, she was gone. The sacrificial bowl, hanging in the air for a moment, fell, shattering into small pieces.
– 5-
Arthur woke up in the morning with a severe cold. The chimney was out. A window that had been opened by a strong breeze was filled with fine snow.
«It’s cold. Very cold. Just unbearably cold.»
Arthur remembered the sorcerer’s words. «When you get really, really cold, eat this candy.»
The candy, wrapped in a black wrapper, was in Arthur’s purse. He trembled from the cold and, with trembling fingers, took the candy inside the mouth. After a few seconds Arthur stopped feeling the cold completely. Now his body temperature was lower than the coldest environment temperature. Forever.
4 HANDS MASSAGE
Helen had been in school since the first grade. During her years at school, she has gained a high level of general and subject-specific skills
She is proficient in modern IT technologies. Helen is distinguished by her general erudition and desire for self-education. She is a value-oriented person with the potential of intelligence and high culture. Kind and compassionate person, responsible for her deeds. Not verbose, sometimes reticent. A modest girl, able to firmly express her position. Talks smoothly with classmates and teachers. Mostly polite.
Positive girl with a lot of possibilities. She perceives criticism calmly. Family psychological and emotional atmosphere is favorable. Parents had full control over the girl’s free time. Listened to the advice of her class teacher.
Reference to the place of demand.
School Principal.
Class teacher.
– 2-
Getting into a pedagogical university was easy. Helen was even surprised how little knowledge she had gained during her school years came in handy for admission. «Where’s all that knowledge going now? «It’s definitely not going to come in handy at this school. And now, school is over.
Helen was standing at the window. The sunset was reflecting beautifully in the glass of the house across the street. It was her grandmother’s inherited apartment. Close to where she studied. The desire to feel independent. Become an adult.
It was sunset, and the light was on in the house across the street. Helen stepped away from the window. She turned on her grandmother’s old floor lamp. The soft light filled the room dimly. From the ajar closet she could see a wide-brimmed hat that had half fallen out. Helen moved to the closet. A murky mirror, the edges of which had lost their luster over time. Slid opened the closet by pulling the jamming door to herself. A hat and a pile of things fell to the floor. Helen picked up the hat. It was a slightly rumpled, mothballed, gray hat with a veil.
Helen put it on. Glancing in the mirror through the veil, she felt like a blue-blooded, prideful lady. Put on lipstick. Her eyelids were covered with dark eyeshadow. Helen didn’t usually use any cosmetics.