Into pieces
Шрифт:
Thirteen Fallen Snowflakes
Prologue
Many years ago there was a warm climate on our planet; so that people didn’t celebrate winter holidays, because snow never flew. A bright constellation, consisted of thirteen cold stars, was seen high in the sky every night. In a small European village there lived a nice curious girl called Alice. During many years she had been dreaming of winter times that would come soon to the Earth, and composed poems devoted to the Snowflake constellation. This girl was so different from the others, and her songs were so wonderful that even the cold stars slowly began to melt down. One ordinary December day the whole constellation disappeared and only thirteen miniature snow-flakes fell down to the surface of the Earth. They found Alice and told her thirteen Christmas stories before the last snowflake died in the warm air. Since then every December a lot of snowflakes cover the Earth, and in honor of fallen therteen Snowflakes every spring they melt down. Alice collected all the stories, but she didn’t have children, and then this manuscript was lost. Some pieces of mysterious thirteen stories passed from generation to generation and had been kept for us in this book.
Short story #1. The Christmas cake.
It was 22nd of December and Lina, as usual in the evening, was sitting in old brown armchair near the large window. This girl was twenty-two years old and, while studying in technical institute, she had to live in squalid hostel in the outskirts of Hamburg. Lina’s parents, although they were divorced, lived in Elmshorn, where the girl spent her happy and carefree childhood. One day her strict parents decided that their daughter needed good technical education, so they sent her to a big modern city, against girl's will. But it was ordinary for Lina to trust her parents; so she flew to Hamburg and studied technology there. It was the last year of her education and Lina was thinking of better life in another city and in different conditions. This evening was a rare moment, when the girl was alone in the whole room, so she could dream and write something in her small diary. By the way, Lina was drawing on the pages of a notebook much more often than writing lines of poem. She was the great dreamer, and her dreams, broken by reality, found their embodiment on the sheet of paper.
Lina was drawing for half an hour, and her last picture was almost finished. On the twenty-second page of her diary there was the sketch of young and handsome man. He had bright hazel eyes, straight nose and curly fair hair. Every touch of this portrait was so realistic, that the man even seemed to breath and move, smile and whisper, while Lina was looking at him. Finally, the masterpiece was ready, and Lina sighed heavily. Once she used to know this boy; they grew up in Elmshorn together, and their houses stood side by side. Lina was only five, when she was spending time with thirteen-year old Garz, her neighbor. Lina’s parents were busy those days, earning money to live on. So they often left their small daughter with Garz, who had some spare time after ballet school lessons. Garz was usually dancing and rehearsing one of his performances, while Lina was sitting and looking at him with admiration. He didn’t seem to be handsome or attractive at this age; he was a little bit funny and odd like many schoolboys. But there had always been a shade of unforgettable charm in his words and movements. Sometimes Garz tried to teach Lina several steps or took her to the dancing class, and she was really happy with her “elder brother” as Lina mentally called him.
After two years, Lina went to school, and Garz, the best pupil in the ballet class, began to take part in his first serious performances. Soon his family moved to another city, and he even wrote her rare friendly letters. However, Garz was very talented dancer; so he had a lot of work, and soon he got a million of offers from worldwide theaters and famous shows. Gradually, he forgot about casual little girl, because of new admirers. Meanwhile, Lina was studying at school and didn’t hear any news about Garz. She didn’t even know his whereabouts and activities. A few years passed and one day, sitting in the cinema and watching one of the most popular modern films, Lina saw familiar face on the screen. Some minutes later she understood that it was Garz, but no longer simple-hearted and insignificant boy. It was twenty-two year attractive man with shining smile, hypnotic eyes and fantastic appearance. Lina fell in love with this man from the first sight, like many fifteen-years old girls, and every minute she was thinking about Garz. As she understood from the TV news he was living in New York, blinded by the rays of fame, and was not going to return to Germany. A few times Lina tried to find his address or any other contact, but it was a secret information; so all that she could do was just to write letters to his official Fan Club. Certainly she wrote not once and not twice; Lina sent her letters almost every month, but there was no reply. Only cold silence…
Thus, being at the age of twenty-two, Lina was studying in Hamburg and she had almost forgotten about the love of her youth. Passing by the bookstall in the morning, she accidentally saw one of glamorous magazines with Garz’s face on its cover. The headline was: “Garz Herzlosen is flying to Hamburg for the premiere of his new movie”. Lina was amused, and during the day she carefully read the article, devoted to this event. In the evening, when her roommates, who worked in the bar downstairs, came out to earn some money, Lina finally had some spare time to dream. “He is arriving tomorrow…So soon,” she thought, “We haven’t seen each other for so many years! And I don’t have enough money to take part in the presentation. But maybe I can visit him at the hotel? There was the name of his hotel in the magazine. I hope, he would be glad to meet me here, in Hamburg…But would I have time to do this? I should try to…No, not try to – I must visit him, because it might be the last chance for me to meet my friend of childhood!”.
It was her final decision, but the problem was that Lina had to study and work the next day. Two years ago Lina’s father refused to help his former wife and daughter, because he didn’t have spare money in the budget of his new family. Then Lina started to work as a shop assistant after studies, to pay for the hostel and education. Two months ago the situation got worse; girl’s mother fractured her leg and couldn’t go to work. So, Lina had to find the second job; since then she had been working as a night receptionist of a shabby inn, to send some money to her mother several times a week. In the morning Lina was studying, and in spare hours she was preparing for exams or drawing. At that moment she was looking at Garz, depicted on the page of her diary. Suddenly the phone rang.
– Hallo, – Lina answered.
– Hi, – her colleague from the inn said, – Are you busy tonight?
– Well, I think I don’t have any urgent affairs. What’s the matter?
– Oh, that’s great! – the colleague rejoiced, – The point is that my child is ill, so I can’t work tonight. Can I ask you to work instead of me, if you don’t mind?
– Okay, – Lina said, – I understand your situation. No problems. Would arrive in one hour.
– Thank you so much! See you soon.
– Bye, – Lina hung up the receiver.
Then the girl put on her warm grey dress, and prepared all necessary things for work, like a pair of bananas to eat, shoes to change her foot-wear and worn textbook to learn some rules before the exams. Lina packed them in her bag, and was ready to get out. At the same time her marry roommates returned from the bar. They looked at Lina, hanging her bag in one hand and high winter boots in another one, with great surprise.
– Where are you going, Lina? – one of the girls asked, – Would you like to join us in the bar?
– No, thank you. I’m going to the inn, because one of my colleagues can’t work tonight.
– Oh, that’s pity, – the second girl noticed, – We’ve bought a delicious Christmas cake!
– Really? – Lana was surprised, – But it was very expensive! Have you robbed somebody?
– Certainly not, – the girls laughed, – There was a great discount in the supermarket. Moreover, we have heard that your friend Garz is arriving tomorrow, so we should celebrate this day. You have been waiting for this moment for so long. And, finally we are working on Christmas day, so it’s better to change the date of holiday supper.
– You are so careful, – Lina smiled, – Thank you for your kindness, but I think we can’t celebrate now. I have promised to work tonight.
– Well, we will keep the cake for you, so you can eat it in the morning, – the girls suggested, – And we are going to sleep, because it’s boring to have supper without you.
– Okay, – Lina said, – But I’m working tomorrow. So, we can gather together on 24th of December. Do you agree?
– Well, you have changed our plans, but we don’t have any objections, – the girls answered, – By the way, you’d better go now or you’ll be late for work.