It is so nice to come out at the balcony of an old house with a cup of tea in the middle of January when the weather in Paris tells that it is already Moscow and see that modernly dressed women and curious tourists together with the Eiffel Tower still wave at you and do not go away. Then you stand, rocking with worry, and ask it, “Are you standing?” And the worry answers, starring at you as at an inanimate string of light which suddenly became alive, “If now we have a look whether there is a green one at the warehouse, and if there is, you can pay for the car and take it.”
“If now we have a look whether there is a green one at the warehouse, and if there is, you can pay for the car and take it.” Zhenia and Earlyborn were found standing in a car showroom after two hours of agreeing a deal on the car purchase. Nothing went wrong, and the car was chosen; the problem was that siblings deemed the purchase as an adventure, as though it was a rehearsal of their journey to Antarctic. They were roaming around the car showroom for a long time, sat into the biggest and into the smallest cars in turn and tried to play hide-and-seek: one hid on the front seat, another counted on the back seat and next started searching, and an odd thing is that he did not find at once. Then they decided on the model and wandered around it, questioning the assistants which colours they have. Earlyborn was particularly interested in this issue, for she was a true aesthete with her dull-red lipstick. They agreed with a lead manager about the test drive, who estimated their choice, got in a traffic jam at first and soon were supposed to drive at the far end of the town: they ran out of petrol. They drove enough and got an ocean of pleasure. Earlyborn made a circle in front of the car showroom, imagining how she would make the same circle around the Tower after extorting from her brother, where the keys to the car were, getting up fifteen minutes earlier than him… Then they were completing the documents and choosing the wheel rims: Earlyborn wanted to have some big ones, and Zhenka—some practical ones. They reached a compromise, and when the evening twilight appeared, the world saw Zhenka’s new dark-orange—of the fireplace colour—car. Zhenka literally jumped out of the car, turning right—he glanced at his beautiful sister and the Earth through the side window. Siblings again started playing hide-and-seek. Earlyborn hid in the boot, although they concluded not to hide there, and Zhenka left her and went for a stroll alone to teach her a lesson.
Chapter 10
***
He sat and looked at the fire without noticing the sunset dancing on the other seashore. There was a bit rusty bunch of keys next to him, made from hard metal that it seemed they were from cast iron. In truth, they were from tin. Gulls were screeching. On one window, if to be more accurate, not far from the one of them, was a magnet from Montenegro. The sunset was warmer and huger, which was not typical for the area, as the yolk on a frying pan that was a bit overcooked; it was thought to have a light with a mystery inside within a probability of ten-fifteen percent. Perhaps, there were aliens inside, or the meaning of life itself. Such light was widely used on the rolls of film in the past to hold back the evidence and arguments in court. Ages passed by, ears of rye were ready to reap, do not try to hide this sandy colour of life, as you will never hide it all. Moreover, winners can’t be judged, so the beach is not court, yet the area where the main action takes place. What action? The adventures of our characters. There was a windmill somewhere on the left, and it seemed that you moved in Holland; the mill turned its sails like an exhausted for the day bee, which is, perhaps, about to die after hard work, but still is alive and kicking.
Did it take Zhenka much to drift away from Paris, playing hide-and-seek with Earlyborn? How did he find himself here, at the Holland seashore? Yet maybe he was not alone and managed to hide in a different nook in Paris, have a nap, start the car, pick up his sister in the new car and get here at night, ignoring the Highway code. It isn’t Holland, is it? Such questions rise when a person is doubtful. Then “yes” means “no” and “no” stands for “yes”, and there are no natural powers to make him change his mind. Zhenka and Earlyborn (I do not know why you supposed they were in Netherlands) were at the seashore in France, where occasionally windmills may be found, as free horses, crossed the foreign frontier, where it would be nice to drive to the snow-white beach by new car with big wheel rims and wait for a ferry, sitting by the fire, as they did now. Zhenka and Earlyborn needed to go to Bermuda to reach Antarctic and they thought, “Why not to go there?” Zhenka chose Bermuda, since he had a reach fantasy. And the whole journey was their own adventurous enigma.
***
The guitar was heard. Waves touched the beach as often as the slightly slowed film goes. Back and forth. Back and forth. Each time the waves’ flames came closer to steps, which lay idle relaxing in silence. The sand was fabulously white and scarcely bigger than you if once you diminished in size a hundred as much as you were before and fell down into high-grade flour. The fire with ugly, but hard and long-burning logs was splendid in concord with the background of the darkened to a degree which is only possible in warm countries of January sunset. People usually see the sea from a different angle. Firstly, they imagine the summer. Russians can’t accustom themselves to the fact that somewhere far from here, in those sunny countries of January, which warm better than the polar bear’s fur, there are warm seas even in winter. Secondly, whatever people talk about the beauty of snow-white beaches, only the yellow sand can form the true atmosphere of the beach. At times piles of rubbish, or something sharp and disgusting, say, tin cans can happen in it, however, in this case it would stay attractive and home with the majority of people on the Earth. The further you go the more interesting things you meet. When there are people with healthy faces in the room that means the air there, in the space around should be fresh; only some of the people after meticulous considerations would dare to name this beach with clouds and cold roaring winds the one for the fine swimming. Others would rather willingly call it a place to train your skills for survival in this area. A beach must be warm. Furthermore, it must be warmer than any beach in winter in countries of January.