The Old Lantern Dreams. 2. The Girl and the Cat

"TALES OF GHOSTS"

about Love and Death from the Land of Mists
a collection of short stories
in the “Playing Another Reality” series

"The OLD LANTEN's DREAMS"

2. The GIRL and the CAT

The New Year was coming. Everything was almost the same as always, almost... A fragrant Christmas tree with its thorny branches, decorated with toys and entwined with tinsel, was placed in the same room by the window. However, there were already two portraits on the wall on the right. The Girl looked at their alive faces, and they looked at her. Nobody knew where they were. She got unbearably sad, since everyone around was waiting for the holiday and the fulfillment of wishes, and her wish would no longer come true. Never. At least on Earth.

The chimes struck, and the Girl thought, “I want to find the point where Earth passes into the Sky!”

Suddenly footsteps were heard in the next room. There was no one there, but at night…

The Girl put on her old coat and left the house.

The blizzard was conjuring outside. Snowflakes were dancing a fairy tale in the muffled light of the street lanterns, and the Girl remembered what had been left in the Past, and the Sadness in her soul sang the dreary song of loneliness again.

The Girl turned around, taking the last look at the windows of the flat with a fragrant Christmas tree in the corner and two portraits on the wall, and she noticed dim lights and ghostly shadows that appeared and disappeared, dancing around the Christmas tree.

The Girl sighed and walked away, passing by the familiar houses, where happy faces were flickering in the glowing with the New Year windows. She couldn’t help thinking. Besides, someone’s cruel words, about useless of the crazy people who believed in ghosts, kept replaying in her mind. So the Girl went further and further away.

At the edge of the City, she met a Black Cat. The Cat gave a sad look to the Girl.

“In this City, people don’t like black cats. Would you take me with you?” asked the Cat.

The Girl stroked the meowing creature and smiled.

“Yes, of course! Why not?”

They headed off into the distance, without looking back at the Strange City, which inhabitants neither liked black cats nor believed in ghosts.

A few years later, the Girl and the Cat traveled around the whole Earth, but they found no place for themselves, because wherever they came in, there were always those who denied the existence of ghosts and those who demonized black cats.

Then the Girl and the Cat decided to leave for the blizzard to find the point where Earth passed into the Sky. They never came back…

Perhaps one day you will meet them, two eternal wanderers, the Girl and the Black Cat. However, probably they have already reached the Stairway to Heaven and joined the myriad of stars illuminating your path…

1990