Christmas on K. bridge. 10. Time for Athos

"TALES OF GHOSTS"

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

"CHRISTMAS on KUZNETSKY BRIDGE"

10. IT'S TIME for VACATION on ATHOS

I would like to put my feet up on the wall, lying across the bed and spread my arms out. Once, during my vacation, I tried to draw myself in that position, and when I accidentally turned the picture upside down… no, not ‘upside down’, but so that my head was on top, I got a crucifix.

The darkness was thickening. Mark whirled around until he froze with another silent question, “Do you want me to ask for permission to leave with you?”

Mark had never gone abroad with me. I used to travel alone, not only all over Europe, I visited Egypt, Israel, Peru… The pages in my ‘foreign’ passport turned into a mosaic panel of stamps. That time everything would be much more complicated and dangerous – Iraq.

“I will work there,” I replied.

“Okay, on your vacation, we will definitely go somewhere out together! You will forget everything and relax! By the way, I heard that people who walked around the place, where the Tower of Babel had been located, got their memory erased! Is that the reason you asked to go to Iraq?”

“Exactly, people. One can forget, but only there, since everything is public domain here. We never ask for business trips, Mark. I won’t forget anything…”

How many of them failed? How often did the employees of the Forces of Darkness use some glitches or distortions of the Matrix of Time space in the so-called Places of Power, at the points of open doors between the worlds?

It seems to fatalists that everything is predetermined, it is obviously easier for them to live! Each business trip of the employees of our Office, which, according to earthly time, can last an instant, is a fragment of a chess game of the several millennia tournament. And my worst memory is the Bermuda Triangle…

“Listen, what about going to Monaco?” Mark kept dreaming. “Let’s play in the casino! Or do you prefer Africa to stay closer to nature? Where and what way do you want to spend your vacation?”

“In silence and away from people. On some island, maybe. Not Easter Island, since I’ve just been there.”

“Just don’t tell me again that you want to join the Mount Athos’ monks!” Mark snorted and grimaced.

I wasn’t angry with him at all, those who were angry didn’t take root there. I loved Mark in my own way, but I wasn’t in the mood to dream of a vacation. My sad memories of the Bermuda Triangle were stirred up by another round of news that didn’t inspire optimism.

Besides, it was all a fairy tale. Everything Mark told me. He pretended that the fairy tale would come true, and I pretended to believe it. Mark was a troll, we were on different levels, we couldn’t spend any vacation together.

I got into the Astral Tablets, collected all the information about the personalities involved in the upcoming event and, after saying goodbye to Mark, instantly moved to the express train to Earth.

“Hello, Bella! You are the most beautiful Warrior of Light!” Gabriel whispered to me, taking a seat nearby. “Don’t be sad, Sunshine! Everything will be fine!”

“Hello…” I nodded and realized how much I wanted to snuggle up to him like a human and right that moment.

We got used to practicing visualization. And the express train, and the human-like spirits instead of energy balls, and everything existing on Earth appear in Heaven in the form of holograms, but it’s impossible to materialize some physical body in order to feel each other…

The darkness was thickening. We were descending in silence. I felt extremely tired.

“You will sleep it off in the Other World!” my grandma used to say, but she was wrong, since one could sleep it off on Earth only! I wanted to switch myself off, but my mind was constantly tortured by the question, “Was it possible to save those whom I didn’t?” One of them, Ludwig, for example. We had crossed paths once on vacation, but sometime later I didn’t save the ship with him, stuck in the Bermuda Triangle…

I was directed a ray of Light by Gabriel. My unearthly love, he always felt when I was in trouble. Anyhow, at that moment Gabriel stayed next to me, to my right, in the express train, but in a moment I would be in Iraq, and Gabriel – in Palestine… Suddenly I felt so alone! Hardly anyone on Earth could imagine what it was like to be a Warrior of Light!

“Where do you want to rest?” Gabriel asked me a mute question.

We had never crossed paths with Gabriel on Earth. It was a pity… I remembered the first time I had met him in Heaven, I thought, “I would like to spend a vacation with him!” I had never met anyone like Gabriel before, but… as soon as I looked into the Astral Tablets, I realized immediately, why…

It’s good that the access to the Tablets, absent on Earth, is given back only on your return from vacation, since the less you know, the sweeter you sleep during vacation. And it’s good as well that here, unlike on Earth, no one has the right to send you on vacation by force. If you want, you write an application, they agree with you the period ‘from… till’ and select options for your tour program.

How many vacations were already in my memory? Quite enough from the point of view of a human being on Earth. And – too few! – as vacations during one earthly life, from the point of view of a Heaven citizen.

“So… What’s about Monaco? To play in the casino? Or Africa, to stay closer to nature?” Gabriel supposed without waiting for my answer. “Where and what way do you want to spend your next vacation?”

“In silence and away from people…”

“On Mount Athos with the monks?!” Gabriel read my thoughts…

What a pity…

He had spent last vacation on Mount Athos, and immediately after return he was granted a rank of those who had no vacation anymore.

December, 2002