Вадим Кучеренко

In Year of Active Sun

A year of active Sun which is also called a leap year is a hard time for the ocean, but those who dwell there are having even harder time. Sunrays like bullfighters’ swords are piercing through the ocean’s water penetrating into the hidden trenches and disturbing the deep–water creatures accustomed to the eternal darkness. They have to get to the surface, while a storm or a tide ruthlessly sweep them ashore. The great ocean engaged in a combat with the Sun does not care about their fate.

After a tide the shore is often covered with seashells, either empty or with pearls inside. But there are snails in some of them. One can take a seashell to the ear and listen to what these tiny living creatures are talking about. To those who are able to understand them a whole fantastic world is being revealed. The snails’ memory keeps a lot of stories which they tell each other on the ocean bottom, while they are waiting for the storm to end locked in their shells.

Here is one of such stories.

…A girl is walking along the shore, leaving a chain of the tiny footsteps behind her, while the ocean is thirstily licking them off with its long tongues of waves. The girl is not looking back and can not see that. She does not care about the past – she lives with the present. She is picking up the shells thrown at the shore in order to decorate her hut with them. The hut itself with a roof of palm leaves is also made of seashells. The girl is throwing seashells with the snails back into the sea. Born with one of the sunrays in the year of the extremely active sun, she understands the snails’ whisper.

The beautiful azure lagoons full of colorful fishes and the island flourishing with mangrove clumps were her own world, where she was born and grew up. There were neither predatory fishes in the water nor wild animals in the forest, and therefore the girl didn’t know what fear is and has never faced the evil. She was almost happy.

Almost… She only missed quite a trifle – to share her happiness with someone. At times, even sunrise didn’t bring joy to her which was an alarming symptom. She needed a friend. Fussy monkeys, talkative parrots and fearful birds were just the playmates, capricious and fickle. They didn’t know what real friendship is. But there were no one on the island beside them.

So, ones the girl decided to make a raft and take a voyage to the ocean. She was hoping to meet someone who probably lived on one of the surrounding islands. Indeed, she couldn’t be the only one in the whole world! This thought seemed to be so painful, that the girl was pushing it away, tying together the trunks of palm trees with the strong vines. She has already scheduled a date of departure.

At dawn there was a storm on the island. Born somewhere in the ocean it was moving rapidly from north to south seizing everything on its way. A thousand miles away from the island the storm has picked up an air-balloon. For a long time it has been playing with the balloon, throwing it up and down, despite the loud coursing of its pilot. The boy sitting in the basket made of willow rods, fastened to the balloon with a rope net, was very angry with the storm for it has changed his planned route of the flight. He was fearlessly shaking his fist at the storm.

Flying over the island, the aerostat subdued by the strong blast of wind has abruptly got down, touching top of a palm tree. The next moment it has fallen down on the sand shallow, raising a fountain of sand and water. A cover of the balloon has cracked with a loud bang, scattering the pieces of silk cloth on the whole shallow. However, the pilot was alive. He got out of the basket, shook off the sand and looked at the remnants of his aerostat with regret. Then, he looked around and saw the raft swinging on the waves and fastened to the palm tree with the vine, so that it couldn’t be swept out to the ocean. The boy came up to the raft and started inspecting it with great interest. He didn’t even notice a girl who was watching him from behind the mangrove bushes not daring to come out.

This morning when the girl, as usual, went to the shallow, she suddenly saw a boy near the raft. At first, she was very surprised and even scared as she has never met someone similar to her. She has always thought that such a human being should be exactly the same as her, like the two halves of a seashell, but a stranger had narrow hips, wide shoulders and dark hair. However, surprised by the difference, the girl was glad to see him. Having hesitated for some time, she decided that there was no need to hide and it was even silly of her.

So, she came out of the mangrove bushes. The boy saw her, but neither did he get surprised, nor expressed joy. He only pointed at the raft asking:

– Is it durable?

– I don’t know yet, – she answered smiling, – I am just going to take a voyage on it.

– Then, you need a mast and the paddles, – the boy said, – for the ocean current it looks not reliable. Can you control sails?

– What is a sail? – the girl asked naively.

The boy understood that she has no idea about shipbuilding and navigation and he shrugged his shoulders puzzled.

– How are you going to travel across the ocean!? – he asked with a bit of contempt. – Why do you need that?

– I feel sad, – answered the girl sincerely.

– But why? – the boy asked and his blue eyes got dark.

– Because I am absolutely lonely here, – she replied.

The boy got surprised and then asked her:

– So, there is no one on this island, right?

– No one except me. And also you now.

– That’s fine! – the boy exclaimed. – I have decided: I am staying here. I am sick of wandering, to be honest.

The girl was about to clap her hands with joy, but suddenly she heard him asking:

– When are you leaving for the ocean?

– I am not leaving! – she laughed. – Why do I have to look for a friend at the ocean, if he himself found me here? We will be friend with you!

– Friends? – the boy winced. – And live together on the same island? And see each other all the time, and talk to each other… And all things like that? All that, meanwhile I want to be alone and think to myself. No way! Not for this purpose I’ve traveled such a long distance to get into the world of conventions again. I want freedom and loneliness… By the way, you promised that you would leave!

– Well, – a girl signed sadly and a tear of disappointment, the first in her life appeared on her cheek. – I promised and I will leave. Just help me to set a mast and I’ll learn controlling a sail myself.

– Sure, the boy agreed and this time his glance wasn’t severe. – The cover of my air balloon will perfectly suit for the sail. We can find some big pieces of cloth and connect them together with the vines. The sail will be patched, but silk is durable and reliable fabric. You won’t regret, believe me.

– I believe you, – she said sadly.

So, they started working. They had just to set a mast and attach a sail to it. However, no matter how much they tried to finish the work, as soon as possible, not being distracted by idle talks, the raft was ready for departure only at dusk, when even flying fishes floating over the water to enjoy the sunset were invisible. The girl who has never sailed on a raft couldn’t go to the ocean at night. And she decided to ask:

–

Let me stay on the island until morning.

The boy reckoned, that they had been working for the whole day and the girl must have been tired as he was. So, she really needed some rest before the long journey. Besides, she is not talkative, she had hardly said a couple of words for this time.

–

You are not going to offer me your friendship again, aren’t you? – he asked with apprehension.

– No, – she promised.

So, he allowed her to stay till dawn…

Sometimes, at night the ocean starts glistening from inside, as if the sun hasn’t hidden over the horizon, but has sunk at the ocean bottom. It was this way that night. The glistening glow has surrounded the island pushing darkness away. The moonlight was coming into the hut through the holes at the roof made of palm leaves. The girl was lying on a mat which was her bed. The boy was sitting by the window, staring at the bright big stars, as if enchanted. Suddenly, his eyes got wet. He felt alien at this hut, on this island, on the whole planet. This feeling was painful like a sudden cramp. A short moaning sob has burst out from his chest. But the next moment he got ashamed of his weakness, knowing that he was not alone in the hut. He took a look at the girl and saw her crying silently. The boy guessed that she was crying from compassion for him, she was feeling his pain as her own, but tied with her promise, didn’t dare to say a word. Their eyes met. And suddenly they became spiritually close to each other not knowing how it happened.

–

Have you been living alone so far? He asked her quietly.

She nodded affirmatively.

– Alone in the whole world, – he went on, – alone in time and distance. Alone in your dreams and wishes. And there is no one who could misunderstand you, offend you with indifference… You must be happy.

– No, – she broke silence, – I was lonely.

– Yeah, long time ago I used to think like you, – he smiled sadly, – and at one of the sleepless night I found her – a tiny star in the sky. She was the brightest of all the stars and the furthest. She was shining tenderly at me. We were looking at each other dreaming. You might ask me: about what? It doesn’t matter. The whole world was sleeping except two of us. When all stars died away at dawn, she was still staying in the sky for a long time. Parting was painful for her as for me.

The boy’s voice shook and he got silent for a while.

–

But after each parting there was a new meeting, wasn’t there? The girl asked overcoming her shyness. She wanted to hear his whole story.

– When you love someone, each parting, even the shortest, seems to be the whole eternity, he continued. – So, I decided to go through the Universe to meet her and never depart. She couldn’t come out of her orbit, meanwhile nothing was holding me on this planet. I constructed a flying balloon in order to take a space voyage. I have said goodbye to those very few things, which were dear to me at the Earth… But suddenly, my star started flickering, as if she was saying goodbye to me. Then she flared up, making a fire arch in the dark night sky and disappeared in the depth of space. What happened to her? Where did she disappear and why? I don’t know it. But since that day, I know that one should never think of idle dreams, since they make only harm.

– How long ago was it? – The girl asked. But having noticed that he frowned, she added: – You may not answer if you don’t want to.

– I forgot when it happened and don’t want to recall, – he replied sharply. – And don’t look at me so accusingly!

– I don’t accuse you, – she said quietly.

– But I see a mute reproach in your eyes.

– You are mistaken. My eyes are mute.

– No, they are very eloquent! Your eyes… – the boy got silent, not having finished, and his pale cheeks ware flashing. Suddenly, he exclaimed surprisingly: – How could not I notice that before! Your eyes!

– What about my eyes?

– Their glistening is the same as the light of that star. Aren’t you her sister? Where did you come from?

– I don’t know, – the girl replied honestly. – I have always been here.

– Who are your mother and father?

– I don’t know.

– Who are you?

– I am myself.

– And you have never wanted to know all that?

– No. Why?

– Oh, you are right. Why should one know all that? I wanted to know – and it has brought me just sorrow and alienation from the rest of the world. We were both born by the same mysterious energy. You are the same child of nature as I am, but you are happy and I am not. Probably, nature was mother to you, and stepmother to me…

A parrot flew into the hut, saying good morning to everyone. It was followed by the first morning sunrays, penetrating into the hut through the roof. The girl patted the parrot tenderly, opened the window and got the bird out of it, saying to someone:

–

Farewell!

Without looking back she came out of the hut. She was leaving at dawn, as she promised. The boy realized it too late, that she would never come back. He came out of the hut and hurried to the shore where he saw a raft with a waiving sail dashing through the wind and ocean. The raft was so far away by the moment, that it looked like a tiny dot on the horizon, where the ocean was touching the sky. And there was not such a voice in the whole world, which could reach her now.

The boy was standing on the shore staring, either at the ocean depth, or at the abyss of his loneliness, suddenly revealed in front of him. When he awoke from his thoughts, the horizon was clear. A lonely seagull was drawing some unknown signs on the water with its wings. The tiny footsteps on the sand leading to the ocean have disappeared, washed away by the waves.

– Haven’t you helped her to set a mast with your own hands? – the boy asked himself.

– You’ve made a sail for her out of the cover of your air balloon. And now you will never be able to fly away from this nice island. Isn’t it exactly that you wanted so much?

He kept asking himself, but didn’t answer, not being sure in anything now. He spent the whole day on the shore, persuading himself that he just likes looking at the ocean. In fact, he hopelessly believed, that she would come back. That night was the first time, when he didn’t look at the sky. The same as the following nights either.

The summer with its short nights and sunset glows was coming to an end. The days were getting shorter, while the ocean was getting wild with its steep waves. The birds were flying over the island hurrying to south, the green trees and bushes have acquired yellow shades. The autumn was coming.

The winter has come with its severe storms and hurricanes. Blasts of wind were blowing away the palm leaves from the hut’s roof and throwing some silly parrots, trying to fly, faraway at the ocean. All leaving creatures were hiding somewhere, waiting for the storms to come over.

Only the boy each day came to the shore standing there for a long time staring at the ocean. Sometimes he was lying on the sand with his eyes closed thinking about something. At nights he made a fire and kept it burning till morning. He was waiting. He was hoping and waiting that she would ever come back.

Waiting for her for the whole eternity, that was ahead of him.

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Вадим Кучеренко
In Year of Active Sun