Andrey Prudkovskii - Trilogy of Dhana and the Earth. Book one. End of the world

Write, kiss you!

Yours, Alexandra.

From the notes of Radek Reksovich about his childhood

Radek and his father Ra, turned into a Rex dog.

I think that few people had such a happy childhood as mine. My parents not only loved me, but also my father was always a companion of all my children’s games. And he had much more opportunities for games than other people. After all, he was “transforming”, that is the one who can change his appearance. Usually he lived in the guise of a Rex dog, and even my mother did not know that he was he. In winter, we walked along the streets and backstreets of our city or sat at home, and he told me about his native land and about the magic of the number four. In summer, we spent whole days in the forest with the neighbor Lyuba, who was also “transforming” – she could turn into a big hen, but dreamed someday to become an eagle. I envied her for several years, since I myself did not know how to turn into anyone, and then I really liked Aunt Masha’s cat, and played with it for the whole summer. At the end of that summer, I managed to turn into a cat without much effort. Surprisingly, in the image of a cat, I also got claws sharp enough to climb trees easily. Now Lyuba was envious of me, and my father laughed, reassured her and said that he also did not know how to climb trees.

Yes, I forgot to say that the three of us communicated with each other only mentally, and in mental speech it is very difficult to hide any shades of our children’s feelings. So in the early years there were quarrels now and then, and father hardly reconciled us. He always said that this is the result of adherence to the number two, that we quarrel only because there are two of us, children. And when he is with us, then there are three of us, and quarreling is already more difficult. But when Aunt Valya, Lyuba’s mother, came, there were four of us, it was a real bliss. Lyuba’s mom did not know how to transform, but she was kind and was able to speak mentally. In her presence, Lyuba immediately ceased to envy me. The four of us walked through the forest, showed her our childish successes, sometimes, having played a bit, ran away, and Aunt Valya kept asking my father about his distant homeland. He was a complete mystery to her. She said that she could at first glance determine which country one or another person came from, but she could not “determine” my father.

Aunt Valya taught us all that even my dad couldn’t do – she taught us to play hide and seek. Do you think what is special in this? All children play hide and seek. Yes, all the children know how, but Lyuba and my dad didn’t know how, because it was too easy to think of someone who is hidden. And the whole point of the game was disappearing. Aunt Valya showed us how to defend one’s thoughts. It turned out to be very simple – just mentally “put yourself in a pan and cover with a lid.” Then you can’t hear anything yourself, and no one can hear you, and you can play hide and seek. And you can mentally drill a small hole in the pan wall – then you hear everything yourself, but still nobody hears you.

One day, dad heard a shepherd playing on a horn. He liked it so much that I had to go to the shepherd and find out where to get the horn. It turns out that the shepherd made it himself, so he made the same for us. Now dad sometimes retired on some glade, already in human form, and tried to learn some melodies on his horn.

But all good things come to an end. I remember the last summer of my childhood. I was already seven years old, in the fall I had to go to school. The weather was rainy, there was no Lyubochka. She had already finished fifth form, and she was sent to agricultural work with the whole class. Mom was sad and silent – her head hurt. Dad and I left for our favorite forest. It was damp and cold, and dad said we had to make a fire. I did not know how to make a fire without matches, and dad showed me how to mentally reach out to the invisible sun and, like a magnifying glass, focus its rays at the right point. I really enjoyed it. We trained with him, probably, for a whole week, while I began to make it a little.

And then on a rainy gray day we were back in the city. I thought that tomorrow my mother would lead me to school, but she did not lead me – she was completely sick, and I stayed at home to look after her. Doctors came to see us and examined mom, called from work, worried about some kind of report. Mom answered briefly and again lay indifferent, only asked to change a rag with cold water on her head.

So September passed, and in October the doctor came again and invited mom to go to the hospital for surgery. He said that the operation would definitely help mom, but my father and I saw his thoughts. The doctor was sure that mother would die soon, and he was very interested to find out what kind of disease was in her head.

Radek, the son of Raa

An old threadbare photograph: here is our ridiculous old house on the edge of the city. On the left on the third floor is my balcony, behind it is a fire escape, through which, trembling from my own courage, I went down secretly many times at night to the courtyard of the house… I love night, its shadows and smells… This is probably inherited from my father…

But we will return on that sad day when my mother was dying, and I was in despair and did not know what to do. Dad was also there, finally, he decided! He again took on a human appearance and went to my mother. Mom was so bad that she was not even surprised:

“Ah, Rashka?” – She said only, and closed her eyes again.

“May I help you?” – Dad asked.

“Do what you want,” Mom answered.

And we began to do what we want, namely, dad asked me to sit next to him and mom and hold hands. Then he said:

“I will do something, but you, son, do nothing, but just support me, give me strength.”

So we connected – and suddenly I felt how a new creature appeared during this connection: not dad and son, but dad-and-son. This new creature was four times stronger than each of us individually.

“That’s right,” said Papa mentally, “but this creature, unfortunately, was generated by the magic of number two – after all, there are two of us, and therefore nothing good can be expected.” Now I understand how he was right… But then I did not believe him, I was euphoric from my own power.

So, we suddenly became tiny and mentally scurried into my mother’s brain.

“Well,” said Papa, “everything is clear, the familiar black loop.”

“Can I take it off?”

“No, wait,” Dad stopped my attempt to unravel the black noose on Mom’s head. – Look, a black thread stretches down. If we try to remove this loop, then we will not live long, for the thread stretches to the center of aggression, mom will kill us right away. First you have to firmly tie her to the bed.

We tied mom to the bed by the arms and legs, and then connected again. So dad began to unravel the black thread, and my mother cluttered. The rope burst, and mom tried to get her dad with her foot. If she had not been so weak, then she would have succeeded, and so dad managed to dodge. Here the second rope burst, but then dad finally took off the loop, mom calmed down relaxed and, it seems, fell asleep right away.

“Well, son, we have done the main work, but the loop is not the whole cause of my mother’s illness. Look – here’s mom’s brain edema, from which the main pain comes. And her edema is because this part of the brain is as if fenced off from the rest. And here’s the scar on her head – now it’s clear how this ‘fence’ was made… We’ll have to break the fence, but oh, how difficult it is!”