Alexandra Kryuchkova - The Island of Charon. Playing Another Reality. Antoine de Saint-Exupery Award

Michael turned each of our meetings into a firework of emotions. He seemed to be trying all the time to prove to me or even to himself, he was the best, no one would be like him. It was certainly pleasant, but not at all necessary, because Michael was already the best, at least for me. Not just damn charming, tall and, as they say, athletic, but also an intelligent and wise person, Michael liked to read a lot, to dress stylishly, to eat delicious food and to be perfumed expensively. When we walked around the city, I envied myself, “What a man I am walking next to!” Actually, we were a wonderful couple, not only outwardly.

Sometimes I wondered why Michael would not find himself a young girl, because I was only seven years younger than him. Once (although we quarreled only twice), I even sent him to… prostitutes, but he calmly replied that it was interesting and pleasant for him to communicate with me, as an intelligent and wise person, and, despite the fact that we were completely different in characters, we had common interests, intellectual and physical compatibility, and prostitutes were a road to nowhere.

Yes, I considered myself a bad lover, but only with Michael I kissed on the lips, such kisses were his know-how, and exceptionally easily and unobtrusively, on his initiative, with my consent, we tried in bed everything and then returned to the traditional classic.

Michael was a leader, and I appreciated it, because, of course, I was an unquestioning dictator at job, but in personal relationship – a submissive clay.

I knew Michael for many years, not only by words, but by deeds, so I could assure you, he was exactly the man that almost all led women were dreaming of. Any of us could feel with him safety like behind a stone wall. He didn’t hide his head in the sand, like an ostrich, but courageously solved every problem.

There’s no subjunctive mood in history, but… Michael was the only man sent to me from Above, whom I would marry immediately, quite consciously agreeing with the fact that…

“MOTHER!!!” it exploded somewhere very close…

“Her cry will even raise the dead from the coffin!” I thought and opened my eyes…

The water was arriving… High tide…

Water… all around… water…

I sat down on the white sand, moving away from the Ocean advancing on me, and turned back. The Girl. The very same one. She was crying again, standing on the shore and looking into the distance. I went up to her.

“What’s your name? What happened? Where is your mother?” I asked once more.

The Girl whimpered. However, she seemed to understand my words, but she was silent like a partisan. I hit the snow-white sand with my heel, signing my own impotence, and saw Yanis wandering towards us.

“Hello, Alice!”

“Hello, Yanis. The child… Something needs to be done with her! We must report to the police! Doesn’t she understand what I’m asking about?! Do you know her? Where does she live? She is clearly not a local aborigine! And what about her mother?!”

Yanis honored me with a strange look, full of deep sadness or even… pain? And it seemed to me again, I had met Yanis before, or maybe, he looked too much like someone else…

“What do you want to eat today?” Yanis asked suddenly, and at first I was taken aback.

“Help the Girl to find her mother! I can’t stand her endless crying!” I screamed.

Yanis put his finger to his mouth, “Shh!”

I stopped talking and suddenly… I found myself in a vacuum silence. I turned around. The Girl was nowhere to be found! I looked at Yanis with horror, but he extended his hand to me, as if nothing had happened.

“Let’s go, Alice…”

“The GIRL!” I shouted even louder.

“She’ll be back…” Yanis answered calmly.

I placed myself in Yanis’ cafe, although I didn’t want to eat, having a terrible headache.

Yanis brought me the freshest tropical fruit juice and half a coconut, and then, glancing at the wicker chair in front of me, politely asked, if it was free.

I nodded “yes” to him. He sat down, and we continued our conversation.

“Well, where did you have a rest in Greece, Alice?”

“On the island opposite to Mount Athos.”

“Thassos you mean?”

“No, Ammouliani. Have you ever been to Thassos?”

“No… And how do you like Ammouliani, the island of monks? Not so long ago, it belonged to the monastery of Vatopedi. Did you feel the Spirit of the Holy Mountain? We can say that you lived in the Holy Land!”

“Yes, it’s amazing!” I smiled remembering. “You know, there is a wild sandy beach with Mount Athos view there. The water is so clear and transparent, that even if you swim far away from the shore, you can see the bottom, and it’s not scary to swim there. To be honest, I’m afraid of water.”

“Afraid? Why?”

“I don’t know. Since childhood. I often had the same nightmare, I dreamt as if I was drowning in the sea or in the ocean. That’s why I’m afraid of the waves. Fortunately, there are no waves usually in the Ammouliani bay.”

“There are no waves here either,” Yanis chuckled.

“But the Ocean here has lots of algae, and for a kilometer there is no deepness at all! It’s impossible to swim, only to walk! On Ammouliani one makes two steps and doesn’t feel the bottom anymore. And there is no seaweed! Although I used to swim far from the seashore, I felt like a fish in water! Оr… maybe like a mermaid… I used to stay in water for more than an hour, all alone, or rather, me, the sea and the Holy Mountain… Imagine, nobody else around! By the way, I’m fond of diving and watching fishes!”

While I told Yanis about his Greece, he was smiling, and I was smiling too, diving in my memories.

Many years ago, in some book of a wise person, I discovered an interesting idea,

“Our consciousness does not care if something happens only in thoughts or in reality, because the reaction of the body is always the same”.

And I thought,

“Perhaps the ‘time machine’ is a human thought, and our memories are nothing but the ‘here and now’ reality. So, it is good for our health remembering happy or just pleasant moments…”

Suddenly, someone grabbed my hand. I screamed in surprise, turned around and saw…

…the Boy! The very one…

He held out his hand, looking piteously into my eyes, and said, “Lantern!”

And at that moment my brain seemed to be completely hacked.

Yanis got up from the table and took the boy by the hand. Speaking in the local dialect, they went towards the village. I thoughtfully followed them with my eyes, but I suddenly remembered my last nightmare – the Giant Ship. When Yanis came back, I decided to share my mysterious dream.

“Yanis, listen! Tonight!”

“You couldn’t fall asleep…”

“Yes, I went out to breathe the Ocean. I was standing on the rock, by the stairs, when suddenly the Wind appeared! It looked like hurricane! The Sky instantly became so scary! Huge clouds were moving back and forth! Lightning, thunder, and it started to rain, or rather, it was a tropical downpour, and a Giant Ship entered the bay! But people on board… I saw through the wall of rain, I swear to you, I saw them descending from the Ship, but straight into the Ocean! And they walked towards the shore on the water surface!!!”

“And how else do people arrive on Camotes, if not by ship or by ferry?” Yanis chuckled. “How did you get here, Alice? By a flying carpet?”