”Or these people are not alright, or there is something wrong with me”, — I thought. Having a look at myself I felt astonishment for the umpteenth time. When did I change my clothes?
I was dressed up in an ample T-shirt and something reminiscent of sports trousers. All clothes were white. But shoes impressed me the most: it looked like thick white socks made of unknown material. I would also fling aside from myself.
But why were they dressed up normally? I was delaying the answer to this question as long as I could, but my mind was busily getting his own way. I have died…
This thought reflected as a tremble in my body. I began shivering, and air that had been light before became as if it turned into lead.
I should have lost consciousness, I have just lost my consciousness, soon I will regain it and everything will be in the way it used to.
I pinched myself by my left hand and almost screamed in pain.
Well, I need to calm down. I feel pain, it means that my body is okay.
“But it means nothing!” — my mind responded immediately. Where am I?! What has happened to me?! And what the hell is going on?!
And suddenly I have understood. It is all because of Henry. He is now somewhere here, too. And I think he knows about this place a lot more than I do.
This thought relaxed me quickly. It remains only to find him.
After intuitive choosing the way I went in search of him.
The sun was mercilessly beating down my face, and that road seemed to be just endless. I was walking on the beaten rubble mixed up with sand during nearly three hours, and it seemed that I was about to fall down flat-out. A strong thirst gave no rest. But I was not going to give up, I needed to find Henry. I need to find Henry at all hazards.
Finally I breathed with relief, when a small village appeared in the distance. I hope people who live there are more amenable than those elderly woman with the girl whom I had met on my way.
Being totally exhausted I came to the village, and the first person I saw was a stout man nearly forty years old.
— Pardon me, don’t you know… — having a look at me he dashed aside and ran to his house in a second.
What is it?! What is happening at all?!
This story recurred with every person I met with, and after twenty minutes of looking for normal people I gave up.
After taking a seat on a porch of some house I could finally relax. Pleasant fatigue filled my body. I will have a rest a little and continue looking for Mr. Chaise, he is exactly somewhere here.
I leaned against the wall of somebody’s house and closed my eyes for a while. How nice it is – to feel your body, I am still alive, I hear my heart’s beating, I feel light breeze, I hear the nature, I live… It seemed to me I began to drop into sleep, when it suddenly thundered and the house’s walls started to shiver although there was not a cloud in the sky.
I had opened my eyes, and I was even more surprised. Thus much that I barely forced myself to say this word.
— Father?! — and he ran away from me to the forest as if he was in a wild fright and passed out of sight after two minutes.
It was just an illusion, it cannot be true. It looks like I have hallucinations. I need to search for Henry in the shortest time possible.
I recovered my feet and decided to go round the whole village. He must be somewhere. And I was right, he was. And he was dressed up in these strange clothes, too. He was sitting near a small pond and glazing at the far bank.
— Well, hello, my dear neighbor. — I said with not the most pleasant tone. — Don’t you want to tell me anything?
— Olivia? And what are you doing here?
I briefly told him about how I had got in this unknown place.
— And what is the strangest thing is that I’ve just seen my father! Henry, I saw my father, it is not a delusion or hallucination. But he just died seven years ago.
— Did you hear anything about Willer’s Book? — he asked softly-softly.
— This literary work often appeared in the Internet, is it some kind of esoterica or something like that? — I answered the question with a question.
— It is not a book, Olivia. It is a complicated quantum device which allows living people to fall into this world. — and he showed the place where we found ourselves by his hands…
Author: Shturenkov Sergey
Translation: Julia Zaporojets
