and only now I clearly understood that I did not, nevertheless, did not. In general, no one loved until today. And why did he even started this sandwich in the forest? Why did not go further along the road, which was so well placed under the wheels? Why do I even laid a thin line on the map through that forest? After all, there were still plenty of options and roads! And then he would not have met her. And then he would continue to live that new life, which he had already begun to imagine vaguely. Having biked on the porch of the manor, he decided to go into the courtyard not through the house, but bypassing the building from the end. Probably before there was a stone tropic, which is now completely overgrown with shrubs, ripping hands. Having made his way through the thickets, he again found himself at the twisted log house. Alice’s dirty white dress developed right there on the well, but she herself was nowhere to be seen. The sun began to burn again, without interference making its way through the thinning crowns of old trees, and Andrei pulled off his wet shirt, throwing it on a stump near the log house.

“Hang better on that branch,” a woman’s voice came from somewhere above, “there it’s faster to dry in the wind.” And the pants there too.

Alice was standing on a small stone balcony on the attic floor, with her elbows on the remaining railings, and looking at the guy with a satisfied smile.

- What are you? - scared Andrew - Immediately get away from the balcony! Everything can fall apart at any time!

“Okay, okay,” Alice grinned, and slowly walked away to the door, “He himself said that I was light.

Andrei's heart tapped a crazy rhythm. From one realization that the balcony could fall, adrenaline in the blood jumped to the limit. Stumbling over the remains of rotten boards, he overcame the first floor veranda in two jumps, flew up the stairs, and at the door of the central attic room faced face to face with Alice.

- Why did you go here? - he muttered, concluding the woman in a strong embrace, - Immediately everything collapses! And if the balcony fell off? Would the roof have fallen?

Alice stood like a doll, looking ahead of her with fascinated, unblinking eyes. Andrei's strong hands pressed her so tightly that it was difficult to breathe. With her whole body, she felt a small thrilling tremor that beat a guy. His frightened reproaches were gradually replaced by gentle lulling laments. He put his hand on her hair and smoothed it, calming down a bit. And right now, tears spilled from a woman’s eyes.

“You know, and I found a bathhouse and a cellar here,” she said sobbing, sobbing, and laid her head on his shoulder, “and there was a hiding place in the wall near the fireplace with this,” she opened her fist, showing Andrei a little apparently a silver angel figure.

***

The courtyard of the estate, once was a well-groomed flat lawn, where you could put garden chairs and enjoy the cool breeze. On the right, it was covered by a tall, dense raspberry jam, and on the left was a wooden blockhouse consisting of a small living room with an attic where fragrant apples and hay were dried on warm autumn days, and pickles and drinks were stored in a deep two-meter subfield. On the other hand, a small bathhouse, which was heated on black, adjoined the log house, and at the exit from it, an underground spring beat, filling a small, manually dug pond. Now it was a usual ravine covered with last year’s leaves. From the bathhouse there were only three green walls with a small window cut in them. The wall with the door, breaking free from the snagging of rotten logs, lay at the bottom of the ravine. But even after the past decades, swept up by the snow, burned out by the sun and watered thousands of times, it still retained the unique bath spirit that prevailed here initially. And on the attic floor of the manor there was a large spacious bedroom, with an iron bathroom and a dressing table.Right at the window stood a luxurious oak bed, and from a small balcony at a time when the trees were not so big, you could see the wooden dome of a distant church. The bed was still there. The decayed carved legs of hers long ago broke down, bringing down the massive body on a wooden floor, and around the perimeter it was overgrown with hills of small sawdust left by a wood grinder. At the site of the bath gaped a huge hole in the floor. The decayed boards could not stand, and dropped a heavy burden on the concrete of the first floor. There she remained lying, towering above the floor on the curves of high legs.

Andrei and Alice were lying on a glade filled with the sun in the thick grass, looking at the crowns of apple trees waving good-bye to the clouds flying away. A half-empty can of strawberries tipped over.

“You know, but from the very beginning I felt that you were special,” Alice confessed in a quiet voice, holding a green spike with a corner of her lips, “still there in the forest when you caught me at the most piquant moment.”

She laughed softly.

- What am I so special? - Andrew answered just as quietly, - The most ordinary.

- No, not ordinary! - Alice turned over on her side and with undisguised tenderness looked into Andrew’s eyes, - Special!

She suddenly leaned over him and pressed her lips to her lips. Andrei was taken aback just for a second, and then hugged the woman by the waist, pulling him closer to him. At the touch of the semi-nude body of her beloved, desire instantly swept over him. He grabbed the woman by the soft thigh and tried to turn him over, but Alice immediately pulled away and sat in the grass.

- Stay here? - asked Andrew, awkwardly covering his hand, protruding mound on his underpants.

- Come on! Only tomorrow I will need to leave.

“You didn't understand,” Andrei sat down next to him and took Alisa by the hand. “Will we stay here for good?” After all, you can also try to redeem this estate, to restore.

Alice turned to Andrew surprised face.

“Andrei,” she said as if she were addressing an unreasonable child, “you cannot restore anything here!” What are you talking about?

- If you really want, you can! - the guy did not let up, - It is necessary to invest, it is yes. But nothing is impossible. Let not immediately, but I could do it if you agree.

“I disagree,” Alice replied coldly.

- Why?

- Because this place is not intended for the present. It remains in the past, and lives it. It can not be changed. Nothing can be changed ...

- And you?

- What about me?

- You ... - Andrei swallowed saliva, intending to say the most important thing, - will you stay with me?

Alice was silent for a long time. Her face was hard to understand what she was thinking. It simultaneously expressed both tenderness and cold determination. Finally, she ran her hand over Andrei’s unshaven cheek and whispered softly:

- I'm not free, Andrew ...

Like a cold needle entered the heart of a guy, knocking his rhythm. He led Kadyk again, swallowing viscous saliva.

- But ... you said that one ...

“One,” she nodded in agreement, “but not free.”

And then her mood swiftly changed. As if someone inside clicked a small toggle switch, switching the mode.

- Do you have soap? - leaping to her feet, she said in a cheerful patter.

- K-what soap? - Andrew frowned, not understanding anything.

- Any soap that is washed.

Andrei silently clapped his eyes, being in complete prostration, causing Alice to have a fit of giggly laughter:

- Yes, I was going to wash, stupid! To the morning things are dry. Yes, and wash yourself would not hurt.

- Aaaa ... - Andrei drawled, still thinking hard, - there is a soap box in the backpack.

“Can you get water from the well?”

He didn’t himself, moving as if in a fog, Andrew disassembled his bicycle jacket, found a long coil of rope there, and, tying it to a large pot, began to draw water from a deep well. Oddly enough, the water did not seem stagnant. Transparent and icy, it would certainly fit for cooking. As a tank for washing, Alice ingeniously used the old bathroom, which stood in the former dining room. Andrey's hatchet chopped dry rafters that fell ... Read more →