It was, it seems, somewhere near Gelendzhik. Or maybe under Tuapse. Or maybe ... well, it doesn't matter. And under Gelendzhik, and under Tuapse, and under other resorts there are small wild beaches, where it is convenient to wait out the excitement, if it caught you in the open sea.

Eugene L. and made. Had he been five years younger, he would have struggled with the waves, and now ... No, he was not afraid, of course. He just knew that he could beat them. Spending no effort on the evidence of this undeniable fact made no sense. Forces at Evgeny Lvovich was not that little, just the further - the less I wanted to squander them in vain. The dolphin, which flopped and sniffed next to him, could afford it, but he should not. Let the best forces be with him. Will be useful.

That is why Evgeny Lvovich swam to a small wild beach surrounded on all sides by stone masses. Wait here ... or just sit on the beach, looking at the waves beating back to the rocks. And back. Three points are not excitement, and so, people laugh at me ... although not three, perhaps, but all four. Or three and a half ...

Our hero was neither old nor young, neither handsome, nor ugly, neither high nor low, and so - a bit of everything. Or, as they say in Anapa, "between here." And, in truth, he was not a swimming champion either - he was just tired of the deck chairs, but the piles of bodies on the beach, and the stupid tales of the guide. And the mountains are also fed up. Elements wanted, even though the year is not quite the same ...

But now, when he climbed ashore — wet, bronze from sunburn, stronger and thinner for the holidays — perhaps he was at his best. No suit from Voronin, no status cloth-shmyapki would not have presented it better than this marine outfit - swimming trunks, sunburn and drops on the body, soaked in the sun.

So she saw him.

***

Evgeny Lvovich did not immediately find out that he was not alone. Exhaling noisily (not from fatigue, no, just the situation was obligatory), he collapsed on the shore and lay for a while, looking at the zenith. The glowing blue beat on the nerves, and I wanted to dig myself from it in the pebbles, go deep into it, like an insect, to cave in and not see any waves, no sky, no body ...

Then he got up and looked around.

For a while they just looked at each other: she was curious, he was scared, as if she was a mermaid or something. Her hair curled around the naked body like a bindweed.

Then Evgeny Lvovich realized how to behave: he made a smile and shouted “hello!” (The waves roared, so I had to shout.)

“Hello! ...” she replied.

Such an answer could mean anything - and "I'm still quite a girl," and "you are an old fart for me" and "do not break the distance." She had neither a swimsuit, no swimming trunks, nothing at all, except matte wet skin. Therefore, distance mattered.

“Forgive me for interfering! ...” Yevgeny Lvovich apologized and sat down, indicating that he was not going to break anything. - A little rest and swim on! ..

- Nothing! ... I also have a rest! ... Just sailed! ... - the mermaid shouted back.

She was squatting, covering her chest. Evgeny Lvovich really wanted to say “do not hide behind,” but he grinned and lay down on the pebbles.

- Well, the weather ... - he pointed to the waves.

- Yeah!..

- Do you like to swim when such waves? ..

- Aha! ..

“And I love it! ... When there are no waves, it’s boring! ... But this is quite another matter! ..

- And me too!..

I had to tear the throat, because it was impossible to come closer.

- Where did you come from? ..

- Yes, so! ... From afar! ..

- Do you swim well? ..

- Nothing! ..

- Well done what! ... And here I am too ... - Yevgeny Lvovich began, but instead he stopped himself and threw a stone into the waves. - Well?..

He looked round. Could not resist.

She is no longer covered. Catching his gaze, he returned his hands back, but Yevgeny Lvovich managed to make out the tight balls, plentiful, tanned, poured by a young force, and on them - small lumps, crumbled from water.

“Well,” he repeated, going up to the water.- I'll swim back ...

As if on purpose, at this moment a huge wave flopped, splashing it from head to toe. Evgeny Lvovich laughed.

- Probably, we still have to wait! The mermaid shouted.

Her voice was harsh, adolescent, like in half a year old puppies. Green at all, thought Evgeny Lvovich. The body is an adult, what boobs there are, and the girl’s face, eyes, voice, and that’s all ... She didn’t say anything with an accent, but somehow correctly spell out all the letters. Probably local, from the Caucasus. And the breed is similar - dark-haired, slightly hooky, big-eyed such ...

- It seems to be intensifying! - he nodded to the sea.

- Then you have to swim now! ..

“There are stones along the whole coast! ... We need to sail far away, and then we will beat them! ..”

- I know!..

Again the flop fell, twice the size of the former, and Evgeny Lvovich jumped back.

- OU! Forgive, for the sake of God, did not notice how you ... here the waves ... - he apologized loudly, although he almost did not push her.

“Nothing,” she smiled. Her smile was impossible to sustain. And the mermaid was blue-eyed, he just now noticed it. Dark and blue-eyed, like sand, and in it - pieces of the sky.

Evgeny Lvovich swallowed.

“What is being done,” he said, waving his hand to the sea. - Straight storm ...

- Yeah ...

She still covered her breasts (even if it made sense if naked hairy prickled his eyes, wet and ashamed to chills ...) From her nudity and youth I wanted to scream over the waves, and Yevgeny Lvovich screamed, although she was beside:

- It seems we hit! ..

- Yeah ...

- Is there any way to get to the top? - he threw back his head. Cliffs protruded around. - To the shore ...

- And what about me...

She pointed to herself, taking her hands from her breasts (they waved like jelly).

- Yeah ...

The waves floated all angrier and meaner. The place where he lay was already sinking in the foam.

- Do you like to swim ... like this?

- Well ... sometimes I love. When they do not see ...

“Yeah,” said Evgeny Lvovich again.

What else to say, he did not invent, and therefore just sat on the pebbles.

Mermaid sat next to, half a meter or a little closer.

“Prickly,” she complained. She had an unbearable habit of smiling all the time. - Not used to ...

“The Princess and the Pea,” Yevgeny Lvovich quipped.

The princess giggled. She no longer covered herself, and he tried not to look at the nipples sticking out against the background of white foam.

- And what to do? She asked.

- Wait for the weather by the sea ... What is your name?

- Bzibi.

- How?

- Bzibi.

("Or lying, or just local," he decided.)

- Wow, what a beautiful ... And me ... - he wanted to say “Zhenya”, but he felt in time that it would not sound, - and Yevgeny Lvovich. Let's get acquainted! ..

Smiling and tormented by the fact that the smile was fake, he extended his hand to her. Bzibi shook her ice-like fingers.

- Wow! Frozen?

He himself suddenly realized that it was chilly. The sun has already crawled to the edge of the sea, painting all the red glitter that is not heated.

“Looks like we’ll have to spend the night here,” he said, even though it was so clear.

Bzibi chuckled.

- So what to do? Let's try to make a fire.

- What is it like?

Like most citizens, Yevgeny Lvovich did not make a single fire in his life. However, he knew that the main thing was confidence. If you confidently take on something, and even in front of a young girl, and even naked - 95 out of 100, that everything will turn out.

“What is there to be able to do? ... Let's look for something that can burn,” Yevgeny Lvovich jumped up and began to scour the shore with a businesslike look. - Wood, cloth, all kinds of sticks ...

She, too, jumped up and began to scour.

For a minute or two they roamed the beach like bloodhounds.

“Wet, all that,” said Yevgeny Lvovich contritely, turning over a boulder. - I would set fires on fire ... but they are also wet.

Then they both fell silent. Bzibi with a concentrated look wandered around the rocks, and he ...