Deja vu. Love

Chapter 5

WHITE

Morning sunshine easily seeped through the dense glass barrier. The smallest specks of dust, as if performing a mysterious rite of worship to the natural gods, leisurely amused themselves in a funny rhythmic whirl. They measuredly waltzed according to the laws of old traditions: “O-o-one, two, three! One, two, three!” Their carefree bewitching and captivating dance enlivened the room a bit, where literally everything was still there: every object was in a state of deep sleep. Energetic zinger in a frozen world. Microscopic dust particles are the most tender creatures of the divine nature, and, perhaps, of the technogenic world, one after the other, the other after the third, and so on – to infinity, they selflessly fought for existence in the surrounding microcosm: then growing into a bottomless The flow of the sun to visible particles, then dissolving without the slightest residue in the shadowed world and becoming incredible invisible. The mystical square of the window, attracting bright life-giving rays, served as a place of uncompromising execution of the dreams of billions of cru-kicks. In order for them to become colossal and significant, they only had to get into the sunlight… it turns out how simple it is! Just a combination of natural circumstances, and you are already completely different.

When the numbers six to thirty creeped out on the light panel, the sleepy alarm clock woke up nervously, restraining itself, yawned and monotonous, and, until it was deceived, a calm melody with unknown force lifted Ave from the soft bed. The day came of his domestic duty. “O-o-one, and two!” – The internal counter of the half-sleeping ant clearly turned on, and the schedule for Sunday chores appeared on a black glossy screen. In a quick way, Ave threw a fresh shirt over his shoulders and, making a couple of winged steps, decorously appeared in front of the monitor, shamanically performed passes with his hands and revived the dead machine. “Three, four!” – and a personal electronic chip token, which was worn on the upper paw of each goose and intended for total tracking of the location of each working individual, passed the test. The half-asleep goose returned to his bed, in the room the already awakened but still languid Ski and Rond were finishing their bedding. “Fi-i-ive-six-seven!” – here the new day has begun!

– Guys, guys, – Ave began modestly, but did not recognize his hoarse voice, his throat was filled with dry thorns. – Hmmm? He growled sharply and loudly. – Guys, today you have outlined painting at the factory, so dress in the “fourteen” shape, truncated?

– Yeah, what’s the difference, what to do? I want to say that anyway! Even if it is painting, we agree on everything! You stole us! – Ski went to wash. – The main thing is to go to work anyway!

– That’s for sure! Work on Sunday is the holiest! – Rond supported him, either with a malicious smile, or with unfading optimism. – Today we work only half a day, and this is encouraging.

– Yes, by the way, you have not forgotten that next Sunday a carnival is planned! And we still have a problem with costumes. It will be necessary to come up with something, are we? In general, we will do everything as expected! Carnival!

– Ave, you seem to be working, friend! – Rond squeezed toothpaste onto the brush and looked out from the bathroom to look at Ave with great surprise and winked at him. “Or am I confusing something?” We have a carnival in two weeks, not one. Am I saying something wrong?

– Listen, for sure. You’re right, in two! I completely got used to this job! – Ave smiled shyly, shaking his head slightly, saying that “that’s what I’ve come to – I’m already confused in a few days,” and added a hardly sensible reason. – Although, if you say by all the rules, the carnival will begin a little more than in a week. We are speaking out – in two… Not really us, but only Rond, we don’t have time for anything. Rond appears in two weeks, and the carnival begins in one. He shouted the last sentence to his friends, worried that they would not hear him.

Rond and Ski looked out together from the bathroom, they were already brushing their teeth with might and main, and, muttering and muttering something slurred, they glanced at once. Today, Rond was counting on returning home at around two o’clock, he was going to call Ski to shoot a talk show, but he somehow put it off to tell him about it.

– Ski, will we go to the 19th channel tonight? – Rond has pawed on him and on himself. – Are we two going together? At eighteen zero-zero talk show filming. Since I’ve been called, then I have to go.

– Together? – Ski asked.

– Yes, there are only two invitations, Ave is on duty, he will not be able to completely, so we are going.

– I don’t even know… Something is not in the right mood! – nosed Ski.

– Listen, well, no options here. In the evening – talk shows, they called us, so let’s go. You have to, friend, you understand! That’s all!

– Good! You really persuaded. More precisely, I confronted the fact, – said Ski with a slight causticity in his voice. – It’s good that I didn’t say it yet, not at seventeen fifty!

– Nah, it would be too late in the evening. Now is the time! In the morning – the very thing – to plan the day correctly! – Rond laughed at his joke, Ski did not take offense at all. – You yourself know very well: I’ve completely started working, I’m thinking everything – it’s necessary, it’s necessary to say, today, tomorrow I’ll say it, and all this’ today-tomorrow ‘is transferred and transferred… And here they are, and – said!

– OK! Received information! I’ll go to the show! Once – it is necessary, then – it is necessary! But, only for your sake! – minted Ski.

– No, you don’t have to! Seriously speaking! For my sake, you will have to take the lead in the show!

– Ha-ha-ha, you simply amused me, – Ski smiled muffledly. “Thanks for the morning positif-ff.”

In the kitchen, still not awakening, Ave filigree sliced bread for his comrades. The boiling of boiling water in the kettle reached the consciousness of Ave only when the water was turned off in the bathroom.

“Eight-eight and a half-nine!”, And ant removed the kettle from the hot stove onto the malachite stand at the moment when Rond and Ski, rumbling against each other, rushed out of the bathroom into the room to start the sports warm-up.

– Ave, we freed, you can go wash yourself. Come on…

“Here are ten! Ten is just great!”

Ski’s loud arrow hit directly into Ave’s mind, and made her flinch slightly, which instantly rushed into the bathroom to freshen up and no longer doze off.

“It’s time to turn on the day!” Away, away all sorrows and laziness! It’s time to take care of everyone! And waiting for us ahead – success!” – Ave remembered the words from some time-worn song.

Having polished his teeth with magic toothpaste, Ave smiled broadly in a pretty mirror and winked at his reflection cheerfully. Quickly shaving with a brand-new blade (“What a blessing it is to shave completely” zero “for” one, two and you’re done!”), The ant drowned unconsciously in a wide terry towel, trying to somehow stop the morning race, and, waking up, with pleasure went to the kitchen. It smelled soft and cozy of mint freshness.

– O-o-o, damn it! – He cursed loudly, hitting his hip painfully on the jamb of the bathroom. – Well so-and-so! I’ll gather all the corners today, for the umpteenth time… – and the ant scratched the bruised place. And then a snippet from today’s short dream surfaced, like an Ave athlete, Ave, who had never once got up on skis, flies recklessly, rushes from a huge pink-sunset snow mountain on magical skiing, and like a real slalom player deftly dodges obstacles: right-left, right-left. Bright rainbow golden frosty evening adds a gambling mood. Diamond spiky snow flies with tiny pollen into a happy bespectacled muzzle, and the man is infinitely happy from winter walking entertainment. Solemn music sounds… it looks like our anthem…

In my beloved kitchen, the alarm clock hinted twice, notifying me of the minute readiness for the start of Sunday breakfast.

“Everything passes, as always – clearly on schedule! But keeping to the schedule is a direct guarantee of success! We are just well done! One must always reassure oneself, and if one does not cheer oneself up, what will happen? There will be nothing special, just hardly anyone will do it for you. So, we are the real youths! We work and smile! Without the right attitude there are no labor successes!”

Cheerful Ave turned on the TV for a minute or two to watch the weather forecast for the day on the AA-News channel.

– Guys, hear? The weather positively pleases us with its sixteen, and the sky promised a clear, without rain, no wind, well, or almost none! Real summer is on the street! – Ave commented on the forecast so that Ski and Rond could hear it. – So, we can safely say the words from the famous song: “The sun shines in the morning – that means the day will succeed!”

Two peppy comrades, having finished the morning warm-up, threw weighty dumbbells under the sofas, and one after another they jumped again into the bathroom for literally five seconds – pouring ice-cold water on their belts. At that time, Ave meekly sat at the kitchen table and dreamily filled the mugs with tea, a well-cooked hypericum, and the guys, already dressed in dark blue shirts and trousers, appeared together on the threshold of the kitchen.

Chapter 6

WHITE

The service factory bus departed from the house where the ants lived on a Sunday schedule, at seven-fifteen, punctually according to a strictly time-honored schedule, since along the way it was necessary to go around several more points in order to “load” all the working people. Our comrades just had enough time to spare, a toe to toe to get into funny striped black and white overalls from comfortable and very thin, but durable raincoats, designed for painting work, in which they looked like hilarious exotic zebras, and go down to high-speed elevator to the first floor.

Ski, already dressed in colorful attire, humorously portrayed an impatient horse waiting, – mischievously and sweepingly hit the imagined hoof on the floor. He opened the door wide open, and, with a friendly wave of his left foot on Ave’s goodbye, the other pressed the red button for calling the elevator several times. The doors of the lifting device swung open silently, and at the same second Rond jumped out of the apartment, fastening the last button on the move. It was obscured in the half-darkness of the elevator, where there were already a dozen of the same striped ants like them.

– Have a good leap for you today, zebras! Victory at the races! – Cheerfully chased after Av, but it was too late, the elevator doors closed. He decided then to cheer himself up and sang aloud. – Go-o-o to work! Go-go-o-o! There are forces, and we will overcome everything without problems!

He bounced high on one leg, then on the other, shaking zero the last, stuck in a passing consciousness, invisible drops of sleep and, turning around, continued his housework. The duties of the duty officer on Wednesday and Sunday included: a trip for life-giving nectar, the release of accumulated garbage, a shopping tour to the supermarket for groceries and a number of household chores.

Ave never wondered what he liked more: housekeeping or working in a factory. The most important thing is the work that is beneficial. For Ski and Ronda, there was no difference either, the cult of working with the Damocles sword hung over all ants, imperceptibly, subconsciously. They could not help but work, and plowed tirelessly almost around the clock, on a small condition: if only they were given time for short lunch breaks. And no matter what they do: they worked on the assembly line or washed clothes, raised domestic animals or harvested, cleaned the house or cooked food, any useful activity nurtured an ever new and indefatigable desire for work in them. It was a kind of sophisticated drug, more and more dragging red-haired creatures into its nets. Why and for whom did they work?

Such a difficult question fell apart into tiny particles at lightning speed. Each working individual had to work according to the law of the Charter, rather dryly and bluntly. That’s the whole explanation! For the sake of the common good! Once, trying to break away from the general labor service of ants and openly taking an interest in the one about the purpose, actually, and for whose good he should bend his back, four other ants unanimously picked up and carried him to Legal inspection. The next sunny day, the questioning ant did not appear at his workplace, which, apparently, he was tired of. “You do not want to work conscientiously, do not work, but do not bother others, do not lead them astray!” Some individuals tried to understand what strange thoughts they visited the new rebel, but did not come to any logical conclusions and decided that perhaps he was crazy at the age of forty, nobody remembered his name, and so he remained in his memory all “lazy ant.”

Joyful Ave slammed the front door and returned back to the kitchen. First, he had a simple job – to wash the dishes, and then wash the overalls. The main burden on the kitchen battlefield was on the shoulders of the electronics: the dishwasher, which Ave loved more than other devices, suddenly “conceived” and broke down last night, and the service mechanic called by Rond was due to arrive at nine. There was more than an hour before the repairman arrived, but Ave could not sit idle and decided to wash the dishes with his paws. This has already happened sometimes, in the memory of Ave, three or four times, when the automatic friends were lazy and refused to help, simulating a breakdown. Three years ago, after frequent technical failures of the notorious “dishwashers” in many condominium apartments, it was decided to replace all models with completely new modernized cars. The warranty period of the new project was at least five years, but still the equipment could not withstand the hard work and sometimes “fell asleep on the go.”

Hastily finished washing the dishes, the ant planned to take up the washing of work clothes, which remained after a hard week, but, before it even started, the washing process was interrupted by two short doorbells.

“Maybe it’s already a mechanic?” Ave thought, and quickly headed for the door.

Out of the corridor, out of habit, he glanced at his watch; it politely shone half past eight.

“It’s strange… for the mechanic it’s a bit early! Although, anything happens!”

The front door swung open wide, with a squeal of whistling, and on the threshold an ant materialized in a brand new, still plainly ironed and slightly giving off irritating mothballs red-green uniform. His wide trousers-trousers reminded Ave of some kind of rascal joke heard recently on TV, and he involuntarily swam in a smile, but immediately stopped, and froze on a half-screwed ironic note. Through a light leather cap with a voluminous and indecently bulging plastic cockade, on which flaunted an openwork letter “P”, neatly mounted on his head, peered long tarry antennae with a light fluff. Without saying anything, the calling postman energetically handed the landlord a tiny little cylinder.

– What is it? What is it? – Ave burst out twice, and the half-smile completely disappeared. – Who is it?

– It is for you! – there was an answer (courtesy itself). – Please sign a receipt, please.

– Me?.. Well, ooh, good! Thank you! Of course…

The landlord quickly scribbled the scribbles in an outstretched postman’s notebook, a thick journal-style album, and the ant instantly evaporated.

Ave and Rond constantly received electronic picturesque messages from an old friend of Kint: the regularity with which a former classmate wrote to them could only be envied.

The life paths of a too self-confident Quint with ants of a more domestic type, Ave and Rond, radically diverged immediately after leaving the boarding school. Few individuals decide, like Kint: to take, pack up and leave to go to study at distant lands in a nautical school, in a frightening distant distance, into the unknown. An enthusiastic sea romance, firmly settled in the heart of an ant about two years before the end of the boarding school, was born after swallowing one after another of art books about the fascinating travels that he took to read in the boarding library. Behind the brilliantly picturesque pictures of the majestic sea-ocean and composed by the victories of brave travelers, one could not see the hard and exhausting work of the real workers of the sea, no matter how pathetic it sounded. Plus, the most powerful impetus for choosing a life path was an excursion to the naval museum, organized for pupils in the year of graduation. At that time, ants carried out unusually many various trips and excursions in terms of professional self-determination, the ants fell into a “wave” when it was possible to choose a profession: the government of the country recommended that all educational institutions pay increased attention to the future of simple working ants. It seems that the excursions really worked on some individuals… For a year and a half, Kint graduated with honors and excellent performance from a specialized seaworthy school and from there went straight to work on a hefty fishing liner somewhere in the northern seas with a great, but still somewhat hazy, hope for universal romance. And, as it turned out in reality, enchanting and neatly combed enthusiastic tales of captivating travels around the world and the harsh, difficult realistic everyday life of “serfdom of the sea” – two opposite poles. Kint went into a harsh, inhospitable sea on a dull gray working shift for several killer exhausting weeks, and upon returning home he carefully described his sea voyages to old friends, not at all embarrassed, relying on the artistic experience of romantic writers. Three to four days of home rest, and then again on an exhausting, labor trip. But, despite all the endless difficulties, the unbending romantic ant never regretted his life choice.

Ave didn’t always succeed in answering Kint’s letter at once, often he put off the answer “to tomorrow”, which grew day after day into “the day after tomorrow,” and, at best, into a week-long delay. Ant did not really like to talk about his life. Yes, and what to write? Everything to perfect smoothness is monotonous and trivial, sloppy and monotonous, and it looks like this will be until the end of days. The life schedule of the movement is the only one: home-work, work-home. For everything else – there is simply no free time and energy. Sometimes time appears, but there really is already no strength… no strength and that’s it! There are none! Rare rainbow-colored magical days fall when it happens to color everyday life with the brightest colors, but this is very, very rare. Take, for example, the spring carnival, which has been held according to one scenario for years, decades, centuries…

The last electronic news from Kint arrived with the postman not a month ago, as usual, but much later – it took as long as three or four months. But Ave and Rond did not even notice the long silence of the old friend, and only now Ave remembered the navigator.

Chapter 7

WHITE

“New brand postman again? Silent of some kind. Earlier with Jerome it was possible to exchange news, chat for five minutes! And this one – immediately ran away, did not even meet. Unusually somehow. And the letter – I wonder from whom, from Kint? It seems like red capsules came from him, but here…”

Torill, an ant soldier from a neighboring apartment, appeared on the floor. In poisonous yellow running sneakers, in funny camouflage tight-fitting tights and a pale green T-shirt with a white star and engraved “AFS” inscription, he now more resembles a mischievous tall grasshopper than a sergeant of the active army. Torilla’s diligently inflated muscles bumped out from under his sports uniforms – real Hercules, and nothing more! In his right cast-iron foot, he strangled a seedy backpack, clumsily sewn on his own, into the narrow striped triangular karma-neck on the side of the backpack Torill tried to push the badge-key from the apartment, but it seemed that something was hooked somewhere, and he muttered nervously. At first, the ant headed toward the elevator, but, noticing Ave at the open door, headed toward it.

– Good morning, Ave!” I see you in good health, so to speak?! – Torill resolutely extended a foot for a welcome shake. – Is everything in your life good?

– Good, good morning, Torill! Yes, everything is fine, everything…

– Excellent, excellent!

– Yes! Everything seems to be fine, everything is in perfect order! – Ave also gladly extended his paw, and the neighbors greeted each other. Ave was glad to see his neighbor in great shape. – Health – in full order, thanks! Work – as always, we work continuously, so – everything is fine, nothing is changing in our world!

– That’s for sure! Right, yes! Work necessary, necessary! But, nevertheless, sometimes something changes in the world, and here I don’t quite agree with you…

– I’m not talking about that… We are the most ordinary working ants! Very, very glad that I met you! Something long ago you have not been seen? A long time ago… where have you been? Did you go somewhere again?

– It’s you who are in the top ten – for sure, you left, yes!

– That’s right, I look… and I tell the guys…

– I noticed, I noticed that there is no me, you are observant, as always! Well done! – The ant unexpectedly crouched to lace up the sneaker. – Yes, what are we, what are we? We, as always, are orders to us, and we went…

– I see. And I look – there is no and no you… I ask the guys, they say – they also have not seen for a long time…

– We constantly travel around the region. Yes, in principle, and not only in the region. We have such a job, you know yourself! Yes…

– Yes, everyone has his own job. And each profession has its pros and cons, so to speak…

From the rainbow-full of life, Torill was mortally smashed verstically with a specific mixture of cucumber cologne, midnight campfire and morning and evening physical activities, just mercilessly killing all living things in the immediate vicinity, and non-living – instantly turning into icy stone statues, as if after the lead piercing gaze of the Gorgon Medusa. Ave sensed this gorgeous amber, as soon as the infantryman appeared on the site, as if he had specially sprayed his unique vigorous army aroma before “going out into the people”.

“Is it so difficult to follow a few rules of life: take a shower more often and at least occasionally wash your clothes, don’t go in after morning jogging or after something else…” – Ave kept in mind the simmering emotions, because he always respected his neighbor.

Torill lived in the neighborhood for more than five years, and Av, meeting the soldier every time, noted to himself that he was in a new robe. Then he put on a chic military uniform resembling a full dress uniform: a frisky green cap with an openwork cockade on his huge head looked very solid, and the tendrils protruding along the edges of the headgear harmoniously complemented the image of a real army pro. Properly tailored to its size, a tunic with silver epaulettes and a dazzlingly white dandy accelerant, strict ironed trousers and polished classic shoes completed the image of a super warrior. Either he wore an Avent-garde sports sweater, originally painted in black and white squares, clearly gathering for the upcoming World Chess Championship, then elegant sand breeches and a delicate lilac silk short-sleeved T-shirt with the Didi sports society logo badge classic azure jeans with a motley trendy amber-brown jacket with a tucked-in handkerchief in a breast pocket, it was in perfectly black from head to lower legs and in a forage cap, and every time, despite being rather strange and sometimes a ridiculous combination of colors, the outfits on Torill looked great, emphasizing his slim athletic figure. This spectacular, irresistible, muscular ant was simply ideally created to work as a model, but did not serve in the regular army division, where for ten years it was famous for professional successes in the field of an ordinary signalman and, of course, was the first in all kinds of sports categories.

Ave already wanted to go further on his business, but then a small event occurred, which subsequently had a continuation…

– Ave, do you happen to know why a cat is dreaming? Is the white cat so big? – Torill asked suddenly and carefully looked at his neighbor, waiting for him to answer. – It’s just interesting to me…

– A cat?

– Yes, so big!

– Is that white?

– Well, yes, a big white cat! Today she has been dreaming all night. And now I want to understand – what would it be?

– Good! You dreamed of a white cat, and what do I have to do with it? I don’t remember my dreams well… – Ave stood and smiled.

– I’m asking you – do you know what big white cats dream of? Maybe there is some sign or…

– So I don’t do dream-solving… and something tells me, I already heard from you this question about a white cat… Have you ever asked?

– There wasn’t such a thing… the first time I ask… I wanted to find out…

– Ahh, in general, besides, it’s not enough to remember who you dreamed about, you need to know what you did yourself, what you did around you, in what atmosphere, what smells there were – you weren’t, you need to know something else… Ahhh! Feelings, which I felt in a dream – are you good, was it bad… how was it for you – light, warm, comfortable?..

– Something you are loading me… already too much, probably… I asked about the cat, but here you already really need subtleties… You complicate it, it seems to me. I asked you directly – about the white cat and that’s it. Here you are right now and answer just about cat-sh-shku! Come on, just about the cat! – Torill spoke quite seriously.

– Are you serious? Torill, it’s like you wanted to hear something about a feline, right? – Ave could not stand it and laughed.

– Of course, to me, who else? Since I asked you, then answer me…

– Oh, in general, seriously, then a lot of factors are necessary… That’s what you most remembered in your dream? This is also important! And now on the basis of all uh-this – you can say something specific in your sleep… that is, you need to tell as much as possible, then it will be more or less clear…

– Who can say? – grinned Torill.

– I think those who have dreams…

– Aah, you?

– Do you remember what else was? Or just a cat? Yes, good morning! – Ave greeted a neighbor from another apartment, who gently and almost silently sailed behind Torill to the elevator.

– Ave, you obviously can help me, tell me what this dream is for, since you know so much! You wait, do not rush me! Come on so… – the soldier looked hopefully at his neighbor and continued. – The cat is white – one unit, the sun is bright – also one unit, although there seems to be no options here, a large clearing and a forest – just one at a time…

– Wow, wildlife is a plus for you! After all, I remembered something! You see how… – Ave squinted in a smile.

– Yeah? Well, there was still a sea somewhere very far, far away, but I heard it. I heard how hissing, that is, the sea is rustling, like the surf of something there… how the waves are playing, right there are splashing like that… though, the sea was somewhere on the edge of the earth. But still it was heard, really! And the cat, this white cat, was walking around the meadow, all purring something under her breath…

– It’s funny! Okay, so she wasn’t just a cat either? – Ave kept trying to stir Torill in his memories and ironically succumbed to him.

– Yes, she was so… such a cat was… strange, or something like that, so to speak?” She danced a little in the clearing, swirled, gathered and gathered grass, and then she approached me, turned like that… – and he depicted a rather elegant 360-degree turn, – and extended a full armful of Ivan tea. Such beautiful delicate flowers, pinkish-lilac or something… here they are what I remember most of all, well, and the cat, as the main character, remained in my memory… by the way, you said that I remembered – the flowers of Ivan-tea. They wedged into my memory, so to speak!

– Clearly, Torill, but you can be mistaken about the one and only sun, – Ave liked the role of the interpreter of dreams more and more, and he got used to it more and more actively. – Things are clear with the cat, but about the bouquet of Ivan-tea, Torill, did you accept it as a present? I understood correctly – the cat handed it to you – to give ho-bodies? So? Correctly?

– You see, calmly step by step, now we’ll solve my whole dream!

– We’ll guess, for sure! Do not go to the grandmother!

– What kind of grandmother did not go? Yes, she wanted to give! But I didn’t give it, or rather, I didn’t take the bouquet. – Torill thought, vigorously scratched the propodeum with his paw, as if his brain was at the level of the abdomen. – No, listen, listen, she gave me all the same, yes, she gave a bouquet and said something like that… such… aah, well, she said with a smile and said: “This is for you, Torill!” Exactly, she said and presented a bouquet. And I took it, but I don’t remember exactly any further…

– That’s it, you just remember nothing?

– I don’t remember how I remember, I’ll say so.

– Yeah… – Ave sighed in relief.

– For now, all that is, all the information. Enough for analysis, so to speak? Or else it’s necessary – you said “details”, but you’ve remembered something, that’s it… Tell me, Ave, by what has already been gathered for solving my dream…

– In general, listen, dear Torill, – Ave began with a dark and mysterious look, who was not at all joking at the moment, although he was a foot in the mouth by the decision of mystical dream puzzles. – Your white cat is most likely one of your new little-known comrades. Do you have any?

– Yeah, who knows? Maybe there are some. One must think, remember…