BOOK of KNOWLEDGE,
a novel by Alexandra Kryuchkova
in the “PLAYING ANOTHER REALITY” series
PART 1. PLAYING ANOTHER REALITY, or the WAY to the LIGHT
Chapter 16. NO MAGIC WANDS
Every «Good Morning» started in my garage. Sometimes the garage also greeted me with its «Good Evening». The house of my silver Fox, the furthest one in the corridor, was located right next to the Never Opening Gates. Or rather, one could open them only inside, because right behind them, there was a hill. The Gates were crooked, therefore, the right door of my garage opened until 45 degrees. Another convenience was the distance between the opposite garages, too small to turn around, so I used to drive in, weaving along the entire corridor in reverse. It was more fun to do it when someone had left the car right in the corridor, not in the garage. Especially in winter evenings, because a car with an automatic front-wheel drive didn’t like to eat porridge of snow, moving in reverse, and expressing its protest, stopped, demanding me to pick up a shovel and clear the way from the beginning of the corridor up to those Never Opening Gates. However, the Gates were already walled up with snow. People dumped it unexpectedly, and I kept thinking, why those with obvious vision problems were allowed to drive vehicles, because an inscription on the Gates shouted in capital letters, «Don’t cover me with snow! Let me drive too!» Even I could still see it from afar. So, until the snow melting, every morning started for me with exercises, which I often had to repeat in the evening, and God knew what exercises it would consist of the next day.
In the spring, the snow from the hill behind the Never Open Gates started melting and flowed directly to my garage door. At night, the «sea» was covered with a thick crust of ice, so in the morning I chipped it off to open the doors, and then, with a shovel, scooped out the water under the ice. By evening, a new portion of melted snow used to arrive. So, if any of you lacks physical exercise, welcome, let’s do it together.
In the summer, people dumped garbage at the Gates. Once, someone wasn’t even lazy to bring and put on public display heavy windows with a balcony door. I informed the security guard I couldn’t drive out, and he asked in surprise, «Don’t you need windows?» I said I needed to go to work. The guard thought for a moment and offered me to sell those windows to someone.
That morning I found both garage doors covered with snow up to the lock level. No, it wasn’t even snow, it was a stone wall of snow. I understood that the Tractor had arrived at night and did its best for everyone, except me. It collected snow from all over the corridor, safely locking with it the Never Opening Gates, and, to increase my physical activity, my garage, which I had been clearing about half an hour the previous night. At night, as luck would have it, frost set in and the snow turned into stone. «Immured!» I breathed out involuntarily, realizing that the tools were inside the garage.
Of course, if I could get to work by public transport, I would have done so, but the Higher Forces sent me to an industrial zone outside the city, reachable by public transport right by the end of the working day.
I sighed heavily and headed to the Chairman’s booth, whom I had repeatedly asked to warn me about every planned visit of the Tractor, so that I would leave my Fox for a night outside its house. It was interesting that when everyone should hand over some money, they called everyone in advance and several times in a row, but informing only one person about the Tractor was an insoluble problem.
The Chairman sat in the booth drinking tea.
«Good morning!» I said and looked at him questioning.
«500 rubles!» the Chairman said happily and handed me the receipt.
«What for?» I asked, already knowing his answer.
«For clearing snow from the area!»
«Could you give me a shovel instead of a receipt?»
The Chairman smiled.
«500 rubles first, and then a shovel!»
«Listen, did you see what happened to my garage after clearing snow from the area?»
«Yes, I did,» the Chairman chuckled.
«So what should I do now?»
«Pay 500 rubles and pick up a shovel.»
«Why should I pay for clearing snow from the area, if after it, and not for the first time, my private area, which I clear every single day by myself, turns into a stone wall and I have to pick up a shovel?»
«Because you got the furthest garage at the Never Opening Gates. It’s not me to be blamed!»
«Who is to be blamed for that?»
«It’s you, of course! If I were you, I would never agree to get that garage for anything in the world! I know what it means!»
«Did I have a choice?»
«No! Anyhow, I can do you a favor.»
«What favor?» I became interested.
«500 rubles first.»
I handed over the money. The Chairman smiled and said in a condescending voice,
«For paying double fees for your garage, I will allow your car to spend the winter outside. The same problems are in the next corridor. The Land Cruiser has been spending nights without a roof for the second winter.»
«Are you saying that I have to pay the fees for the garage and the same amount in addition so that you allow me to leave my car in the corridor and not in the garage?»
«Why do they say that there are no beautiful and simultaneously smart women on Earth?» The Chairman laughed.
«Give me a shovel!»
Having dug up the immured Fox, I noticed traces of cat’s paws on the bonnet.
«Moony! Have you decided to be materialized?!»
There was a rustling sound in the corner.
«Listen, I don’t mind if you’re not at all gray, as you are on the figurine of the Girl with the Cat!»
The Cat crawled out into the Light and looked at me with interest. He was exactly gray, smoky, with white paws and a white tie around the neck. I smiled.
«Hello! How beautiful you are! Sorry, I don’t have time to communicate with you now. I’m already late for work. See you in Another Reality. But if you have some business on Earth, you can live in the house of my Fox!»
The Cat jumped onto the shelf and curled up into a ball.
I almost got to work. I worked in an industrial zone in the southern direction, not far from the take-off point of the iron birds. I need only to cross the railroad tracks, which no one had traveled on for a long time, as evidenced by a giant stone left by someone onto the rails to the right of the roadway. Suddenly, the car in front of me stopped and died right on the rails. I patiently waited for the continuation, but even after ten minutes the situation hadn’t changed. There was no one observed on the road, which had only two lanes for driving — towards work and back home. I decided to drive around the stalled car. Performing that action, all of a sudden, I noticed a Magic Wand waving out of the snowy bushes to make me stop. Disobeying the order of the Magic Wand was a sin. I stopped.
The Magic Wand looked satisfied rubbing his hands.
«Finally, at least someone drove into the Middle of Nowhere!» he muttered under his breath and added loudly, «Good morning, girl!»
«Hello,» I said.
«Well, you got caught! How could you get caught, huh? Get in my car. I adore small, stupid and inexperienced girls!» the Magic Wand licked his lips.
«What would you do in my place?» I asked after getting into his car.
«The same. It’s just unclear to me why you stayed there for ten minutes waiting for the stalled old stuff to re-start. Wasted time. I’m completely frozen! Okay, give me your docs.»
I handed over my driving documents. The Magic Wand studied them for a long time and suddenly exclaimed in surprise,
«Wow! Are you a city girl?! What are you doing here, in the Middle of Nowhere?»
«Working.»
«Do you work here?!» The Wand was even more surprised. «Is there no work left in the city?»
«It happened to me so.»
«Where do you work here?»
«Right around the corner.»
«Well, you got it in full, the city girl! Have you realized how badly you are trapped?»
«Yes, I am late for work.»
«No, you seem not to understand it yet. Okay, let’s find it out now. Tell me the truth like the Saint Spirit, about your work. What are you doing there?»
The words concerning my work most likely would seem Another Reality to you, although they had nothing to do with it. Many things often seemed to be different than they were in reality. In brief, I worked with capital letters.
«ABS, PVC, HPL, CPL, MDF, fiberboard, chipboard,» I said the usual abracadabra of abbreviations.
«Hey you, the city girl, better not show off!» the Magic Wand got angry.
«You got it wrong! Just one thousand and one things that…»
«Well done, already closer to the point… So, one thousand and one, you say… And how many thousand do you get for your one thousand and one things?»
«Almost nothing, catastrophically,» I told the absolute truth.
«If you earn almost catastrophically nothing, it’s cheaper to be late for work for the whole day than to get caught on the road!»
«How much cheaper?» I asked.
«I’m even afraid to scare you voicing something.»
I suddenly thought that, probably, apart from spiders, there wasn’t much in life to scare me, but just in case, I asked,
«So say something not scary!»
«You are kind of a slow-witted city girl! Tell me something that won’t scare you too much. It’s you who got caught, not me.»
«I am afraid too… to offend you,» I said, since I couldn’t even imagine the current prices of the Magic Wands.
«Okay, let’s do this way. Take out your wallet. Everything we find inside now will suddenly fall out onto the floor and will be lost for you! Agreed?»
I thought that God existed, and nodded in agreement joyfully, because I remembered very well that, fortunately, only few days were left before the salary.
Seeing the contents of my wallet, the Magic Wand became very upset and asked in surprise,
«Is the city girl a beggar?! Do you really have nothing else?!»
I spread my hands helplessly, dropping the contents of my wallet to the floor.
«I have spells!» I suddenly recalled. «Do you want me to cast them?»
«My Lord, you’re also crazy! Take your docs and leave, save you God! Just as my advice for the future, you may break the laws, everyone do it, but you must never be caught!»
When I got to the office, I didn’t rejoice for long, since the electricity suddenly turned off, and after a couple of hours we were allowed to go home. Thus, another theorem in my life was proven, if the garage was walled up in the morning, there was no need to drive out anywhere.
I returned to the city and was about to leave my Fox in its house, when a passer-by suddenly stopped me. His face beamed with a satisfied smile. Without even hiding his joy, he said,
«Your headlight bulb burned out!»
Why were people always happy to give bad news and receive only good news? With such thought in mind, I went to a branded car service. I was put in a queue and assured that they would definitely change the light bulb in a month.
«You have no light bulbs,» I supposed.
«We have no time to change light bulbs!»
«How long does it take to change one?»
«Not more than five minutes. Usually, two…»
«Are you saying that I have to wait a month for you to change my light bulb in two minutes?»
«Why do you need us to change it? You can change it Around the Corner. They change everything for everyone there, right away and for a penny!»
«Should I buy a light bulb from you, at least?»
«There are more than enough light bulbs Around the Corner!»
Never expected to receive such practical advice from a branded car service, I sincerely thanked them and hurried Around the Corner.
…I was drinking coffee in a cafe near my home, when a man at a distant table by the window, impossible to be recognized with my earthly vision, having pierced me with his gaze, stood up finally and approached me.
«Good evening, lady! Excuse me, but… Could you remind me the way I know you?»
«Ruslan, hello!» I exclaimed joyfully, recognizing my former colleague.
«I’m sorry, I’m not kidding. I had a stroke, I remember almost nothing… I saw you, and it seemed to me that we had met somewhere. Who are you? What’s your name? Please tell me.»
«Ruslan, I am Alice.»
«Alice… What an unusual name! I remember your eyes. I’m waiting for a friend here. I have a plane at night. Now I work far away. In an investment company. As General Manager. Would you sit with me for a while? Shall we drink coffee?»
The Black Box of Memory was opened. It always happened at such moments. I usually tried to keep it locked up just to learn to live «here and now».
«We worked together, Ruslan, and were on first-name terms. Do you remember my Brother?»
«Brother? Ah… yes! I remember! What were you doing there?»
«It doesn’t matter anymore.»
«Listen, Alice, I think I start recalling. You are like greetings from my past life! Was it you who wrote poetry?! My God! Where were you supposed to fly to that early morning, when I accompanied you to the airport in a motorcade with flashing lights?»
«Probably on vacation,» I said, smiling.
«No, it was a business trip to Italy, you often went there with Brother!»
I definitely remembered myself fly to Switzerland then, but I didn’t argue.
«Tell me about yourself, Alice, so many years have passed!»
I told him something, then he told me about him. Ruslan hadn’t changed at all, the same character, the same speeches and actions.
«You know, Alice, at first, you spoke like a stranger, no emotions, but recalling out job and Brother, your eyes were shining. It’s nostalgia, right?»
«You can’t live in the Past, Ruslan. That’s wrong, really.»
«That’s why they took it away from me,» he said thoughtfully.
...That evening, I watched already the second TV film about RAM, saw familiar faces in the hall, laughed and wept. We were all her students and… children. Irina from the city of Kazan appeared on the screen. She was 36 years old and had two children, a girl and a boy, a son was six years old, a daughter was a high school student. Irina had the terminal stage of cancer, diagnosed shortly before the seminar. She placed her rug next to mine, and I thought, maybe I could do something for her, help her with something. During the break, we started talking, and I asked if Ira had found the cause of her illness.
«Yes, Alice, I have the wrong attitude towards children. I’m going to Saint Matrona, and a miracle will happen! She’ll cure me, everything will pass right away! You’ll see!»
«What do you mean, wrong attitude?»
«I scold them. Especially my daughter. Instead of doing her homework, she reads romance novels.»
«Are you just scolding?»
«Yes… Imagine, I enter her room in full confidence that she is studying history, but find out a love story book on her lap! So I start scolding, because she has exams soon, meanwhile she’s occupied with all sorts of nonsense! Then, of course, we make up. I know I should not do that, but…»
I looked into her huge brown eyes and understood perfectly well that the reason was not at all the voiced. Most children tried to avoid doing homework, and almost all parents scolded them for that, but not all parents got cancer.
I gave to Irina as a gift my book of spells dedicated to my mother. She opened the book. Pointing to one of the few photos survived, of me at the age of four, sitting on my mother’s lap, Irina asked,
«Is that your mother?»
«Yes, she died when I was twelve.»
«And mine died when I was 6. The same cancer. At the same age of 36, like me now. How might she die? Leaving me alone in this world? Such a grudge for all life, isn’t it, Alice? Our moms abandoned us.»
«Irina, are you really still offended by your mother for her death?»
«Are you not?»
«Not… Did our moms abandon us on purpose? Do you think your mom wanted to leave you here alone? Do you understand what you have just said? That’s your reason! That’s why you fell ill at exactly the same age and with the same disease, and your son is now exactly the same age as you were when your mother died. Don’t you get it?»
«I don’t!» she said coldly in response, offended already by me. «My reason is quarrels with my daughter.»
…Lera came to visit me at midnight. We drank tea in the kitchen sharing news about ordinary miracles.
«You know, Alice, I arrived at the Caves late in the evening, when the entrance was already closed, but I wanted to get to Saint Agapit so badly that suddenly a monk came out of the Caves and allowed me to go in!»
«When I went to the Caves, I visited seven monasteries nearby. The last of them contained the relics of St. Anastasia. The temple with the relics was almost always closed. I walked up to the doors, and they opened suddenly,» I smiled. «Another Reality will open any door for you, the main thing is to move in the right direction, along the Path to the Light.»
«I’m going to paint!»
«I see an exhibition of your paintings,» I said. «A large picture in a white frame is hanging on the bright wall to the left. It’s picture of a field. I see flowers. Two flowers, very large, are in the foreground; another one, a bit smaller, is nearby, and the rest are very small. Everything is flooded with sunlight.»
I saw poppies, but was afraid to specify.
«Alice, yes, you see the steppe with poppies! I’ve been to a poppy field several times. I want to paint it! Moreover, I understood what you meant writing about Divine or Universal Love. I felt it myself.»
«It’s a pity that few people know what it is.»
«A student asked our Hermit Monk why you painted the Moon Cat. The Monk replied that you don’t serve the Earthly Reality, living in it on your own, so you are close to the Cat walking by himself in Another Reality. He told me also to write my own book as well as you did. We must wake people up from their sleep. Those deaf for Another Reality won’t be able to receive the support of the Forces of Light and…»
«I performed in another country not long ago. They asked me questions. One of them struck me. Where can I find time for God in my life?»
«I wouldn’t even have figured out what to answer right away!»
«People cry that they feel bad, however, being told to do basic things, for which they need nothing but their own will, people disappear. A woman wrote to me for a month that she had been ill for a long time and was getting worse and worse, no specifics, only complaints about injustice and intoxication with her grief. A month later, it turned out that for seven years she had hated the man with whom she had broken up long before. I suggested that she write a Notebook of Forgiveness, as RAM taught us. You write for a week, many, many times, a phrase that you forgive and let go of the person for whom you experience negative emotions, and if other people emerge from the Subconscious, after finishing writing to the first person, you write to the next one. After that write a confession to God, but write it honestly, because no one but God will read it. In conclusion, describe a picture of your future happy life. What do you think the woman answered?»
«She doesn’t believe in God.»
«No, she considers herself, on the contrary, a very religious person. She said she couldn’t write essays! Then I suggested that she paint, at least with her fingers, without bothering about the correct rendering of figures and lines, just paint with colors such abstract concepts, as Happiness, Love, My Bright Future and so on.»
«So she said she couldn’t do it, since she is not a painter!»
«Yes! People go to fortune-tellers expecting that someone will sooner or later say, „A miracle will come down to you in exactly six months. At three in the afternoon. If you pay me right now the amount you keep inside your bedside table“.»
«Such people always ask for advice, but almost never follow it, because they want to be pitied. Receiving pity in response to complaints, they are fueled by the energy of those who feel pity for them. If the vampire’s life gets better, the energy used to be received in the old proven way, will stop flowing. Thus, the vampire’s Subconscious constantly gives new reasons so that there is always something to complain about. Magic Wands don’t exist,» Lera smiled.
«Only because of our global laziness. I agree.»