Chapter five. The crash
Vadim felt strange when he heard the words of strangers, he sometimes caught short glances at himself. Gulls screamed nearby and small fish splashed. A sheaf of smoke and a loud sound erupted from a large pipe, which deafened Vadims sensitive ears. The ship began to shake a little and slowly sway from the waves. Under the propeller, the water foamed and bubbled, leaving a barely visible trace, which immediately disappeared under the strong current of the sea.
Vadim wandered around the ship a little with an important look. He looked into the rooms and immediately jumped out as if scalded, because it was not that room. Soon his legs began to ache, and he was found by a young man whom he met at the pier.
Hello, can I help you? he asked, he had a dark, tanned face.
Yes, I cant find my cabin, said Vadim, shaking someone elses hand.
He gave his ticket to the young man, and he just whistled. Soon he took Vadim almost all over the ship and still brought him to the right place. Vadim cursed the huge ships with its slippery floors, in which you can almost see your reflection. The young man turned out to be pleasant in communication, he is twenty-two, a native of Russia and his name is Rodion. Rodion was young, but he thought sensibly, the main thing was to find time to read this or that book during such voyages. Vadim told him that he also dreamed of becoming a sailor, also to surf the seas, oceans, but eventually became an ordinary teacher, of an average rate.
«Heres your cabin,» Rodion smiled.
Thank you, can we talk again sometime? Vadim asked, putting his briefcase on the bed.
«Ill be right there when Im free, sir,» the young man said and left.
Vadim has never spent time as pleasantly as he does now. It seemed that with this man he could talk for a long time about geography and the sea. Rodion loved water, loved its charms, but not like Vadim, he did not burn with it so that the water evaporated in his stomach, but addressed «You», albeit with a warm feeling. Vadim could feel it and understand, he is such a person.
His cabin was small, with its own toilet and bathroom. There was a small TV, a bed, neatly made, a table, a chair, a refrigerator and a bedside table. His cabin opened directly onto the deck, where water splashed and people walked. A small window looked out into the ocean. Vadim could only dream of such a thing. Despite the good audibility of what is happening around, but Vadim peacefully fell asleep under this noise, he was rocked by the waves themselves and the sounds of splashing water, the motor, which was supposed to be hiding under the skin somewhere nearby.
Vadim would never have thought that he would leave his room so often. Usually, he hid in his dusty apartment, but now he generally forgot that he had a cabin, he lived on deck. I was sitting on the floor, sunbathing next to the pool and looking far beyond the railing of the ship, where the ocean depths hid fish and their predators.
Rodion sometimes came to talk to him, even though Vadim was almost his father, they behaved like brothers or friends. Vadim had nothing to tell from his life, even if the life of a street kid was very eventful, but Rodion was only amused by such closeness of a friend and always told a story from life himself. It seemed to Vadim that he had begun to live again, all his life since the age of nine he had existed as if in prostration, in another world, and when he found himself on this ship, began to breathe this sea air and hear the sound of the surf, then he came to life, as if he had been awakened from a very deep sleep. For this he was grateful to Rodion, and when they sailed for the third day in the Atlantic Sea, he told a little about himself. Previously, the young man knew a small part of Vadims personality, this young man did not know more than the stomach of a man who was always looking into the ocean with childish, wet eyes.
I liked to climb the neighbors apple trees and eat them, although my father flogged me, but the apples were worth my sacrifice, he jokingly told. And how was your childhood Rodion Mikhailovich?
My father was not so cruel, I was punished once for painting the walls with paints, Rodion thought a little, as if he was taking this memory out of a drawer.
I lived in the Tver region, we somehow coped with our needs, the smile disappeared from Vadims lips. my father was always angry because of this, he almost drooled when he passionately covered Kazakhstan, Ukraine and other countries with obscenities.
Yes, I remember, my father was born in 1951, during the Soviet era, so to speak, and always told me that in fact the Russian people lived in poverty while our government tore their hair for foreign countries so that they could live well, but it wasnt enough for them.
Vadim and Rodion talked about it with annoyance and sadness in their eyes, even though Rodion did not have time to catch those times normally, but he spoke about them with childish love. And in the evening of that day, Vadim Alexandrovich and Rodion Mikhailovich decided to take a picture for memory. Surprisingly, even though many years have passed and what the heroes have not experienced, it turned out that this photo still remains.
Photo of Vadim Alexandrovich and Rodion Mikhailovich on the liner «Columbia» on the first day of the trip
For three days, Vadim tanned a little in the sun while swimming in the pool. The people on the ship were pleasant and not conflicted, but there was little to talk about with them. Another veteran sailed with them, who left the cabin in the evening and gathered a crowd of children in front of him, telling the times of the war. He spoke of her with fear and trepidation, not triumphant and great, but like an animal caught in a trap. Nevertheless, he also told funny stories while he and his battery were sitting in the trenches or somewhere in the woods, when it was allowed to rest after all the horrors.
Once we got a mine in the toilet, and how it will explode! The old mans eyes filled with mischief and laughter. We spent several hours to clean everything up.
The children liked it, and Vadim also listened to the old mans stories out of the corner of his ear.
How sad it is that now everything is being turned over, such a nuisance!
The food on the ship was delicious, even though they were trying to cut rations in order to make it to Florida to replenish their provisions. The cries of seagulls could be heard slowly.
«Remember where the seagulls are, there is dry land,» Vadim recalled his fathers words when they went fishing.
These are the islands of Puerto Rico, Mr. Vavilov Rodion pointed with his finger.
On this day, the ocean was not calm. The waves raged and flooded the deck with their spray. The sky was gray and completely overcast, lightning flashed somewhere there, it was attracted to the water and struck a couple of times next to the ship. The sailors were shouting and mopping up all the excess water. People in this weather did not leave their cabins, preferring to sit out and play cards. Vadim was wetting his coat on the deck, at that moment he was standing on the bow of the ship and watching the weather in amazement. He would have sketched it, but he couldnt. Heavy rain poured down, and the ship was shaking in different directions, it seemed that it was about to break apart, bouncing on the waves.
The captain was making a last effort to level the ship and keep it afloat. His hands were shaking, and sweat stood out on his forehead, he sometimes shouted at the sailors that they were spreading panic.
Rodion was working with a mop and occasionally glanced at Vadim, whose eyes reflected lightning that sparkled brightly in the sky. The clouds were heaving in the sky, they devoured each other, but this did not make them smaller. The heart stopped almost every participant of this journey, but if Vadims heart beat often from admiration and awe, then others from fear. Rodion was not a coward, but such weather even made him worry.