You still have time to paint us! Elena exclaimed. And not only us! Create a lot of beautiful pictures! Why are you in a hurry?
Elena is right, Robert, the Hostess agreed. There is no need to hurry. You can live here. I will take care of you like of a son. It doesnt bother me at all. My son is dead, and I would give a lot to have someone to relieve my loneliness.
Word for word, and by that evening they became friends and stopped rushing into Eternity, although it was not voiced out loud.
Suddenly the doorbell rang again. A tall man of strong build in black robes with a huge backpack appeared on the threshold.
Is it here the suicidal are gathering? the stranger chuckled darkly.
The Hostess nodded and smiled, but a feeling of anxiety pinched her heart.
And who are you? she asked before letting the stranger into the house.
The one youre missing here! the man answered sharply and, throwing the Hostess aside, headed for the room.
A nurse approached the old lady brought at night to the intensive care unit. She lay under a drip whispering something. The nurse couldnt hear the words and leaned closer.
I am a psychotherapist I wanted to save them, but God punished me! I considered myself to be the Master of Fates! I resurrected them and doomed them to death He is a maniac find him! He killed everyone but me I must die! Its unfair if
Everything will be fine, dont worry! You just dont have to worry! the nurse said, understanding nothing of what she had heard.
The woman got silent. Her kind heart stopped, and her light soul left the temporary abode, rushing towards Heaven, to meet her dead son and those whom she so sincerely had tried to save
January 29, 19952. A Sinner
After a small breakfast of scrambled eggs, taking with him a couple of cheese and sausage sandwiches, and only by chance remembering to take also the Gospel and the cross, the parish priest, Father Alexey, slowly went to confess a certain parishioner Pelageya, who was dying of a terminal illness. Father Alexey didnt know her, as he had served in that church for a week only.
Entering a shabby little room, he saw a woman about forty. She seemed to no longer react to the surrounding sounds, and her gaze was fixed on the window overlooking the garden, where the birds were singing joyfully, and the cheerful wind was rustling.
Father Alexey came closer to Pelageya. Her features seemed too familiar to the priest, but in vain he tried to remember where he might have crossed paths with the dying woman, so, sitting down on a chair by her bed, as usual in such cases, he asked,
I was told that you want to confess, my dear
Yes, the dying woman replied in a weak voice.
Then tell me your sins and transgressions, the priest crossed the woman and prepared to listen attentively.
Pelageya began to talk about her life from the very beginning: as a child she had broken her mothers favorite vase, too often she had quarreled with her sister and friends, and she hadnt believed in God. However, left without a livelihood at the age of fifteen, Pelageya went to play the flute in the streets of the city to get money for food, and by the will of the Almighty she found herself in a church for the first time, where a completely different world opened up for her.
What the dying woman had told him up to that point was not of particular interest to the priest, he even snored a little, and, waking up, only shook his head periodically. Sometimes it seemed to Father Alexey that he had already heard something similar before, but during his life the priest managed to serve in so many churches that thousands of stories confessed to him by parishioners had long been mixed up in his head and safely forgotten, and new ones were not remembered at all.
Then I met him, the eyes of the dying woman suddenly sparkled, and she smiled. He was kind and caring, he courted me as a princess, but said almost nothing about himself, only that he loved me and we would get married after Easter. Once I found out by accident that my fiance was studying at the Theological Seminary, however, the prospect of becoming the wife of a priest didnt frighten me at all! On the contrary, I was even delighted, since I already believed in God! But soon, when I told him we were going to have a baby, he forbade me to give birth to our son.
Son? Father Alexey furrowed his brow and fiddled with the Gospel.
Yes, thank God, I didnt take at least that sin upon my soul! After all, we never got married. My fiance got scared, exchanged me for the daughter of a rich and influential official. And my son outwardly is a copy of his father, and I named him Alexey as well.
And how old is the boy?
Seventeen.
Did you tell him about his father?
No, Father. My son sings in a church choir and is going to enter the Seminary. I didnt want him to change his attitude towards God because of such a father. All he knows is that they are too similar in appearance.
Father Alexey shook his head. His hand touched Pelageyas hand. He was silent for a while, but then, sharply withdrawing his hand, said menacingly,