Anya was in the arms of a strong woman and breathed in the perfume that Reitar had loved a year ago, two, three........ "Mandarin and balm..." This old and native scent of every note as a child's lullaby penetrated somewhere deep and deep and swept away, blowing up the dam in Anja out of doubt and fear that Lera would become a stranger to her. A smile broke out with fireworks and tamtams, unexpected and loud like the rumbling of water:
- Did you come to strangle me?
- Well, well, well, well, well, not all at once! - The teacher laughed at them. - First, to look at and evaluate the real estate in your sketch, to make a will........
- You are incorrigibly commercial - Anya happily stuck her nose into soft, curly, dark hair ("Mandarin and Melissa..."), into a wide shoulder strap of a travel bag thrown over her shoulder. Lera, instead of developing the idea, kept her mouth closed and opened her hands clumsily. It was as if she had lost confidence that she had assessed the limits of the good allowed. As if she were so good at defusing the situation and making contact with people, she also hesitated and was afraid of her new and old good friend. And in vain. You can hug me for hours. Quiet," Anja thought, always avoiding other people's hands like a cat. All of them, but not this one.
- And then, choking - too clearly - the teacher spoke again, a little smiling. - We are the only people here I can blame for my murder, aren't we? You should have seen the eyes of a taxi driver: "Where to, where to, where to, where to take you? - She tilted her head to her side, stretched out her jaw and painted her face with confusion and difficulty thinking.
Anya laughed and corrected her glasses:
- I remember suggesting that I ask someone from the locals.
- That is, I'm not enough for two weeks in the government pubs - you want to drive me too? What am I, some kind of exploiter?!
Nevertheless, it is good that there is such a phenomenon as a joke in the world. Even the dumbest of them help when you desperately have nothing to hold on to. When it's so hard to take in greetings and questions, and all these trivial things come to mind: "How are you?", "How have you changed?", "How many winters...". - so inappropriate, so fake, so stupid, so stupid, so stupid ........ I just want to stand there and look at a face you have never dreamed of before.
- No, of course not. The word usurper suits you better.
- And who have I appropriated? - The treacherous light under the confused innocence is a familiar, beloved game from childhood.
- Well, somewhere here I had a list of hearts that you broke during our school days....... Oh, you didn't fit in my backpack!
- I always lose my vigilance for you, Anna de Chronicler, and that old nickname seems to scream: "I recognize you, it's still you!
- Someone had to catch such a deadly woman in life. By the way, you are unexpectedly punctual. I am pleasantly surprised - yes, yes, indeed, in the first, so far away for a year of the deceased's life, the teacher chronically sabotaged all temporary commitments, days of life in a personal flow that in no way correlates with the standard.
- You also find it ironic that I am a "head in which there is no windless weather". - How much work have you had to do to get rid of these and three hundred other habits that contradict adult life? Suddenly her eyes were on something behind Anja's back. Her face changed quickly. - Watch out!
Lera suddenly pulled the hesitant girlfriend on herself and squeezed her twice as hard as the first time and forced her to squeeze. They were almost on their way. A soft growl sounded behind her back. Anya looked into the wide open dark eyes and felt the scream in Lera's throat. That she was breathing, but for some reason, she couldn't exhale. That she was squeezed, paralyzed by horror.
It's too late to run," the gaze froze, "and we're all alone and there's nobody there...".......
Anya was already afraid (her reaction was slow, the fear was long), but she found the strength to turn around first.
A shady shadow separated from the juniper bush was on its way. Cabbage black, unnaturally large, unnaturally large, curved fur stands on its back. The lips rise slowly and expose the mouth to the gums.
How beautiful are the sharp claws of spring?
She prepares for the jump.