If even in the middle of a hot summer day, when mussels that have been washed ashore at the whim of the sea cannot be rescued by densely squeezed shells, you will find yourself in the small village of Commandoria, nestled among the Trood mountains, and your foot will set foot on the glowing cobblestones of its curves and humpbacked streets, then at the first moment it may seem that no one lives here: you will not see a soul in the narrow streets. Siesta…
And siesta is such a time when people hide behind almost a meter thick stone walls that keep the life-giving cool in houses. But even here they try to make a minimum of actions: they sleep.
So, you, together with the one who writes these lines now, are now in the blessed “Commando”, where the shutters on all the windows are tightly closed and where you would seem to hear how the vines grow, if not for the deafening chirp of cicadas, which covered all life around with a dome for many, many kilometers.
But on the street it is so unbearably hot that it seems - you will die if you do not even take a sip of water now. That's why I knock on the nearest door, breaking someone’s siesta.
Suddenly, right away, as if they were waiting for me here, she swings open. And on the threshold a woman arises. Yes such! ..
... Either it’s already disturbing the mind from the heat, or in fact it’s so good that it seems like a hot mirage ... And it is perfection itself. The narrow face is framed by black, without any shades - just black hair. The swarthy forehead ended with absolutely picturesque eyebrows, directly scattering to the sides of the nose and smoothly falling over the outer corners of the eyes. And the eyes were those that are obtained not from nature, but only from experienced icon painters who unconditionally believe that the Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus, having known immaculate love. Smiling, she asked me:
“Yes, sir ... How can I help ...”
- Excuse me, I just wanted to ask you for a sip of water, if you will ...
And my request did not surprise her at all, as if every half an hour blue-eyed travelers with blond hair knock on the door of their house and ask to quench their thirst.
“Yes, of course,” she answered and motioned to enter the house. Then another gesture followed, indicating that I should follow her.
So I ended up in a room almost free of furniture, where an old man sat in a low, hard chair by the wall in the middle. Judging by the fact that his eyes were completely motionless, he was blind. She again gestured to the same chair against the old man, inviting me to sit down, and she withdrew ... no, - melted in the twilight of the dwelling.
The blind man sucked in air. But it felt like he was looking at me. After a moment, he asked:
- You are Russian?..
“Yes, from Russia,” I answered him, not at all surprised that he spoke in my native language.
“My wife is also Russian,” he continued immediately. - Probably because it is cold in your country, such beautiful people are born there. My wife, the mother of the girl who opened the door for you, is just so beautiful. You know how beautiful she is! ..
The old man was silent, dropping his blind eyes, as if trying to remember her in order to tell me about the beauty of that unknown woman. Then he continued:
- But in Cyprus there is nothing that could be compared with her beauty. And therefore, just believe me: it is deafening, unbearably beautiful, like the rumble of cicadas over Commandaria today. When she appeared in this house, even his arches became higher, as it seemed to me. This is so that the perfect beauty of this woman can be better considered. And I was the happiest person on this island then. As many as five years. And when our daughter was born, this house drowned in happiness on the very roof.
And then, then she began to get bored. And cry. But she cried only at night, when her sobs could be drowned out by the cry of the cicadas in the garden. But I did love her, and therefore I heard her. Now it seems to me that even the rustle of her eyelashes, when she opened her eyes in the morning, I also heard and therefore woke up.
She did not complain, did not say anything to me. But I understood that it was longing, longing for Russian cold and Russian sounds gnawing at her heart. I don’t know what fills the air in Russia, but I know for sure that you don’t have cicadas. Therefore, he once said to her:
- Go ... Listen to your homeland. Just promise me that you will definitely come back. She did not answer then. She just came up to me and kissed my hand, and then put it on her cheek. And she looked into my eyes for a long, long time. And it seems to me now that I still see this look ... Thirty years already see. And I'm waiting. And I will wait until ...
At this time, his daughter entered the room, bringing water. I drank, and the old man examined everything and examined the face of that woman who must definitely return to him ...