Guardian Angel. 1. 5. Elabuga

"A GUARDIAN ANGEL"
a mistical novel
by Alexandra Kryuchkova

PART I. A GUARDIAN

1.5. ELABUGA

April 4, evening,
Moscow, Vnukovo airport


Alice arrived at the airport. Flight delays were constantly announced. She was nervous, she couldn’t be late. The Solar didn’t wait for anyone, it turned on the place it found a person. An invisible photographer would press the button of the invisible camera to fix the position of the planets above the newborn, and the program would start.

It was the 4th day of the 4th month and the 4th day of the week. In China, 4 is the number that brings death. Alice’s previous Solar year with Saturn in 8 (which could be interpreted as the goal for the year was Death) would end only the next morning, and until that moment she still needed to survive somehow. What if Death didn’t step aside after her car accident in June?

However, Alice’s flight started boarding on time.

Alice got on the plane. The guardian scanned the Space of Options. It’s possible to scan in advance, but since every minute a huge number of creatures on Earth take different steps to the left or right moving in space, the options change so rapidly that at the very last moment you can find yourself not at all where you expected to be the day before.

The plane started moving and was ready to take off, as White suddenly discovered the unforeseen and instantly appeared in the cockpit, grabbed the hand of a guardian and shouted, «What are you doing?! Stop it! Right now!»

The plane stopped.

«Hello, bro, what’s up? Is something wrong?»

White visualized a holographic projection of the Space of Options in the air, which suddenly became almost 100% real. The pilot’s guardian called Takeoff closed his eyes for a moment in horror, and then said, «Glory to Thee, Lord, glory to Thee! Bro, listen, how did you see it? I checked everything five minutes ago!»

The plane started taking off again. The pilot’s guardian stopped it again.

«All right, Takeoff, I leave for my ward,» said White. «In short, you get it, we can take off not earlier than in 15 minutes. Spin as you like.»

Takeoff shook White’s hand with a feeling of immense gratitude. The plane took off at the 5th attempt. Alice fell asleep.


***
Nizhnekamsk airport, night


Alice left the airport. All sorts of taxi drivers ran up to her and offered to take her to the right place. White drew the ring «Transgress me not» around Alice, and as long as she moved towards the brightest taxi driver, the ring didn’t dissolve.

Alice was sitting in the car next to the driver. He talked her about Elabuga and read poetry. Their guardians were on the back seats, talking about the vicissitudes of their jobs.

«Have you managed to deal against the accident, bro?» White asked.

«I have, White! True, I had to get the truck driver dead drunk. Otherwise, it didn’t work. On the way back, Alice has to book a taxi at the hotel. My ward will leave for his mother-in-law tomorrow, she needs help, so he won’t be able to drive Alice back. But I’ll send her a no less light one.»

Alice got a call from the director of the Memorial Complex, who asked her about the flight, if everything was in order. They confirmed the meeting in the hotel lobby the next morning at 9 o’clock.


***
Elabuga, night,
the hotel in the center


Alice entered the hotel and was kindly welcomed with smiles. They said they had visited her website and read her works. Alice was given the keys to the room number 33 and was told, «If something doesn’t suit you, we can change the room!»

The room was very cozy. Alice instantly fell asleep. White went down into the hall to his colleagues and spent time in pleasant conversation in a bright society, each member of which shared their successes and failures in their work.


***
April 5, morning, Elabuga


Alice went down for breakfast and marveled at the generous buffet selection. The cook’s guardian broke into a pleased smile and winked at White. The director of the Memorial Complex took Alice on an excursion tour.

«First of all, I’ll take you to the Devil’s Hill.»

Alice raised one eyebrow in surprise. It happened very rarely, when she was really overly surprised. White joyfully said to the director’s guardian (both on the back seats in the car), «Thank you, bro! It’s exactly the place she needs right now!»

«She’ll feel it herself, you’ll see!»

The car stopped at the top of the mountain. Everything was in snow. They went out into the fresh air and saw an ancient tower in the distance.

«May I ask you an indiscreet question? What brought you to us?» the director asked on the way to the tower.

«A long story. Briefly, I’m changing the Space of Options. More correctly to say, my Solar year. I’m moving the Sun out of the Dungeon, shifting Spheres in the right order.»

The director’s guardian exclaimed in admiration, «White! She is an advanced user! She knows such words!»

«Solar is something stellar, isn’t it?» the director asked.

«Yours is no less advanced!» White laughed.

«Yes, it’s a photo of the sky taken on the date of one’s birthday,» Alice answered the director.

«So is it your birthday today?»

Alice nodded. They approached the tower. The director started the story from the way Marina Tsvetaeva had arrived to Elabuga passing the road directly under the Devil’s Hill. Alice listened stroking the tower with her hands and probing it energetically. She walked it around clockwise, leant her back against the wall, squinting at the Sun.

«Alice, are you by any chance a psychic?» the director asked with a smile and continued the story. «There was a pagan temple, a church and a mosque on this place. In general, nothing survived except the tower. But the Devil’s Hill is clearly a Place of Power. Touch the tower with both hands, make a wish, and it’ll surely come true. It’s desirable to touch the old bricks, not the ones they patched the holes with. According to the legend, the Devil visited this place once. He longed to marry the priest’s daughter. However, let’s not talk about sad things! Make a wish!»

Alice made a wish, touched the bricks with both hands and smiled. The director’s guardian chuckled, and White was horrified, «Damn it! Bro, just imagine, she’s got such a bad combination of planets, but do you see it? I’m trying my best to lead her away from the abyss, meanwhile, in the Place of Power, she is making a wish about…»

«About love, bro!»

«It’s time for her to think about another love!» White exclaimed angrily.

«Love is one, bro. The rest is not love. You know it yourself.»

«What matters is whom to love! Have you seen the image of that one in White?»

«You yourself are in white! It looks like you’re jealous! You’re angry, so you’re wrong!»

The director took Alice to all the sights of the town, organized an excursion to the museum of Marina Tsvetaeva, to the library of the Silver Age, to the House of Memory. Alice was greeted kindly, given interesting rare books, and she gave her own books in return. Having lunch in a tavern at the Museum of History, Alice discussed with the director the arrival of an official delegation of writers from Moscow to the 11th Bonfire in commemoration of Tsvetaeva in October. All day long, Alice was periodically called by her acquaintances who congratulated her on her birthday. After lunch, they had a trip to the cemetery.

«There are pines here, and she loved rowans. So we built a rowan bush for her! Do you like it?» the director asked Alice. There was a plaque on the metallic rowan bush with a quatrain by Tsvetaeva, which Alice once had chosen as an epigraph to her own poem. The director voiced several versions about Tsvetaeva’s burial place, because the monument was installed symbolically, and led Alice through the snowdrifts to the unknown grave, which many considered to be «the very place under the forked pine».

The guardians moved a bit to the right. Alice took a couple of steps in their direction and stopped nearby. She was drawn there.

«Alice, ask her mentally to help you,» said the guardian of the director.

Alice addressed to Marina Tsvetaeva, not framing her thought into words, and heard in her mind a verse, «A zealous guardian of poets, save me from trouble!»

White sighed, «At least here, you’re thinking in the right direction.»

In the evening, Alice was walking alone in the historical part of the town. She found a magic bench by the bridge overlooking the church and the Tree of Wishes, on which people used to hang all sorts of things as locks, ribbons and like that, waiting for miracles. Having nothing to hang, Alice was sad.

«It’s enough to sit down on the magic bench,» White said. «Besides, you can rest a bit.»

Alice obediently sat down and began to think about something. The guardian read her thoughts and grabbed her hand, «No, no! Let’s leave this place! I’m not able to see the Man in White next to you, even a virtual one!»

Alice kept dangling her legs as if nothing had happened and had absolutely no intention of leaving the bench.

«You are a sheep!» stated White and after a pause added, «No! You are a herd of sheep!»


***
April 5, night,
Elabuga, hotel in the center


Alice ordered a taxi to the airport for 4 am and sat down on the windowsill looking out into the night. Her guardian was sitting opposite. Downstairs in the restaurant, they were celebrating something. «Happy Birthday to you!» they began to sing loudly.

«So someone has birthday today,» Alice thought sadly, «just like me.» Yes, Alice was sad, because none of those to whom she had written many poems about love congratulated her. «Why then write anything at all?» flashed in her mind, but… she took her phone out of the pocket and started typing some verses pouring out of the night. As soon as she finished and saved the poem in drafts, the celebrating company went out into the street right under the Alice’s window and, to the joyful exclamations of «Happy birthday to you!», arranged a great firework show.