Guardian Angel. 1. 13. Arrested!

"A GUARDIAN ANGEL"
a mistical novel
by Alexandra Kryuchkova

PART I. A GUARDIAN

1.13. ARRESTED!

June 16, Sunday,
Nikolina Gora


Alice was lying in the grass on the banks of the river, where her parents had tried to teach her to swim in her childhood, when the river had been still deep. Then it became knee-deep almost everywhere. It was deeper there than on the old beach, but Alice was afraid that one day she would come and find a small stream instead of a river.

Nikolina Gora was one of her Places of Power, and it was the first day of her back tunnel. That year Easter was a late one, so almost no one was bathing yet, the water was cold. But Alice, being stubborn — if she decided something, she would definitely do it — got into the water and, as usual, swam against the current, so that at least the first minutes she swam away, and not back, because the current instantly took everyone not at all where they wanted to arrive.

Alice cast magic spells no one had taught her. She addressed to water, air, the Sun and the earth in that very place, so that they gave her strength and help her pass the next black tunnel.

Alice returned to the shore, took out the book «Anna Akhmatova’s dreams in St. Petersburg». The next day, in the literary coffeehouse, Alice would hold a party in commemoration of Akhmatova. White was chatting with butterflies.

«It’s interesting,» Alice pondered. «Almost a year ago, on Akhmatova’s birthday, a couple of hours before the car accident, I was reading Blok’s poems here, and they both saved me. Now I’m reading Akhmatova. I’ll hold her party.» Alice looked off the book and noticed many butterflies flying around her, landing on her hands and on the pages of the open book, being afraid of nothing. «I wonder why butterflies are attracted to me, and the ones with lots of paws, I’m afraid of, don’t attack me at all…»

White smiled. Having read the book to the middle, Alice heard the words of her (or not her?) future poem, put the book aside and wrote it down.

Glamorous appeared smiling, «A glamourous weekend, White?»

«No, it’s the Place of Power. These are different concepts.»

«I suggest bumping ours into each other next week!»

«Next week Alice won’t have time for that.»

«Saturn?»

«Yes.»

Glamorous leafed through the Book of Life of his ward, «Then there’s the possibility to do it on June 25. What do you think?»

«Okay. Prepare him not to be too glamorous.»

«White, since Alice sent him the link to the radio, I’ve been preparing him day and night! By the way, how does she like vegetarian food?»

«She is an omnivore, but, being a sheep, doesn’t eat lamb.»

«Very well, bro. Then he’ll lunch with her in a private elite place.»

Glamorous disappeared.

Towards evening, Alice habitually went up to a restaurant in the pines, ordered the same that she had eaten there a year before, an hour before the car accident, and went home. It was the same day and the same time as then. It was important for her to recreate a similar situation and drive along the same route, but with a happy ending, in order to remove the anchor of subconscious fear. Alice got home and breathed a sigh of relief.


***
June 20, Thursday morning,
Moscow, the Union of Writers


Alice received her books from printing office. The ones she had spent all her savings on. Alice rejoiced. She took each one in her hands, leafed through, re-read something, put aside one copy each for the showcase in the House of Serving to Creation.

Alice got a call. A client of her Doctor asked to postpone the appointment, so Alice was offered to come in an hour. She took one copy of each book with her as a gift for the Doctor and happily headed to the clinic. Alice had known the Doctor for years. Having visited some doctors who used to experiment on patients, prescribing them something at random, Alice had been very happy to finally find the Doctor.


***
June 20, Thursday day, Moscow, a clinic


Alice entered the Doctor’s room. Wise and White greeted each other.

«Hi, Poet,» the Doctor greeted Alice. «Why all of a sudden?»

«I don’t know,» Alice admitted. «But something is wrong.»

«Does it hurt?»

«No.»

«Fever?»

«No.»

«What’s then?»

Alice shrugged her shoulders, holding out the results of the April tumor markers and the ultrasound report. The Doctor reviewed Alice with an ultrasound herself, took the April docs and glanced at the screen again.

«I don’t understand anything! How can it be? Only two months passed.»

Wise patted White on the wing, «Well done, bro! Working fast!»

Alice sat down opposite the Doctor. She remembered well the words of the Astrologer and the Teacher, she had to do what the Doctor would tell her. Alice was absolutely calm.

The Doctor wrote something for a long time, then held out a paper with the address of the hospital and the phone number of the Surgeon who had already operated on Alice once.

«Call her tomorrow morning,» the Doctor said calmly. «It’s problematic to get through, she is always in the operating room, but you have to. Come to her, show her your markers and both ultrasounds of April and June. The Surgeon is a humanist. If she is against the surgery, tell her that I insist.»

«Okay. How much does this surgery cost?»

The Doctor announced the price. Alice tried not to express the sudden horror at the thought that her savings had been spent on the books, she had just received in the morning, but Alice’s eyes went wide, and an eyebrow got up involuntarily, «I’ll have money only in September.»

The Doctor, looking Alice straight in the eye, in an absolutely calm, even voice, yet not allowing any objections, uttered, «Borrow it.»

Alice nodded, took the docs, gave the Doctor her books and already at the door, saying goodbye, squeezed out, «I’m scared.»

The Doctor thought for a minute and said, «Everyone is scared. But I think there’s nothing criminal there. Just don’t pull the cat’s tail!»

At the door, Wise patted Alice on the shoulder with his wing and whispered with fatherly tenderness, «The Man in White, Alice! You must meet him after the tunnel.»

White looked at Wise reproachfully, took Alice by the hand, and they walked away.


***
June 21, Friday morning, Moscow, a hospital


Exactly at 10:00, leaving home for office, Alice called the Surgeon, and, oddly enough, got through on the first try. The Surgeon offered to come right in the afternoon. Alice arrived at work unable to think about anything but the Future. At 14:00, she was already in the hospital, climbed up to the familiar floor and entered the Surgeon’s office. She hadn’t changed much. Alice was calm for some reason. Perhaps because she had a premonition of such events; perhaps because it was the same Surgeon who had once operated on her. The Surgeon read the docs, thought for a long time and said in a calm voice, «Alice, given your heredity, do you realize that the situation is… mmm… grave?»

«I do.»

«You need two surgeries. A simple one, then we’ll wait for the results, then the second one.»

«Why not only the second one?»

«Because the volume of the second surgery depends on the results of the first. I won’t operate on you blindly. If the results of the first one are bad, then… well, you know…»

Alice sighed and nodded obediently, «Okay. But if the results of the first surgery are good, will the results of the second one be also good?»

«50 to 50,» the Surgeon suddenly looked at Alice in a strange way and asked, «But why? Why did you suddenly go to the doctor? Did you feel something?»

Alice nodded. The Surgeon opened her diary.

«The nearest I can offer you, since we can’t delay it… The first surgery on June 28, in a week… and the second one, given that the results will come no sooner than in 2 weeks… I have only two available dates left before my vacation — on the 17th or the 18th of July. Which date do you like best?» the Surgeon asked suddenly, as if she believed in all sorts of numerology or something supernatural that could help Alice.

«On the 17th,» Alice answered automatically with a kind of hopeless doom.

White looked at the Surgeon’s guardian in shock, «Bro, but why not on the 23rd?!»

The guardian of the Surgeon had no time to answer, since the Heavenly Guards appeared in the office. One of them, opening the astral scroll, announced in a loud voice, «White… in the Name of the Law, we are here to announce the decision of the Heavenly Court to you. «Due to the discovery of a violation of the decision of the Head of the Council for Life and Death, dated April 6th of the current year in the earthly chronology, regarding the issuance of a permission for a falsification in the medical laboratory, Alice’s Guardian is removed from his ward and is subject to imprisonment in the Dungeon of the 12th House until July 21st inclusive. Not subject to appeal’.»

White darkened. Yes, he had foreseen the situation, but had hoped that justice would have reached him a little later. The guardian of the Surgeon clapped White on the wing, «Go, bro. I’ve heard you. I’ll try to help!»

«White,» said the second guard sadly, «don’t forget that you have the right to say your last parting word to your ward.»

White turned to Alice and shouted at the top of his energy, «TRANSITS!!!»