3 Light Hearted Secrets



  3

  LIGHT HEARTED SECRETS

  by

  Alexander. Kalinkin

  * * * * *

  PUBLISHED BY:

  3

  Light Hearted Secrets

  Copyright 2011 by Alexander Kalinkin

  * * * * *

  CONTENTS:

  A Wooden Cat's Secret

  A Lucky Card's Secret

  A Starry Secret

  * * * * *

  A WOODEN CAT'S SECRET

  Electric light was already on. In front of a curtained window, a young woman, dressed in an evening gown, was typing something at her laptop. She had blonde hair with a wispy fringe. Her round face looked serious; eyes were focused on the screen. From time to time she glanced at a sheet of paper lying upon a pile of other similar papers.

  Somewhere inside the apartment, a childish chirp was sounding. The chirp became louder and louder until it suddenly ceased. Quick steps ran across a corridor and stopped at the doorway.

  The woman turned to Lily, a six-year-old girl with big gray eyes and long golden hair.

  She smiled at the daughter and said: “Hi, sweetheart! Are you playing?”

  “Look at this dress, mum!” the girl said, running up to the woman and showing a small doll. “Do you like it?”

  “What a lovely dress! Where have you got this, Lily?”

  “I’ve made it by myself!” the girl answered proudly.

  “How?” mum asked with an anxious look. “Where have you taken a needle?”

  “Needle? I have not taken them, mum.”

  Now the woman noticed that the doll was just wrapped in a piece of colorful cloth. The anxiety vanished. Her eyes returned to the computer screen. Lily looked there too.

  “I’ve got some work to do… So… Please, wait for a little while. Ok?” the woman said.

  Lily nodded.

  “This report should be done till tomorrow, but I… Er-r… I simply gotta finish it.”

  “Re-port,” Lily pronounced the new word.

  “Sweetheart, play for ten minutes, and I’ll come.”

  The girl suddenly frowned and asked: “Mum, why have you quarreled with daddy?”

  The woman sighed and glanced away.

  “Lily, please, go to your room. I gotta finish my work today. I’ll be soon. I promise.”

  Lilly walked up to an elegant dresser, where many china figures stood on a shelf. Among the figures, there was a wooden Siamese cat. It had funny green round eyes. The wood color had been chosen so nice that it looked completely natural without any paint. The girl touched the cat with her tiny finger and asked: “Daddy presented you this cat, didn’t he?”

  The woman turned to her and cast a glance at the shelf. “Oh, yeah, on Valentine Day.”

  Lily tenderly took the figure. “Mum, who was that Valentine?”

  “May I work a bit?” the woman began to irritate.

  “May I play with this cat?” the girl asked.

  “Of course, you may,” mum said and again started typing her report.

  The girl clutched the wooden cat and ran away from the room.

  * * * * *

  The woman kept typing the valuable report in the silence. However, after some minutes, a quick patter of tiny feet sounded in the corridor again. The girl showed up on the threshold. One of her hands held the cat’s head, another - the cat's body with a small piece of paper that jutted out from it. The woman angrily turned to scold her daughter, but her look stopped on that piece of paper. She stood up and confusingly stared at Lily.

  “Oh, my Gosh! What have you done? What for?”

  Lily dropped her eyes guiltily and quietly said: “I've just tried to dress her up and… and pulled the head.”

  Mum took the cat's body, drew out the note and sat down on a sofa. The girl carefully approached her.

  “Is it daddy’s?” Lily asked.

  “Yeah,” the woman answered, unrolling the note.

  Lily wanted to see mum’s eyes, but she averted them.

  “Have you read it before?” the girl asked.

  Mum sighed and suddenly got sad: “Lily, where is the head?”

  The girl passed the cat's head to mum. The woman stood up and slowly walked to the table, assembling the figure. Lilly followed her with a curious look.

  * * * * *

  The bright morning light penetrated through curtains of the nursery. Here and there, toys were scattered on the floor. The little girl was soundly sleeping in her bed in the corner. A blanket covered her head almost up to the eyelashes. Now the eyelashes moved, revealing two big curious eyes. Lily heard mum's muffled voice in the corridor. Mum was speaking to somebody by the phone. Lilly propped herself up on her elbow and smiled as she heard.

  “No, I’m not angry about that at all. Yes. I. I just love you,” mum was speaking.

  The girl got up and tiptoed to the door.

  “Of course,” mum was saying, “Come. Lily misses you too. Yeah, you know… What? When? Today? Sure! Yes, come. We’ll be waiting for you.”

  Lily opened the door. Mum smiled. Two teardrops sparkled on her cheeks.

  A LUCKY CARD'S SECRET

 

  Chances are the keys for God's melodies…

 

  "You feel not free. Somebody messes around your way. But it is all going to change. Look at this card,” the voice of a man was calm as candle's flame. Even though his eyes were shadowed - he was looking at her. She sensed it with all her being.

  "See, the third party is coming in. It's your liberator. He's coming soon."

  "And when is it going to be?" a young woman asked trembling.

  "I may not know this card layout can only tell about the general state of your affairs".

  Her long eyelashes moved down as if she was afraid of losing the spark of a hope she had been presented.

  The silence broke into myriad of uplifting piano chords. The next room got livened up with voices. Jennie's face lightened at the sounds: "George! This is George!"

  "Yeah, yeah, sure," said Nick as if he just came around.

  * * * * *

  A minute later they entered the room, filled with music. The arms waved up in greetings. Smiles touched the faces and lively eyes burnt them.

  "Where is your friend?" Nick asked her

  "Oh, he's so busy today," Jennie answered quickly and averted her eyes.

  The taciturn George got tired of the talks behind the back. He winked to the listening public and suddenly started pounding some old tune. Nobody could stand anymore - even the modest ones turned to dancing. The piano roared with jazz riffs and then with disco. George's fingers were making some fantastic pirouettes over the keys. It was a real piano-powered disco-ball!

  * * * * *

  The street had already gotten dark. The city put on its evening suite with pearls of streetlights. The downy snowflakes were gliding solemnly across the misty black silk of the sky.

  Jennie looked into Nick's eyes: "Are you going to see me home? It's not far."

  "There's nothing to talk about. Of course, I am."

  She took him by the hand.

  "What do you think of the evening?"

  "Well, George’s been really something tonight, he has made the best he could! I mean how could I know I was going to dance?"

  "I also couldn't imagine that one may play piano like that".

  The wind whirled snow curtain up, pouring lonely passers-by with snowflakes. The talk was moving easily and smoothly seemingly about nothing. For the moment Jennie thought there was not anything like time, no cozy home, no noisy buddies, just this evening snowflakes, she and Nick.

  Suddenly their legs slipped over the ice, the ground rocked, and, at the next in
stant, they found themselves lying on the snow. His face was so close. His eyes, a funny snow-covered moustache, and his lips... She moved closer, and a kiss burnt her with tenderness.

  "So he came," she said in a whisper.

  A STARRY SECRET

  Do you know that sometimes the stars cry? Yes, they're crying because of that ice sense of loneliness and no one can help them. They're so far from us...

  The brass band played a waltz in the blossoming spring orchard. The night lit her twinkling candles. The shadows of the trees whirled to the music and the dancing couples were only a theme of the fascinating melody...

  A merry fountain scattered golden splashes. Little drops fell on the gentle petals of the roses, and the petals started slightly...

  “Princess, do you write poems?”

  She looked up at the gray eyes of the stranger.

  “Yes, but why are you asking me that?”

  “I knew. I simply wanted to listen your voice.”

  “But... how could you know?”

  “I know because I read them in your charming features...”

  She averted her gaze... The fountain dropped its sparkling diamonds and the night stared down at the world through the eyes of distant stars.

  "Where are you from? I have never seen you at our balls before."

  The gray-eyed became sad, but just a little.

  "I can't tell you. However you will know it soon. Let's talk about your poems."

  She scorched him with a fire glance. And then... he started to read her poems, one after another with his mellow voice:

  "Dawn creeps along a path,

  Touching gently slumbering buds

  Of the dreamy flowers..."

  There was astonishment in the Princess' eyes. She had written this line that morning!

  “I'm sorry, Princess. I have to go. We'll see each other a little later, and you'll understand me...”

  He bowed, kissed her slender fingers and melted away quietly among the shadows of the trees...

  * * * * *

  Some days passed after that ball. The Princess would remember the gray-eyed guest. He became a mystical riddle for her. She started to write poems every day. Inspiration would come very easily when the enigmatic image of the stranger revived in her agitated mind. These were poems about Love, about the beauty of the orchard and flowers... Everything turned into light-winged lines of her poetry in the twinkling of an eye.

  One day she got up and heard the rustle of the rain outside. The Princess opened the window and the waft of the flowers' aromas and morning freshness overwhelmed her. She stretched her arms towards the rain. The drops were pleasantly warm. The summer sunrays were gliding through their silver-clear threads. The whole orchard looked as though it was painted in watercolors.

  “Good Morning, Princess!” She heard a familiar mellow voice. She looked around, but there was nobody there.

  Suddenly, she noticed a bright flash above the trees. It shone like a sun-speckle. It approached. Soon she could see a shining white steed that was soaring on his long brilliant wings and was hovering above the orchard. He flew so easily! It seemed like an illusion, like a trick of the sun's rays. He flew up to Princess and stopped.

  "Good Morning, Princess!" he repeated, looking at her amazed eyes. "Jump up on my back and I can show you this beautiful rain!"

  "But you... you have been a young man," she whispered.

  "Yes, I have... Once a year God allows us Pegasuses to turn into a human image... But it's only once a year."

  She caressed his white mane. It didn't seem wet. It was as if beams flowed down from his hair.

  "And only one day," he awkwardly broke his speech and looked at her. "Princess, let's fly away! I want to show you this world and I promise I'll tell you everything. Let's fly!"

  She smiled tenderly and jumped onto his back lightly. The warm sunny rain enveloped her in the golden cloud. Drops covered her hair with pearls. Pegasus started to glide like a shining arrow through the foliage that was decorated with a silvery fringe. The flowers seemed like one fragrant river. Pegasus and Princess flitted among the morning orchard, enjoying the play of the rays and the thrilling aromas of the flowers.

  The sun was high when they stopped on the shore of a small lake. Golden drops fell from the inclined branches of a weeping willow.

  "You promised me you'd tell me about yourself"

  "Yes, Princess. I'll tell you. We ,Pegasuses, live where there is the harmony of images created by humans. We can live only in the beauty of this world created by you, by people. We like bees gather grains of beauty and carry them up to God. So He allows us to be people for a little... That time I gathered enough grains for visiting of your wonderful ball. What a ball it was! Ah, Princess!"

  "I'll give you so much beauty, you will have human form for a long time!"

  "Princess, you're very kind to me," Pegasus turned and looked into the distance. "Please, look on the stars tonight."

  "I always love looking at the stars," Princess answered ardently.

  "There is my own star over there. You will know it easily. Look at it and it will give you something that the peoples couldn't say..."

  "Well. I' will. And you... Will you return again?" She stared at his sad gray eyes.

  "Yes, Princess. I'll return," he went aside with these words and stretched out his mighty white wings. "I'll return, Princess!"

  The bright ray in the shape of a flying steed was moved away from the shore and was melted into the impeccable blueness of the sky.

  Princess stood on the shore of the lake for a long time, and then went pensively to her palace by an orchard's path. A panting old servant met her by the main entrance.

  "Oh, Princess! How good you're here! We ran our feet off seeking you... Your breakfast has gotten cold already..."

  "Yes, maybe you're right," the girl answered absently and entered the hall.

  * * * * *

  All day she tried to write poems, but it was in vain. Her thoughts stumbled, losing in the bright remembrance of the day's magical morning.

  "Pegasus. O, my God! I thought they lived only in fairy tales," Princess whispered.

  The night found her by the writing-table. A heap of torn papers lay near. The stars lit on the black silk of the sky. The tired girl went to the opened window. Her glance stopped on a small distant star. It was shimmering high directly above the orchard. The light of the star was unusual - it was gleaming and playing with its rays. And there was some music in this play. Princess gazed at that strange star...Empty words like little pieces of a picture began to whirl and after some seconds composed into an elegant tracery of a poem...

  "These words… They are not mine... They are his... It's his poem!" the girl exclaimed.

  But the star started shimmering with a new melody. Princess picked up a pen and wrote down the first line...

  She fell asleep only in the morning. She slept right on the sheets of paper. The pen stopped in the embrace of her delicate fingers.

  The king was alarmed, but after a day's sleep Princess became as nice as before, and he felt at ease when he saw his happy daughter again.

  One night flew after another. Princess would write poems. Many people in the kingdom copied them and read them to each other, because they gave some unusual sense of joy...

  * * * * *

  A year passed. One evening, at dinner, Princess met him again. The dinner had finished already when the door opened and he entered the hall. He was dressed as a servant, but Princess knew his kind gray eyes. She got up from the table and smiled at him. The King looked at her severely: "What does it matter, honey? This is just our new servant."

  Princess sat down, still gazing at the new servant's face.

  She didn't know his name. The new servant also looked at her.

  Just after dinner, the King called the majordomo to his room. The King was angry:

  "I don't want to see that new servant. He'll have to be dismissed from our palace right away." r />
  "Yes, Your Majesty. You won't see him anymore."

  The majordomo bowed low and went out. He ordered the new servant to be called. But... after some time, the guard reported that the new servant was gone. The other news was more terrible - Princess was gone too.

  It was getting dark already. All the guards rushed to seek the fugitives. The servants were running with torches across the garden now here, now there. The King was sitting on a balcony and was peering into this anxious night. Sometimes one of the guard officers came up to him and reported the next failure of his troop. It seemed like they had simply vanished.

  Suddenly, a bright flash lit up the surface of the remote lake. The King even blinked and after a minute he could discern a shining winged steed that flew up above the orchard. Princess sat on his back, nestling up to his streaming radiant mane.

  "Look up! This is a real Pegasus!" the people shouted everywhere.

  Pegasus, along with his beautiful rider, made a circle above the alarmed orchard and flashed by the balcony where the astonished and scared King was sitting.

  "I'll come back, daddy!" Princess shouted.

  They gained height flying away to the distant star that played mysteriously with its rays...

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Alexander Kalinkin is a writer, a poet and a Russian-English translator. Some of his works were published in small press of USA and Russia. Alexander also writes screenplays for animation films (co-author of series "The World Picture Gallery with Aunt Owl", "African Savanna Stories" and "Lessons of Wild Life" were aired on TV channels of Russia, Ukraine, Poland and some other countries).

  For more information, you may visit:

  His web-site "Fairy Tales for Everyone": https://fairy.bchost.com/

  LinkedIn: https://ru.linkedin.com/in/akalinkin