LITMIR.BIZ

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was dark and stuffy, and a lot of people who were talking among themselves went inside. Vadim sat down with a thin man who took a paper bag on his lap. He looked unhealthy, and when the bus started moving under the voice of the guide, who was talking about local places, Vadim realized what was the matter. This man began to feel sick and he threw out all the contents of his stomach into a bag. Vadim had to look at it, and when his eyes failed him, he continued to listen to the muffled moans of his neighbor.

      Vadim did not listen to the guide’s chatter, but simply watched the cars that passed next to the bus or paid attention to houses with interesting architecture. Soon they arrived at the ferry. A pleasant wind blew in my face, bringing with it the smell of water, wet stones and, it seems, boiled corn. A ship was slowly rocking at the dock. It was a large-sized liner with a deckhouse at the very top, it was built recently and although it has already managed to make several voyages, this route was built specifically for this newest liner and now it will set off for the first time on a new course.

      The liner itself matched its proud name, which was emblazoned on it – «Columbia». Its engine was hidden by the hull of the ship, but the propellers were visible from the outside and even the black water did not hide them. The captain and a sailor were standing at the gangplank, the captain was smoking a pipe and wiggling his mustache when he checked the passengers’ tickets. His tokens glowed in the sun. The sailor was standing next to him, his hands folded behind his back and his youthful chest puffed out. He looked to be twenty-two, and the stubble was already visible on his face. Vadim looked at him with invisible envy, because he could also be an ordinary sailor and surf the seas and oceans like pirates from books.

      The ladder creaked under Vadim’s feet, and his eyes looked into the foaming abyss. Moss and algae grew on the stones of the pier. The ship was rocking on the waves, and Vadim almost fell, leaning on the railing. Lifebuoys hung on the walls of the ship, the clear glass of the portholes sparkled. All the doors were open, but thick and heavy. Ropes rested on the floor, and an anchor lay hidden from all eyes overboard. There was a swimming pool on the ship, and there were sun loungers nearby. The sailors walked around the deck and washed the floor, or went about their other business. On the ground floor there was a technical compartment under the floor, already higher on the second floor there were cabins and rooms for entertaining people, for example, a private mini-bar. When the captain checked all the tickets, he walked slowly to the control room, accompanied by that young man. There were a lot of people on board, the wheels of their suitcases beat a drum on the deck, speech flowed in a stream from human lips.

      Chapter five. The crash

      Vadim felt strange when he heard the words of strangers, he sometimes caught short glances at himself. Gulls screamed nearby and small fish splashed. A sheaf of smoke and a loud sound erupted from a large pipe, which deafened Vadim’s sensitive ears. The ship began to shake a little and slowly sway from the waves. Under the propeller, the water foamed and bubbled, leaving a barely visible trace, which immediately disappeared under the strong current of the sea.

      Vadim wandered around the ship a little with an important look. He looked into the rooms and immediately jumped out as if scalded, because it was not that room. Soon his legs began to ache, and he was found by a young man whom he met at the pier.

      – Hello, can I help you? – he asked, he had a dark, tanned face.

      – Yes, I can’t find my cabin, – said Vadim, shaking someone else’s hand.

      He gave his ticket to the young man, and he just whistled. Soon he took Vadim almost all over the ship and still brought him to the right place. Vadim cursed the huge ships with its slippery floors, in which you can almost see your reflection. The young man turned out to be pleasant in communication, he is twenty-two, a native of Russia and his name is Rodion. Rodion was young, but he thought sensibly, the main thing was to find time to read this or that book during such voyages. Vadim told him that he also dreamed of becoming a sailor, also to surf the seas, oceans, but eventually became an ordinary teacher, of an average rate.

      «Here’s your cabin,» Rodion smiled.

      – Thank you, can we talk again sometime? Vadim asked, putting his briefcase on the bed.

      «I’ll be right there when I’m free, sir,» the young man said and left.

      Vadim has never spent time as pleasantly as he does now. It seemed that with this man he could talk for a long time about geography and the sea. Rodion loved water, loved its charms, but not like Vadim, he did not burn with it so that the water evaporated in his stomach, but addressed «You», albeit with a warm feeling. Vadim could feel it and understand, he is such a person.

      His cabin was small, with its own toilet and bathroom. There was a small TV, a bed, neatly made, a table, a chair, a refrigerator and a bedside table. His cabin opened directly onto the deck, where water splashed and people walked. A small window looked out into the ocean. Vadim could only dream of such a thing. Despite the good audibility of what is happening around, but Vadim peacefully fell asleep under this noise, he was rocked by the waves themselves and the sounds of splashing water, the motor, which was supposed to be hiding under the skin somewhere nearby.

      Vadim would never have thought that he would leave his room so often. Usually, he hid in his dusty apartment, but now he generally forgot that he had a cabin, he lived on deck. I was sitting on the floor, sunbathing next to the pool and looking far beyond the railing of the ship, where the ocean depths hid fish and their predators.

      Rodion sometimes came to talk to him, even though Vadim was almost his father, they behaved like brothers or friends. Vadim had nothing to tell from his life, even if the life of a street kid was very eventful, but Rodion was only amused by such closeness of a friend and always told a story from life himself. It seemed to Vadim that he had begun to live again, all his life since the age of nine he had existed as if in prostration, in another world, and when he found himself on this ship, began to breathe this sea air and hear the sound of the surf, then he came to life, as if he had been awakened from a very deep sleep. For this he was grateful to Rodion, and when they sailed for the third day in the Atlantic Sea, he told a little about himself. Previously, the young man knew a small part of Vadim’s personality, this young man did not know more than the stomach of a man who was always looking into the ocean with childish, wet eyes.

      – I liked to climb the neighbor’s apple trees and eat them, although my father flogged me, but the apples were worth my sacrifice, – he jokingly told. – And how was your childhood Rodion Mikhailovich?

      – My father was not so cruel, I was punished once for painting the walls with paints, – Rodion thought a little, as if he was taking this memory out of a drawer.

      – I lived in the Tver region, we somehow coped with our needs, – the smile disappeared from Vadim’s lips. – my father was always angry because of this, he almost drooled when he passionately covered Kazakhstan, Ukraine and other countries with obscenities.

      – Yes, I remember, my father was born in 1951, during the Soviet era, so to speak, and always told me that in fact the Russian people lived in poverty while our government tore their hair for foreign countries so that they could live well, but it wasn’t enough for them.

      Vadim and Rodion talked about it with annoyance and sadness in their eyes, even though Rodion did not have time to catch those times normally, but he spoke about them with childish love. And in the evening of that day, Vadim Alexandrovich and Rodion Mikhailovich decided to take a picture for memory. Surprisingly, even though many years have passed and what the heroes have not experienced, it turned out that this photo still remains.

      Photo of Vadim Alexandrovich and Rodion Mikhailovich on the liner «Columbia» on the first day of the trip

      For three days, Vadim tanned a little in the sun while swimming in the pool. The people on the ship were pleasant and not conflicted, but there was little to talk about with

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