When Larissa, as always. left home for another lesson in English, she did not even imagine that she would never reach her destination. Anyway - today.
A private tutor's job involves communicating with many people. Here I am - giving lessons, helping to improve the level of English and French. Among my students there are both children and adults, with an established life and a well-established psyche. The following story happened to one of these adult students of mine.
Larisa looks about 30 years old, and perhaps a little more. But I understand, didn't ask her, it's none of my business. Usually she herself comes to my classes at the appointed time. I must say right away that I value my time, it feeds me, and therefore I usually ask my students to warn in advance if for some reason they want to cancel the lesson. I never had any problems with this lady, she was always responsible and very punctual. Therefore, when one day she did not appear at the appointed hour and did not call that she would not come, I was very surprised.
I waited 10 minutes and decided to dial her number myself. There were no beeps, instead the automatic dispatcher answered and informed me that the dialed number did not exist. I thought that I had obviously mixed something up, checked all the numbers again and dialed the number again - the answer was the same. What should I have thought? I decided that there was some kind of communication failure. However, I did not have time to think about this for a long time, I had other things that I decided to do.
However, I failed. About half an hour later, a bell rang at my door, and then a desperate knock. In complete bewilderment, I first looked through the peephole, and then opened the door - Larisa was standing on the threshold. But God, in what form she was! Always well-groomed and carefully painted, the woman now looked like a wet, dirty, battered dog. The make-up was smudged, there were black circles under my eyes from leaked mascara, my hair hung like wet icicles. But the worst thing was her gaze - completely hunted and almost insane. Of course, I was scared, it seemed to me that Larissa really went crazy. Moreover, having entered my hallway, she sank as if she was right on the floor, stared at me with furious eyes and asked an incomprehensible question:
- Are you really real or am I dreaming?
To be honest, I didn't know what to answer her. What would you answer in my place? It can be seen that my face has perceptibly changed, the corresponding emotions were written on it, because Larisa suddenly lowered her eyes and burst into tears.
I gently touched her shoulder. I managed to persuade her to get up off the floor and take her to the bathroom. There she washed her hair, combed her hair, and when she came out to me, she already gave the impression of an almost calmed person. I took her to the kitchen and poured some tea. What she told me struck me to the depths of my soul, I still cannot understand whether it is possible to believe in this incredible story.
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So it was the most ordinary day. Our lesson was scheduled for its second half, in the morning Larissa got down to some business, and about an hour before the right time, got into the car and drove along the familiar road to my house. Larissa was driving automatically, so she thought about something and did not immediately notice that the area she was driving through was unfamiliar to her. She decided that she had accidentally missed the right turn, so she decided to use the navigator, but could not turn it on, the device flatly refused to work. Then she parked on the sidewalk, thought that she should ask a stranger for directions. I got out of the car and only then saw that there was not a single person on the street. In confusion, she looked around, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not see anyone. What was even stranger - there was not a single car around. Incredibleduring the day, there are practically no cars in the city center. And not only on the road, but even parked. The street was completely deserted.
After driving a little more, Larissa noticed some kind of establishment that seemed to her like a small cafe. She entered it, hoping that here she could find someone, but in vain - the small hall was also completely empty. Moreover, he looked as if he had been abandoned a long time ago - there was not just a layer of dust on the tables, on the bar counter, but it had already been compressed into perennial mud.
In complete bewilderment, Larissa again went out into the street. Nearby was, judging by its appearance, a residential building. The woman went to the entrance - the lock was rusted, the door was not locked. Inside, there was also complete desolation - the paint on the walls peeled off, debris, dirt, dust.
Larisa left the phone in the car, but when she returned, she found that there was no connection, the display showed the absence of a network. Here she was seized by panic. She got back behind the wheel, turned on the ignition, and pulled away.
The woman walked the streets for a long time, but everywhere the same picture was observed - the city seemed to have died out, the reception, judging by the way it looked, it happened many years ago. After a couple of hours, the gasoline ran out, she was tired and decided to stop to rest a little. She closed her eyes, leaned back in the seat and fell asleep imperceptibly. When I woke up, it was already completely dark around. In desperation, she got out of the car and decided to walk, again moved forward, when suddenly a spot of light flashed somewhere ahead. Rushing to him, she saw that it was a burning window on the third floor of a house. Larissa rushed there, opened the entrance door, began to climb the dark stairs, fell, hit her head and lost consciousness. When I woke up, I started ringing and pounding on the nearest door - so she was on the threshold of my apartment.
Of course, it was impossible to believe this story, but I saw the state of the woman sitting in front of me, so I understood that she was telling the pure truth. In addition, we had known each other for several days, and I knew Larisa as a completely sane, strong and self-confident person. I gave her clean clothes because she was in complete disarray and had to be washed, fed and put to bed. It was impossible to let her go alone in such a state, especially since she fell into a wild panic even when I just left the next room. In the morning I took her home - she kept looking around, as if she could not believe that there were real living people around her, cars were moving in the sunlight, in general, the city lives its usual life. She started to have a real hysteria.
The next day, Larisa decided to go to a psychiatrist, was examined, but no abnormalities were found in her. Since then, we have begun to communicate often, our relationship has grown into a rather close friendship. A few days later, Larisa's car was also found - she was parked on one of the city outskirts. And a little later I remembered that a few seconds before I opened the door and saw her on the threshold of my apartment, I received a message from the telephone operator that the subscriber was online again.
