A story based on real events.
The sunbeam touched Andrey's face, forcing him to wake up and look at his watch. There was still enough time before the start of the working day, and he plunged into a half-drowsy state, in which he seemed to be still asleep, but at the same time indulged in some reflections. Today, for some reason, I thought about the correct choice of profession, while the role of parents was not visible here. After school, Andrei entered the astronomy department of the university. Maybe it was an accident, and only a gust of dreams brought him here? He himself did not think so at all, preferring to avoid a direct answer to the question of why he went to astronomer. Back in the 9th grade, he learned about the Soviet astronomer Nikolai Aleksandrovich Kozyrev, read with interest his arguments about the nature of time, even wrote down some of his thoughts in a notebook, which then, as if by themselves,fixed in his mind: “Time is a fundamental and at the same time the most mysterious property of nature. The idea of time suppresses our imagination. It is not for nothing that speculative attempts to understand the essence of time have been unsuccessful. " For himself, Andrei just considered these thoughts to be decisive in choosing a profession. However, it was time to return to reality, he got out of bed and quickly dressed. The usual day-to-day work, which he did while undergoing internship at this observatory, was ahead; he should regularly take photographs of the sun, this was his main task for every day. The weather allowed us to do this constantly, because the observatory was located in the mountains. After completing the necessary procedures and receiving photographs, Andrey realized that he had accidentally changed the telescope setting, because usually the Sun occupied almost the entire area of the photographic paper,and here the image was much smaller, being closer to the middle of the sheet. Looking at one of the photographs, he was slightly taken aback; two translucent human palms were visible near the Sun, and this was not at all a play of light and shadows. In order not to violate the established order, Andrey took the "correct" photographs, and kept the incomprehensible one. The next day, he deliberately changed the setting, the palms were again visible in the photo, while they were undoubtedly male. However, in all subsequent days until the end of the practice, only the heavenly body looked at him impassively from the pictures. His reaction to cryptic photographs has been best defined as disturbing curiosity. Curiosity is understandable, but why disturbing? Andrey intuitively guessed that he saw something that lies above human understanding,and he has never encountered anything like it. He did not show these photographs to anyone, he carefully packed them and put them on the bottom of his travel bag.
***
Andrei Nikolayevich climbed the high steps into the sleeping car and entered the compartment, where his fellow traveler seemed to be waiting for him, an ordinary-looking man, although not quite clear in age. Usually, in such cases, the set of common topics for conversation between two mature men did not differ much, but here it turned out differently. Their conversation by itself immediately entered the mainstream of the worldview positions of everyone, which suited Andrei Nikolaevich very much. It was easy to have a conversation with a fellow traveler, who called himself Vladimir Evgenievich, because he did not crave an argument at all, but simply expressed his point of view, taking into account the position of the interlocutor. As Andrei Nikolaevich understood, this was not a tribute to politeness, but the natural style of his communication. Somehow, by itself, the idea arose to tell the very story of thirty years ago about the mysterious photographs of the Sun. When he began to narrate and came to the point of describing the image, the fellow traveler suddenly interrupted him: "Wait, let me try to guess what you saw." The meaning of these words did not immediately reach Andrei Nikolaevich, therefore he asked again: "Excuse me, how can I guess?" “Imagine, I have my own guess on this matter” was the answer. “Well, try it,” he replied, confused.
- I think that in the picture the Sun was between the palms. You see, I have reason to believe that these were my palms. A couple of years ago, without a specific goal, I practiced some mental exercises facing the sun;
- But photographs are already 30 years old;
- Eastern philosophy claims that the past, present and future exist simultaneously;
- Maybe so, you will agree, however, that it is difficult for the human mind to perceive such things. Although here Shakespeare immediately comes to mind "And in the sky and in the earth there is more hidden than your wisdom dreams, Horatio";
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- That's it. I would like to add that I did my mental exercises for a relatively short time, I had to stop. Do you know why? Without going into unnecessary details, you can figuratively answer as follows: the Sun itself determined how long I can turn my mind's eye to it;
- The question arises by itself whether it is possible to call this our meeting accidental?
- It is generally accepted that accidents are manifestations of laws unknown to us.
- Let me ask you, do you have many friends?
- I can say that, as far back as I can remember, I have not rejected anyone, so it will be in the future, but I am a largely self-sufficient person and today friendship for me is rather a general concept, but I am interested in people who think in a similar way and, as a result, have somewhat similar aspirations. At the same time, do not forget the saying “I am a human being and nothing human is alien to me”, this is about me too”.
During the conversation, time flashed quickly, Vladimir Evgenievich prepared to leave at his station. Saying goodbye, he said: “I always try not to speak in riddles, but my words may not be entirely clear to you. Let the story with photographs of the Sun be food for your mind and spirit. I am sure, if you wish, with time, you will certainly understand the meaning of my wish. Looking after his fellow traveler, Andrey Nikolaevich suddenly had a stable feeling that in the future they would definitely meet. In any case, he really wanted to.
Author: Eugene