In the southern part of Tula, where the Voronka River begins, there was a recreation area during my youth. The famous Bridal Bridge stretched over the river. In the 1980s, the townspeople loved to relax on the banks of the river: a beautiful beach, a boat station, a nice cozy cafe. A good friend of mine, the cook Sergei, worked in it then.
It was an abnormally hot June, there were a lot of vacationers, and Sergei had to work tirelessly. On the day in question, the cafe was rented for a wedding. Having worked seven days a week for several shifts, Sergei did not feel tired at all, although he was on his feet from early morning. A wedding, albeit someone else's, is a positive event, and the guy was in high spirits all day.
From six o'clock in the evening until late at night, the wedding sang and danced. Only at half past four in the morning did the young people leave. There are very few people left in the cafe. Sergei took off his apron, grabbed his cigarettes and decided to walk to the river. He passed the boat station and headed for benches dug into the sand of the beach, five paces from the shoreline. It was very quiet.
Only sitting down on a bench, Sergei realized how tired he was. The river splashed at my feet and sighed. Sergei closed his eyes. The lighter that fell from his relaxed fingers hit a pebble under his foot. Leaning behind her, Sergei, with a peripheral vision, noticed a silhouette to his left.
Looking closer, the guy determined that a girl was sitting on the bench next to him. Her body was amazingly shining through a dark dress with long sleeves hanging down to the ground, blurred by an indistinct light, as happens when you throw a light fabric over the lampshade of a night lamp. Leaning slightly forward, resting her hands on her knees, with hair flowing along her back, she resembled a bird in her appearance, ready to take off.
Sergei was taken aback by the meeting and, unexpectedly for himself, suddenly asked Savely Kramarov with an intonation in the film "Gentlemen of Fortune":
- Girl, and girl! What is your name?
Promotional video:
He asked and immediately got scared of his own voice and the idiotic question.
The girl shuddered all over, stood up impulsively, took a couple of swift steps towards the river, waving her arms, as if she was about to jump into the water. Then she turned sharply and darted like a shadow towards the forest, into the thickets of bushes. The branches closed silently behind the stranger's back, only a wave of cold air washed over Sergei from head to toe.
All this happened in just a few seconds, and Sergei even shook his head to clarify his thoughts. And, not understanding why, he went to the place where the girl was sitting.
He ran his hand over the surface of the bench and felt that it was all wet and cold, as if it had been doused with ice water from a bucket. It also seemed to him that large scales adhered to his fingers.
The guy ran to the water and began to wash his hands furiously. Who was that? - pounded in his temples. - A mermaid? And such horror gripped Sergei that he overcame the whole way back to the cafe, probably in several jumps.
And then he looked at his hands for a long time under the light and sniffed at his palms. The guy thought he smelled of crushed fly agarics. And a few days later he told this story to me. And I - many years later - share it with you.
Elena Georgievna SANINA, Tula