Many children at an early age acquire some kind of imaginary friend who gives them advice, consoles, or, on the contrary, incites them to pranks. He's not necessarily evil, like in 1991's Bad Fred or 2011's Paranormal Activity 3, in which Christie has a demonic Toby. For example, I had an uncle Seryozha, for some reason one-armed. When my parents punished me, he would stand with me in a corner and say that he was taking the punishment upon himself, and at this time I could go somewhere mentally - in other words, dream.
Hit him with a hammer
From the age of two, Pavlik, a little boy, with whom he shared his plans and hopes, became a virtual friend of Nikolai Andronovich Petush. I liked communicating with Pavlik more than with peers. And Kolenka often refused to join the kids walking in the yard or retired in kindergarten or school.
Sometimes, when he was very young and did not know how to hide emotions, he was caught at the moment when he rolled his friend in a wheelchair or talked to him.
- Who do you communicate with? - asked the teacher, going up to the kid who was playing away from everyone.
- With Pavlik, - answered the boy. - This is my best friend.
- Where? The woman looked around. “There's no one here.
Promotional video:
- And I see, - insisted Kolenka. - But he only comes to me. Because he's mine.
In the end, the parents were told about the oddities of the child, and they were seriously scared. To such an extent that they even took their six-year-old son to a psychiatrist who was taking him in the area of the Zaporozhye highway.
The latter, having sat Kolya on the sofa, began to ask him strange questions like:
- Tell me, what is the difference between a house wall and a fence?
- The fact that a fence without a roof, not insulated, may not be solid, can be made not only of stone, but of iron, wood or ceramics, - a kindergartner, developed beyond his years, began to list the signs of difference.
“The answer is wrong,” the psychiatrist shook his head and asked the following sly question.
- What is shown in this picture? - and held out an illustration with a white swan.
“Swan,” Kolya said the obvious.
- Wrong again, - the psychiatrist threw up his hands.
And when Kolya, having made up his mind, asked "why?", He explained:
- Because if you turn it upside down, then we get a brontosaurus at the watering hole, - and winked.
It remained unclear whether he was joking or whether he himself was a little "peek".
And then, without any transitions, he suddenly asked:
- Is your friend next to you now?
- Yes, - Kolya admitted honestly. - Just not quite close. He's kind of inside.
- Does he tell you the answers?
- Not always.
- Can you ask him about something?
- I can.
- And ask?
- Also.
“Then ask him,” the psychiatrist whispered ominously, leaning towards Kolya’s face, “to get the hell out of your head. And if it appears again, then hit it with a hammer. Like this, - and showed Kolya his hammer, which he had used to tap his knees.
- But he does nothing bad to me, - Kolenka tried to move away from him. - We are interested in each other.
- He will, - promised the psychiatrist, - because if he does not disappear, then through his fault you will end up there, - and he pointed to the closed iron doors. - You don't want this, do you?
Kolya shook his head and realized that telling the truth was not at all necessary, which meant that he would no longer tell anyone about Pavlik. The doctor prescribed some pills, massage, gymnastics, and when, after some time, Kolya was asked again if he saw his imaginary friend, he shook his head and decisively lied: "No".
It seemed to him that by this he betrayed his friend to some extent, but there was no other way out. Otherwise, as he understood, they would not have detached themselves from him.
Parting
And Pavlik really disappeared - either he was offended, or entered the position of his material friend. Appeared only occasionally, then at night before going to bed, then during illness or during periods of especially oppressive mood. But at the same time he did not say anything, but only silently and sadly stood nearby and looked. Every year his parishes became more rare and short-lived, and his appearance became elusive.
Meanwhile, Kolya graduated from school, entered the university at the Faculty of Psychology (such an influence was exerted on him by the old psychiatrist with his tricky questions), and after graduation he got married. Before the wedding, going to bed, he unexpectedly saw next to him on the pillow the head of the long-lost Pavlik (his body, perhaps, was hiding under the sheets, since it was not visible - or maybe it was not at all). Moving its lips, the head said: "Congratulations, but you will not find happiness in marriage."
Nikolai held out his hand to Pavlik's head, but felt only emptiness. Raising himself on his elbows, he realized that he was taking the puffy edge of the pillow for his head.
However, the spoken pseudo-head words, oddly enough, came true. Nicholas’s married life did not bring either happiness or peace. After several miscarriages, doctors diagnosed his wife as infertile. Nadezhda became more and more grumpy, began to kiss the bottle, and then completely change. In the end, they had to divorce, splitting the parental apartment in half. In the "odnushka" she received in exchange, Nadia was soon killed by drinking companions who did not share her body. Immediately after the divorce of Nikolai and Nadezhda, his parents also died, having got into an accident and taking a simultaneous death. And Nikolai devoted himself entirely to work.
The second time he was able to tie the knot of Hymen, he was only 45 years old. And this was the last time he saw Pavlik in a dream: he was climbing up with the words "Good luck." For some reason, it became sad and uncomfortable. And then family life captured him headlong. A year later, his wife gave him twin girls - Vera and Nastya, who completely supplanted their virtual friend. Pavlik was forever forgotten.
Wind in the registry office
Years passed. Nikolai retired, the girls grew up and in turn started families. And once the old virtual friend returned to his life, but in a different form.
Making out documents for a dacha with outbuildings, Nikolai Andronovich was faced with the fact that his patronymic in the garden documents, recorded by his parents, did not correspond to his passport. More precisely, they differed in spelling (in the documentation of the gardening partnership he was called "Antonovich"). To correct the record, an extract from the registry office was required (since the birth metric was lost somewhere).
Nikolai filed an application with the local office of the civil registry office. And a week later he came for help.
- Cock? - the employee in the room with the inscription "Archive" looked at him, leafing through the Talmud of the corresponding year.
Nikolai Andronovich nodded. Having found the desired surname and holding her finger on it, the employee clarified:
- Pavel or Nikolai?
“Nikolai,” the petitioner answered automatically. And then he caught himself:
- What did you say? Which Paul? This was not the case in our family.
“It turns out that your parents didn’t tell you,” the girl shrugged.
- What didn't you say? - Nikolay tried to find out and, faced with the alienated gaze of the archivist, began to explain. “You see, they died long ago, so they won't tell anyone else. And I need to know, please. It is important.
- Actually, we have no right to give such information, - the employee pulled rubber, - unless as an exception.
After that, hesitating, she said that Nikolai Andronovich had a twin brother named Pavel, who died a month after his birth. Information about him is available in the record book.
- What happened to him? - stammered petitioner.
- I do not know this. Maybe the hospital could tell if you had applied earlier, since the documents are stored there for no more than 25 years. So, alas, you are late.
Going out into the street, Nikolai Andronovich put his hot face up to the cold gusts of the autumn wind. It became clear why the parents at one time were so frightened when they learned that their son's imaginary friend was called Pavlik - after all, they had never told him about anything.
Walking along the Embankment, Nikolai thought about where Pavlik was buried and whether he was buried at all, or whether his body was given to the hospital after his sudden death. Maybe that's why he appeared to his brother because his spirit remained restless and continued its existence in the consciousness of the twin in the form of a phantom? And where, I wonder, in that case, is he now? The answer to this question was not known to anyone. And only in the howling of the wind that drove dry brittle leaves along the ground, the groans of all those who were not born and did not survive seemed to be heard.