Cказки Призраков. Tales of Ghosts. Премия им. Эдгара По / Edgar Poe Award (Билингва: Rus/Eng)

Сейчас ты успокоишься, и мы отправимся с тобой в Париж, ведь мы ещё никогда там не были вместе…

    июль 2002

6. A wish

We arrived at the river on Saturday morning. It was terribly stuffy, +34C, judging by the news. I could hardly stand the heat, thank God, we had air conditioning in the car.

«Life flows as fast as this river,» Nikolas said sadly, hugging me. «What else would you like to do in your life, Pauline?»

I squeezed my eyes shut, thinking, and he gently stroked me with a plucked blade of grass.

«To get to Paris with you!» I finally decided.

«It’s a must! But not today…»

«Okay, tomorrow!» I laughed.

We both had a lot to do with the city of lovers, but we had never been to Paris together, only separately and at different times.

«Maybe… Do you know what grandiose plans we have for today? Now we’ll swim, have lunch, then we’ll go for a walk in Kuskovo. „Giselle“ is waiting for us in the theater tonight, and then…»

I understood that the cultural program was caused by our Monday’s quarrel.

Nikolas wanted to make amends. I had already told him about Kuskovo not once, and he took his employees for «Giselle» to celebrate their company anniversary.

«So what then?» I wondered.

«And what do you want then?»

…Having visited the Kuskovo palace and the exhibition in the Orangerie, we listened to some fragment of a charity concert, and on the way to the Grotto, we stopped at the Italian house-museum.

«Drop in, you won’t regret it!» the hospitable hostess called us.

«The house is small but very cozy! I’ll tell you the riddle of the Count Sheremetev. If you guess it…»

We had to find three caterpillars hiding in the leaves on a small metal tree. I saw two of them at once, but the search for the third was hard. Finally, I found it too.

«Now make a wish! I assure you, whatever it is, it will definitely come true!» the woman promised, smiling.

«Then… we’ll be in Paris tomorrow,» I said in a serious voice and… laughed.

We reached the theater and found our seats, the 13

 and 14

 in the 6

 row. Such a dangerous combination of «6» and «13» didn’t bother me at all. That day seemed to be one of the happiest in my life!

Finally, we came to the old and long-empty flat where Nikolas’ parents had once lived.

We were greeted by an unbearable stuffiness, but Nikolas said it was better not to open the windows for conspiracy.