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

Come in!»

Svetlana entered the room and looked around appraising. Everything was the same: luxury brand furniture, paintings by cool artists… Although… in a cage on the table by the window she noticed a small bird.

«I bought the canary not to feel lonely,» Artyom admitted.

«Aren’t you married?»

«Can’t married people feel lonely? My wife with kids enjoy the Canary Islands every summer. And how are you? I hope your new husband spends more time with you than I did.»

«No, imagine.

«What time makes of us! Back then, I thought you were too demanding. I wanted freedom. I suppose I didn’t know to love true yet. My second wife is ready to live without me for her own comfort. Now I wish she asked me, like you, to come home early, to walk with her in the park and go to the theater, but money is the only thing she is interested in… So life made me understand how much I had been mistaken… I would pay much to return to the past and bring you back.

«One can’t return to the past because one doesn’t have to return.»

«So, you couldn’t fall in love with me again, could you?!»

«I have to go.»

They said goodbye and disappeared from each other’s lives again.

***

Six months later Svetlana found herself in those places once more, already for business.

Having parked the car, she went straight to the office building for a business meeting, not knowing yet that it would end suddenly and simultaneously with the breath of her life, according to the decision of the Judges to transfer Svetlana’s soul in Heaven by thromboembolism. Chances to change destiny in order to remain on Earth are not always given to people in unlimited quantities, sometimes it even seems unfair that, for example, a worthless drunkard lives to a ripe old age, while an admirable business woman is recalled prematurely.

Passing by a liquor store, crowded with not quite sober people, Svetlana noticed the gaze of an unattractive man.

«Hello,» said Artyom, approaching her staggeringly.

«I didn’t expect to see you… here! What’s happened?»

«My canary’s damn dead,» he muttered.

«Who is dead?» Svetlana asked to clarify the unheard.