Ловушка для Мыслеформы. A Trap for a Thought-Form. Премия им. М. Булгакова / M. Bulgakov Award (Билингва: Rus/Eng)

The walls were full of…

«Would you like me to make an exhibition of your paintings here?» the Guardian suddenly offered.

«How do you know I paint?»

«You gave me your „Moon Cat“, there is your painting on the cover, „The Girl and the Cat“. And inside the book, there are the same Girl and the Cat, already as drawings. You have a lot of works about the Girl and the Cat. They are very relevant here. So, do you want an exhibition?»

«I think it’s better to gift the rest of that serial paintings to the Mansion.

 night as my gift for the Museum. Yes?»

The Guardian didn’t answer. I thought about it, and suddenly, in the silence, I felt that…

«The Portal! Is it HERE?!» I exclaimed in surprise.

The Guardian smiled.

«Listen, it can’t be like that! I felt the Portal there, and now it’s here?!»

The Guardian came up to me and carefully ran his hand through my hair.

«You are very beautiful, Alice…»

The door opened, the Cat appeared on the threshold.

«Meow?!!!»

«He seems to be jealous,» the Guardian smiled, and we returned to the hall.

***

While the Zoo lover was sharing with the guests his vague concepts of the further development of mankind and answered questions, I kept glancing at my table with a lonely cup of coffee bored on it.

I felt… sad…

I admitted to myself that I got used to the appearance of Roman at our literary parties. I was afraid he wouldn’t come again.

During the break, I was back at the table when the door to the hall opened and…

«Hello,» Roman smiled, taking a seat next to me.

«Do you want coffee?» I asked.

«Yes.»

«So you’re not a phantom after all!» I exhaled in relief.

«What if you are a phantom, like me, and like your coffee?» I heard in response.

«And like the Guardian? And this house?» I continued my train of thought.

«And like all these guests,» Roman finished it there.

«When are we going to walk through walls?» Roman asked me aloud, sipping his coffee.

«As soon as we become phantoms,» I replied. «First, reset to zero to become wizard. The tasks I give you now, in fact, have to be done with a certain frequency, not just once. These are the rules of magicians’ life. They exist on a par with the rules of ordinary people life, like brushing your teeth, for example.»

«Okay. Have you already thanked everyone mentally?» Roman remembered my previous task.