Тёмная Башня. Dark Tower. Премия им. Э.Т.А. Гофмана / E.T.A. Hoffmann award (Билингва: Rus / Eng)

Exceptions

I walked for a long time somewhere far away, in an endless thick fog, until I suddenly came upon a Man.

«I’m sorry,» I apologized, trying to move on, but realized there was someone there, too.

«Follow me,» the Man said.

«What do you mean?» I asked.

«The queue…»

«What are you queuing for?»

«Everyone gets their own.»

«And how long do we have to wait?»

The Man shrugged his shoulders. The queue moved a little further. I began to distinguish some voices.

«Do you know what is there?» I asked.

«No, I don’t,» the Man replied indifferently. «They say, there is the City of the Sun beyond the fog. However, not everyone can reach it.»

«Are you from the City of the Sun?»

«I don’t think so,» the Man grinned. «More likely, from the Dungeon of the Land of Dreams.»

The queue moved forward a little.

«So, are you an atheist?» I supposed.

«Not anymore,» he sighed.

Suddenly, a girl of about five years old emerged from the fog. She ran between us and immediately disappeared.

«Are the kids in the queue, too?» I wondered.

«I guess so,» the Man replied.

The Girl emerged from the fog again, but from the other side. For a moment she stopped next to us and then turned to me.

«There’s a cat waiting for me there! And who is waiting for you?»

«I don’t know,» I shrugged my shoulders.

«Weird!» the Girl said thoughtfully. «There must be someone waiting for you! If there was no one waiting, you wouldn’t be here!»

I smiled, and the Girl disappeared in the fog at once.

Soon we reached a bonfire on the side of the road.

«Well, we can relax until morning,» the Man said.

A shadow of a woman separated from the fire and approached me and the Man.

«Join us!» she suggested.

The Man and I sat down by the bonfire. How many souls were there? Anyway, I couldn’t count, Mr. Fog clearly didn’t want us to see each other.

«What are they throwing into the bonfire? There is no wood at all!» I asked the Man in a whisper.

«Stories!» he smiled.

«And you both will definitely tell us yours, too,» the Woman smiled, handing cups of tea from a thermos to me and my neighbor.

«What for… tea and thermos?!» I asked the Man, without ceasing to be surprised at what was happening, when the Woman left for the fog.

«It’s more familiar,» the Man answered calmly, and at the same moment a sad female voice sounded out of the fog.