The Coffee Lake

by Grigory Demidovtsev

" And will see the chosen ones, those, who had never experienced a death since the time of their birthdays, and let the heart of ones who are living now would be changed and let it be changed into another feeling".

The third book of Esdra, chapter 6, 26.

     On the monitor's screen were fleeting glimpses of a sinister, dead desert of a strange, unnatural red colour. Wind,- if it is possible to use this word for naming a movement of gazes, among which oxygen was practically absent, - was turning small dry dust which was covering pointed stones, corroded by erosion, stones, which like intricate gothic spires were towering above the sea of red dust. The explorers were watching fascinated by the transmitting picture. One cannot say that they were surprised or they had been expecting something different from this planet. Common sense prompted: there must be nothing alive here, in this kingdom of cold , in this mixture of ice with stuff which the devil only knows. And had it been before? This was another question, and not this inhabitable apparatus, which was launching on a surface, is going to solve it. Meanwhile, a camera was methodically recording everything, directed by a program given from the Earth.
     One of the researches who's name was Michael, having got tired of the monotonous picture, moved away from the monitor, switched on a coffee- maker, and started to scrutinize how black liquid, slowly fizzing, was pouring into a small cup with a painted Martian lifeless landscape on it. Michael ordered such a cup especially for himself, he liked all sorts of interesting things like proprietary spoons, cups or pens, the main thing for him was that the thing should be unique, individual. He sighed hard and switched off the coffee-maker - it was an old, not automatic model. Last drops were slowly sinking into the cup. Michael was waiting , he was not in a hurry - their watch had just started; his glance stared again at the picture. A reddish sand, a cliff, a lake with black coffee instead of water, fish is splashing , white swan is floating, a house is on the coast:" What a raving it is, - thought Michael,- a kind of a strange idyll with the coffee lake!", but the picture seemed not to be static, it - and Michael amazingly moved backwards and automatically rubbed his temples :it had come into movement! Indeed, along the coffee lake a white swan was floating , moving to the far coast. Suddenly the swan started flapping its wings . Michael, moving backwards, ran against a chair and fell down, but still kept looking at this absurdity. A little man appeared on the coast. It was a child of five years old .
     - Hee-hee! Hello! Who are you? - he started to jabber merrily.
     - A-a - and :.where are you from? - Michael asked bewildered and was horrified .He was talking to himself!
     - It was me who asked first! I know, when somebody asks first - so another should reply to him. It is not polite to ask a question at the time when you are answering, it is bad manners! Isn't it true? - the child started to smile, pleased with himself.
     - Yes, probably:Michael replied uncertainly.
     - How can you say " probably"? This means it is possible not to reply sometimes? And what else is one able to do in response to a question?
     - How did you turn out to be on my cup? How is it possible? Sinkh, do you see this? - Michael called his fellow worker.
     - Sinkh, - is that him? I am sorry, I didn't understand that he was together with you. And what do you need him for? - pronounced the child.
     Michael glanced back, and he was seized with panic - Sinkh, his fellow worker was not at the table. He was not there at all in the locked laboratory, nobody could leave there without being noticed.
     - Ok-ok, here is your Sinkh, but only let him rest. I am sorry, but there is a bad draught going straight from him. And what do you need him for? Are you bringing up yourself in such a way?
     - And Sinkh appeared at his working place, but now he was having a sound sleep. Michael looked at the monitor: on the coast of the coffee lake was standing the boy. He knocked at the camera's objective and merrily asked:
     - You had created an interesting reality for yourself, are you playing a genie?
     - Why did you decide I was playing a genie? - Michael wondered.
     - Again you are scaring me! You have got into a chariot together with your own world and now you are pretending that you are attacking me. And what about me? Or am I not responding to this at all? And I am not completely the small one! Yes-yes, I do understand - I have erased your Sinkh ! Is this my one and the only mistake?
     - How did you manage to do this!
     - Well, again:And I did apologize! But I don't understand why let such a malicious monster into my world, - so I deleted him. Let's create something together, because your black stinking lake has gotten under my skin, you see:
     To Michael's total horror the lake with the fish and the swan vanished, but instead appeared an intricate, with washed away edges, iridescent space.
     - And what is this?
     - What? This is my dream, I have been feeling so nice there, and they have always taken care of me:I don't like concrete objects very much, and do you really like to drink in a such a way from the cup?
     - And how do you drink?
     - You try!
     Michael didn't have time to consider anything, as he found himself under an avalanche of sweetish liquid which has come down upon him and which has filled up all the laboratory, but then vanished suddenly in the same way.
     - How is it? Tasty? - asked the child.
     - Of course, it is great, - Michael lied.
     - You didn't like it: And I like when it is a space - if to drink - let's drink. Why is it impossible not to border your own world?
     - Probably, in order your world wouldn't disturb other worlds, - replied Michael, understanding gradually, a witness and a participant of an event which he had become.
     - A-a, I understand, in order not to delete by chance another's toy like your Sinkh!
     Suddenly a long drawn-out whistle has reached Michael.
     - The lesson is over! So, farewell, Michael! You have an odd name, teacher!
     " How does he know my name: we have not even become acquainted ?" - thought Michael when the child had disappeared. The same depressed panorama of a lifeless desert appeared on the monitor. Michael nearly wanted to awake his fellow worker, but a shade on the monitor attracted his attention. Having turned the camera, he saw as in the desert an elder in a strange attire was moving straight towards him, in his hand he had an item resembling a crook.
     - What are you doing here? - asked the elder.
     - We are representatives of a planet The Earth, and we are greeting you, we have come with peace!
     - Maybe you have come in peace, but peace doesn't need this! - the elder touched the apparatus by his crook.
     - What:what do you mean? There are no arms there!
     - If it would have been - it wouldn't fly to - the elder grinned.
     - This means that you were wiping out our stations?
     - We are wiping nothing, there is no need for this, aggression is costly. And you are interesting:Maybe you will survive, so, then will meet!
     - In what way?
     - In due course. And in the meanwhile you had mixed with the child, - and you've had enough. You, probably, haven't realized what a menace had threatened your world at the moment of your talk. That is why thank you that you hadn't let to happen a process of yours leap prematurely.
     - The leap?
     - You may call this the Apocalypse, you may call this a planet catastrophe, you may call this a joke of our child - an essence will not be changed!
     - To call this a joke! What had the child done with Sinkh? He vanished, then appeared again!
     - That's just it! We are , like probably and you are, - only you are not realizing this, - we are able to create and to change a space around ourselves. Sinkh's power is very close to zero, but, indeed, there are some emotions, many of which are negative, aggressive. The child even hasn't realized that Sinkh was a human being, so the child has taken him for your strange fantasy and deleted. You may call this" he killed ". He erased him as an object. He is a child still, and he should be taught a lot, but - what is the main thing, - he has never had and it was not possible for him to have any negative emotions toward Sinkh.
     - And he might also me ?:.
     - And you, of course, and, - sorry, - all your world. And I am sorry, but our contact stops and information about it is being erased. Time will come, - and it is so near! - we will meet some of you, but not Sinkh. - The elder smiled and disappeared together with the image of the remote planet:
     - What has happened, the devil take it? - Michael's fellow worker has come to himself and was trying feverishly to adjust communication with the station, but unsuccessfully. The communication has been lost.
     Several days more the Earth's specialists were trying to do something. Michael remembered nothing, as if nothing had happened! He was fully absorbed by his work. Dim thoughts couldn't go through daily occurrence. After all everybody submitted themselves to the loss of the station.
     - Michael, wouldn't you treat me to coffee? And give me it in your wonder - cup, as my one has disappeared, - supposed Sinkh, wearily yawning.
     - Ok, drink, and, properly speaking, why it is the wonder, what is wondering in it? - asked Michael surprisingly.
     - And how it is possible to think it up: in the Martian desert - the chocolate lake with the swan and the child!
     Michael looked at his cup and recollected everything which had happened to him. He wanted to tell about it, but, having looked at his fellow worker, he said nothing. Is it necessary? In due course!