PROSE
The Crystal Tears
Alexander Kurako
Blagoveshchensk (Russia)
There was a storm coming. Snowfalls in
the northern capital are frequent, but that
night the blizzard raged in earnest. In the
howling wind, the flakes of snow danced
around furiously; caught up by the ground
wind above the roads, they swept up
everything around. Watching the elements
was fascinating, like magic. There were
expectations of a miracle...
And it happened: the next morning,
after the stormy night, when the sun came out
and played with bright sparks of light on the
snow, people found a snow sculpture in one of
the St. Petersburg yards. It was not even a
sculpture, but a composition of two figures – a
male and a female, frozen in a dance. Their
snow robes were similar to those worn in
Petersburg at the end of the eighteenth
century. It remained a mystery who had
sculpted them that stormy night. There was a
feeling that it was the Messenger of Winter
herself - The Blizzard who had brought them
there from somewhere in the distant past.
And they froze in the dance, as if not hearing
that the music of the orchestra and the howl
of the storm had long ceased; they only
looked into each other's eyes, not noticing
anything or anyone around, as it often
happens to lovers.
People left their houses, hurried on
business, but when passing by the dancing
sculpture, they smiled unwittingly and felt a
little better inside. The day ended quickly.
After the nightfall, the streets were empty,
and there were only dancing snow figures in
the yard.
S u d d e n l y, t h e e ye s o f t h e m a l e
sculpture came to life. For a long time, he
looked at the face of his beautiful lady with no
hiding his admiration. She, as if had felt his
gaze, shuddered and opened her eyes.
- Oh, sir! You were glancing at me! – She
said with a reproach.
- Not at all, madam! I just admired Your
beauty, - He hastened to assure. – I didn't
want to interrupt Your sleep, indeed. You
seemed to have a pleasant dream, because
You were smiling in a sleep.
- Yes, it was a beautiful dream! – She
smiled. – Too bad it's over now…
- Madam, do You regret that after
awakening from Your dream, You found
Yourself in my embrace? – uttered cavalier in
18
SUNRISE
despair.
- Oh, no! By no means! Your company is a
great pleasure to me... - the lady looked down
confusedly. - And I've been dreaming that we
were ... together forever ...
- So let us be together forever! - He
exclaimed.
- Please, sir. Haven't You realized yet the
fate that we would face ahead?
- What fate could be worse than the
one that could suddenly separate us? –
exclaimed the cavalier in a fit of anger.
- Oh, sir! Everything is very sad! - sighed
the lady. - Our happiness is just a short-lived
dream. The spring will come, and, suddenly,
both You and me shall obviously be no more
than a pathetic stream...
- And well! So let it be! If our destiny will
be no more than melting, as if we were two
candles in the flame! It is my dream, desire,
belting! Two streams that shall become the
same!
He eagerly drew the pictures of a
beautiful journey of how they would float in
the brook all the way to the ocean so that it
would marry them...
- Madam, are You crying? - He asked,
seeing the tears on the lady's cheeks.
- These are the tears of happiness, -
She smiled.
Crystal drops of the fallen tears
sparkled on the wedding dress.
Arina Subbocheva
February 2019 №2