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Chapter 4. Summer

″Nice!″ Mila stretched blissfully and wiggled her toes. A hungry mosquito took off.

″Mila! It’s unfair! Why mosquitoes bite me and not you!″

″Zina! Um, how can I explain it to you? If you read my mind, I could show you. Unfortunately, it can’t be showed with words.″

″And who showed you?″

″My beloved Granny- she is my great-grandmother, she died when I was seven.″

″Did she teach you to read thoughts?″

″No, I could read thoughts since childhood.″

″I wish I could do that.″

Two girls stretched on the hay and sleepy listened to the bells ringing. Today at school they were asked to herd cows all day long. Unlike other children, Mila loved this activity, although it was not easy to herd cows in the wood. Of course, if all the cows grazed quietly in the meadow, there wouldn’t be any problems… Unfortunately, the mushroom season started for the cows, and it was impossible to forbid them to eat mushrooms. In search of the cows got into the middle of nowhere, got stuck in thorn bushes and ravines, and wandered into the unknown distance. It is good that Mila had invisible assistants who could instantly find any lost cow.

What to do with telepathy classes? The postman Petr Andreevich, despite all his efforts and belief in success, failed to pass on his gift to any of the pupils.

″Terra! What can be done in this case? ″ I asked the planet in my mind.

″I was looking through your ancient myths. There was such a country as India. So, there, to open up a telepathic gift, a man was drilled a small hole on his forehead and washed the inner space. In doing so the gift of telepathy usually opened. Then the hole was covered with a wooden plug. This gift is connected with the presence of space under the cranial bone on the forehead. It works like a resonator and an antenna. If this space is filled with slime, a person cannot accept thoughts.″

″Terra, do I have to drill heads of all my friends? ″

″It is not necessary to drill. You can try to dry this place with your hands. Let’s try at least on your friend. Maybe, it will work out?″

″But how?″

″Put your hands on Zina’s forehead, and I will help with the energy flows.″

″Zina! Let me try to transfer to you my gift of telepathy!″

″Will you be able to do it?″

″I don’t know, but maybe I will.″

I put my hands on my friend’s forehead and felt the heat flow through my hands.

″Oh! You’ll fry my brain!″ Zina squealed, reeling back to the side.

″Hang on a little longer! Something seems to be working out!″

Mentally I suddenly saw the one cavity in Zina’s forehead. The fluid in this cavity under the influence of the warmth was thickening and settling by layer on the walls. Now the cavity is free.

″Zina, can you hear me? ″ I asked a friend in my mind.

″I hear you! ″She answered with surprise.

″Congratulations on a successful experiment, ″ the planet’s hollow voice sounded in my head.

″Thanks for the advice, ″ I told Terra, ″ and doesn’t Zina hear our talking? ″

″No, because you and I are not talking telepathically, it’s as if I live in you and think by you… And you’ve been able to protect your thoughts from outside interference since childhood. Your beloved Granny has put protection for you.″

″Oh, we played too long, ″ I remembered, ″it’s already noon, it’s time to milk the cows. Fedka will come with cans right now.″

Fortunately, today there were a lot of mushrooms, and the cows did not want to go far. When the cows were round up, Fedka appeared on the cart with buckets and cans. While he was idling, Zina and I were milking cows and pouring milk through butter cloth into cans. We also poured a liter mug for our lunch. Fedka took the milk away, and we again stretched out on the hay, lazily sipping the fresh milk and then having a bite of bread. The milk was thick and smelled of mushrooms. Nice!

″Nice!″ Zinka answered in her mind. ″Do you like Fedka?″

″I don’t know, I didn’t think about this, ″ I said to her mentally too.

″I would marry him, not now, of course, but in a couple of years, when we will be sixteen…″

″I can’t do it yet! ″ I responded″. ″Granny before her death had bequeathed to me taking care of all people around me so that everyone would be happy…″

″It’s good to be happy! But is it possible to make everyone happy?″ Zina was surprised.

″I also think it’s impossible, but I can try it! After all, I promised.″

″Then I will help you!″

″Thank you, Zina! I think I cannot cope with such a difficult task alone.″

″Of course! You and I will make everyone happy!″ Zinka jumped up and deftly flipped the whip. The nearest cow, having pulled up the tail, went away into the woods with fright.

″Let’s go swimming!″ I shouted to Zinka and ran down to the lake.

All the cows were already here, standing knell-deep in the water and drinking. We ran around the lake, take our clothes off, and got into the lake from the other side, where bushes were growing on a cliff. Then we were drying, and I was showing Zina mentally how to protect her skin from mosquitoes. It was so good to lie naked on the grass on a hot day, not afraid of mosquitos and ticks!

In the evening we brought the herd home and gave it to the people on duty for milking. Being tired, I couldn’t fall asleep for a long time, and kept thinking how it all worked out so well? Because, we were not allowed to have a school in the village, but for some reason, we obtained the permission. Even the teacher of music and singing came to us. How many folk songs we have learned with her! And nobody tells us what lessons children need. Tomorrow, for example, Zina and I will have a weaving lesson, the day after tomorrow we will take care of kids in a kindergarten. And the next day Pavel Andreevich will show us interesting experiments and teach us physics and mathematics…

″Terra! Why is everything really enjoyable for us? Do you remember how that angry fat man wanted to take all of us away on his spaceship? He’s probably some kind of boss, isn’t he? ″

″Yes, Milochka! This is Anatoliy Semenovich, the head of children’s education in the region. He permitted to open a school in your village.″

″It is surprising because it seemed to me that he didn’t want it. Did he turn out to be so good, and I was wrong, considering him bad? ″

″No, Milochka, you weren’t wrong! He was really against opening a school here, but he had to do it because he didn’t want to tell anyone that he hadn’t been able to bring the children in a spaceship to the city. He didn’t want to be laughed at, so he pretended to approve your idea.″

Oh, how hard it is to predict the actions of adults? It seems to be the enemy in front of you, but he may easily be on your side if he is configured properly.

″Terra! Tell me a little bit about my Granny. When and where was she born, what did she do? ″

″Well, listen! Your Granny was born 989 years ago in a dense forest. Her father and mother were taken away by placers and the grandmother brought her up. And also she had a wonderful friend in childhood who grew up with her.″

″Just like my Zina? ″

″Not exactly! Granny’s friend just looked like a human, but she was the last triad, the one that survived on our planet. Her name was Bess.″

″So, the dryads exist? ″ I was surprised. ″And I thought they can be encountered only in fairy tales.″

″Dryads still live in the woods. If you want, you can meet them. But you won’t meet Bess. She lives on the planet Masha today, far away from us.″

″And what was Granny’s work? ″

″Granny was a housewife all her life, she had five children and a good loving husband, and she was elected the ruler of the whole planet, and she had to take care of everyone.″

″But if she handed over all her work to me, then should I be the ruler of the planet, too? ″

″That’s right, Mila! You should try to become the ruler of this planet, but you are not ready yet. I’m not talking about the knowledge of the customs of all the people who live on this planet, but you also have to take the exam.″

″Which one, Terra?″

″You have to complete the mission that Granny gave you before her death. Understand why the hopeless sadness walks around the earth and how to get rid of it.

″But here, in our village, I do not see any sadness. In my opinion, everyone is happy.″

″Yes, you are right! Your little friends protect you from the unkind people, and there, in a big world – everything is wrong! Well, you can see it when your parents come to visit. How do you think, are they happy? ″

″No! They always come forworn and tired, and after a couple of days, they already strive to leave, because they are waiting for some unpleasant things… It turns out that it is not my fate to stay in my native village. I will have to leave for the big world to understand how people live there and how I can help them.″

″You can’t cope with it alone! ″ Terra’s voice came out. ″ Form a team of friends to help you. ″

Over the next few days, Mila was meeting with her peers one by one and, with Terra’s help, “revealed” their ability to telepathy.

From now on, Sunday classes with Petr Andreevich have brought much more fun. Mila secretly looked into the teacher’s thoughts and realized that he was very proud of the success of his students. After all, he was considered the weakest in the telepathic courses, and after graduation he was made go to working as a postman in the distant village, where at the time lived only the old people. And now he, although without permission, has managed to open and develop telepathic abilities in a whole group of children. Mila, of course, did not dissuade him and asked her friends not to tell him anything.

Chapter 5. Telepathy

″Petr Andreevich″, Zina asked, ″could you tell us how you work – all the time or at certain times? Where and who sends you the telepathograms? How do you set yourself up for it?″

″Zina″, answered the teacher, ″I think all of you can see how I work. It will be not only interesting but also useful. Maybe one of you will graduate from postal courses after school and work just like me. Come all to my house at 10 p.m.″

So, by ten o’clock in the evening, we all gathered on the porch of our village post office. Petr Andreevich opened the door, and we carefully entered his small house.

″To the right is the kitchen″, the master pointed to the door on the right, ″to the left is my bedroom, straight is my office. It’s that way for us.″

In the office, the first thing that struck the eye was a huge chair with an openwork helmet for the head, a table with a computer and printer was on the left, and a bookcase was on the right.

″During my work″ explained Petr Andreevich, ″my brain plays the role of a transmitter and a network server. The helmet provides reliable telepathic communication with other post offices and strengthens my own signals. I can use the same helmet to send the necessary information to a computer for storage and for printing.″

″Could I try it? ″ asked the curious Zina again.

″Unfortunately, I have to refuse,’ the teacher answered, ‘to hand over the helmet to unprepared people is strictly forbidden. Now let me walk all of you to the door: I’ll have a session now, and I cannot be disturbed.″

″It’s a pity we can’t get into the global information network,” Zina complained. ″The network is available everywhere in the city, and here we are all separated from the world. Only Petr Andreevich can enter the network using his helmet.″

″It is interesting; can Terra organize access into the telepathic space of a planet for us? ″ Mila thought.

″Of course, I can,’ Terra said in her head, ‘only my help isn’t really needed, it’s enough for all of you to unite mentally.″

″How? ″

″Let me explain! This is an ancient technique of “connection of the four”, developed on another planet, which used to be called Dhana, and now is called Dilly.″

And Terra showed me how to organize a mental “concert of the four”. However, another number of participants, multiple of four, was also suitable for the concert. There were eight of us: me, Zina, Petya, Fedya, Marusya, Lena, Sergey, and Kolya. I explained everything to my friends without mentioning the way I know it. In the first four I appointed myself as the leader, in the second one – Kolya; Fedya and Marusya, as the fattest, were appointed by me, so to speak, as sources of energy; Petya and Lena had to conduct a melody of joy and love, and Zina and Sergey were at the forefront of our acceptance – transmission complex. For better contact, I suggested that everyone sit in a circle and hold hands.

All this action was decided to take place on the porch of our house without delay.

″Terra! And who controls the people on the planet now? After all, my Granny has left, and I still can’t do anything.″

″Girl, people are so small to really control everything. However, there is a control system consisting of people, each of whom does only their small job. That’s how your postman – he is also part of the communication system necessary for control″, the planet answered me in this way.

″But has somebody to follow up on the work of the whole system? ″

″Yes,’ Terra replied, ‘traditionally this work is done by the immortal Gilk, who lives on the island-cosmodrome. He also carries out a connection with representatives of people on other planets of our union – Dilly, and Masha.″

″And I thought that you were the main person here, Terra.″

The first time I heard the planet laugh.

″How can I be the main in your society? In the society of babies, whom I can’t even see without your help. How can I know your – " babies’ " – needs and problems? It’s your own affair, though if you ask me for help, I can do something, of course.″

Meanwhile, we got to my house and sat right on the porch floor. I reminded each of the children of their function once again, and we started. The first result was terrible, I almost passed out from a series of images in my head, Marusya and Fedya grabbed their heads in pain, and Zinka fainted. The rest of us didn’t look better either.

″You can’t do that,’ Terra told me, ‘firstly put all your thoughts away, then slowly get in touch with your friends without thinking about anything else. The main idea in the “concert” should be led by only one person, i.e. you, Mila. Kolya should only pick up your thought and transmit it to Sergey, just as you should transmit it to Zina. The rest should not think about anything, but only support what you do″.

I explained all this when Zina woke up. But we decided to postpone the “concert” for tomorrow.

The next day, I explained to my friends that we didn’t just play telepaths; we had an important task to do – to help all people find happiness.

″Zinka has already told us all this,” Fedya confessed.

″And we’ve been training with wooden swords for a month now,” Sergey added. ″What if we will have to fight evil.″

But, really:

″Terra! What can we fight with if we are attacked?″

″Anyway, not with swords, ″ the planet answered, ″ it is possible to kill somebody by accident. The ancient sages, wandering around the world, always had wooden crooks with them, and they fought with these crooks.″

I retold all this to my friends.

″And I will fight with my whip,” Zinka added.

″You can use a whip,” I decided.

″So,” I said when everybody sat down on the porch floor again. ″Firstly, we put our hands in front of our breasts and take away all the other thoughts. Those who are ready put their hands on the floor. When all hands will be on the floor, hold hands and start. Today our task is to talk to the immortal Gilk, the key person on our planet. If anyone has any other suggestions, we will fulfill them next time.

This time we made everything work at once. Terra gave me the image of Gilk, and using it as a key; I easily reached Gilk, who was not surprised at my calling.

″I was warned by your great-great-grandmother that she had found a successor, her granddaughter Mila,’ he said, ‘and I see you already have a great group of telepathic friends. That’s good, you’ll work together and help me.″

″Grandma said that there are problems with sadness on the planet now. What do you know about it, Gilk? ″

″I think,’ Gilk answered, ‘these problems were related to the grandmother herself because now there is a complete order on the planet. There have been no wars for a thousand years, and the average life expectancy of people has now reached an unprecedented maximum in a hundred and thirty-three years. However, travel and take a look for yourself. If you need my help, please contact me. I will help!″

So our first session of communication was held. Everyone was happy, except Zinka.

″I want to get into the world network and look at my sites,” she said.

If she wants, we’ll help her, decided all of us. This time Zinka was the main one. We all connected and, to my surprise, easily got in the world network without a computer. Zinka moved the invisible mouse and knocked on the invisible keyboard. And around us, there were red warnings about unauthorized intrusion into the network, about the work of an unknown dangerous virus that could damage computers.

I thought I could really ruin any computer on the network if I wanted to. Before Zinka enjoyed her sites, the World Wide Web began to clot, and one by one the servers were going out against the danger of unknown threats. Thousands and thousands of anti-virus programs were falling on our heads, which were blinking, like mosquito clouds, but couldn’t do anything. Finally, we had to interrupt the session when the web completely turned off.

In the morning, the angry Petr Andreevich came to us. It turns out that we were disclosed, but all the blame was laid on him. Now the order to dismiss him has come.

″Don’t worry,’ I said, ‘you won’t be fired, and everything will be fine.″

″Girl, you don’t understand how serious this is! ″

″Wait until tomorrow,’ I replied, ‘they must have rushed. The order to dismiss you, I think, will be canceled tomorrow.″

I contacted Gilk immediately. Actually, now it was easy for me to do it alone, without the help of my friends. Gilk promised to help. So the next day our teacher was smiling and said that he was not blamed for our hooliganism in the network. Moreover, he was ordered to keep a close eye on underage telepaths and to prevent them from taking any more unauthorized actions.

″This means,’ he said, ‘that all your telepathic games should be under my supervision. And telepathic access beyond the borders of the settlement will be carried out only after the appropriate permission from the city.″

″What’s the point? ″ I asked. ″After all, we do no cause harm to anyone.″

″because″, Petr Andreevich answered ″that everything should be in order. And you don’t have the appropriate diplomas of telepaths yet, so you have no right to engage in telepathic activities.″

All this was for me and my friends above our understanding. I asked Terra what to do.

″It’s simple,’ Terra replied, ‘engage in your telepathy in a different range. Try to feel the trees think. You can also talk to them. And then no one will bother you. But don’t tell Petr Andreevich about it, because he is obliged to report everything to his superiors.″

″You can also talk to them″; the air above was flickering with the laughter of little people.

″Who is this? ″ Petya asked with surprise.

″Look how beautiful they are! ″ Zina was delighted.

″We see and understand them,″ Kolya added.

″And the rest don’t see and don’t hear us, though they are called telepaths, ″ laughed the little men flying over us, ″ if you play with us, and we will help you! ″

Chapter 6. Petka

I was very unlucky in childhood. My father beat me very often and so painfully. I remember some situations especially clear. Here I am sitting on my father’s desk and making the little planes from the papers that lie there. Dad comes in and pulls up my pants. I’m already used to it: no matter what I do, it all ends up the same way. Here I’m on the floor making a small lake of stationery glue and a beautiful ink island on it. Dad comes into a room and without looking at my lake squishes it. Then everything is as usual.

If I had time, I was hiding in my mom’s skirts. She was kind and didn’t let my father beat me. Sometimes she took offense at me too. One summer I caught a beautiful grasshopper bigger than my palm. I couldn’t help but bring home such beauty to show my beloved mother. Unfortunately, mom went to bed after lunch, and I let the grasshopper to play on the window net. I went to the kitchen to see what was edible there. Before I had time to eat half of the sausage, I heard my mother scream. It turns out that the grasshopper sat on her nose and woke her up. Was it worth shouting? Besides, she really crushed the grasshopper… I let him go, would he survive? And my mother didn’t talk to me that day. I guess she was offended. I wonder if she was offended by me or by the grasshopper.

When Mom got tired to keep an eye at what I did in the house, she kicked me outside. There I had a dog called Bulka, with whom we used to run through the streets of the city. Most of all, we were attracted by abandoned wastelands and ravines “on the backside” of houses and streets. The ravines were full of weeds above my height, there were big green grasshoppers loudly chirping in the evenings, and Bulka found a large pile of garbage nearby. He liked to dig in it, and I watched with interest what he dug up. He liked the bones, and I liked the green glasses… A little further, on the first floor of one of the houses, lived an amusing girl who said all the words in the wrong way. It was so funny! Sometimes I remembered what she said and I, singing it in different ways, was running down the street and making friends laugh.

One day, my parents kicked me out again:

″At least, give us a day or two of rest,” my beloved mother told me.

So, I saw real horses and carts at the girl’s house. The girl’s grandmother, who she called Bella, was packing their things, and the girl was already sitting in a cart. I made up my mind, came up and asked:

″Where are you going?″

The girl turned her back and didn’t answer, but her grandmother said in a gentle voice that they were going to visit her great-great-grandmother.

″I don’t have a grandmother,’ I said sadly, ‘and all my parents want to do is take a break from me. Can I go with you?″

″Ask your mother: if she allows it, you can.″

I ran quickly to my house and called my mother. It turned out that she and father were just discussing where to send me while they were doing some re-registration. This was the most important event that changed my whole subsequent life.

The cart first drove through the streets of the city, then turned towards the forest and drove for a long time along the edge of it and the field, then turned into a thick forest. All the way the girl turned away from me diligently, and her grandmother handled the horses. At some point she said:

″Then the horses know the way, I’ll take a nap, and you can hold the reins. Just don’t stretch them too hard! ″

The last part of the way I drove the cart, although I did not understand why horses sometimes turned from one forest road to another at the intersections.

That’s how my new life began. There were no kids in the village we came to. I had to play with a little girl who deformed all the words so ridiculously. Soon I found out that her name was Mila. I went with her to the scary dense forest for mushrooms and berries and was always afraid to get lost, but Mila always knew the right way home. I was also afraid of wild animals, and Mila wasn’t afraid at all, even when we really saw a huge bear on the other side of the meadow. After that, I began to treat Mila quite differently. One evening I even caught a big green grasshopper for Mila.

″What a beauty,” she said when I put it in her palm. Then the grasshopper flew into the bush, and we were listening for a long time for his chirping with other grasshoppers.

Yes, I didn’t write of how adults tried to get us out of this village, and how they failed to do this. Instead of taking me back to the city, my parents came to live with us in the village. Mila and her grandmother had a big four-room house, so they offered us two extra rooms. My dad set up a real school on the huge porch. Then relatives came to the neighbors, their children came with them and stayed in our village. Somehow it happened that I went everywhere with Mila, and then other children of our age joined us. Mila didn’t pay much attention to me, she probably remembered me teasing her in the city, but I wasn’t offended by her. She was always interesting anyway. And after she taught all of us how to listen to each other’s thoughts, things became even more interesting. Now we all had no secrets from each other. Everybody already knew that Zinka loved Fedka, and Fedka, surprised to hear about it, seemed to agree. But nobody could read Mila’s thoughts. And I’d like to know how she treated me!

Then Mila taught everyone how to connect mentally, and Zinka got into the computer network. A month later, a flying saucer flew from the city with the commission, which was very eager to meet Zinka. Mila invited us all to her house and asked Zina not to tell the commission about her. That’s where I got stuck:

″Don’t talk about me either! ″ I decided that I would always do the same as Mila. The edited Mila’s story looked like this:

″We were taught telepathy by the postman Petr Andreevich. One day the six of us were sitting next to each other on the porch, holding hands, and Zinka wanted to get into the network and look at her site, and she suddenly did it″.

This story was remembered by all our friends, who were questioned by the commission.

Then Zinka came running to us:

″Mila,’ she said really fast, ‘we are all invited to learn telepathy somewhere, and we will have free access to any sites there… Can we go with this commission?″

″Well, if you all really want it, you can do it,’ Mila replied, ‘go! ″

″And then, when you come to the city, will you find us?″ Zina added in apologizing tone.

″Of course I will! ″ Mila answered. ″We just need to put a mark on all of you.″

″Which mark? ″ Zinka was afraid. ″Does it hurt?″

″It doesn’t hurt,” Mila replied, ″ everybody is invited to the farewell dinner.″

The dinner was sad: we were letting our friends to the big world and we didn’t know if we could meet them again. When everyone left, I asked Mila:

″And what about the mark you wanted to put on us? ″

″Everything’s fine with the mark,’ she replied, ‘Terra put on the marks, and now I’ll always find my friends.

But Mila didn’t tell me who Terra was.

Everyone’s gone; it was just the two of us with Mila. Mila was sad without friends, and I was even glad she was spending all her free time with me. I went skiing with her to the forest to listen to those, who couldn’t be heard in the village. I didn’t hear anything, but Mila said she could. One day she even grabbed my hand:

″Look! Look!″

A branch of bushes on my left swung, and something big and furry flashed and disappeared.

″It’s not a bear!″ Mila said. ″The bears are all sleeping! ″

Then it was summer. Mila and I went into the forest together. Mila said that we don’t have to take our food with us because long ago all the people on our planet were instilled a culture of alien bacteria, which allows us to eat any kind of greenery growing in the forest. Mila said we need to find dryads in the woods. That she knows where to go, but she doesn’t know how to convince the dryads to make friends with us yet. It was just amazing! Mila was walking ahead, and I was looking and looking… I was looking at her little legs, skillfully jumping from the root to root, at back and head with a long braid hidden under the headscarf… So, imperceptibly, it slipped under the feet, and we were already jumping from bump to bump.

″No, that won’t do,’ finally my companion said, ‘we’ll have to fly.″

″How can we fly? ″ I was surprised.

″That’s it,’ my friend replied, ‘imagine that you can do it! Let’s go!

Mila slowly went up in the air. I had no choice but to try to do the same. To my surprise, I followed Mila.

″And here are our friends,” Mila pointed to the clear sky above our heads, sparkling with the sun’s rays.

″Probably, she is overheated,’ I thought, and here, among the sparkling air currents, I saw little laughing men, ‘Unfortunately, I am overheated too.″

We sat down on a high hill under the big tall pines. My head kept fizzing and I clearly felt bad.

″It’s just because you are not used to that,’ Mila reassured me, ‘have a rest, everything will be fine.″

I put my head on her lap and really fell asleep. I dreamt I was lying on Mila’s lap, and little funny people were playing and singing around us. And then I dreamt that a walking bush came out of the forest, came up to us and extended a hand-branch to Mila. I wanted to reach out to him too, but I couldn’t do it.

″He’s very tired and sleeping,” Mila said ″ let him have a rest; he’s already got impressions more than enough″. I really fell asleep, so I haven’t seen anything else. I woke up from a gentle swing. A big strong man was carrying me like a little child.

″Say hello,’ said Mila, ‘this is Kubess the Seventh. And behind him is his girlfriend, Besska the Fifth. Get used to them, they’re not people, they’re dryads, but nobody should know about it besides you and me. We will just call them Kubess and Besska. Let’s say we met them in the forest, and they helped us to cross the swamp. From now on they will also live with us in our village.

How Mila persuaded her grandmother, I don’t know, but Kubess and Besska really stayed to live in their half of the house. However, most of the day and night, as Mila told me, they spent in the garden near the house. My parents were even happy to have garden assistants. This summer made us happy with an unprecedented harvest.