Red Star

Chapter 8

On the kitchen table, next to the prepared Breakfast, my mother's threatening note was waiting for me, reminding me to return no later than 18 hours and demanding to call "when you Wake up"... The irritation that had stirred under such tight control died as soon as it was born, because in an enamel bowl, carefully covered with a plate, I found frayed apples with carrots and sprinkled with sugar!

MUMMY.... How many years have I not eaten this, so beloved as a child delicacy! You got up early in the morning, when you were so sleepy, about 15 minutes earlier to RUB my Apple and carrot. You made me cutlets, knowing that I can do it, but I won't do it myself. You remember that I went to bed without having had dinner, and now there are Apple and carrot puree on the table, and already made sandwiches for tea. And on the radiator, carefully wrapped in a towel, a frying pan with cutlets and potatoes is waiting for me. You didn't write a threatening note out of spite, but because you love me more than anything in the world! You've lost your husband and you know for sure that you won't survive the loss of your son! I swallowed the mashed potatoes mechanically, not feeling the taste, and choked on my tears...

Finally, it broke... Why did all this happen to me? How did my soul, or whatever it is, move from me-an adult man, to me-a teenage schoolboy? Who or what did it? Of course, I asked myself these questions periodically, but there were no answers to them, so I tried not to think about it again. But now it came back to me, with all the acuteness of the lack of answers. Do I have to change something? To fix something? The Lord heard my RESENTMENT and returned my mother and childhood to me for a second attempt? Or, on the contrary, the devil decided to have fun, watching as a small worm will go through the inevitable torture again? Or did some Higher power of Justice choose me, and now I have to do something? What? So that millions of people will escape the misery, suffering, tragedy and death that awaits them after the collapse of the USSR? Is this it? What I came up with almost immediately, one of the options, along with schizophrenic ideas of conquering the world?! And as a reward they gave my mother and second youth? Or is this not a reward, but a leash and a carrot?

What? Who! What for? A million questions and no answers. I myself would have built versions of random transmigration of souls, the erased memory of a past life from a parallel world, a breakdown in The earth's Information field, and, in the end, would have believed in one of these options. But in front of me now lies a device of the 21st century and looks at me with the icon of a bitten Apple.

The one who gave it to me with him, in this time loop, he knew that I could not cope on my own, that it was beyond human power. And HE gave me all the answers to all the questions and information about all the events, he gave me all the past and future. He probably wants me to do something so impossible that he gave me the ring of power in this GAME, knowledge of all the tricks, access to all the secrets and achievements of civilization SO far. Am I a God now? No, he is GOD, and he gave me the "GOD MODE". Use it, but do it! What should I do?! Answer me! Print it on my iPhone, send it to soap, put your voice in my head! And if I fail, will you bring me back?! Are you going to take my mother and my life again, or are you just going to wipe all of US PEOPLE off the game Board like a nuisance that didn't live up to trust a second time?! No answer. There are questions, but no answers.

Yesterday I took out my gun and was ready to take the lives of those who stood in my way. Why? Am I crazy about money and greed? I had money, and more, and I never lost my head over it. Money has never controlled me, and I have never crossed a line for its sake that I considered impossible to cross. Greed? I've certainly never been greedy. Rather, he was generous, loved to bring joy. I just couldn't stand it when someone started to sincerely perceive it as "suckery" and started trying to "milk".

So why then? Why would I give up this obviously stolen money and jewelry? After all, I have other opportunities to get the same money. Books, songs, movie scripts, discoveries, etc. Why then? With a gun in your hand? Why take a gun at all? After all, I already took it with a vague understanding that the weapon will have to be used. Against whom? What for? And do I have the right to do that? Is there any point in continuing all the gestures without answering these questions?

I put down my long-cold tea, got up from the table, and went to the window.

- Do I want to live well? Yes, absolutely. I even want to live VERY WELL! I want to be happy, healthy, beautiful, rich, famous, loved... all called? Did you forget anything?! I'm not going to talk about smart, I already think I'm smart - I grinned sourly. But is it enough for me? NO. I still want to be useful! SELFLESSLY. People, their country, and Humanity as a whole. I sincerely do not like evil, meanness, dishonesty. I have learned to put up with them, I can exist with them, but I see them, and I don't like them.

In fact, I am hopelessly loyal to the Soviet Union. Not the one that was really there, although there was a lot of beauty in it and I loved it. And the USSR that was talked about at congresses, on TV, written in books and made films. I have always remained loyal to the Soviet Union that SHOULD have BEEN! I am devoted to the Country of happy childhood and prosperous old people. A country with a strong economy and a decent working class. A land of gold fields and rich villages. The country of a great, United and happy people!

And a bunch of despicable JACKALS tore into bloody pieces and ruined my Great Homeland, stunned by treachery, meanness, indifference and deceit. This bunch of insignificant creatures poured poison into the souls and hearts of people, instilled false values in them, and set them off in a bloody feud among themselves.

I more or less understood it even then, saw what was happening and understood what was going on. But instead of fighting and calling, he began to survive on his own and adapt to circumstances. Although, in fact, what could a snotty student of a Moscow University oppose to the catastrophe?

Well, what do I want now? What drives me? After all, so far I can clearly formulate only two desires: to be well-off myself and to bring well-being to others.

"f**k, I'm a Saint!" I laughed hoarsely, not childishly - or a reflective fool with a Messianic mania. Underline the correct option. Only who would tell you which one is correct...

And if SOMEONE does not want to tell me what to do and how to do it, then I will do what I want myself! I will help myself, my family and friends, and I will do everything to reach a position where I will have something to OPPOSE the JACKALS.

***

The holidays were fruitful. I almost had a nervous breakdown, lost five kilos, and nearly killed two people.

I went to Repino eight times. I don't know how it could have ended, but I was very lucky. On the night when I surrounded the General's "Malina", it began to snow heavily. And in the morning, all traces of my illegal activities were covered with a thick snow cover.

As I was pulling the sledge out of the gate, I was lucky enough to find a piece of wood that was lying in the yard to attach it to the open gate. The snow had covered the tracks, and the gate looked locked. From the side of the ravine, the snow also reliably filled up the "snow trench" I had broken through.

I had time to get home before my mother came home from work and met her with a cheerful smile on her haggard face, so she did not object to my daily "roller coasters, trips to the movies and games of hockey." Moreover, my mother was aware of my cool relations with my classmates and, apparently, was glad that I found a common language with them, and we spend so much time together in the fresh air for active games!

In each of my seven trips to Repino, I, with a thousand precautions and reinsurance, climbed under the platform and reloaded, in a new regular purchased backpack or bag, part of the hidden cargo. Then, looking around and checking, he returned to Leningrad and placed backpacks and bags in automatic storage chambers at various Leningrad railway stations.

During these trips, two episodes occurred that almost ended tragically. The first time, I almost discharged a gun at a drunk, in the vestibule of the train. The train jerked and, previously calmly standing man, suddenly abruptly leaned on me, carrying in a large sports bag with the inscription "Dynamo" about a million rubles in cash! It was a miracle that he didn't shoot through the pocket where he was holding the Mauser handle tightly with a sweaty palm. The second time, it seemed to me that I was being "led" from the station. I turned into the first deserted alley I came across and, after walking about thirty meters, turned sharply to meet my pursuer, drawing my pistol. The older woman jumped out of the way, lucky for me, not noticing the weapon. And I, with a backpack containing a Schmeisser ,packs of cartridges, and gold coins, set off on my own unsteady legs.

The last time, the eighth time, I went to Repino with a full bag. It contained two aluminum cans of gasoline, their lids tightly taped with black duct tape.

After several times making sure that the snow near the General's house had not disturbed any footprints, and the chimney above the house was not Smoking, I finally decided to eliminate the traces of my first self-serving visit in the most radical way.

In the neighboring cottages, there were still no neighbors in sight, and after spending half an hour watching, I slipped through the unlocked gate. I didn't dare stay long in the house a second time. The contents of the first can I quickly poured on the second floor, and the second can was poured retreating to the exit.

I did not bother with a delayed fire, the house is strong, the doors are thick, it does not immediately catch fire. He put the empty cans in his bag, took out a box, and stepped over the threshold, lighting a match. Almost invisible flames immediately ran in different directions on the floor, I tightly closed the door and hurried to the gate. The train to Leningrad was supposed to be in 20 minutes...

Already standing on the platform, I saw the first thick clouds of black smoke rising in the village. The train, as always, was late, so the few passengers in my car looked with interest at the Windows of the fire truck approaching the village.

***

On Saturday, April first, the holidays ended and I went back to school. The last 'spring' quarter was beginning. It was exactly the 40th day of my 'second childhood'.

- Fortieth day... If I died THERE, then today my friends and employees will drink to the rest of my soul. Or they won't... because, for the most part, they haven't been born yet! - having fun with such thoughts, I reluctantly drove to school through the muddy snow. If it was still winter outside the city, then in Leningrad, in the morning, the thermometer showed almost +2*.

I didn't want to go to school at all. Problems were piling up like a snowball and there were no ways to solve them. After all, the times are too different, and what in 2015 in the Russian Federation can not be a problem in principle, in 1978 in the USSR, there were practically no solutions. My age only added to the hopelessness of the situation.

In the area of automatic Luggage storage of each station, it was written in huge letters that the duration of Luggage storage is 5 days. There are five railway stations in the city: Moscow, Baltiysky, Varshavsky, Finlyandsky and Vitebsk. I have seven' bookmarks', two in Finnish and Moscow. Moscow is the most crowded, and from Finland I went to Repino. So now you will have to go to five train stations every four days, open and re-pay for Luggage storage. How quickly I get used to train stations is a purely rhetorical question. Because, very quickly...

And with that kind of money, I can't rent an apartment, a garage, or a dacha. Because the child just no one will pass anything. And when they see quite a lot of money, they will also try to take it to the police. And the storage OF such 'cargo' on a rented territory can not end well.

Now the issue of storing 'my treasures' is the most urgent and urgent. When I went to Repino, I expected, as it was written in the note, 'bundles of bills for 25, 50 and 100 rubles... for a total amount of 250,000 rubles'. This is if you distribute the bills proportionally, about 50-60 packs of 100 bills. That is, this amount of money would easily fit in one sports bag and, somehow, with difficulty, but I would hide it at home or somewhere else... But in fact, it turned out to be only money over one and a half million, for two "rides" of about fifteen kilograms. There were twenty-five kilos of jewelry. From a heavy, iron-bound box, I put them in two bags, and the box itself was carried away from the railway platform and dumped in some dump of various iron junk. Six pistols and a submachine gun with magazines weighed another eleven kilograms, ammunition - seventeen and gold coins - about 10 kilograms.

I know the approximate weight of the cargo, because I experimentally calculated my 'load capacity' at home in advance. It was-fifteen kilograms, so that I did not bend suspiciously under the weight, and did not stop to rest every 20-30 meters. And therefore, I tried bags and backpacks over thirteen kilograms, for one 'ride', not to load. What used studenny from the kitchen my mother's a spring steelyard.

That's how I carried more than ninety kilos in seven trips. Which now lay in seven storage chambers as a very precious and very dangerous cargo.