I studied the pale blue ceiling of my hospital room thoroughly. Its geography was unsightly in its simplicity. Three little bumps forming an isosceles triangle, and one lacy, almost invisible crack – that was the whole of what fell to me for research. Also figuring as entertainment was a copy of «American Science» on the bedside table, quite the reading matter. I nearly went feral with boredom.
Yes. That is exactly what I told Romanych when he came to visit me:
– I hereby state for the record: as of today I am an enemy of monochrome ceilings.
– Of what, of what?
– Monochrome, meaning one color. Understand, you old codger?
– Uh-huh.
– The moment I get back to my room, I’m painting the ceilings in the colors of the solar spectrum.
– Listen, Cowboy. Don’t go scrambling my brains with bird talk. I’ve got news for you.
– What news?
– Old Willie found your kitty.
– What kitty?
– Forgotten already? The one you got shot over.
– Really?!.. – the boredom fell away from me instantly. I rubbed my eyes and looked hard at Romanych. Maybe he was raving drunk? No. Sober. Sitting across from me in a little white coat, smiling.
– Where did he find her?
– Opposite the old lighthouse. All done properly. Stone tied to her feet, poor thing dangling there… You know yourself the undertow is very strong out there…
– What undertow, what stone?
– Well, this… They tied a stone to her feet and dropped her over the side. So she’s been feeding the fish out there a good week, reckon. They only knew her by the swimsuit. Now don’t you worry, we didn’t touch anything. You get better, put on a scuba rig and swim out yourself, pay her a visit. Oh. Wherever there’s a beautiful woman, there’s bound to be an incident.
Romanych screwed up his eyes with pleasure. Judging by the scars, no small number of adventures involving beauties had fallen to the old mutt’s lot. It looked as though he was about to launch into one of his endless stories.
– So then, Cowboy. This was after my first stretch. I came out of the joint all full of swagger…
Of course, the old man said it differently. But how else is one to render into Russian the explosive Spanish-English-God-knows-what mixture he expressed himself in? Just so.
I made myself more comfortable on my hospital bed so as to hear out Romanych’s latest tall tale in full comfort. Alas, the door opened and a nurse came into the room. She banged a metal bedpan down on the table and, before the clang had died away, barked at Romanych that the patient needed rest, that this was no place for idle chatter, kindly roll yourself out of here! The old man ruffled his enormous mustache in displeasure, grunted, and laid his palm on the top of my head:
– All right, Cowboy. I’ll tell it next time, just remind me. Get well and clear out of here quick. Or you’ll croak in this place, the damn little doctors will drive you round the bend. Adios, amigo.
And Romanych was gone.
I scratched my head and remembered one small detail from the night battle over Anya. The little eyes of the man whose head I was twisting off at the bungalow entrance. What I remembered, rather, was not the eyes but their miserable-astonished-frightened expression. Exactly the same as the gunman’s whose belly I slit open in a drunken delirium a month ago. Hm… And the eyes themselves, it seems, were exactly the same. And the rest of it… In my dream I had closed the eyelids of a man who then turned up in the flesh shortly afterward. Yes. A phantom out of a delirium had turned into a real person. I remembered the hooked nose well, the sunken cheeks, the three-day stubble on them, the heavy creases at the mouth, the chin… No, the chin I didn’t remember. But everything else! Everything matched. Or didn’t it?
Damn!
My head started aching at the wrong moment. I was too lazy to strain my memory, and out of habit I reached toward the loathsome reading matter on the table… Oop! Out of nowhere, what was in my hand was a «Hustler». Nobody but Romanych could have looked after his friend’s spiritual health like that. Sharp fellow!
Now then. What’s new? Let’s leaf through, let’s have a read…