Carefully, the Gestalt doors are closing. Alla KrasnovaЧитать онлайн книгу.
I said, and my foot protruded out of the car, framed by a flowery, pointy-toed spring shoe.
I reminded myself of the girl in the ad who often played on my smartphone. First, her leg gets out of the expensive car, and then the rest of her body shows up. It was funny. I smiled, and Avena noticed my smile and gave me a cheery wink.
We headed for the house.
In addition to her Jeep, there were two other cars parked outside the house – a gray one and a red one.
“Almost there,” I said ironically.
The house was huge, white color dominated, combined with brick, and went to pink. The benches, gazebos, and fences were pink. There were many swings around the house. If the house wasn’t so huge, I’d say it was Barbie’s house, although its solidity and solidity suggested fountains and antique statues. However, they were, only of a modern type.
As we were walking into the house, I stopped at a statue that was made in the firm of a female outline, the inside of which was empty.
– This is the work of Francois Duanne, a famous sculptor, a good friend of my father. We’ve got a lot of his statues here, “she commented casually. Avena contemporary art. – Let’s go quickly, I’ll show you more! she tugged at my arm.
I followed her. She took me around the back of the house to show me the pond where the swans swam.
“Look – » she said, pointing to the pond, which was surrounded by a small white fence.
“Yeah, they’re cool,” I said softly, eyeing the two swans that swam there.
“They’re not real!” Avena said with a grin. “It’s my mother’s thing. She likes this kind of thing. Well, that’s when you look and you think they’re real, but on closer inspection they’re not,“she smiled. – They still have a remote control, it’s in the tree closest to the pond.
“Is the tree real?” I asked in surprise.
Avena laughed. Her light laugh fascinated me. Avena was genuinely surprised by my naivete.
“And the trees are real,” she said, smiling. “There’s a lot of real stuff here, and I’m still surprised,” she said ironically. “By the way, I’ll introduce you to my sister,” Avena said, looking at the watch she was wearing, a small, shiny watch that looked more like a bracelet. “No, Savannah’s having a nap right now. Avena waved her hand, and her watch bounced on her slender wrist.
I was always surprised that Avena wore a watch, because no one else at work wore one. Everyone was watching the time on their phone or other gadgets. But Avena always came with a watch on her arm. I understood that this habit of wearing watches had been with her since childhood, as if it had grown together with them, and I could no longer imagine her without a watch on her hand. But her watch made me uneasy, and I began to think about time, and I realized that the last five years of my life had gone down the drain as if they hadn’t happened.
***
Inside, the house was quiet, deserted, and echoing. It seemed that if I said a word, there would be an echo. The house is like a dream in which you wander, wander and nothing happens. But it was cool inside, I liked it, it was refreshing.
Avena showed me my room, which I immediately liked because there was nothing superfluous in it, and fortunately it was small, with cream tulle that shivered in the slightest breeze, because the windows were open. I was glad that the room was small, otherwise I would have had to put up a tent and live in it, so as not to lose the boundaries of the body. Then Avena gave me a surprise.
“Make yourself comfortable,” Avena said. The best rest after the train is to see the sea. Or you can go swimming. Do you want to go swimming?
I was a little confused. After my lull in life, when nothing happened at all, it was out of the blue. I hadn’t even gotten away from the train ride where I’d seen a voodoo doll in the window, then Avena had surprised me by telling me that she was getting married soon, and now we were going to the beach.
“I hope you brought your bathing suit with you.” she said cheerfully to me.
In fact, I took a hundred-year-old bathing suit with me at lunchtime. But there was too much going on in one day for me, so I decided to lie.
“No, – I said with a sly smile, just in case she divulged me.
But then she said:
– great! I have so many new swimsuits, some from the latest collections. I can’t bear it. You can choose any of them. Or do you want me to pick one for you?”
Apparently, she didn’t want to accept the rejection, and it was easier for me to accept.
I decided not to make up any more excuses, after all, being at one with the nature of the seashore could calm me down more than the tulle fluttering in the wind in this room. Besides, Avena said that there are few people on the beach right now and we will be almost alone. I didn’t want to choose a swimsuit myself, so I entrusted the choice to her.
Avena and I were about the same size, but she was slightly plumper at the hips, and the difference wasn’t significant.
Soon, she brought me a silver-and-white bathing suit with small white beads on top.
“These are pearls, they’re real,” she said with a smile, handing it to me.
– What if they go under?” I asked warily.
“So that’s where they belong, meeting their ancestors, going back to their roots,” she laughed, punctuating her joke with a silvery laugh that matched my bathing suit.
“Okay, I’ll put it on,” I said reluctantly – " but I’ll just sort things out a little first.”
“Come on,” she said, waving her hand. “So you’ll be buried in your rags for half a day.” I need to live now – " she said, as if by accident, but it stung me painfully, because it was targeted.
“I’m going to change,” I said stiffly.
Avena went out. I decided to change my clothes. I opened my dresser drawer to throw my trinkets in, and again I thought of that damn doll that was in my desk drawer. I slammed the drawer shut angrily, just as Avena came in again.
– By the way, I forgot to tell you, there’s a small cafe on the beach where you can enjoy seafood and drink refreshing cocktails. She glared at me as I hovered over the dresser.
“Yes, yes, I’ll be out soon,” I said with excitement in my voice.
Sometimes I didn’t think Avena had anyone to talk to, so she chose me as her friend. But now I was happy about it.
***
The waves were beautiful, the water lilac-frothy. The beach was almost deserted. I looked out into the distance and saw the sea merge with the sky, and the view mesmerized me, leaving all the problems behind somewhere. We had big straw hats, sunglasses, and a tent to hide from the sun. I thought we could make a movie here. I decided that I would take this landscape with me, with these soft cries of gulls, the rustle of waves. But before I could think about it, Avena sat down next to me.
– And now for a keepsake selfie, “she said, and took a picture of us on her phone, first pulling out her lips like a duck.
In principle, I didn’t mind. I was wearing a smoky pareo, the swimsuit fit me perfectly, showing off my figure favorably. Now I could take the sea with me not only in my memory, but also in the form of photos, it was even more pleasant.
Next to us, about a hundred meters away, there was a small wooden cafe with the romantic name “Dal”, similar to an open house where drinks and sea snacks were sold. There was a food delivery van parked next