Alex's hopes rose.
"Tell me what you've got to do in Vetrogorsk," ordered the cashier.
Alex felt his ears glowing and most likely turning pink.
"Well... there's this girl. It's her birthday soon. And there's this
museum in Vetrogorsk..."
The cashier smiled gently.
"I see. This is a special case. What you need is a Green Pass on all
forms of transport there and back. After all, you've got to be back the
day after tomorrow."
Alex shrugged his shoulders in dismay. It made no difference now, did
it? After all, he did not have any money, and the special ticket was
bound to cost more than an ordinary one.
"The Green Pass does not have a fixed price," explained the cashier.
"But it's very expensive for it costs exactly as much as the passenger
has on him. No more, no less... Have you got anything at all?"
Alex quickly slipped his fingers into the side pocket under belt and
felt a three-kopeck coin. It had been lying there ever since the summer
before when he had tossed all his silver coins into the sea as he was
leaving the Crimea and this copper coin was all that was left.
"Here..." said Alex hesitantly. "But surely it's..."
"Let's have it," interrupted the cashier. She slammed the punch down
hard and gave Alex a piece of green cardboard.
"The ticket's valid until four the day after tomorrow."
"Thank you! Good-bye!" cried Alex and raced towards the door.
"Wait!"
"But the train's..."
"Don't hurry. You don't need the train now... If you go down the
side-streets past the old church and Cosmos Cinema, you'll come out into
Faraway Street..."
Alex nodded. He had never heard of Faraway Street but he knew the
Cosmos Cinema.
"Go right down to the end of this street and then keep going along
the path until you come out onto the riverbank. Sit down and wait. A
steamboat will arrive at four..."
"A steamboat?" repeated Alex in amazement.. "Why, but our river's so
small even rowing boat run aground in it!"
"Don't argue, Alex, " said the cashier wearily. "Off you go. Now,
don't hurry but don't dally either. The steamboat will arrive at four
sharp."
Alex recalled the horses in the stadium and the notices about the
flying carpets and realised it was silly to argue.
"I'll even have time to pack a few things," he thought. "And I'll
tell Auntie Dasha that I'm going to Val Yakovlev's country cottage."
Chapter Six
Faraway Street was very old indeed. It's little houses and fences
stood knee-deep in burdocks. Its road was overgrown with bright yellow
dandelions and its ditches with ox-eye daisies. Tall blades of grass were
sticking through chinks in its narrow wooden pavement and its planks
gently gave way underfoot. And there was nobody to be seen.
Alex was dressed for a hike in a green shirt and an old pair or track
trousers, and he had taken along the jacket he travelled to summer camp
in just in case. He had shoved two buttered sandwiches into his back
pocket but held onto the Green Pass because he was afraid to put it with
sandwiches in case it got smeared with butter!
The pass was as green as a fresh poplar leaf. Alex looked more
closely at the faintly printed pictures of an airplane, train, steamer
and bus in its corners. A black number - OS 100743 - ran along the top
and "For Special Cases" was printed in small red letters underneath. In
the middle of the pass was a large printed notice: "Valid on all forms
of Transport. Return", and then just below "Vetrogorsk". In the bottom
corner a blue square stamp said "Travel Agency. Booking-Office Number
2". It certainly looked as if the pass was real and Alex could not
believe he had paid only three kopecks for it...
The street ended or, rather, the house did, and wooden pavement and
ditched continued and beyond them stretched a meadow as far as the eye
could see. Then the pavement ended and an overgrown path ran on ahead.
The grass began rustling at his feet.
Alex felt as if he was swimming across a green sea except that he
could hear no surf but only rustling grass and incessantly chirring
grasshoppers. The sky and its small white clouds seemed to be swaying
above him and drifting towards him.
And then all of a sudden he spotted the river. How beautiful it
looked! It was small, no wider than an average lane, and the golden sand
on its bed gleamed through its dark waters. Dragonflies were darting here
and there. Alder bushes grew along its banks. But how could a steamer
possibly get here when even a small boat would hardly manage to?
"It was a joke!" thought Alex. "I've been tricked into buying a
useless ticket for three kopecks! And like a fool I believed it all!" He
sat down by the water's edge, feeling bitterly disappointed.
But he did not have to feel sad for long. In the distance he heard a
strange puffing as if a steam-engine was caught in the grass. Belching
smoke, a large blue funnel with silver stars was moving round the bend
over the high bushes.
Alex jumped up.
The steamer came crawling round the bend. It was a white
double-decker, obviously very old. Its flat green bottom was scraping
along the sandy river-bed and its huge paddle-wheels were too big for the
river and hung over the bank, digging into the earth with their red
blades and cutting down bushes. It was rumbling along the river like a
tractor and resembled a sea monster which had scrambled onto dry land.
Alex stared hard and could not believe his eyes. But whether he
believed them or not, the puffing steamer came up close and he had to
jump aside so as not to get struck by a paddle.
The steamer sighed like a tired whale and came to a standstill. A
gangway made of two planks with cross-beams came crashing down right by
Alex's sandals. By the entrance on board appeared a very large and very
fat man in a smart white uniform. He had a fair forked beard, shaggy grey
hair, a brick-red face and a nose like a tomato. His naval cap looked
minute, perched somewhere on the back of his vast head.
Alex at once realised that he must be the Captain.
"Young man!" boomed the Captain so loudly that the grass swayed. "I
hope you're the passenger with the Green Pass? If you are, I would like
to welcome you aboard my ship!"
Alex climbed on board, still blinking with astonishment.
"Welcome aboard!" roared the Captain, stretching out his hand. "This
is a very great pleasure! At last I've got a real passenger, the sort my
steamer is intended for." He lowered his voice and continued, "You won't
believe how fed up I am of taking all kinds of odd bods, wretched
business folk and lazy tourists. Just have a look at that lot!"
He squinted towards the fore deck where several men in straw boaters
were sitting in wicker chairs as if they were on a bus, with large
briefcases on their laps, and their eyes fixed straight ahead.
The Captain snorted sarcastically and said, "They got on board by
pulling strings. And now they're annoyed I've changed course because of
my passenger with Green Pass. Never mind, my dear, you can wait..."
"Surely you haven't forced your way up this river just because of
me?" asked Alex in amazement.
"But of course! Two hours ago we received a radiogram saying you
would be waiting for us here."
"But you know... It's such a huge steamer and the river's so small I
just can't believe it."
The Captain grinned and looked as pleased as Punch. "Fiddle-sticks!
If needs be, my little ship will even paddle across the Sahara Desert
although, strictly speaking, the Sahara isn't a sea at all."
"Of course," agreed Alex. "A steamer gets on much better at sea."
The Captain looked approvingly at him.
"By Jove, I like you, young man. Allow me to invite you to lunch with
me and then I'll accompany you to your cabin."
Alex readily agreed because he was really famished! He liked the
Captain and, in general, everything was working out splendidly.
Puffing and rocking, the steamer headed back stern first, while the
Captain and Alex set off to have lunch.
I the mess a lanky sailor with a long face and a dismal-looking nose
was sitting at a laid table and picking at a rissole with his fork.
"Let me introduce you," said the Captain to Alex. "This is my First
Mate."
"Hello," mumbled Alex.
The sailor raised himself slightly, silently bowed hid head and then
downed some yoghurt and said sourly, "By your leave, I've already had
lunch. So if you don't mind, I'll go and check the watches."
"That would be awfully kind of you," said the Captain.
The sailor slouched towards the door and disappeared from sight.
Gazing after him, the Captain said with conviction, "He's a bore and
the world's worst First Mate. I know it's wrong to wash your dirty linen
in public, so to speak, but I simply can't keep it to myself.
Incidentally, those are his proteges in the deckchairs and whenever I
object, he writes complaints about me to our head office."
The Captain sighed, took his cap off, invited Alex to sit down and
then squeezed himself into a chair.
They ate in silence. The Captain was lost in sad thought. Every now
and then he sighed so loudly that the curtain fluttered against the
window and Alex caught sight of the bushes drifting past. Their branches
were no longer scraping along the windows-panes, and the steamer's
paddles were now sloshing loudly through the water.
Toward the end of the meal the Captain cheered up and said to Alex,
"I can offer you a choice of cabins. There's first-class cabins and
luxury ones with a bath, television and so on. But I'd advise you to
take a super-luxury one. I assure you it's most suitable for anyone
who's not too old. Many people ask to be put there but I don't let them."
He took Alex to the upper deck whose sides were lined with
life-boats, unlaced the tarpaulin covering one of them and flung it
aside.
"Here we are!" he exclaimed triumphantly. "Here you can live under
the stars and marvel at the water and shores. It's wonderfully peaceful
and quiet up here and the wind's warm. And..." he lowered his voice,
"nobody'll get on your nerves."
"Oh, how fantastic!" exclaimed Alex. "You mean, I can sleep here?"
"Of course you can. You'll be brought an air-bed."
...The evening came quickly. The sunset flared up and quickly died
away over the water. The river was now so wide that you could hardly make
out its banks.
Alex snuggled down in the lifeboat. The Little Bear constellation
swayed gently over him and he felt asleep to the sound of lapping water
and the steamer's even puffing.
He was awoken by steps which were cautious but heavy as if a
hippopotamus was creeping up on him. He sat up and saw the Captain
standing by the lifeboat.
"I beg your pardon," he said in a whisper which sent ripples across
the tarpaulin cover. "I hope I haven't disturbed you? The fact is... I
have something important to discuss with you. Or rather an offer to make
you... You wouldn't by any chance agree to being my First Mate?"
Alex almost jumped up with surprise.
"What?"
"There's nothing to it. Being my First Mate. It's not a bad job at
all."
"But... It's such important work. You've got to know the ropes."
"I assure you, you'll learn! Where there's a will..."
"Yes... but you've already got a First Mate."
"I'll sack him!" declared the Captain. "Or leave him on a desert
island where he can write as many complaints as he likes. He's more
trouble than he's worth."
Alex kept silent. He, of course, could not agree, but was afraid of
offending the Captain by turning his offer down.
"Do agree," urged the Captain. "You'll never regret it. You'll see
more far-off seas and wonderful islands than in all the sea adventures
ever written. I promise you exciting experiences almost every day.
Incidentally, there're still real pirates in the mouth of the River
Jil-Baldeo..."
"This is all really terrific," Alex began cautiously, "but, you see,
I've got some important business which means more to me than anything
else. And you can't give up things that matter most."
"I see," said the Captain sadly. "Everyone has his own way to go. I
understand you and I'm not in the least offended. But I am very sorry.
Good night."
Alex woke up late, or, rather, was awoken by the Captain inviting him
to breakfast.
Afterwards they went up onto the bridge. It was a cloudless morning
and the big river gleamed like fish-scales in the sunlight. The steamer
turned towards the bank and the Captain said, "I could take you straight
to Vetrogorsk but it would take many days. You'll get there faster by
plane. There's a small airfield half an hour's walk away from here. Show
your pass at the ticket office and you'll be put straight onto a plane."
Alex felt rather sad. He had already got used to the steamer and its
Captain but he had his own way to go. And when the steamer dug its prow
into the sand, he said, "Good-bye. Farewell!"
"Best of luck," replied the Captain.
Chapter Seven
The steamer cast off from the bank and began splashing down-stream.
Alex waved after it and then threw his jacket over his shoulder and set
off down the path.
The path ran up and down hillocks and twisted between huge shiny
speckled boulders and dense blooming eglantine thickets. Now and then the
bushes covered the path and he had to pick his way through them.
About a kilometre later Alex came out onto a clearing with a carpet
of yellow dandelions and caught sight of a sturdy four-cornered stone
pillar which looked like the base of an old monument. White arrows had
been drawn on different parts of it and next to them were the following
inscriptions:
MAGIC KINGDOM
STATE FARM
ENCHANTED FOREST
MERMAID CREEK
VEHICLE DEPOT No.4
And so on. In fact, the whole pillar was marked with white arrows.
"My goodness," said Alex but did not feel very surprised.
Near the base of the pillar among the dandelions he found an arrow
marked with the word "Airfield". Alex looked where it was pointing to and
started picking his way again between the boulders and eglantine bushes.
Before long from the hillock he spotted a field overgrown with ox-eye
daisies, and two small houses on the other side of it, one light brown
with a tall aerial and the other covered in large red and white checks. A
long white balloon with black horizontal stripes, used for gauging the
wind was hanging on a long pole above the chequered house. There was
hardly any wind and the sausage-like balloon was hanging almost still.
Alex walked through the grass and daisies towards the small houses.
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