endlessly waiting. And it wound the clock up so that the house did not
feel completely dead. It was taking care of the house for the people who
had forgotten about it. So how come it was nobody's fault?
"Look how thin it is," whispered Vitalka, stroking the dog's back.
We fed it almost all our supplies which it gulped down greedily,
glancing guiltily at us as if apologising for not using more restraint.
Then we dragged the carpet into the small room, which now seemed
cosier than the others. The clock was ticking away just like the one at
home and the master of the house was walking about with us, so all our
fears vanished.
We wrapped ourselves up in the carpet and the dog lay down at our
feet and started breathing evenly.
"Good dog," I said in a loud whisper.
The dog wagged its tail in reply.
"It's happy people have come," said Vitalka.
"Shall we take it with us tomorrow?" I asked.
"Of course."
We talked a little more about the dog, the old house, the people who
had once lived here, and made guesses as to why they had left without
taking the dog with them and who it was waiting for. Later on we often
made up all sorts of stories about this, but we never found out the
truth.
I was awoken by the hot sun beating down on the rain-washed
window-panes and ricocheting into the room. Golden dots were blazing on
Vitalka's eyelashes. He blinked, smiled, threw back the carpet and sat
up. I at once felt chilly and sat up, too, hugging my shoulders.
According to the clock ticking away, it was half-past five but we had
no idea, of course, if it was keeping time. The dog was still asleep at
our feet. Its ginger coat was matted and dirty brown in parts and its
ribs were sticking through it.
"It must be awful hungry," Vitalka said pityingly.
The dog opened its eyes and looked at us. It had a sad, kind and very
intelligent face.
"Do you want to come with us, dog?" asked Vitalka. "Don't worry,
Auntie Valya won't boot you out."
The dog got to its feet slowly and wagged its tail.
"It's saying yes!" exclaimed Vitalka, overjoyed. "Let's go!"
We carried the carpet outside with the dog at our heels. Still damp,
the high grass entwined our legs with what seemed like cold fingers. We
rolled the carpet out on the porch's dry boards so that it did not get
wet, and sat down on it.
"Come here, dog," I called.
It obediently sat down beside us and I put my arms round its neck.
We flew up very slowly and smoothly so as not to frighten the dog and
it sat very still, looking down, but did not take fright. However, after
we had flown about a hundred yards, it started getting restless, freed
its head from my arm, turned round and glanced anxiously at me and
Vitalka in turn.
"Don't be scared," I said tenderly.
But the dog wasn't scared: it was asking to go back. It crept to the
very edge of the carpet, whined and barked softly.
"It doesn't want to leave," said Vitalka.
"We can't leave it all on its own!" I said angrily.
"That's its home. What can we do if it doesn't want to leave it?
It'll come back here even if we take it away."
I realised this myself. It was such a pity to leave the dog behind
but what else could we do? So we landed near the house, and the dog
jumped off the carpet and looked round as if inviting us to go with it.
"We can't," said Vitalka. "You can't leave and we can't stay. Do you
understand?
The dog looked sad: it understood.
"We'll come and visit you," I promised.
Chapter Eleven
A thunderstorm was again passing over the western part of the sky.
Black and lilac clouds were piled up there and every now and then from
their midst came flashes of branchy lightning, and then after a long
interval a grumbling travel-weary thunderclap reached us.
As the sun was shining, the stormclouds seemed especially gloomy and
the lightning dull and hardly noticeable. We weren't afraid to be caught
in the storm because an east wind was blowing it out of our way.
Then slanting strips of rain appeared on the stormy horizon and soon
it grew lighter there. A large rainbow appeared, it ends straddling the
forest like the gates of a giant's palace.
"Let's fly over to it!" yelled Vitalka.
"Yes, let's!" I cried back, trembling with joy and fear that we would
not get there in time. But we did! Yes, we flew into a rainbow! I had
heard grown-ups say that you could not get near a rainbow because it
always ran away from you and then vanished like a mirage.
Well, don't you believe it! Go up to a babbling fountain where there
are lots of little rainbows playing in the spray and put your hands into
their midst and they will start playing on your palms. So why shouldn't
you be able to touch a big rainbow?
Of course, it's hard to catch one up if you're running along the
ground but, you see, we were flying with the wind behind us.
As we flew up to the rainbow, we felt as if a silent transparent
waterfall was tumbling down on us from the sky. Then everything around,
the earth, clouds and we ourselves turned lilac and different shades of
blue, and nearby little blue lights began sparkling like glass dust and
very gently pricking our skin.
Then everything became gentler and warmer and a green wave rolled
over us with bright green lights playing in it like tiny leaves on
rain-washed trees trembling in the wind and sunshine.
And then the little leaves became little suns glowing on the carpet's
pile and on the minute hairs on our skins and in the air itself. Vitalka
was laughing opposite me. His light blue shirt was now bright green and
his hair was studded with fiery lights.
The yellow air grew denser and redder and we felt a wave of heat as
we flew through the orange mist. And then all of a sudden music seemed to
burst forth as the whole wide world was a wonderful festive and bright
red studded with little twinkling lights.
We passed right through the rainbow and flew under its shining arc,
and then it lured us back, and we swept into it again, diving through
different-coloured waves all along its bow. And this took us a long time
for the bow seemed to stretch on and on for ever. We bathed in the
caressing iridescent light as in the river, and it seemed to be beating
its coloured wings before our eyes, each colour with a warmth and even a
smell of its own. For instance, the yellow air, if you ask me, smelled of
young pine sprigs, the orange of tangerines and the green of damp
grass...
It's hard to believe this now, but at the time I was not in the
slightest surprised for I was sure that was how it ought to be. You see,
at that time I felt the life of the earth and air with every fibre of my
being. I was conscious of the way they breathed, rustled, stirred and
gave light and warmth. I could feel the fleeting shadow of a passing bird
with my shoulder and pick out the right stalk among hundreds of others
blindfolded. I knew now each of the four winds smelled and, on waking,
could tell whether the rain was warm or cold by its sound. When I waded
down a stream, I could count how many warm and cold little currents
jabbed my legs. I could keep a sunbeam in my palm for a whole second and
when it slipped through my fingers and sat on the back of my hand, I
could feel its downy flutter with my skin.
I could tell what sort of clouds were in the sky with my eyes closed.
And Vitalka could do all this, too...
We waved good-by to the rainbow and headed home, flying low between
the dark old firs, stroking the tops of the shiny birches and peeping
into birds' nests. We invited all the different woodland birds to come
nearer, but for some reason they took fright, the silly creatures.
Only a large woodpecker on a dry pine looked fearlessly at us with
its black beady eye and then pecked the trunk so fiercely that a whole
layer of bark flew off and plunged down into the dark wood below. Vitalka
later tried to convince me that the force of this blow had made the
woodpecker's red crest slip to the left.
We were flying slowly, but time was simply speeding by, and it was
already evening when the town at last drew near.
Along some young birches a little way from the river we caught sight
of a round glade covered with ox-eye daisies which seemed particularly
large and splendid because they were growing far apart.
"Let's pick some," said Vitalka. "You know how Auntie Valya adores
flowers..."
I flew the carpet low over the grass, searching for a place to land
where we would not crush a single flower and had already found one when
Vitalka called out in fright, "No, don't it'll get wet!"
The grass was indeed glistening wetly and drops of moisture were
nestling in the daisies like in tiny dishes. There had probably been a
brief sunny shower here a short while before.
"Stay in the air," I ordered Vitalka and we hovered on the carpet
about a metre off the ground while I jumped down into the tangle wet of
leaves and stalks. My plimsolls were soon soaked but I picked a large
bunch of flowers smelling of warm rain, forest and the rainbow.
On the way home I clasped the flowers to my chest and the front of my
shirt soon became wet and plastered with tiny leaves.
We flew up very high from the glade, lowered our "kite's tail" as a
disguise and swept over the town. It was sunset, and although the sun was
still shining on us, the town was already in shadows. We dived into them
very fast and almost fell onto our roof.
The house was completely still except for the crickets and other
insects scraping in the cracks. We went downstairs, got out an antique
cut-glass vase and put the bouquet in the centre of the table.
"I only hope it doesn't wilt before tomorrow..." began Vitalka and
suddenly stopped in mid-word.
"What's wrong?"
He gulped and pointed to a corner where Auntie Valya's suitcase was
standing.
"So she... um... got back this morning."
"Where is she then?" I asked foolishly.
"Where!" exclaimed Vitalka tearfully. "Why, she's running all over
town, looking for us. Where else could she be? Here she is!"
Through the window I caught sight of Auntie Valya walking slowly
across the yard from the gate.
We rushed up to our watchtower, tore off our plimsolls and dived
under the blankets. We could hear Auntie Valya's heels clicking on the
stairs. My wet footprints had told her that the travellers had returned
home.
Half a minute later we were lying completely still with our faces
towards the wall, and Auntie Valya was standing in the middle of the room
and delivering an unusually long and extremely harsh lecture to our
backs.
She said we were impossible, cruel little boys and that we thought
only of our own pleasure and never about how grown-ups could get badly
ill from worry. It was a good thing at least that Valentina Sergeyevna
(my mother) had not heard about our disappearance because she and Uncle
Seva were at work all day long (I gave a sigh of relief), but she, Auntie
Valya, had aged ten years in that one day. But the really terrible thing
was that we were growing up into heartless egoists. Nothing that was said
to us had the slightest effect. So there was only one way left of
teaching us and that was to get hold of two strong switches, one for each
of us, and give us a really good, sound hiding.
Unfortunately, however, she could not do this. She had no right to
beat me as I was not her relative although she often forgot this (here
she paused slightly and sniffed suspiciously). And it was unfair to beat
only Vitalka because we were probably both equally to blame. And so all
she could do was to go away and leave us alone with our conscience (if we
knew what that was, and if we had any left).
I evidently had because I felt terribly sad and remorseful. I was
even ready to accept Auntie Valya as a close relative with all the
ensuing consequences. But Auntie Valya blew her nose loudly and after a
reproachful silence went downstairs where she saw the bouquet and
relented.
"Rascals," she said in a gentler tone. "What rascals..."
We crept downstairs and stopped in the doorway. Auntie Valya raised
her face from the bouquet and looked at us over her shoulder. We must
have looked very guilty, small, and pathetic.
"You villains," said Auntie Valya. "Where have you been? I got back
here at five this morning and guessed at once that you hadn't slept the
night here. I tried to get Sasha and Vetka to tell me, but they mumbled
something incoherent... I almost died."
"But we didn't know you'd come back earlier," said Vitalka.
Auntie Valya turned to us, sat down firmly in a chair, straightened
herself and said in a stringent tone, "Come here, you horrid boys, and
tell me all about the tricks you've been up to. I want all the detail and
no fibs.
She was no longer angry at all. In fact, she was happy we had come
back. We went up to her and she grabbed hold of our hands as if afraid we
might run off again. We sighed, exchanged glances and started telling her
about the magic carpet.
"After all, it was you who gave it to us," Vitalka whispered in
conclusion.
And I added, "And it's quite safe..."
I don't know whether Auntie Valya believed us or not but I think she
probably did. She neither seemed surprised nor asked us to show her how
we flew but she squeezed our hands and said, "Magic carpets are found in
fairy-tales, and fairy-tales are written to make people happy. So how can
you make a fairy-tale bring people grief?
So we promised never to do anything again with the carpet or without
it that would bring Auntie Valya grief.
For some reason or other, she smiled, shook her head, looked at us
and then at the daisies and then at us again and said that she really
ought to teach us a lesson, but unfortunately she could not very well
throw away the presents she had brought us.
And then she presented Vitalka with some paints and me with a mouth
organ and us both with a compass with a luminescent face, and we let go
restrained whoops of joy.
She had also brought Vitalka a blouse with a silk sash and an
embroidered pattern on its collar and hem. It was made of some silky
light yellow fabric that was glossy like satin.
She told to try it on at once. It turned out to be rather on the
large side and hung baggily on him, making him look a litle like a girl
in a party frock. I frankly told him as much while Auntie Valya went to
fetch her glasses.
"So what? Just as long as she's not angry any more," Vitalka
retorted.
He told Auntie Valya that the shirt fitted him perfectly and that he
liked it very much and was simply thrilled by her present.
"Really?" she asked joyfully. "Why, that's marvellous. I thought it
was rather too wide and long. I'm very pleased you like it. You wear it
tomorrow when we go to the circus."
"The circus?!" we both exclaimed in unison.
And then Auntie Valya informed us that she had bought the tickets a
week ago but had wanted to keep it a surprise.
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