you won't!"
Chapter Eight
He had not believe us at first but who would?!
Even when we had carried the carpet over in a roll and laid it among
the dandelions growing thickly in the yard, he smiled in a comprehending
and slightly guilty way as if to say: "I can see you're joking and want
to cheer me up but why go to so much trouble? Fancy dragging over a
carpet..."
"Sit down," said Vitalka.
Smiling awkwardly, Breezy stepped off the porch and onto the carpet
and sat down.
"Don't be afraid," I warned.
We rose about a half a metre and flew low over the ground, sweeping
up a whirlwind of dandelion seeds behind us. Breezy did not cry out or
jump off the carpet: he simply opened his eyes wide and gripped my elbow
tightly.
It was a wonderful day, a real red-letter day. We had a new friend!
And everything in the world - the grass, the sun, the puffy clouds and
rustling rowan bushes - everything seemed to be rejoicing with us. We
flew over the spacious yard, making sharp turns and several times soared
off the roof into the sky pierced with blazing sunrays. The carpet
carried all four of us without a murmur.
The only thing that upset us slightly was that Breezy could not
control the magic carpet. Vetka had not learnt to either but she did not
mind in the least about it. Breezy, however, was really upset. He tried
again and again to make it fly properly, but it either slid sideways
under the fence or rose very slightly and then flopped down again.
"Never mind," Vitalka and I consoled him. "You'll get used to it and
learn."
"Yes, I will."
When we grew tired of flying, we settled on the roof again and
started talking about life and planets and ships, paper soldiers and
Australian kangaroos, stamps and atomic energy, school and Sputniks...
Then the light evening came.
This may sound splendid but, you see, we wanted it to be dark because
we had to get all the way to the town's park and get settled in the thick
birch tops where we would have an excellent view of the screen.
We weren't worried we would discover other spectators among the
branches because the birches' trunks were straight and smooth and
impossible to climb up.
"It's time," said Vitalka.
We sat down on the carpet. Vetka carefully checked to see Breezy
jumped straight off the steps and onto the carpet as he had done in the
afternoon and did not break his promise by accidentally stepping on the
ground.
We had to fly low over the ground, picking quiet lines as we went.
We had rolled the tail up and put it on top so that it did not get caught
in the weeds. Several times, at the sight of passers-by, we landed and
pretended to be simply playing. The passers-by shrugged their shoulders
and wondered what sort of a game children could be playing on a carpet in
the middle of the street. At long last we flew deftly up onto the roof of
a three-storeyed house across the street from the park. When the coast
was clear, we swept like the wind over the street and the iron railings,
over the bushes and flower beds and ploughed our way into the middle of
the birches.
It was like being in a green hut. Although you couldn't see the
ground through the branches, the light sky was peeping through the leaves
above. Several branches were covering the screen and so we edged forwards
slightly, broke off a couple and that did the trick. The film began...
Once again a little plane was swaying over the yellow sands and
deep-blue sea. Once again the azure depths of the sea with its bright
shoals of tropical fish and ominous, shadowy sharks splashed across the
screen. Once again ten-year-old Davy, straining himself to the utmost,
dragged his wounded father over to the plane while a plaintive song about
being all alone in the world rang over the impassive sands.
The boy was our close friend. We were with him heart and soul, and
his very step made us either happy or sad. We knew every sequence by
heart but still felt thrilled when he lifted the plane into the air.
We did not notice it get dark, indeed, much darker than it usually
was even late at night in summer. Then all of a sudden I shuddered
because a raindrop had plopped onto my neck like a cold grape, and was
rolling down the back of my collar.
The rain suddenly came pouring down, crashing through the leaves and
branches and beating down on our shoulders and backs, and on the carpet.
Glassy threads of rain shone like silver in the projector's light.
Then a commotion broke out in the audience and the screen went back.
Vitalka was the first to sense trouble.
"Let's go!" he exclaimed and we tore out of the wet branches and sped
at an angle over the street, barely clearing the fences.
"Higher! We must fly higher!" I yelled, thinking that Vitalka was
keeping close to the ground on purpose.
But it was the rain keeping us down. The drenched carpet grew heavier
and heavier until it finally flopped down onto the wet granite flagstones
in a yard.
"We're landed," I said in despair. "Now what are we going to do?"
"We can go the rest of the way on foot," said Vetka. "We are soaked
as it is."
Did she really think I was worried about getting wet? I could not
have cared less about the rain! All I was thinking about was what was
going to happen to the carpet. Suppose it never flew again? It was such
an appalling thought that I did not even dare utter it aloud.
The carpet looked limp and lifeless. Everyone except Breezy stepped
off it and stood on the stone flags.
"You can't," said Vetka sternly. "You promised, don't forget."
"But what shall I do?" he asked.
"He promised," Vetka repeated, staring exactingly at Vitalka and
myself.
With a sigh Vitalka offered Breezy his back with his shirt sticking
to it.
"Get on"
"Oh no, I can't..." said Breezy sadly. "Really I..."
"Get on," repeated Vitalka. We'll carry you home. After all, it's our
fault you've got into this mess."
"No, it's my own fault."
"Get on," I said.
A few moments later Breezy was riding along on Vitalka's back while
Vetka and I carried the roll of carpet on our shoulders. It was terribly
heavy because of all the water it had absorbed. But it wasn't really so
much the weight that was getting me down as the thought that the carpet
might not fly again.
Every now and then Breezy demanded to be put down but, Vitalka would
tell him to stay put.
The rain stopped. In the distance thunder rolled over the roof-tops,
as we silently splashed along the wet pavements all the way back to
Vetka's house. Then Vetka got out her bicycle, told Breezy to get on the
back seat and said she would take him right to his porch while we dragged
the carpet home.
"Will you come tomorrow?" Breezy asked hastily.
"Yes," I promised, and it then occurred to me that even if the carpet
did not fly again, we had still been blessed with a wonderful new friend.
Chapter Nine
How nerve-racking the next day was! The carpet lay on the roof in the
sunshine and the steam rising from it smelled like mists in a tropical
forest (or, at least, that's what it reminded us of). It dried out very
slowly and when we tried flying on it, it did not budge an inch.
Gazing at me with wistful eyes, Vitalka asked, "Has it really had
it?"
I just shrugged my shoulders. To tell the truth, I was choking back
my tears, but I said courageously: "Its magic is so strong, a few drops
of rain can't possibly do it any harm!"
Vetka came by and tenderly stroked the carpet's damp coat. We called
on Breezy several times, and each time he called down from the roof,
"Well?"
"It's still not dry. We'll just have to wait," we would cheerfully
reply. "Perhaps it'll be dry by the evening."
But that evening the carpet still refused to fly.
But the next morning held a wonderful surprise in store for us.
Vitalka and I woke up at exactly the same time, dashed towards the window
and climbed onto the roof. The carpet was once again light, silky, soft
and ready to fly. In fact, lying there it looked as if it had been just
waiting for us!
We flopped onto its caressingly warm coat and flew up into the sky.
It was still early, and the cockerels were crowing joyfully in the yards.
Later that day Breezy's mother returned home in a cheerful mood and
was not at all angry with him.
"You poor little mite! Have you been sitting on the roof all this
time?" she exclaimed hearing that Breezy had stayed under house arrest
all these days. "I quite forgot to tell you you were free to go! Don't be
angry with me, darling, I won't do it again!"
And so Breezy at once asked permission to go over to our place and
spend the night there.
We showed him our cardboard soldiers, Vitalka's paintings, our
weapons, telescope and all our other treasures. We put on a show battle
of our armies which lasted until the evening. And late that night we
stole Vetka away from home and set off flying. And we felt as happy as we
had done the very first time because we were now discovering the sky, the
town at night, the twinkling evening stars and streaming warm air all
over again together with Breezy.
At that time nothing marred our happiness and friendship. Nothing
that is, except Breezy's unsuccessful attempts to fly the carpet which
made him feel angry and us rather guilty. You see, our carpet wouldn't
obey him.
"I can't," he would say unhappily. "Somehow I don't believe that it's
going to take off. Now if only it had a steering wheel..."
We understood what he meant. All his life he had dreamed of planes
and imagined himself holding control levers, and could not think of a
flight in any other way.
But we couldn't attach a steering wheel to our carpet.
"But I'll learn!" Breezy kept assuring us. "I will, honest! And does
it matter who pilots the carpet? We fly on it all together, don't we?"
"Wouldn't it be great to go on a long flight?" said Vitalka.
And we all agreed. Vetka and Breezy did so perhaps without thinking,
but I really meant it. After all, that's what we had been dreaming about
for so long!
We were often lucky that summer, and were certainly so in the matter
of our distant flight. One day Auntie Valya received a postcard from an
old friend in a nearby town. After going about the whole day with a
pensive expression on her face, she asked us if she could rely on us and
if we could manage on our own for two days while she went to visit some
friends of her youth.
"On our own? Why, we can live at my place. Everything'll be fine,
Auntie Valya," I replied, giving Vitalka a meaningful look.
Two whole days! We'd be able to fly far away into the unknown!
We gazed so sincerely at Auntie Valya that she did not suspect any of
our wicked plans. I ran home and back again and informed Auntie Valya
that Mum said she was not to worry about us. In fact, Mum did not even
know Auntie Valya was leaving. She was busy at work in the library from
early morning till evening because half of her colleagues were away on
holiday.
Next morning we saw off Auntie Valya at the station and then raced
over to Breezy's. Vetka and he were fixing a strange contraption of
narrow criss-crossed wooden laths covered with polythene film onto a
bicycle frame.
"Whatever's that?" I asked in amazement.
Breezy and Vetka looked rather embarrassed.
"Well, they're... sort of wings," said Breezy. "If you go downhill
fast enough, you may take off... like a plane."
I blinked in surprise. Take off? Why bother with this creaking
thingumajig when we had the magic carpet?
"Why..." I began but stopped because I saw Vitalka looking sadly and
sympathetically at Breezy and Vetka or, rather, mainly at Vetka. And for
some reason she was blushing and standing with her back towards us,
twisting a long curl round her finger. Oh, Vetka, Vetka...
I did not say anything because I realised Breezy and Vetka had found
a magic carpet of their own or, rather, were making one. True, it was
very clumsy-looking and heavy but what did that matter? They were happy
together and had a fairy-tale all of their own.
And so that was that. But I still said, "Auntie Valya's gone away for
two days. Why don't we fly to the far woods and spend all day there?"
Breezy raised his honest eyes and it was obvious he did not want to
fly there but dared not say no as he was afraid of offending us.
"Or if you'd rather," I said hurriedly. "We'll fly there first on
reconnaissance and then all fly there together next time."
He smiled gratefully.
"Right!" he said with relief. "And meanwhile we'll finish this off
and then all go together..."
No, we did not hold it against Breezy and Vetka. Only once while he
was putting some food for our journey into a string bag did Vitalka say
sadly, "So that's that."
And then all of a sudden I pictured Vetka dancing "The Little Star"
on the edge of the carpet.
"I do hope they don't break anything when they're trying their
thingamy out," I said anxiously.
"They won't have time to," Vitalka replied. "We'll be back by the
time they've finished it."
It was our longest and happiest flight. We flew over a vast
uninhabited forest and the town gradually disappeared behind the birch
and fir tops. I now seemed as if the whole world was covered with thick
branchy trees.
What was it like skimming slowly over the tree tops? Well, when
you're on a train going along a steep embankment over a forest, the trees
drift by below in a somewhat similar way. Stick your head out the window
and have a look: if the embankment's steep, it feels rather like you're
flying but, of course, it's not really the same.
The train carriage is clanking and jolting along and the oncoming
wind reeks of fumes and you can't stop and admire the trees or have a
closer look at a squirrel in a dark round hollow or a nest full of funny
scrawny-necked fledglings.
We were drifting along in silence and only the trees all around were
rustling quietly and evenly. The dry sou'wester sent waves of warm air
rolling over us. We were lying flat on the carpet, leaning our heads over
the side and peering down into the deep dark forest. It was like green
glass with orange spots of sunlight swaying on the grass and bushes. The
rose hips were glittering like little lights and the resin on the pine
trunks glinted and sparkled.
All of a sudden we caught sight of a bright red fox which spotted us,
too, and bolted through trees. I had most likely mistaken the carpet for
a huge bird of prey. We chased after it until it dived under a pile of
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