Sometimes the plans we build for our lives — long-awaited, carefully arranged — suddenly fall apart. And then they are no longer plans, but a set of desires unsupported by anything except the desires themselves.

Well said! Isn’t that so, dear reader?

 

But that is how it happens in the world of humans. And our heroine now feels completely overwhelmed.

 

What happened? What should she do next?

 

She was painfully tormented by the fact that she had already stepped off her former solid path, and the new one had turned out to be a swamp in which she was sinking right now. Any thought about how to get out only dragged her deeper. She was not prepared for such a turn. Though she could very well have built her life on her own.

 

Suddenly, she felt the true meaning of the phrase “You are free.” It was no longer merely the breaking of chains — for there were no chains, in fact. But now freedom was the freedom to choose a path and everything that would appear along it. It was responsibility — for one’s choice and for everything that comes with it.

 

But what she had encountered was a swamp, and her strength was nearly gone. She needed at least a small sign, a hint — what to do and in which direction to move. But there was nothing, and the whirlpool of thoughts tightened around her head like a steel band.

 

The café, the Handsome One, the feather, the reflection…

 

A bright flash of a train’s spotlight in the tunnel…

The feather!… Yes! I saw it many times!

 

The blazing sun above the sea…

A silhouette dissolving into sparks…

 

Yes, yes, yes!

 

Those phrases!

 

— “I won’t be able to help you…”

— “You are free…”

— “Look at that sunset…”

 

What kind of enchantment was this? Was all of it arranged? Why? By whom?

Who ruined such beautiful dreams?

Or… or were these warnings?

 

— “I cannot be with you.”

— “I wanted a mother, a protector.”

 

The Handsome One said it himself. Yes, he was confused, anxious — but he said it. And that is a point of no return. What escapes outward is the truth — the truth that has long been kept locked away, pounding, tearing at its chains.

 

Now even the hesitations when buying things and paying for hotels no longer seemed accidental. The constant lack of money. The conversations about freedom and independence.

 

Yes — he needed her means for himself.

How vile and primitive it all was.

 

She felt like a cynically used napkin — one wiped across greasy lips after a roasted duck and thrown on the table.

 

Her strength left her entirely, and she barely managed to lie down on the bed.

 

What now?

 

The sunlit sky gave her no energy, and she sank into a murky, suffocating haze…

 

But a light draft blew it away.

 

— You feel bad?

— Yes… I don’t want anything.

— I’ll stay nearby. If you need anything, tell me.

 

Sometimes, to help someone, you only need to stay close, take their hand, or embrace them. The simple warmth of touch starts warming the fingertips, the palms. A blush appeared. Her lips barely quivered, her eyes shimmered and filled with tears.

 

They filled to the brim and ran down her smooth cheek.

 

She sat up, wrapped her thin arms around him, and leaned her lips toward his ear.

 

— It feels good just to sit like this.

 

She gently kissed his clean-shaven cheek.

 

— How did you know?

— Your radar signal disappeared. Perhaps the soul grew tired.

— Yes… It seems so.

— If you need anything, tell me.

 

They looked each other in the eyes.

 

— To the sunset?

— Yes, she whispered…

 

Once again, they sat on the sun-warmed stone, watching the day fade away and releasing all the heaviness of the past passion beyond the horizon.

 

Her face glowed with the thought that here, there had always been someone who would support her — steadily, asking for nothing in return.

 

She, of course, would forget him again by morning. It was always so.

 

But now… now he was near, and it was easy, free, and peaceful for her to look at the dying sun over the sea through the delicate feather.