Rules of Conduct in the Void, Chapter XIII

By Valery Rubin

Irene sits on the bed, negligently throws her foot on her foot, so that the floors of the robe be opened. But it doesn't matter anymore.
- What's new?
- Everything’s the same, - I respond evasively. - How are you?
By deceiving others, we before that deceive ourselves. We know that we were taught as a child that the best way, to tell the truth, is, to say the verity, but it is not always possible.
- I'm getting better, as you can see.
We are sitting in a room full of in silence and hush, - it's a forerunner of parting. In dressing gown, Irene is charming, fact.
Irene looks me in the eye, but says nothing and asks me nothing. What a woman! At such moments, soul mates establish a verbal connection, a mental contact, when any words are superfluous. I feel like the last animal to be guided by the simple rule: "Love yourself, sneeze at everyone, and you will succeed in life!"
- Who do you work for, dear me?
- You know that I will not say anything. Intelligence officers don't wear uniforms and insignia. However, I assure you, I am not against you.
- We could make a great couple.
- We could.
- But why?
- Probably the finger of God, my dear. Your eyes hide the depth and danger. Like a river whirlpool. Like a "black hole" in space, a region of space and time, the gravity of which is so high that no mortal can leave it without permission...
- But you are leaving me...
- Only because you let me. Forgive me if you can. And thank you for everything.
I kiss Irene with a long goodbye kiss. She hugs me, and I can feel her shivering and holding back tears. Why, why isn't my Space Shuttle designed for two? But what can I do? Where I'm going, there is no place for her. It is excluded. At least not now. But there, how do you know? At that moment it seemed to me that we had met her already before, and I was kissing her on the cheek, and she was crying, promising to wait as long as I had to, but that's where I can't remember where. In Spain?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Valery Rubin
• Release date: Feb 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463028902

Valery Rubin

editor&journalist&litterateurmember of The Israel Federation of Writers Union

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Rules of Conduct in the Void

Valery Rubin

Copyright 2019 by Valery Rubin

Smashwords Edition

Chapter XIII

Waiting is art, and we, cats own it to the fullest. Such is cat nature. Congenital genes and all that. You can't survive without it. Our many hours' expectations are not always justified, but as the saying goes, you can't get the fish out of the pond without patience. After yesterday's stroll near the building, which Irene and I examined from afar at dusk, I was convinced that we were on the right track. I'm sure that's where Batman keeps his secrets. It remains to be an ambush, figuratively speaking, of course, and wait. To sit and wait. How much I hate it!... Take a machine gun, a grenade launcher, a flamethrower, and what else is there - and go for a seizure. Here it is for me! Banzai! Forward! On Dimitrov!

By surname, most likely, he is Slavic. Maybe we can agree without bloodshed, in a brotherly way. Apparently, he was brought to Ceres from somewhere on Earth. Here not by his own will. Unhappy clerk. Clerk, who has nothing to lose. From the morning until late at night in the archive. From the entertainment - once a week you can drink in a beer bar. No friends, no enemies. Akakiy Akakievich from the story of writer Anton Chekhov The Overcoat, the one for whom entertainment, a pleasure of friendship does not exist. Goes to bed early, looking forward to the pleasure of tomorrow's rewriting papers at the office table.