A Guardian Angel. Oscar Wilde Award. Playing Another Reality

In a study room, a Man in White sitting in a black armchair was reading Alice’s message. Dark shadows were fussing around him. They whispered something in his ear winking at each other. Suddenly, the shadows noticed the guardians.

“Hello, defenders!” a Dark one smirked. “Dim, you aren’t strong enough yet! Why have you come here again?”

White looked at the Man in White and said thoughtfully, “What did my ward find in you?”

“Wow, White!” another Dark one, named Black, exclaimed. “Your ward, judging by her messages, is not exactly a saint, but you’re still the same caring for her! No matter how hard you try, no matter you take her away, she is drawn to him as if bewitched! Note that we didn’t put any love spells! Moreover, he openly demonstrated to her his true essence! Alice, calling him by a ‘starry’ name, is well aware of whom she is dealing with! However, it’s not in our plans to be at war with you, White. Alice is absolutely contraindicated for him.”

“Contraindicated? By whom?” White chuckled.

“By our boss. Your Alice, although not a saint, is protected by the angel named White. Not Dim, not Glamorous, not Extinguished. It means, she is anyhow a person of Light. So she can have a negative effect on our fallen starred one.”

“Negative effect?!” Dim exclaimed outraged.

“Therefore, we have an order from Above…” Black went on.

“Your ‘from Above’ in the language of Truth means ‘from the Bottom’, ” Dim corrected Black.

“In short, defenders,” the second Dark one cut off the conversation abruptly, “we don’t want that man to communicate with Alice. I suppose that suits you, too, White, doesn’t it?”

“At the present moment, it suits me,” White agreed.

“Fine. Are you here to prevent a negative reaction against her? We assure you, we are not interested in mouse fuss. This man plays big. He, as we ourselves, need much energy, so we are not going to waste it by reacting to such nonsense.”

“Since when is Love nonsense?” Dim sighed, came very close to the Man in White and touched his arm.

The Man’s gaze became soft, the phantom of Alice appeared on his inner screen, the Man smiled. But the Dark ones immediately noticed what was happening. One of them dispersed the girl’s phantom, and the other pushed Dim towards the doors with a rough energy wave.

“Until he wants to change himself by directing his gaze towards the Light instead of the Darkness, you’ll stand, you know where, Dim!”

***

Moscow, the cozy coffeehouse

Alice got the bill being sad. White appeared in the coffeehouse, “A stubborn sheep! I can neither make you forget the Man in White, nor let him to be nearby. At least for now.”

Alice raised her head and looked straight into the eyes of her guardian. She seemed to both hear and see him, but it just seemed so.

Having remembered his promise to Elder, White instructed Alice, “Call that Woman from the House of Serving to Creativity. Suggest an event…”

Alice obediently took her phone, dialed the Woman and told her the idea she had just come up with to hold an important event… at the end of March.

“Alice! On the 6th of April,” the guardian exclaimed.

Alice stopped abruptly. She looked into the eyes of her guardian, or through them? She felt like saying, “No, not at the end of March! Let it be on the 6th of April!” But she didn’t understand and couldn’t explain either to herself or to anyone else, why suddenly on the 6th, and not on the 5th, for example? That’s why she said nothing. The Woman agreed, she liked the idea of the event.

Alice paid for her coffee and walked slowly out into the street. Her guardian walked nearby to her right, protecting Alice from the passing Dark ones and thinking about the way to transfer her to Elabuga.

Chapter 1.2. Signs

March 8, evening,

Moscow, Alice’s kitchen

Alice sat down at the table, turned off the lights and lit the candles. White sat next to her. Alice shuffled the Tarot. The guardian blew on the cards. One of them slipped and fell to the floor. Alice picked it up, turned it over – “Death”. Alice flinched. The guardian said angrily, “Well?! Isn’t it a sign? How am I supposed to talk to you if everything I show you in your dreams, you forget as soon as you wake up? Less than a month left! Remember the signs I sent you, not enough? Five years ago, I introduced you to one of the most famous clairvoyants of your world. What did she say when she met you? A number! The age you are about to be, and added, ‘Be careful! But if you survive, you’ll live a long time until…’.”

Alice looked at the candles thoughtfully.

“Come on! Keep recalling! A year and a half ago, during meditation, you found yourself inside a huge mountain monastery. At that time, you served people, almost free of charge, working in the House of Serving to Creativity. Then, in meditation, you started looking for a way out into the God’s light, that is, into the world, and a man appeared who took you out of the monastery. You changed job five weeks ago. In meditation, he took you to the island, where he suggested diving deep to admire the fish and was eaten by a shark. What happened in reality? He said, ‘Alice! I wish I could drag you to the bottom of the ocean to admire the fish!’ You immediately recalled what I had shown you, and oriented in the Space of Time. What happened next?”

Alice sighed, so quickly the candles were burning out.

“You went back to the same mountain monastery. It looks like a return to the House of Serving to Creativity. You entered a long-long tunnel without any light in it. You correctly equated the passage of the tunnel to three months in earthly time. I showed you the next period of Saturn, the hardest period of the year, 85 days long. You came out of the tunnel into the light and started climbing the mountain. On the way, you found a waterfall and… the Man in White, who took you to the top of the mountain. Your Saturn period this year begins on June 16 and lasts until September 8. Don’t you want to take a look at what awaits you soon?”

The candles burnt out. Alice turned on her laptop in complete darkness, found on the Internet a program for calculating the Solar, the Heavenly plan for the year, starting on one’s birthday. According to her Astrologer, the coordinates of the place are important, since when we leave somewhere, we change the location of the planets (events) in the Houses (Spheres of Life), that is, we actually change the Future. The Zodiacal dial appeared. The planets took their places in the circle. Alice evaluated the resulting layout, read the comments and sighed heavily. The guardian sighed happily, “Glory to Thee, Lord, glory to Thee! Don’t you remember nothing like the combination of evil Pluto in the 6th with the Sun in the 12th?”

Alice took a step back, typed in in the program her mother’s date of birth and the year of her death, got the result and couldn’t believe her eyes.

“You are on the right track, don’t stop! Recall what I showed you during the meditation before your car crashed.”

Alice closed her eyes, recalling. She was passing through a huge abyss. There was a deep sound in the ears, similar to AUM or the sound of a bell. In a tiny boat, Alice floated along a very narrow gorge. Surrounded by high black rocks, she could neither go ashore, there was no shore, nor speed up the movement, she had no oars. And even if she had had them, she wouldn’t have been able to move them, since the corridor of the gorge was so narrow that her boat, similar to a walnut shell, almost touched the rocks on both sides. Alice felt like a prisoner, nothing depended on her.

“Bravo! That was the departing Saturn in 8 with Pluto in 12. Keep recalling!”

Alice sighed, finally, the gorge was passed. She found herself in the dark blue space of Eternity, and the Zodiac dial appeared in front of her. Alice stood in the center of the circle and began to rotate it quickly, trying all possible combinations of planets at random. The dial stopped rotating. Alice stepped out of the circle, walked on, and suddenly saw a man. He took her by the hand.

“You were afraid to tell your friends about the episode with the Zodiacal dial and the man, because you didn’t understand whether that was about your current life or already a new incarnation. Am I right?”

Alice bit her lip.

“You see, I’m right. So you have to rotate the dial right here and now, or no man at all will have to do with your actual earthly body.”

Alice dialed the Astrologer, wished her happy Woman’s Day and shared a bad feeling about the next Solar year.

White appeared in the Astrologer’s flat and greeted her guardian, “Hello, Stargazer!”

“Don’t you get sick, White! What’s up?”

“My ward is talking with yours. Don’t put it off, let her look at it right now, it can’t wait.”

“Is it that critical? You don’t seem to be fond of flirting with the planets, do you?”

“You are right, Stargazer. I’m not fond of it, but you know, a sinner’s guardian has visited me recently. His ward promised everyone something, but never did anything to anyone. So the guardian organizes meetings of his ward with others to let the sinner pay out his debts in time. If the sinner appears now into Our Light, he’ll have problems with the Guards. Meanwhile my Alice is about to get the evil Pluto in 6 and the Sun in 12 activated, and so on. Well, you know.”

“I see. What planets to move?”

“Let’s bring the Sun out of her Dungeon, bro. And send Alice to Elabuga. She needs neither Tomsk nor Omsk. She’ll start now sorting out options in order to move Pluto from 6. Let your ward not listen to Alice, but stand on her own, Elabuga only. And make the Astrologer insert a phrase into their conversation so that Alice, in addition to the stars, obeys the doctors!”

The Astrologer sighed and said into the phone, “Alice, of course, by transferring the Sun from 12 into 11, we’ll soften the situation. But your problems relating to Pluto in 6 are still to be solved. We’ll change the Spheres so that you have the opportunity to influence the situation. When the hour of the 6th Sphere comes, do whatever the doctors say. The most important for you is to do it in time.”

White and Stargazer shook hands.

“Let’s agree, White, if you messed up something with Elabuga, it’s you to be asked for that later Upstairs, not me!”

“Agreed! Write me in a footnote in the Astral Tablets.”

Stargazer opened the Astral Tablets, searches for the right page, crossed out Moscow on Elabuga, the Sun in 12 on the Sun in 11, and marked with a footnote, “That’s what White said.” White put the earthly date, signed it down and closed the Tablets.

White returned to the kitchen to Alice, who continued her phone conversation with the Astrologer. Suddenly, Glamorous appeared. He smiled slyly and said, “I told you, bro, to move just the Sun out of the 12th!”

“Hello, Glamorous. Something new?”

“I figured out how to make our wards meet beautifully! Just bumping, it may have no effect! Mine is going to London in April, for the book fair. So urgently organize a transfer of your Alice there!”

“This fair takes place in a month! How am I supposed to succeed in time?”

“Are you an angel or a human? There are plenty of options! What’s bad for Alice? In London, there is a platform 9 and 3/4, right on it, they sell magical artifacts in a shop. Alice believes in magic! You know how important it is! So she should buy a thing called the Time Turner, or the Changer of Time and Space. Actually, you won’t have to inspire her! She’ll surely buy it and turn it back for some years. And we’ll make them bump into each other!”

“Listen, Glamorous, it might be a good idea, but now, in order to meet your sinner, Alice has not to go to London, but to move the Sun from the Dungeon and deal with her health.”

“Do you know where people reset to zero and start a new cycle? On the Zero Meridian! And where is it, the Zero Meridian? – in Greenwich! And Greenwich is only an hour away from London! White, won’t you send Alice to reset her negative Past for a brighter Future?”

Alice sighed and said to the Astrologer, “Elabuga then?”

The Astrologer kept insisting on it.

Glamorous jumped up, “Well, I told you, E-la-bu-ga!” and disappeared.

Chapter 1.3. Bathy

March 10, evening, Moscow

Alice got off the subway. Suddenly, the Woman from the House of Serving to Creativity called her to inform that an incident had happened to the main character of their planned event, so the end of March was changed to April 6th. Alice sighed, she worried about the Elder and sincerely wishes him well. They had met in Milan, and after that he had helped her on the way. Sometimes, they had dined together at the Central House of Writers talking about the poets of the Silver Age whom he personally knew well.

White put his wing around Alice’s shoulders. They walked in silence for a while, but suddenly, the guardian remembered something and moved to the Astrologer’s flat.

“What’s up, White? Have you changed your mind about rotation of the dial?”

“It’s no chance to change my mind on it. I forgot to warn you. Alice is going to call your ward now to ask if she can return home on the 6th of April. Let yours say she can. It’s clear the longer the better, but Alice needs to hold an event here. Elder asked me, his ward has his own dial.”

Stargazer nodded in understanding, “We make a road for young people, and honor elders very much!”

The guardians said goodbye.

Having checked the date of her return from Elabuga with the Astrologer, Alice kept walking home. The guardian walked to the right whispering, “You got paid today. If you don’t buy tickets for the plane to Nizhnekamsk16 now, tomorrow you’ll throw the wrong envelope in the trash by mistake. Buy tickets to Nizhnekamsk. Buy tickets to Nizhnekamsk. Tickets, Alice!”

Alice didn’t react. Suddenly, she started thinking, “Perhaps… there’s no need to go there…”

Having instantly caught her thought, White clenched his fingers into a fist out of his helplessness, stopped and turned to the guardian of a man passing by, “Help, bro! Sometimes she hears me, sometimes she doesn’t!”

The guardian of the passer-by approached Alice from the left. White came from the right, and they both with all their energetic strength shouted into her ears, “TICKETS TO NIZHNEKAMSK!”

Alice stopped, “Well, probably, I have to go there. Anyhow, the trip won’t make it worse.” She turned around abruptly, entered the shopping center and went to the window where they sold airline tickets. White breathed a sigh of relief and gratefully shook hands with the guardian of the one who had already passed them by. The latter smiled and ran to catch up with his ward.

The ticket seller voiced the possible flights. The guardian scanned the Space of Options and whispered to Alice, “A maniac will be on the first one. He’ll sit next to you. It’s dangerous. The second flight will be delayed, so you’ll be late. Take the third one!”

Alice said in an uncertain voice, “Three is a good number. The last option, please.”

***

Alice’s room, midnight

Alice went to bed and fell asleep almost instantly. The guardian was about to exit out the window to fly to Nizhnekamsk, when someone called out to him in a cheerful voice, “Hello, bro!”

“Bathy, is it you again?!”

“Well, you see… I’ve come to ask you to marry our wards!”

“Listen, Bathy, for so many years, I’ve been telling you, Alice breathes towards your ward indifferently. It’s common breathing of humans, do you understand? Take it as it is, both of you!”

“But he breathes towards Alice differently!”

Bathy, a plump, small, clean, as if just out of the bath, smiled and didn’t allow White to go out the window.

“So what?”

“Let’s make some magic! Earthly love is chemistry.”

“Chemistry is not love. How did they appoint you as guardian with such knowledge! A bath broom leaf! Besides, I’m already making magic. I urgently have to arrange a lot for Alice. No time for negotiations, rather there is nothing to talk about.”

“Why nothing? Look at my ward! He’s rich, moderately generous and very clean! Every week he goes to the public baths! He’ll care for Alice. He’ll take her to a restaurant once a week, on vacation abroad 4 times a year and give her flowers on holidays! Maybe without love, bro?”

“Bro, did you join the Dark ones by any chance? It’s not his body, but his mind that need to be cleaned! And yours, too!”

“If I had jointed the Dark ones, I wouldn’t have needed to beg you for so many years!” Bathy said offended. “White! Haven’t you ever been a human? Don’t know what it’s like?”

“Have you read the Astral Tablets? What is written about your ward and his ‘love’? It’s a lesson! He hasn’t been able to get past it for years. Moreover, this feeling is not subject to either people or angels! Our wards are not registered in their Heavenly passports together! Dot! The rest is from the evil one. And you, Bathy, know perfectly well who Alice has in her heart. And imagine, I’m categorically against it! But, with all my desire, I can’t change anything about this!”

***

Nizhnekamsk airport, night

Taxi drivers were offering their services to those who had just arrived. Many of them had dark shadows instead of guardians. The brightest guardian was modestly standing somewhere in the distance, behind the back of an unsightly taxi driver.

“Be healthy, bro!” White addressed the brightest guardian.

“I wish you good health, too. How can I help you?”

“This girl will arrive here late in the evening on April 4th,” White projected the image of Alice in the air.

“Pretty! Yours?”

“Mine, yes. So I need to transfer her safe and sound to Elabuga. Your driver is the brightest here. A half of the road to Elabuga is broken, I won’t trust Alice to others.”

“Tell me her flight number.”

A copy of the ticket was visualized in the air.

“Okay. We won’t serve anyone else that evening. As soon as your Alice appears, I’ll immediately send him to her.”

“One more thing. I scanned the Space of Options. There’s a possibility of a head-on collision with an oncoming truck after the turn. Here’s a photo of the driver and the truck number. Find his guardian. It looks like, that man is surrounded by dark ones only. Make a deal. He must stay in another city instead of driving that night.”

***

Elabuga, night

White made a round of the hotels and liked one of them. Local guardians were chatting about something on the sofas in the lobby at the reception. White greeted them.

“Exactly at midnight on the 4th to the 5th of April, a girl will arrive here. She’ll send you an e-mail tomorrow. Book her the room number 33. Welcome her properly, it’ll be her birthday. Cook something delicious.”

A notebook appeared in the air, one of the guardians carefully wrote something down in it.

“Oh, I got an idea, bro!” exclaimed the cook’s guardian. “A friend of my ward has his birthday on the same day. He’s going to celebrate it on the outskirts of our town with fireworks, an orchestra and all that stuff. Do you want us to re-route him to our restaurant?”

White smiled, nodded, thanked those present and moved to the roof of a small house on the outskirts, not far from the cemetery. The director of Marina Tsvetaeva’s Memorial Complex lived in that house. White found the director’s guardian, explained the situation and asked to arrange an excursion program at full. They decided together where Alice should have lunch. The director’s guardian promised to prepare exclusive books as a gift for the guest’s birthday.

***

Moscow, at dawn, Alice’s room

Alice snoozed sweetly, smiling at someone in her sleep. The guardian sat at her head whispering, “Write an e-mail to Elabuga today. The hotel is right in the center. Book it. And write to the head of the Memorial Complex a request to give you an excursion tour. Do you hear me?”

Alice whispered something indistinctly. Her dream was projected on the window curtain, and the image of the Man in White appeared on it.

“Alice! What the hell are you dreaming of? Elabuga! Hotel and excursion program!”

The alarm clock started ringing. The image of the Man in White was slowly fading away. Alice squinted in displeasure, reached out her hand to the phone to turn off the alarm clock, and opened her eyes. Thinking about something, she remembered about her trip to Elabuga, “I need to book a hotel today. And to find out about excursions.”

The guardian rejoiced and stroked Alice on the head.

Chapter 1.4. A VIP

March 19, morning

Moscow, hallway in Alice’s flat

Alice was going to a travel trade fair. She had been asked to create a new travel destination project from scratch for a company exposed there. Alice’s gaze fell on the small table by the door with the last copy of her novel about Another Reality on it. The day before, Alice had purposely put the book in that prominent place not to forget in the morning to take it with her, because…

The guardian was nervously walking around Alice back and forth, trying to inspire her with the right action. Alice sighed, waved her hand at the book, saying to herself, “Someday later… Some other time…” She opened the door and left the flat. The guardian lost the gift of mental speech, helplessly sank to the floor by the table and covered his face with his wings.

***

Moscow, Crocus City Hall

Alice arrived at the fair and found a crowd in front of the entrance. Everyone was scanned, forced to take off their shoes, turn out their pockets. Alice sighed. Yes, she had known that… Around lunchtime, the entrance was blocked completely. Walking through the pavilions, Alice encountered a procession. She looked at the Very Important Person slowly passing her by, just a step away. It was a chance to give to the VIP her book, the one left at home in the morning on the table by the door.

Why hadn’t she taken the book with her? Hadn’t she believed in the collision with the VIP like that easily, in the pavilion that day? When else would she have direct access to the VIP, if ever?

The guardian, shaking his head in doom, exclaimed, “You spoke with the Minister of Culture of France in Paris. You tapped on his shoulder as simply as knocking on a door to make him turn around and pay attention to you, having sneaked through the crowds, sneezing at the guards who surrounded him as a wall on all sides. You spoke to him so easily in a foreign language and even gave him your poems! But you dreamed of giving your book to the VIP! The book in which you wrote a letter to him in one of the chapters. At least, of passing your book through someone else. You asked everyone who had access to the VIP about the way to do it. In January, I found a way to bump you to the VIP directly. I found in the Space of Options, the way you would end up here and now, at the right time in the right place. I put the idea of creating an esoteric travel destination from scratch into the mind of the travel company owner. I negotiated with the guardian of the head of the Union of Writers to issue a diploma to the mother of the CEO of the travel company. I made sure that it was you to pass the diploma and not to the mother, but personally to the CEO! I arranged everything in such a way that at the meeting he would voice the idea of a new project to you, and on that day you ‘accidentally’ would take your book about Another Reality with you and make the right decision to give him the book. I arranged with the owner’s guardian that you would be selected from all the candidates to head the new project. And, despite the fact that today it’s only half developed, I almost forced the owner of the travel company to present your project at this fair so that you… My God! What have you done Alice? How could you?”

Glamorous appeared in the crowd. He approached White and said in surprise, “Bro, what’s wrong with you? You’ve turned black!”

“It can happen with everyone. What do you want?”

“The fair in London is less than a month away. My ward has already bought tickets and booked a hotel. What about Alice?”