Prologue

“But not everything is so bad. Moreover if you decided to stay, let them have one more chance and let me…”

At this moment a light breeze flashed by over the sea brightening the moonlit path. The last one sparkled charmly with its silvery plays alluring to the mysterious expanse. The nature as if intentionally teased the Creature, on the one side surrounding It by its eternity, and on the other side by its natural earthly beauty. Obviously this easy capful of wind hid some innermost mystery known only by it. “If you want it so much, go ahead, try it. When we are still here there is a bit of time…” “But the field is ripened long ago. And the bushes of weed are growing too fast and overburden the Earth… The crops are too weak, though they were carefully cultivated: the seconds of illusion overshadowed for them the reality of the eternity.” “However, I hope to find out…”

The new capful of wind brought away the words to its endless expanses. Two parts of the Creature again united themselves in their essence. A short silence reigned. Only the fire crackled softly with its burning branches. Fine thin twigs quickly turned down to the charry formless ashes. It was so strange as only one instant passed by but it seemed that this odd matter has never existed as if it has never happened to be.

1

All the guys ran to swim. Finally it happened so that Sensei was left alone. He stood in the shoal water gradually getting used to the water temperature. Taking advantage of his loneliness I started to tell him my strange dream about the Red Horseman which I had seen in my dreams last night. This unusual vision impressed me by its unordinary realism, brightness and emotionality. Telling it to Sensei I complained that I couldn’t recall its meaning, and remember only that it was very important for me. Contrary to my expectations that he would fully decode this dream from physiological and philosophical points of view, Sensei only smiled and, looking at me somehow mysteriously, said, “The time will come, and you will know everything.”

These words fully intrigued my person but Sensei didn’t add anything to them. Having left me completely confused he joined the group of our guys who had a lot of fun trying to stop the incoming waves with their athletic bodies. “It’s a strange dream. And a strange answer. What could it mean?” I thought about it again.

Observing Sensei from aside I couldn’t stop wondering how natural he was in all spheres of life. In our group he wasn’t too much remarkable, although maybe only by his bigger fortitude and very good sense of humour. But if we touched, figuratively saying, the strings of his spiritual life, they brought such a nice melody charming with its unordinary sublimity, simplicity, elegancy and at the same time with unusual wisdom which really attracted everybody to him…

He was an extraordinary mysterious Human. Analyzing my past I made an interesting conclusion: everything whatever Sensei came across, started to get changed. I was lost in guesses how he managed to do it? Take for example my destiny. Half a year ago despite my 17 years my body was on the verge of death. And at that difficult period of my life when I was almost completely desperate and my relatives’ eyes were full of sorrow and condolence, exactly at that ‘last moment’ I met Sensei, the martial arts’ master, whose knowledge and abilities evidently exceeded the limits of common people.

Sensei literally changed not only my destiny but the whole world in my perception. Now I’m pretty sure that this meeting was not a happy fortuity as I had thought before. Putting altogether all the ‘unexpected fortuities’ that unavoidably brought me to certain consequences in my life, I became sure that this meeting was rather a rule, a manifestation of Somebody’s will from above. And if thanks to Sensei I stayed alive then it means Somebody needs it.

But what for? And why? What can I do in order to fulfil the task I was left for? It’s difficult to guess about something you don’t know. How can someone get know the full intention of the Higher forces? It happens often that an occasional meeting, a word, even a wordless action may cause such a flow of events that invisibly will lead to some global changes both for some individuals and for society as a whole. But an ordinary person who gave this original impulse will probably stay unaware of the general result of his doing as he lives in the limited little world of his thoughts and surrounding of exclusively ‘his reality’. And what is really striking is that everybody adds every day, even without knowing it, by the will of his own choice his small contribution to this increasing snow ball of coming events.

I intuitively felt that the clue to the true sense of my destiny lays in this mysterious dream. And as every curious person I wanted to know everything at once and in details. But a mystery continued to be a mystery.

2

After the good breakfast our big group laid down on the sand putting our bodies to the tender rays of the morning sun. Our group consisted of enthusiasts of different age, we had a common passion to the martial arts (and not only), and were unanimous in our special and sincere respect to our coach Igor Mikhailovich whom we called in a friendly way as ‘Sensei’.

Sensei was really an extraordinary personality. By his appearance he didn’t distinguish himself from our group. He was a young athletic man with blond hair. Although a careful observer could notice at first glance his unusually eagle and wise eyes. But despite of that… the eldest and the most significant was our 40-years old phychoterapist Nikolai Andreevich. The most serious one was Volodya, the old friend of Sensei, who was in charge of some secret service department. The loudest one was Viktor, our senior sempai, the young policeman. The most funny, humorous ones were Eugene and his friend Stas, tall athletic guys from the senior group. And the youngest ones were Ruslan and Yura as well as our merry group which once had watched films about martial arts, went to look for a good Teacher and found such a knowledge source as Sensei. We didn’t expect even in our dreams that such unique individuals do exist in this world. ‘Our merry group’ means Andrew, Kostya, Slava, Tatyana and me. This year we finished school and passed all exams. School was left in the past and the whole life with its sorrows and joys, victories and defeats, ups and downs was before us. We were right in that uncertain ‘in between’ which seemed to us the best time for the ‘respite’.

It was only the third day of our unforgetable vacation with Sensei on the sea coast. But what a nice vacation it was! It was that very golden time when you have a chance not only to have a rest with your best friends but also to enrich yourself with outstanding impressions, and the most important, with wisdom due to the hearty communication with Sensei.

Slava and Yura headed by Volodya, following the army order, went to the sea to clean the dishes with the sand as it was their turn that morning. The boys didn’t have any objections to do that. It was enough of light reminder from Volodya, who said in a deep commander voice “Let’s go!” and they grasped enthusiastically the pots. This funny scene caused the whole flow of jokes towards Volodya. But the last one wasn’t confused by that and replied in a military manner, “The order is the order.”

Nikolai Andreevich took again a book which he used to read from time to time already for three days. Judging by the questions which he raised during the discussion with Sensei, the book concerned obviously his psychoterapeutic activity. He argued that psychology was unfortunately still a young science and that nowadays a good psychologist must be also a good philosopher as namely philosophers stood at the origin of the philosophy as a science.

“Take, for example, Socrates, one of the initial founders of the psychology. Listen to his remarkable words,” Nikolai Andreevich opened a marked page and read aloud, “One should not cure eyes separately from head and head separately from body as well as one should not cure body without curing soul…” And one more, “Cure soul… with corresponding spells, the last ones are nothing else than right talks,” Nikolai Andreevich accentuated the last words, “these talks inspire good sense in soul, and good sense facilitates appearance of health in head and in body.” Nikolai Andreevich kept silence, looked through the page and continued, “Having heard my words Critias exclaimed ‘My Socrates, the headache would be a true gift of Hermes for a young man if it forced him to improve his mind to cure it!’”

“That’s true,” Sensei smiled.

“You see, it was written forteen centuries ago but it’s still relevant today.”

“Sure, because wisdom has no time boundaries.”

“Right, Socrates correctly noticed it.”

“Socrates only imparted knowledge he had been taught. Socrates would not be Socrates if he hadn’t met Crito on his way, who was attracted by his kind heart and who gave him the proper education. Therefore you are deeply wrong when you think that psychology takes its origin from Socrates. The knowledge given by the Teacher to Socrates and later to his followers was only a remote echo of the real knowledge of the ancients… The psychology is a more ancient science than anyone may imagine. And not the new one. Its forefathers and founders weren’t Socrates, Williams James, nor Le Bon, Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler and others. These people tried only to partly restore step-by-step the information given to people once as a whole one and which was carelessly lost with the time… And in general this science has its roots in the extreme antiquity.”

“With respect to philosophy maybe. But not the scientific theory and practice?” Nikolai Andreevich was sincerely surprised.

“Why?” objected Sensei, “it concerned the science first of all. The ancients possessed such knowledge which stands far ahead our days. If today the psychology tries only to study the structure of the personality, general patterns, laws of communication between people, the ancients considered it as just a superficial philosophy as they possessed more subtle knowledge of psychology due to different psychotechnics. They studied the depths of themselves, of their soul and not of their Ego. And the psychology science starts right from the self-cognition. The more one cognizes himself, the better he will understand not only others but the world as a whole.”

“Wait but the modern psychology possesses quite a lot of different psychotechnics.”

“Right but which ones? As a rule, they are the most primitive and, take notice, that they mostly directed to the material nature. Can you consider the modern humanity as a spiritually developed society with its modern development of the psychology science? Of course, not. The reason is that the modern psychology touches mostly the very low level, it tries to solve the problems of conflicts caused by the human Ego. To put it simple, it boils in the clear soup of the Animal nature despite the fact that its primary goal is to understand the human soul. With such a relation between the ‘theory’ and ‘practice’ you understand what a contradictory future awaits for it. That is, frankly speaking the modern psychology tries to reconcile the egoism with megalomania.”

“In principle, it’s one and the same,” the psychoterapist remarked delicately.

“I think so, too,” Sensei emphasized giving time to Nikolai Andreevich to deeply realize the sense of his words. “In no way do I diminish the meaning of psychology in the modern world. It’s a good and useful discipline. It’s really worth developing, it helps people to tackle stress and to fight with their fears. But I have one question to you, doctor. Tell me, why psychologists aren’t able to put in order their own minds trying meanwhile to get into the minds of others?”

“Well…why?” Nikolai Andreevich drawled slowly and answered lively in a while, “Everybody likes to make money”.

They laughed both, and after that the psychoterapist continued the conversation.

“If the ancients possessed such knowledge, then does it mean that they had the golden age?”

“Right you are. It was exactly like that.”

Nikolai Andreevich reflected for a while and then asked, “Which ancient times do you mean? During the time of our civilization?”

I noticed that Nikolai Andreevich adressed Sensei sometimes in familiar friendly manner and sometimes in official respectful way.

“I would not regard even the beginning of our civilization as ancient times. Our civilization exists only some twelve thousand years. Though in the beginning of it the humankind was given partly certain knowledge, including that one of psychology as well.”

“It was given knowledge? I wonder who was given it?”

“This knowledge was spread throughout the whole world: in Europe, Asia, Africa, South and North America. It was kept as secret knowledge by wisemen in tribes of Ancient Egypt, India, Mesopotamia, Siberia, China. But despite its wide geographical spreading it was nevertheless lost with the time. That’s why you, gentlemen, have to invent a wheel again.”

“Still it’s rather strange. How was it possible that this knowledge was given to people on the different continents, and moreover in tribes? And what is more interesting, who was able to give it? As far as I know, the ocean was an insuperable obstacle at that time. There were no airplanes, and it was almost impossible to sail across it.”

“In your vision, one surely needs some technical means or devices in order to do it. But the ancients managed to do it only due to their abilities. I intentionally mentioned about their suble knowledge of human psychics. They were able to use their abilities. And those things which are argued today such as levitation, telekinesis, teleportation, telepathy and so on were just a normal reality for the ancients. It was so natural as for example cycling or swimming for us …”

“Wow!” Ruslan interrupted them with undue familiarity. Like us he was an occasional listener of the conversation of our ‘experts’. “We would also like to possess such knowledge! If we could fly by our wish, it would be so cool! Sensei, may we learn it?”

Sensei looked at the guy first seriously but then he smiled slightly.

“Of course, you may.”

“Can you tell us in all the details how to do it?” Ruslan tried to put his question in a ‘smart’ way.

Sensei kept silence for a while looking at him with a light smile on his face and then answered, “It’s simple. You see, the main thing in this stuff is your attitude, your wish, the internal mood and what is more important is your great desire to try levitation. The very principle of levitation is not difficult. Its main kernel is your wish…”

“This is more or less clear but in details… I mean physically?” Ruslan tried to find it out, frowning his eyebrows as if it were an enigma beyond his understanding.

“In details? Let’s put it this way. Everybody is a generator of an individual torsion field. This torsion field effects photons of physical space surrounding it and interacts with torsion fields of other individuals. To launch the effect of levitation, that is of your physical body flying in the air, you should give a certain impulse with the help of psychic energy and to transform the kinetic energy into potential and vice versa. It causes the powerful splash of psychic energy as a result of adrenalin discharge and that will launch the enormous stimulation of torsion field of another person and will impact considerable growth and acceleration of your energy potential.

“So, when you concentrate mentally, certain spin structures arise in labile spin system, that is in your brain, and they duplicate the spacial frequency structure of the formed image. This information, in its turn, will be transmitted not only to the body as a whole, but to the surrounding space and it interacts this way with photons, that is with quanta of electromagnetic emission. At certain conditions, and namely with personal force and precise concentration of thoughts, it comes to an effect which lets you afterwards drastically diminish your weight. And further it’s a matter of techiques. Just take into account that the more power you will give to your generator of stable thought, the longer the effect of levitation will dure. It’s simple physics and there is nothing difficult or extraordinary in it…”

The guys tried to listen attentively to each word of Sensei. I didn’t grasp even a half of what he said and just tried to remember his words writing them down in my mind so that to put them word by word to my diary. And Nikolai Andreevich was just chap-fallen after he had heard all of that and he had such an air as if he were a first-year student listening to someone presenting at least a PhD thesis.

“That is, everything depends on your internal will-power. Because this power is enormous. In ancient times, for example, people were able to lift up in the air such huge devices as ‘vimans’ just due to their will-power, that is by the psychic energy of concentrated thought, not saying about their own bodies. The ancients were able to lift up and to move hundreds of tons. Why did they manage to do it? Because these people possessed the discipline of their mind… The main thing is the concentration on the desired result, only then the psychic energy will be accumulated. There should be only one final goal, precise and clear. You should feel and imagine the whole process in reality…

Ruslan looked determined and goal-seeking during an explanation by Sensei. The guy seemed to burn with the desire to put the words into practice immediately.

“Sensei, does it take long to learn it?” Ruslan jabbered with enthusiasm.

“Well, if to speak seriously, it takes of course some time to learn levitation for hours. But levitation for a few seconds can be practiced by almost every beginner.”

“Wow!” Ruslan said with admiration. “May I try it right now?”

“Why not? Everything is possible if you wish it strongly.”

“But how? What should I do?” Ruslan inquired hastily.

“Well, in this case, it is very important to master a quick start at the beginning stage. I won’t promise you a long levitation first time, but a minute or so of free flight is quite real. You are unlikely to be able to stand more. At least after getting over the critical point you will be able to run a few seconds on the water.”

“Really? On its surface?” Ruslan exclaimed with joy.

“Of course… It’s very important to consider the speed and the impulse force of a push…”

At these words I recalled about pond-skaters, how quickly and easily these insects slide on the water surface. I recollected zoology lessons and thought, “If to take into account the small weight and the film of surface tension of water, so maybe this process is quite possible.”

Our group became agitated. Ruslan prepared to start towards the sea with concentrated air and listened carefully to Sensei. Other guys observed this process with interest. Eugene and Stas started to give hints to Ruslan how to make a good start. Andrew and Kostya expressed their desire to be next participants of this experiment. I and Tatyana looked already with envy at ‘lucky’ Ruslan who will be the first among our group to levitate in the air.

At this moment Kostya asked Sensei with all his enthusiasm, “Maybe I can try it instead of Ruslan, to make this experiment pure. I have two kilos less than he.”

“Two kilos less, two kilos less”, – Ruslan teased him. “The one who asked first, will levitate first! Take your turn.”

“There is no difference,” Kostya waved with his hand. “Sensei, maybe we will levitate together with him? In case if he is unable to do it the right way?”

“We will see who will be unable to do it the right way!” Ruslan protested. “Go away, man, you only disturb my concentration…”

Sensei only smiled at such a boyish fervor and continued his instructions, “Why are you getting so anxious, guys? Everybody will have enough time to try it, if you wish. I repeat once again, the most important thing is to take a good start…”

“Will I feel something during it… physically?” Ruslan asked zealously looking sideways at Kostya who tried to join him.

“For sure. You will have certain feelings. When you take off, for example, you will have a sharp change of pulse frequency. It will increase up to forty units. The coherence of wave processes in your brain will also change. At take-off first your breathing will be fully stopped, and then its pattern will change. In general, don’t worry about the range of your sensations. Be sure that its complete set is already guaranteed for you. The main thing for you now is to take a good start. Did you understand?”

Ruslan stood fully strained, so to say, on the alert.

“I see, I see,” he reported. “What should I do next? How can I take off the land?”

Sensei replied, “Oh, don’t worry about that, you will take off for sure. The main thing is to take a very good start. Look, you should have no outside thoughts in your head. The main thing is your goal. Your goal is flight.”

“I see, I see! Well, the goal is set up. No thoughts. What should I do next?”

“Next,” uttered Sensei, “you run up and… hit Volodya to the back.”

With there words he pointed at our military man. The last one was right bent over and washed the dishes at the sea coast. Well, Volodya stood in the good ‘start position’ for the ‘initial take-off’ of Ruslan.

“And that’s all! The following levitation is guaranteed for you.”

A silence reigned. The guys glanced amazed at our military man Volodya and then back to Sensei and tried to figure out what had happened. But this silent scene frozen in time didn’t dure long. The first one who grasped what Sensei said was Nikolai Andreevich. He burst out laughing so loud until he cried. The other guys started to get it a bit later. But when even I ‘saw the light’ the whole sea coast was shaken with loud laughter of our group and ‘kind mutual concessions’ of Ruslan and Kostya of the right on the first ‘flight’. Even our guys on duty turned to us on hearing our roars of laughter and hurried on to join us with half-washed pans. Dying from curiosity they tried for ten minutes to pump out of our laughing group what actually had happened there.

After that the guys calmed down a bit and most of them ran to swim, experiencing in jest a ‘new method of levitation’ at each other. Only then Nikolai Andreevich returned to the conversation with Igor Mikhailovich he was so interested in which was interrupted so unmannerly by the stupid curiosity of Ruslan.

“I cant’t get it, first of all, who could tell this knowledge to the ancients and second how were able those ancient tribes understand this science by their primitive mind?”

“The thing is that those tribes weren’t primitive. They were survived descendants of the Atlants’ civilization. Their mind wasn’t primitive as you think. It was the same like ours. As during all this time the human brain wasn’t changed. Moreover, they used the possibilities of the human brain much better and more effectively than we.”

“Do you mean that they were much more intellectually developed than we?”

“Maybe it sounds paradoxically for you but it’s true. If to count in a percentage proportion, it means that now we use only 10% of our possibilities and they used more that 50%. Just count it. It means that they were five times more clever than we despite all our illusionary ‘high technological’ development of our times.”

“But how could it be possible?”

“The thing is that in fact we only come up to the mastering of our possibilities. However, in the beginning of this civilization people with high potential of their mental possibilities simply degradated, that is they went from their big achievements to small. It’s normal as those isolated groups were remnants of previous highly developed civilization. Later their descendants lost the former possibilities and knowledge, so to say fully degradated, and then they started from the beginning again. The main problem is that highly developed civilizations are very dependant on the external factors,” Sensei looked at the sky. “Take for example the Sun. Modern scientists assume that its resources are enough for a billion of years. And then it can expand and die out and as a result all living beings will disapear on the Earth. But first of all these are only their assumptions and guesses as scientists know little about the Sun. And second, even now a solar megaflare directed to the Earth can happen any moment. And if it happens there will be nothing left on the Earth just in three days. There will be in the best case only small isolated groups of people who will face an acute problem of survival. As if you want to eat even plants, first you have to grow them and in order to do it you have to find their seeds. But even if not to take into account a global catastrophy, just imagine what will happen to us if to leave us now without electricity, gas, oil, to put is simply, all benefits of civilization. We will be practically unadapted to survival. It happened like this that time…”

“Right, in such a way ‘hunters’ and ‘gatherers’ appeared in the history,” the doctor smiled sadly, “with sudden flashes of astronomic and mathematical knowledge peculiar to higher civilization.” “That’s true. First there were tribes and communities. Then religions started to appear. Some individuals usurped power and were interested in degradation of intellect of the masses. It’s easier to control narrow-minded people. This is how we, my dear Nikolai Andreevich, came to what we have.”

“Well,” the psychoterapist drawled sorely and after a short reflection he added, “You are right, the human is first of all a consumer of various goods of civilization and just a small part of the chain of their reproduction. And if there will be nothing, what will happen then? He will not be able even to build a house. Because apart from theoretical knowledge you need also a bulk of inventions of civilization such as bricks, cement, nails etc. Otherwise…” Nikolai Andreevich shrugged his shoulders.

“Otherwise only a hut or an earth-house,” Sensei joked.

“Right, it will be a cave in the best case,” Nikolai Andreevich kept up his joke. “If to analyze in details what can a modern man do if he happens to stay face to face with the nature? Nothing good, indeed.”

“That’s true… And some especially lazy individuals even have no idea about elementary things, for example, how and what can be grown,” Sensei said half in jest. “Their food ‘grows’ in shops, already nicely packed. What can be said else about it?”

Having heard it I started to ‘fit’ what was said to my person. I tried to quickly recollect the experience of my family when we lived in the country and what and how my mother grew in the garden. And in general what I know how to do in this life and what not. There were so many gaps in ‘elementary knowledge’ that I was scared. And I decided to fill all these gaps as soon as I can. I planned to ask the elder generation how they managed to survive during the war when there were severe conditions, hunger, ruins. And I aimed to take part in all possible activities in our cottage works and really to learn all those ‘elementary’ things, according to Sensei. Because one thing is when you are forced to do something and quite another when you burn with the desire to learn.

Our “sages” again laughed on their jokes and then Sensei suggested: “All right, doctor, that’s enough to talk about “sad things”, let’s go to swim.” And having looked at the location of the sun in the sky he added in philosophical manner. “While we have such an opportunity.”

3

Having swum enough, Stas and Eugene decided to make a voyage on water with their air-bag, to dive with aqualung and to fish if possible. Volodya and Victor eagerly accompanied them. Having prepared the air-bag and having loaded it with fishing-tackle, they rowed along the sea coast towards the fish-factory. The others fully saturated their desire to swim, combining long-term swimming with short rest on the hot sand. Sensei and Nikolai Andreevich mostly preferred “sun baths”, after that they swam far in the sea where our young guys didn’t dare to swim.

The rest time flew by invisibly. After one of the swims our guys blissfully stretched out on the sea coast. Having created a few small sand hills they improved their creativity and made up to form a simple sand sculpture from different parts of their bodies. Kostya, Ruslan and Slava became ‘victims’ of this grand idea, or to be more precise, their heads, arms and legs. While making a ‘sculpture’, the raising creative appetite and wild fantasy inspired them to decorate the ‘monument’ with plates, spoons and forks, clothes, as well as with the gifts of nature such as rush, seaweed, sea shells and thin local plants. As the heads of the ‘monument’ were fixed in their position during our creative activities, all the time we had to water them, to feed, to scratch their noses, cheeks, to keep off flies and other insects which used this opportunity and tried to climb them like curious tourists climb the mountain of Kilimanjaro. Finally after the painstaking work accompanied with the non-stop laughing we have got, according to Andrew, a ‘mutant of unknown origin’ instead of the planned ‘three-heads-Dragon’ from a fairy-tale. When we were giving the final touches to the decoration of our ‘beautiful creature’, one of his ‘heads’ (bearing the name of Ruslan) noticed Stas and Eugene running far alongside the sea coast.

“Oh! And where is the air-bag?” wondered the most ‘sharp-sighted head’ of the ‘three-heads-Dragon’. “What’s wrong with them?”

The “head” bearing the name of Slava extravagantly decorated with its ’hat’ lazily turned to that side, hemmed and added, “They must have forgotten something.”

And lastly the third ‘head’, the most wise one (bearing the name of Kostya), which was located between the two others and according to its status was ornamented with the super-turban made by Tatyana from a roll of toilet paper, uttered prudently, “If they had forgotten something they wouldn’t be running with such a speed.”

Indeed, judging by the hurry of the guys one couldn’t say that they were running with a slow speed. Moreover, the absense of Victor and Volodya as well as fishing-tackle obviously showed that something has happened to them. All our attention concentrated on the senior guys.

They reached our camp and started to restore their breathing after the speedy run looking with surprise at our ‘masterpiece’.

“What has happened?” the most ‘wise head’ asked puzzled.

“Well, really!” Eugene smiled on seeing the grandiose sculpture.

“Where is Sensei?” Stas questioned in reply to our question.

“He is over there,” Andrew pointed out to the sea where two heads were seen in the waves from time to time. “They swam far with Nikolai Andreevich.”

Stas and Eugene turned their heads to the sea looking far away. Without thinking twice Eugene put on his fingers to the lips and started to whistle loud towards the sea. The sound was so shrill that Andrew even shrank back from him laughing and rubbed his ears.

“You should have warned us. This is the best way to become deaf.”

“What has happened?” Yura joined our inquiries.

“Have you damaged your air-bag? Or didn’t master the current?” the ‘sharp-sighted head’ uttered with some acidity.

“We hope there were no victims,” the ‘wise head’ finished the phrase of his ‘confrere’.

“Nothing has happened,” Stas answered all the questions at once while Eugene has been artistically whistling. “The air-bag is alright. Everybody is healthy and alive, the same we wish to you…,” Stas looked with a smile at heads of the guys sticking out from the sand with their ‘scattered’ extremities. “We have just found a dolphin on the sea coast.”

“A dolphin?!” I and Tatyana exclaimed almost together.

“Yes, a small one,” the guy showed with his hands the size. “About one meter and a half.”

Our group got excited.

“Wow!”

Meanwhile Sensei and Nikolai Andreevich swimming far from us glanced back and Eugene gave them a signal by waving with his hands. The men started to swim back to the sea coast.

“Was a dolphin alive?” Andrew inquired.

After completing his duty of a ‘radio beacon’, Eugene immediately joined our conversation.

“No… a dead one, with a wound in his side. A fresh wound. It bleeds still.”

“Faugh,” Ruslan said with disgust.

“Well,” Eugene continued to spread hot news, “it’s a distressful sight.”

“Who has done it to him?” Slava asked with sympathy.

“There were some ‘nature-lovers’,” Eugene replied with black humore, “Just look around, there are so many maniacs on the sea coast. They are looking for a victim…” and he added looking at the locked position of the guy dug to the sand, “especially for a helpless one.”

“Well, well,” Kostya grinned together with us. “You will tell us stories! As they say, ‘don’t let you dupe by the professionals’.”

Eugene glanced with expert air at the head of Kostya in the general composition of the sculpture and his eyes sparkled with naughty fire.

“This is a good idea,” the guy uttered and like a real sand master started to add to our comic ‘mutant’ even more funny details. When Sensei and Nikolai Andreevich went out from the water our group was rolling with non-stop laughter, moreover, not only the ‘spectators’ were laughing but also the ‘mutants’. By the way, the last ones roared with laughter more than the others, shaking like awaken volcanoes, that’s why the ‘masterpieces’ started to lose some details. And if to take into account Eugene’s comment about that, you can imagine in which ‘tears-and-dying’ state we were when Sensei and Nikolai Andreevich came up to us. However, they also quickly joined our merry mood and made a few extremely funny jokes concerning that collective creature. Evaluating Eugene’s additions to the sculpture he boasted of, Nikolai Andreevich even ‘diagnosed’ him unambiguously with all typical symptoms of the disease.

When this uninterrupted laughter was over and ‘victims’ extracted from the sand of the sculpture went to swim, Stas told briefly to Sensei and Nikolai Andreevich about their finding. Our psychoterapist who stood near Sensei listened to the guy first a bit strained but later has relaxed and said, “I have already thought that… You whistled from the coast so loud as if all your crew sank.”

“Here is our Nightingale-Robber,” Stas pointed out to Eugene with guilty smile.

“Right,” Andrew backed him while listening to the conversation, “He tested our ears here.”

Eugene smiled self-satisfied and waved his hand towards Andrew.

“You, village boys! You have no notion of our robber accoustic art.”

Everybody laughed again. Sensei just smiled and said, “Well, show us your ‘robber road’.”

Stas, Eugene, Sensei and Nikolai Andreevich went all together. Going out of the sea Ruslan asked Yura, “Have you ever seen a dolphin?”

“No.”

“Me neither. Let’s go and look at him?”

“Let’s go.”

They hurried on to come up with Sensei. All the rest of our group followed them dying from the same curiosity. Nikolai Andreevich turned around to us and stopped on seeing such a mass crowd.

“Hey, guys, and who will stay in the camp?”

“Whom should we protect it from?” Andrew replied for all. “There is nobody here around anyway…”

“But for the lonely maniac,” Eugene added with a thrilling ‘cinema’ voice.

Everybody laughed and Nikolai Andreevich glanced at Sensei with a question in his eyes.

“It doesn’t matter,” the last one answered at his unspoken question.

“But the cars?”

“Well, it’s just pieces of iron. If something happens, we will walk on foot to the city.”

“You are right,” the doctor replied happily switching to the good mood of Sensei. “All the more walking is very good for the health!”

In about twenty minutes of walking we have seen the air-bag dragged out to the coast and Volodya with Victor sitting near the motionless body of the animal watering him with sea water, probably out of pity, although it was obvious that it won’t help him.

The dolphin lay on the sand, his head directed to the sea coast. The coastal sea waves hardly reached the tail part of his body.

Having come closer we silently gathered round this unusual creature. And the first thing which stroke me was his slit-like dark brown eyes. They were frozen with an air of silent terrible pain and suffering as if it were a man who went through a heart-break. His dark almost black spine moistened by human hands was shining under the sun and giving an illusion of the body full of life. The white belly and nice black and white stripes on the sides stood out in contrast on the ideally smooth skin. The light sectors were seen around the nice snout with slightly prognathous jaw. On one side a bit lower than the head there was a stab wound which was already hardly bleeding. ‘Eternal’ kind smile of the dolphin seemed very unreal in contrast with this terrible death. Looking at this harmless friendly creature the heart sank out of pity and impossibility to help him somehow.

“Who’s done it to him?” Andrew asked sadly looking at the dolphin.

“Obviously the fishermen stroke him with a gaff,” Sensei answered inspecting the wound.

“My God, why?” Tatyana exclaimed with compassion.

“Sometimes dolphins steal the catch from fishermen and damage their tackle. But dolphin is just an animal. He goes there where there is a catch. And people…” Sensei sighed heavily and his gaze became a bit severe, “kill them for this.”

Sensei fell silent and at that moment I experienced flows of different feelings. I felt as if there were a lump in the throat, and tears came to my eyes. What a beast (one can’t call this man otherwise) dared to raise a hand to kill such a wonderful creature? This is but a dolphin, the fully-rights earthling, the ocean inhabitant. And his ‘home’ is much bigger than ours. So we, the people, should not kill them but learn from this friendly creatures how to be so nice and kind, how to feel their natural joy of life and harmony of co-existence. Though they are wild animals, they never try to take more from the nature than they need for living, they never try to conquer anyone or anything. They peacefully co-exist with a big variety of species dwelling in the World ocean and taking into consideration their joy of life I have no doubts that they not only exist but also enjoy every moment of their life.

I think that chasing our ‘civilized’ progress which requires more and more of natural victims we lose our humanity, we lose first of all ourselves, our Spiritual nature. With our insatiable endless needs we glorify our Ego, turn to ugly heartless beasts who destroy not only the Earth but all living beings on it, including similar to us. And we consider it normal, don’t we? But is it the reason we came to life? Our life is an instant. And everybody wants to be happy in this instant. Everybody wants but can’t. Why? The nature gives us its silent answers to these questions in harmony of its everyday life. But we do it vice versa: instead of observing we kill, instead of wisely creating we destroy. It’s awful indeed, to live with a beast nature and to possess a mind with the dominating Ego. Eternal sufferings… However, the happiness is so close. We need only to turn to the Good and just to become Human.

The guys stood silently over the body of the dolphin. Even Stas, though he was a reserved person, turned off hardly checking himself.

“If I met now that ‘fisherman’, he would lose for long a desire to take something heavy to his hands…”

“…and bad thoughts to his head,” Victor replied in the same manner.

“Hatred is a bad adviser,” Sensei remarked thoughtfully.

“Who talks about hatred?” Eugen shrugged his shoulders. “We would beat him…’with love’. So that he would forget how to touch not only a dolphin, he would avoid water at all and forget the way to the washbowl.”

“Well, our ‘tolerant’ friend,” Sensei uttered with a light smile and added in a while, “And if to speak seriously, maybe you are right. If you ignore the evil, you won’t notice how you will become indifferent to the good. But when you punish the evil, you should know when to stop. Only this way you will avoid the danger inside of you. The winner doesn’t pride himself, doesn’t rape nor triumphs. He wins… and first of all himself. So punishing the evil you should remember about the good.”

The guys listened to Sensei and hung their heads again over the body of the dolphin.

“Let’s burry him or what?” Eugene proposed after a small pause obviously trying to vindicate himself in front of Sensei.

“Right,” Andrew backed him. “I will bring a shovel…”

“Why do we need a shovel?” Eugene opposed. “There are a lot of us, it will take us less time to dig a tomb in the sand. It’s easy.”

And in order to prove his words Eugene made with his hands a few wide rakes of the sand like a drag-line excavator demonstrating us how quickly it can be done. During this Eugene’s ‘sand work’ Sensei scooped some water with a hand and poured it on the dolphin. Then he started to stroke gently his head saying, “Why do you want to burry him on land? He is a sailor. His home is the sea…”

“Should we leave him like that, in the sea?” Eugene wondered. “Let’s better dig him in the sand, at least he won’t be eaten by fishes. He will sleep peacefully here…” Sensei squatted down, looked at him and smiled, that’s why Eugene felt that he blurted out again something wrong and added with confusion, “Our dear friend.”

His phrase provoked smiles of the guys who tried to hide them as it was quite an inappropriate moment for it. Sensei didn’t reply anything to Eugene. He started to raise a little the head of the dolphin holding him with two hands.

“Nikolai Andreevich, help me…”

Apart from Nikolai Andreevich the other guys, including Eugene, rushed at once to help. But it was quite enough of Sensei, Nikolai Andreevich and Volodya for body transportation. The ‘mournful escort’ moved to the sea. Part of our group was left on the coast, the others, including my person, accompanied them. Hardly the water reached the waist and the body of the dolphin was half-sunk to the water, Sensei said to his assistants, “Let me go further alone. His weight is less in the water …”

When men handed over the body of the dolphin to Sensei, I noticed that Sensei didn’t only embrace it. To my surprise, he put the palm of his left hand right on the wound as if hiding it from curious eyes and embraced the back of the animal from top with his right hand. Having half-sunk the body of the dolphin to the water, Sensei went with him deeper. We stood on the same place.

Sensei was moving slowly and carefully as if it were not the dead dolphin in his hands but a little child whom he gently supported and patiently taught to swim. Little by little they moved away from the shore. Only when the water reached the chest of Sensei, he stood still. I thought that now he would push away the body to the depth and it will sink down. I felt so sorry for this dolphin. Despite these sad circumstances due to which we got a chance to meet this beautiful creature of nature and the short time of our ‘acquaintance’, this dolphin seemed to me so dear and close. I felt something unusual towards this animal and this feeling was hard to be described in words as if his grief, when he was alive, was my grief, his pain was my pain. This strange feeling of some invisible unity started to overfill me from inside. I half-closed my eyes fearing to see the moment of his going down to water and I thought that it would be better if my memory saves the picture of his ‘voyage’ with Sensei. However, having closed my eyes for a moment I suddenly heard the voice of surprised Tatyana, “Is he alive or what?”

I opened my eyes and saw with astonishment that my friends were observing with curiousity Sensei and the dolphin which was still in his hands. The water was rippling in the regions of the dolphin’s tail. First I thought that it only seemed to me. But in a few instants the tail waved again, even much strongly. We couldn’t be wrong. The guys noticed it, too. We exclaimed with joy, “Look, look, he is alive!”

Our noise attracted attention of the guys who were left on the shore and they made an attempt to come closer to us. While we wanted to near Sensei. But Nikolai Andreevich stopped all of us, “Keep quiet, don’t make noise. Stay still. Don’t scare him…”

Our group stood frozen, looking at it with admiration. The movements of the dolphin were weak first as if he recovered after a long slumber. But a bit later they became much more brave and intensive. The most amazing was the fact that this wild wounded dolphin obviously experienced the pain from a man who almost killed him but he didn’t even try to loose from the hands of Sensei though the last one only supported him afloat. On the contrary, judging by vivid movements he looked as if he was filled by life energy. It seemed that the dolphin somehow understood it and didn’t hurry up to slip out from careful and kind hands.

In some time the dolphin threw up from the water his flat tail which was similar to a whale’s one, but in a miniature, and dove after slapping with it funnily on the water. Coming to the surface not far from Sensei, he showed his side and balanced some time on the surface without assistance ‘observing’ Sensei who has been recently holding him in the hands. Sensei also froze looking at the dolphin. In a few instants obviously after this silent ‘dialogue’ finished, the dolphin turned around and slowly swam to the depth of the sea. Contrary to our expectations he didn’t dive anymore but tried to be on the surface. Sensei cast a glance at him, then dipped into the water, sleeked his hair and started to come back to the shore.

When we all crowded on the shore, Victor remarked, “He is still swimming weakly. As far as I know, dolphins are high-speed creatures.”

Eugene responded him in his favorite country dialect, “If you were beaten so by the gaff, I would look at you swimming… It’s good that at least he can tow his body like that.”

“Yes, he is still weak,” Sensei uttered thoughtfully looking how the dark silouhette with a half-moon fin slowly moved away from the shore, disappearing from time to time among waves.”

“I wonder, too, whether he will survive,” Eugene said busily.

“Keep your fingers crossed,” Stas replied.

Eugene immediately followed his advice. He crossed his fingers, put off his hat and touched his head. Stas noticed his movements and smiled, “You should better touch wood, not the head.”

“Blockhead is like wood,” Eugene answered in such a manner as if it were just triffles.

We smiled. And having waved his hand towards Eugene Stas turned to us, “Help us bring the stuff. We have no longer desire to continue fishing.”

We didn’t need to be asked twice. We went all together to take out fishing tackle, rucksacks in order to unload the air-bag. The guys floated the boat to the shallow water and dragged it along the coast like barge haulers.

While we were making our preparations, the strong wind has risen. Leaving this place we threw again a glance at the sea looking for our dolphin. But he was not seen anywhere between the huge waves. We heard a sad cry of a seagull whirling over the water… Well, unfortunately, everything has its beginning and its end in this life.

We hung our heads. It seemed that nobody wanted to believe that our almost alive dolphin sank though the common sense told quite the contrary. For some time we were going not saying a word, looking back with hope at the place where the dolphin had been seen for the last time. But every time we lowered our gazes to the sand underfoot.

“Well, finally,” Eugene was the first who couldn’t stand this mournful general silence. “Dolphins don’t sink. They are fishes!”

“They do,” Sensei replied with even and calm voice, without a slight trace of any emotions. “There are cases when they sink within one minute, especially when they are excited or scared. But if they sink, it happens quickly… As far as that goes, dolphins are not fishes at all, they are warmblooded mammals like human beings. They possess well-developed brain. And by the way, the cerebral cortex of dolphins is bigger than the cortex of humans.”

“Therefore it has more convolutions than some Homo sapiens,” Nikolai Andreevich added in jest looking at Eugene.

Sensei smiled and went on, “Like humans, dolphins react to different situation, including the stressful ones. They also possess fear.”

“I can’t grasp it anyway, how can they sink?” Eugene shrugged his shoulders, either really not understanding or pretending.

“It’s simple,” Sensei answered. “They just swallow the wrong way like people. If a dolphin is under stress, it’s enough that water goes through blowhole to lungs… and that’s all.”

“Through a blowhole?” Ruslan asked again. “It’s something like human nostile, or what?”

“Right, but it is located in the very top of the head. It is directly connected with lungs.”

“That’s great! Just sneeze once and the whole sea…” Ruslan didn’t continue his phrase letting the inertly smiling crowd to finish his “brilliant guess” by itself.

“I wonder how he coughs in the water,” Andrew inquired.

“He doesn’t. Dolphins never cough.”

“Lucky they are … these warm-blooded mammals,” Victor envied because he suffered from coughing from the very morning. “They might never catch a chill.”

“Why am I not a dolphin?” Eugene uttered dreamingly.

“You are wrong,” Sensei replied to Victor. “They got sick the same way like us. We have even identical microorganisms which cause respiratory diseases. But unlike us dolphins endure badly the chill. Very often it turns into pneumonia and almost always it ends with the death of an animal.”

Eugene made a surprised glance, “Really? Then it’s good that I am not a dolphin.”

“But if they swallow water the wrong way, how can they live there?” Kostya inquired.

“They die only when they are seriously stressed, when they panic, actually the same way like people. Apart from that they live quite well! They have such a good system of muscular and respiratory valves which ideally functions in the most severe external conditions.”

“Well,” Nikolai Andreevich sighed. “It means that the fear equals all.” And he asked Sensei in a while, “Then it means that the psychological factor is the same way important for dolphins during apnoea as for people, isn’t it?”

“You are completely right.”

“Apnoea?” Ruslan wondered. “And what is this?”

Eugene hemmed.

“Here you are… Apnoea means breath-holding. Even I know that!”

Ruslan glanced at aqualungs in the air-bag and relied with a crooked smile, “Of course, you should know that.”

“Don’t worry,” Stas invigorated him. “If you dive like us, you will know it, too.”

“Right, with a head to the sand,” Eugene added with a smile and looked at Stas.

They both laughed, obviously having recollected some funny case from their past. Offended Ruslan said, “Am I an ostrich or what?”

“If not, you will become the one,” Eugene declared kindly, exchaning again glances with Stas. The guys felt some dirty trick in his words and insisted on telling what was hidden behind these grins. The fellows told a story about their first unlucky experiments when they had been learning diving. Actually there was nothing special but surely it looked quite comical due to Eugene’s interpretation. At the end Stas uttered, “It would be great if people were able to stay long time under water without additional devices like aqualungs.”

“It’s quite real,” Sensei remarked as if by the way. “The brain of the human has a lot of programs. You just have to know how to use these abilities… What is human breathing in fact? It’s an interchange of air breathes in and out. This process takes place due to diaphragm and ribs muscles contraction which causes the volume change of the thorax. The gas exchange takes place on the level of lungs alveolus and it enriches blood. The blood transports oxygen among cells and extracts carbonic acid. And what does regulate this breathing rhythm? The breathing center which is located in the medulla. There is hidden a golden key to the ‘switch of speed’.”

“Do you mean the programs?” Kostya asked.

“Right.”

Eugene grinned self-satisfied.

“Aha, and the key lies there like in a fairy tale, and nobody knows where it lies. And those who know keep silent as they cant’ reach it through the hole.”

“You are wrong,” Sensei smiled. “Those who want always will find… and will reach. There are plenty of such practices of breath-holding. You just have to look for them and not to be lazy, but don’t tell us stories that there no of them only because you are unaware of that. Let’s take for example a practice of breathing control in yoga. It’s called Pranayama. Though in its original form it was given namely as an instrument for activization of one of the most ancient reflexes of a human, a ‘submergence reflex’, and not into the water but into the depth of the consiousness where a human gradually neared the source of the soul. But ourdays this practice is rather distorted by people and is boosted into the whole teaching where yogis mostly waste their time and energy for learning how to control the breathing, to speed up some processes in the body, for example, to heal wounds or slow down for example the general metabolism or beats… It’s also good, of course, because this way people learn how to control their thoughts. But they knocked to pieces the whole and complicated the simple. Therefore modern people, when practicing it, see the piece and think that it’s the very whole…” and Sensei added addressing himself again directly to Eugene, “So if you want just to hold your breath, you may use this practice as well. The choice is wide. The technique of breath-holding in the alternating consciousness was known to people from the time immemorial. This practice can be found everywhere: in Tropical Africa, in Northern America, in Lapland, on the Bali island. I don’t even mention those techniques which are inherited from one generation to another by people who live on sea fruits, for example pearl hunters.

Eugene pondered for a while and started to debate aloud.

“Well, tell me how long can someone stand under water without air? A maximum of two minutes, and only if it’s a professional diver. I mean, without aqualung,” the guy specified.

“He’s right,” Nikolai Andreevich agreed. “Then it comes to anoxia, simply to say, to the lack of oxygen which leads to irreversible processes in the substance of the brain. A man loses consciousness…”

“And that’s all folks, alles kaput,” Eugene finished the sentence supporting his ‘companion’.

However, Sensei objected, “In alternating consciousness even a not trained person is able to stay much longer than any professional diver.”

“Well, Sensei, don’t tell us stories,” the guy didn’t believe.

“Let’s bet on it?” Sensei proposed immediately with a mysterious smile.

“With you, Sensei? Not at any price,” Eugene waved away at once under the general laughter of the guys. “Am I a self-murderer? I know anyway that I won’t stay under water so long as you.”

“No, I don’t count myself,” Sensei calmed him. “Let’s take anybody from this gang, chose yourself.”

“You say, it’s my choice?” Eugene smiled archly and started to ‘drill’ us with his eyes. This very moment, as bad luck would have it, the grip of my plastic sachet was torn by pure accident.

“Oh,” my person uttered with confusion and started to collect quickly fishing tackle and some other things from the sand.

Andrew and Volodya who were walking close to me, began to help me. Eugene drew his attention to the ‘object’ of his winning choice and declared self-satisfied, “Let’s take her for example.”

“Alright,” Sensei agreed. “Do you mind?” He asked me.

I was so naпve to take it just for a funny joke and decided to back Sensei. I declared in the same self-satisfied manner as Eugene, “Of course, I agree. What’s the problem? I’m a hereditary diver of the seventh generation. Do you know how Siberians dive? Oh! They dive in the mountains of Altai and come to the surface in Kara Sea!

“Do they come to the surface or float on the surface drowned?” – Eugene specified with a malicious smile.

“It depends on your luck,” I answered.

Our dialogue made all the guys laugh.

“Well, well,” Eugene rubbed his hands anticipating his victory. “And what will be the prize of our bet?”

“Choose by your own!” Sensei answered merrily.

“Then.., then,” the guy was confused.

“One day on duty in the camp,” Stas gave him a hint as it was their turn to do it.

“Right you are,” Eugene expressed his consent. “One day on duty in the camp! That is to say all those things like tidying-up-with-a-broom, washing-dishes, making-fire and all other small and boring routine things in the camp.”

“Alright,” Sensei said. “As soon as we arrive to the camp, we’ll start the competition.”

They shook hands with each other and Volodya agreed to be a referee of the bet. We continued our way.

Eugene was so inspired by his obvious advantage that he began to ‘psychologically influence’ his opponent, preparing me to the cleaning procedures and explaining in details what I had to do.

“Maybe I should also clean the dust on rush?” I suggested to him, laughing and keeping up this fun.

“No, well, don’t trouble yourself!” satisfied Eugene started to treat me with kind gloves. “We are gentlemen. Let’s not go beyond the camp chaos.” And he added at once, “However, if madam has a desire, she can not only clean the dust from rush. She can wipe that small puddle.”

Eugene pointed out to the sea and everybody burst out laughing again. This way we were going to the shelters all the time exchanging ‘mutual compliments and concessions’ with him under the roar of other guys.

4

Already from afar we have seen that our camp looked somehow unusual, as if it were covered with a white moving spot. Of course, we tried to keep order but everything was too white… Coming closer we have observed the true ‘banquet’ of seagulls. Our sudden appearance scared these thieves and they were in panic. Breaking away from their rich meal, they flew up as if on command and so to say made sail leaving us piles of leftovers. Our group was in stupor from such a barefaced impudence.

You should have seen this scene. Everywhere lay about in disorder plastic torn paper bags with cereals, macaroni, what is more, thoroughly mixed with the sand. So to say, sand-cereals-macaroni foundament mixed with droppings of birds, with small hills of poured out flour, salt, sugar. And all this morning disaster was supplemented by open work tissue papers whirling by the wind, like in a play, on the whole shore. And if to take into account our previous bet, my person for example lost its wits and I, so to say, ‘lost heart’.

In a minute of deathly silence during which some with surprise and others with fear were observing this nice landscape named a ‘landfill’, Eugene scratched his head and threw to Andrew with triumph, “Well, well. Is it called ‘not a living soul’?!”

Andrew hurried on to counter, “Right, but for your lonely maniac!”

“The fact is that he was not lonely,” Victor remarked in jest examining the multiple remnants of the devastation. “And judging by traces left this ‘leader’ was more likely a representative of the local fauna and had four paws and even maybe a tail. Obviously he was the first in our food shelter.”

“Right,” Eugene stood up for the unknown animal. “He ate too much there. He was bored and invited all he could to this party.”

“Nice party,” Stas hemmed. “Who will clean up all of this for them?”

“Make a guess with one try,” Eugene proposed to him with a smile and looked satisfied towards me.

Then as if it suddenly came to his mind he started to look actively for our improvised broom made from branches bound together. It happened to be ‘half-dug’ in the sand. Eugene raised it, shook it down, pretended having blown away the last specks of dust and handed it over to me with an open hand.

“Take it, Cinderella! Today you will forget about the rest on the sea shore. A bet is a bet.”

I took up the broom because I understood that we should bring our camp to order anyway. And I began to plan in my mind where to start the big cleaning of the territorium from. Meanwhile Sensei took away the broom from my hands and addressed to Eugene, “But she didn’t lose the bet yet.”

“But she is unlikely to win it,” the smiling guy uttered with self-confident expression on his face.

“I would propose the following,” Sensei said. “If it turns like this, let’s complicate the task…”

“Noway! A bet is a bet, as agreed upon,” Eugene started to protest as he thought that Sensei would propose now something extraordinary for his person.

“But you will benefit from it!”

Eugene calmed down looking with suspicion at Sensei and trying to figure out where was the dirty trick. Meanwhile Sensei went on, “Take an assistant. Your total time under water will be summed. That is, the time you both stay under water against her one diving.”

Eugene hasn’t found out anything onerous for himself and immediately agreed fearing that Sensei would change his mind.

“Alright, alright!” and he added toadily, “Sensei, I have always known that you are the most fair judge in the world. However, who knows,” he pointed out to me with a cunning smile, “Maybe she grew gills instead of lungs on the way.”

Everybody laughed and I pretended laughing, too. However, a rapid wave of doubts that it was just a joke rose in me. If they didn’t joke, then it meant a real disaster for my person. I didn’t know how to dive at all, not speaking about long breath-holding. And this bet is against two well-trained guys! “I got into a mess,” my person thought scared.

“Well,” Eugene rubbed his hands anticipating his victory after he chose his partner. As I assumed, it was Stas, “Let’s not lose time and go to the sea!”

He made an inviting gesture to all our group suggesting to witness this event. The people eagerly agreed on the proposal of our comic fellow and followed him leaving the things. Lighting a cigarette Sensei remained behind, together with Nikolai Andreevich. I and Tatyana also stayed there as we used to pack up the left things in one heap. Meanwhile Nikolai Andreevich said in low voice adressing to Sensei, “Eugene is so sly. As soon as condition of the deal became favourable, he immediately changed his attitude to the situation. However, many people do like him. This is a typical example of egocentrism.”

“What can we do,” Sensei shrugged his shoulders and answered in the same low voice. “Man seeks a better fate like fish seeks deeper water,” and he added with a smile, “How can he deprive himself the dearest? Indeed, this egocentrism is an automatical habit of people. How can we talk about the love for one’s neighbor if they don’t even want to understand each other?”

“It’s the most sad thing about all of it.”

Meanwhile I and Tatyana have already finished our work. I came with doubts to Sensei hoping to solve a dispute before starting to realize its conditions.

“Well, I…”

Sensei didn’t let me finish the phrase and express all my numerous doubts. He said in a kindly manner, “Go and get ready. Get used to the water.”

His soft confident tone calmed me a bit. Still hoping that it was just a joke I went to the sea together with Tatyana. There was already a ‘support team’ presented by Kostya, Andrew and Slava. I should mention that our big group has divided itself to two parts: those ones who ‘supported’ Stas and Eugene and those ones who ‘sympathized’ with me.

Unlike the senior guys who ran to the water with much noise like torpedoes and dove deep at once in order to cool off their bodies warmed-up by sun, I and Tatyana tried to get used to the water as usually, step-by-step. However, the guys who so to say ‘supported’ us decided to speed up this process and started to sprinkle us from all sides pretending to help us intensively to get used to the water. As they were intentionally attacking us from shallow water, I and Tatyana had to run away to the depth, of course, with a following submergence.

Having seen enough of Eugene and Stas breath training before diving Kostya put up the ‘crown of the winner’ from twisted algae on his head and began to play the role of my mentor in ‘diving in shallow water’. All this process was accompanied by killing jokes of the guys. But despite the philosophical teachings of Kostya I wasn’t able to hold breath under water for long. Kostya even tried to slightly hold me in place under water fixing my shoulders and mumbling from the surface his ‘instructions’. However, all of that just scared me even more as sooner or later my instinct of self-preservation prevailed and I managed to ‘scramble out’ to the surface with amazing quickness sometimes even drowning my ‘mentor’ at panic. After several unvoluntary submersions Kostya exploded with even more ‘innovative proposals’ on improving the diving method, for example by making my body heavier in the water with a ‘necklace of bricks’, ‘beton handcuffs’ etc.

“Finally, what task do you have?” Kostya said in jest shaking out water from his ear and adjusting a hanging algea which fell down after his another submersion to water by his ‘bad disciple’. “You need to submerge under the water. Right? Right. But nobody said about emersion.” We laughed again.

“You are so kind, indeed!” Tatyana said with a funny intonation.

So unlike the senior guys who didn’t lose time and seriously trained we had a total clownery. Therefore just in case I mentally reconciled myself to my future one-day role of Cinderella.

Finally Sensei and Nikolai Andreevich came closer to us. I thought that looking at our attempts Sensei will turn this bet into a next big joke and everything would be over with it. But when he came up and seriously asked, “So, let’s begin?” my heart sank. Being afraid of showing my fear in front of my friends I started to talk to Sensei with lips trembling either from fear or from cold water, “Sensei, I can’t… I’d better go to tidy up at once.”

Sensei calmly replied to me, “Don’t give up. Keep off your fear. Take away all the doubts. Believe since it’s said ‘Lively faith brings everything’.”

I looked confused at him with a silent question, “How can I do it?” But Sensei answered looking at my eyes, “Just relax. Don’t think about your breath. Your task is to achieve a deep state of meditation with a minimum of thoughts. Concentrate on the count from one to ten. You will stand 10 seconds, will you?”

“Well, if it’s just ten seconds, I will stand easily,” I replied with proud for my such a small ‘result’.

“So why do you worry? Count to ten and emerge. And don’t count quickly like 1,2,3… but slowly, with pauses, count three-digit figures like 501, 502, 503 etc. Is it clear?”

“Yes.”

These words not only calmed me down, I got even curious. I have never done before a meditation under the water. Strangely enough but my curiousity turned to firm confidence that everything would be alright. And this feeling grew from some my internal belief and absolute trust to Sensei. It wasn’t trust actually but some hidden knowledge of my soul about his Essence which was expressed only intuitively, on the level of perception.

“So be it, I will dive,” my person thought after a range of sharp breathes in and out. The same was done by my first ‘opponent’ Eugene. Getting ready to start, when it was counted ‘three’ I breathed in with all my chest as much as I could and submerged at the same time with Eugene under the water. Sensei put his hand on my head in the regions of Sahasrara (the seventh chakra) and pushed it a bit, so I thought that he didn’t want to let me emerge before time. Instead of expected panic, I relaxed and began to count slowly to ten according to the advice of Sensei. Freely fulfilling this task I decided to sit a few more seconds under the water in order to add some more time to my ‘score’. But when I started to count again, I felt that some strong hands, obviously of Sensei, draw me out of the water. Frankly speaking, I was even a bit upset as I could stay there a bit longer. Only ten seconds?! Emerging to the surface I immediately began to express my indignation, “Why? I’m ready, let’s continue… I can stay longer…”

But when I glanced at the others, I didn’t understand anything. Everybody stood in some dumb amazement, looking at me like at an alien who came from another Universe. Eugene and Stas were among the guys and also didn’t take their eyes from my indignant person in some strange amazement. I even thought that maybe they didn’t dive at all, maybe something happened? Only Sensei kept Olympian calm.

“That’s enough of you,” he smiled good-natured. “You have already stayed ten minutes under the water.”

“Who?! Me???” my person grinned thinking that it was a joke.

“Well, well, everything can happen in life,” Stas uttered scratching his head. “Just it’s a pity that not everybody can get this ‘everything’.”

“You see how all of them are anxious, especially some boasters,” Sensei waved towards Eugene who opened his mouth and stared wide-eyed, either for fun or really in surprise as if he was stricken by something. “Now someone will have to clean everything and to turn into Cinderella.”

Eugene seemed to ‘come to himself’ after these words, comically chattered with his teeth and put his jaw to its normal state helping himself with a hand. After that he uttered in his usual joking voice, “Cleaning everything is not a problem! But we didn’t make an agreement that I would have to change my male sex.”

Stas began to ‘quiet’ him launching a new wave of laugh.

“’Cinderella’ is just a sort of individual entrepreneurial activity when you have to do a maximum of work in a minimal time and by the way for free...”