A Guardian Angel. Oscar Wilde Award. Playing Another Reality

Chapter 1.7. A Dream of London

London, April, a rainy morning,

on the eve of the Book Fair opening,

in the hotel

Hotel lobby. The delegation of writers gathered for a city tour. A Londoner guide appeared, began to check those present on the list. White approached the guide’s guardian. The latter looked foggy, which seemed to be common to all guardians in London.

“Be healthy, Foggy!”

“Be healthy, White!”

“How is it going on here, in London?”

“No change, it’s raining! An oligarch from your country was found sunk the other day. The body of our Iron Lady is being buried on Wednesday. The rest is on schedule, it’s raining in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening and at night! Imagine, being a human, I didn’t like rains, and so, as a lesson in humility, I was sent here as a guardian!”

“It’s familiar. I didn’t like noisy cities, and now I work in Moscow. I have a task for you. Here is my Alice in the group, look over there, you see, such a small one. I need to get her to platform 9 and 3/4 today, by all means.”

“To Hogwarts for training?” Foggy asked incredulously.

“No, she shouldn’t go that far yet! Alice doesn’t even need this platform so much as…”

“A magic wand?”

“Well, I think, she won’t leave there without a magic wand. But she needs to buy a unique thing, sold exclusively in the magical gadgets shop on that platform, to turn back the Time.”

“Oh, the Time Turner!”

“Exactly! Alice has heard about the existence of the platform, but she is unaware of the fact that it exists in the earthly reality. No one thought of making a tour there. To begin with, just inform Alice that there is such a platform, and not somewhere, but right here, in London. When your guide starts talking about the sights, make him tell them also about the platform. Let him explain in details how to get there.”

“Is your Alice a storyteller, or what?”

“No, she just still believes in fairy tales.”

“I see! Okay, bro! Just wake her up at the right moment! You know, when my guide speaks for a long time, many tourists fall asleep.”

***

the tour of London sights, daytime, rain

It was a bus tour, and Alice was happy, because of the downpour. At some point, the monotonous speech of the guide made Alice fall asleep, but she felt someone shoving her in the side, and returned to reality. The tour guide said distinctly, “By the way, does anyone need a magic wand? They are really magic and sold on platform 9 and 3/4 in London! Actually, you can go through the wall by buying a ticket to Hogwarts there. Just a warning in advance: tickets are sold exclusively in one direction, no return!”

Alice raised an eyebrow, showing both extreme surprise and indescribable joy at the same time, “How to get there?”

“To Hogwarts? Go through the wall and get on the train,” the tour guide laughed, “the platform is at Kings Cross Station.”

***

the platform 9 and 3/4, evening, rain

Alice took the subway to Kings Cross. The modern train station looked like an airport. There were shops like Duty Free everywhere, a giant display with the departure and arrival of trains, exits to numerous platforms, constant information announcements…

Alice slowly wandered, trying to find the coveted 9 and 3/4. A policeman, standing at the ticket office with a serious look, gave a passenger information on the departure of the train. Alice came up to the policeman and said in a serious voice, “I need the platform 9 and 3/4.”

The policeman in exactly the same serious voice answered how to find it. And finally, Alice joyfully stopped. Under the coveted sign on the brick wall, there was a whole crowd with suitcases! All these people were queuing up to pass through the wall in order get to Hogwarts! Alice took a place in the tail of the queue. When her turn came, as all young wizards, she jumped up, hovering in the air for a moment above her baggage cart before passing through the wall into Another Dimension.

White smiled, “That’s what I really like about you! But you don’t need to go to Hogwarts yet, or already. Come back and turn your head to the right.”

Alice obediently landed, turned right and found a sign “Wizards Goods”. She entered the shop and stopped. In front of her, there were windows with many magical items, and enchanting music was playing. Alice approached the wands and her astral body started dancing with delight. Next to her, there were a lot of the adult-looking people, like herself. They took the wands in their hands, felt them, sniffed them, tried them on energetically, making all kinds of movements in the air and even saying something.

White addressed the guardians of the present ones in the shop, “Colleagues! Free the passage to the far window! My enchantress needs the Time Turner.”

The guardians strenuously inspired their wards to leave the shop, and they headed for the exit. The guardians of the departed surrounded Alice and whispered in both her ears with a smile, “Time Turner! Time Turner! Time Turner!!!”

Spellbound, Alice came up to the farthest window in the corner and froze, looking at a strange tiny hourglass inside multiple circles, each bearing a spell about Time and Space. The clock could be rotated in different directions. The magic item was on a chain and could be used as a piece of jewelry. With bated breath, Alice asked the seller to show her a previously unknown device with the promising name Time Turner. Five minutes later, Alice bought the find and carefully hid it in her purse.

White smiled contentedly and said, “Whatever the child does getting fun, it’s okay, if…”

***

hotel, night, rain

Back at the hotel, trembling a bit, Alice took out her wand and the Time Turner, looked at both for a long time, then carefully started turning the clock’s circles to the left.

The phantom of the Man in White appeared in the room. White squeezed his eyes shut. But closing the eyes does not help the guardians at all, it’s their habit from a past life, when they were humans and saw reality exclusively with their earthly vision. White opened his eyes and said wearily, “Alice, no! Turn it more times, yet more! Not for two or three years!”

Alice continued to turn back time, then stopped, put the Time Turner on the table, took her magic wand and, whispering something completely unpleasant to her guardian’s hearing, draw some signs with it in the space. Tired, but absolutely happy, Alice fell asleep.

***

The 1st day of the Fair, hotel, morning, rain

Alice reluctantly woke up, trudging into the bathroom in a half-asleep state. Glamorous appeared on the threshold and greeted White, “So, bro, now she is going to the fair and…”, but the phrase was interrupted by a knock on the room door.

“Who else is this?” Glamorous was indignant.

White smiled, “Relax, they are ours, light ones.”

Alice came out of the bathroom and opened the door. On the threshold, there was a short, shaven-headed man with his guardian. The latter looked rather gloomy and just as gloomy said, “Hello, bros…”

Alice joyfully greeted the guest, and the guardians similarly greeted the gloomy angel.

“Bro, you are a Light one, but you look like a cloud! Who is your ward?” Glamorous asked in surprise.

“A writer.”

“Does he write badly?” Glamorous didn’t let up.

“Not badly, but … in every story he kills everyone, in a gloomy and sophisticated way. I tried to reorient him, but to no avail.”

“Listen, White, I hope the gloomy writer won’t prevent us from realizing our glamorous plan?”

Gloomy sighed sadly and sat down on the bed next to White, “He’s a killer only in stories, but he’s peaceful in life. We arrived here at tonight for the Fair. He’ll help Alice take the books to the stand. If you don’t mind, they’ll walk together in the evening London.”

Glamorous nodded. White smiled. Alice led the Writer to the table where her magical artifacts were having a rest and exclaimed in admiration, “Look! I bought myself a magic wand and the Time Turner yesterday!”

“She did it!” Glamorous purred happily.

“Moreover, she turned time back…”

“What an obedient girl! Good girl!” Glamorous praised Alice.

“No, she isn’t. She’s a sheep! She rotated it only for 2—3 years back. I can’t get the Man in White out of her mind!”

Gloomy looked at Alice perplexed.

“So do you like it? Does it work?” the Writer laughed.

“I don’t know it yet,” Alice laughed. “I did it last night. We’ll see!”

Alice showed the Writer a pile of books to be transported to the stand. The Writer shook his head grimly, but silently packed the books in his suitcase.

Glamorous sighed, “White, then our plan needs to be corrected. We’ll bump our wards tomorrow morning. Today Alice goes there with the Writer, but it’s better for her to be bumped face-to-face. Moreover, it’s not aesthetically pleasing to bump them with such suitcases! In short, I’ll find you tonight and let you know where and what time.”

“Once I used to do bumping, too,” Gloomy admitted sullenly.

“So did you succeed?” Glamorous asked.

“To no avail…”

“You know, bro, it’s all because you did it in a gloomy way!” Glamorous laughed. “We use a glamour approach!”

***

London, the Book Fair

Alice set up a stand. Having got some photos for memory, writers from the delegation remained there. Alice left the stand. She had to go around all the halls to establish business literary contacts. The fair was enormous. Alice got very tired and dizzy.

“Hey, my sheep, leave the not passed for tomorrow! Get some rest already!” White whispered to her, but Alice stubbornly kept walking until there was not a single unspoken stand left. Alice exhaled happily “Hurrah!” and sent a message to the Writer. He called her back. They met at the exit and went for a walk around the city.

Strange, but there was no rain, although the sky was full of huge clouds. They walked from Piccadilly to the Abbey. However, the latter was already closed, but a souvenir shop was open. The Writer silently looked at the souvenirs, then approached Alice, who was meditating at the Celtic cross, took her by the hand and led her to a showcase with crowns. They were very small, as a thimble.

“Buy one for yourself,” the Writer said quietly, and Alice looked at him surprised. “You got in the final of the ‘King of Poets’ competition. Buy and you’ll win it.”

“It’s impossible to win it!”

The Writer shook his head and stubbornly insisted, “It costs nothing. Are you so greedy? You believe in magic. Of course, you can’t put it on your head, but on a chain around your neck, why not?”

Alice surely believed in magic disbelieving the Writer’s words, but she bought the crown.

White sighed doomed and turned to Gloomy, “Why is there all of a sudden so much optimism and faith in magic in your Writer? In the Space of Options, at the moment, there is no chance for Alice to win. You’ll have to answer for his words.”

“You know, White, I’ll have already to answer for so many of his words when he comes to us from his dream that this trick with the crown compared to sophisticated murders in his books seems to me nothing at all.”

Alice and the Writer left the shop, wandered along the Thames, sat down on a bench. Alice looked at the sky through the black bare branches of the trees. The words of a future poem came to her, “There’s no Sun in the grids of the branches, just clouds…”. She shifted her gaze to the Writer, who was similarly looking at the sky, and noticed that he had scars on his arm in the place where they usually cut their veins.

The Writer said gloomy, “My guardian saved me then.”

“Cut?”

“No, I went skiing. A women cut me off, I tumbled in the sky, then hit my hand right on… They took me to the hospital. The doctor said that my guardian had saved me, as if the veins were taken away, but the cut was much deeper.”

“Really?” White asked the Writer’s guardian, and Gloomy nodded sullenly.

“Why do you always kill everyone?” Alice asked the Writer. “Maybe at the time of your birth, the planets happened to be in the Sphere of Death? Do you want me to look at your stars?”

The Writer shook his head negatively, and Gloomy commented to White, “His Mars was in the Dungeon. He grew up without a father.”

“My Alice, besides the same Mars in the Dungeon, has the Moon there as well.”

“I want to get to the Tower and Greenwich. Would you like to make me a company?” Alice asked the Writer.

“What’s there, in the Tower and Greenwich?”

“There are royal ravens in the Tower! I love them because I’m just like them. It’s also gloomy there, that’s what you love. In Greenwich, there’s the Zero Meridian, this is magic, that’s what I love. But you can dance right on it and take funny pictures, that’s what you love.”

“Okay, I’m already spellbound,” the Writer smiled sadly, “the Tower and Greenwich are almost ours.”

***

hotel, night, rain

Alice was deep asleep. Glamorous materialized in the room.

“So, White. Tomorrow Alice has to be at the entrance at 9:10. She must walk down the center line. I have already arranged with another guardian, his ward will stop mine in the same place, on the right, at the very beginning of the central line, and they’ll talk exactly as long as it takes if Alice is late. I’ll turn my ward to face those who enter, that is, to face Alice. All that is required of you is to be in the right place at the right time and make Alice not pass him by.”

“She smells your sinner a mile away. What’s next?”

“Well, what do you mean next?”

“You said you had a glamorous plan,” White grinned.

“Isn’t it glamorous? In London! After the platform 9 and 3/4! After the Time Turner! Alice must understand that this meeting is for a reason and not just like that!”

“Well, she’ll probably understand it, but it’s not the point! She owes you nothing. It’s your sinner that owes her! Moreover, Alice doesn’t want anything from him. You’d better look here, at this disgrace!”

Glamorous turned to the sleeping Alice and saw a distinct image of the Man in White instead of a halo above her head.

“Convinced? Alice sleeps dreaming a completely different… animal!”

Glamorous giggled saying, “But after the bumping, she’ll write a poem ‘A chance encounter’.”

“Yes, she will. That’s the problem, again it will be she to write to him, and not him to do something for her.”

Glamorous thoughtfully twisted his golden curl around his finger.

“White, I’ll inspire my sinner day and night, so that he’ll return his debts to Alice! But first, we need to show her to him so that he remembers about her. And not just show somewhere, but in glamorous London. It’ll touch his heart, you’ll see!”

White reproachfully looked at the Glamorous who was disappearing with a Cheshire cat smile and words, “It’ll work this time!”

White watched Alice’s dream with dislike and tried to dispel the image of the Man in White by blowing on him. The phantom got scattered, but reappeared a minute later.

***

the 2nd day of the Fair, morning, rain

The guardian woke Alice up in order to arrive at the fair in time. She reluctantly woke up, looked at her watch, lazily wandered into the bathroom, then went down to breakfast and headed outside. She took the subway, reached the place and merged with the huge crowd rushing to the fair entrance. Finally, Alice entered the pavilion. She pondered for a moment which way to proceed to her stand, because there were three ways in front of her, in fact, as in any fairy tale.

“Choose the central one”, White whispered.

Alice obediently turned to the central line and headed deeper into the pavilion. There were many people around her, but she didn’t notice them, completely immersed in her own thoughts. White saw Glamorous waving his hand in greeting, his ward and two other men just a few steps away, on the right side, by a big stand. Alice was slowly walking into the distance and got equal to those standing on the right and calmly took the next step, not noticing anyone around.

“Alice! Stop! Right now!” Glamorous shouted. “White! She’s leaving! No, no! Stop her!”

Alice didn’t hear him and took another step. Glamorous tried to block her path, to stop her in every possible way. He called for the help of the light guardians of the passing by booklovers. They pounced on Alice from all sides, grabbing her by the astral hands and pulling her back. Suddenly, Alice stopped, as if waking up, and returned to earthly reality from the world of her dreams. An inner voice whispered to her, “Turn around! There, behind, on the right… Didn’t you feel him?”

Alice turned around. He was standing with his back to her, talking with two men at a big stand.

“Alice! Come on! Come to him!” Glamorous begged her. “Draw his attention to yourself! Please!”

Alice was lost in her thought, “Why? Why should I approach him? It’s all in the Past. He is a man from my past life, who, however, was not present in it.”

Glamorous fell before Alice on his knees, “Dear Alice, yes, you are right! He is the Man Who Was Not, but he is! And before he ends up in our Higher Light world, he should pay you back for his promises in your earthly reality! And being his guardian, I really need you both to finally part in a divine way! Well, at least, have pity on me, not on him, me!”

Alice kept wondering, “What would it change if I approach him? Nothing. I have nothing to say to him…”

A stranger talking to the Man Who Was Not noticed Alice, and she realized that she had nothing but to approach him. Alice took two steps back and stopped to the right of The Man Who Was Not. She lightly placed her right palm on his right hand. The man turned around. Alice, with a smile of Mona Lisa on her face, removed her palm from his hand and turned around to continue her way, because she had absolutely nothing to say to him. Glamorous desperately shook the astral body of his ward. White silently watched them from the side. The Man Who Was Not took a step towards Alice, took her by the hand, stopping her, and the girl reluctantly turned around, been as silent as before and with the same smile. The man said in a glamorous sing-song voice, “Hello, Alice! I’m glad to see you here.” He didn’t understand why he suddenly decided to stop her. Even those words seemed to have been spoken for him by someone else. And for some reason, he glamorously kissed her on the cheek. Alice, still with the same smile and again silently, turned around and walked away.

“Time Turner,” she stated sadly. “I’ve turned it back for somehow too much. Or does it choose the right time itself?”

***

London, the Book Fair, daytime, rain

Glamorous found Gloomy and said, “Bro, help is needed! I’m bumping my ward into Alice. Now he is going to the second floor. Alice is busy on the stand with nonsense. Let your Writer come after her and ask her to accompany him to the negotiations on the second floor as an interpreter. She won’t refuse him. And it’s good for your Writer, too.”