Stories on the coffee
Ashai

© Ashai, 2023

ISBN 978-5-0059-8643-6

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

The Power Of Thought

My personal time machine is memories that take me back in time and dreams that send me into the future.

The chairman of the Nobel Prize Award Commission solemnly waves his robe as he stands up. His glasses slide down his nose exactly enough to focus all minus five diopters on a golden leaf decorated with a Victorian-era ornament and the committee’s titular coat of arms.

For many centuries in a row, the scientific community has cynically refuted the well-established misconceptions of millions of people about the laws of the Universe. Whether it’s the myth of a flat Earth, or the theological doctrine of the Sun that supposedly revolves around our planet. Therefore. Without any introductory pathos, no attempt to demonstrate wit or play with the audience, the white-haired scientist simply announces:

«This year, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to the Vsevolny Kosmodemyan Egorovich for the discovery of exoplanets¹, the calculation of the trajectories of their movement, as well as the justification and calculation of the habitable zone²».

Tuxedos and evening dresses stand up, filling the Golden Hall of the Stockholm City Hall with applause.

That’s just the person to whom they are intended, now thousands of kilometers from them. He cannot get up, because he lies on the surgical table of the Tyumen City Medical Center. Doctors install neuronal stimulators in the astrophysicist’s brain so that he can move again. A sharp exacerbation of Parkinson’s disease occurred against the stress immediately after the announcement of receiving him the Nobel Prize. The isolation from the international information field Soviet physicists, and after 1991 Russian physicists (although less, but still), raised to the rank of sensationalism getting them prestigious prizes. Of course, in the case of Kosmodemyan Yegorovich, in order to see such significant theoretical discoveries, the Nobel Committee did not need to launch the Kepler telescope. They shined too brightly. Nevertheless, the international recognition shocked the humble scientist to a state of paralysis. He froze like a mannequin immediately after the opening of the letter from Sweden.

The «steel» hands of the surgeon insert the microelectrode using Tuohi’s needle, slightly curved at the end, so as not to damage the membrane of the brain. Kosmodemyan Egorovich in consciousness under local anesthesia experiences a terrible, but at the same time pleasant stroking along the convolutions.

«Light hallucinations are possible during calibration, because electrical impulses can reach the pineal gland³,» the assistant warns. «We will experiment with voltage until you feel the limbs again. This is how we will determine the best placement of the implant». The assistant clicks the toggle switch, and Kosmodemyan Egorovich immediately diagnoses that the numbness of the limbs subsides. The fingers come to life, and behind them – the right hand entire. The assistant gives more electric current to the brain, and the patient does not recognize his body. This bag of rotting potatoes, this pile of heavy cobblestones suddenly becomes almost weightless, so light that Kosmodemyan is picked up a barely noticeable draft and forcefully sucks into the ventilation shaft above the room. The airflow drags him along the metal chute directly to the buzzing blades of the industrial air conditioner. He closes eyes tighter and (why?) thinks about the doctors left in the room, who must be frightened and extremely surprised by his «escape».

«V-z-zh-i-i-i,» Kosmodemyan hears a strained sound, reminiscent of a lawnmower that stumbles upon a thick bush. But he doesn’t feel pain. He feels nothing. Kosmodemyan opens his eyes and sees around him many red pieces, into which his body has scattered. Surprisingly, due to the lack of pain, the scene did not seem terrible! Quite the contrary, the freedom of movement was inspiring.

Kosmodemyan sees below his wife crying mournfully on a bench near the medical center. He did not love her and now loves with all heart, but now it does not matter. He can’t even hug her. Then he returns to his first love, with which he became engaged through numbers and formulas in high school: to astrophysics. And in a moment, Kosmodemyan takes off into orbit. From a height, the planet amazes with its beauty. Mountain ranges and water expanses look completely different from the window of an airplane or in satellite photos. They are alive, they seem to breathe, releasing clouds into the sky. Water evaporates from the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, forming an XXL-cloud in its center. It is picked up by the warm air of the south-eastern trade wind, heated from the surface of the African continent. In an effort to compensate for the difference in pressure, the wind carries the spinning cloud disk towards Brazil, where rain returns moisture to the Amazon, and it carries water back into the ocean with its branchy arteries. The work of this huge organism could be observed forever. Perhaps this is what prevents astronauts from going crazy in their aquarium.

On top of the clouds huddled in a heap, green stripes of the Northern Lights roll out. So the streams of charged particles of the solar wind hit the atmospheric dome. Thanks to this natural shield, hydrocarbon life was born on Earth.

The huge scale of view intoxicates Kosmodemyan. For a second, he doubted the reality of what was happening, as he immediately twisted around his own axis. The view jumps, interference appears, like in antique TVs with an antenna. He realizes that he only sees what he thinks. To test the hypothesis, Kosmodemyan thinks about the Ice Age, and immediately he watches as the white Arctic advances, covering everything living on the Northern Hemisphere with an ice blanket. He sees that contrary to the Law of Universal Gravitation, the Earth is not only attracted, but also repelled from the Sun in certain phases. Complex formulas that could describe what they saw automatically pop up in memory, but nothing comes of it. Integrals are not taken. The determinant of the matrix tended to zero, folding the three-dimensional space of calculations into a point.

Then Kosmodemyan’s vision becomes spectrographic. The mode of the visible range of the eye switches to the spectrum of nitrogen and oxygen radiation⁴, as immediately the Earth’s atmosphere turns orange-red tones, and the ball itself becomes a semblance of its lifeless neighbor – Mars. Such an unflattering appearance, however, allows you to see the plume of atmospheric gases stretching behind the Earth. It exactly repeats the trajectory of the planet and (what a shame!) is a curved line in the form of a wave. This means that our common home is constantly oscillating in outer space, and its orbit is more of a wrinkled cucumber than a geometrically pretty ellipse.

Together with the Earth, Kosmodemyan also hesitated: all his many years of work are under threat. In a panic, he urgently flies to Mars, then to Jupiter and Saturn. By reconfiguring his vision to the radiation spectrum of iron, then helium and, accordingly, hydrogen, he is convinced of the worst: the trouble is repeated on other planets. Neptune’s oscillations were so significant that they could completely bury his method of calculating the movement of exoplanets. He would get wet if he could. But the only thing he feels is stabbing electrical discharges, activating an increasing number of neural connections in his brain. Under their influence, the imagination rushes directly through the Sun, observing from the inside what we call thermonuclear reactions.

Vortices of fiery plasma collide with each other, forming a supervortex that tends outward. The flow of matter shoots into outer space, and the Sun is deflected in the direction opposite to this impulse. But of even greater importance are the electromagnetic waves sent by other stars. Some waves resemble a funnel that draws the Sun into itself. Others, on the contrary, look like a swollen soap bubble that pushes the luminary in the opposite direction. Following the oscillating Sun, the planets twitch obediently.

«Is it really like that everywhere?» thinks Kosmodemyan and rushes to the nearest exostar Proxima Centauri. The fears are confirmed. His Nobel theory is crumbling before our eyes. The trajectories of exoplanets are more like a corkscrew screwed into a bottle of wine, rather than the geodetic lines calculated by him. Then Kosmodemyan increases the scale of observations and is amazed that the Galaxies are not only expanding, but also collapse. He studies this process in timelapse mode. Expanding star systems crowd out neighboring star systems, causing them to press against each other, that is, to collapse. If the expanding force is enough to bring galaxies close enough, then the Big Bang happens. Under its powerful action, expansion begins again. Kosmodemyan remembers the lake in the city park on a hot summer day: in the same way, boats with couples in love on the board collide and repel in the narrow alignment of the bridge. For a short time, the researcher forgets about his own failure, which is replaced by global surprises like a «How much has yet to be studied by mankind! So much they must to understand and explain!»

«What about life on exoplanets? No wonder I calculated all these zones of habitability!» the ego quickly regains control over the thought process. Kosmodemyan flies into the constellation Ursa Major to the planet Vv-1. Its name is an abbreviation of the surname Vsevolny. In relief, Vv-1 is very similar to the Earth, but he only meets desert stone landscapes. He flies around hundreds of other planets – the situation does not change. Caves, cracks and natural wells are checked in search of evidence of vital activity. There is no result. The idea that life is phenomenal in its essence, and therefore we are alone in the universe, confidently corrodes the motivation for further searches. Most of his sensational discoveries are refuted right before his eyes. And even them. So another joke about Russian space for the series «The Big Bang Theory» arrived.

His research and scientific calculations are depreciating at the same speed at which Kosmodemyan is approaching the most massive object in our galaxy – a black hole. It becomes frightening whether the consciousness will be able to get out of this infinitely dark abyss. After all, this is not possible even for the fastest particle – a quantum of light. But the astrophysicist could no longer think of anything else: the black hole is so attractive and desirable. Together with the fragments of the nearest stars, Kosmodemyan is sucked beyond the event horizon, inside the all-consuming blackness.

A mandrake and panic overtakes him in absolute darkness. There is nothing to observe, the thought does not develop further. Only a habit, developed over the years, saves: when the proof of cosmic theories comes to a standstill, you need to look for analogies in other areas of knowledge. The scientist remembered the favorite phrase of his friend, a nuclear physicist. During heated debates about the choice of subject of study, he usually said: «Well, you cannot take up space when not everything is studied on Earth!»

«But this can pull me out of the black impasse!» Kosmodemyan agrees with his friend for the first time. «Let’s think about it. Nuclear physicists study the properties of elementary particles in colliders… Of course! That’s what you need to think about! What does dark matter consist of?»

The darkness parted, and to his delight, Kosmodemyan sees that it consists of extremely small particles. Less than quarks. Kosmodemyan called them Juniorons. Particles of such minuscule sizes are not stable, because by itself observing them with light already turns them into other particles. But here, in the absence of light, the Juniorons connects to each other so tightly that there is practically no free space between them. They take up almost all the space given to them! Therefore, a black hole in a limited radius accumulates a giant mass, which creates a frenzied gravitational field.

Packing of Osmium atoms (the densest simple substance) VS Juniorons

Somewhere far away he feels the prick in his arm. After that, the questions that pop up in the mind abruptly change their subject.

«I wonder,» Kosmodemyan thinks, «will I go to Paradise?»

The scenery around is modified into a cozy place, flooded with light. Kosmodemyan is surrounded by a society of melodic, kind voices who talk about science, art, history. They listen carefully to each other without interrupting. The desire to express disagreement is accompanied by an apology for the inconvenience caused. Courtesy and politeness elevated to absolutism.

Soon enough, a sugary taste of boredom seeps into this idyll, and Kosmodemyan asks the voices: «Is there hell?» An invisible force immediately transfers him to a narrow, purple-sweaty space, like a cave or a bunker. From somewhere in the depths comes an uncompromising muse. It smells like sex, alco and exhaust fumes. From everywhere there are screams, squeals, moans. All this variety of indifferent to everything sounds is mixed with laughter and develops into a monotonous hum. Kosmodemyan becomes vile and lonely. An anxious feeling creeps in from a dark corner. It says that time is running out and there is no time left at all.

«Yeah, who are they, these Gods and these Devils?!» – Kosmodemyan explodes inside his heart.

Meanwhile, the Gods, along with the Devils, are watching a reality show called «Earth.» Each of them has its own storyline, which depends on their personal preferences, formed by artificial intelligence and based on the previous requests of these Higher Beings to the Universe. They intervene when life on the planet stabilizes and so becomes too dreary to watch. In one director’s cut, the Earth is shrouded in atomic mushroom cloud. Those of the people who know how to joke survive. They develop immunity to radiation. The DNA of irradiated cells ceases to be shortened, which increases life expectancy hundreds of times. Colossal knowledge and experience accumulated over the course of longevity make it possible to create new technologies. One of the technologies moves people’s consciousness into virtual reality. They create a constant reality show there, and they turn into Gods. Or into Devils. Here’s how it goes. After all, you never know at what point a monster will crawl out of you.

– Repeated lidocaine? – assistant consults with a doctor of the Tyumen Medical Center.

– No need: it seems that the patient has already regained consciousness.

After this surreal trip, Kosmodemyan comes to a clear understanding that his mental potential is much higher than the level of the Nobel Prize. He had just experienced the state of Superman. A person who can reach the cosmic level of understanding of the Universe without physical flight on a rocket. And as soon as he realizes this, he immediately returns to his body.

Kosmodemyan jumps up from the operating table, not allowing doctors to properly fix the bandage on their head. Crushing expensive equipment on his way, he runs past people in white coats, past the open arms of his wife. For a long time in the Medical Center, there was a story about a scientist who came out of a coma into the state of the Olympic runner. But Kosmodemyan doesn’t care what people think of him. In a hurry, he even managed to miss a moment of pure, childlike joy from feeling his own body after paralysis.

Kosmodemyan like the biggest psycho, runs down the street in hospital pajamas with a disheveled bandage on his head. His fingers banged on the screen of his smartphone, buying a plane ticket.

What was surprise, and then disappointment of the public (mainly in academia), when Kosmodemyan refuses all titles, titles and achievements. He just didn’t sign the Nobel Prize certificate!

Relatives and colleagues, who suddenly appeared in endless quantities, dissuade him with all their might. Their main arguments are: «Honey, think for yourself, even if the model of neighboring galaxies is not accurate, it has fundamental discoveries, without which steps towards other discoveries are impossible!» or «You understand that any accepted theory is just the majority of „YES“ votes from opinion leaders. But not the ultimate truth!» (this point of view, on the contrary, agitated in favor of rejection and was uttered by unrecognized scientists more in order to speak out about the pain than to convince Kosmodemyan. There was still a lot of talk about the enormity of the cash prize, especially, if euro convert into rubles. Someone asked for themselves and for their family, hoping for a spontaneous, impulsive decision by a scientist who had clearly gone a cuckoo. Someone pressed on pity, begging to give money to charity, sick children.

All these arguments do not work on Kosmodemyan, because he manages to get a report on the operation. From now on, with an accuracy of up to a millimeter, he knows the coordinates of the points in his brain, the stimulation of which allows him to visualize everything he wants. From now on, it is not enough for him to discover new worlds. Kosmodemyan wants to live in them. He doesn’t yet know who he will be in them, God or the Devil, but he knows for sure that at least one such journey is worth a lifetime.

The plane to Kathmandu takes the scientist to the lands of conscious loneliness.

Okay-Okay

Before opening the door of the City Employment Center, Zabey hides his brand new iPhone deeper into the inner pocket of his jacket. Mistrust is closely intertwined with a heightened sense of justice, insisting that only the poor should receive unemployment benefits. For unknown reason, the inspector who makes the decision is imagined of an objective, scrupulous auditor who looks not only at the certificate from work, but also carefully assesses the appearance, grooming of the applicant and can even ask: «Where did you go on vacation this summer?» So he doesn’t have to know what the benefit will be spent on. And luxury goods are better not to show.

TV in the lobby shows animated infographics. It shows in colored columns how the top 10 richest people on the planet have changed over the past 30 years. Zabey was patriotically waiting for one of the Russian oligarchs to appear in the list. And that he climbed higher, so that his income was comparable to the profit of Bill Gates.

«None of Russians on the list,» remarks the man sitting next to him.

«Yeah, ours are stealing moderately,» Zabey replies.

At the end of the video, a call is chanted in large letters: «You can also be on this list! Start working right now!» Two man exchange glances sarcastically. The electronic queue number flashed on the screen. Zabey checks the number on his ticket and enters the office. Inside at the computer sits a hunched civil servant with heavy bags under his eyes. At the sight of a visitor, he straightens up, trying to stay professional.

«Samoyedov Zabey Prolezaevich,» the civil servant reports, «your documents have been checked. From next month you will receive monetary compensation for the unemployed. At the moment, there are no vacancies of sommeliers. While we are waiting for proposals from the labor market, I invite you to take a vocational training course at the Progressive Behavior Center. They have supermodern techniques. You won’t regret it.» Zabey has always doubted the quality of the free offers, but he still thinks that the refusal can affect the amount of the allowance. So Zabey agrees.

A year passes.

A former sommelier plows with his knees the sea from empty beer cans, corks and wine bottles of all varieties and brands. During this time his room turns into an alcohol pool and Zabey does not know in general where to go next. In general. But right now he’s making his way towards the aluminum can press to at least clear the blockage a little bit. After this he will sit on a glass crusher. Zabey had not time yet to fully automate the processing of secondary raw materials, and investors’ proposals for expanding production are already pouring into Direct. Especially after the TV broadcast a report about a local attraction, made by him.

It all started right here in his apartment, when agents of the Progressive Behavior Center stuffed it with hidden video cameras. One of the agents hands him a non-disclosure agreement and a plan of mandatory events with the invitation of relatives and friends. Every Sunday, according to the plan, Zabey should get acquainted and invite any new person to visit. The schedule for the next month also included classes with the mentor, adjusted based on observations of his behavior in the home environment.

For the first week Zabey is embarrassed to be under someone else’s gaze 24/7, but he gets used to it pretty quickly. The action map shows the main factor holding back his potential: the awkwardness of just fantasizing about what others might think of him.

– I can’t figure out at what point I’m turning the wrong way? – Zabey asks, resting in the foam pit after another session.

– There is no answer to this question in such a statement, – answers the mentor, relaxing nearby. – Any decision you make is a turn in the right direction. Only your own attitudes and environment can convince you of the opposite. But when making decisions, you should not listen to other people’s advice. Because there is no person who could point the only right way. There are an infinite number of options, and no one is able to sort through them all.

– But then I will not be able to share with others either the joy of victories or the bitterness of defeats. After all, the responsibility is only on me.

– You always have to sacrifice something. «Your most cherished desire», «right now», «without big effort». Choose any two.

After psychological training, Zabey becomes more attentive to the world around him. His head stops rejecting ideas for fear of public censure. The former sommelier could not even imagine that in the afternoon, instead of a slight working drunkenness, he would be visited by creative impulses, and in the morning fresh ideas would take the place of a viscous hangover.

For example, his cat is so hyperactive from the new food that it turns on the tap itself and jumps under the stream of water. Zabey tries to teach his pet to pour him a bath, but he lacks patience: cats are too wayward and poorly trained. However, the episode was recorded by hidden video cameras. Soon physical activities aimed at fostering perseverance appear in the schedule. Exercise on a bicycle lasts half a day. Task: to drive 100 km without stopping.

«You need to learn patience, my friend,» says the mentor. «It is enough to press the pedals with force, to go fast. But if you want go far, you need to keep the rhythm constant. The goal will inevitably be conquered. The question is, will you make it.»

100 km without stopping – it seemed impossible. However, over time Zabey switches speeds so masterfully that the legs loading remains the same regardless of the slope of the road, and the distance is conquered. The same concept dominates swimming classes. The body gets used to load and does not feel it. By the end of the course, Zabey swims in the pool for all 40 minutes without rest. So he hones a will that came in handy almost immediately.

One day, contemplating the outside world, Zabey notices a magpie in the window, who is interested in the shiny metal lid of a bottle thrown on the asphalt. Enthusiasm wanted to act. Zabey places a bird feeder on the balcony, having improved it previously. Instead of pouring food on the table, he drills in it a gap to the size of the bottle cap. According to the idea, the bird should lower the lid into the gap. The lid passes through a detector that turns on a vibrating dispenser located on the side of the feeder. Dispenser measures exactly one peanut and lays out the reward on the table next to the bird.

Even entertainment was educational at the Progressive Behavior Center. They played poker at the practicum «Controlled Risk». Every player was putting something inexpensive, every day on the line. Something you can risk without regret. Just to not be afraid to take risks. There were marmalade candies on the blinds usually, and the rates were raised with disposable sachets with shampoo or condoms.

And now Zabey is ready to take a chance. He seemed to be obsessed with his venture. Having set aside at least for food, he spends all the remaining money on buying parts for the feeder-exchanger. Zabey lacks the engineering skills to run an electrical circuit, so he is covered with robotics and programming sites. In moments when his head is filled to the brim with the amount of new information, he brews a cup of coffee, which inevitably turns on the time coffee machine and sends him to memories of the Center.

Everything was different in the center, as if you were in another dimension. In a regular pool, not even the cheapest, instructors were regularly irritated by his long hair sticking out from under his cap. It seems that when the water filters were clogged, they got a lot out of their superiors.

But here the mentor said: «Long hair used to interfere with you. They fall on the eyes at the most inopportune moment, do not allow the headphones to sit comfortably in the ears. They need special care so that they do not look like a dried bush. But no matter how you turn it, you will want a short hairstyle in summer.

So-o-o-o.

Enjoy long hair right here and right now, as often as possible. Not everyone can afford that.»

It seems that the mentor voiced what Zabey himself was constantly thinking. And he rejoiced: where is a summer, and he’s still with long hair. A cheerful attitude helps to persist failures. Attempt after attempt, and finally, device have worked.

Zabey scatters metal lids around the exchanger feeder, attracting the attention of birds. Stomping on the table, magpies accidentally push the sparkles into the target and get food. But one day, the smartest of birds intentionally grabs the lid with her beak and puts it in a slit. Out of joy, Zabey falls from his chair to the floor and then does not get up on his feet for a long time, enjoying how his child suddenly got to his feet. Perhaps, it is the sweetest moment in the life of any father.

In just a couple of months, the magpies completely cleared the city of lids and did not stop there. Street vendors complain to each other about brazen birds beheading dummies of soft drinks. Zabey puts a bag of recycled materials on his shoulders and exchanges the metal for money. With the proceeds, he buys a slot for aluminum cans.

Information about work for homeless animals is quickly transmitted through its special zoo communication. Ever hungry street dogs are drawn to Zabey’s house. The needs of canine society must be met before their interest cools down. Zabey is building an exchanger for glass bottles at an accelerated pace. After a while, the production line is expanded by collecting plastic bottles.

Soon, the whole room is littered with former garbage. It’s time to draw up a business plan, hire assistants, draw up a legal entity and many, many other things… Again, numbers-money, money-numbers, and all this routine-discipline, nothing to do with getting pleasure. Throughout his life, Zabey has run away from evaluative thinking. First into alcohol, now into invention. Not to compare anything with others. To do things out of love, not statistics.

On the other hand: business, stocks, passive income. A private vanity factory. Cars, restaurants, women. Torture wrapped in a beautiful wrapper. And it seems to work out quite well, you just need to strain a little more to develop success. In an attempt to defeat the inner discomfort, Zabey decides that it will be fair if the final point at the crossroads is put by the one who brought him to this intersection. He calls a mentor.

– Be careful with the money,» the soft voice of the mentor whispered into the phone. – Money is someone’s energy. When you receive money, you get the energy of other people, and this is a great power. When power is not used, it turns into the dark energy of idleness, destroying you from within.

As usual, a philosophical speech sounds from the mouth of the mentor and it clarifies absolutely nothing.

– It is not mine, not mine! – Zabey shouts, tearing in half.

– I know what’s bothering you. It is rumored that no one likes the man who «changed shoes». But it’s pointless to be offended by both. Changing your beliefs is okay. After all, we are not offended by elementary particles that constantly change their state in time.

– Stop treating me! Do you want to break my head? – The answer boils by itself, and Zabey hangs up.

He leans back in his chair.

Fatigue envelops the cashmere cocoon, in which it is quiet and calm.

When he returns to the laptop, a random screensaver with the image of Everest glows on the screen. Zabey enters the password, logs in. The pop-up blocker doesn’t work, and an advertisement for last-minute tours to Tibet appears in the right corner.

«It’s a sign,» Zabey thinks. «Perhaps, mentor, you are definitely right here: you should not be offended by those who have changed their shoes.»

He sells the startup and buys a tour⁵.

Show-off

Line from the song: All your swagger blow out a blizzard.

For the time being, Gaur’s jocked body was a source of pride for him. He performs in bodybuilding competitions and does not miss the opportunity to play with the chest muscles in plain sight in any suitable situation. But one day, lubricating the biceps with oil, he gropes for a dense tubercle that protruded under the skin. After a month, wens come out on the chest, on the legs and even… on his face. Doctors helplessly throw up their hands. They say: «We remove them, but they appear again». And most importantly, the number and size of wens was constantly increasing. Gaur looked at himself in the mirror and saw a toad. He could no longer admire his body, much less show to people. His sports career was crossed out. Anger at the injustice of fate accumulates. Gaur gets a regular job for 12 hours 2/2. There are three outlets left in his life: boxing, music and video games. He needs to plug his devalued existence with something.

But today promises to be a delightful day. Gaur is on vacation. He had already gone to training in the morning, where he successfully put two blanches on his opponents, broke his lip and knocked out his shoulder. In the evening he will go to concert of the rapper, to whom he applauded and envied at the same time. To whom he gave all his likes. His songs were heard on the repeat, and some were stripped to the soul. In particular Gaur liked to knock on a gym’s pear under them, imagining how another smile was broken. Wanting to prolong the high mood, Gaur connects to the lobby «Supreme Commander», team online strategy game.

The game begins magically: allies quickly build the troops. They squeeze territory, making their way to the base to opponents. Appetite comes during the game. The invincible Gaur eats more and more enemy tanks. But suddenly there is a turning point. Gaur’s main army is lured into a trap and shot from all sides. Retreating, he did not control the commander, and he was killed. Finally, his team drains the game. Four hours of play is wasted. Losing is always hurtful, and losing so stupidly hurts doubly. But the most offensive thing is that the allies blame him alone for the defeat. All together in one voice, as they conspired. More than the rest, he is offended by the harsh insults of the player under the nickname NightKiller.

«Fakcin moron, fakcin bitch,» he bombs in an international chat. And at the end he adds: «I would break your skull!»

Gaur goes to the club on a rainy street, and these phrases do not let go and spin in his head. It seems that all rain of the world is pouring on this place. It seems that all clouds of the world have accumulated in this place – in its cloud depot. Gaur passes by the overgrown foundation of the planned building. Judging by the height of the trees that sprouted through the concrete slabs, the never-ending construction project dragged on for 10 years, no less. Gaur imagines some schoolboy in glasses behind a computer typing insults with his childish fingers, and thinks: «Who will you break what?! Look how the wind itself is blown away!»

Around the corner is a familiar dark gateway leading to the club. A BMW flies out of it with a bullet, almost knocking down Gaur. He just has time to jump to the side. When turning onto the main road, the car catches the bus with its bumper and brakes on a lamppost. A bull in a jacket jumps out of the BMW and yells at the bus driver:

– Do you know it’s worth 5 million?! Why don’t you give way?!

– And mine is 30 million, – the bus driver laughs in response, patting himself on the stomach.

«Instant karma,» Gaur thinks and disappears into the doorway.

The concert was in fire.

You’re so poor,

I’m so rich!

Spending money on the beach

Million-streamer in the Twitch

– voice of the star with the bass crashes down on the screeching crowd.

Gaur meets an old gym buddy on the dance floor. He used to work as a bouncer, then has risen to the administrator of the club. They chatted after the concert, drinking at the bar. A friend suddenly dropped: «Do you want to take you to the dressing room?» The question is rhetorical.

They lick a few turns in the narrow corridors behind the scenes and here they go: Param-pa-pam! A friend opens the dressing room door. In front of Gaur, lounging on the couch, his idol sticks naked to his laptop. By the jerky movements of his eyes and by the computer mouse, it is immediately clear that he is playing.

«Here’s luck, there’s a common topic of conversation!» thinks Gaur.

He comes closer to take a selfie and chat. The star angrily throws the laptop on the coffee table directly on the big strips of white powder.

«Fakcin moron, fakcin bitch! They ruined the second game of the day, donkeys. I would break your skull!» – rapper cursed. There is the inscription against the background of the explosion on the laptop screen: «NightKiller has been defeated».

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Примечания

1

Exoplanets – planets outside the solar system.

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2

The habitable zone – the near-stellar space in which life is calculated to be possible.

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3

The pineal gland – is a gland involved in the «sleep-wake» biorhythms. It has not been fully studied yet.

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4

Nitrogen (78%) and oxygen (21%) are the two most popular gases in the Earth’s atmosphere.

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5

Zabey’s handmade exchanger is described on the basis of a real-life invention by Swedish engineer Hans Fosberg.

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