Spirits. Russia

He squeezed through the door of our UAZ, settled comfortably on a soft seat, filling the cabin with a healthy smell of snow with an admixture of iron and hot diesel fuel. He pushed off his hat, revealing a pale pink forehead, contrasting with the frost-burned skin of his face, looked at me questioningly. He did not know why and to what conversation he was invited. Nor did he understand my first clumsy hints. Then I asked:

- Valery (for obvious reasons, I changed the name of the interlocutor - A.T.), what happened to you one night?

"So that's what it's about," he exclaimed. His gaze stopped at one indeterminate point, as if he did not notice the objects around him, he saw his own, innermost. There was something disturbing and exciting in his blue eyes…

- However, if you don't want to, you don't have to tell.

- But why? - he started up. - However, I was warned that no one would believe it anyway.

- Who warned you?

"So that's it," my interlocutor began concentrating. - I woke up suddenly. It was the middle of the night. His wife and kids were sleeping in the next room. My awakening was associated with an unpleasant sensation, my chest was pressing hard.

I just opened my eyes and saw a red ball on the wall two meters away from me and a meter above the sofa on which I was sleeping. The ball was about five centimeters in diameter, it moved parallel to the sofa to the headboard. My chest was still pressing, I felt numb and afraid. I wanted to shout, but I couldn't.

Then I heard a voice. Addressed to me…

- What was it, Valery, was it really a voice, really real sounds, or were words and phrases just fixed in consciousness?

It was a whisper. A woman's voice... the unpleasant feeling began to weaken, the fear passed. I turned my head to this voice and saw Her – or rather, a transparent silhouette of a woman, a breast image.

- What did she look like? What was she wearing?

- I can't tell what she was wearing. I don't remember the face either. I remember well that she had a smooth hairstyle – her hair was pulled back, and there were light circles the size of a penny coin on them; there were large hoop earrings in her ears, and also light, most likely metal.

"What did she tell you?"

- And I don't remember that for sure. But it all came down to an offer to make a trip. It won't take more than a month. I will visit another planet. I'll get to know that life. I immediately began to dissuade myself – and also in a whisper – I have children, a wife, a job. And to convince her completely of the wrong choice, he said that I was a drunk, and in general I was not suitable for them.

Apparently, my arguments did not convince her enough. She gave me time to think, but she didn't give me a deadline. And finally left the address. She said: "L...va, 17-20-4-4" (I do not reproduce the first word of the phrase in full, because it is a common surname with us. In my opinion, the night guest most likely uttered another word, but in the mind of my interlocutor it transformed into a familiar surname - A.T.). I thought that I should write it down, but again I heard her warning voice: "Don't write anything down, so remember. When you decide on my offer, you will guess how to use it, and we will already know about your decision and find you." With that, she disappeared and the balloon disappeared, floating over my head.

The feeling of fear returned again, again pressed on the chest. I got up, turned on the light, went into the kitchen, all the time mentally repeating: "L...va, 17-20-4-4." I remember looking at my watch. What time was it? Not the second, not the third hour of the night. Then I couldn't sleep for a long time. The following nights I went to sleep with the kids – I couldn't sleep alone. I didn't tell anyone anything for a long time, I constantly felt a sense of fear. Gradually it disappeared, and now I feel fine.

- Valery, what were you doing during the day before the memorable night?

- That day we went to a prayer - took out the forest for the state farm. A normal working day.

- Maybe in the Prayer Service they talked among themselves about the local anomalous zone, about aliens?..

- No, and no one said half a word about it, it wasn't up to that. And in fact, I've never been interested in it – you never know what they write, what they talk about.

- L... wa? Maybe you have relatives with this surname, or you are connected with some L...your affairs, friendship…

- No, I have never had L... in my relatives or friends. I don't even have them in my friends.

... His tractor, turning around, went to the farm. Chalk snowdrift. Our native, earthly. But from her touch it became chilly, uncomfortable. Did he really, physically experience the touch of the celestial?