The school year is over. Now I can rest a little. My cssmates left. Only Kenzi and Glenn remained. They are brother and sister. They have no one except their grandfather who raised them. They are my age and have just finished their first year. They do everything together. They even paint one picture for two. Kenzi is a tall girl with long dark hair. There is something rough about her features. She is decisive and straightforward. Nobody ever argues with her. She loves the dark and always wears bright makeup. She has a sonorous voice. And she is the leader of her group. Glenn is an inconspicuous boy, always dreaming about something. He is indecently thin, and any clothes hang on him. He is not much taller than me. He brings lightness and elegance to his joint work with his sister. He always speaks quietly. Sometimes he looks at something for a long time with his bright eyes. They are so opposite that they absolutely complement each other. It seems to me that none of them will find a mate, because they live only for each other. And now they are sitting in the courtyard of the hostel at a table with a canopy and enthusiastically arguing about something.

  “Bye guys, see you soon!” I wave to them as I walk past with my suitcase.

  “Oy, flower girl! Come back soon, otherwise Glenn and I will completely wither away here alone!”

  “Definitely,” I ugh, “why won’t you go to your grandfather?”

  “I’m afraid he’s tired of us after so many years!” Kenzi ughs loudly, and I see a row of snow-white teeth. Glenn doesn’t say anything and looks at me for a long time.

  We rarely communicate, but it seems as if I have known them all my life. Although neither brother nor sister are anything like me. Jack is already waiting for me in the parking lot.

  “Hello, Chris! Get in the car.”

  He takes my suitcase, puts it in the trunk and gets into the car.

  “Where do you want to go?” — he asks casually.

  “I don’t know. Maybe in Dundee. I want to visit Mills Observatory and sketch Gmis Castle,” I reply.

  “As you say.”

  He starts the car and we drive along endless hills and winding roads. In the evening we arrived in Dundee. The city glows with thousands of lights. We are staying in a small hotel. For dinner I order Cullen skink soup with cream and aromatic tea with thyme. Jack helps himself to pork stew and Scotch whiskey. Then we’re going to the observatory. Fortunately, the sky is starry today and I can see the consteltions through the telescope. It’s so cool! And then we happily walk along the city streets, and I look at the windows of closed shops. By morning we returned to the hotel. Jack goes to his room, and I go to mine. And I fall asleep, happy and carefree.

  When I wake up, it’s cloudy outside. But sometimes the sun peeks through the clouds. I put on a bright light green dress with polka dots, a bck cardigan and bck shoes with thick soles. I braid a high ponytail. For breakfast, a ham and cheese sandwich. Having finished eating, Jack and I go out and go to the castle. In the morning he didn’t order whiskey and therefore drove the car himself. We stop and I hurry to the castle.

  “Wait, daughter,” he shouts after me, but immediately stops, “you forgot your pencils!”

  He is hurrying after me. He catches up and gives them to me.

  “Thank you,” I smile at him, “I’ll make sketches here from different angles. If you have something to do, you can leave for an hour or two.”

  “Okay,” he says, “I’ll bring you an umbrel now, just in case.”

  ***

  Jack is about to leave when his phone rings. I’m usually not interested in who calls him. But now I’m trying to listen. I do not know why.

  “Certainly. Are you in Dundee too?.. Of course, I’m already on my way… Christina? Yes, good. Do you want to talk to her? … OK…”

  I should ask who it was, but Jack is already too far away. I walk around the castle, here it is, my comfortable pce. I begin to transfer the look I like into my sketchbook. Meanwhile, the clouds are gathering. But I even like this, the castle looks even darker. I decided to make another sketch. I’ve never been to Dundee before, but I’ve read a lot about the city. So now my little dream is coming true. I retreat under the spreading oak tree and draw again. Half of it is already ready, but as luck would have it, it’s starting to drip. Luckily, the tree’s foliage is thick and I’m finally finishing the sketch. I get ready to go and put my pencils and sketchbook in a bag, but I find that the little rain has turned into a downpour, and Jack is still not there. And then a strange thought comes to my mind.

  “Why can’t I run in the rain?”

  I leave the bag with my supplies and my umbrel under the tree, and go out into the rain. I rejoice like a little child and expose my face to the cold drops. The mascara begins to run from the eyeshes, leaving streaks on the face. I ugh at the rain. I probably look like I’m crazy, but who cares? A heavy downpour instantly washes away the remnants of bck stains from the face. But by the second minute of a cold shower it’s not so funny to me.

  “It’s time to call Jack... Okay, just a few more seconds,” I think and, closing my eyes, continue to spin under the June streams. Yes, now, the st days of June.

  “Look at this fool!” I hear a familiar voice.

  Oh my God! I shudder. I guess it was just my imagination.

  “Take an umbrel and move your legs faster! You annoy me!”

  I open my eyes.

  “What the heck!”

  John is standing in front of me, and I understand that I don’t want to look like this in front of him. But nothing can be done. I’m taking the umbrel reluctantly. John walks very quickly and I have to run after him. When we get to the car, he opens the back seat door, takes a bnket out of the trunk and throws it to me.

  “Take cover!” He looks at me contemptuously and sms the door. We’re driving in silence. The atmosphere is tense. I want to ask him so much. But I can’t. It’s probably good that he’s mad at me now. I let it go its own way. Otherwise, he will understand everything, and then we will definitely stop communicating. And that’s clearly not what I want.

  ***

  Not surprisingly, walking in the rain worked exactly as expected. So now I’m lying in bed, and my temperature has not dropped below thirty-eight degrees for three days. It’s so shitty when July is just beginning, and you’re lying in bed and can’t even get up for a while. Jack sits next to me and Ae looks worried:

  “It was the wrong decision,” she tells me for the umpteenth time. At the same time, he shakes his head sympathetically.

  “No,” I say, “don’t waste time, I’ll just sleep a little more.”

  Jack pats my head. I don’t resist. I don’t really have the strength to do this. They walk out, whispering something to each other.

  I woke up in the evening. It seems a little easier to me. The first thing I see is gdioli in a vase on the table by the window. I’m trying to go over in my head everything that we pnted this year and I can’t remember that there were gdioli.

  “I wonder if they were pnted just recently? But I would remember that...”

  I’m trying to get up. I really want to eat something and drink even more. But there’s no one nearby. It looks like I’ll have to go down myself. My vision still stays blurry at times. No, lying down was definitely more comfortable. I lean against the wall, the railing, I understand that I don’t have enough strength and sit down on the steps.

  “Now someone will pass by, and I will ask them to help me.”

  But no one is coming yet. I put my head on my knees and close my eyes, I hope time will go faster. But who am I kidding?.. Time passes just as slowly. Plus I’m getting cold. I am already despairing and am about to continue my long journey to the kitchen. But then I feel that someone is quickly descending, and he is lifting me into his arms.