Jennifer. Residence of Grief. Viktor Khorunzhy
The story began on a chilly autumn evening in Greenstone city. It was 1995. Actors of a famous civic theatre retired to the backstage, having acted out their last scenes, followed by weak applauses of the audience.
The play turned out to be awfully boring; it was the desire to get into fresh air as soon as possible that made Jenny be one of the first to go downstairs to the wardrobe. She took her things and immediately hurried off to the exit. Having zipped up her tight-fit jacket on foot, she tidied her long hair showering her shoulders in golden curls. When the front door of the ancient building slammed heavily shut behind her back, the girl breathed a sigh of relief.
Suddenly she shuddered as she almost ran into a man walking towards her wearing an austere black coat. Snuffling the evening chill, the stranger was letting rings of smoke off his pipe, as if ban on smoking in public places had nothing to do with him. At the very moment, Jenny caught a sight of a huge black dog beside him that had come from out of nowhere. Jennifer started back in surprise – the incredible beast was black as the night itself, with sharply white teeth, and looked threatening. Besides, it wasn’t wearing any collar or muzzle.
Having felt the girl’s silent fright, the stranger told her with a smile:
“Have no fear, young lady; my friend will do you no harm.”
As if in support of those words, the dog lifted its clever black eyes on Jenny and gave another friendly wag of its tail. However, the girl had no thoughts of reaching out her hand and patting it.
“I’ve never seen such breed of dogs,” she thought, gazing after two clear dark silhouettes moving away under streetlights – of the tall man and his almost pony-sized dog.
But in the next moment the theatre door flung open again, letting out a crowd of recent onlookers together with a flow of sounds mixing snippets of words, laughter, coughing – an ordinary music of an ordinary crowd. Sounds spurtled outside on the street, and time that had just shrunk in fear and timidly frozen along with Jenny, began to straddle down on damp pavement again, being bustled by hasteful crowd. It seemed like the theatre square came to life – the human river started scattering in every direction, splitting into thin streams.
“Jenny! Where have you gone?” her mother’s disgruntled voice sounded behind her back.
The girl threw another look at the street ablaze with yellow evening streetlights that had a man and a dog walking down it – however, there was nobody there now.
“Do you hear me?”
“Yes, mum,” Jennifer turned around.
Allison Parker looked perfect in her expensive pale-grey coat and an elegant hat gainfully showing off her youthful face in the setting of flowing curls of her fair hair.
“What a weather,” Patrick Parker sighed, following his wife down steep stairs. “Sometimes that rawness is particularly harassing… Now, for instance.”
He took his wife’s arm and Jenny involuntarily admired them as she paced beside. Her parents always looked like a showy couple, so they drew others’ attention at all times when they made their appearance in society. Jenny’s mother was rightfully considered a belle; however, her father was just as attractive. A tall, handsome man with slightly wavy black hair and lively gaze of his deep brown eyes; Patrick Parker looked younger than his forty years. Then again, Alisson seemed more like a sister than a mother at the side of her daughter, Jennifer.
Jenny had her father’s and mother’s features blended equally in her appearance – hair colored like pale gold, expressive grey eyes, wonderful body frame and tallness. It was doubtless: another couple of years, and the sweet girl would flower just like her mother…
“Are you tired of dampness? Then why wouldn’t we move from Greenstone to some warmer place?” Alisson smiled at her husband, continuing their conversation. “Though, we have the chance to solve the problem less radically: for example, we could take a leave for a week and take off somewhere to the warm sea… Me and Jenny would have a great pleasure to keep you company!”
“Yeah, daddy!” Jennifer almost jumped about with joy. “Let’s fly to the sea while I’m on holidays! For a couple of days, at least!”
“How simple it is for you!” Patrick smiled as well. “Just to take off and go to the sea!”
“Of course! We just take off and go to the sea!” Jenny cried in such admiration that made her mother and father smile while looking at her. “Daddy, please!”
“It’s worth thinking,” Patrick uttered encouragingly. “We’ll get back to this conversation tomorrow. And now – into the car! I want to get home as soon as possible and dive into a warm bath, if we don’t have a proper sea at hand…”
Meantime, they found themselves next to a white car on the parking.
Having taken her back seat, Jenny snapped the seat-belt and leaned to the window, viewing the round square near the tall ancient theatre building.
Having ridden out to Wind Road – one of the central streets – their car joined the flow of other vehicles. Evening lights were flickering past Jenny. Perhaps, Greenstone couldn’t claim to be a metropolis, but still it was a big city, divided into historical and new parts. It was here, in the latter one, where offices, malls, business centers, cinemas and other buildings were situated. With onset of twilight, a preppy, business-like day-look of the city changed beyond recognition – as if a young business-lady changed her formal grey suit on a sumptuous evening gown.
Having closed her eyes, Jenny started picturing the sea to herself: azure horizon, warm sand and lacework of sea foam right at her feet… Nothing could be compared with the sea, and she had a lot to compare with – experiencing no lack of money, her family visited many countries and various resorts…
With that happy thought about the sea, Jennifer dozed off.
…Colored in amber-yellow and light-orange, golden, green and brown-shaded, leaves suddenly showered in a heap through a wide-open window. Jenny was standing in the middle of her room and silently watching the leafy carpet growing larger on the floor, spreading over the parquet like a golden avalanche. Leaves were growing in number right before her eyes, becoming an extension of a blinding sunlight that filled the room…
“J-jeez! What’s wrong with his lights?” father suddenly swore in irritation.
Having blinked, Jenny woke up. The light was indeed blinding: it came from bright headlights of a car that had been following them. Sharp sound of a klaxon made her shrink reflexively.
It turned out they had already driven out of the city and were now heading down a quiet street to their home. The car with blinding headlights was still following them with the same distance.
Father swore under his breath again and snapped the holder of the rear mirror, flipping it up. Jenny snuggled up to the side window, trying to take a good look at the car that was on their track, but she failed: headlights blinded her.
Colorful shatters of her recent dream were still racing through her mind, when some shadow appeared around the corner of the road for a second (or was she only imagining?).
Sharp brake squeak broke the silence. Reality froze for a moment, and then collapsed upon the girl with its entire horrible efficacy: groaning incredibly, the car swerved and threw itself aside right into the blinding glow of approaching headlights…
Chapter 2
Separated by an Invisible Line
A dome of the inky blue sky dressed in fragile diamonds of stars spread out over her head. Closer to its edge, darkness dispersed, blending with yellow spots, unable to resist the large city lights. But that was out there, in the noisy and fussy metropolis. Here, outside the city, evening silence could be broken only by a distant noise of a car passing by, by suddenly loud barking of a dog or by some voices near a neighboring house.
Reep-reep… – a miserable response of a thick chain with swings hanging on it. Jenny used to love spending time here. She used to. And now she came here to hide in her dear little world from horrifying reality she still couldn’t accept…
The girl turned around and looked at the house – it was flickering like a Christmas