Chapter 2. 2. Comfort

  On the shallows grew a palm tree, like in a picture.

  Under the palm tree, leaning his back against the trunk, was a young native with a shapeless face.

  He was fishing and fell asleep.

  The native's face was somewhere in his stomach, and his thick lips hung down. He was a very young native, his name was Discipline, we knew him well, and now he was sleeping so peacefully, and we stood next to him motionless, not knowing what to do.

  We did not think for long, smiled at each other understandingly, grabbed the native by the arms, by the legs and threw him, awake and resisting, into the water.

  Discipline screamed as if stung, and with amazing agility jumped out onto the sand and chased after us.

  We ran to the edge of the island and dove in together.

  The water bubbled behind our glittering legs.

  Discipline dove in after him.

  I was the first to emerge, where it was shallow, and sat on the bottom, moving my arms.

  Time passed, and then, like a giant float, Discipline jumped out of the water waist-deep, breathing heavily, exploding the surface around him.

  He looked around in bewilderment, and then noticed me and swam towards me.

  I wanted to run along the shore, but at that moment something with inexorable force pulled Discipline under the water.

  He still managed to make some short, muffled cry, and his head disappeared.

  I even became alarmed.

  I thought that perhaps some sea creature had swum close to the shore and was lured by the twitching legs.

  Soon the waves foamed again, three legs appeared, then Discipline's head, she gulped air with her mouth wide open and disappeared.

  After that I saw Lagoon swimming towards the shore, swimming fast, like a torpedo - when he surfaced, it is not clear.

  Discipline was chasing him, mostly under water.

  But Lagoon, strong and resilient, with a sly face, climbed out of the water and ran towards the distant thickets.

  Without thinking twice, I ran there too. Discipline climbed out and again chased us, as fast as he could.

  The sun was pouring all around – the ocean, clear to the ghostly smoky horizon, the empty wide shore with tall royal palms, and our figures, rushing rapidly after each other, pounding the sand with their feet.

  I quickly realized that running along the dunes was like running in a sack, and went down to the damp strip by the water and quickly caught up with Lagoon.

  He ran great, I couldn’t catch up with him quickly, but he stayed in the water for a long time, got tired, turned around abruptly, and I ran into him, we both fell, and the heavily breathing Discipline fell from above.

  We growled and wrestled for a long time, and then relaxedly rolled away from each other and fell on our backs, throwing our arms and legs in different directions.

  We were choked with laughter, cheerful, sparkling, and we laughed for a long time, twitching with our whole bodies, as if from coughing, and the silent laughter, from which the face puffs up, suddenly broke out in loud laughter.

  Discipline spoke, indignantly, that we had prevented him from fishing, and we laughed again, pointing at him, repeating “he ... was fishing ... fish!”, and I said that we should have bent the top of the palm tree and let Discipline go with it, and Lagoon and I began to roll from a new fit of laughter, and Discipline looked at us reproachfully.

  He suddenly screamed and jumped up.

  Without stopping laughing, I managed to grab the native of such a delicate mental organization by the leg, he jumped in a circle on his other leg, like a compass, angrily screaming, and Lagoon yanked him by the second leg.

  We piled on top and for some time noisily kneaded Discipline into the sand, like dough, and then rose and, constantly clinging to each other, running away and catching up, dodging, went deep into the spit, and the sun shone directly over our heads, and our tanned bodies left almost no shadow.

  We entered the forest.

  I walked along the thick trunk of a fallen tree and jumped onto a narrow path, along which dense thickets intertwined to the right and left.

  The thickets stretched high up, where the sun was, and where numerous living creatures that could crawl and fly were bustling, chirping, clicking, whistling and making all sorts of other sounds.

  And here, below, it was gloomy and quiet.

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  A thick damp carpet of perennial rotten remains of vegetation softly sprang under our feet.

  Everywhere, as in an underwater kingdom, hung a multitude of vines, thick and thin.

  The sun did not penetrate through the dense foliage even to a small part.

  High above our heads there were places in the foliage through which not even the sky was visible, but simply light sections, and it was hard to believe that somewhere now a fierce heat, a scorching heat was coming.

  “I completely forgot,” said Lagoon, stopping.

  “What's the matter?” I asked.

  “Brother is going to the capital,” said Lagoon.

  “Your brother?”

  “Is this really your brother?”

  “Yes. Don’t doubt it.”

  Lagoon had never been to the capital.

  Brother described the blue masses of buildings going up into the sky.

  In the evening, having loaded up, brother was driving back and saw a continuous glow from countless lights.

  “Did you live there?”

  “It was a long time ago,” I said. “Let's eat. You have time.”

  “I want to eat,” agreed Lagoon.

  “Are you leaving?”

  Lagoon thought about it.

  Then he raised his head and looked into my eyes.

  “Okay,” I said, immediately lowering my eyes. “We'll wait for Discipline. He should bring his record catch. Then we'll go back to the shore together.

  The champions were sitting near a large tree with a hollow.

  They watched us silently and motionless as we came out of the thicket.

  We stopped.

  A large, plump guy said:

  “Hello...”

  It was Farce, with his bulging eyes, a little slow, a straightforward man, rude, but not without cunning and prudence.

  He has the largest company on the coast.

  “What are you doing here?” said Lagoon.

  Everyone sat as if they were waiting for news.

  “You have a sense of humor,” said Farce.

  Lagoon grinned. He glanced sideways at me.

  I looked into the distance. I couldn't stand Farce.

  And recently I was lucky enough to debate with him. Lucky - because Farce didn't have his A students.

  I gave him a hard time, but Fars didn't hurry with an answer for some reason.

  Lagoon was very surprised by this, also wanting to take part in the debate, but I knew that Fars was afraid, afraid instinctively.

  He didn't know what kind of person I was.

  “And what are you doing?”

  “We're resting,” said Lagoon. He spat. “You breathe air. Idiot.”

  I smiled to myself.

  I found the pot in the hollow, we turned around and came face to face with Discipline and Client.

  Discipline was with the fish, and Client was without anything, he was just standing there, very lost, and his gaze wandered.

  Careerist, I thought. He wanted fame, secrecy.

  Now the excellent students will not leave him alone.

  I did not like Client, my neighbor.

  He was small, round, like a roll, with light curls, blue angelic eyes, and very enthusiastic, a boy with a protracted childhood.

  I did not say anything to him, I just walked around, and Lagoon followed, and Discipline with the fish behind us.

  “What happened?” I asked Discipline when we walked away.

  “Nothing,” said Discipline.

  “Maybe the company will help the fool?” asked Lagoon.

  “You are strict, but fair,” I noticed at once.

  “I will deceive,” responded Lagoon.

  “To the slums,” I said angrily. I was silent for a moment and said: “Farce is not needed.”

  “I understand…” said Lagoon.

  Apparently, he remembered the capital again, and while we ate in silence, he looked at the sun frozen at its zenith.

  We said goodbye to Discipline, well-fed and sleepy.

  He lay down in the shade, pulled his hat down over his eyes and fell asleep.

  Discipline was going to become a detective.

  On the shore, we hid the boat between the boulders, and Lagoon left in a hurry, saying that he would come to see me.

  And I went home.

  It was very hot outside, everything, as usual, was red-hot and exuded heat, and the thin layer of white dust on the road became even more colorless.

  Everything became colorless in such heat: the sky, the trees, the cars, and the people who were not visible.

  I walked around the garage where the big truck was driven, walked around the half-ruined house itself, where Lagoon sometimes lived.

  No one.

  Lagoon has left, I thought.

  On the way back I unexpectedly met Minimum, a girl who worked at the observatory.

  The observatory had only just opened here.

  Minimum smiled from afar.

  She was a nice girl.

  “Hello!” she said.

  She was holding a school bag in her hand.

  Like an eternal straight-A student.

  “Hi,” I said. “Are you hot?”

  “Very hot!” Minimum exclaimed. “Where are you going?”

  “I'm going home,” I said. “And where are you heading?”

  “To the station, of course. Have you seen Lagoon?”

  “He's gone to the capital.”

  “Really? When will he arrive?”

  “He should be back. I'm waiting for him.”

  Minimum lowered her eyes for a moment, as if she wanted to say something, but held back.

  “Bye!” she said. “You're probably hot.”

  “I'm fine,” I said. “Don't mope around in this protuberance.”

  “It really is a protuberance,” Minimum smiled. “Come in to see us.”

  I walked on.

  I wanted to know what happened to Client.

  The event is news.