Balloons in the sky
Balloons were flying far away in the sky, some place no one could reach them. Indescribable joy was shining in Vadim’s eyes from seeing these flying objects. He was five years old. Life is so simple and easy when you are five. You don’t have to bother about what others think about you; don’t have to worry about surviving, since your parents take care of it; kids just enjoy what they think is fun.
Vadim Oblipihin was a quiet, shy boy. He did not talk much, but liked to observe things and people. One of his favorite interests was to play his wooden toy soldiers. What a brutal game to play, you would think; but don’t worry – no soldiers were injured. Vadim did not make them fight; instead, he would throw them on to the path of adventure. Some of them would sail in the river, which was ten centimeter wide and fell into the drain after a rain. Some would skydive from the top of his apartment building without a parachute. Others would explore the ancient ruins of dreadful ants.
Vadim lived unconcerned life until his childhood was over. As he said later on in his life at the age thirty three, first ten years seem like one. Who would ever think that such a nice, quite boy would turn into a bad example of a teenager, as his neighbor Mrs. Kozlova say. At the age of twelve Vadim tried beer and cigarettes. At the age of thirteen he was addicted to the nicotine and could not stop the occasional drinking of alcoholic beverages. His friends respected him; he was a pattern for them, just like Uriy Gagarin is a pattern for those who are interested in space.
When you are young, you regret things you’ve done; when you’re old you regret things that you haven’t done. At the age seventy five, Vadim did not regret things at all. He could not remember them. He had amnesia.
Like a five-year old boy observing adventures of wooden soldiers, Vadim was watching after people through his window on the fifth floor of an apartment building. People would come inside the house and leave; some of them would just play in front of the house, so their parents could see them. Some of them would drive their cars, others would walk. Some of them were in hurry, others had nothing to hurry about. After several hours of watching after people walking by, they looked like ants: chaotically running around their habitation, and time to time working together on one thing.
On the hot summer days Vadim would come out of the house and sit on the bench, still watching after the same people. Some of them would walk by and say hello, addressing Vadim Alexeivich by his first and middle name. He could not remember who they were. Every day someone would come in his life and disappear, like dream disappear when you wake up.
At the age fourteen, Vadim was signed up for the sailing club by his father. His sailing club spent one of the nights by Georgiyevka village on one of the sailing trips on the river Irtish. A group of teenagers run away from the camp and got drunk with locals. That’s how Vadim lost his virginity. After that Vadim had lived very saturated sexual life. At one point of his life he had five girls, which considered themselves his girlfriends. For Vadim, these girls were not more than just partners, except for one – Lena. At the age sixteen, she was still a virgin; all that Vadim could get from her was blowjobs, as well as phone calls that annoyed him every single day. He tried to brake up with her once, but it didn’t work. Her inexperienced young brain could not take the piece of information that Vadim’s mouth was delivering. The only respond Vadim could get was hysterics. So it goes.
And there he is, Vadim Alekseivich at the age of seventy five, looking outside of his window. He sees people every day walking by, talking to each other, kissing, playing. He tries to remember his youth, but he can not. All the years he lived are gone. There is not a single memory left. All he has is a middle aged daughter that comes to take care of him every day. At the age forty two, Vadim got his girlfriend named Olga pregnant. Olga gave birth to Evgenia, left her on the bad of their apartment and took off. Vadim Alekseivich has never seen Olga since, but he was left with the most precious thing in the world – his daughter.
Olympic Games were on TV. Vadim was nine. He looked on the gymnasts and imagined himself as one of them in his bright future. He wanted to be strong, elegant and famous. Old people regret things they haven’t done, we say. There was nothing for Vadim Alekseivich to regret – he had amnesia. He couldn’t remember the dreams he had that failed. So he tried to create the new ones. He was dreaming about running away from his apartment building and riding the tramway all day long. And he failed to do so, so he could regret it. He could regret it for at least a couple of days until he forgot about it.
Vadim would create new dreams and fail them every day, so he could regret failing them. That was fun. Vadim still had two years of unconcerned life until his journey disappeared, like balloons disappear in the immense sky…
