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“Well, I think I’ve whitened everything,” Michael claimed with such a tone as if he had made a discovery of world-wide importance.
Mary turned around, looked at him mysteriously, and came closer. He was watching her carefully, still standing on the stool.
“We’ve all already? Can I leave it?” She asked softly.
Michael was confused:
“Leave what?” He frowned.
“The sketch,” she explained calmly, her eyes laughing.
Michael sighed with relief and nodded smiling at her.
The woman in the room fell asleep while sitting. George's soul continued to watch her, and his body – lay motionless.
“We have only two weeks left,” Mary said suddenly. “And we haven’t done anything yet. We can’t just sit and wait for this woman to love George so much that he will come to life. She doesn’t even know that she’s constantly looking into his eyes all the time like a loyal dog.”
“And he?”
“He… He’s admiring her.”
“And that’s all?”
“What else? That’s all.”
“That’s really bad. She doesn’t even sense his presence?”
“No, she doesn’t. He often makes some noises, she often frightened turns around. And he’s secretly hoping that she sees him. But she doesn’t.”
“That’s bad. You ca
ot replace love with duty and obligation. What do we do?”
“One thing is clear: we need to do something, and not sit back. Why can't we see him and explain everything to him?”
“We just can’t, and that's it. Something went wrong. You see, it turns out that she loves not our Georgie, but God. She considers Georgie as her mission.”
“Don’t love thy neighbor more than our God.”
“Rubbish. I don’t think God has something to gain by ending the human race. And without love, it won’t continue – people aren’t rabbits!”
“That’s debatable,” Mary snorted, “Depends on who to judge…”
Michael jumped off the stool easily and sat down on the kitchen table.
“You know,” Mary said thoughtfully, “while you were dealing with a woman, and I was staying here alone, I realized that you can learn a lot from people. Unless, of course, you’re willing to hear what they say.”
“Usually this is rubbish...”
“No! They often say something that has never occurred to you or me. Moreover, those are the words of the poor, not rich. So... You know people better than me because you’re closer to them. Where are the most of them?”
“I don’t think you’ve chosen a good time for sightseeing.”
“You didn’t understand me. What if having listened to people, we’ll be able to come up with something else. If there are no worthwhile ideas, just racking the brains and writhing in agony is pointless. At least this will be an illusion of action. It can’t get any worse. So why not? It's better than sitting here.”
“Why not? Your words make sense. In this case, welcome to the tram!” he said solemnly, taking her hand and transgressing together with her into one of the most popular means of transport among the middle class people.
“Here are the people, please!”
“Oh!” Mary cried out when a guy stepped on her foot.
“I forgot to warn you,” Michael whispered guiltily to her. “That's not unusual around here. Their communication alone is worth something!”
“What do you mean?”
“Just look into any smartphone, how they congratulate each other with gifs and talk with emoji, while the emotional range is dampening every year.”
“Why are you swearing?” Mary resented, having heard the words unfamiliar to her.
“I’m not swearing. Sorry. It’s just ours are allowed to remember everything to avoid past mistakes. Though, I agree that there’s also the flip side of the coin – the soul gets tired of this burden, and the vices are born from the tiredness of the soul.”
“Speaking of memory and vices... I’ve lived here a little, among all these people, and understood something. Remember, you asked me about the forbidden fruit, which is generally believed to be an apple? I know that you remember. So, I think I found an answer for you, looking at them. After all, we forget the lessons learned from previous missions, not to copy them for other cases, to be unbiased, objective... Now living here on the earth, I remembered. And I know what example to give you. That forbidden for the first people fruit (by the way, it’s not stated in any primary sources that it was an apple, just people have an association with a worm coming out of the apple) is like a match for a small child. Can you blame the parents for not letting the baby take them? Not. Because he or she is simply not ready to use matches for the purpose intended without harming themselves or others. But when he grows up, his parents teach him how to make fire with matches. And becoming the adult, he uses this skill without a second thought. You see?..”