FAIRYTALES FOR A HUMAN (Lesbian)

Part 3 HUMAN

Nota bene: the chapter features mature content!

When I returned home, I turned the sound on my phone off not to listen to mom and dad's "vital" pieces of advice about how I should live my life.

I was exhausted and on right earnest was ready to throw myself on the bed and fall asleep dressed in street-clothes and dirty shoes. Overpowering my caveman desires, I trudged to the bathroom. In spite of warm weather, I was a little bit chilled; so, I persuaded my laziness to let me take a relaxing bath. While the water was running, I took off my clothes and heard a coin strike the tiled floor and saw it roll under the sink. "I'll find it later," I yearned, getting into an almost empty bathtub.

I promised myself to close my eyes just for two minutes. I did not want to fall asleep and drown in my own bathroom. I was pondering over today's job interviews. I think my parents were right telling me I shouldn't jump higher my own head and be humbler in desires and expectations. "My friend Liana, you know her," my mom would say, "...she has a nice offer for you. You may work in her office; all perks and privileges, dear. Dad and I think you should accept it," she always mentions dad every now and then, as if he is a weighty argument or a final authority. "Your degree doesn't allow you to be fussy about the future work."

I had philological education, having considered it to be a brilliant idea back then. Now I am pinballing between a little profit job in my degree field and some office plankton work. I couldn't decide which poison I should pick, going from one interview to another just to satisfy my conscience rather than really be intended to get hired. I had one little hobby that was cherished secretly in my heart, but I never considered it as my future career that might bring me at least a coin. "Ha, a coin! Nice beginning for the rising of my capital. Soon I am going to have plenty of them in a shapeless hat when living in a big carton box, for I would never move back to my parents place even if mom's cousin returns". Three happy months ago my relative won a tender, got promoted, and was sent abroad, so I was lucky to live alone at her apartment. Since she and her husband had no children, and she owed my mom (some dirty secret, I suppose), the resolution was carried in no time: I was obliged to clean two-roomed flat, take care of plants, be grateful till the rest of my days, and check the mail box with a spam avalanche while spouses were absent. Every day I hoped she would sign a lifelong contract and never return, sometimes sending me postcards with seascapes and bending palm trees. My lids were getting heavier; thoughts were mixing and intertwining.

I was probably dead, for there was no chance I had such a beautiful dream. I woke up on the soft white sand. My nuclear family has never been to any foreign country when I was a kid, and I couldn't afford it when I was a student. Mom and dad are simple down-to-earth people: if you want beach holidays – go to the south of your own country; if you want skating or skiing – wait till winter comes. "We are not millionaires, dear". So, what if all my school mates and next-door friends would return with big smiles on their sun-touched faces, and they would inevitably give me a bunch of small souvenirs and funny stories from their overseas trips? What's the big deal?

I got on my feet and looked around. I was standing on a beach that was a border line between a long ribbon of rich southern vegetation and a huge mass of black water in front of me. The labradorite blue sky with golden flash of Milky Way was above my head. I was alone and started getting nervous when noticed an obscure figure. I watched her coming out of the tar black water where even the bright galaxy arm was unable to glass itself. It might have been euphoria of a dying person in oblivion, but I believed I had never seen such a beautiful young woman before. I felt lukewarm waves touching my bare feet; it forced me to recover composure. Shameful of my nakedness, I tried to cover my breasts and cross my legs together. She laughed like a silver bell at my attempts. She was naked too, but looked more like an ancient goddess that didn't need any garments.