June 13, 2016

There are no accidents…

As a result of one accident, another accident happens, and then another and another one… and so on until the consequences of the first accident reach their apogee and begin a new chain of accidents. But here's what's incredible!.. The events generated by them are so flawlessly structured, interconnected, like links in a food chain or a system of organs, they simply cannot exist without each other.

The most elementary example of that is the legendary Big Bang. A long time ago in a world where there was nothing, one single immensely small point concentrated all the power of life in itself and at once threw it out, which, in turn, led to the expansion of the known Universe and the formation of collaborations of galaxies, nebulae, stars, planets… And it so happened that they all randomly lined up in such an order that made to appear a wonderful blue-green planet with its wonderful inhabitants and… people; and later lived and developed.

Accidents are a project of a brilliant mind, part of God's Great Plan, and even if you are an atheist, agnostic or just a skeptic, when they happens you cannot deny the existence of the unknown, because at that very moment a huge, possibly infinite universe will become incredibly small, cramped, like a bird cage or an aquarium.

The story I want to tell you has already happened or… will happen in the future. Or maybe… it's happening right now? Who knows! This is the main principle of accidents — they just happen, that's all, that's their nature!

To you, this story may seem absurd, and sometimes stupid, funny and implausible, a mad invention of a science fiction fanatic, but I assure you, it is real. Because in a universe like this, there are no made-up stories.

'There are no accidents'. Gabrielle Phoenix reminded herself, sitting behind the wheel of a brand-new silver «Volkswagen» and looking at the half-empty road ahead with such tenacity and zeal, like a Formula One racer at the finish line.

'There are no accidents, ' she repeated and accidentally knocked over instant coffee bought at some random eatery. Thoughts were whistling, buzzing and ringing in her ears like a neighbor's drill on a Sunday morning. Scattered pictures and soap spots flashed in her eyes. Gabrielle remembered that she had left her glasses at home. A tremor was chattering in her chest — the kind of tremor that moves the hair on the back of your neck. Isn't that what's called excitement?

It was June. Sunny, warm June, spoiled by gray wisps of clouds that stretched sleepily across the blue sky of Britain a couple of hours ago. Their contents spilled out sparsely and sluggishly, breaking on the car's front window, washed to a shine.

Gabriel shuddered, blinked, as if trying to brush away a bad dream from her eyelashes. The 'GMA' (the 'Great Morning Accident') happened to her and overwhelmed her with all her feelings. Without taking her eyes off the road surrounded by a forest belt, the girl ran her fingers over the radio buttons.

Announcers on different frequencies surveyed the morning incidents, conducted the same type of monologues; and the same words and phrases slipped into their speech: 'planet', 'aliens', 'invasion', 'spaceship'… Everyone considered it a matter of importance to break off for an inarticulate discus.

'This is not an accident!'

Gabrielle froze, and goosebumps ran over her skin.

'This is an invasion! I've seen them. At dawn today! ' A frightened male voice wailed. 'Spaceships don't land on Earth for no reason. They're going to take over the world!'

'Mr. Burnett,' the host's voice responded kindly but seriously, 'You, like many other eyewitnesses of the UFO crash over Willowbrook, claim to have seen the fall, right? ' He turned to the guest. 'But we can't exclude the possibility that we are dealing with space debris or a large meteor burning up in the atmosphere. It also could have been an Earth satellite that had descended from orbit. DVRs, alas, do not have the proper quality of shooting.'

'The fall? Ha! Like hell, it was a 'fall'! '

Gabrielle turned off the radio.

'UFO? ' She thought, peering at the smooth trunks of evergreen trees. 'What does a UFO have to do with it? This does not apply to my problem!

The girl moaned and drummed her hands on the steering wheel like a child disappointed with a Christmas gift.

A silver Volkswagen was speeding through Willowbrook. And also, crossing the airspace of viscous lazy clouds, a silver spaceship raced over the Willowbrook forest. The streamlined ship resembling two glued bullets was beaming with emergency lights. These lights meant something like: 'Get out of the way, my friend! And no, tea won't help us anymore! '. Although we all know that aliens do not drink tea, until, of course, they get to a place called 'Great Britain'.

The UFO flew right over Gabrielle's transport and, making an absolutely not rainbow arc in the sky, crashed into the thick of the green crowns. However, the girl did not notice this; at this moment the mobile phone wheezed and gurgled, because of that instant coffee, bought at a random eatery, that was accidentally spilled on it. This attracted all Gabrielle's attention and all the obscene language that she had learned during her twenty-six years of living in the complex world of social interactions.

' Yes, I'm listening! ' Clumsily wiping the gadget on her jeans, she answered irritably.

'Gabby, honey, what kind of news visited me today! ' Aunt May was shaking her gray head annoyingly at the other end of the line. 'Robin was crying to me on the phone just now that you allegedly broke off the engagement for no reason at all! And this is a week before the wedding! I'm so upset! How much money we spent on a dress, God forbid!

Gabrielle was silent. The girl did not even grind her teeth and did not roll her eyes, as she usually did talking to her aunt. (Because expressing protest with words in her company was as useless as trying to cut tap water with scissors) And it was not the inner growth that made Gabrielle so resistant, but the very problem of the GMA, which turned her habitual idea of reality upside down.

The fact is that today Gabrielle woke up very early in the morning, or very late in the evening (it depends on how you look at it) She suddenly felt completely uncomfortable, unwell, wrong physically and mentally, as if a bad premonition had come up: she felt sick, and her heart sank somewhere in her stomach, her thoughts were randomly confused. She woke up in a cold sweat, and then the strange things began…

The first oddity was discovered by Gabrielle as soon as she crawled to the bathroom and looked into a round mirror with an aged copper frame that Aunt May had once given her, commenting: 'In the store they told me that if you look into it long enough, you can see your betrothed.'

'What the hell! ' The girl screamed, discouraged by the fact that her long honey-red hair suddenly turned out to be so short and tousled, as if she had stuck her head into a lawn mower. Desperate efforts to varnish the unruly shaggy hair did not give any result — except for a dirty shine and a cloying smell.

While she was frantically ruffling her hair, another equally frightening oddity was found. On the ring finger of Gabrielle (the same Gabrielle who was always skeptical and even a little contemptuous of men) a neat white gold ring with a beautifully edged diamond suddenly sparkled.

The girl in horror threw the ring into the sink and moved away from it as far as possible, as though it was a monster

For several long minutes she silently pondered over what had happened, hoping to catch at least the slightest thread of logic that would reason and explain all this. But the thread, alas, broke this night.

Gabrielle wiggled into black jeans and and pulled on herself red T-shirt with the inscription 'We're all going to hell', which always made her aunt's smile bend at strange angles. On top, she threw on a loose blouse made of satin of the darkest of all shades of blue, planted her feet in gray oxfords and slipped out of the house without discovering the main oddity of this morning — the miraculous resurrection from the dead of Aunt May buried yesterday.

'Auntie…' Bewildered, Gabrielle interrupted the chatter.

'So will you explain yourself? ' Auntie insisted.

'Auntie! '

'What?! '

'It is you, isn't it, Auntie? ' The girl clarified, so as not to get into an awkward situation, although she was one hundred percent sure that this was the same Aunt May who should be sitting on the clouds right now, and not talking about someone else's personal life on the phone!

Stolen novel; please report.

'Well, of course I am! What a stupid question! '

Gabrielle swallowed: 'Can I have a private question? '

'If you're talking about Howard, then no, we're not lovers! He visited me, ahem, on business… '

'No, Auntie…'

'What then? '

'Where are you now? '

'I told you, dear, that I would be out of town for a while because I went to Leeds'.

'But you can't be in Leeds rnow! You should be in the grave! '

'What?! ' Auntie cleared her throat and screamed something about the current ill-mannered generation and the degradation of society, and then she added the Bible and poor Jesus to that, hinting at her suffering fate.

Gabrielle sighed, turned off her phone, and tossed it into the backseat.

Most of all, she was comforted now by the thought of meeting Professor Norton — a good-natured elderly man that she contacted with the first thing to discuss the situation — the so-called Great Morning Accident.

A man in his sixties with round glasses on a prominent nose was sitting in one of the «eternal» —as he called them —restaurants. The professor gave such an immodest name only to the most stable establishments in Stanwell, where walls, menus and even employees remained unchanged, as if frozen in time.

Despite his thinness and decrepitude, the man was dressed, so to speak, to the nines: every day a new ironed shirt and classic shiny shoes with narrow toes. He also invariably combed his sparse whitish hair back and barked at illiterate young people every day. Although these habits gave him away as a man of bygone times, in one thing he undoubtedly surpassed all the old people of the city, and maybe the whole of Great Britain. He was reputed to be a real genius, a sage, a kind of 'Gandalf' of the modern world, to whom both small children and people older than himself turned for advice.

Once, not so long ago, Professor Norton taught at the University of Central Lancashire, where Gabrielle tried to study. She was smart, very talented — as he said — but, unfortunately, she lacked enthusiasm and diligence. That's how they met and became good friends, despite the age difference.

The man waved to the girl with his bony hand when she hurriedly burst through the glass doors with an unusual fire in her eyes.

'Professor, you are you, aren't you? '

The old man nodded:

'And a good morning to you, too! '

'Have you noticed anything strange today? ' Gabrielle asked.

Professor frowned and pushed a menu book towards the girl who sat down opposite. Gabrielle didn't react.

'Strange? '

'Yes-yes! '

'Hmm …' The man drawled with the air of a person solving a complex equation. — When you called me and asked me to discuss 'something unthinkable', I assumed that you meant aliens…

'Aliens? What? No! ' She exclaimed, grabbing the menu in displeasure.

'Now I'm even more perplexed. And I don't like to be perplexed. It's ruining my reputation'.

The man scratched his short gray beard and suspiciously narrowed the pupils of his brown eyes.

'I, a man of science, seriously declaring about alien beings, and you didn't even raise an eyebrow. What kind of oddity did you discover?

Gabrielle sighed a large portion of air and told about the GMA, which changed her life is not entirely clear in which direction.

'Interesting…' the professor drawled, 'Do you want to say that the world has changed today, but only you remember about it?

'Yes, that's right! '

'Funny! ' He chuckled.

'What's funny? Auntie May has risen from the dead! It's a zombie apocalypse! '

'No, no, honey, I mean, it's a very funny coincidence.…'

'Eh? '

'Aliens, Gabe! '

'Gabe… Gabe?» Don't call me that! '

'Oh, yes, I'm sorry, I got carried away! ' The professor giggled, as if GMA hadn't scared him at all.

'And in general, what do aliens have to do with it? Why does everyone say…' The girl faltered. The lump of awareness slowly wound circles in her mind, increasing and increasing until it filled it. 'Stop… What? Aliens?! ' She was scared.

'And the funny thing is that the change of the world and the arrival of aliens both happened today. Is it an accident? ' He drawled dreamily, staring at the quiet surroundings of Stanwell, spread out under an unsightly midday sky.

'And what should I do? '

'Just a second, ' the professor calmly replied and slowly, with a sigh of sitting in one place, got up from the table, walking steadily towards the bar counter. He chatted with the bartender, who, with respect on his face, clicked the remote control in the direction of the small screen under the ceiling.

'Stanwell attracts UFOs. This is the most discussed news of the day. How did it happen that such a quiet place in the UK became the center of an alien invasion? ' The square-faced man spoke confidently on the news channel. 'Today at five in the morning, a UFO crash was recorded. However, no traces of the crash were found. The city did not have time to calm down, as about half an hour ago, not far from the place where the first UFO was noticed, another spaceship fell from sky. This time, its fall led to the ignition of the Willowbrook woodlands. At this very second, firefighters, police and special services of Great Britain are combing the forest in search of debris. An emergency has been declared. Will this be a breakthrough for humanity, or is an invasion coming? This question now worries not only ufologists and conspiracy theorists. And now the weather forecast…'

Professor Norton smiled smugly, puffed on the martini he had just taken from the bartender and returned to the table by the window. Gabrielle sat in a misunderstanding, staring questioningly at the old man.

'And what do you suggest I do? Look for aliens and ask them to help me? ' She asked irritably.

'This is my first recommendation'.

'Seriously?! '

'Yep. But firstly… you will help them, do you understand? ' The old man declared in all seriousness, carelessly playing with squares of ice in a transparent glass.

Gabrielle hesitated.

'Why would I help them? They're taking over our world, and I have to pat them on the shoulder? '

The man's eyes bulged in surprise and after a few seconds of visual condemnation he said:

'Taking over the world? Two tiny spaceships crashed over Stanwell, and you people are talking about an invasion? '

The girl said nothing.

'Imagine that you have landed on an alien unfriendly planet, where everyone is trying to make a sensation out of you. A lonely, probably wounded alien being, not sure that your people will find you on this undeveloped planet! Don't you feel sorry for him? If these aliens are educated responsible space citizens (and they should be, because, I'm sure, they have certain norms of behavior in space), then they will reciprocate your help. After all, how do we know: maybe all this is interconnected?

'If…'

'Be kind, ' the man cut her off reproachfully, 'and the good will return. It won't be superfluous for you now. My world has not suffered any changes. Unlike yours. And I have no idea how I can help you. But I believe you'.

All this time, Gabrielle grimly fiddled with the button on her blouse until she felt that it was about to come off, and reluctantly stopped manipulating. She sat motionless for exactly one full four hundredths and two tenths of a second, and her hands reached for a new victim — a paper napkin, which she diligently began to roll into a tube.

'And here is my second recommendation…' the professor straightened up, as if ready to read a whole lecture. 'Wander around the neighborhood, look for the consequences of the GMA, ask people if they see any changes? Maybe you're not alone'.

Gabrielle crumpled her napkin and got up from the table, not even knowing what to say. Now she's even more confused.

'Are you leaving already? Why don't you stay for a drink?'

'No, thank you, Professor. Aliens, saving the world, this and that…'

'I see, 'the old man rubbed his palms with the air of a man who has done his duty and stared at the menu.

The girl turned her back to the table and was about to open her mouth to say goodbye, when suddenly someone's long shadow fell on her, and the words stuck in her throat. Gabrielle looked around.

The silhouette, wrapped in a long black cloak, completely hiding the whole body, stood motionless, blocking the red-hot ball of the earth's luminary, which jumped out from behind the clouds. The cowl, pointed at the bridge of her nose like a bird's beak, covered the girl's dark brown hair. A pair of ultramarine bird's eyes on it flared up, reflected in the glass of the window and multiplied, burning out the colorless laminate with bright spots.

No matter how hard Gabrielle tried, it was impossible to determine the girl's age: her unblinking light blue eyes with half-closed eyelids seemed ancient, calm in a wise way, but her delicate round face with neat features and her small height seemed childlike.

If Gabrielle could look down, she would find that the cloak, reaching the ground, spreads over the girl like water in a cold dark cave.

The strange creature continued to stare indifferently at her through the window. It felt like something sublime, something that people usually fear and admire at the same time. And at that moment, Gabrielle was really scared and admired, as if she had seen a terrible trick.

'P… professor!' She exclaimed breathlessly.

'Yes, yes?' The man cheerfully responded, trying to make a difficult choice between soy sauce, tartar sauce and yakitori.

'Take a look!' The girl approached him, shamelessly slamming the menu in front of him. 'See? ' Gabrielle's finger pointed towards the window.

'See what? The sun? Yeah, it stopped raining'.

'No! '

'Ah? What should I see then?'

'There was… there was… nothing …' The girl stretched out uncertainly, because the black silhouette outside the window was no longer there. 'I must have imagined it'.

The old man chuckled significantly:

'Oh, dear, on a day like this, don't underestimate the visions!' And he allowed Gabrielle to leave the cafe in thoughtful silence, with a taste of mystery on her lips, much more burning than morning coffee.