THE BRIDGE STATION

Gelka was surprised that he did not feel much sadness after Yanka's disappearance. However, he started to cry and finally broke down. He caught himself thinking, it was good that Yanka-Dan flew away unexpectedly, without a sad farewell. Gelka just felt sorry that Yanka did not have time to take the bronze lizard with him.

However, he would have to climb the Bridge himself.

Gelka didn't go to school that day. He thought to himself, “I won’t be scolded until tomorrow, but who knows what could happen tomorrow? Maybe the explosion of the ring road could allay all fears and misfortunes. Maybe that would cheer my mom up. Maybe Aunt Vika will become kinder and my grandma will become healthy again. Maybe dad and his friends will be allowed to continue exploring the superdeep well in Yarkson and they will reveal all the secrets of parallel spaces ... And maybe we will finally meet all together - Yurka, Gleb, Yanka, and I."

He suddenly felt a longing for Yanka. The mysteries and secrets of the past summer had gone with him. A rip in the very fabric of space-time. The only connnection between Gelka and other planets and worlds was dead-- the worlds where Windies lived, a dangerous war was going on and fortresses rebelled. It was the only connection between him, Yurka and Gleb.

Gelka went to the river cliff and sat there for quite some time going, looking at the passing ships. It was a warm day. It was as if autumn had changed back into summer.

Then Gelka wandered the streets of Starogorsk. He could see some dandelions growing along a ditch on the side of the road -- their yellow flowers were hiding in dry grass. He picked some flowers and brought them to the big concrete block where the robot Jeremy was buried. Gelka thought he hadn't been to his grandfather's grave since last spring.

The cemetery was old. Gelka climbed over the stone fence and pushed his way through the brambles of thistle and ‘grandma's beads’ grass. It took him some time to find his grandfather's grave. On the way to the cemetery, Gelka saw a lilac bush, which bloomed a second time. Gelka took a branch of lilac and put it on the gray slab that covered the grave. The ancient zodiac signs and the spiral of the galaxy were carved into the slab. “The galaxy is just like the Sparky, if you look through a magnifying glass,” Gelka thought.

There was the inscription on the headstone, “Matvey Vasilyevich Travushkin. The Starogorsk Observatory director. You paved the way for the discoverers of the stars. Thank you, Captain."

Gelka remembered another grave - in the old church, where the Fleet Captain Ratmanov who had traveled around the world three times in his life, was buried.

“Maybe I'll be a captain, too,” Gelka thought. "But first I have to break the time loop."

In the evening, he sat on the windowsill waiting for Vaska and Alyosha-Twinkle.

The moon hung in the sky, but it was dim, pale pink.

“It seems to me, our Helium is going out somewhere at night,” Aunt Vika said.

“I let him walk while the evenings are warm,” Mom stood up for Gelka. She patted Gelka’s reddish bristly hair and he nestled close to his mother.

“If only you knew what a dangerous adventure I’m having,” Gelka thought.

Twinkle came running by himself. He whispered anxiously, “My mom spanked Vaska and locked him in the closet.”

“Why?

“We have the lawn opposite our house, remember? In the morning, they planted new bushes there, and then they brought a stone old man with a fish-- It's like in the fairy tale, the gold fish that grants wishes. This is called landscaping. Vaska looked at such landscaping and pulled out his lucky drumstick. He hit the old man with the fish with it! The statue broke into pieces. They started shouting, “You're a bully, Vaska, just like your father Jeremy.”

Gelka got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“I see,” he said. “Alyosha, where is the detonator?”

“That's the trouble! Vaska wasn't able to finish it.”

Gelka got down from the windowsill. An hour was left before the planned explosion. "Today is the last day of the full moon. The next full moon won't be for three weeks. The sky will most likely be cloudy then and it is not known if the Bridge would appear again," Gelka thought feverishly.

Gelka knew how to make a detonator, but he needed a soldering iron, wires, a flashlight bulb and, most importantly, time.

“If only I could get a wick!” Gelka said desperately. “The simplest. It’s called a fuse.”

“Is it like the rope we used when we lit the carnival fire?” Alyosha asked.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Gelka immediately remembered Alyosha in his scarlet shirt walking with the torch in his hands in front of the drummers, then running up to the top of the tower and setting fire to the white cord. Then the fire ran along the cord to the patterned bowl and a fiery crown burst into flame!

“Do you have one, Alyosha?”

“Yeah, I have some fuse… Gelka, but it won't burn for long. Five seconds, no more. You will not have time to go down the Bridge!”

“I don't have to go down. I will light the fuse and hide under the stone bridge cornice. I can get down after the explosion."

All this Gelka explained to Twinkle when they were already out on the street, running to Alyosha’s home for the fuse

“Oh, Gelka ...” Alyoshka - Twinkle said on the run.

“Don't worry. The explosion will not be big. The rails on the bridge don’t have to have a very big explosion before they burst,” Gelka said.

***

Climbing the Bridge was a lot harder than he thought.

At first it was fine, but then it made him really tired, so his legs hurt.

The rusty iron handles in the gaps between the bridge stone blocks were harsh. The granite bridge columns were wet and cold. The land was far below - Alyosha-Twinkle, his trusty assistant and only witness of what was happening, remained there. Gelka trembled with fear, but he continued climbing. The rusty witches’ dance rattled in the air.

"Okay, don’t look down. I am so far up. Even the moon seems closer to me than the land, but the upper edge of the bridge does not seem close. My legs feel like jelly and my arms are aching. Damn it! I have to make it,” Gelka thought.

He pulled himself over the narrow cornice on the top of bridge using his last ounce of strength. He grabbed the thin iron railing, went over it and then fell face down next to the rails. A black rumbling thing with a blinding searchlight сame out of the void. The train wheels rattled very close to Gelka. Gelka grabbed the railing so that he would not be sucked into this deadly whirlwind. The roar went on for a long time, it seemed endless. When the roar suddenly died down, Gelka didn't doubt for a second. He jumped up and whipped out a homemade charge with a magnet from his pocket. He stuck the magnet on the rail track with a swing. Then he unwound the fuse on his waist, but when he wanted to rip the edge of the charge bag with his nails to insert the fuse, his nails slipped on the thick foil and he could not tear the foil. Precious seconds were running out. Then Gelka pulled the lizard out from under his collar and punched a hole in the foil bag with its bronze tail.

“The lizard came in handy! Maybe it's good that Yanka didn't have time to take it!" Gelka thought.

Gelka stuck the end of the homemade wick into the hole, and then laid the fuse along the rail. He took a lighter from his pocket and clicked it. A yellow light slowly ran along the fuse cord.

Gelka rushed back, jumped over the railing and felt the upper handle with his sandals.

"Okay, I have a full five seconds while the fuse burns. One… Two… Three… Four… Five."

He pressed himself against the rough cold stones.

"Why is it so quiet? Has the fire gone out?"

Gelka looked up. A bluish flame flashed over the stone edge of the Bridge. There was no sound. It was like an explosion on the Moon, where there is no atmosphere. The stones shook, and Gelka clung to the rusty handle. The broken rail flew several metres into the air and twisted into a black spiral in the moonlight.

“Well done, Gelka! You did it! Even Yurka will say that I am a fine fellow ... And now, quickly down! "

Going down to the bridge was much easier. He no longer felt heaviness in his legs and his hands were not trembling, but his shirt was bent upwards and got caught on the sharp edges of the iron handles. Maybe this was what delayed Gelka or maybe those two drops of blood that he gave to create the magic Sparkies took some of his lifetime. The rusty handle disappeared in Gelka's fingers. The Bridge vanished into thin air. Gelka was falling into the void and the wind was wailing in his ears. His heart was like stone but he thought, “I can fly. I’m gonna turn into the Windy. I just need to say the magic words.”

He needed to whisper a short spell, which was written on the Tower of Winds in a distant and fantastic city, but he suddenly realized that he did not remember these words. Instead, in the whistling air, someone whispered other words:

“In the starry fall darkness

I am flying the nest.

The blue star - on my helmet,

The blue blades - on my breast…”

The wailing grew louder, the oncoming air tore his hair and shirt.

“Now now… In the starry fall darkness I am flying the nest… fall darkness… fall… Yanka!”

Alyosha-Twikl closed his eyes and felt when the body hit the ground.

Then it got quiet... too quiet. The iron barrels did not rattle. The grass did not whisper. The whole world was quiet and seemed to be waiting for a small whirlwind to rise and rush away over the snowflake grass heads, but there was nothing, just silence. And only far, far away, at the edge of the Universe, a new spiral galaxy flashed and rapidly unfolded in the night.

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TO BE CONTINUED...