Three worlds

Nicholas lived in the beautiful town of St. Petersburg. He liked to go for a walk along the canals of this town. The air was full of the breath of the sea. He had read that the town was built on many islands. It was a city of bridges and rivers. Every bridge had its own character. They were so different that Nicholas gave other names to them. The names were not the same names as their official names. He liked to think about them with his titles. Nicholas gave new names to the long streets and palaces. Great palaces were standing in many parts of the town. St. Petersburg was both a real and an unreal town for Nicholas because he added his own spiritual world to St. Petersburg. The town became richer from it. Probably every town includes in its soul every thought and emotion of a person who lives in that town. Therefore the towns become like real persons. Nicholas had favorite places in St. Petersburg. For example, he liked to go to a little park that had much stillness and beauty at all times of the year. It was reminding him of a true friend. Nicholas knew every small road of the park. He was listening to the talk of big old trees. He was imagining that he could understand their wise green words. Nicholas liked the small bench that was standing under the oldest tree in the park. Sometimes the bench was taken by other people who came to the park. Then Nicholas was sad from the impossibility to hear the music of leaves near the old tree. It was as if somebody came into the world of Nicholas' emotions without his permission. He understood that they were not right thoughts but he could not help thinking so. He had another tender world with his night dreams. It was the lovely town of his childhood. He liked to sleep because he awaited the meeting with that town too. He remembered that he lived in that town in the days of his childhood. That town was very different from St. Petersburg. It had not so many bridges and palaces and parks. The only brown old bridge was placed across the single river of the town. He remembered old buildings. A small white church was standing on the hill. It was the town of his happy childhood days. He often met his parents in his dreams. It was usually so. He came into the room. His parents would be sitting at the table. His mother would hug him. His father was stricter with him but he felt that he was happy to see him too. Then all sat down at the table and his mother gave him some tea. Nicholas liked the funny old cup with the nice town that was painted on it. It was the usual evening of his childhood but it could be so in his dreams only. Mother and father had died many years ago. The same cup of his childhood was standing on the real table in his apartment in St. Petersburg. Every morning he was glad that, by chance, he had not broken the cup. Usually the life of dishes is not very long. He was taking the cup in his hands. "It is the single town among my three towns which I can take in my hands. It is a fairy town which is painted on the cup. I like this nice guest from my childhood," Nicholas was thinking with gladness. So… Nicholas was a rich person because he had three wonderful towns. They were great proud St. Petersburg, the town of his childhood from his night dreams and the town on the cup. It was the secret needed world of emotions for him. He never told anybody about those towns. One day in spring, he met a young joyful girl. She was so pretty that he fell in love with her. She reminded him of a butterfly. "She is a piece of the spring. She came from the tenderness of St. Petersburg's beauty. I can trust her," Nicholas decided. He showed his favorite places of St. Petersburg to her. He told her about the secret names that he had given them. He told her about his night dreams in which he often had the meeting with his mother and father. At last Nicholas told her about the story of the old cup with the beautiful fairy town on it. He wanted the girl to become a piece of his beautiful worlds too. Several months later, the girl got very angry with him. He could not remember the reason of the quarrel. It was a stupid empty quarrel from a trifle. But he remembered all the rough words which she said in that quarrel. The girl told him that she was very tired of his clumsy fantasies about St. Petersburg and his dreams. She told many other terrible words. Nicholas did not want to recollect them after the quarrel but they were flying in the kitchen although the girl had left Nicholas after their stupid quarrel. Nicholas was standing in the kitchen among flying rough words around him. He had never felt such huge loneliness in his life. The girl had thrown his old cup onto the floor with anger before she left his apartment. The town, which was the heart of the cup, broke into many small pieces. It was the death of his old funny cup that had given him gladness every day. Nicholas sat down on the chair which was standing in the middle of the kitchen. He began to think about St. Petersburg. Will he have the possibility to love the places that were fairy places for him before he told the girl about them? He thought about the meeting with his mother and father in his next dreams too. He was not sure that new meetings would happen in his dreams. Nicholas took the pieces of the poor cup. He had the hard strange feeling that he was holding three broken towns in his hands at the same moment.