Настроение сейчас - Mystical
1.

From the week-long heatwave that had seemingly no end, it felt as if there was nowhere to hide on that day. Only the numerous fast-food establishments lining both sides of the street promised the coolness they had in abundance, thanks to the air conditioning units creating a microclimate.
Entering one of them, Demetra picked a cola with ice from the counter, sat down at a table, and turned her gaze toward the street visible through the panoramic window. Cars, in their constant motion, moved on without interruption, almost as if they were hypnotized by a shared rhythm. Pedestrians, too, became a part of this unified tempo, marked only by the predictable pauses dictated by the traffic lights—moments when cars and pedestrians swapped places in their dance, yet, despite it being well past 3 p.m., there were still many people on foot.
Sipping the chilled drink through a straw, Demetra slowly raised her head. The two packets of sugar, left untouched in her pocket, remained in place as she focused on the electronic clock on the wall. Its bright red digits, so vivid that they illuminated the clock’s black casing, shone through the sunlight streaming in from the windows. The time, as it turned out, moved on relentlessly, and those fifteen minutes of 4 p.m. passed by unnoticed, especially in the cool comfort that separated her from the summer heat. Only the third, seconds line of digits counted the moments: twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three—until a blinding flash of white snow struck her eyes, causing complete disorientation.
The sharp transition from the subjective world to the objective one holds the greatest danger of losing your balance. Your body's position before and after the shift may not align, and often, it doesn't. Before, you might not just be walking but crossing the street; before, you might be seated at work or in the comfort of home, practicing mindfulness exercises.
When she fell into the snow, Demetra didn’t feel its coldness, nor its dampness—she felt nothing at all, not even the slightest weakness. Rising to her feet and looking around, she found nothing to anchor her gaze upon, as the white expanse stretched to the horizon, endless, leaving only the option to follow an internal compass, heading west or southwest. For in the objective world, there is no hunger, no thirst, no exhaustion; otherwise, it would be difficult to endure it for billions of years, so that in this time, the passage of time in the subjective world stops—there is simply no time.
— Psi-navigator? — A child’s voice came from somewhere distant. When Demetra turned to look, she saw a boy, drawing something in the snow.
— What?
— Only four types of entities can be here: psi-navigators, schizophrenics, telepathic cartographers working for special services from various countries, and cartographers in general.
— I don’t think I suffer from schizophrenia, — Demetra smiled.
— But you could easily acquire it if you get stuck here for billions of years, holding onto the subjective world, and then return there, again and again, re-experiencing all the emotions and feelings that were lacking here: the satisfaction of hunger, quenching thirst, and the complete rediscovery of lost senses—smell, taste, sight, hearing, and kinesthetic sensations.
— What are you drawing?
— The rune Uruz, so that a shaman comes, strikes the drum, and maybe then, at last, it will rain, gentle and kind.
Demetra looked around, trying to understand why rain would be needed here when there was nothing but the endless white field, with nothing for the eye to rest upon. Then she realized how terribly mistaken she had been! Right behind the boy stood a door, as white as everything else, with a frame she circled curiously. From the northern side, the black door handle was on the right, and on the southern side, it was on the left, able to open either toward or away from her.
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