[01 [02]

        Leaving, the person in a black suit has turned back also it has broken one of 
The main rules. 
        The girl sat on a verandah in an invalid armchair – the same as 
Some hours ago, when he has seen it for the first time. However, then in hands at 
It there was a violin. Now the violin laid in its luggage carrier of the big black 
Cars. It did not begin to burn the tool on eyes at the girl, after all it would be 
All the same what to take away last toy from the child, and it has not cast out. 
        On such distance he any more did not distinguish her face, but it to the best. And 
Though it in accuracy has carried out the instruction of the employer, on a shower at it 
There was a certain weight. The word of honour, he would prefer to take unfortunate 
The cripple with itself and to deliver it to destination, however has been absolutely assured, 
That it would not sustain a long way. That to it is released very little 
Time, it has defined at once – the doctor for this purpose was not necessary. It is good, that 
He at least has had time to make record. Let amateur, but 
Precisely unique. Yes, it has worked purely – as always. 
        Soon the house with a verandah has disappeared from a kind. When after some minutes 
Heart of the girl has ceased to fight, the person in the black has felt it on 
Distance also has definitively calmed down. 

                        *    *    *

        Almost every evening, imperceptibly passing at night, Blind played 
Small roadside cafe which was called «Judas Tree». The name 
It was especially strange, that on ten kilometres around does not remain 
Uniform tree. All have cut down them and have burnt in terrible winter fifty fourth, 
When spittles froze hurriedly and as old man Svarnyj confirmed, the same 
Occurred to urine, and it is much worse, if conveniences in a court yard. 
        «Judas tree» was a mean hole, however institutions are purer, 
More expensively and more safe public visited more richly, and there sounded absolutely 
Other music serving anesteziologicheskim by a solution for those who did not want 
To have anything the general with surrounding dustbin. 
        So at Blind there was no choice. He earned pity pennies, 
However only here could play the blues. Whether it did it for others? Line 
With two though to play to it it was necessary for geeks of all colours, gangsters, 
Prostitutes, drivers, mercenaries, farmers, soldiers, card sharpers, thieves, 
Widows, the old men who have forgotten not only than they were engaged before, but also 
Own present names. 
        It and itself was the geek. To it did not allow to forget about it for one day. 
He knew, that if in cafe the musical automatic machine, to spirit till now worked 
It here was not. He knew also the place – somewhere in the same row with beer, 
The old pornographic magazines, unpleasant memoirs, pleasant 
Memoirs, whores, a hang-over, the old wounds, creeping 
Madness. It is no more, but also it is not less. 
        It did not have anything, except a guitar. Having slept off or not having slept off 
(Depending on circumstances), it appeared in a dark hall of cafe, 
Had a seat in a corner on a stool and started to torment the strings which stock approached 
By the end. When last will tear spare, he will play on five, then 
On four and so on. He will try to represent something and on one. 
When also it does not remain, he will play all the same, the truth, silently and not for long, 
For then will precisely die with hunger. 
        He sang seldom, only if for it poured. Or if ordered to sing 
Those to disobey whom would be unhealthy. At it was hoarse fragile 
Voice from which became even more sad. He sang the old forgotten things and 
The old not forgotten things, and new things which composed itself, but hardly probable 
Somebody from regular customers «Judas Tree» caught a difference. And it 
Paid in it the same, not distinguishing persons. 
        It have nicknamed Blind that it always, even in the most dark day, 
Even at night, carried dark glasses. Actually it was not blind, but it is not enough that 
From the seen found pleasant or at least neutral. It someone 
Irritated. The country was not for a long time free. Once it have forced to remove 
Points also have beat within an inch of the life. All have seen, that at Blind the small colourless 
The eyes looking at the world like a dog sadly and a few scaredly. Nobody 
Has understood, that it wore glasses not from arrogance that is why that only wanted 
To hide from with hostility adjusted rack and to it bore a strong resemblance to the child, 
Closing eye hands. He wanted, that him have left alone. But not 
It turned out. Another time points have crackled under a gangster boot, and only 
After a month Blind it was possible to buy almost same from the driver-trucker. 
It costed to it of many days lived half-starving. 
        And so, he played almost continuously. In pauses there was a vacuum, almost 
Intolerable for the Most blind. It should fill emptiness with sounds, 
Not to go mad from all that occurred round it, and also 
In it early the turned grey head. 
        Time from eight till ten evenings was not so favorable. Hour 
Any rabble. Bad guys are already too drunk; good guys still too 
Are sober. Good differed from bad only that did not represent 
Direct threat though, happened, all varied during one moment. 
        If Blind left through a rear entrance to cast, quite could 
To receive a foot on eggs. And once has received also a knife between edges, but, fortunately, 
Has survived. And the next evening already again played, earning itself for a breakfast, 
Played, despite of a wild pain under rags with which it have tied up, played 
Until the opened wound has not started to bleed plentifully. It is remembered, 
Jeans have become impregnated with blood in front, and any drunk maid with a laughter cried out: 
«At Blind menstruatsija!» 
        Yes, such affairs. More close to eleven it felt much 
Better. Raskovannee, whether that. As if night took it under a black wing, 
Accepted in embraces, absorbed entirely, without the rest. A gloom outside and a gloom 
Inside is equalised chances. And he played, not thinking any more about what. Played, 
To go through this night; music which he took, became 
Life. It as if conjured ruthless demons of emptiness, which in the opposite 
Case quickly would finish off it. But sometime all the same will finish off – in 
It it was possible not to doubt. 
        About midnight there came its hour – an immeasurable interval, which 
He owned almost undividedly. It worked wonders, stopping up roaring from 
Hopelessness to a darkness drink. He played, as sold I smother to a devil, for a short while 
Returning to old women a youth, potaskuham – the innocence, all damned – 
Hope. At this time din in «Judas Tree» quite often abated and sobbed only 
Its guitar, and sentimental whores of both floors silently wiped tears, 
Being afraid to destroy last wall separating an inutile life from the shameful 
Death. 
        The blind remembered, that it is better nothing than the majority of them, but for 
Dark glasses of points did not visible his eye, and only fingers sometimes 
Bled, yes in a voice something broke absolutely the devil. When 
Once the whore on nickname Malvina have found hung up in a toilet, someone 
Asserted, that the suicide reason was game Blind, which in 
Previous night was in good mood. Blind did not believe in it. It, as anybody 
Another, knew, that music is absolutely powerless. 
        With approach of morning it promptly lost energy. The grey melancholy 
The daylight transformed it into what it was actually, – in pity 
muzykantishku with the old guitar, spent for nothing the youth and 
Ruined poor talent. And then it, having stooped, ubredal in the poor 
Closet near kitchen where usually waited fruitless, directly deadly 
For it time. Here he slept on the fragmentary mattress thrown directly on boards 
Floor, and the rats rustling in a cellar were its neighbours from below. He fell asleep under 
Rustles published by them – these sounds seemed to it much more 
Pacifying, than a roar of pans and a clang of the knifes, reaching from kitchen. 
And, besides, a cold of a close tomb pulled from a cellar through cracks between 
Boards... 
        It was absolute, is irreparably lonely. He too has almost forgotten the name 
And date of the birth. Even the most deeply moved from drunkards never 
Invited him to drink with them. Should be, at any animal level they 
Perceived it as a being of other breed. Let even the lowest, but alien. It 
Was the secret enemy because forced them to recollect not only most 
The best, but also the worst. That they would like to forget for ever. It was 
Worse the priest. Eventually, it is possible to send the priest far away. At 
The priest there can be a dirty conscience. And this guy with the black indifferent 
Glasses instead of eyes, happened, thrust the dirty fingers in most 
Secret wounds. Also picked, picked, picked... 
        And still to it paid for that he played. Without it it would be boring. 
Without it would drink (the loss to an institution less!), broke (besides more 
The loss!) and killed more. The owner «Judas Tree» understood it. And Blind lived 
It is hardly better, than vagrant musicians, – it at least had a roof over 
Head. However, recently tramps came across all less often. 
        It did not have admirers. Around there was an earth without belief and without 
Love and who could grow fond of this monster, crumbling the music 
Splinters of the broken hearts. Few times whores came to it and offered itself, 
To visit, whether it at least can give them a particle that almost impossible, 
On what the suppressed woken passion vaguely hinted, but left, bitterly 
Having been disappointed... Till next midnight. And all good remains 
Inaccessible, precisely stars, whose dim light calls inflow of the pressing 
Melancholy. Music Blind was as light of these stars – not consoling, 
Escaping, deceptive, strange, – and at the same time it is through impregnated 
Suffering, feeling of loss, despair, unrealizable love. And more all 
No what it had and will never have. 
        The guitar replaced to it both mother, and the wife, both the friend, and the mistress. Almost 
Same shabby as its unique jeans, it always was a number. It 
Held a hand on a signature stamp when slept. The big joker and gossip Svarnyj 
Told, that Blind fucks the guitar, not receiving satisfaction, for 
The aperture is too great for its member. 
        The blind did not pay attention that people stir. He did not wait 
Anything good neither from them, nor from a life. And neither people, nor its life in it 
Never brought. 

                        *    *    *

        Somehow in one of days of late summer in «Judas Tree» has appeared 
The person whom never saw here earlier. In the beginning it have accepted for 
The traveller chistopljuja, that on the misfortune was mistaken a door. But it was rather 
Deceptive impression. He has been dressed expensively and with taste, and in a triangle, 
Formed by lapels of a strict black jacket, the gold hairpin sparkled 
With a ruby. The bloody stone was poured, as the big drop of fresh blood. On 
Any other person the similar trinket would be looked as if a label on 
Sacrificial ram. 
        The stranger behaved absolutely freely, but is not impudent. Presence 
otjavlennyh its bandits, apparently, at all did not excite, bad 
The kitchen and cheap swill have not disturbed its stomach accustomed much more 
To refined dishes, and jingling Blind has not offended its hearing, certainly, 
Got used to listen to incomparably more raised sounds. Jokes of the street 
Maids have not punched the reservation of its aristocratism, direct calling sights 
Gangsters at all have not reduced its desire to consider all successively with 
Missing and even a little contemptious expression. From it something proceeded 
Such, that nobody has wanted to quarrel with it. This emanation of force got 
Even through drunk charcoal fumes. It suppressed aggression or exhausted it deeply in 
Darkness of furious hearts. The person in black looked so as if outside remained 
Ten its people with automatic machines. 
        Having studied local public, it has lost to it interest. Since this minute it 
It was entirely switched to the musician. The stranger easy sipped beer 
From the rather dirty glass submitted to it, smoked fabulously expensive cigar, 
Which in «Judas Tree» did not smell years thirty, and listened to game 
The guitarist with indefatigable attention. It was difficult to read something on it 
Thoroughbred and extremely well-groomed person. Only once it has expressed the 
Approval: when Blind has sung an old blues «I do not feel a pain», the person in 
Black suit has clapped the combined driver's gloves on a palm. 
        And has then beckoned Blind to the little table. Obviously, dark glasses 
Him have not deceived, though nobody has told to it words about strangenesses of the guitarist. 
        Blind was not the proud guy. Its pride has died that day, when 
He has been compelled to sell the art, whatever cheap it was considered. 
The stranger inspired respect, but also, from it for kilometre smelt 
Money. The big money. 
        The blind has unstuck a bum from a stool, and a back from a wall, and to a sight 
The stranger the old cardboard sheet with the semierased inscription «Not has opened 
Shoot at the musician, he plays, as is able ». The cardboard has been raked in 
Several places. But another, more original, the opus of this genre was 
It is visible from the input and said: «the Beaten out teeth it is not returned. A skin darn 
In a drugstore behind a corner. Funeral office – in two quarters. Your last 
Wine-glass – well, at the expense of an institution ». 
        The stranger gesture has invited Blind to sit down, has poured to it a wine-glass of vodka, 
Then has treated with a cigar. Blind tried to behave with advantage. It not 
Hurrying took a cigar, has slowly got from a pocket a penknife, has slowly opened 
It was cut off also by a tip. Has slowly lighted from stretched by the person in the black 
Gold lighter. 
        He was surprised to nothing, after all there has come midnight – its best hour. It 
It was deeply tightened. For a long time the forgotten taste. More correctly, unfamiliar taste. Such cigars 
He did not smoke never. But the smoke, getting to lungs, reminded of what never 
Also done not happen. And if happened, not with it. The smoke has woken imagination. 
For it Blind was ready to play for the person in black till the morning. Everything, that that 
Will ask. He has understood, that has met that who understands. With for whom it 
Music – the concussion of smelly air relieving of the shrill is not simple 
Silences. 
        – Good job, – the stranger a pleasant baritone, and Blind has told 
Has thought, that, executed by such voice, perfectly would sound «Accept it, 
As the man ». But in similar thought there was something imperceptibly wrong, 
Vicious as if he tried to garble a reality under just arisen 
Illusions. He has understood, that the stranger possesses dangerous charm. 
        The blind has shrugged shoulders and has answered more roughly, than followed: 
        – Usual job. 
        – The better. Means, my offer should not take you unawares. 
        The person in black graceful gesture has started two fingers in a lateral pocket, 
Has got therefrom the card and has thrown it on a table. 
        Having made some turns, as if the ballerina in white, a card 
Has stood before Blind precisely on the brink of the board polished with elbows. 
Having bent and not removing points, that has read a short inscription without everyones 
Trick: 
                        Mr. Domino 
                        The impresario 

        The blind has crookedly grinned, having shown shcherbatye a teeth. "Impresario"! 
It did not pull even on hohmu. In its opinion, the joker in black was most 
Place at restaurant "Элизиум", where sugary and affected sisters Mond 
Mewed under a sugary and affected grand piano of gay Lui. But a cigar... The Cigar 
Has bathed all and forced to look at a situation differently. Otherwise 
The malicious joke managed the expensive and the pleasure did not pay off. Blind 
Knew not by hearsay a heap of much more simple ways to mock over 
The poor musician. 
        – What will you tell about ten thousand for one concert? However, 
To play it is necessary far from here, but I undertake free to deliver you on 
Place. You receive a quarter of the fee in the deposit which I can pay 
Here and now. 
        Blind stupidly looked at a decaying cigar. The named sum was too 
It is huge, too unreal for it and consequently the event seemed to it 
Bad dream. Bad for the reason, that he already imagined bitterness 
Awakenings. But did not wish to wake up. 
        Yes, the sum was other-wordly. On this money he could live comfortably 
Some years (provided that it will be possible to save them), and the main thing, it could 
To buy the good tool. The Driver-truckers told, that in 
To capital there are antique shops where everything is on sale, even... Even 
Electroguitars. After all in capital there was a power station, and rich people could 
To afford electric illumination at night, and more there were elite 
Clubs in which, on hearings, supermusicians played for a small group of selected – 
Played how during old kind times of lost paradise. A bass, shock, 
Body Hemmonda, wind section. It sounded extremely – in all 
Senses. Legends, the epos, city folklore... Blind was afraid even to think about 
Similar things. Too painful it is a piece – unrealizable dreams. Worse 
Them only the shattered hopes. No, he will not allow, that the stranger has caused 
To it a pain. Once it had a continuous wound instead of heart, and now – 
Hem which not to scratch anything. Unless to punch a knife, but it will be 
To mean definitive disposal of torments. 
        – Thanks for a cigar, – has told Blind. – mister Domino, that I 
I can play for you? Till a dawn your time. You have bought it, and me in addition 
With all giblets. But only this night. And then slide to hell. 
        Mister Domino has not taken offence, though, having looked at it unique 
Time, it was possible to assert safely, that the one who will offend it, it is bitter about it 
Will regret. But with Blind it remained faultlessly polite. 
        – I am afraid, you have misunderstood me. I cry to you for the unique 
Concert then you can return to this hole and continue in the same 
Spirit. 
        After these words it has made something absolutely mad – has got a pack 
Large denominations also has counted two and a half thousand. Having finished, carelessly 
Has thrown money for the party Blind. 
        In cafe the sticky ominous silence was established. Now Blind waited only 
One – bullets in a head. It realised that anybody from 
Were in «Judas Tree» did not see before such money for all the 
Life. And more that many of these people were ready to kill 
Own mother for the fiftieth part of its fee. 
        That in cafe there was no bloody slaughter-house, subsequently explained 
Mass hypnosis. And the person in black was the hypnotist. It it is easy 
Manipulated human defects and animal instincts, but did it 
Absolutely imperceptibly for associates. 
        – Why I? – Has asked Blind a voice more hoarse, than usually. 
It has stared at money which were, undoubtedly, are real – as are real, 
As sour smells of beer and human sweat, as the spat boards of a floor, as all 
This sranaja a life. 
        Mister Domino has made a helpless gesture with a genuine regret. 
        – All is very simple. According to mine h'm... The employer, you – 
Last in own way. Yes-yes, be not surprised. I know, that I speak, after all I 
Has travelled all South. Alas, the tree has dried up. We any more in forces to inhale in it 
Life, but, perhaps, still we presume to admire to themselves the last 
Runaway. It will give the special price to your concert, and we are ready to pay. 
Probably, even it will be possible to make record. Certainly, in that case we 
Let's offer you the separate contract. All your rights will be strictly observed. 
In this world the lost is appreciated only. As it is sad, dead music 
There is much more expensively a live. 
        Blind some time was required to digest last 
Phrase, and all the same he has not been assured that has correctly caught its sense. 
It has looked round the grown hateful walls and physiognomies. Unless it had reasons 
To refuse? 
        – When it is necessary to go? 
        – If we will go right now, by next evening we will be on a place. 
Wish to take something with itself? Perhaps, grasp the girlfriend? – 
Dominoes looked so as if in advance knew the answer. 
        The blind has tenderly stroked a guitar signature stamp. 
        – Here my girlfriend. 
        – Perfectly. Means, you are more free than many of us, though and not 
Guess it. 
        When they a hand about a hand left from «Judas Tree», them saw off 
Silence. 

[01 [02]