Dark Tower. 4. A Black Raven

"TALES OF GHOSTS"

about Love and Death from the Land of Mists
a collection of short stories
in the “Playing Another Reality” series

"DARK TOWER"

4. A BLACK RAVEN

The Cherry Orchard is blooming… for the umpteenth time. I’ve lost count, since I’ve been living here without you for so long, or rather, working for the Border Service, as one of the Black Ravens, Guardians of the Threshold of the Land of Mists. You should remember that on the Border of the Worlds, there is the Cherry Orchard, and not the Apple one, which is located much higher and hard to reach for those who return home nowadays.

You left for Earth so long ago that the local birds forgot your voice, as if you had never existed. How many years or centuries have passed? Time is lazy on the Border. Anyway, I remember… I remember everything, my dear… and we’ll surely meet once!

The Cherry Orchard is in bloom… for the umpteenth time. The smells of the delicate flowers make the passing by wanderers dizzy. How many times have I seen them coming down to Earth and back home through the Cherry Orchard? But all of them are different souls, completely alien to my spirit. Only you understood me instantly and silently, and you loved our Orchard even in the dark times.

Of course, I knew that your hour would come, and the Angel would call for you, and, like all souls, you would go away too, leaving me here all alone. However, you will surely return, having fulfilled what you came down to Earth for.

How many years or centuries have passed? Perhaps you decided to stay there, or got lost on your way home.

Coming back, many souls confessed to me that after incarnation they had instantly forgotten their true home and even during their earthly service denied the existence of our Motherland, the Land of Mists! Then, as a punishment, the Supreme Court consigned them to oblivion, and after leaving Earth, they fell into the Dungeon of the Dreamless Dreams, from which it’s so hard to get out!

Oh no, I don’t believe it happened to you! You could forget neither our cozy home, nor the Cherry Orchard, nor me! Perhaps you decided to serve on Earth longer, fulfilling not only your own, but also someone else’s mission, so that by your good deeds you could beg the Court to grant the prisoners of the Dungeon their memory that would return them to our Motherland.

The Cherry Orchard is blooming… for the umpteenth time. Anyway, it will be always in bloom… because of the Time, which is so lazy, as if it is about to stop even here, on the Border. My quiet life, dreamt of by so many ghosts, has turned into a monotonous repetition of the same fragment — the constant expectation to see you in an uninterrupted flow of souls returning home from Earth.

Oh, if you knew how tired I am! Yes, such thought is criminal, but believe me that here, in the Land of Mists, I suddenly thought about… death and decided to take a chance. I submitted to the Chancellery a letter of resignation and my transfer to Earth. Yes, no one understood me! They laughed at me! Anyway, what for should I live without you?

Today I’ve received the positive answer, and as soon as I transfer my Custom affairs to the next Guardian of the Threshold, the Angel will take me out of the Cherry Orchard to announce my heavenly mission on Earth and send me down there.

I’m leaving my astral diary here in case of your sudden return in my absence, and I will pray that the Mist doesn’t touch my memory of you and our Motherland, so that, having served on Earth, we can find each other, even in the Dungeon of the Dreamless Dreams, and return home to our Cherry Orchard together, or stay forever wherever you wish.

1989