Page 34 - Revelation
P. 34
Svetlana de Rohan-Levashova. Revelation
My grandma was within easy reach, placidly preparing her next culinary
"masterpiece" in the kitchen. It was very quiet; my grandma murmured a song to
herself, as suddenly a heavy cast-iron frying pan jumped like a bird from the stove
and fell on the floor with a terribly loud sound. Grandma jumped up in surprise almost
like the pan, but to give her due, she settled down at once and said:
– Stop it!
I felt slightly offended, because it had already become a family habit that I was
always found guilty of whatever happened in the house (although this time, it certainly
was, absolutely true).
– Why do you think it was me? – I asked, pouting.
– Well, as far as I know we don't have ghosts here, – she said calmly.
I loved her very much for her imperturbability and steadfast calmness. It seemed
that nothing in this world could truly get her out of the groove. Although, of course,
there were things which distressed, surprised, or made her sad, but she accepted
everything with surprising calmness, and therefore I always felt very comfortable and
protected with her. Somehow I suddenly felt that my grandma showed some interest
in my last "trick". My gut feeling was that she observed me and waited for something
more. Well, I certainly did not keep her waiting long. In a few seconds all the utensils
which hung over the stove flew down with a terrible noisy crash right after the frying
pan.
– Well, well. It is much easier to break than to build; you’d better do something
useful, – my grandma said calmly.
I almost suffocated with indignation! Just imagine! How could she treat this
"unbelievable event" so calmly?! Doesn’t she see that this is such... SUCH an event!!!
I could not explain how much this "SUCH" was, but I was absolutely sure that one
should not treat what had just happened so calmly. My indignation made not the
slightest impression on my grandma, and she said, again in her calm voice:
– It’s pretty useless to spend that much force on what can be easily done with
your hands.
You’d better go and read something.
My indignation had no limits! I could not understand why she was not totally
delighted with that which seemed to me such an awesome thing? Unfortunately, I still
was too small then to understand that all these impressive "outer effects" in reality
gave nothing but the "outer effects" themselves. And the essence of producing
them is just to "befog" trustful and impressionable people's minds with "the mysticism
of the inexplicable", and my grandma, naturally, was not this kind of person. But
because I had not yet grown to such understanding, I was only eager to find out what
else I could move. Therefore, feeling no regret whatsoever, I left my gran who did not
"understand" me to search for a new object of my "experiments".
A beautiful grey cat, Grishka, dad's favourite pet, lived with us then. I found him
sweetly sleeping on the warm stove and decided that it was a very good opportunity
to try my new "skill". I thought that it would be better, if he sat on the window-sill.
Nothing happened. I concentrated and added more strength to my thought... Poor
Grishka flew from the stove with a wild howl and struck his head on the window-sill.
Back to content
33