Across the TV screen. Part 8

Елена Котова 1
     There were times, when in different organizations, including mine, a lot of low-price household goods  were on sale. The personnel were offered a list of goods and each of the personnel was to make an order for a predetermined amount of money assigned to him.
     This time it was the same way: today you are offered a list of goods and no later than tomorrow you are to effect an application for wanted goods. At that time I was on leave in my country house. A car came to take me home. But there was breakage-down and we had to go by electric train.
     At the station.
     We came to a ticket booth.
     I saw a man of average height, strong-built, smart, and neat. I liked his haircut.  He was standing with two women: one of them was leaving together with him, the other was seeing them off.
     He was rather a common man, and I would not pay attention to the fact, but . . .
     When we came close to him he looked at me at once. I cast a glance at him either. At that very instant I "sensed" his thought, feelings. He saw I was  tall and he liked it. In a moment he became confused with it, then he quickly pulled himself together. Now he was in a "uniform". Since the time I saw him till the moment he got out of the train he was constantly "present in my mind".
     My relatives and I, as if by a command, sat down on a bench. The mini-group of a man and two women stood opposite us. He was standing two meters away from me in such position  that if I looked straightforward – it would be right at him.
     I could not turn my eyes from him; even when I did not look at him he was away but within the reach of my sight.
     He stood with his side to me and when I examined him without "recognizing", he turned with face right to my face. His eyes looked straight into my eyes. At the moment the "curtain of unrecognizability" was dissipated. I had to answer a single question: do I believe my own eyes? It was he. I see him face in face, eyes in eyes, with only two meters separating us.
     I would not definitely stay inactive in such situation if my mind continued to recognize him . . .
     When he looks like that, at such moments I also "see" him. I mean his thoughts and feelings. His will. At the moment he turns his face to the women he is standing with. He is with his side to me. I begin to doubt if it is he.
     I "touch" him with my eyes and each particle of him is so good and so neat, and I like them all! And everything about him.
     I did not hear his conversation. He was smiling and I could see and feel by the expression of his face that he liked the course of my thoughts very much.
     The electric train has arrived.
     I wanted to come to the train door the closer to us. But the group of my relatives, as if attracted by a magnet, rushed to the further door to which the man and one of the women went, the second woman staying at the platform.
     They entered the car and settled in a compartment the second from the entrance. We stayed further from the mid part of the car, i.e. we were separated by an immense distance. There were a few of passengers in the car. I could see his face from faraway. 
     I am sitting and looking at him. His face is inclined, he is reading. I said to myself: "This is not He, not his shape of head". At the moment he raised his head and looked in my direction. I had to admit instantly that it was his head and the shape of his head.
     Next moments . . . My face suddenly went cold. It was hot outdoor. It was hot in the car. Something has  happened to the muscles of my face. My mouth has become somewhat locked. The face parts around the mouth were icy and lips became dry in a moment. They were becoming instantly more and more dry and icy.
     I was eager to look at him and did it each time he took his glance away from me. It surely disturbed him and prevented him from working . . .
     Suddenly my relatives who settled quite comfortably disliked our compartment and moved to the other one, so that I sat opposite to but with my back to him at the other end of the car. For some reason my relatives suddenly went asleep rather quickly. All that had happened to my face then suddenly disappeared as quickly as it came.
     I began to examine the list of goods that I wanted to buy. There was too little time for choosing. It was evening. Tomorrow morning at 9.00 I had to get the list ready.
     We decided together what to buy.
     For instance, I think: "I'll buy a player", and his voice in my head: "What for? You have one?". My answer: "I want a player manufactured by other firm, it is better". He conceives my reasons. All this is going on in my mind.
     So we discussed the list all the way. And all was settled and ordered.
     Then the trip was over and our meeting, too . . . till the next one.