From the author: Excerpt from the book “The Giant and the Hero” The morning was dank and gray - a shame for a spring morning, so dull, cold and joyless. A spring morning should begin with the warm sun, with birdsong, with blissful smiles and anticipation of something good... For Oleg, every morning began differently a long time ago: a painful understanding of the need to get up and live another day. A trick to deceive the almost omnipotent apathy is to have a sip after breakfast. (It’s bad if there’s nothing left from yesterday). A bathroom that has not seen renovation since the days of my parents’ youth, a narrow mirror in splashes of toothpaste, the scraping of a razor on the prickly stubble. A pioneer must be polite. The captain must be neat. Well, the captain must also be brilliantly smart, and decisive, and firm, and with a white-toothed smile, and even, perhaps, with a pipe in his hand and a brush of gray mustache over his upper lip. When Oleg read as a child books about sea voyages, watched cartoons about sea adventures, invented and played out stories with friends about sea battles and just long voyages, he, of course, saw himself as a captain of a ship... But certainly not the same as he became by the time he was thirty-eight - bilious, in places a wizened, and in places swollen man with dull eyes in an ironed uniform, more like a conductor on a dirty train than a captain, even a pleasure boat. His wife left him about six years ago. The son managed to become a teenager and was filled with deep contempt for “daddy,” as Oleg’s former life partner called him. Oleg was almost no longer upset about this - everything can be survived as long as there is money in your pocket and vodka in the store. That’s what his sidekick Andryukha used to say, three months ago he passed away with a heart attack to a better world. Now Oleg was especially lonely, but by repeating himself, everything can be survived... Oleg, according to his personal tradition, went up to the upper deck to smoke. They threatened that a law would be passed banning smoking in public places. What disrespect for people's personal traditions! Maybe one of the last joys in life will fall away for someone after this? Oleg is used to reacting to very, very many things with an impassive, glancing glance - after all, he is the captain of a pleasure boat, and people on vacation allow themselves a lot of things that you won’t see in everyday life. However, the group that was currently ascending the ladder made him arch an eyebrow in surprise: a barefoot (absolutely!) girl walking in front carried a scarlet banner in her hand (Oleg had never seen anything like that even in his pioneer childhood). Oleg blinked twice, because it seemed to him as if the heavy matter was swaying not quite in time with the steps of the carrier and the breath of the breeze... Next to her, the most ordinary girl of an indefinite age walked briskly (you know, now girls have become so dangerous, you often don’t understand whether they are eighteen or thirty), and a decisive gait did not fit with the obvious extra pounds. Behind them were a gloomy, lean guy with eyes like razors, and a lanky, bespectacled guy with headphones in his ears. Oleg was amazed that they were together, but there was no sense of flirting between them at all. Usually, in mixed-sex companies, it’s overwhelming, it’s sickening to watch. And here – what united them? Why go on a boat ride together on a weekday morning for people who don’t have, don’t plan and don’t even dream of having any kind of friendship with each other? Oleg would be happy (wow!) to watch them some more, but on the internal radio he was invited to go up to the bridge - Yulka, an administrative rat to the core, did not miss the opportunity to show her dominance over him, and Oleg had long understood that this was her intricate way of picking up a man, but, thank God, he was completely indifferent to her, as they say, morally and physically. Having turned into a secluded corner, often used for such purposes, Oleg took a sip from the small flask that he carried near his heart - instead of amulets, talismans and mementos. What have you turned into, dully, as if from sleepy blackness, he asked inner voice. Oleg smiled sarcastically. Once upon a time heI was fooled by them, by such questions, but I learned that an extra sip, and, if possible, a shot glass or even a glass helps a lot. And he kissed the cold metal neck again. Everything went as usual. The engines worked well, the river bus, although as tired of life as the captain himself, obeyed without fail. Maybe that’s why he obeyed? “Where is your ship sailing, captain?” Oleg shuddered and turned around - the same barefoot girl with a banner stood behind him. “What are you doing here, motherfucker?” Who let you onto the bridge? - I needed to talk to you. - What a stupid habit - poking at strangers who, moreover, are twice your age! Chief mate, go to the captain’s bridge,” Oleg blurted out over the radio. He had to restrain himself so as not to burst into a roar. He always got angry when he didn't feel like he was in control of a situation. Where are these devils? Why are there strangers in the control room?! Moreover, they seem to be crazy... - Captain... - The girl fell silent, as if gathering her thoughts, and then her face took on a strange expression. Detached, or what? No, that's not it. - Listen, captain. A person can survive anything if he has something to live for. One who has no goal becomes like a tree without roots. You are without roots, but you are still alive. And we really need your help. Oleg’s hand stiffened, clutching the edge of the panel. He was overcome with fear. A completely understandable fear: people are deathly afraid of natural disasters, wild animals and crazy people. – Do you remember when you were a boy, you dreamed of the sea? For salty splashes on your face, for the creaking of the sails, for the sun to sink into the water and be born from the water every day? Oleg nervously licked his lips. I desperately wanted a drink to understand. What is going on? Where is Sergei, the fucking XO? It seems like you can’t piss off this crazy one... But this is exactly what he once dreamed of. “And you were strong and brave, desperate, decisive and steely, an example for the whole team.” And the guys obeyed you, do you remember? They played with joy, shouting “yes, my captain”... - Yes, sit down, sit down... - Oleg suggested affectionately, nodding towards the couch. - And now you have a river, but there is no and there will no longer be a sea, there are levers and buttons, but there is no helm, there is... vodka, but there is no happiness. And you know that it will only get worse. Spring and summer will pass, autumn will come, and in the winter, which you will have to sit on the shore again, you will no longer be able to resist and you will get drunk. Honestly, he would have hit her. I would give such a heavy slap in the face... If I could move, painfully and suddenly realizing that this crazy girl is completely, right to hell. “I could say that you have a chance to fix everything, and find your sea, and finally become almost the same captain from your childhood dreams... But that would be only part of the truth. In fact, we really need your help. - What kind? – Oleg asked almost against his will. Surprisingly, the inner voice no longer even mocked him or her, it was just dully silent. Passengers at the river station sincerely did not understand what had happened. Why the sudden fuss? Why were anxious employees running around, what were they talking about in tense conversations? And, it seems, here it is - the Pamir motor ship did not leave for the voyage. Wait a minute, isn't he sailing past the pier? Hmm, that's really strange. Passengers were dropped off, judging by their clothes, part of the crew too... What a mess, we took tickets, we want them too! Oleg, to his own surprise, did not even think about what was happening on the shore. He realized that he should be worried and somehow worried, and maybe even afraid, but he didn’t worry or worry, but was afraid of only one thing - that hope would deceive him, and everything would again slide further downhill according to the obvious laws of the familiar world. Next to him on the bridge stood a girl with a banner, and her strange friends were sitting on the couch. The banner swayed slightly, echoing the direction of its invisible wind. Captain Oleg held onto the flagpole with one hand, and with the other he directed his ship - to where he should have sent it a long time ago. And something opened up ahead... Then the newspapers wrote that one of the ships of the N-sky river