“That's right”, said Mumbler, “a houseboat. A square like a box, a house on a raft, with a veranda, wicker chairs, curtains in the doorway… Who is sitting on the veranda? Two people? Or one is sitting down, while the second at the railing, spits into the water?”
It was unclear from the scene.
Two hundred eighty-five Mississippi, two hundred eighty-six Mississippi… Vadim was counting diligently.
– Sverzhin, stop!
Vadim was thrown back. He stopped and slammed himself hard over the eyes, trying to wipe them.
– “Stop” was a command! – repeated Petrovich after all this. – Pay more attention on the track. – Vadim heard his footsteps, and here Petrovich approached and stood next to him on the right. And only then the vision seemed to be cleared from the river of semolina porridge, and Vadim realised that he had almost stuck into the famous fog of the Zone. The atmospheric condensation.
“And I saw it a long time ago, about fifteen seconds”, said Mumbler, “But you force me to count there, to watch here, friends don't act this way with a friend!”
“Oh, shut up!” – Vadim almost said it aloud.
– Hey you, bumper, how you called…, Sverzhin, you need to be more attentive, – Petrovich said quietly and unexpectedly mildly. – Do you see the old “risk”, it is lying right there? I'm throwing a new one next to it.
A small nut, flying for a dozen meters, with a gauze strip, not very long, tied to it, crossed through the air and entered the fog. The fog blinked, at once, totally disappearing for a moment.
– Did you get it, Fenimore?
Vadim completely returned from the river. The taste of water disappeared from the tongue, sharp TV flashes melted in his eyes. An automatic desire to jump on one foot, shaking the water out of the ear, lingered for one more second (By the way, yes, he got water in his ear). His short-term memory kicked in, and Vadim said, focusing on reality:
– Yes. I see. D-damn! What a mess. There is no fog in reality, is there?
– Yes. That’s the thing. Exactly this one does not actually exist. Something happens with the eyes here. These kinds of places lie in wait. Gitiks, damn them. Doctors say it's like a mental leap. We see in some other way, or sometimes do not see at all. But the Trouble forces a special human gut feeling to show itself, if you're lucky. If there is one – even you, young one, immediately distinguish the real fog from… well, from this, from what's in the mind. But it can also happen like now – no fog at all, neither in the brain, nor in reality, but the visibility is still only a few steps. And no hunch will help. Here, take a step backward.