Once upon a time I played checkers at very high speed too. To be honest, I like speed more than checkers. I even wrote the spell «Speed» after one Boy gave me a ride at 220 during our business trip abroad (although he insists on 230). After reading the spell, my ex-classmate Alexey wrote, «I tried. Two days ago. It doesn’t help.» However, despite the repeated warning signs from Above, I didn’t stop. Thus, one evening, having left Fox on the street for about forty minutes, I lost it forever dematerialized.

I haven’t played checkers since then. I drive exceeding the speed. Sometimes. When everything falls down and I find myself in the Void.

…He was a Boy. Although he was no long so young. Much taller and physically stronger than me, he seemed to me so small, that I wanted to think of something to make the Boy grow up, because it was unnatural to look at him up, really looking down from the top. However, the Boy grew in breadth only. In fact, we must give him credit, he was a good Boy, or rather, the right one, and so much that he risked becoming a patient of my cousin, who had never become a surgeon, but worked in the «yellow house» (why people call so the abode of the strangers, I still don’t understand, in general, people are a mystery for me). In the head of the Boy, absolutely down-to-earth and practical, there was a terrible program that someone had once written and implanted there. Perhaps even the Boy himself. The program, similar to a virus, killed everything that came into the Boy’s field of vision, if it was not the same as him. The Boy played the rules written in that program.

That day we went to negotiations. Getting into his car and not even having time to close the door, I heard the order,

«Put the bag exactly in the middle on your lap!»

My small purse was slightly to the right of the indicated place. I looked with a silent question at the Boy, and he immediately explained in a metallic voice,

«When I put in sale this car in 10 years, it will be valued more if inside on the doors, there are no scratches from all sorts of iron things on women’s bags!»

There were no iron things on my bag, but the Boy didn’t tolerate any objections.

We got lost on the way. When I saw the sign to «that place» and exclaimed, «To the right!», automatically raising my right hand towards the sign, without even touching the window with the outer side of my palm, the Boy commanded,

«Take a napkin and wipe the glass urgently! My car has these rules, and if you don’t, you’ll have to wash it entirely at your own expense.»

When we got out of the car, the first thing the Boy did was open the trunk, where, in addition to all sorts of boxes, he was hiding… a ruler. He took it and began to measure something.

«Why are you doing this?» I was surprised.

«While we were driving, the boxes slightly changed their location in the trunk, and each of them should stand in a strictly designated place so as not to come into contact with each other and with the walls of the trunk. Because when I put in sale this car in 10 years…»

I breathed in and out deeply.

On the way back, the Boy bought two pies. When I dared to hint that there were two pies, he kindly invited me to enjoy one of them.

As soon as I began to untie the knot of the plastic bag, the Boy looked at me disapproving and said in disappointment,

«That’s not the way to untie it! Give it to me, I’ll teach you how to do it correctly.»

I haven’t eaten pies since then.

On New Year’s Eve, an employee of the PR department received souvenirs for gifts to our partners, including diaries. The manufacturer put the Boy’s company logo on them. The Boy asked me to check the quality. I brought him a verified copy. The Boy took… a ruler. As a result of his measurements, the logo on the diaries turned out to be printed half a millimeter (!) higher than the previous year, so the circulation had to be redone within 24 hours in order to give away the correct diaries in time. I laughed. Probably he had a ruler hidden under his pillow at home too. And maybe not even one… It was good that the Boy couldn’t read minds.