I WILL WAIT A LITTLE LONGER, AND THEN I WILL PREPARE TO SET OFF!

"The sun goes to the West

And those who do not know

That everything in this life

Has a source

Run after it.

The sun goes to the West

But to be born again,

It rushes to the East,

To the East!"

I.V. Talkov

Since circumstances have turned out such that I do not have the technical ability to finish this piece on the day of my return to Chelyabinsk, as I had envisioned in October, I am faced with a certain task: what will the ending be if my six-month journey to South Africa is not yet over?

The answer was found quickly, and it turned out to be extremely simple! And even pleasant. Do you know what I came up with?! I decided this: I will just dream! I have good intuition. I will imagine for myself what and how things will be for me here, and everything will come true!

I will spend the last month of my short, six-month life in South Africa in a similar way to the previous five. I will try to live a full life. If circumstances form a favorable chain, and I find a travel companion from old friends or new ones, we will still go to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. I would like to, of course!

Maybe I'll buy myself a new camera.

I will quit my job. There is not much left—I will live perfectly well without it. On Sundays, I will go for walks in the city, and I want to go to the University at least two more times. I will definitely sunbathe on the beach and take more than one walk along the mountains and the edge of the ocean waters.

I will try to spend more time with friends. Once every week or two, as usual, I will go to the cinema.

I will climb Table Mountain one more time when the clouds are not covering its peak.

I will still have the opportunity to choose gifts for my family and buy the ones I like.

What else will I fill my free time with if there is any left? Anything! THIS IS CAPE TOWN—A CITY OF CELEBRATION! I will say goodbye to it by visiting the places I want to.

On March 20, 2009, I will board a flight from Cape Town to Dubai. It will soar into the sky, rising above the city. Above the Cape that I have come to love, with its center, the Waterfront, Sea Point and Clifton, mountains upon mountains, rivers, ponds, and the ocean. With cute road forks and the sandy yellowness of the earth.

We will soar high, but the visibility will still be excellent. I will say goodbye. How to name the main feeling that I will have there, in the plane taking off over Cape Town?

It will be STRANGE for me to leave this earthly paradise. But I will clearly understand: staying would have been even stranger for me. I will wave goodbye. And a tear will roll down my cheek. It will decide to stay here, like a piece of me. After all, I lived here. Loved. And felt many other things! And now, with all of this: with the friends left behind and the various people I interacted with; with specific places and the sensations they evoked in me—I am saying goodbye to all of this at once.

I said goodbye, I felt longing—and FORWARD! I will turn my head and continue to look only in the direction of our heavenly liner's flight, all the way to Dubai. I will enjoy the view of the deserts from the porthole windows and the luxury of the city of stay again.

A few hours at the airport—and back into the sky. Now heading towards our capital, the most beautiful in the world, on the Dubai-Moscow flight!

We will be met by the always welcoming Domodedovo airport, and the faces of my countrymen will bring me joy (after Africa, any Russian is a countryman, regardless of whether you are from Kaliningrad or Sakhalin).

A cozy bus will take me to the metro. And from there—to Zhenya and Yulka, my friends. I will stay with them for three or four days. And then home—to Chelyabinsk!

During these first days of returning to Russia, I will certainly meet a conductor, or a salesperson, or... a customs officer who will definitely yell at me, growl menacingly, or scold me for no reason, which will finally sober me up and remind me that I am home. But I know about this in advance! So it won't even upset me much.

It will be pleasant to see that drivers mostly yield the road to me if they see me walking. This will surprise me; in six months, I have become unaccustomed to anyone considering me as a pedestrian or cyclist on the road. "And I thought we had a lack of culture among motorists! We have it even more so, I just had nothing to compare it to before!"

Wherever I end up, I will look around. Unconsciously looking for something new in the appearance of the capitals of the country and the Southern Urals and the people, as if trying to see what changes have occurred in them while I was away. I will remember that our roads are not always as beautiful and convenient as abroad, but they are already much better than five or ten years ago. It will be a bit cloudy and cool, but it will smell like spring outside—a time of birth and life. And then I will even be glad to see a piece of winter—its remnant in the form of snow that has not yet melted and air temperatures below zero. And there will be much more. After all, life does not end!

And friends? Those I made in South Africa? Friendship is forever.

I will return home, periodically looking out at the world from different windows: sometimes a porthole, sometimes a bus, or a subway train window, or from the windows of my friends' or parents' apartments, and the words from the poem will spin in my head:

"I found out that I have

A huge family:

A path, and a small forest,

Every ear of grain in the field!

The river, the blue sky.

This is all mine, NATIVE!

THIS IS MY MOTHERLAND!

I love everyone in the world!"

February 25, 2009.

From Sunny Cape Town!