Chapter Five, In Which Tain Bb And Hello? Overcome The Obstacle And Meet Someone
Tain Bb and Hello? woke up at almost the same time. The sun was already high, a light breeze was blowing, and the world around was filled with various pleasant sounds. Anyone who has ever woken up on the shore of a forest lake is well aware that these sounds are never loud. It’s as if they were deliberately created, not just to clear your head, but also to evoke in us a very special mood, with degrees of freshness and quiet joy.
Tain felt wonderful, rested and full of strength. He jumped up cheerfully and walked to the water on his hands. Then, hearing Hello?’s applause, he bowed as if at the circus and performed a backwards somersault. In reality nothing of the sort happened. Having invented this little film in his own head, Tain, rather pleased with himself, made it to the lake. After admiring himself for a while, so beautiful and strong, he dipped his face in the cold water. Washing himself noisily and snorting, he began to feel like a whale, which put him in excellent spirits. Everything pointed to the fact that the day ahead was going to be a good one.
‘A fine day ahead!’ he cried loudly, addressing everyone at once: the forest, the lake and Hello?
Having understood his mood, Hello? tiptoed up to him quietly:
‘There’s a fine day ahead, you know,’ she whispered in his ear secretively, and ceremoniously poured a cup of cold water down Tain’s neck.
‘Aaaaagh!’ screamed Tain.
‘Aaaaagh!’ screamed Hello?.
‘A! B! C! D!..E!...’ all the letters in the grass joined the cacophony, screaming out the entire alphabet. And only the three friends, X, Y and Z huffed offendedly, you can probably guess why.
Having screamed their hearts out, freshened themselves up, and fortified themselves on the remnants of dinner, the travellers set off on their way. The path ahead lay through hills so they had to leave the bicycle. But Hello? was firmly convinced that they would find it on the way back.
‘Why would she think we’re going to come back the same way?’ Tain shrugged his shoulders but, saying nothing, simply nodded. It turned out that travelling in company was much jollier. Oh, what did they not talk about? Like, for example, why all grannies are so nice, who had flown on a plane and how often, and why one type of ice-cream only causes the tongue to grow numb but another the teeth as well.
And when Tain told her about the Guide, Hello? Secretly threw fir cones at his head. Feeling bewilderment, Tain came to a halt, looking everywhere around. But when Hello?, unable to restrain herself, ran forward with a foolish laugh, he threw himself after her with a yet more foolish laugh.In all honesty Tain’s soul was filled with joy at seeing how easily and freely Hello? Behaved, not at all bothered by how she looked or what others would think of her.
The path wove in and out, dodged, crossed areas in various directions and, finally, just stopped. Or, to be more precise, it came up against something. Not because it was being obstinate but because in front of it there arose a real Obstacle.
‘Oh!’ exclaimed Hello? When they had drawn nearer. The Obstacle was impressive and monolithic. Hanging over them with its solemn, gloomy shadow, it looked like a good, high-quality Obstacle, that would be very difficult to overcome.
‘Well,’ Tain said very certainly, ‘this looks like an Obstacle.’
‘I see,’ Hello? replied coldly. ‘If you everything so well this shouldn’t really be a major problem for us , should it?’
‘Sure…’ Tain scratched his head thoughtfully. ‘We need to try and go around it to the left.’ But he hadn’t managed to go more than a few steps when he was rapped on his nose by a fir cone from above.
‘Aha,’ Tain rubbed his nose. ‘That hurts. That wasn’t a joke. It means we need to go to the right.’
But after a couple of steps, in exactly the same manner, the next fir cone let him know in no uncertain way that the direction was wrong.
‘Aha,’ Tain said, already not quite so certainly. ‘I suggest that we crawl under it. And if that doesn’t work, jump over it.’
Hello? Cheered him up with a glance. She terribly wanted to suggest something herself, but nothing would come into her head. Tain Bb lay on his tummy and bravely crawled into the darkness, directly underneath the hanging shadow. First his head disappeared, then his shoulders…soon half of his body moved into the black crack, but with this all movement stopped. You could only hear sobbing and the angry words that Tain addressed to the Obstacle and all its relatives. Hello? Squatted nearby and tried to cheer her friend up in all kinds of different ways, but without success.‘Stop the music!’ Tain’s voice buzzed from under the Obstacle, and he crawled out, breathing heavily and sobbing, covered in dust and sticky spiders’ webs. There was only one thing left – to jump over.
‘Let’s do it together!’ Hello? proposed bravely.
Taking each other’s hand they took a run up and jumped, pushing off sharply just before the Obstacle.
‘A-a-a-ap…’ Tain Bb barely managed to breathe out. An elastic surface, like rubber to the touch, appeared out of nowhere, bent flexibly and gently sent both jumpers back to the soft ground.
Tain came to his senses first. ‘Ba! That was fun!’ he cried excitedly. ‘I feel like a ball.’
And, taking a run up, he jumped again. Then again…and again.
Hello? Nearly died with laughter, seeing Tain tumbling with a completely unruffled face. And when she jumped it was his turn to roll about the ground, holding his tummy.
Soon they fell to the grass, exhausted. But what could they do now? The question, like before, remain unanswered. And their hearts began to gradually fill with worry.
‘Think, Hello?, think!’ whispered Hello?, closing her eyes and trying to concentrate.
Suddenly something buzzed in her head, a thought of some kind tried to skip by unnoticed, but Hello? managed to grab it by the tail and, not allowing it to catch its breath, dragged it to the surface. The thought was extremely unwilling to crawl out, sticking out its arms and legs, but Hello? Was stronger and didn’t let go until she could see all of it clearly.
‘Well, here I am,’ giving up at last, the thought growled and spread its arms: use me before I change my mind.
‘Tain,’ Hello? said quietly, ‘I’ve understood everything.’
‘What, exactly?’ Tain asked indifferently, looking at a cloud obscuring the sun and the wind bending the tops of the trees ever lower.
‘So then. This is the Obstacle, isn’t it?’
‘Do you think?’ Tain said with surprise, not trying to disguise his irony. ‘But it seemed to me…’
‘That means,’ Hello? continued, paying no attention to the ridicule, ‘that we need to overcome it. And how are Obstacles overcome? You either go around them, crawl under them, or jump over them.’
‘Yes, yes! Precisely!’ Tain Bb rejoiced. ‘Listen, well done!’
Hello?, not taking any more, laughed and flicked him on the forehead with mild irritation.
‘That’s enough!’ she said strictly, not at all angry. ‘Is that right or not?’
‘Well, yes!’ Tain said offendedly. ‘I already said so. And we’ve already tried all this.’
‘Not at all! Not at all!’ Hello? cried and started to clap her hands. ‘That is we did try, of course, but we did everything separately. But we need to do everything together.’
‘I don’t understand,’ Tain didn’t understand.
‘Watch and learn, young man,’ Hello? practically bubbled. ‘It should look like a dance.’
She stood determinedly in front of the Obstacle and her eyebrows, which had until recently resembled little house tops, had now turned into flying arrows. Stepping to the left, then to the right, Hello? sat down, touched the ground and, releasing like a spring, flew upwards with a high jump.
‘That really did look like a dance,’ Tain Bb didn’t argue and joined Hello? in repeating all the movements.
They danced long and desperately, and the sweat had already started to flood their eyes, when –
miraculously! – the shadow shook and moved in on itself. Stepping back at first by a millimetre, then a centimetre, it became thinner, and then disappeared altogether.
Stepping into the new niche, the tired but happy friends once more found themselves on the path to the Light Forest.
‘It worked! It worked!’ they cried, beside themselves with joy.
Although Tain was slightly irritated that such a bright idea hadn’t occurred to him, he nonetheless overcame himself and cheerfully pronounced: ‘Well done! What a wonderful idea you had! Give me five!’
With a beautiful gesture, their palms uniting for an instant with a resounding clap, they congratulated each other on their victory.
Tain looked at her with gratitude. He suddenly felt very ashamed by his thoughts. And he suddenly felt like hugging her, so fine and splendid, a true friend. But instead he spat beautifully on the ground and said in a gruff voice, ‘But we need to get going.’
And they moved on. Each thought their own thoughts. Hello? really hoped not only to find and clean her Tarnished Path, but to meet a Beautiful Love. As her grandma has said, in the Light Forest where you can find it. And as for Tain, his thoughts had gone so far that you could no longer see them.
The Guide didn’t draw attention to himself, and indeed there was no need. Ahead, surrounded by the smoke of a soft fog, the Light Forest appeared. It drew nearer with every minute, and, with it, the hope of a quick and successful end to their journey. At the border of the forest the friends stopped. A large piece of material hung right over the road. To the amazement of the travellers it simply hung by itself, without any kind of strings or wires, and the inscription on it read:
WELCOME TO THE LIGHT FOREST
‘So there it is, the entrance to the Light Forest,’ Tain said thoughtfully and went first, enticing Hello? behind him.
The road went deep into the forest, then turned to the right and soon led the travellers out into a deep ravine. At its base they could see a wide and fast-flowing stream. They crossed to the other side via a rope bridge and unexpectedly ended up on a small square, lit by bright sunlight. In the middle of the square there stood a rocking chair, and in it, rocking, there sat a young man.
Our heroes, on entering the Light Forest, were inwardly prepared to encounter the unusual and even expected something of this kind. Although, when it comes down to it, what’s so unusual about a man in an armchair in the middle of a forest? So he took an armchair from his house, stood it in a clearing, sat down and rocked away merrily. And the young man even looked completely normal: trainers, shorts, a T-shirt with the slogan ‘ONE-TWO-THREE’. But what really drew attention to themselves were his eyes. Bright green, it seemed as if they shone from inside. And also his hair: long, thick and shiny, it stuck up like the needles of a hedgehog or even a porcupine.
Drawing closer, Tain and Hello? saw with surprise several apples and pears stuck in the hair of the unusual stranger. ‘He’s probably been walking in the garden and he’s fallen and hit his nut,’ Tain Bb thought automatically, and Hello? tried to touch the hair that was so bizarre.
‘Careful, you’ll prick yourself!’ said the young man sharply, then rocked back and let down his hair in front of the amazed travellers, smoothing his ordinary dark hair.
‘It’s a hat, that’s how I hunt fruit,’ he added and smiled dumbly.
‘So what? Does everyone here go around in those?’ Hello? enquired, coming to herself.
‘No,’ the owner of the useful headgear replied carelessly. ‘Only Dumbheaded Wanderers.’
‘And are there many of them?’
The young man started to think and move his lip[s, bending his fingers one-by-one.
‘No, not many. Only one. That’s me. The Dumbheaded Wanderer,’ the stranger introduced himself. ‘My friends call me Dumb.’
‘It’s a good job it’s not Crumb,’ Tain joked, and they both started to laugh, feeling well disposed towards one another.
‘But what are you doing, Dumb?’ asked Hello?, nourishing the faint hope that Dumb and the Beautiful Love were somehow connected to one another.
‘So that everyone understands,’ said Dumb, ‘I’m something of a local guide here. I meet various people at the border of the Light Forest, and help them as much as I can, because the thing is it’s difficult for them to get here. Each one has their own story,’ he looked at the friends attentively. ‘From these stories I put songs together, gather them into a pile like fallen leaves, and cover them with soil…’
Dumb fell silent, following a large fluffy bumblebee with his gaze.
‘What’s that, a fly acquaintance?’ Hello? asked sarcastically. She hadn’t liked the ideas of covering the songs up. ‘No, it’s definitely not him,’ she thought, ‘and my hero should have a different name!’
‘Ahuh, I know this bumbleboy,’ Dumb confirmed and rose from the armchair.
‘So you’re going to help us?’ Tain Bb asked in any case, not doubting the answer for a second.
‘Yes,’ Dumb said simply. ‘As a matter of fact it’s you I’m waiting for. The Trumpeter-at-Dawn said that you’d be here today.
This was already the second time that Tain had heard about the Trumpeter-at-Dawn.
‘Who is he, this Trumpeter? And how does he know about us?’ Hello? hadn’t calmed down. She didn’t like anything.
‘The Trumpeter knows everything,’ grinned Dumb. ‘Well, shall we go?’
And, without waiting for an answer, he set off forwards into the thickets of a bright-blue bush, where he disappeared momentarily.
‘But what about the armchair?’ Hello? and Tain asked in unison.
‘If you want you can take it with you but hurry!’ an ironic voice announced from amidst the bushes.
Hello? looked questioningly at Tain, who shrugged his shoulders: yeah, I understand, the fellow’s a little strange, but what can we do, we need to go. Leaving their doubts behind, the friends hurried to follow Dumb. Adios.