Vague dreams have rolled. Varied reminiscences have waked. Until he fell again into the misty shroud of another oblivion.

Hallucinations started to pursue him more often day after day. Speech disorders became habitual for those around him, while behavior – more and more unpredictable.

Past ceased to exist for him once upon memory had started to fade. He did not feel attachment to things and people around him anymore. However, gramophone with old records still remained with him, as well as mp-3 player with headphones and couple of disks. Music accompanied him throughout his life and its presence could not fail him so fast. Need for a sound was natural for him. Just as need for food or sleep.

From souvenirs to more souvenirs I live.

With dreams you left behind

I`ll keep on turning in my mind…

 

– refrain from the song of Demis Roussos sounded in his mind.

 

…. Roulades of chords, lyric melody, words – …and an image, distant but dear. Black-haired girl with blue expressive eyes. Dance teacher in Madras Academy of Arts. An avatar of grace and elegance herself. Feelings and associations were awakening in him chord after chord.

There`ll never be another you,

No one will share the worlds we knew.

And now the loneliness has come

To take your place…

I close my eyes -…

 

He closed his eyes.

 

– and see your face…

 

Her face, character and nature appeared before him. Awoken just by this song, she namelessly existed in his mind. Cheerful, radiant, warm-hearted. Where was she now?

“… And now the loneliness has come”, – another verse sang in headphones of his player. Demis Roussos, life from souvenir to souvenir.

 

She was somewhere in the past. Her hair, with aroma of coffee and nutmeg, her deep velvety voice…. Voice. Silence.

The song has finished. Inner monologue ended abruptly. Reminiscences dissolved.

He was alone again. Memory of relatives and associates left him along with sounds, melting in the space. Let`s simply name him Solo – as now he existed apart of entire world. Music was the only connecting line between his past and present. The stream of familiar sounds revived him like the water.

 

…Liora was sitting near the ward. Hair, black like a charcoal, hanged down on her shoulders. Doctor came to the girl.

– How is he, Mr Stanley? – she asked, looking attentively at the doctor. Her blue eyes, moistened by tears, were bright.

– Well, it`s an extremely sorry state…. Alzheimer`s syndrome – but the illness takes a somewhat strange course. He is still too young. Moreover, you say, constant intellectual activity… sound-engineer, knew three languages. It`s nothing but strange.

– Can I help you, doctor?

– Memory recollections may occur when the patient sees relatives.

– Then I go to him!

– He has just taken the medicine…, I am not sure…

 

Liora did not hear the doctor`s last reply – she resolutely made towards the ward.

Slight smile enlivened Solo`s face at the sight of Liora.

– Kris, hi! That`s me.

Solo just smiled and looked over Liora as if saw her at first time. Keeping her tears in, she tried to look positive and cheerful. Just as before. Hoping that at least her image could awake a gleam of memory in him.

– Kris, are you hearing me? Honey, that`s me, Liora!

-Oh…good afternoon. Are you also doctor? What do you need? I haven`t completed yet. I…I`m…still working, – Solo grabbed a sheet of paper and began to write something ramblingly, numbering each word.

Liora ran out of the room, incapable to see what was going on.

Tears were burning on her face again. Mr Stanley attempted to soothe the girl.

– We shouldn’t lose the hope.

– He forgot me!

– We still have time, – said the doctor and took a seat near Liora. – There were no signs of total dementia[1] being observed yet. The degenerative brain processes of Alzheimer`s disease are usually seen during visual inspection of hemispheres. But we haven`t microscopically discovered any atrophy of the neural tissue by now. The brain of Kris is in amazingly nice condition! We supposed there was penetrance[2], but that`s also impossible according to genetic analysis.

– Just tell me, will he live anymore? Does he remember anything?

Liora piercingly glanced at the doctor.

–    Listen, the science is sometimes under a delusion. Though I shouldn`t tell you this as a doctor. What happens to Kris – is extremely strange. I won`t unalterably call it Alzheimer`s disease.

–    Then what is the reason of his amnesia? It could not happen that simply.

Doctor did not reply.

“He knew too much, – flashed by in Liora`s mind. – He could have gained an access to something… was so busy with that mystery these days!” The shudder quivered her body. She harshly leaned on the wall.

– Are you ok? – doctor cautiously looked at Liora. – I will bring you some tea.

 

…Voices were wafted to Solo. Bustle… It does not care him. Doctors flickered before him. Just like flies.

His bony hand stretches toward gramophone. He begged in ravings to bring him this gramophone from home. His old dear chap. And music-records of 20-s – 50-s. The rest is to remember how to turn them on. Seems like in this way… Yesss, just a little bit more effort… Ye-a-h…..

Jazz resounded in the room.

“What a Wonderful World”, Louis Armstrong…

I see skies of blue,

And clouds of white,

The bright blessed day,

The dark sacred night

And I think to myself,

What a wonderful world.

 

Armstrong`s baritone suddenly makes him hear the wash and remember the place where he had once lived. On the shore of Cyprus. Island`s sceneries flash in his mind: «skies of blue», burly clouds, sunset, dawn, and sounds of birds. He feels good and serene. Song motives continue triggering associations.

 

The color of the rainbow,

So pretty in the sky

Are also on the faces,

Of people going by

I see friends shaking hands,

Saying, “How do you do?”

They`re really sayin’: “I love you”.

 

He joyfully feels how wonderful is the world around. He senses this beautiful and eternal mystery of being.

Now Solo stands on the seashore and speaks with unusual looking person. He is extrasensory man from Australia, as far as Solo remembers.

– This island was a heritage of Atlantis, – he tells him, and Solo guesses something… Maybe THIS was left by extraterrestrials? Numbers start gleaming in his mind.

– And what do you think about…

And I think to myself,

What a wonderful world…

 

The world that disappears. The memories that are mercilessly erased.

Misty foggy existence replaces bright iridescent reality, left in past. Silence and Emptiness come after colorful SOUND.

Who is he now? Where is he? What this so called world really is? All around is unknown to him. …Something flickers before his eyes.

 

Next composition began to sound – Black and White Rag, sharp and filigree polished notes were played. Merry rhythms filled up an empty, stuffy space of the ward. An insight enlightened his mind again. First notes, like reminiscences, referred his thoughts to certain moments of the life.

 

…A nurse raised a noise, demanding to turn the music off.

Honky-tonk piano sounds reached Liora, too. A cup of bergamot tea, brought by doctor Stanley, was steaming in her hands.

Suddenly revived, she put the cup with tea aside. “Lipton” may wait for a while.

– It was one of his favorites… Black and White Rag – legendary Winifred Atwell playing, – she uttered to the doctor.

– Immediately turn it off! – insisted the nurse. – It is not as prescribed!

But Liora rushed into the ward again and asked to remain everything as it was. She saw how Kris was sitting on the bed, his eyes closed, moving in tact with music. His thoughts were flying in one stream with piano sounds – virtuoso performance of Atwell charged him with energy.

-He says something, – Liora drank in babble words of “Kris’ with bated breath.

 

…Here are the papers, lying in front of him. He does calculations, writes certain symbols. Mysterious and enigmatic. He hopes to decipher them.

– How is it going, Kris? – Mr Stanley entered the ward. – I think, this black-and-white-rag is obviously undesirable for him now.

Mr Stanley stopped the gramophone`s record.

The nurse inhaled with relief.

-At last! Thank you, Sir. Otherwise, they make normal people go crazy with such music.

– Don`t exaggerate, Fatima. – calmed her down the doctor. – After all, we are in British

Hospital here. We should be in course of cutting-edge treatments, however untraditional they would seem. Music is splendid, but everything is good in measure.

 

Mr Stanley approached to the patient. Liora touched Solo`s palm. It was hot.

– Ragtime has heated him…

– Anecphoria[3] gets back in him again, – scientifically concluded doctor. – So what, Kris, what will you say? Where do you live? Remember?

– I live…am…in Canada? Right? Yes…, – as if recalling something, drawled the patient. – Toronto!

– Oh, not again, – pronounced Liora, doomed.

– Remember, we are on Cyprus, Kris, – calmly and friendly said the doctor as if talked not with an adult but with a child. – We`re in Kyrenia`s British Hospital. Do you remember me?

– He`s in the stage of early dementia, – whispered the doctor to Liora, – Forgetfulness indicates the weakening long-term memory. Apparently, he remembers nothing about exceptional events of his past life and hardly recalls names and surnames of friends.

– Turn it on, doctor Stens, – pleadingly pronounced Solo. – Would you be so kind…. And a glass of water, please, – he said, addressing to the nurse.

– Well done, – replied doctor Stanley. – You`re making us feel happy. Continue in the same way, just don`t be silent.

Liora looked at Solo with loving glare.

– Oh yes, doctor, – said Solo suddenly. – I need, you know, I need…Piazzola. That time I was with one extrasensory person. There, on a shore. He advised me to talk to Astor. He said, you know, maybe it was sent by extraterrestrials, was their plan. Well, you see what I mean, the destructions of biosphere and….

– Yeah-yeah, calm down, – with a previous sense of empathy, but without former enthusiasm replied the doctor.

– What are you talking about, Kris? –asked Liora, puzzled. – Extraterrestrials?!

– Don`t take it seriously. These are just confabulations. Lapses of memory fill up with imaginary storylines, which sometimes have odd nature.

Solo looked at doctor attentively:

– But they can do away with me, please understand it, – he sighed deeply. – I need Piaz…How do they call him? Piz…Pizza, I need pizza. Astor…– Astra…Austria. Yes, Austrian Pizza!

– Sir…, – the nurse passed a glass of water to the doctor.

– Fatima, order us a pizza from IBelli, – the doctor charged his assistant with new task and addressed to Solo again. – Now everything will be fine. Well done: you remember your favorite dish!

– Doctor, he isn`t hungry, – objected Liora, throwing a glance of compassion on Solo. – We need to turn on Piazzola`s Liber Tango. It`s one of his favorite compositions.

– Are you sure he doesn`t want pizza? – asked Mr Stanley.

– Pizza, turn me on, give freedom…Freedom and will, – uttered Solo. His voice sounded now more pressingly than before.

– You see…, – said the doctor. But Liora has already taken her mobile phone and was searching Piazolla`s musical composition in the Internet.

– So should I call or not?! – here exclaimed the nurse in irritation. She has been already holding the receiver in her hand.

– I`m at a loss…, –said doctor Stanley perplexedly, leaving the patient on Liora`s charge. – Well, call on, Fatima. Then order one pizza for me. With no salami, though. And extra salad.

Doctor made his exit from the ward. Soon the room was left by the nurse, too. The phone speakers resounded with Liber Tango of Astor Piazzola – musical masterpiece of 1973. Tango of Freedom – freedom of will and feelings. Passionate violin may have reproduced the love drama, or expressed spiritual peripetia. But not for Solo. This Tango meant something different for him. It was his inspirational music. Every time he listened to its first minutes disposing himself to calculations and computer work.

Again, reminiscences started to stream like waves, one after another, covering each other in billows. Impetuously, distinctly, “a-la-crescendo”.

 

Solo sits by his office desk – the wash is wafted. He is near the shore: air, imbrued with salt, sand and iodine, flies into the room through widely opened windows. Packs of papers with few sketches of spacecraft are in front of him. He has seen this ship somewhere before, depicted it from life.

Certain mathematic calculations… What do they signify? He doesn`t remember. Memories leak from his attention…. Another flash goes – he recalls that solved the mystery, found certain code. He can decipher the message, coming from the spacecraft, which he found in…

Mountains. Valley. Ferry conifers and deserted greening vales. Warm and dry wind, co-whispering bushes. The cave with mysterious entrance and columns, ruined. He goes inside…And sees…

Darkness.

Mantle of oblivion enveloped him again – tango of freedom has finished. Sickness gripped him back in a vice. His head fell on pillow in exhaustion.

 

– Interstellar… – he whispered, and his eyes briskly widened up, staring at Liora.– I found the sms. From Other ones.

– And what was written there, Kris? – cautiously asked Liora, stroking his hand.

– Forbidden. The future. Fire. Destroy. – He mumbled incoherent words like in dream.

– You have temperature, Kris. – Liora touched his forehead, which got a bit of sweat. – Oh my God, we need some cooling medicine. Wait… – Liora pressed the red emergency button near the bed.

– I`m aware. Won`t say. Forbidden. – continued Kris.

Nurse crammed the thermometer under his arm pit.

– Feverous poor devil. Jabbers just guess what, – grumbled Fatima. – I will bring Aricept^[4].

– Where is this sms, Kris? – asked Liora, still holding on with hope.

– Shelf. Rainbow circle. –said Solo distinctly. – Leaves of trees.

 

Nurse returned and stuffed the pill into patient`s mouth. She forced him to swallow it with water. He resisted, but not for a long time. To their peace and order.

 

Liora quitted the hospital and went to her district by taxi. It was already dark. Fresh air blew on her face. Starry sky was serene and enigmatic.

– Ancient shamans supposed it was a tent, while stars – the holes, through which the light of higher spheres gleams onto us…, – she thought randomly. – Before people believed in it – now this just sounds romantic. And why this light cannot heal Kris!? Why on Earth he`s deserved such condition? Aren`t you almighty, Universe?!!

 

Twinkling of the stars and languid light of the Moon accompanied Liora on her way home. She delved into her own thoughts.

– Extraterrestrials… I believe you, Kris. I know it was a truth. It would be a “confabulation” to suppose that they do not exist! – and Liora grinned for the first time this day.

It was stifling and cold at home. Liora switched on the light and directed to office of Kris. Room was more than just a sound-engineer`s office. Books of esoteric knowledge, about lost civilizations and UFO were on the bookshelves. Beautiful gramophone stood on small table – he liked sitting nearby in a cozy armchair, listening to the music in the evenings. The second gramophone, smaller one, was now with him in the ward.

Everlasting coffee aroma hovered in the room – he preferred it brewed strongly, with a bit of cardamom. This odor penetrated tulle, plaid and the very air.

Computer with professional speakers, piles of CD-s were on the table. Liora opened the shelf. There was sheaf of papers with certain notes. One disk was wrapped into the sheet– he always did it like this, when there were no CD-packs free.

Second shelf was empty. The third one – keys from the car, pair of pens. Nothing more. But he was telling… – “rainbow circle”? “Leaves of trees”?

No doubts.

Liora opened the first shelf again and took out the CD with papers.

– Rainbow circle – the disc, trees – paper, – flashed in her mind.

Everything took its place. The rest was to understand what he meant by “extraterrestrials”. As Liora got it from the scientific “lectures” of the doctor, patients with dementia often replaced forgotten words by unusual. That`s why their speech did not always sound clear.

Liora switched the computer on and inserted a disk. Media Player started a track.

——***—–***—–

– What`s the matter? – bewilderment stroke Liora. Instead of normal sounds and articulated speech, incomprehensible waves filled up the room. Of different keys, sounding very strange, not earthly. As if it was an interstellar interference with barely heard, murmuring….voices of…

– Ex-..tra..-terr..-..rrestr-..ials….

In a horror Liora pressed STOP and looked back. It seemed like there was someone in the room.

She turned on the table lamp and tried to soothe herself, switching attention to the notes that were in the shelf. Liora recognized handwriting of “Kris”:

1. The program of Earth biosphere liquidation by means of sound effect lies in foundation of our capture-plan (pronounced in record`s first minute). With a help of sound, named hereinafter Sound Wars (see 01.10 min), the army plans to widen scope of control. (01.15)
2. Sound weapon as method of destruction and global coercion has not been tested enough (03.00). In this connection, there is an urgent need to collect corresponding information about this science of remote influence (03.15).

(03.19) Following….

Here Solo`s notes were interrupted.

Now Liora understood what Kris was occupied with before his illness. He told about initiation into certain mystery. Thus, he could have been able to decipher this sound record. But where did he find it?

And what did this all mean? Why did his notes suddenly cut short? As if someone has torn the string of his thoughts, which were so logically and smoothly expressed on the paper before. All of a sudden, has stopped his conscious flow….

– Sound. Sound on the CD, – kept running in her mind. – Written minute by minute. And all of a sudden…. That means there is something, at certain point. In this record. – Liora opened the window and swallowed of fresh air. She felt suffocated and terrified in this room. Again, that strange feeling stroke – as though someone was reading her thoughts…. Here it was – the fateful minute! – 03.19 – certain sound commenced in this CD-record. Sound that erased…MEMORY! Everything whirled round before Liora`s eyes. She was breathless with thoughts and emotions. Words of doctor Stanley kept flowing in her mind – all these scientific terms. Confabulation, Penetrance. Dementia. Now the reason for all these stupid words was clear. The disk itself carried destroying force. Sound wave of certain frequency and pitch erased memory of Kris. Forced him to forget almost everything. And to start sounding like a “Solo’ – lonely in entire Universe.

 

Liora grabbed the sheet of paper from the table.

– Мusic helps him. Makes reminiscences come back. Poison and its antidote – the same in their essence, which is… sound.

Liora instantly took the disk out of the rom.

Now Liora understood what Kris was occupied with before his illness. He told about initiation into certain mystery. Thus, he could have been able to decipher this sound record. But where did he find it?

Delved into ruminations, Liora came to herself when heard a rustle. The wind widely opened the window and something flew into the room. A sheet of paper. Liora ran through the text.

«Bring the disc to appointed place. You have 2 hours. Otherwise, these 2 hours will be the last for Him. Hotel Nostalgia, Çafer Paşa Street, 22, Кyrenia».

Heart of Liora started to beat stronger. Door slammed in a draught.

Coldness and quiver penetrated the body. Anxiety impeded concentration. Still experiencing affection, she had no idea from what to start.

It was 4.05 on the clock. …One hour is left and… – “oh my, one… and how much?”, – question flashed in Liora`s consciousness. Less than two hours….

There was neither time, nor the wish to think over the doubtfulness of this note, brought by the wind.

She grabbed the disk, took car keys from the shelf and ran out of the room.

To go – as quick as possible. By her car – to ancient part of the town, directly to that hotel, without losing a second.

 

Alarm-clock rang at 5 o`clock. Solo woke up. Someone had switched the radio on.

Piece of classical music resounded, which was not linked with his inner feelings. Neither was it in the list of his “favorites”. He did not choose that one. And wouldn`t ask to turn it on. Nonetheless, creation was remarkable. Chef-d’oeuvre of the world music, a motive, recognized from the first notes:

 

Pa-ba-ba-baaam, duh-duh-duh-duuhhh….

 

With agitation and grandeur. Augmenting and disclosing. Foreboding something. Like a Fate, knocking at the door and solemnly crossing the threshold –

 

Suddenly, Solo felt how something tightened his chest. Pulse became more rapid. Sounds got into his ears and pressed down by their wave. It was 5.30 on the clock.

 

Liora rushed into the hotel and ran to reception desk – they directed her to the living room.

She was in grip of deep emotion on the threshold of the meeting and had almost no time left.

Two people were there – both in long black coats, with masks on their faces. Liora flinched and handed disk in. Palms of unknown person were in gloves. He did not utter a word. Assistant of Incognito was sitting on the sofa, the hood of the coat covered his head.

She made an effort and forced herself to squeeze a couple of words. Thoughts about Kris gave her power.

– Just let him stay alive. You promised. Return him the memory.

Incognito pronounced something on an unknown language. It resembled the voice from the record.

– Promise is kept, – he replied, addressing to Liora.

– Will he live? Are you promising? Sure?

No answer followed. There was no need in such. Driven out by mysterious force, Liora hastily left the hotel, running away.

 

 

05.59.

Solo could not stand it anymore. Pressure of the sound was just about to flatten him all out. He dashed to the window and opened it. There was no one in the ward. Nurse was still sleeping. And radio sounded as if only for him.

 

Solo climbed up on the window-sill.

Morning cool refreshed him. His “solo” sounded anxiously and extremely lonely. He could not hear himself anymore and was away from this reality as much as never before.

He was unaware of his actions, had no control over them.

The wind sprang up onto his face.

A kind of bitterness pushed him forward, into this abyss. He sighed deeply —

 

 

06.00

— Yawning abyss of the death collapsed just before his face in a twinkling of an eye. He stopped, seizing the window-frame. Sun appeared on horizon, and the first rays of the dawn enlightened the sky.

From nowhere did ANOTHER music streamed. Radio fell silent. Solo shrank back from the window, as if awakening from delusion. He heard an unearthly amazing music, which seemed to be bestowed from above. It poured on him, harmonizing each and every cell of his body with its key.

Sun grew in momentum signifying for him the victory of life and love.

Shafts of light became more and more vivid, tickling and dazzling his face.

Sounds in “forte” streamed with “allegro” of the Light ultimately becoming the One.

Gleaming music enlivened something new in his heart, which was full of joy and love. He was reborn. For new impressions.

 

Recollections of the past returned to him. Just something alike phantasmagoric knowledge disappeared in his memory. Not traumatizing his consciousness any more.

As for enchanting music of spheres…, it continued to sound in his soul. Like a symphony of life, love and benevolence. Like Symphony of Light.

 

 

[1] Total, complete weak-mindedness

[2] Indicator, characterizing the probability of the development of pathology when there is defective gene.

[3] Inability to reproduce information, retrieving it from memory.

[4] Medicine prescribed to patients with Alzheimer`s disease.