Tomcat Tale by Valery Petrovskiy

Tomcat Tale Short Story Collection

Tomcat Tale – Short Story Collection A project developed by Nazar Look Attitude and Culture Journal of Crimean Tatars in Romania www.nazar-look.com

Tomcat Tale Short Story Collection

by Valery Petrovskiy

Editura StudIS, IaĹ&#x;i, 2013

Editura StudIS adicenter@yahoo.com Iasi, Sos. Stefan cel Mare, nr.5 Tel./fax: 0232 – 217.754

Descrierea CIP a Bibliotecii Naţionale a României PETROVSKIY, VALERY Tomcat Tale, Short Story Collection / Antologie de naraţiuni / Valery Petrovskiy. Vatra Dornei : StudIS, 2013 ISBN 9786066244398

© Copyright 2013, Valery Petrovskiy, Tomcat Tale ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.

ISBN-13: 9786066244398 ISBN-10: 6066244396 BISAC: Literary Collections / General Illustration and cover design: Elif Abdul Cover photograph: © Galina Barskaya, http://www.dreamstime.com

Consilier editorial: Dranca Adrian Secretar editorial: Moroşanu Paul Pre-press, tipar digital şi finisare: S.C. ADI CENTER SRL Şos. Ştefan ce Mare, nr. 5 Tel.: 217 754

Copyright © 2013 Toate drepturile asupra acestei ediţii sunt rezervate autorului

Valery Petrovskiy

Photo: Alex Nasekin

chuvash republic, russia

Valery Petrovskiy chuvash republic, russia http://www.proza.ru/avtor/valerka

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Tomcat Tale Tomcat Tale

Tomcat Tale

Snowflakes

flight is alike Tomcat

purring, lulling they affect the same way. In a moon night Tomcat purring in or snowflakes whirl out is like the same.

In a day light snowflakes don’t draw much attention; they remind one of office girls that hurry to a bus stop in the morning. They nudge each other in hurly-burly and brush their eyelashes against men troubling them. Women eyelashes are alike snowflakes then, they go up and down while snowflakes float but round. Afterwards the snow is lying underfoot in a lacy coverlet. I don’t dare to march on the just fallen snow, it seems blasphemous. One is not to

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Valery Petrovskiy chuvash republic, russia

step on a white tablecloth, and I’m waiting for anybody to tread a hasty chain of footsteps.

Thus I follow Tomcat, extremely patient when needed. But it happen Tomcat to carve a way for me in a winter morning, he teaches me to overstep the limits, my grey brother Tomcat. He is running leisurely against me, and he never would stop and rub his furry neck against my leg. He is my brother, that’s enough. Every morning he hurries to me drawing a fresh pass. One never knows which side he crops up next. Only his traces display me my daily course.

Tomcat neglects ladies. But they attract me, unknown creatures in a cloud of snowfall, vanishing in wreaths of perfume. Ladies leave a trail of scent long like Tomcat’s tail when he is marching against me to pass the door. I am holding back my door every morning when we meet.

I open him the door; it’s just a trifle to me, and Tomcat reveals me a day pass. I never tread upon his track on the snow, and never cross it. I walk along the rosary of his pace and always get to an open spot. It seems to me,

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Tomcat Tale

Tomcat is an astronaut descending to the ground and starting with a scratch his beaded pace to my door. I can imagine Tomcat to advance on the snow in night twilight, he knows his way and I don’t.

I had watched his trace after a sudden shower in summer. People left wet prints and Tomcat left a dry track on a wet pavement. I watched it after every rain, so Tomcat strikes me even more. Не is my brother and I can leave bare traces as well, I believe. But I never glance back at my traces, particularly when in a downpour.

And I don’t pay notice at women in rain, only in a snowfall. * * *

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Valery Petrovskiy chuvash republic, russia

100 Meters of Gorky Street

Four,

five, six… In the morning I was putting lumps of sugar into my cup

of tea. The snow white sugar melted in hot black tea. My little brother was not able to count yet but he knew already that more sugar made tea sweeter. To look grown up he was putting as much sugar as I did. Then the sugar dissolved completely as if there wasn’t any. And it vanished quickly out of a pack cost one ruble six. In the evening Mammy found out that there was no sugar for the breakfast. My brother and I were sent for sugar to the food shop along the Gorky Street.

“100 meters of the Gorky Street”- a piece of such reporting we were to put down when studied in Moscow.

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Tomcat Tale The Moon from the Other Side of the Earth

The Moon from the Other Side of the Earth

That

year was not a success to me. A leap

year, yet it meant something in my

life. And I lived it through to some reason. What for, I wonder? What did I comprehend? And what surprised me?

I was surprised to contact a fantastic girl in Brazil, an actual top model. She put down in her questionnaire that was indifferent to sex and preferred female in general. I did prefer women myself and it affected me then, I don’t know why.

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Her name was Nicolle. I had to examine her, to prove that I’m a male. Well, just try and do it if she lived in San-Paolo. Do you know the city?

So I wondered in Internet if she could recall a snow smell on Christmas Eve. I asked her how the Moon looked on the other side of the planet. I had to know that to some reason. And she answered me, I don’t know why. Then I made up my mind to win her, to make her never forget a man.

And there she had been enjoying in a cocoa warm sea in Brazil. And there she had fun with black people hot like coffee in morning. And she never looked up into the sky, light blue like empty jars at my dacha in autumn. So, what was I to do in order she felt miserable without me and yielded to me at once? How would you act? You do not know, do you? Neither did I. But I wrote to her about Russian sky stuffed with clouds, long and deep a sky, ever blue. I told her how the clouds drifted around driven by wind and never float away.

And they can’t drift away – so great Russia is! And I said her about a little girl run after the clouds above. And that she

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wanted to follow them up to the horizon. And then she fell down and burst to tears because nobody could ever overtake the clouds in the sky.

And Nicolle fell into tears like a little one, as if she pressed herself to me. And she asked me not to let her go.

And she begged me to write more from Russia, where the sky was native to her, where folks wept when were going to relatives via Moscow.

Very likely, that’s all what I learned that year, a leap year, I say. Nothing to add, perhaps‌ P.S. Well, I wonder if she has read Coelho there, in Brazil. * * *

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Valery Petrovskiy acknowledgements

Tomcat Tale acknowledgements

1. Tomcat Tale - First published in “Apocrypha and Abstractions”, August 2011.

2. 100 Meters of Gorky Street - First published in “Marco Polo” Literary Magazine, September 2011.

3. Next Day Was Spas - First published in “Marco Polo” Literary Magazine, September 2011.

4. Pioneers’ Bonfire - First published at “Marco Polo” Literary Magazine, September 2011.

5. Kiddy Rat, or Thumbelina Cartoon - First published in “The Scrambler, February 2011.

6. These Old Boots of Mine - First published in “PRIME MINCER”, August 2011.

7. Three Cups of Family Coffee Set - First published in “The Other Room”, Spring 2011.

8. The Last One - First published in “Marco Polo, September 2011.

9. Thingamajig - First published in NAP Magazine, March 2011.

10. To the Blue on New Year Eve - First published in “BRICKrhetoric”, February 2011.

11. Russian Tale - First published in The Literary Burlesque, Spring 2011.

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12. Last of Blossom - First published in “DANSE MACABRE” Issue 50, Spring 2011 13. Cloudberries - First published in Going Down Swinging, June 2011.

14. Lucid Story - First published in Widowmoon Press, May 2011.

15. Lust Night - First published in Skive, June 2011.

16. Farewell to Sophia - First published in Blinlking Cursor, Spring 2012.

17. Subscriber is Not Available - First published in Curbside Quotidian, May 2011.

18. Folly, or Do You Follow Me - First publishe in Hack Writers, January 2013.

19. Bees’ Garden of Eden - First published in RYGA Journal, Issue 4, Winter 2012.

20. Do You Know Moldavian - First published in RYGA Journal, Issue 4, Winter 2012.

21. Dogs’ Night - First published in The Yareah Magazine, Spring 2012.

22. Citric Acid for Borsch - First published in Atticus Review, September 2011.

23. The Moon from the Other Side of the Earth - First published in Rusty Typer, February 2011.

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Valery Petrovskiy table of contents

Tomcat Tale table of contents

Tomcat Tale ....................................................................6 100 Meters of Gorky Street................................................9 Next Day Was Spas ........................................................ 14 Pioneers’ Bonfire ............................................................ 18 Kiddy Rat, or Thumbelina Cartoon.................................... 23 These Old Boots of Mine ................................................. 28 Three Cups of Family Coffee Set ...................................... 32 The Last One................................................................. 37 Thingamajig .................................................................. 42 To the Blue on New Year Eve .......................................... 46 Russian Tale.................................................................. 50 Last of Blossom.............................................................. 56 Cloudberries .................................................................. 61 Lucid Story .................................................................... 66 Lust Night ..................................................................... 70 Farewell to Sophia.......................................................... 74 Subscriber is Not Available .............................................. 79 Folly, or Do You Follow Me .............................................. 84 Bees’ Garden of Eden ..................................................... 88 Do You Know Moldavian ................................................. 93

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Dogs’ Night ................................................................... 97 Citric Acid for Borsch.....................................................102 The Moon from the Other Side of the Earth .....................106 acknowledgements......................................................... 109

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