“Mrs.
Shirley!”
“Do you know that horrible feeling?
The sound and shape of an insect passed by me, I remember them clearly.
Everything is stuck in my mind, every word people said, every look!
Ah!”
Shirley screamed as she sat up, holding her hair.
Scarlett shrunk, then carefully sat down in front of her, looking at her face: “How long ago did this start?”
Shirley raised her trembling head and asked: “Do you believe in me?”
“Yes, I went through something similar.”
“What?”
“Not to the same degree as you, but… I suddenly remembered things I didn’t remember.”
Shirley blinked her eyes, then approached Scarlett's face: “Really?”
“Yes”
Scarlett nodded, and Shirley looked confused.
Shirley seemed to have regained some calm, despite the madness still shining in her eyes.
Talking to her was a relative success.
“Come on, let's go get your stuff,” Scarlett said.
“How long ago did this start with you?”
Shirley grabbed her shoulders as she tried to get up, and a surprised Scarlett replied: “Since last year...”
“Summer?”
“Early winter.”
“It started with me in the summer.”
Shirley shook her head strangely and said, “I went to the police station.”
“Police station?”
“Yes.
I ran away from a restaurant without paying, and I was arrested.
I stayed there for about a month.”
"I don't remember that time.
Then suddenly, I started remembering everything except those days.
Everything clearly!"
Scarlett froze, then asked: “Did you go to a place like the Royal Police?”
“I don’t know...but I was at the capital police station.”
Scarlett's face flashed with joy and fear: “I understand.”
“Do you know anything?”
“Not necessarily, but...”
"Tell me anything, save me!
I can't live like this!"
Scarlett's shoulder trembled under Shirley's insistence, and she said: “I went to the Royal Police, and then I lost my memory for a week.”
Shirley suddenly hugged Scarlett: “Someone who believes me…”
Scarlett felt embarrassed by her trembling voice, but she patted herf on the back.
Shirley seemed more settled after meeting someone who understood her.
Shirley asked: “Do you have any wine?”
Scarlett hesitated, then a hand appeared extending a flask.
It was Andrey.
Shirley took it and drank it in one go.
Andre scolded Scarlett: “Didn’t you say you wouldn’t cause trouble?”
"I did not!"
“Going to a dysfunctional person is a problem.”
Scarlett motioned for him to be silent, but Andrei ignored her.
Shirley returned the flask: “Thanks for the wine, that’s enough.”
Andrei laughed when he saw the bottle was empty.
Shirley seemed more balanced after drinking: “Thanks, I haven’t heard the buzz in a while.”
She looked at her miserable condition and said, “I have to take a shower.”
“The people we came with are boiling water now.”
Scarlett thought and said: “Do you have an address to send the items?”
“Are you going to send wine?”
“You can't live like this, but I won't send too much.”
Andrei looked at her in surprise.
Scarlett wrote down the address, and Shirley agreed to pick up the items across the hall.
As they were leaving, Andrei said: “I didn’t expect you would send wine.”
“I know what it feels like to want to be quiet, even if just for a moment.”
Andrey nodded.
Later, Scarlett sent booze to Shirley, who would reply with short messages about her symptoms, sometimes noting that the booze was helping her remember the events of the police station.
During that period, Scarlett was shuttling between Salantir Engineering College and the watch shop.
As the snow began to fall, the college froze.
In the lecture hall, Scarlett was moving her fingers inside the gloves to avoid freezing.
Even Professor Gustav wore a fur hat and thick gloves, looking like someone taking bread out of the oven.
Scarlett's research room was relatively warm thanks to the stove, but without a heater, she covered herf with a blanket and stuck to the stove.
While carving wood to make an airplane model, her eyes were half closed from lack of sleep.
I suddenly woke up to a burning smell.
Her long hair was burning in the stove.
I screamed and put out the fire with the blanket.
Students, including Christine Rosher and Bill Klinkers, ran up: "Scarlett!
What happened?"
“Have you found an insect in this harsh land?
If so, catch it alive.
We may need it for food if supplies are late.”
Scarlett showed off her burnt hair: “Not that, I was taking a nap and my hair burned.”
“Is that it?”
"only?"
They reacted as if burning hair was a trivial matter, which reflects their habituation to harsh conditions.
Scarlett got up: “This can't go on.”
“Why?”
She hurried to the telephone, the most luxurious instrument in the college, hand-made by the students.
“Are you really going to use the phone?” student Pavel McSwerry asked nervously.
"Yes."
“Every 5 seconds costs a coin, i.e. 12 apples!”
The coin was worth 12 apples, which are rare here.
Scarlett picked up the phone, thinking she had to hang up in 5 seconds.
“—Domfelt Mansion,” replied Wilkins, the servant.
“Wilkins, this is Scarlett.
If Victor is home, tell him I will use the villa.”
“-Okay”
Wilkins continued in a slow tone: “Master is here now, I will give you a lift.”
“No, no need...”
Before you continue, he puts on the phone.
Scarlett sighed.
“It's been 30 seconds…” Pavel said anxiously.
Scarlett hung up the call a minute ago.
“144 apples disappeared…” Pavel said.
Scarlett bit her nail, and then the phone rang.
She quickly replied: “Victor?”
“- Connection lost”
“While I was waiting for you, 144 apples disappeared.”
“-Apples?”
“Every 5 seconds costs 12 apples...
I will try again, the cost is rising.”
“Just talk, I don’t know how much the phone costs.”
She felt upset because her ex-husband is rich.
She continued, "This is not the time for this talk.
I will take the students and professor of the engineering department to the villa.
It is very cold here."
“You don’t need my permission, use it as you want.”
“There will be a lot less food, everyone is losing their minds in front of food.”
“-So, instead of calling, you should have bought 144 apples.”
“I disconnected”
Scarlett hung up.
She turned to see the students acting strangely from the stress of her long call: "Scarlett's going bankrupt...
I'll do something, Scarlett!
Even if it's my poor work!"
“Should I l my hair?”
Scarlett shook her head and pointed to the door proudly: “Come on.”
“Where to?”
“South”
The students' heads tilted in astonishment.