Marta and the Blue Tiger by Alla Kudziieva

Martha and The Blue Tiger have already been living together for a year. It was an absolutely
comfortable and harmonious relationship. The Blue Tiger felt absolutely independent - a
must have condition of existence in his mind. And Martha was at ease all the year and that
allowed her to breathe. On the very first day Martha moved in, Tiger pinned a silver chain to
her wing (which, as we remember, she has instead of her left arm), the other end of which
was attached to his tail. Sometimes, when he was in a state of pensiveness, distinctly
incontent, his tail, in a feline manner, would nervously flick from side to side and drag
Martha along with it. But this usually did not last long, barely enough for Martha to come
back from her imaginary world, just to pet behind the Blue Tiger’s ear, and it was a
nonchalant, quite sleepy movement.
On Tuesday, at about two in the morning, Martha was asleep stretched out on the sofa, and
The Blue Tiger was reading Woody Allen, monotonously stroking her toes. When he finished
reading one of the letters, he grabbed Martha off the sofa and placed her beside him. Martha
grudgingly declared that she had no intention of waking up, but The Blue Tiger explained the
importance of his reasons and read the letter to Martha out loud. Have finished listening,
Martha opened her eyes and asked for a few minutes to reflect.
- Are you saying that cynicism of the generation has reached its limit, and thus deprived the
ability to feel another person? - Still dwelling on her thought, Martha asked an annotative
question
- Exactly. It's obvious. Look, the level of intimacy with a person is determined by how often
his name is mentioned in the newsfeed. The definition of lying derives from the number of
reposts. And the volume of the scream for psychological help corresponds to the number of
likes. No one remembers any longer how important it is to read out loud.
- Absolutely true. But then don't be so categorically cynical either, the invention of such
insensitive systems has also brought its benefits. Of course, such inventors that can still think
are few, but they are there. Take FaceTime, for example! You remember my friend from
Paris, don’t you?! We haven't seen each other for years, we've already passed the stage of
"once a year we talk and still have something to talk about", it's already awkward to even
talk, to the point we forgot about each other, yet seeing a familiar face, distorted by the
screen, you just feel a bust of energy. Of course, it's not the same when you can touch the
person, but still. It's helpful for maintaining our dependency on human emotions.
The Blue Tiger took off his pince-nez and looked more closely at still sleepy but already quite
belligerent Marta.
- And what about your scientific work about the possibility of a pure pleasure of solitude? -
he asked a bit skeptically.
- I've come to the conclusion that it takes up a lot of space and has considerable weight. And
if this buzz is not exchanged, it goes stale and gets in the way of development. It is an
important accumulative process.
- What kind of tests did you use when you developed this theory?