Marta and the Blue Tiger by Alla Kudziieva

trench coat and took a long slow whiff.
- I’m gonna run. I’m expected there, you know, - ahead of me. – She sounded rather
wayward.
- Marta, you won’t be able to escape from your own self. No matter how far ahead you run,
you
won’t make a single step away from yourself.
- Here you are again, - and Marta stormed off.
She ran with all her might looking straight ahead. She made the full circle, just as big as the
chain pinned at one end to her wing (which, as we remember, she had instead of her left
arm),
and at the other end to The Blue Tiger’s tail, allowed her.
- Don’t you think you’ve returned to your original place? - the Blue Tiger asked her, putting
the
newspaper away.
- I’m here just to catch my breath
- Well, well… - the Blue Tiger plunged into reading the sports page.
Marta waited for another minute and a half to be noticed and took off at double speed.
After another circle was completed, she collapsed at the base of the blue velvet chair.
The Blue Tiger looked obliquely at her gasping and shaking.
- Don’t you think that the logic of your actions is broken? – he asked.
- It didn’t sink in yet. My head is spinning.
- You were running for the new because you didn’t like the way it was. But you came back to
where you were, to the old.
- True. Absolutely foolish waste of time, - said Marta still a bit out of breath, - But what can I
do? Here I am, - bored again!
- It’s odd. In my opinion, you have concocted such an engaging distraction for yourself –
running
around in circles.
- It’s all because of that stupid chain of yours on my wing. It makes me run from myself yet
after
myself. Besides, the circle is way too impeccable.
- Will you try again?
- No. I’d rather think about what can be done with the chain.
- Isn’t that the very reason you lost your left arm?
And right at this moment, Marta for the first time realized that the chain was pinned to her
wing
just with a gold safety pin.