The Fog of the Past

The cartoon "Hedgehog in the Fog" was playing on TV.

— Well, what about Hedgehog and Little Bear!??? A kind woman, Aunt Lisa, ruffled two little heads, one belonging to a boy of about seven and the second to a girl about three years younger, sitting side by side in front of the TV screen.

Since then, they were for each other, Hedgehog and Little Bear)))

They were the most famous pair in this orphanage. They were always together, always searched for each other if they suddenly got lost in different classes, and waited for each other, and worried about each other if they were apart. They were always together, Hedgehog and her Little Bear, Little Bear and his Hedgehog.

— I will find you

Hedgehog!!! He shouted, trying not to fall behind the car carrying his love away to another life. -I will find you…

Aunt Lisa sighed heavily, looking at the boy who had changed since his little friend was taken away — My goodness!!!? It's been half a year, and he still acts as if he's swallowed his tongue…

The woman to whom these words were addressed also sighed heavily, just like her interlocutor.

The plane was landing, the sun-drenched and azure Bali was approaching, but before his eyes were her eyes…

— Mom, look!!! The girl sitting three rows ahead of Vlad shouted cheerfully and, jumping onto her seat, stretched her little hands upward, showing something to her mother.

IT WAS HER!!!!!!!! HIS LITTLE HEDGEHOG.

Vlad shook his head, dispelling the vision. How long ago was that??? He had searched for her after leaving the orphanage. Made inquiries at agencies. Involved people who did searches online. But it was all fruitless… She seemed to have vanished.

— Lena, sit down!!!

Sun-kissed hair, earrings with a large diamond, bright manicure on well-groomed hands trying to seat the girl.

— Lenochka!!? Well, Hedgehog.. — His heart tightened. Why Hedgehog? What the …..?

She shuddered.. Or rather, what was inside her shuddered.. In her eyes. In her gaze. — Mom! Mom! Mom!!! - The girl tugged the hand of the beautiful blonde woman frozen in the middle of the plane, trying to get her attention. And their gazes intertwined with the warmth of that spring when they had parted…

— The plane has landed on the shores of sunny Bali, our crew wishes……

— Well, what's wrong, dear!? We've landed!???) — Vlad's wife kissed her husband on the cheek. -I thought our daddy was brave?

— And another tender kiss.

— Dad, let's go, we need to go swimming already..- the younger of the sons shook his father's hand, and Vlad came to his senses. The hotel was luxurious. Pools. Palm trees. Sun loungers. Cleanliness and bright joy of life everywhere, the sun caressing the skin. But Vlad was not here…

— I will find you Hedgehog…! — A cut hand, in despair breaking the game console given by those who took her away.. The pain of loss throughout his life until he met the one who became his wife..

She looked back again as she got into the waiting car. Their eyes met again, and her stunned smile remained in his memory, the hand covered in tattoos — the hand of the one who, putting his arm around her, led her to the car — and the rising, memory-devouring langoliers, the car's tinted windows… He took only a step, merging once more with that boy who ran after that car, when he was pulled back and a familiar but distant-sounding voice returned him to reality -Come to your senses already!!!

And he felt ashamed… Ashamed before his family. Ashamed that, simply seeing this mirage, he had forgotten about his loved ones, his children, his wife.

But there was also something else… Something that he knew now would not let him go…

The guy pushed Milana.

Milana, holding back tears welling in her eyes, gathered the textbooks scattered on the floor. — Next time…- the guy didn't get to finish. Vlad, like an enraged dog, immediately grabbed the high school student, and they crashed to the floor..

Vlad's eyes were open, the dream he had just had again disturbed his soul. He lay and looked at the ceiling, as if those memories that had washed over him again were now being projected before him on a movie projector, and they, swirling under the vaults of the ceiling drowned in darkness, filled him.

That fight reminded everyone again of who they were to each other, and that day they had their first kiss, the kiss of a girl and a boy, she was eleven, he was thirteen. Six months later she was taken away…

— Well then I'll go alone! As you wish! You'll sleep through everything….,

Vlad approached the guy waving brochures -That woman, who was just here.. What did she want, what did she need??? — Woman! Woman! Oh, yes a beautiful Woman!!! — The guy spoke Russian quite well -Woman, this is a buggy.. She to island. Island love..

— Where have you been wandering, dear?- His wife yawned. In the afternoon, they usually rested, but today Vlad suddenly wanted to take a walk, and he went outside the hotel. She was there!!!…

— Then I'll go alone!!! — He was sure it wasn't his imagination.. She saw him. And she was deliberately speaking loudly to him about her plans for tomorrow.

He didn't think about what he would tell his family about going alone to some island tomorrow morning.. He didn't want to think about it. He knew only one thing, he had found his Milana, and tomorrow..

— Come to me! His wife flirtatiously batted her eyelashes inviting Vlad.. — You are my hero..- his wife gratefully touched his shoulder with her lips. -You know how to satisfy a woman!!! How I love you!!!!

And what about tomorrow??? He had found her.. And what about tomorrow???….. And did she need him??? And was she even talking to him?????

But in the morning he sailed on that guy's boat across the calm waters of the Indian Ocean alone, without his family, into the unknown…

-Little Bear!??? — It was her voice!!! This voice came when he had already stopped thinking about her, when he realized he was mistaken. Was it his Hedgehog? Was it her??? Had she ever even been in his life???

— I was waiting for you…

Her hands rested on his shoulders. Yes, these were her hands!!! He didn't see her, didn't see the one who placed them on his shoulders, he stood with his back to that bright flash of his past born from this voice…

But he knew it was her!!! The one he had searched for all his life. Searched for in life. Searched for in dreams. Searched for in memories!!!— Hedgehog…- They looked into each other's eyes without looking away. The ocean was reflected in her eyes. An ocean of love! An ocean of happiness! An ocean of warmth!!!

Cool, tender lips lost their shape, taking the shape of other lips, but these were his lips, and the other became one whole.. Their lips merged.

— I always waited for you..- Words, with a light breath touching his cheek, flew into his heart like sparks of happiness. — I loved you!!! — His fingers sank into the gold of her hair. Then their eyes spoke!!!….

Vlad lifted his Milu into his arms. — What you need is behind you!.. — She immediately corrected herself -What we need!!! — And again their eyes!!! Two pairs of eyes, and between them twenty years of life… The sun illuminated the two of them. These two loved each other. These two made love. Their love, asleep for years, burst out with moans of happiness, and the walls of the dilapidated building on the southern continent, shot through with sun through the reed straw, absorbed their loss, pain, longing, releasing into freedom like white albatrosses, two hearts spreading their wings…

Vlad entered her as soon as she opened to him. Powerfully. Piercing his love through with his fire of passion, love, desire, mixed with years of resentment, longing, pain accumulated in his soul.. Milana shuddered under his thrusts, biting her lips in a fit of happiness, embracing her Little Bear with her arms, afraid to let him go, afraid to lose him again.

The fire ignited her from within. Vlad's strong flesh lifted her up. Up to where they swirled in a dance like white birds. And then Vlad calmed down… And the rhythm of their love calmed. Now they were together.. They moved in sync with each other, caressing each other, lulling each other, and when the time came she understood him, and her lips whispered the word that reunited them again -You can…

Vlad pressed his groin into Milana's pubis and shot thick seed into the depths of the woman he had loved all his life, pouring himself into his girl, he shuddered with his hips, squeezing the maddening body in his embrace. And she answered with a cry. First weak… a cry hidden in a moan, then open, unleashed with full force, but given to him alone and only him. A cry of recognition, gratitude, happiness!!!

The plane carried his Hedgehog away, flying over him in the blue skies. He was losing her again, but Little Bear knew it couldn't be any other way now, and knew that someday they would meet again in their fog…..