Вадим Иванович Кучеренко
The Strait of Death
The old man began to grunt, sniff and turned in his chair as if he tried to get up. But he was soon exhausted and fell back on the pillow again. His illness was called aging, and uncle Egor had no strength to fight with it. But he refused to give up and often repeated: "Once I go to see one more – then I’ll lower my sails for good." But he was the only one who still believed in it. Having spent most of the time at sea he never got a chance to start a family. As he would sometime say: “I am married to the sea, but it can’t give me children”. However, there was one girl who he used to like, but she wouldn’t wait for him and got married to a longshoreman. The profession is not as romantic as a sailor, but it’s more appropriate for a family life. Uncle Egor never blamed her because of that.
He lived out his final years alone in an old house with a view of the sea on which he had spent almost all of his savings. And the money he had left was just enough not to starve. It was enough for him. Since uncle Egor “brought a ship to anchor” his life lost any meaning. He was in his final days, and if it were not for the cherished dream of sailing one more time, he won’t survive even a week on a shore. Sometimes he was visited by friends from the ship, but yet, less and less often. A distant relative occasionally came to help him to do household work. It could have been a granddaughter of that girl who refused to marry him but who still cared for him and told her descendants to take care of him. Uncle Egor had little knowledge of this and he didn’t want to find out more about this. This was his only connection to the bigger world.
Anton listened to uncle Egor all this time, without interrupting him. He knew that when he leaves, the uncle would fall back into his memories of the past. But he took advantage of a short pause and asked:
– Uncle Egor, what do you know about the Strait of Death?
– Everything, – the old man suddenly got encouraged and was now all ears. – What do you want to know about it?
– Was there ever a ship that managed to pass through it during the season of autumn storms?
– No, – uncle Egor said confidently. – Not a single one. Never. In all my life – and I, boy, have lived at least three times more than you – I have not heard from anyone about this. All of them were dragged to the bottom. Whether by themselves, or by some unknown force, I really don't know. And nobody knows. It's just that the ship suddenly loses its buoyancy, and that's it. Even the wreckage of the shipwreck would never found later. One thing I will tell you – it is beyond human understanding.
