Chapter 12

A very fatigued cyclist rode down the road. He was barely alive, suffocating. Suddently, he fell off his bicycle. I rushed to pick it up but couldn’t do much else. He was wheezing and rolling his eyes.

“I’m dying, I’m dying on my job,” the cyclist whispered. “I cannot fulfill this terrible task. Please tell all of the school children that the death of the cheerful racer lies on the conscience of Viktor Perestukin. Let them avenge me…”

“Untrue!” I snapped back. “I never attempted to kill you. I don’t even know you!”

“Ah! So, it’s you! Perestukin?!” exclaimed the cyclist and got up. “Well, dimwit, go ahead and solve the problem correctly! Otherwise, I will make you do it by force!”

He shoved the problem statement in my hands. While I was reading the problem, he constantly grumbled:

“Figure it out! Solve it! You’ll learn what it means when you subtract meters from people. You’re making cyclists pedal at a hundred miles per hour.”

Of course, at first, I really gave it an honest effort. I tried to solve the problem. I reasoned as best as I could, but nothing seemed to work. In all honesty, I really didn’t like the fact that the cyclist was so rude to me. Usually, people ask for help, but to force someone to help is another thing entirely. And, in general, it’s very hard to think, when someone is stomping their feet right next to you and scolding you up and down. I couldn’t even hear myself think with the cyclist’s vicious chatter. I got a little tired of thinking through the problem. Of course, it was necessary to pull myself together, but apparently my will wasn’t as developed as I had originally thought.

I threw the problem statement back at him and said:

“The problem isn’t working out.”

“Oh, it isn’t ‘working out’, eh?!” growled the cyclist. “Then you are going to sit right where the tailor was sitting! You will sit there and think, until the problem ‘works itself out’.”

I really didn’t want to go to jail. I started running away, with the cyclist close behind me. Kuzya jumped onto the roof of the prison and from there called the cyclist every single bad cat name he could possibly think of. He compared him to the fiercest dogs that he had ever met. Naturally, the cyclist would have caught up with me, if not for the cat. Kuzya threw himself off the roof and right under the cyclist’s feet. The cyclist fell down. I didn’t wait for him to get up, grabbed his bike, and started pedaling down the road.

Kuzya and the cyclist disappeared from view. I biked for a little bit more. I had to wait for Kuzya and find our ball. In all of the confusion, I completely forgot to check where it was. I threw the bicycle into the bushes, turned into the forest, and sat down under a tree to rest. Once it gets dark, I decided, I’ll go look for my cat. It was very warm and quiet. I quickly fell asleep, while leaning against the tree. When I opened my eyes, I saw an old woman standing next to me, leaning on her cane. She was wearing a short blue skirt and a white blouse. Beautiful white nylon bows were tightly wrapped around her gray pigtails. Every girl in my class wore these bows. But what surprised me the most was the red scout handkerchief tied around her wrinkled neck.

“Grandmother, why are you wearing a scout tie?” I asked.

“Because I am one,” she answered in an old woman’s voice. “And you, boy… what grade are you in?”

“I’m in fourth grade.”

“And I’m in fourth grade… Oh, my legs hurt like crazy! I have walked many thousands of kilometers. Today, I finally get to meet my brother. He’s walking in this direction to meet me.”

“Why did it take you so long?”

“Oh, it’s quite a long and sad story!” the old woman sighed and sat down next to me. “One boy was solving a problem. A brother and a sister came out to meet each other from two neighboring villages, twelve kilometers apart…”

My stomach twisted into a knot. I immediately knew that nothing good would come from her story. The old woman continued:

“The boy decided that they would meet in exactly sixty years. We obeyed this stupid, evil, wrong solution. And we walked. We got tired, old… and yet we still walked.”

She would have probably complained about her journey for a very long time, had an old man not come out from behind the bushes. He was wearing shorts, a white blouse, and a red tie.

“Hello, sister,” the old man mumbled.

The old woman kissed the old man on the cheek. They looked at each other and wept. I felt very sorry for them. I took the problem statement from the old woman and, just as I was about to solve it, she sighed and shook her head. She told me that only Viktor Perestukin would be able to solve the problem. I had to admit that I was Perestukin. Although looking back, I wish I didn’t!

“Now, you will follow us,” the old man said sternly.

“I can’t, my mom would be worried about me,” I argued.

“Did our mother let us leave home without permission for sixty years?”

I had to climb a tree and try to solve the problem there, so that the old people didn’t bother me. It was a very simple problem, nothing like the one about the bicyclist. I solved it rather quickly.

“You should have met each other within two hours!” I shouted from above.

The pair immediately turned into children and they were overjoyed. I got down from the tree to celebrate with them. We held hands, danced, and sang:

We aren’t old, but young again!

We aren’t old, but kids again!

After a solution, we won’t need to walk!

We are free to run, just not against the clock!

The brother and sister waved goodbye to me and left.