The Christmas Roses’ Blues

Epigraph

“The best thing to hold onto in life is

- this is each other.”- Audrey Hepburn

Part I Gregory Lewitski: Dreaming of big jackpot from the sky...

Chapter I

Evil without which there is no good...

Tonight, my boots creaking on the snowy pavement, I was walking home from college, live practically in the south, and weather is not very cold actually.

I decided to visit my old friend, Myron “couch potato”…My Best friend! Just for spend some time together…Have a cup of tea and watch a movie. I know Myron for a long time, since childhood. Unfortunately, he is an orphan. Myron lived and was raised by his grandmother. Granny Tonya…He called her...Being a cook, Mrs. Kayla often treated us to fresh baked goods at their home. Someday...Mrs. Kayla died, leaving legacy for my friend.A small apartment in the tower district. Couple blocks away from downtown. During my school years, I spent all weekends with Myron. We played console games on the world-famous Japanese game console. In a winter, the same as now, we are staged a “snow war,” and then we ran wet into the house to dry their things and warm up with cup of tea jam with. This is where this tradition, which is atypical to this day, began: sometimes to meet for some tea.

I walked along a large old vintage staircase, built during the times of the empire, or maybe earlier, snow covered it. My shoes creaked, reminding me of pleasant memories from childhood. I went up to see a friend. From the staircase there was a wonderful view of the clock tower. This is the tallest free-standing clock tower in the city. Its size is 156 incheswide and 315 inches high.

The oak material of door was a little at some points, as it seemed to me, at the threshold and a little above. Apparently, it has already begun to deteriorate a little over time. The door was decorated with a large Christmas wreath. This very old door, standing here still the same from the times of the empire, reluctantly opened, and I entered the house:

“What’s up, bro!”

Frendly I asked.

“Greg Lewitski … Good to see you, dude!”

“Sweet, man!”

I received a sweet response from a friend who was carefully peering at the computer screen.

-I’m reading an article in The Daily Life Gazetteabout a string of mysterious murders at the McCaffery’s burgers co. A serial murderer kills burger restaurant employers...Looks like I’m right…Where there is big money, there is big blood... Nothing changed...

I know a friend of mine, he reads all kinds of “scary movies” in the newspapers and the internet, and then does not believe that you can get rich by simply investing 3 coins somewhere and getting 30 such coins from them. I always believed in miracles and somewhere hoped for a “big jackpot from the sky”

I'm not good in knowledge of economics, politics, laws...

However, I always wanted to enjoy my life…Living in Luxury… This is how people live on TV, on the covers of magazines, music channels and show awards. A lot of people believe that money is evil! Without knowing it, they were quoting Samuel Butler, who in fact said something completely different:

“They say that money is the root of green evil. The same can be said about lack of money.” - Samuel Butler.

Tea time & friendly chill conversation is started...

Myron work online. Worker for orders via phone at a local pizzeria NYC Street Pizza…Taking a breath, sobbing from the warmth of the tea, he unexpectedly uttered one tempting sentence:

“Look…Yesterday the supplier ate all the piehimself and came down...” Would you like to come to us as a delivery person?

From the unexpected proposal, my eyes immediately caught his gaze;

“Are you kidding me, dude?”

“My dream is a big jackpot from the sky!”

I decided to make a joke.

Myron, “drowning” strawberry jam in tea, raised his right eyebrow and said:

“If you're influencing a dying industry, quit quickly before you lose your job.» - Steve Jobs

Are you remember Over the Hedge? Nobody wants to cook, but everyone is waiting for food!

Then, putting the cup on the table, he looked at me, winked and added:

“Request Uncle Arry then, to teach you shoemaker’s business… I will buy you shoes...Perhaps…”

Joking, Chewing Pie, Myron exclaimed

-Alright, Greg! The Best pizza in town!

Showing a fragrant and yummy Pizza Margherita he said.

-WOW! This is pizza from your pizzeria, don’t you!?

I thought with savoring pleasure.

“Let’s keep quiz!”

“I don't even know! Ordered as opposedpizzeria to quality control...”

I made my guess...

“I cooked pie myself!”

“Is it true!? Super! Wow, you're are chef, my boy!”

With your cooking talent, open your own pizzeria...

After ten minutes of tea time we became quiet. In the silence we heard a knocking, grinding... Quite piercing...

“What’s the matter? Uh?”

I asked my friend.

“My neighbor is hitting flies with a bottle. Healways trying to kill at least one.”

“Killer… What kind of method is this?”

With my eyes wide open, I said...

“He is very strange, you know...”

“Closing the curtain at night,” Myron answered.

“Alcoholic, don’t you?”

I asked, grinning.

“Another Freak.”

Myron’s extravagant answer, admittedly, surprised me. But the knocking did not go away, it only increased...

“Looks like, not all flies was killed!”

I said and we laughed...

The tea & pizza party are ended… Really long day, time go home…

As I leave the house, I notice the continuation of the stairs on the top floor. Just in the freak’s room.

It was dark there. The window, looking at me like the sinister eyes of a demon who has closed his eyes and is hiding something, is tightly sealed with black garbage bags and stuffed with sheets of plywood from the inside. However, in one of the cracks, I managed, in addition to his room, to make out the appearance of this neighbor: Gray, thick, long hair on his head and worn with a hump with very small, even squinted eyes, from picking in some old book, or in a notebook, and hitting a glass bottle on the surface nearby, in addition, seeing this “looney tunes”, he was still coughing quite a lot; and I decided not to look any further. Infection can be inside…

A couple of minutes later, when I was already creaking my boots through the snow on my way home, I saw a silver minivan, from which came an image either in a black coat with a hood, or in some kind of robe. What kind of bat is this!? I thought to myself. He unloaded some boxes from the minivan and went with them to the freak’s house. Probably, a local alcoholic request his friends for alcoholicparty... However, first impressions can sometimes be deceiving...

Walk a few streets past dark 24-hour bars and pubs with different crowds: from pubs with guys & girls how like nightlife, to open mics for stand-up artists and bands; movie theaterswith visible burning Addison bulbs on the facade and inside, which are already crowded with fans of big, night movies. Movie posters are brightly framed with flames. The barbershops still offer haircuts and pour whiskey, a coffeehouses like Starbucket asalways at their best, surprising with their coffee masterpieces, which are drunk by journalists and writers who visit while editing their articles on laptops and tablets. Walking the road from Starbucket, after passing a couple more offices, I always follow a leather and shoe workshop, my Uncle Aristarchworks there, he always sees me in his window and greeting me, I go in to play with him on an old TV game console. Sometimes Uncle Arrygives me some money. After another couple of blocks, I went into my mansion. I live in a 3-floor mansion.

It is very old: made of Brownstone - this is a brown sandstone, which was a very popular building style in the mid and late 19th century. Once upon a time, there was an estate on this territory. The year of its construction was 1890. There was even a small terrace here, as a rule, neighbors, sitting on garden swings, solve crossword puzzles and Sudoku. So, to some extent, I am a “low landlord .” you know… I live with my brother; my parents live in a neighboring house a couple of blocks away. My brother and I have a one-room apartment, up the stairs on the 2nd floor. However, my Brother appears here quite rarely now, he lives in another place with a girlfriend.

In the middle of the room there is a fireplace, an old bulky wardrobe and a secretarycupboard. You can call my room is an Old Fashioned… Just Like Old Fashioned Christmas, you know... Previously, this was the mansion's fireplace room with access to the veranda. But then the estate was divided into separate apartments. We have two windows in the room. Just onto the street, into the mansion's courtyard window and panoramic window. At the large panoramic window, which served the landowners as a door to the veranda on the roof. On the nightstand there is a Bluetooth speaker and grandfather’s old gramophone. And also, in memory of Grampa Greg, after whom I was named, in the corner above the bed, a little higher, hangs a whaling weapon. He was whaler... I carefully took off my shoes near the large Persian carpet, walked around the room, and went up to my brother Clemens, today he was at home. He sat in a chair by the fireplace and read something on a tablet of a famous digital brand. He already has an old tablet, an unsupported version of the operating system, and he gets very angry when it long time loading. He sat and directly “growled” at the invalid operations of the gadget:

“Hey, bro! I saw Uncle Arry! Greetings for you!”

I said.

“Hi…Is you complete your hang out!?”

Clemens asked me with envy.

I just winked at him and went to bed…

Waking up in the morning, eating some Krispies by Genial Villes, I went to college. I don’t move by tram or bus, like people in our city, but as successful young people in cities should, I use exclusively electric scooters. It’s always convenient. You must just to knowyour electric scooter’s app balance and when you need to get off the electric scooter. Having approached the educational building and stopped the scooter near a tree, this is where it is parked, judging by the application. Having gone to the entrance, I stopped for a minute to tie a shoelace, when all the notebooks fell out of the bag, I realized that I had folded all the notebooks according to a different schedule... Well, oh well, youth will forgive everything! Having crossed the campus and finding myself in the hall, I looked at myself in the mirror, no, I’m not a poser, I’m much worse...

The building has been renovated: with huge ceilings, very bright! Everyone who studies here basically receives specialties for life: an employee of a cable company, a repairman of household appliances, a

tailor... They teach a lot of things here... I am studying to become an cable guy.

There was already a lesson going on in the office... well, here it is again, this lesson, and I was about half of it late! No, I'd rather work! Studying is not for me... I need to go to the student department and write a statement that I will study by online...

-No, no, enrollment is closed for this program yet, however yes, there is a shortage in this one!

- Said a bald, half-asleep grandfather with a gray mustache, twirling a Rubik's cube in his hands and holding the telephone receiver with his ear, looking at me with his head turned horizontally.

“Hello! I would like to transfer to online education course… Is this possible?”

-I asked timidly

“Hey,kid...Everything is possible here! This is a college of opportunity! Surely You read this in the promotional certificate for applicants...”

Hanging up the phone and starting to type something into the computer, the employee answered...

“Take it... Form №10, fill it out and wait for a message to your phone number about the transfer to online courses...”

The employee responded after a moment.

“I can’t fill the form. Question about my job! Hoverer, I have no job. I only study here...”

- I asked the question

“Well, get a job or go to class, or do whatever you want... I'm told you… Is a college of opportunity!”

The old man continued, dialing the number again on the phone on the table.

Having rant a new innovation wheels from the application on my smartphone, I went home to look for work! I’m flew happy, like a bird because I knew that everything would work out!

Running quickly up the stairs to the 2nd floor of mansion and lay down under the still warm blanket, I began searching classifieds online:

“Security officers are required for the territory of a private research complex. Salaries are high, shift work. High sports skills, shooting skills, survival in harsh conditions, stress resistance, readiness to work with the most capricious boss, communication skills with ladies. ”

Well, no...no..no...

“NYC Street Pizza deliver. Work on foot. Logistics skills to any point in the city on foot and without a car in an hour, until the client’s pizza has cooled down; if it has cooled down, it serves as a salary for the shift.”

Not again... It's following me everywhere...

“Furniture delivery company of Helena Povuk. You will work too hard, men. The work is dusty, one of our workers wears a gas mask. You can wear it too... We moved your uncle's dusty couch - 70% is company’s cut, 30% isyours cut with dusty couch..."

Well...NEVER…!!!

While scrolling through the advertisements, my phone just fell on my forehead, and I fell asleep again like a sweet student's nights sweet dream...