By Olena Protsyuk

Kyiv breathes with love on the eve of Saint Valentine. Ukraine breathes with love. Shops, supermarkets, interchange stations are hung round with read hearts. I went in a bus, alongside I saw two pairs of happy eyes of someone falling in love. My soul got warm and sunny. I was listening radio then, a song was about love. I have looked away and all around has vanished, else my ideas. And ideas have been flashing across my mind, I saw some past days.

I’ve seen a naive girl on some Friday, the 13th. She went then in her father’s car and her aunt was sitting close to her, she has been joking: “Maybe, you will go. He lives next door, so he will take you home tonight”.
 
At that moment, her heart got awoken, and the door of the car opened. Somehow, her cheeks reddened and she walked anxious, like she was going to pass some test. The same teenagers were gathering there, near a country club, soft music was heard. And indeed, he waited for her. Her red dress flew while she danced. That evening he saw nobody else but her, the same as I’ve been seeing nobody today, February the 13rd, inside that overcrowded Kiev’s bus.
 
Her aunt’s words were right: he walked with her to the door, and from now on her life changed. How many films were seen, novels were read, but she felt it at first. She hanged clothes in a dark room and got to bed. Eyes shinhing with love were wide shut that night. Like today, when I went in that bus, but I’ve seen nothing. February, the 13th, the day when your heart awakes. You have only to listen to your heart. Possibly, your eyes finally will be opened…