each of them. Then the rings began to reflect the light all over their hands and fingers.
“These rings are a gift that you will soon have great need of." And with that the Wise Old Man invited them to sit down at the table. The sisters took a place - each equipped with a keyboard and buttons. The Wise Old Man pressed some buttons and the walls in the room came to life. One scene from their childhood after another began to flicker before them. All the events played out on a pink and light orange background.
As very small girls the two sisters were running to meet their parents whose arms were wide open in a ready embrace. And there were their mother and father taking them on their first day at school, then music and sport lessons and then finally to the institute. All their holidays flashed past one after the other like a fairy tale. And even the difficulties and trials that they faced all seemed to pass off on a positive note. The main thing was how their mother had taught them to make a correct assessment of anything that happened. Like in gymnastics – to choose the right spot in order to make that leap more graceful, or to put yourselves in the shoes of the heroine in order to play a part in a play or how to solve a difficult problem.
But now the rosy background began to fade and the golden rays seemed to disappear somewhere although the girls' weddings had only just been playing on the screens. Natalie and Sophia were as full of enthusiasm as ever. Michael was born or "Mishunya" as he was tenderly christened by everyone. For his family the first year of his life was spent in the pleasant task of looking after him.
Initially, no-one seemed to notice that the colour surrounding their lives had begun to change into a greyish or simply grey hue. And only when the sisters met up together did the background return to a tender light lilac colour.
At that moment the Wise Old Man pressed a button, pausing the action.
“Now each of you will watch separately.”
“Yes, with the exception of those times when we met.” Natalie rushed to answer.
And at that moment Sophia left with her family for Bulgaria to her husband’s homeland. Later the images again began to flash from all sides. Natalie could see her life and Sophia hers. The further the sisters’ fortunes moved from one of life’s blows to another the darker and darker their faces became. And finally they arrived at Sophia's Sofia apartment where they were both sitting in the hall.
The Wise Old Man stopped the film at this point. Both sisters remained silent for a long time. Then Natalie said with difficulty:
“How can this have been? How could I have not seen all this? Now I really am in shock.”
"And so am I,” added Sophia sadly.
“Why don’t we help you? We will lift the veil, so to speak, and help you sort out what happened. We will start our story back when you were studying at the institute.” And with that the Wise Old Man pressed several buttons simultaneously like an experienced pianist. “Each of you will get your reward for your work,” the Wise Old Man managed to say as the pictures began to flicker into life again.
At that time everyone had had a warning dream. Sophia was sitting with her legs crossed on a sofa in the hall preparing for her end of term exams. She was all on her own in the house. Sophia read and read and seemingly began to doze. The sun was shining brightly through the window, the weather was wonderful and there was nothing to suggest any threat in the offing. But then, with a hiss, a fireball shot through the open balcony door. Sophia gripped the sofa in fright not making a move. The terrible ball of fire bounced around the corners of the room, rolled up to the sofa, stood there for a second, (to Sophia it seemed like an eternity), and then jumped out again through the open door. Sophia immediately opened her eyes and ran to find Mama. She had gone for a walk nearby with the baby, Michael.
“You will face a great danger, but you will overcome everything," was how Mama explained the dream.
Meanwhile Natalie had had a dream that an enormous snake had been crawling around their apartment.
But Mama had an even worse dream: That she was on the edge of a precipice a little bit further away was Natalie and next to her were some unknown people. Then suddenly someone pushed her into the precipice as she hurtled downwards an Angel helped saying:
“Spin as fast as you can and your landing will be a soft one.”
Mama has always joked that she’s been in a spin ever since.
“After this, the events will be shown selectively like on the internet. You have all the buttons that you need in front of you. You should act as you see fit. If you need any further explanations press the red button and don’t be afraid of anything," said the Wise Old Man encouragingly.
Natalie and Sophia alternately watched events from their lives. How Sophia left with her family to Bulgaria and how Natalie stayed with her family at their parents. Of course Sophia should not have gone, Michael was still weak after his illness and she herself needed to get her strength back in the comfortable conditions that her parents could provide. Therefore the decision to go had been premature. But when Sophia pressed the red button it became clear that she, Mama and Papa had all been extremely frightened and had thought that it would be better for her to go. Nevertheless, a great deal of wonderful energy had been expended for nothing.
However, with Natalie, on the contrary, it would have been better if she and her family had lived independently away from her parents. It had been wrong for her to live in the shelter and protection of her nearest and dearest and not to solve her own problems. And how much positive energy had gone up in smoke as a result of that decision! Admittedly, Mama is convinced to this day, that the family home with its positive energy was nevertheless vital for Natalie.
Things only got worse for baby Michael in his new surroundings and Sophia had to overcome yet more difficult trials. Things weren‘t all plain sailing for Ben as a baby either, he had come down with a nasty bout of bronchitis and in order to stop his choking fits, Mama and Natalie set off for Bulgaria with Ben. And the journey ended up being one mishap after another. They had been kicked off the train at the border in the middle of winter with a small baby. The winter… The cold… The station… What were they to do? Thankfully, a driver was found who could take them to the city, where Sophia was living, for a small sum. But the address turned out to be incorrectly written down. They ended up having to ask the police the way. And thankfully they were helpful. But what a lot of bother!!!
The three of them had to go through so many scrapes that it was as if they had just had to pass through enemy territory.
Michael and Ben grew. The sisters would go to see each other with enviable regularity. But then they were confronted with new misfortunes: quickly and unexpectedly father literally died in Mama’s arms. Despite understanding full well about life and death, Mama couldn’t reconcile herself with the loss of her husband. But one night he came to her in a dream. Papa calmly explained to her that he had not died but was simply in another place and that he was extremely proud of Mama and his two daughters. And finally he added:
“Look after them - they have a lot of trials to face."
“After that what misfortunes wormed their way into our family, like that snake in Natalie’s dream,” thought Mama with terror.
Mama sought advice from her own mother, who was so worried about her children and grandchildren.
“What should she do?” She kept asking her mother.
“You know there is a very good piece of folk wisdom regarding this: God is older than man.”
Thus it is to God that one should also turn for help. And this was the vein that everyone, even the little children, worked towards. And, of course, everyone made their "small" contribution to the family.
However, unfortunately the misfortunes only continued. And Mama, Natalie and Sophia suffered a great deal. Grandmother died worrying greatly about her great-grandchildren right up to the end. As the priest put it at her funeral, she had evidently go
ne over and above the call of duty on this earth.
But the family continued to battle for life and asserted itself despite all the difficulties and trials it was going through. The sisters tried to keep in close contact with each other in spite of all the difficulties that each of them was facing in their own families. Sophia was suffering as a result of being so far from home and Natalie was suffering as a result of being too close. But then the Wise Old Man pressed the red button and all the real reasons for these sufferings became clear.
“Natalie, in your family there is an envoy of that dark project. I think that you noticed it earlier but you didn’t want to believe it. The time has come to close that black hole through which all the misfortunes found their way into your family… but everything in its own time… For now you can continue the viewing." Natalie quickly pressed the button to carry on watching confidentially so that no-one else could see. Even now when everything was clear she remained closed and secretive.
And now there appeared the scene when Natalie breezily informed Mama that:
“I can’t carry on like this anymore, something has to be decided.”
And the next day one of her girlfriends came to visit and said:
“Oh Natalie, I've just been to this amazing woman and she literally opened my eyes to