GHOSTLY HILLS

When journalists came up to Nikolai Rinovsky for an interview, his hands would tremble. He looked at them, stroked his front teeth with his tongue and said nothing.

Nobody had a clue why one of the most famous acrobats of the southern capital had never given a single interview. Rumors said that Nikolai Rinovsky could not understand the southern language or was actually born mute. Some people thought he was simply stupid. But despite all that, journalists kept approaching him with their questions.

One day though, between his performances, he answered a couple of questions for the guy whose microphone was covered with an orange cap.

“How do you manage to do such difficult tricks and not sweat?” the journalist asked.

”I cried a lot when I was a child,” Nikolai answered, his hands trembling like tree leaves in the wind.

“Is it true that you are not afraid of death, like a crocodile, and always perform without a safety rope?” the journalist continued, staring at Nikolai’s hands.

“No, I am not afraid of death. Because death is a dream where we don’t have a sense of smell, but see ghostly hills.”

“What hills?” the journalist wondered.

“The ghostly ones,” answered Nikolai and left for the stage.

After the first trick, his hands slipped from the rope, he fell on the ground, broke his neck and died instantly.