Artist Ageev lived in a hotel in the northern city, came here to paint fishermen. Over the city, over the blue-brown, clouded with drizzle forests, low, hanging clouds raced from the west, it began to drizzle ten times a day, and the lake rose over the city with a lead wall. In the morning Ageev lay for a long time, smoked on an empty stomach, looked at the sky. Waiting for twelve, when the buffet opened, he went downstairs, took cognac and drank slowly, gradually feeling how good he was, how he loved everyone and everything — life, people, the city and even rain. Then he went out into the street and wandered around the city for two hours. He returned to the hotel and went to bed. And in the evening he again went down to the restaurant - a huge, charming hall, which he almost hated.

So Ageev also spent that day, and the next at two in the afternoon he went to the station to meet Vika. He came ahead of time, went to the buffet from nothing to do, drank and was suddenly frightened of the thought that Vika was coming. He almost did not know her - they only met twice, and when he invited her to come to him to the North, she suddenly agreed. He stepped onto the platform. The train came up. Vika first saw him and called out. She was very good, and in her clothes, in matted hair, in the manner of speaking, there was something elusive of Moscow, from which Ageev was already weaned in the North. "Lucky me for a woman!" Thought Ageev. “I brought you newspapers. You are scolded, you know. ” - “Ah! He said, with deep pleasure. “They didn’t take off the collective farmer?” “No, hanging ...” Vika laughed. “Nobody understands anything, they shout, argue, guys with beards walk in circles ...” - “Did you like it?” Vika shrugged vaguely, and Ageev suddenly got angry. And all day already, as a stranger, he walked next to Vika, yawned, moaned something incomprehensible to her questions, waited on the pier while she was inquiring about the schedule, and in the evening again got drunk and locked herself in her room. The next day, Vika woke Ageev early, forced to wash and get dressed, she packed his backpack. “Just like a wife!” Ageev thought in amazement. But Ageev also didn’t feel better on the ship. After wandering around the iron deck of the lower deck, he perched near the engine room, not far from the sideboard. The buffet finally opened, and Vika immediately approached Ageev: “Do you want a drink, poor one?” Well, go have a drink. " Ageev brought a quarter, bread and cucumbers. After drinking, he felt himself soften in his soul. “Explain what’s wrong with you?” - asked Vika. “Just sad, old woman,” he said quietly. “I guess I'm mediocrity and a fool.” - “Stupid!” - Gently said Vika, laughed and laid his head on his shoulder. And she suddenly became close and dear to him. “You know how lousy it was without you - the rain pours, nowhere to go, you sit in a restaurant drunk, you think ... I'm tired. I was a student, I thought - I would turn everything upside down, I’ll kill everyone with my paintings, I’ll start traveling, I’ll live in the rocks. A sort of, you know, tramp Gauguin ... Three years after graduating from college, and all sorts of scum jealous: oh, glory, oh, Europe knows ... Idiots! What to envy? What am I above each picture ... You won’t get to the exhibition, the commissions are stuck, and it broke through something not the main thing - even worse. Critics! They shout about modernity, but they understand modernity vilely. And how they lie, what demagogy for the right words! When they say “man,” then with a capital letter. And we, who are doing something, we are dudes for them ... Spiritual dudes - here we are! ” “You shouldn’t drink ...” Vika said quietly, looking down pityingly at him. Ageev looked at Vika, grimaced and said: "I'm going to sleep." He began to undress in the cabin, and he felt tears of self-pity and loneliness. His salvation was now in Vick, he knew this. But something in her infuriated him.

The ship approached the island in the evening. The dark multi-hipped church was already visible. A short dawn burned deafly and distantly, and it began to get dark. Vicki had a stubborn and resentful face. When they came very close, a windmill, a beautiful old hut, barns - everything was still, empty, museum. Ageev grinned: “Just for me. So to speak - at the forefront. ” The hotel on the island turned out to be cozy - a stove in the kitchen, three rooms - all empty. The hostess brought the sheets, and smelled good with clean linen. Vika with a happy face fell onto the bed: “This is brilliant! My dear Adam, do you like fried potatoes? ” Ageev went out into the street, slowly went around the church and sat down on the lake. He was lonely. He sat for a long time and heard Vika come out and look for him. He felt sorry for her, but a bitter estrangement, detachment from all descended upon her. He recalled that sick animals are hiding in this way - they hide in the inaccessible wilderness and are treated there with some mysterious grass or die. "Where have you been?" - asked Vika when he returned. Ageev did not answer. They dined in silence and lay down, each on his own bed. The lights went out, but the dream did not go. “Do you know what? “I'll leave,” said Vika, and Ageev felt her hate him. “I’ll leave with the first ship.” You are just selfish. I thought these two days: who are you? Who! And what do you have? And now I know: selfish. You talk about people, about art, and you think about yourself - not about anyone, not about anyone, about yourself ... Why did you call me, why? I know now: to assent to you, to stroke you, yes? Well no, honey, look for another fool. I’m still ashamed of how I ran to the dean’s office, how I lied: Dad is sick ... "-" Shut up, you fool! Ageev said with longing, realizing that it was all over. “And get out of here!” He wanted to cry, as in childhood, but he could not cry for a long time.

The next morning, Ageev took the boat and sailed to a nearby island to the store. I bought a bottle of vodka, a cigarette, a snack. “Great, brother! - called out his local fisherman. - Artist? From the island? And then come to our brigade. We love artists. And we guys have nothing. We will feed you an ear. We have fun, as the girls zagoguchut, so all night. We have fun! ” - “I will definitely come!” - said Ageev joyfully. Ageev returned in complete silence and calm. A rain cloud rose almost black from the east, from the west the sun poured its last light, and everything illuminated by it - the island, the church, the mill - seemed ominously red against the background of the cloud. Far on the horizon a rainbow hung, And Ageev suddenly felt that he wanted to draw.

At the hotel, he saw Vicki's things already packed. Ageev trembled in his soul, but he kept silent and began to lay out cardboard boxes, tubes of paint on windowsills and beds, and sorted out brushes. Vika looked in surprise. Then he got vodka: "Let's drink goodbye?" Vika put down her stack. Her face was trembling. Ageev got up and went to the window ... They came to the pier in the dark. Ageev stomped around Vicki, then walked away, climbed higher to the shore. Suddenly a sigh rushed through the sky - the stars trembled, fluttered. Because of the dumb blackness of the church, diverging in the rays, the faint blue-golden aurora bounced, contracted and swelled. And when it flared up, everything began to glow: water, shore, stones, wet grass. Ageev suddenly felt with his feet and heart how the earth was turning, and on this earth, on an island under an endless sky, he was, and she was leaving him. Eve left Adam. “Have you seen the northern lights?” Is that it, right? ” - asked Vika when he returned to the marina. “I saw it,” Ageev answered and coughed. The ship was moored. “Well, go ahead! - said Ageev and patted her on the shoulder. “Happy!” Vicki's lips trembled. "Goodbye!" She said, and without looking back she went up to the deck ...

Having smoked and stood, went to a warm hotel and Ageev. The northern lights still flashed, but already faintly, and had one color - white.