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[Alexandr Korol]

Here’s something interesting and totally unrelated. Imagine this paradox: on January 13, I just put on a kind, feel-good movie quietly in the background, just for myself to have a good atmosphere before sleep, because I didn’t want to fall asleep watching a series. So I turned on “Big Daddy” with Adam Sandler, because I really like his movies, and I basically fell asleep without really watching it — just for the kind vibe. Then, on February 14, I watched “Fly Away Home,” about Canada geese — those same geese also came to Karelia near me — and how they help them migrate south alongside a plane. When that movie ended, I needed something else for background while I did some tasks, and guess what popped up first? So I played “We Bought a Zoo,” again with animals, really nice, right? After that, I thought, okay, maybe I’ll watch “Curly Sue” next, but then I changed my mind and instead turned on “Sleepless in Seattle.” And then suddenly it hit me — you know why? Because the system arranged it, but I don’t really know what it wants from me or what it’s hinting at. You know what’s striking about these films, what gave me goosebumps? In every one of them, a child has lost their mother, and it’s the father who raises the child. They show the bond between father and child. Imagine, in “Big Daddy” with Adam Sandler, the boy’s mother died, and it’s an adult man who raises him. Then in “Fly Away Home,” a girl’s mother died, and she gets this wild dad who’s kind of like me — paragliding, acting crazy, making sculptures in a garage. Then “We Bought a Zoo,” again, the mother’s gone and the father takes care of the kids. Then “Curly Sue,” I skimmed it, but later remembered I wanted to watch it because it also features a main character with a girl and no mother. And then I turn on “Sleepless in Seattle,” and there’s Tom Hanks with a kid, and the mother is gone again. Can you imagine? This just doesn’t happen by accident. Remember I said signs are when it’s 10 out of 10? This is 10 out of 10. It can’t be coincidence that the system we live in highlights this so clearly that I’m thinking, “Whoa, what do you want from me?” I just don’t understand what it wants from me. Maybe this is something personal, maybe it shouldn’t even be part of the book “Alternative History,” but since I try to record everything and maybe it will be useful later, I decided to fix this moment. I don’t even know what to think. What is this hint about? I don’t know. Were they trying to show that all these children are capricious, and that a caring father finds a way to communicate