The collection “Alone with Myself” includes previously published works: “Return”, “An Evening of a Lifetime”, “Ship of Fools”, “Island of Censors”. “Return” The main character returns to his hometown. Arriving, he encounters the past from his youth, which has lived in him all the years. Here he remembers his first love. Meeting his friend changes his life, which forces him to make a choice: “Where are you running? From whom? From her? Push? Admit that this diary, which you cherish and protect so much, which you carry with you everywhere, is not a talisman for good luck. You told yourself that because it’s easier. No. This is something more, this is your standard. You try on every woman to match him, to the feelings that are in him, albeit in youthful language. And you measure your relationships with women by past feelings that you experienced then, twenty years ago, but which you remembered, albeit not clearly. It may be stupid, but you compared everyone to this girl. And not a single one passed the test for matching feelings. “An Evening of a Lifetime” Having gone on vacation, the wife does not return. Left alone, the hero talks about what happened. This evening became the longest in his life, dividing it into “before” and “after”. It features a touching and sometimes painful relationship between a man and a woman. Their unity and confrontation. “The only thing I can try to do is completely disappear from her life and erase her from mine. She was not happy with me in her previous life, at least not recently, although I was happy there. We will now live in a divided world. I will learn to forgive and forget my past, where we were together. Despair, pain. I clenched my fists until my knuckles hurt from powerlessness.” Ship of “fools” They have no names, they only have images (Beggar, Businessman, Housewife and others) that everyone came up with for themselves, starting from their sad past, which they left by the will of circumstances, into their illusory, unknown future, which is the same for them. They see the world as it is, and not as we want to see and make it.” “Well, if you rejoice only with your eyes...” and added, smiling. “A woman should please not only the eye, you are a grown man and it’s time to know this.” We love the tranquility that we create ourselves, But in fact, we love to excite life from the bubbles of meetings and events. Otherwise, we’re bored...” “But common sense creeps into their reasoning. “We have it, but they just have it.” “Island of Censors” The society in which we live is subject to strict censorship and someone decides that a new structure of censors is needed. “I couldn’t do it like you. Let's be objective. I'm not that kind of fighter. I understand that I was offended, but I'm just like most. Oddly enough, it is easier to swallow resentment than to muster the courage to fight. You can reassure yourself that the insult, like a stone, flew past and was not intended for me at all. But this is an imaginary reassurance. Left alone with yourself, you begin to mourn your cowardice.”