Ilya Falkovsky
TWENTY-SIXTH
We hurried to the switch. We rushed in
P-town, the famous gay town on the Cape
Cape Cod, at a hundred and ten miles
95th road. I don't know how this was possible
our broken down Buick Regal
'81, but I must say that
I already felt bad. All
we spent the day on the ocean - we rode
surfing, I swallowed salt water,
terribly burned. I even threw up and
Now I was suffering from stomach pain, from
unbearable itching all over the body, skin
burned so much that for the first time in my life I believed
into hellish frying pans. I got chills -
apparently the temperature rose, and then
Shura offered to smoke. Shura - although in
in general, he was no Shura, but
a Mexican named Alexander, but we
they called him Shura, we met him
at night in the crazy pub "Saiko Mongo",
there I usually drank dark draft beer,
the pitcher cost nine dollars, and wasted
money in the pool, party - ten cents, like
usually; then the four of us lived with him
in one room in the East Village, this
slum area of semi-bohemians and hippies
youth, so Shura took out pieces of paper from
Dutch tobacco and rolled two
roll-your-own cigarettes. “Tonics,” smiling,
he said. We smoked in a circle, I was blissfully
smiled, sucking in deeply
sweet smoke. Jamaican weed - potion
gods. Indeed, I felt a little
feel better, somehow the pain has gone awaybecame dull, and it was then that Shura sharply
turned the steering wheel to the right and pressed the brakes. I
I didn't even feel it, I just heard it
blow, the roof turned out to be so soft that
the head easily passed through, as if through
velor upholstered chair cushion, in the eyes
it got dark, sideways, sideways we flew forward,
Iron grinded, cutting the asphalt...
I woke up from Alik’s words. "Get out,
come on," he whispered somehow weakly, he was
almost outside, or rather, outside
was the back of his body, and
with his hands he clumsily pushed away from
seats, raking wide, as if studying
swim, his whole face was covered in blood, and his glasses
disappeared somewhere, disappeared along with
pieces of leather. Alik was a Jew, son
emigrants from Russia, he did not yet know
women, he studied physics, a lot,
he worked constantly, during these two days of travel he
got me terribly with vulgar jokes about
boom, he only talked about them, and now
he said quietly: “It feels like after
sex," - although how does he know, asshole
sort of like what happens after sex. I crawled out
from the car and, I must say, discovered that
I'm even better than before the blow, that's all
circled around a little at an easy pace
waltz Shura was already standing on the road and smoking
your stinking Dutch tobacco, nervously
taking a drag. "Blame, you, bitch, bully, you,
bitch, I did this,” Alik and I said
in chorus. “Raccoon,” Shura explained. "Raccoon? When
Why is there a raccoon here?" - we were surprised. "Raccoon"
a raccoon was crossing the road, I saw him in
lightheadlights and turned right." "Raccoon? No, no
there was no raccoon there," we said
again in chorus, we were both sitting in the back, but both
looked ahead at the road and didn’t see
no raccoon. "You're an asshole, Shura, not here
no raccoons, and there can't be where they came from
take it," we assured. But he insisted on
in his own way, this bastard is stoned, and he
I imagined a raccoon, but we miraculously survived
alive. And we shouted at him in unison, together, in
unison, and he yelled back, and suddenly
suddenly, at once, we all stopped and
fell silent. We remembered Vasya.
We approached the car carefully.
looked into it, but saw it in the darkness
only Vasya’s huge army boots,
we grabbed them and pulled him out and
They immediately realized that Vasya was dead. Wide grin
frozen on his elongated face,
presenting to the world and to us its white, even
cleaver teeth (no longer useful, but how
You chewed your food deftly, you asshole - flashed through
head), eyes squinted senselessly
different sides, previously blond hair
took on the bright red color of the setting
sun. Vasya was dead. And then Shura
rolled another joint, we smoked again,
again, and then, and then... we didn't have
time to bury him, we were in a hurry to
arrow, we took him by the hands, by the legs,
rocked and - let him rest in the roadside
ditch - they threw him there, into the distance, behind the bushes.
At the entrance to P-town we felt again
bad, and we parked on the most
outskirts, took whiskey from the bar without soda
and no ice. Cthere was a strong wind blowing across the ocean
Night has come to the sinful land. There was already
very little time. But Alik started
extreme fever, he was delirious, sitting behind
table, muttered again something about women and
about the fact that he actually messed with us in
such a distance out of pure curiosity, but
now he is suffering, all his troubles are ours
You're welcome, how nice it would be to have some fun now
with the blonde waitress from "Crazy"
Cows", cancer, cancer, I have one,
like you never dreamed of, he suddenly began to assure
he, looking around us with a victorious glance, and
we had to leave it there, we
asked the bartender to call an ambulance, and they themselves
we rushed on. We were in a hurry to
arrow.
We stopped at a pizzeria and
lost in the crowd. We cast lots, and he
fell on me, we hugged goodbye, but
Shura was not very upset, he had already
met a pretty girl
black travesty, and agreed to go
with her to the disco, I'll wait until the morning,
he said, but there was some uncertainty
seemed to me in his eyes, I knew that
his thoughts are already far away, a couple of hours will pass,
he will completely forget me, his passport was
dotted with visas of people far from each other
states, and the soul is full of people,
who can't get along in one
tiny short human box
memory. Then together with others
lucky I went into the apartment -
dress up, change clothes, bring oneself up
in order.
Finally we left the house and went
forward towards freedom, we walked in silence,solemnly, one after another. There were us
twenty-five homosexuals, black and white,
with the gait of women and with the gait of men, in
luxurious dresses and fur coats or
tight leather trousers and tight turtlenecks,
we walked forward. We were silent, but our souls
sang, sang, the wind blew stronger, we walked
towards the sea, the waves became increasingly
higher, the whale opened its mouth to
devour Job. But we didn't know it yet
we had to go through the whole city and
walk to the shore and then turn onto
Houston Street, a street of galleries and video rooms
and make a circle. On the head of each of us
there was a wreath of flowers, we wove them each
to a friend. There were twenty-five of us. But then,
it was then, on the path to freedom, that I
felt, realized that a mistake had occurred,
We were probably deceived, set up. Among
us was a stranger. Twenty-sixth invisible
wormed his way into our ranks, got lost among
us, disappeared into the line. Twenty
sixth. We, twenty-five homosexuals,
marched to the applause of the spectators,
camera flashes and TV commentators' voices,
but the twenty-sixth, not lagging behind, mocked
above us, tap dancing with his heels
lifting up... And I immediately understood what
matter. Why did I smell it, why
recognized Stranger twenty-six, eccentric
twenty-sixth, dude twenty-sixth not
was a man. It was a woman, a chick,
deceptively taking on a male guise. It's in vain
I tried to figure it out, I turned my head
there, here, I smelled it, or rather, more precisely,her
breathing behind your back, “haau, haau,” -
he was already breathing in my ear, we, twenty
five buggers hurried forward, but
The twenty-sixth raised his scythe over us.
“Schjak,” flashed silver lightning
blade, the eye sockets sparkled with cold...
That night the sea overflowed its shores, a whirlwind
P-Town was swallowed up by a tornado. But we were already
anyway.
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