The poorly lit canteen hides the ugly details of the place; the dusty furniture and litters, remnants of splashes of liquor drunken men conservatively left behind and other intangible tragedies only reflected in faces among garbage that much needed to be taken out. In this cesspool of dissonant figures there was one piece of garbage Hennadyi felt needed to be taken out but, he was a rational man. His eyes somersaulted in the dim room and an iota of joy jumped out on his face, perhaps a reward of familiarity or control, as he saw the Spaniard, followed by a dull anger and flickering anxiety. He sat across Nazar and rested both his arms on the table as an act of faith. Nazar spoke in his usual tone of cocktail of overconfidence and narcissism, "I told you you would come around, didn't I tell you that? I did. didn't I?" "No doubt, he's drugged out.", Hennadyi contemplated. "I need money.", after much deliberation and silence Hennadyi spoke grimly swallowing his pride to which Nazar visibly rejoiced. "Remember that muddy playground.. by the school.. with green and yellow seesaws and.. ", Hennadyi interrupted "Yes! the Playground, what does that have to do with me?" "Meet me there tomorrow after your shift. bring a big bag" "Lyobov?" Hennadyi's voice shakes. "She's fine, she's... fine."
"My wife has become a slave to a stalker and a grave robber and I am doing his chores.", Hennadyi spit in disgust as he leaves the canteen. "No matter, I will cure her at any cost." His routine takes over and time drones on with few cigarette breaks. He reminds himself to carry a knife and a bag to the playground tomorrow before he falls asleep.
Hennadyi waits for Nazar at the playground a little anxious and distracted by his own thoughts. Nazar arrives with three more goons to which Hennadyi reacts by naturally assuming the worst, "is this the bottom of dishonor in you heart?" Nazar laughs and reasons: "I knew he'd think that. Didn't I tell you guys? I did. I did. Relax. I'm not a murderer.", Nazar points to himself, "This. Man. Is. Not. A. Murderer. The loot needs big arms that's all. And you. It needs you. The center of the mystery. The chosen one." Nazar contemplates a while and speaks again erratically, "Do you remember where your old house is? we're going there first. A lots of money is involved." "The drugs have eaten through your brain. That place will kill us.", Hennadyi argues with reason. The goons quizzically look at each other's faces. "Follow me and you'll be fine. Each of you gets 1.5 million.. DOLLARS ok 1.5 MILLION dollars." All four follow Nazar quietly as he expertly tread in between the radiation spots and slow static ticks of Geiger counter fills the cold February night. The old familiar shapes resonate with Hennadyi's memories but, traveling this deep into isolation zone is no excursion to stop and cherish. Hennadyi quickly takes the team to his old home. Nazar takes out flash lights from his bag and starts looking around the ground. "The basement. Where is it?". "Right there.", Hennadyi confidently points to a wooden plank. Nazar raises the plank by the hinge and where there should've been a dim flight of stairs was a faint yellow golden glow to Hennadyi's surprise. All five rush through the flight of stairs to this place resembling an imaginative palace or treasury of fairy tales' creatures. Gold everywhere, Vials and vials of gold before a large metallic pipe toward east, facing the reactor. "Your father did this." Nazar whispered to Hennadyi still in awe and speechless. "My father did this."
The gold had formed by slow neutron bombardent on mercury. This phenomena was proved in 1941, years before chernobyl.
Man.. this is rich and shows talent but the deadline was yesterday! You would certainly have been rewarded. I'll read it better with calm and comment more. Come tomorrow for week #6 one!
That's a bummer. This took me whole evening. Well! Maybe I'll post the whole thing in my blog see if it grabs an eye or two.
I know it's a bummer.. it's understandable that you took time. Unfortunately there was the deadline.. You may partecipate to this new one and - if this is your quality of writing - I'll make sure to reward you. Sure thing you can publish it with my part too, just quote me as the author of part 1 ✌️
Certainly.
However this was brilliant, especially the ending.. at the point I regret I didn't think to this myself lol..did you get a curie vote so far for your works?
Not really. I write poems mostly.