A fragile, fragile, fragile world

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

… The journey began in the basement. A dangerous journey through the entire Big City. He was handed a huge awkward bundle, and when he took it in his hands, he became a criminal. He was hastily taught how to take precautions: what streets to avoid, how to behave when meeting with agents of the Security Service, what to answer during a possible interrogation … They wanted to give a guide, but he refused. What for? Two are more suspicious. Danger divided in two is still a danger. It's like jumping off a bridge … together. Instead of one drowned man, there will be two. Only. Better to let him drag a terrible load across the city, be left alone with the awkward box where IT lies.

… What an inconvenient package after all! Devilishly uncomfortable! It’s like it’s all corners. When you hold him on your knees, sharp corners pierce under the armpits, a hard rib crushes the chest, and the arms that encircle the bundle from above become stiff. Yes, my hands are completely numb …

But you can't move, you will draw attention to yourself. And without that, your box interferes with everyone. The subway car is cramped, like a jar of pickled plums. He loved pickled plums. In childhood. Now there are no _real_ drains. Now the main food is Bobblehead biscuits. Everyone in the carriage is chewing on these biscuits. They are always chewed. From morning till night. Famous unsaturated biscuits "Bobblehead". The factories synthesizing biscuits are open around the clock. "Bobblehead biscuits" renew muscles, thin bile and expand atoms throughout the body … "No matter how it is! Here is a simple calculation - it is more profitable to sell a train of rubbish than a van of real food … In the mouth, biscuits quietly squeak "bobblehead … bobblehead …" and immediately … evaporate. It’s like chewing on small rubber balls inflated with 100% air with your teeth …

The cursed bundle slides off his knees. Hands were numb and like strangers …

His father had kidney stones. An old noble disease. Nowadays, rarely anyone suffers from it. With what pride my mother was preparing a hot bath when my father was overwhelmed by another attack. Let everyone know that her husband is sick with an exceptional, noble disease! About biscuits "Bobblehead" can not be said that they lie like a stone on the stomach or other organs. You can gobble up a five-pound pack of biscuits and immediately feel the brutal appetite again. And thirsty. Everybody around is chewing squeaking biscuits and licking dry lips. He knows what subway passengers are dreaming about - at the nearest station, rush to the vending machines selling the drink "Pei-Za-Cent". The drink does not quench thirst, it is drunk in huge quantities, vending machines sell in portions of two gallons each, thirsty people substitute paper buckets under the brown stream …

The bundle nevertheless slipped from his knees … A terrible indiscretion!.. He rested a sharp corner on someone's belly, covered with a green cloak … Only this was not enough!

Ken Price felt the owner of the green cloak gaze at him. He felt this look on the skin of his forehead and the tips of his ears. A gaze as heavy as a lead plate and piercing as the headlights of a police car. Price sucked in his stomach, trying to shove the box somewhere under his ribs, pressed himself against the back of the sofa, eagerly wanting to shrink in size, flatten into a flat cake … Oh horror! It burst!.. Now everyone will see THIS - his shame, his crime!.. Scandal! Noise! Indignant faces … The guy in green will stop the train right in the tunnel. The cold steel of the handcuffs clung to the skin … A ball is waiting for him at the Security Service - an insulator for especially dangerous ones … He saw them in the movies: glass balls-cages hanging on hefty brackets around a high reinforced concrete tower … Price dared to look at the owner of the green raincoat. He, taking off his glasses and squinting myopically, wiped the glass with a paper handkerchief. Price is lucky! The guy in green wore cheap, quick-fading glasses - a week after you bought them, you wouldn't even see your own nose. All the same Universal Trading Principle - fragile things are bought more often. Even if they buy cheap, but more and more often. Monthly, then weekly, daily, hourly … Price rang loudly and lingeringly in Price's pocket, then creaked and grunted in the same lingering manner. A one-time winding watch exploded. "When the factory ends, the clock explodes with amazing melodiousness." Advertising fables! Wow - melodic! Squeak of a nail on fiberglass - here it is, your melody! Let him be sawed with a quick-blunt saw if he buys such a watch again. Of course, if he ever had to buy anything at all. Unless he and IT fall into the clutches of security agents. Price reached into his pocket. Fingers groped for something like a lump of slimy clay … Brr … That's all that remains of the watch. The newest blitz metal, now a lot of things are made of it, even cars. It seems his son-in-law had something to do with this patent. A special blitz metal with a special structure softens into a slimy filth in exactly two weeks …

The one in the raincoat is still wiping his glasses, now he has no time for suspicious packages. I shouldn't have been scared! It is clear that this one, in green, has nothing to do with the Security Service. They are not the same fools to wear fast-fading glasses on their agents.

Sheathing convolution!.. Price went cold. How could he forget about her! The cladding is cracked at the top and side and is creeping in front of everyone's eyes! Another second - and the end!.. No, no! Everything is fine! Everything is going well! After all, he wrapped IT in a piece of the old canvas cape that his grandfather used to cover his truck. Only on the outside IT is wrapped in a fast-spreading one-day bag, and inside it is a reliable tarpaulin. An excellent piece of tarpaulin, now he has no price, got it by inheritance, another piece bequeathed to Madi by my grandfather. The old tarp securely hides the contents of the package.

And yet another transplant must be made. Sweep up the tracks. Standing at the door with an indifferent look and jumping out at the last moment when the train starts to move. Then repeat this procedure in reverse order: wait until everyone enters the car, and slip between the shutters of the closing door. If no one rushes after you, then there is no surveillance. So he was taught there, in the basement.

Price got off at the Center Ring and crossed the platform. I missed the first train, waited for the second, heard the signal for departure, hesitated for another second and, when the doors began to approach, rushed into the car. Suddenly, a fat man who hesitated jumped out to meet him. Price backed away, staggered, and, wanting to keep the package from falling, instinctively pushed it forward with outstretched arms. The doors closed the drawer and yanked it out of Price's hands. The train started jerkily. For a moment, Price noticed that the bundle was hanging more than half outside the carriage. A red light flickered at the tail of the train, and the darkness of the tunnel swallowed the carriages. Price started to run down the platform after the train. They pushed him. He broke up the crowd. The platform is over. The train carried away the bundle. Without realizing anything, Price jumped onto the tracks. They shouted from behind. A siren howled, splitting the dense and hot air with a piercing sound. Price ran between the rails. They seemed to him like thick shiny snakes, and he was afraid that they would grab his legs. So he ran, jumping unnaturally high. The siren continued to howl. Price covered his ears, fell, hurt himself badly. He jumped to his feet and rushed forward. From the side, from above, from below, light signals flashed, traffic lights flashed, and the inscriptions turned brightly yellow. The lights merged and drew sparkling lines along the darkness. He fell three or four more times. Elegant boots with quick-wear soles crawled like rotten banana peels. Self-unfastening cufflinks and self-tearing buttons rained down in a hail of plastic. The collar of his one-day shirt melted and dripped down my back in greasy drops. A quick-wiping wallet popped out of my pocket. Rapidly decaying leather belt shattered. He ran, stumbling, holding his trousers with one hand. The world of fragile things mocked him. And fear ran alongside. A space-devouring rumble came from behind. The train was overtaking him. But the arches of the tunnel deceived Price - the rumble heralded the approach of an oncoming person. The dazzling light of the one-eyed headlight paralyzed Price, his legs stuck to the rails, he felt the breath of metal - the train was advancing and growing. A flurry of hot air threw aside and saved him. The red-hot dust stabbed into the face, and the crash raced away.

With difficulty stepping over his bare feet, he reached the next station. He was dragged onto the platform. Hot faces. There are so many of them! Where is his package? A policeman came up. Fine? He agrees, get the money … Where is the package? Is he crazy? No, here is his psychiatrist's card, you can find out … Where is the package?.. Call the orderlies? Thank you, he is already better … Where is the package?..

The package was brought in. Fairly rumpled, but intact. The old tarp has stood the test. Nobody saw WHAT was hidden inside. Nobody … Oh my god. Everything worked out!

Dragging his foot and moaning softly, Price climbed out into the fresh air. He was half-naked and trudged to the nearest vending machines. He dropped coins and stuck his arms, legs, and neck into the semicircular holes. The automatons put on day-old boots, glued a disposable collar to his shirt, fastened on missing cufflinks, filled up the holes with quick-release plaster, and handed him a fashionable "Wear and Throw" hat. When the machine swallowed the coin with a cheerful grinding, a powerful speaker shouted: "All-For-You-For-One-Time, All-For-You-For-One-Time." Iron thugs traded in fragile cheap … One-day things. Reliable as a rope made of dough. Long-lasting like a piece of ice on a hot brazier. A handful of ashes, a handful of smoke, no more. There were books with disappearing text - a week later you have white pages in front of you. Blackening newspapers that you do not have time to read and have to purchase the next hourly issue. Fast-cooling irons and low-melting pans. Micro-leaky canisters. Hardening pillows. Clogged taps. Perfume "Coco", which starts to smell disgusting in a week. Blitz metal nails. Paper TVs … Their cheapness did not compensate for their fragility. On the contrary, the cheapness ruined the buyer. The carousel of forced purchases spun faster and faster, exhausting the soul, emptying the pockets …

Price dropped the last coin into the slot on the yellow post. A hatch opened on the sidewalk, and a one-seater bench rose from it for a short rest. After all the troubles, he could afford such a luxury. A little dog stopped by the yellow post. Price bent down to move the package closer to the bench. The dog bared its teeth viciously, and Price drew back from her. Stray dogs are dangerous! Extremely dangerous! Following a common Trading Principle, Spitz-Dachshund Limited supplies older ladies with lapdogs that go berserk after three weeks. Naturally, the owners of the dogs throw them out into the street, without waiting for the expiration of the warranty period. Get in the leg a dose of poisonous saliva is a nightmare! Price grabbed the bundle, jumped onto the bench and swung menacingly at the dog. The little dog put its tail between its legs and darted to the side, but the heavy bundle escaped from Price's hands and flopped onto the asphalt. Passers-by immediately pushed him under their feet and threw him to the edge of the sidewalk. Fool! Leaky hands! Frightened by the pitiful dog!.. Pick up the bundle!.. No! Do not trust the first impulses! Be careful like a steeplejack on a television mast. If you are being watched, then it is more profitable to pretend that you have nothing to do with this box, with this terrible evidence of a crime. Now no one can prove that the bundle belongs to you: you are here, the bundle is there. Calm down! Sit down! Pretend that you are busy with your hat, it also fell from the sudden movement. Pick her up, put her in order. Like this! Great hat especially for walking on the sunny side of the street. There are other hats, very similar to yours, but they are only for the shady side, they evaporate in the sun like smoke. Pshik - and that's it! And inside that hat is the label "fourteen hours in the sun." Then, of course, it also evaporates … The bundle lies in the old place. Everyone is in a hurry, passing by, no one is interested in him …

Nobody is interested? No matter how it is! Blonde in a plaid suit! She stopped five steps from Price and pretended to examine her image in the glass of the shop window. You can swear that she slowed down at the very moment when he threw the package at the dog. Is the woman a security agent? Many housewives earn extra money in their free time, carrying out delicate assignments of the Security Service. What is she looking at in this stupid display case? After all, this is the "For Men" store. What did she want there? Bald balm that turns into a Hair Slayer. Ah, here's the thing! She examines her plaid suit in the glass. The brown stripes that form the cells get wider and wider. The suit is falling apart!

The blonde squealed, wrapped her arms around herself, holding the remnants of her suit, and, with the air of a bather entering the cold water, ran to the nearest dressing booth. At all intersections there were such colorful booths, inside which automatic machines selling ready-made dresses were waiting for the next victim.

Price fell unexpectedly, the resting bench slipping out from under him back into the hatch. Rising, for the first time in that terrible day, he suddenly felt a sense of relief. With an air of indifference, even allowing himself to whistle, he picked up the parcel and walked towards 400th Street.

There was his house, there they were waiting for him and worried. He must relieve them of their fear for his fate as soon as possible. And only there he will feel comparatively safe.

His wife met him at the entrance. Poor fellow! How many times did she run out to meet? How many times did you listen to footsteps, knocks, rustles? Darling! It was only for her sake that he decided on such a nightmarish journey.

They went straight to the kitchen, where the only window overlooked a deserted lot. From the back room came the squeal of a circular saw. Of course, nothing was sawed there, a short-lived record squealed. After ten plays, the violin quartet turned into a circular saw solo.

- Did you bring IT? Sali asked.

She did not dare to name the contents of the package by her own name, as a superstitious savage does not aloud name the object of his hunt.

- I brought. You asked so.

- Expand, I want to see.

- Draw the curtains.

- They crumbled before your arrival. But don't be afraid, honey. Even in the morning the glass in the window darkened. Nobody will see.

He took off the tarp. Inside was an oblong box of gray cardboard. They tore up the cardboard and put THIS in the middle of the room.

It was a Kitchen Stool. Real! Durable! Real pine. It was made in the morning in an underground workshop, and the fresh amber drops of real carpentry glue glittered so deliciously that I wanted to lick them with my tongue.

The sale and purchase of durable items was prohibited by the Federal Trade Law. A severe punishment awaited the mischief-makers. But Price still managed, was not afraid to give his wife a Real Solid Kitchen Stool on her birthday!

Boris Zubkov, Evgeny Muslin.