This is a flash fiction effort of mine. After posting it here (I think it was here) I made adjustments and entered it for a comp and got nowhere. Possibly, it should be read aloud; for which purpose I have added stage directions. Possibly, the reader has to be of a certain age to understand the tag? Of course it could be a bit off-piste?
Translated from the Russian - Intellectual property rights to sub-post mistress Handa Parcelova, (Bitcoins accepted)
A Mystery solved. Minsk Dec 16[SUP]th[/SUP] 1944
To be read in strong Russian accents.
Captain Yasha: “Leonid! Why are you on this truck? We are going to the Gulag!”
Leonid: (weeping continually) “Captain Yasha, my good friend. There has been a terrible mistake!”
Captain Yasha: "What have you done?”
Leonid: “Nothing, I was denounced by Ivanovitch. He covets my cherry orchard. He knows without me to administer it; my wife will have to retail it to him at a despicable renumeration. Forgive my tears. Please release me!”
Captain Yasha: “This is truly obnoxious. But I cannot help. I must deliver forty prisoners to be executed. If one is missing, they will execute me in their place.”
Leonid:(Still weeping) “Does it count for nothing that I married your sickly cousin?”
Captain Yasha: “I am truly repentant Leonid, it is fate.”
Leonid: “Why not take the orchard for yourself? We are passing it now. Save me and it is yours.”
Captain Yasha: “This one is your orchard? Train-station whore! Mmmmn, even in the snow I can see it is the most luminous in the valley. But alas I cannot release you.”
Leonid: “Wait! Look at this tall stranger trudging in the snow. Let him take my place.”
Captain Yasha: “But he will be missed.”
Leonid: “No, Yasha. He is not from this province, look at his unexpected clothing.”
Captain Yasha: “I will do it because you are family – (mumbling) and not forgetting the magnificent orchard. Give me your identity papers, and write a last testament bequeathing me the orchard. Be quick. I will collect the stranger and throw his papers onto the road for you. You will have to become this stranger. If you are unmasked, we will both be executed.”
Leonid: “That is easily accomplished. I am an educated Bourgeoisie, he is a peasant.”
Leonid climbs down from the Gulag truck, which disappears into the snow with the stranger. He collects the stranger’s identity papers from the road, opens them and reads –
Leonid: Major Glen Miller.
Translated from the Russian - Intellectual property rights to sub-post mistress Handa Parcelova, (Bitcoins accepted)
A Mystery solved. Minsk Dec 16[SUP]th[/SUP] 1944
To be read in strong Russian accents.
Captain Yasha: “Leonid! Why are you on this truck? We are going to the Gulag!”
Leonid: (weeping continually) “Captain Yasha, my good friend. There has been a terrible mistake!”
Captain Yasha: "What have you done?”
Leonid: “Nothing, I was denounced by Ivanovitch. He covets my cherry orchard. He knows without me to administer it; my wife will have to retail it to him at a despicable renumeration. Forgive my tears. Please release me!”
Captain Yasha: “This is truly obnoxious. But I cannot help. I must deliver forty prisoners to be executed. If one is missing, they will execute me in their place.”
Leonid:(Still weeping) “Does it count for nothing that I married your sickly cousin?”
Captain Yasha: “I am truly repentant Leonid, it is fate.”
Leonid: “Why not take the orchard for yourself? We are passing it now. Save me and it is yours.”
Captain Yasha: “This one is your orchard? Train-station whore! Mmmmn, even in the snow I can see it is the most luminous in the valley. But alas I cannot release you.”
Leonid: “Wait! Look at this tall stranger trudging in the snow. Let him take my place.”
Captain Yasha: “But he will be missed.”
Leonid: “No, Yasha. He is not from this province, look at his unexpected clothing.”
Captain Yasha: “I will do it because you are family – (mumbling) and not forgetting the magnificent orchard. Give me your identity papers, and write a last testament bequeathing me the orchard. Be quick. I will collect the stranger and throw his papers onto the road for you. You will have to become this stranger. If you are unmasked, we will both be executed.”
Leonid: “That is easily accomplished. I am an educated Bourgeoisie, he is a peasant.”
Leonid climbs down from the Gulag truck, which disappears into the snow with the stranger. He collects the stranger’s identity papers from the road, opens them and reads –
Leonid: Major Glen Miller.