Ice Trilogy (64 page)

There can no longer be any doubt that a new era has dawned: today we are living in the age of the
ICE
system. Yesterday we still lived in the age of the cinema. The moment when I stood in the circle and suddenly began to disappear, when there appeared a shining light

Anastasia Smirnova, 53, organic chemist, professor

The Tungus Ice Phenomenon (TIP) interested me immediately, as it did many scientists. My imagination was fired by the entirely new crystalline structure of this cosmic ice formation, which fell on Siberia nearly a hundred years ago. Our entire department made a model of this complex, multifaceted design out of cardboard, painted it the color of ice, and hung it from the chandelier. It spun and turned above our head, its facets sparkling, promising a scientific revolution. And it has come. The discovery made by Samsonova, Endkvist, and Kameyami means more than the Nobel Prize and international recognition put together. The discovery of SEK vibrations is the bridge into the future of new biotechnologies. The
ICE
system is merely the first sign. It is a trial balloon released by a human genius. I was not surprised that I ended up as one of the two hundred and thirty lucky ones. On receiving the system, the entire section tested it out every day. But I was the first. And I can honestly say: It is amazing! At first there were tears and extraordinarily intense childhood memories; then emptiness, peace, and flight! And what a flight it was! It was something like a collective orgasm, and I felt that the light

Nikolai Barybin, priest

Our world is truly tumbling straight into the Devil’s jaws. This so-called
ICE
system is yet another hellish invention hastening the fall of contemporary urban civilization. On receiving this “Greek gift” from the company
ICE
, I initially wanted to turn it down, since my Russian Orthodox heart whispered to me, “This ice comes from the Evil One.” As a pastor, however, I am obligated to know the enemy in person. I honestly tried this system on myself. At first I felt a terrible fear, which turned to grief. But what was the object of my grief? It is shameful to say — it was a broken bicycle. It happened when I was ten years old. This incident had completely vanished from my memory, but the Ice system reminded me of it painfully. Then a spell of absolute depravity ensued: I saw myself naked in an enormous circle of “the chosen,” standing above the world and awaiting a miracle. But it was not the Lord’s mercy they awaited, not repentance, not the absolution of sin, not the advent of the Kingdom of God. They simply yearned to be transformed into streams of light

Kazbek Achekoev, 82, retired

When the Soviet Union existed and our Republic was part of the USSR, there was a movie theater in our regional center. I worked there almost thirty-four years as a film technician. I showed movies to the people. And I quite respected the cinema myself. I never understood and still don’t understand the theater — what’s it for? But I quite respected the cinema. My favorite films were — you couldn’t count them all! There were lots. But my most favorite were genuine comedies. And my favorite comic movie actors were Charlie Chaplin, Mister Pitkin, Louis de Funès, Fernandel, Yuri Nikulin, Georgi Vitsin, Zhenia Morgunov, Dzhigarkhanian, Etush, and Arkady Raikin. This is our gold mine. But when the USSR died, and the Republic received its independence, the movies went downhill. There were hardly any new films. And then the war began. No one was up to movies. My wife and I took our sons and went into the mountains to our relatives. We lived there six years and eight months. But my son Rizvan died anyway. And my grandson Shamil disappeared. When we returned to the regional center, everything had been destroyed. The movie theater was a hospital. But life began to settle down. We got electricity again. They started getting things in order. And my grandson Bislan suddenly told me that I had won some new equipment through the newspaper. He had written us all down on the application and sent it to the offices. And six months later the answer came: Kazbek Achekoev. The company delivered the equipment right to our house. We all looked at it. And I said, “but what does it do?” Bislan said, “It’s a new technological miracle. First of all, it shows you movies right in your eyes. Second, it makes you feel really good.” I said, “You go and try it out on yourself.” But Bislan replied, “Grandfather, you are the person who won it; you have to be the first to try it.” I said, “I don’t see so well, and I’m farsighted.” He read the instructions and said, “Your farsightedness is within the norm. Everything will be fine.” I said, “No, I’m too old for these experiments.” My sons tried to persuade me. I kept on refusing. Then our neighbor Umar came over, and said, “Kazbek, you spent your whole life showing us movies, now it’s your turn to watch.” Well, I agreed. They sat me down in a chair, took off my shirt, put this thing on my chest, and put a piece of ice in it, like a bullet in a gun. And put a helmet on my head. Then that ice began to shoot me in the chest. But they didn’t show anything in the helmet. I asked, “Bislan, why aren’t they showing anything here?” And he said, “Grandfather, be patient.” Well, I sat there quietly. That ice kept on shooting me and shooting me. I sat there. There was nothing to do — so I started thinking about the movies, remembering things. How I showed the movies, what films I showed, different bits of them. And then for some reason I remembered the Great Patriotic War. We were new recruits, we were first sent to the Kharkov area and then to Viazma. This was in September 1941. The Germans had cut off the head of two of our foot-soldier divisions, and we began to retreat. There were about two hundred guys left from our regiment. And when the dawn broke, we began to escape the encirclement through the swamps. And we ended up right under their machine guns. The Germans were waiting for us. Right in front of my eyes they killed everyone around who was walking. They just cut them down like hay. And a bullet took a chip off my rifle butt and I fell into the swamp. Everyone who remained alive also fell in the swamp. And just lay there. The Germans watched to see if anyone moved and they killed them right off. There were three machine guns that shot dead-on and in short rounds — only five bullets:
bang! bang! bang! bang! bang!
Not more. Then they’d wait, and again:
bang! bang! bang! bang! bang!
Some of our guys began to quietly crawl through the swamp, but the Germans killed them right away. Because they could see everything in their binoculars. Everyone around me died. Two guys who were wounded cried. I realized that I had to pretend to be dead and lie there until nighttime — then crawl out. It was first thing in the morning, about six o’clock. I closed my eyes and lay there. The Germans shot at anyone who moved. They killed everyone off. But I lay there and didn’t even breathe. My face was halfway in the swamp water, but the left side was above water. And so I’d breathe this way: I’d suck a little bit of air in through my nose and let it out into the water through my mouth. The Germans settled down. Then suddenly:
bang! bang! bang! bang! bang!
And I’m still lying there. And the sun began to bake. Somewhere over there the battle was going on. Someone would rush through that swamp again, and they just cut them down and cut them down with the machine guns. Well, then I got good and scared. I wasn’t even nineteen at the time. I was lying there with corpses all around me. And suddenly a frog came of out of the water and jumped onto my hand. Right next to my face. And I could see that one of its feet was torn off. A bullet must have torn it off. And it sat there on my fist, breathing and looking at me. And I looked at it. And I felt so sorry for myself and for that frog that tears began to pour from my eyes. And I began to cry — like I’d never cried before. Stronger and stronger. And then suddenly —
whoosh!
I’m suddenly standing somewhere naked, bare naked, people are holding me by the hand, and it’s so nice, and sort of free, and we’re singing, and then everything begins to sort of flow, and that was it, and nothing, and only light

Viktor Evseev, 44, butcher

I heard before that they’d manufactured this artificial ice which, when you pound someone in the chest with it, awakes various cardiac centers. And then suddenly — I received this system for free, they had some advertising campaign. And I tried it. It’s pretty interesting. Although it takes a long time. At the end, there’s this great high, we all stand in a circle and suddenly —
whoosh!
And we disappear in light

Lia Mamonova, 22, saleswoman

This is really...something. I don’t know how to put it. At first it’s all as dark as dark can be, quiet as the grave, just this mechanical arm banging at your chest like a jackhammer. Then there’s a kind of compassion in your soul, you feel this sort of sucking sadness. And immediately there’s all these pitiful thoughts that get into your head, like — everything sucks, people are shit, life is hard, and that kind of stuff. After that I saw a maternity ward where there’s a whole room full of newborns abandoned by their mothers. And it was like, I went there at night and stood there. And they were all sleeping. And I felt so sorry for them that I just started blubbering buckets. And I’m like sobbing and sobbing, I can’t stop. I saw their tiny little feet and hands and I just wept. And I cried so long and hard that I fell on the floor and fainted —
bam!
I couldn’t stand it. And I really just lost consciousness there from helplessness, or I just fell asleep. And when I woke up — we were standing this uninhabited island and there were twenty-three thousand of us. And everyone was naked. But we weren’t screwing, just standing and waiting. And suddenly God came down right from the sky and took us. That light

Anatoly Omo, 27, Web designer

This is a real cult thing. New. Radically new. This isn’t any “Health Improvement System,” but a new-generation simulator. Which the company
ICE
is pushing hard. Cool controls, awesome picture. Fucking amazing quest. Complete effect of being there. Plus the ice itself with its super qualities, which there’s been so much buzz about in the media. The ice is fifty percent of the effect. The high makes you want more. Right away. But in sober daylight you realize — this is the start of an enormous new platform. Until now, we’ve just been floating, playing with our sweet little games: Quake, Myth, Sub Command, Aliens Versus Predator. Now we’ve arrived on the shore and stepped barefoot onto genuine ice. Ouch! I feel like saying, Fuckin’ fantastic: we’ve arrived! We stand in a brotherly circle and transform into light

Anya Shengelaya, 33, poetess

It is divine in all senses! It prepares us for death, for the transition to other worlds. I haven’t felt such excitement for a long time, haven’t forgotten myself, haven’t disconnected so completely from our squalid, gray reality. Our earthly life — is a preparation for death, for transformation, for great journeys. Like dolls, we are forced to doze in our earthly membranes until the Higher Powers awaken us in our graves and resurrect us. As Lao-tzu said, “He who cannot love death, does not love life.” This marvelous apparatus teaches us to love death. And it actually does improve health. Because truly healthy people are those who are not afraid of death, who await it as deliverance, who yearn for awakening and the beginning of a new birth, in other worlds. In one instant we all shone with the light.

A ray of sun crawled across the boy’s bare shoulder.

A plastic clock with a laughing wolf ticked loudly on a stool. The breeze coming through a half-open window fluttered a semitransparent curtain. Down in the courtyard, a dog barked.

The boy slept, his mouth open. The green head of a plush dinosaur stuck out from under the edge of his blanket.

The sunbeam slipped over the boy’s plump cheek. Illuminated the edge of his nose.

His lips twitched. The bridge of his nose wrinkled. He sneezed and opened his eyes. He closed them again. He yawned and stretched, pushing back the blanket with his feet. The dinosaur fell on the rug. The boy sat up. He scratched his shaggy head and called out, “Mom!”

No one answered.

He looked down. The dinosaur lay belly-up between a slipper and a water pistol. The boy dangled his legs off the bed. Yawned again. He slid off the bed and shuffled into the kitchen.

There was no one there. An orange lay on the table; there was a note under it. Rising on his tiptoes, the boy pulled the note out from under the orange. The orange rolled across the table, fell off, and rolled on across the floor.

Moving his lips and toes, the boy sounded out the syllables: “Bee...hoooome...ve...ry...soooooon.”

He put the note back on the table. He squatted and looked around. The orange lay under the sideboard.

The boy farted. He stood up and shuffled into the bathroom. He pulled his underwear down and peed for a long time, moving his lips. He pulled up his underwear and walked to the sink. He pushed a wooden box over and climbed up on it. He rinsed his mouth out. Looked at his toothbrush and then held it under the water. The water began to wash the toothpaste off the brush.

“Cats and dogs...” muttered the boy and shook the brush.

The toothpaste fell in the sink. The boy splashed water on it.

“Catsndogs, catsndogs, catsndogs, sail away, begone!”

He washed the brush and put it in a glass. He jumped off the box. Ran to the kitchen. Looked under the cupboard and shook his fist at the orange.

“You scoundrel!”

He opened the refrigerator and took out a chocolate-covered cream-cheese roll and opened the wrapping. Bit off a piece. Chewing, he walked into Mama’s room. Picked up the TV remote. Sat on the floor and turned on the television. Eating the cream-cheese roll, he flipped through the programs. He licked his fingers and wiped them off on his T-shirt.

“There.” The boy crawled over to a shelf with videocassettes, and pulled one out. “Dinosaurs. Stop.”

He began to put the cassette into the VCR, but suddenly noticed a new object. A blue cardboard box with the large white letters
ICE
stood in the corner. The box was open. The boy went over to look at it. There were some blue objects in it. The boy picked up the one on top. It was a helmet. He looked at it from all sides, and then put it on his head. It was dark in the helmet.

“
OOO-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!
” The boy shot a machine-gun round with his two fingers.

He took off the helmet and put it on a chair. He pulled the breastplate out of the box, turned it this way and that, and tossed it on the floor.

“Nuh-uh...”

He took a blue case out of the box. The cord on the case reached over to the wall outlet. A blue light burned on the side of the case. The boy put the case on the floor. He touched the button. He farted.

He pushed the lock button.

The case opened. Inside, in soft blue plastic cells, lay a single piece of ice. Twenty-two sections were empty.

“A ’frigerator...”

The boy picked up the piece.

“Cold.”

The ice was packed in a frosty piece of cellophane. The boy picked at the blue strip, then pulled on it. The strip tore open the cellophane package. He pressed out the ice into his hand. Examined it. Licked it one or twice.

“Not ice cream.”

The phone rang. The boy picked up the receiver.

“Hello. She’s not home. I don’t know.”

He replaced the receiver. He tapped the ice on it.

“The ice froze stiff. It came over to warm up.”

He tapped the ice against the glass of the sideboard.

“It’s me, ice!”

Sucking on the ice, he went into his room. There in the corner, on a wooden stand for CDs, stood little plastic figures of Superman, an X-Man, and a Transformer. The boy put the ice between them.

“Hey, dudes, I’m ice, I came to see you!”

He picked up the Transformer, who held a laser spear in his hand. He jabbed the ice with the end of the spear.

“Ice, hey ice, who are you?”

He answered with the ice’s voice: “I’m cold!”

He asked with the voice of the X-Man: “What do you need, cold ice?”

He answered with the voice of the ice: “Warm me up!”

Outside, dogs began barking.

The boy looked at the window. He scowled.

“Aha! Again!”

He ran out on the balcony. It was warm and sunny. Down below, three stray dogs were barking at a Doberman walking with his bespectacled owner. The Doberman ignored them.

“Catsndogs!” the boy exclaimed, raising his fist at the dogs.

He went back to his room. The ice was lying under a Transformer’s spear.

“Get out of here, you fat ice!” the boy roared and stabbed the ice with the spear.

The ice skittered onto the rug. The boy sat down next to it. He whined in a high voice, “Be nice to me, I’m cold!”

He picked up the ice with two fingers and crawled across the rug with it, squeaking and whimpering. He bumped into the stuffed dinosaur.

“I’m cold!”

“Let’s go, ice, I’ll warm you up.”

He helped the ice to get on the dinosaur’s back. He crawled with the dinosaur over to the bed. He helped the dinosaur clamber onto the bed. He put the dinosaur on his pillow and placed the ice next to it. He covered them with his blanket and roared: “You’ll be warm here, ice.”

He remembered the orange. He ran into the kitchen.

The ice lay next to the dinosaur, jutting out from under the blanket. The sunlight shone on its wet surface.