Russian Soap Opera: The Final Straw

She arrives early at the designated meeting place and orders a strong coffee. Irritated and perplexed at agreeing to meet M, she tries to think of what he might have forgotten to return to her. Across the road from where she sits is an oval. A bunch of young boys kick a soccer ball around on the slightly overgrown grass. They celebrate as one of them gracefully lands the ball in the back corner of the net. In the distance, she sees Maxim and Galina trudging through the grass in her direction. She notices that both his hands are free.

Realising his false pretences, she rises to leave. In that instant, a gust of wind blows so hard that she’s forced back into her chair. Above her, what looks like a spaceship looms. So much dust is blowing around and she blinks to make sure she’s not imagining this. The boys on the oval look up, jaws dropping and fingers pointing. She’s not imagining the flashing lights and gentle hum of this peculiar vessel. The ship gently comes to rest on the oval. A door opens, a staircase tumbles out and a being that looks a bit like this...


...steps out.

By now, Maxim and Galina are quite close to the ship and have stopped in their tracks. The being, slowly and methodically raises a small firearm and points it straight at Maxim. He pulls the trigger. A small white flag with BANG! written on it hangs down from the gun, generating a chuckle from the strange being and his two buddies, who by now are standing on either side of him. Shuddering, Maxim squeaks, “What do you want?” The foreign beings confer eagerly for the next 15 minutes. Everyone watching the scene is absolutely entranced. Finally, the one that shot at Maxim announces in a high-pitched, crazed voice, “I want you to bring me…a shrubbery!!!!”

Maxim’s face turns white. This is what he dreaded. Thinking that he had left his shady past behind him, he hadn’t anticipated that these guys would come after him. He never should have stolen from them in the first place. Standing alongside him, Galina is clearly unimpressed. Maxim knows he can’t meet their demand. The sort of shrubbery they want can’t be found here, and he feebly attempts to explain this to them. “Oh please…otherwise…”, the shooter trails off and his eyebrows narrow. Maxim looks at Galina. She looks back at him. From across the road, our protagonist stares into her coffee uneasily. The pair break into a run, but are soon enveloped in two beams of blinding light.

The ship is gone by the time our heroine and the soccer boys from the oval recover from the light beams. Dazzled, she looks at her watch. The time is the same as when she arrived. Her cup of coffee is still steaming and full, even though she took a few sips from it earlier. She looks at the boys who are now celebrating a goal she’s already seen.

Our protagonist waits. Maxim fails to show up. He and Galina have never been heard from since.

For alternative endings to this melodrama, drop into the blogs of jfox, Cassiopeia Gegenbaueren III, Serenity Now and Sartorial.