Arkadi Strugatsky - The Ugly Swans

He slowly started back toward town.

The sun was off to the right. It moved along with him, now disappearing behind the roofs of the great houses, now appearing in the spaces between them, spraying warm light through the branches of the half-rotted trees. The clouds had disappeared, and the sky was astonishingly clear. A light mist was rising from the earth. Everything was silent, and Victor was drawn to the strange, barely audible sounds which seemed to be coming from within the earth -- some sort of whisper or rustling. Then he got used to it and forgot about it. An astonishing sense of calm and security came over him. He walked as though drunk, his eyes fixed almost constantly on the sky. On the Prospect of the President a jeep stopped next to him.

"Get in," said Golem.

Golem was gray with exhaustion and somehow depressed. Diana was sitting next to him, also exhausted, but still beautiful, the most beautiful of all exhausted women.

"The sun," said Victor, smiling at her. "Look at that sun."

"He won't go," said Diana. "I warned you, Golem."

"Why won't I go?" Victor was surprised. "I'll go. Only what's the hurry?" He couldn't hold himself back and took another look at the sky. Then he looked back at the deserted street, and then he looked forward at the deserted street. Sunlight was pouring over everything. Somewhere to the south, refugees were staggering across the fields, the army was thundering its retreat, the authorities were withdrawing. They got stuck in traffic jams; they swore at one another, they shouted meaningless commands and threats. And all the while, from the north, the victors were descending on the town. In between was an empty stretch of calm and security, a few miles of emptiness, and in the emptiness were three people and a car.

"Golem, is this the new world coming?"

"Yes," said Golem. He looked at Victor from under his swollen eyelids.

"And where are your slimies? Are they coming on foot?"

"There aren't any slimies," said Golem.

"What do you mean, there aren't any," said Victor. He looked at Diana. Diana silently turned away.

"There aren't any slimies," Golem repeated. His voice was tense, and suddenly it seemed to Victor that he was on the verge of tears. "You can assume that they never even existed. And never will."

"Wonderful," said Victor. "Let's take a walk."

"Are you coming with us or not?" asked Golem wearily.

"Of course," said Diana. "That's what he wanted."

"I'd come," said Victor, "except I have to stop by at the hotel to pick up my manuscripts, and I'd like to have a look around. You know, Golem, I like it here."

"I'm staying too," said Diana suddenly. She got out of the car. "There's nothing for me to do there."

"And what's there for you to do here?" asked Golem.

"I don't know," said Diana. "But now I have nobody left except this man."

"All right," said Golem. "He doesn't understand. But you understand."

"But he has to have a look around," objected Diana. "How can he go without taking a look around?"

"Exactly," Victor took her up. "What the hell use am I if I don't look. That's my profession, looking."

"Listen, children," said Golem. "Do you understand what you're letting yourself in for? Victor, you were told: stay on your own side, that's the only way you'll be useful. On your own!"

"I've always been on my own side," said Victor.

"Here that will be impossible."

"We'll see," said Victor.

"Christ," said Golem. "As if I didn't want to stay. But you have to use your head a little. There's a difference, goddamnit, between what you feel like doing and what you have to do." It was as though he was trying to convince himself. "Oh, you.... Well, stay if that's what you want. Have a good time." He started the motor. "Where's the notebook, Diana? Oh, there it is. If you don't mind, I'll take it. You won't be needing it."

"Golem," said Victor. "Why are you running? You wanted this world."

"I'm not running," said Golem severely. "I'm driving. I'm going from where I'm not needed to where I'm needed. Not like you. Goodbye."

And he left. Diana and Victor took each other by the hand and walked uptown along the Prospect of the President into the deserted city, ready to meet the advancing conquerors. They didn't talk. They breathed in the pure, fresh air, squinted at the sun, smiled at one another, and were afraid of nothing. The city stared at them with its empty windows. The city was astonishing: moldy, slippery, and rotten, covered with malignant stains as though eaten up by eczema. It was as if it had spent many years at the bottom of the sea, only to be dragged up for the amusement of the sun. And the sun, having laughed its full, was moving in on its destruction. Roofs were melting and evaporating; tin plates and tiles were disappearing in a rusty steam. Wet streaks appeared on the sides of buildings, penetrating the walls and revealing everything inside: dilapidated wallpaper, chipped beds, bandy-legged furniture, and faded photographs. Street lights twisted and melted, kiosks and billboards dissolved into thin air, and everything around was cracking and hissing, turning porous and transparent, changing into piles of dirt and disappearing. In the distance, the town hall tower lost its shape and merged into the blue of the sky. For some time, the old-fashioned tower clock hung in the sky, separate from everything, and then it too disappeared.

"My manuscripts are gone," thought Victor, amused.

The town was no more. Here and there were stunted bushes, sickly trees, and patches of green grass. Only in the distance, beyond the fog, you could make out the outlines of buildings, the remains of buildings, the ghosts of buildings, and not far from what used to be the road, on a stone stoop that led nowhere, sat Teddy. He had placed his crutches beside him, and was resting his wounded leg.

"Hi, Teddy," said Victor. "So you've stayed."

"Uhuh," said Teddy.

"How come?"

"Screw them," said Teddy. "They were pressed together like sardines, there was nowhere to stretch my leg, so I said to my sister-in-law, what do you need the cupboard for, stupid. And she lit into me. So I pissed on them and stayed behind."

"Want to come with us?"

"No, you go," said Teddy. "I might as well sit for a while. I'm no good for walking now, and whatever's going to happen can happen to me here."

They walked on It was getting hot, and Victor took off his useless raincoat, letting it drop to the ground. He shook off the rusty remnants of the submachine gun and laughed with relief. Diana kissed him, and said "Great!" He didn't object. They walked and walked under the blue sky, under the hot sun, on the ground already covered with new grass, and came to the place where the hotel had been. It wasn't quite gone; there remained a huge gray cube of rough concrete, and Victor thought that it was a monument, and maybe a boundary mark between the old world and the new one. No sooner had he thought this than a jet fighter with the Legion emblem on its fuselage appeared soundlessly from behind the concrete block. Soundlessly it flashed overhead and, still soundless, banked somewhere in the vicinity of the sun and disappeared. Only then did the hellish, high-pitched roar inundate their ears, their faces, their souls.

But Bol-Kunats was already walking toward them, older now and broad-shouldered, with a streaked mustache on his sunburned face. Farther off walked Irma, also almost an adult, barefoot, in a simple summer dress, holding a twig. She followed the fighter with her eyes, and then, raising the twig as if taking aim, said, "Khhh."

Diana laughed. Victor looked at her and saw that this was yet another Diana, a completely new one, a Diana that had never been. He had never even thought that such a Diana was possible: Diana the Radiant. Then he shook a finger at himself and thought, "All this is fine, but I'd better not forget to go back."