Innokenty Slanevsky - Political Phantasmagoria. Three short stories, 2017

“And which year of the war is it now? I have failed to count the years”.

“The thirteenth.”

“Has the strategy changed?”

“No, it hasn’t. We are ordered to bomb peaceful civilian settlements and to avoid bombing the enemy’s military airfields. However, the enemy does not touch our military airfields either, it bombs only our peaceful civilians. They are the ones who suffer most. Once, the residents living near the sea coast, resented the enemy’s bombing and demanded the introduction of the IPC.”

“The International Peacekeeping Contingent?”

“Exactly. It was in the third year of the war, when, as official sources reported, you disappeared in the sky above the sea, Commander. You are still considered to be missing. In response to the demand of the residents to introduce the contingent, one of the deputies of our Parliament made an indignant speech, which was also broadcast on television. He said, ‘Who will pay for the maintenance of this contingent in our territory? We will have to empty our own pockets, won’t we? This contingent is like a dog’s fifth leg for us, because they do not bomb us! Is it fair to us, I wonder? Therefore, the contingent must be maintained by those who need it, who insist on its introduction, that is by the peaceful residents living near the sea coast! In addition, let me note that none other than these peaceful residents are guilty that they are bombed, or rather their own laziness! After all, they themselves can reduce the number of bombs hitting their homes! For this, they should stop being lazy! When winter sets in, peaceful residents should repaint their houses white under the color of snow, and when summer comes, they should repaint them green under the color of foliage and grass. After that it will be much more difficult for the enemy to notice their houses from the air, won’t it?’ For such a speech, the deputy was awarded the Order ‘The Wisdom of the Universe’. And the question of the contingent was no longer raised by the peaceful residents living near the sea coast.”

“So, the peaceful residents have resigned to the bombing of their houses, haven’t they? Are they used to it now?”

“It is difficult to say, Commander, whether they are used or not. Many of them don’t live in their old houses now because their houses were destroyed by the enemy’s bombs long ago. People live in dugouts which they have made for themselves. They do not want to leave their native places, for there are the graves of their ancestors there. Food supply has stopped to arrive in the coastal areas because food vendors say that they do not want to get under the bombing of the enemy and lose their goods. So, the inhabitants of the coastal strip are forced to risk their own lives and go fishing in the sea by their boats under the enemy’s bombing. Fish has become their only food. They have developed an amazing reaction speed, unthinkable even for the most agile and fastest beasts in the world! They catch fish and at the same time they maneuver their boats so skillfully that they manage to dodge bombs!”

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