The Upside of Death

The moving glass. Part 18

Vronsky said, "The glass moved by itself."

Yuri said, "Like, into your hand and then your lips? You've discovered a useful tool for mankind."

"I'm serious. I was checking the wallets when the crazy glass started moving. Sliding along. No earthquake, no bumping of the table."

"Did it spill the vodka?" Semyon, skeptical. "Was it the first drink or the thirty-first?"

"I wasn't crazy, or drunk," Vronsky said. He pointed to the coffee table. "The glass moved. From there to there, and then fell off." They all contemplated the table then the glass, which lay on its side on the carpet.

"It moved without anybody touching it?" Semyon asked, dropping the shopping bags on the table, removing the two Stolichnayas.

"It moved. Sliding along the table, by itself. I wasn't drinking then. I was drinking after that, for sure."

"I heard about this kind of thing once," Yuri said. "In my village. One of the old babushkas died and after that, her house had stuff moving in it. The son went crazy. He left, couldn't take it anymore."

"The glasses moved?" Vronsky asked.

"No one said anything about glasses, but a broom was said to fly across the room when her son made the place messy. Other shit started up, too. Doors slamming at night but found to be locked tight. Many mornings, kitchen cupboards were wide open. The son going crazy with this shit. I went to see him a couple of times, and I tell you those cupboard doors, so old with rusty hinges, not possible they could open by themselves."

Semyon asked, "You think it was the babushka coming back from the dead and giving the son a touch of the birch?"

"Sure. She was house proud, and the son was a lazy clod. I think she wanted him out."

Semyon said, "You're more stupid than you sound. Obviously the son made it up."

"For what?" Yuri asked. "To make himself a laughingstock?"

"He needed a reason to leave the village, and this was it. He told everybody his mother's spirit drove him away. Otherwise people would think he was disrespectful leaving so soon."

"And nobody wanted to buy the house after that? How smart was that?" Yuri pointed to the glass. "If that moved by itself, then we have a spirit here."

"What I have is a hard longing for the girl upstairs," Semyon said. "That's what concerns me."

"It's all you think of every second of the day," Yuri said. "That part of your brain must be worn out by now."

"As long as the most important part of my body works, I can live."

Vronsky cut in. "Stop it." The killings had given the little fusspot confidence, he guessed. Was Yuri dumb enough to butt heads with Semyon? Dumb enough to take it to the limit? Semyon would twist his head off faster than unscrewing a bottle top. He steered the talk to the moment. "That glass moved for a reason and I want to know what it is."

"It moved because we are in a haunted house, that's all," Yuri said. "I've read a lot about this phenomenon."

"What normally happens when this stuff starts?" Vronsky asked.

"Stuff moves, gets hidden, we hear footsteps. Whoever is here wants attention. If the activity gets violent, that's a sign this spirit wants us out."

"To hell with the spirit," Semyon said. "I have some frozen shit, some prepared sandwiches, some crackers, some cheese and some pickles. How long are we staying here, anyway?"

"Who could this spirit be, Yuri?" Vronsky pressed Yuri. "One of the Americans?"

"Who cares? It might be the original owner. Maybe some Indian who used to hunt on the grounds around here."

"What crap you been reading now?" Semyon unscrewed the lid of the pickle jar and lifted one out between finger and thumb.

"Reading? Books without pictures of naked women in them," Yuri said.

Semyon crunched on a pickle. "Your loss, then," he said, shifting his food to the side of his mouth to speak.

"Can he harm us, this spirit?" Vronsky asked.

"No. Forget him. He's a spirit and we live on."

"It's not a problem then. We won't be here much longer," Vronsky replied. But it was a problem. If a fucking spirit could move a glass, what the fuck next would it move? If it was Flint, then ...

"What do we do now?" Yuri asked.

"We find out what the girl's father does, make text contact with him, and then we can leave. Have to leave, in case the phone can be pinpointed."

Vronsky moved to the cabinet and withdrew another glass, filling it from the Stolichnaya bottle. "The two Americans, are they well hidden?"

"I can do only so much without a spade," Yuri said. "They are off the road and won't be found until tomorrow, after daylight at the earliest."

Vronsky drained his new glass while eyeing his old one. "Flint never told me whether this place was his or not. If he owns it, we should move out fast and find a new place for a couple of days."

"The girl," Semyon said. "Is she ready to cooperate?" He pulled a plastic-wrapped sandwich out of the shopping bag.

"I didn't ask her yet," Vronsky replied. "But she has little choice. If her father is the target, and the more I think about it the more I'm sure of it, then he'll do what we want to save her. And I expect she'll do as she's told to save him."

"Save him?" Yuri asked. "Is this a new plan?"

"I thought we tell her that if he doesn't pay up, we'll kill her and kill him later. It might make her more cooperative. Her instinct is to resist. This'll change her attitude."

"So, how do we do this?"

"She has his cell number for sure. We film her again, send the image to her father."

"Again?" Yuri asked. "We have a good image already."

"It's too sweet," Vronsky said. "She doesn't look very scared in it. I'll reshoot the scene in a different way for more dramatic effect."

"Why don't I fuck her while you film?" Semyon said.

Vronsky nodded. "We can go that way if the first request is not met. He gets twenty-four hours to shift money into a designated account, and he thinks he gets his daughter afterward."

Semyon paused before taking a fresh bite of his sandwich. "But we get her instead, eh?"

"Possibly. We have to move fast after the deposit is confirmed, need to leave the country. There won't be much time for fun."

"When do we do this?" asked Yuri as he inspected his own shrink-wrapped cheese and ham.

"Now, right now. Semyon, bring her down."

END OF CHAPTER

NEW CHAPTERS AVAILABLE EVERY FRIDAY.

There are over 50 parts to this completed novel. If you can't wait, you can buy The Upside of Death on Amazon Kindle, iBooks or Kobo now

Follow Parker Rimes on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Parker-Rimes/ and on Parkerrimes.com.