A Quiet Place
Stas Rybkin: So the time has come for us to leave the hospitable Island. It is utterly, inexpressibly sad. To be honest, I have never before been in a place so pleasant, so kind and so picturesque. And I have never come across such a high concentration of pleasant and decent people in one community.
We are not setting off from the bay where we arrived. We are setting off right from the jetty next to the Batygins’ house. And that is one more sign that we have managed to win our hosts’ trust. You cannot imagine how much I value that trust.
And yes. We intend to come back here soon. Oleg told us straight out that we would do better simply not to leave. That we have got ourselves tangled up in a complicated knot of relations between very powerful forces. That on the Island he can protect us after a fashion, but outside the Island we are vulnerable. Oleg did everything he could to make us stay.
On the bow of the speedboat you can see a sulky, cross, hungover Zhenechka. Zhenechka is cross with me. She has not spoken to me since the morning. And do you know why? Because Delphine did manage, after all, to persuade Zhenechka not to leave the Island. But I insisted that we have to go to Moscow to return the filming equipment and settle a few other debts.
Zhenechka believes that by insisting on leaving at once I am putting her in danger. Zhenechka cannot stand danger. She loves dancing, the beach, wine and pretty frocks.
Unfortunately, we have certain obligations that will have to be fulfilled. And not even because we shall be in big trouble if we do not fulfil them. Though that trouble will come. It is simply that in our shaky and unreliable world, keeping one’s obligations is the one and only nail everything hangs on.
The captain of the speedboat is waving to me from his wheelhouse. It is time for me to go aboard. It is worth noting that a different captain is taking us back. We were brought here by a frail but wiry Austronesian in a rainbow beret. The speedboat back will be steered by a very dark-skinned islander. I think he is the very same islander who led us to the Batygins’ house after we landed. But I am not sure of that.
I am bad at telling apart the faces of people of other races. I once listened to a lecture by Robert Sapolsky about how my amygdala and insula block the signal travelling from the visual cortex to the fusiform gyrus. Most likely that is really so. I have no reason whatsoever to doubt Robert Sapolsky’s competence.
To be honest, I am rather badly upset. Both by the quarrel with Zhenechka and by having to leave this beautiful place against my keenest wish to stay here for ever. So for the time being I am stopping filming. If anything curious happens on the way, I shall switch the camera back on…
………………………
Stas Rybkin: Some things did happen on the way after all. First a wide, flat, yellowish cloud appeared on the horizon. And then Zhenechka started talking to me again. Zhenya, tell us what exactly you noticed.
Zhenechka: For some reason our captain has put on the kind of hat that gardeners here use against stray snakes and other biting critters. A wide-brimmed hat made of coloured fabric. A sort of cloth visor hangs down over the face with a plastic mesh in the middle that you can look through.
An exceptionally repulsive item of clothing. Besides, it must be stuffy in there. I am sure you would only pull a thing like that on for safety reasons.
Stas Rybkin: A cloud is approaching. Perhaps our captain is afraid of rain.
Zhenechka: The captain is hardly going to get wet staying in the wheelhouse. And that hat is not against water. It is against snakes.
Stas Rybkin: Perhaps our captain is afraid of a rain of snakes.
(A gloomy, cinematic tune begins to play, growing louder and louder. It is one of Marco Beltrami’s pieces for the film “A Quiet Place”, namely “Rising Pulse”.)
Zhenechka: (seriously angry) What is this creepy tune of yours? Are you lot putting on a show for me?
Stas Rybkin: Zhenya, I understand how this looks, but it is not a show. I have an app on my phone. That is exactly what it is called — “QuietPlace”. It switches on when there is not a single signal around that the device can make sense of. No mobile network, no Wi-Fi, not even GPS. And when it switches on, it plays the music from “A Quiet Place”. Spectacular and symbolic.
(Stas turns off the sound on his phone.)
Zhenechka: And your app has never gone off before?
Stas Rybkin: Well, yes. We live in a world entirely tangled in networks. A place with no signal at all is a fairly rare thing these days.
Zhenechka: So rare that you have to wear a snake hat there?
Stas Rybkin: Zhenya, what exactly are you afraid of? Are you afraid of snakes? There is nowhere for them to come from out here.
Zhenechka: Like any normal person, I am afraid of what I do not understand. And I do not understand anything that is going on. Look at that cloud. It is coming at us at a simply terrifying speed. Ordinary clouds do not move that fast. It looks as if it has wings.
Stas Rybkin: And claws…
Zhenechka: Idiot…
(Zhenya angrily slaps the camera from above, and the camera falls. For a split second it shows the sky. And in that sky, it seems, strange sharp, insect, winged silhouettes flash past. Then the screen goes dark.)