Tears in the Night

Stas Rybkin: It is already very late. About one in the morning. Oleg Batygin and I went for a walk through the night forest. We watched the crabs. By all appearances, he simply wanted to talk to me “off the record”. I must keep the content of that conversation secret. It really was an important and secret conversation. But not to mention it at all would also be wrong. One more secret… One more intrigue… A small dark room in a house flooded with light… I think I overdid the weed today after all.

I must apologise for the quality of the picture on screen. I am filming with a head-mounted action camera right now and cannot see the frame. But I hope that the randomness of the composition will be made up for by the default picturesqueness of this place.

We can see that the bonfire is still smouldering, but the dancing ended long ago. Two insanely romantic couples are still sitting by the sea in the light of the fire. And right against the flames we see the silhouette of a girl with a guitar. I think this is the very same girl who was doing the fire at the start of the party. True, back then she was completely naked, and now she has put on a short little skirt.

I feel strongly and strangely excited. That pleasant manic state you get before a big celebration. Before the New Year countdown, for instance. And that is all the stranger since the party is practically over. Most of the islanders have gone off to bed.

I do not feel like sleeping at all, so I shall pretend that I am intently searching for Zhenechka.

………

Where would I have got to myself, if I were Zhenechka? Of course, I would have picked a more elegant backdrop. Let us look for her behind the rose garden, by the fountain. It is very likely that she is sitting there, on the rim, in front of the sparkling jets in the company of someone tall and muscular.

(Stas walks through a gap in the hedge to the fountain. Zhenya really is there. She is not alone. And she is standing up straight. At her feet, leaning her elbows on the wall of the basin, sits Delphine. She is sobbing. She is in hysterics. Zhenya hears footsteps. She turns round.)

Zhenechka: Stas? Good that you have come. Delphine is in a really bad way.

Stas Rybkin: What happened?

Zhenechka: Is that a camera on your forehead? Turn it off, please.

………………..

(The filming continues in a completely different setting. This is the bar on the upstairs balcony of the Batygins’ house. Oleg sits gloomily astride a chair turned back to front, his chin resting on his arms folded on the chair back. Zhenechka stands leaning her elbows on the bar counter. In her right hand is a glass with two fingers of something strong. Probably whisky. Next to her is Robert. He is holding a bottle. In the shadow behind the counter, hunched over on a low little sofa, sits Alexei. Nervousness and tension can be felt. One can see at once that something unexpected and extremely unpleasant has happened. Perhaps something terrible.)

Stas Rybkin: (Stas himself is not visible. Most likely he is holding the camera.) The camera is running… Oleg Batygin is now going to read us the letter that upset Delphine so much. Oleg wants me to record the reading of the letter on camera. Which is, in fact, what I am doing.

Oleg Batygin: A copy of the letter that so badly distressed Del came to my inbox. The letter came from Byung Min’s personal address. But it was not Byung Min who wrote it. The letter is signed with the name Younghee Chung. I think I have met Ms Chung… Though that may be mere conjecture on my part… Byung Min has never written to me before. This is the first letter from his address in my inbox. Let me just read the letter, and then we shall discuss all this.

Dear Lady Delphine,

I am writing to you on behalf of our Father, yours and mine, Byung Min. Byung Min is not my biological father, just as he is not yours. Like several dozen other women, I call him my father because he created my life and my success. He picked me up in the slums of Ho Chi Minh City and turned me into a kind of “Princess of the Sea”. I know that Father gave you a similar gift.

I am writing to you because Father can no longer write himself. He is now in the intensive care unit of The University of Tokyo Hospital. The doctors say that Byung Min has very little time left to live. Perhaps less than a month.

The sharp worsening of his illness came after he was forced to break off his many years of ties with the Company. Father stood at its founding, and for him this was a terrible blow.

If you wish to see him one last time, fly to Tokyo as soon as you can.

For my own part, I beg you to come without fail. Perhaps you do not suspect it, but you are the most beloved of Byung Min’s daughters. He followed your fate with the closest attention. And you are the only one of us to whom he wrote regularly.

It occurred to me that you have most likely heard nothing about me. I am the daughter of Byung Min who shared his most terrible years with him. For the last twelve years I have lived in his house and cared for him.

Here is my Tokyo number: *****. Call me when you arrive.

It would be good if your husband, Oleg Batygin, found the time to come with you. Father considers Oleg the most gifted manager among all those to whom he once lent his support. That is why he wishes to leave the greater part of his fortune to your husband, on condition that your husband takes on the stewardship of a network of numerous and peculiar projects initiated by Father. Father very much hopes that Oleg Batygin will be able to take over the affairs in person.

I look forward to seeing you in Tokyo.

With deep respect, Younghee Chung

(Oleg makes a long pause, nods, and shows with his whole manner that he has finished.)

Stas Rybkin: Will you fly to Tokyo?

Oleg Batygin: Of course. You probably noticed that Ms Younghee Chung did not allow a shadow of doubt that I would come. And she was not mistaken. I am deeply moved and terribly upset. Byung Min is an astonishing man. He is something utterly fantastic. A hidden and mighty genius, the patron of creative madmen of my sort. And for so many years I thought badly of him. I am very ashamed of that now.

At the same time I must note that Ms Younghee Chung, by all appearances, knows me rather well.

Stas Rybkin: So well, it is as if she had lived in the flat next door for several years.

Oleg Batygin: Exactly! So you have arrived at the same conjecture as I have…

Stas Rybkin: I must memorise everything around me carefully. I am present at the moment the crown passes from one Sea King to another…

Oleg Batygin: I do not think I shall be able to become a real Olokun. One has to be born one. I strongly suspect that Byung Min’s strange “magic” is directly connected with his terrible illness. And that illness is hereditary. However, I most likely really shall be able to manage the network of projects already created and running. I am a skilled engineer and an experienced entrepreneur. At the very least, I shall be able to keep this network going until the arrival of a new, real, genetically predetermined avatar of Olokun.

Stas Rybkin: I strongly suspect that you are taking on an enormous responsibility.

Oleg Batygin: That is most likely true. And I am sure that we shall now need people. Del was very far-sighted when she started making new acquaintances.