Warlock, page 18
There was a cloudy morning, when you didn’t know what kind a day lay above – it may be rainy day as in the same way as shiny. Alex looks around and make little deep inhales. He felt slight worriedness, he knew this feeling – it means a good interview to him, but it wasn’t a comfortable state. He took his small bag, checked blank papers of his notebook and looked on Jim. Helper saw his friend’s condition, and as Alex know that this a good sign, and smiled to him, “Let’s go to your Giaconda.”
They walk to the door, and Barns felt a weak Deja view feeling, he thought that in the same second when they will ring at the door Antony’s mother would scream at them again. That is why, when he put his finger on the bell his hand treacherously shake. He hoped that Jim didn't notice it. There was a moment when nothing happened, and then door opened. On the threshold, they saw a middle-aged man with a silver moustaches and silver hair on both sides of his head. That was definitely Antony’s father – he had almost the same face as his son, only older by itself. He said with a calm voice:
“Mr. Barns and Mr. Helper I think?”
Alex nodded and shook hand of the man:
“Good day, Mr. Tychov”
Jim shook his hand too.
Man stepped aside and pointed with his hand inside of the house:
“Come in, gentleman. Coffee? Tea?”
Alex smiled:
“Thanks, Mr. Tychov, we just had a breakfast.”
“Call me Luc,” said man.
Alex said looking around and pointing for a Jim to the photo on the wall:
“Uncommon name”
Mr. Tychov turned to friends and smiled a little:
“You mean uncommon for a former USSR citizen?”
Alex distracted from the walls and said:
“Oh… Sorry. Yes, I mean exactly this.”
Mr. Tychov nodded and continued his walk to the kitchen:
“My parents were religious people. And now I grateful them, because this name is almost common here. At least more common than some “Mytrophan””.
Friends smiled.
“Say, where do you had your breakfast?”
“Nancy’s,” said Alex.
“Nice choice but let me make coffee by my own receipt. Nan is a good cooker, but not good coffee is a commonplace of all US dinners, whatever good they cook their meals.”
Jim nodded, and Alex said for both of them:
“Thanks, it would be nice”
A host nodded and said:
“Sit down, please. Oh, or you want to shoot here?”
Alex looked on Jim. Helper shrugged, and narrator turned to Luc:
“We can make it later. Besides, we do not bother Mrs. Tychov”
“You can feel save,” answered host. “I made her an injection of her sedative. And I want to apologize about that incident with her. Everyone here know about her condition, especially Colonel, but he let you done this… I do not know why.”
Alex smiled and nodded:
“You do not need to apologize, and it’s a frequent thing – my visits to a jail. And Mr. Colonel has his own reasons, he told me them.”
From a cooker guests heard a sound of boiling water, and then they feel spicy smell of coffee. Barns felt taste by inner part of his throat.
“Smells like a miracle,” he said.
Mr. Tychov nodded:
“It tastes better,” saying this, he took three little cups and fill them with hot almost black liquid. “So. We will sit here or in the living room?”
Alex looked on the Jim, and last answered to the undelivered question:
“It would be cozy if we begin here, and then after a short intermedium will go to the living room.”
A narrator nodded and turned to the host:
“You heard the cameraman.”
Luc gave them biscuits, and cups of coffee. He waits for friends make first sips, and then take his own.
“Oh…” said Alex. “Like said one FBI agent – it’s a damn good coffee.”
He turned to the camera. “As you can notice, this great reception arranged with the father of Antony Tychov. We sit on the kitchen of their house and now let us begin our talk. Good day, Mr. Tychov, Luc”
A host nodded to the camera, then turned to Alex.
“First of all, thank you for you agree to this talk. We faced with the fact that a very small number of people want to talk about this case…”
Luc nodded:
“I think that they afraid even of thinking about this. People afraid of things that they do not understand, but we are living in an open world now, somebody even calls it a glass house. I think that this is a right comparison, and the better we would see something, the more we will talk – the better world would be.”
“And wat do they afraid of?”
Mr. Tychov look into his cup and said:
“I think that most of scare was of answers. You know a phrase that the more we study, the less we know? So, I think that the feel with their guts that here, in this case, is something that they need to study, to understand, to… To expend borders of an understandable world.”
Alex sipped his coffee and said:
“Let’s begin from the start. You came to this town last summer from…”
“Spring. It was March… No, an April when we came here. And let’s call our former country – ex-USSR, especially region we came from.”
“Hm…” Alex looked into his notes. “In that case, it turned out that you have a couple of weeks before integration in this town’s life.”
Mr. Tychov nodded:
“Yes, I want to look on this new life from a side before we became part of it. I think it was a good plan, because such… Immigration, let’s call it by its name – it’s a very hard thing. It’s hard for a new generation, who live in an open world, not saying about me, who saw a cold war and closed border.”
“How Antony face it?”
Luc shrugged and looked into the kitchen window:
“He thought that I was a traitor,” man turned to the narrator. “He was angry. Of course. We must leave all that we knew before and went across the world. It was hard adaptation. That’s why we came here earlier then begin to integrate into town life… But I think that Antony never forgive me.”
“Why do you think so?”
Luc sighed:
“Like every old offence from time to time it appears in our family scenes… He missed home for a while, but later he thought that the root of all problems here is our moving out… Then was a couple of visits to a family doctor. I think that it’s hurt Antony a lot worse”
“Was that helpful?”
Luc shrugged:
“For that moment… I think so. Anyway, he shows us some ways to change point of view. Anyway, I think that that visits helped Antony to reconcile with circumstances.”
Alex nodded and drinks his coffee for a last drop. He put cup on the table and said:
“Thank you for the coffee once again.”
“You’re welcome,”
Barns continued:
“Everyone with whom we talked before said that they didn't find that point where he became… Different. Do you see it from today?”
“Different,” dreamily repeated Mr. Tychov. “Nice word… Nevertheless, I am afraid that like any other parent’s we denied a problem to the last. I heard such a stories about the parents of drug addicts. At first, they refuse that there is a problem is. Then they try to help their children, and often knowing that all money that they give to them will go for drugs, they give them money. And you know why?”
Alex shakes his head, and Antony’s father answered:
“Because if their children buy drugs, their pain will go for a while. Parents will do many things to rid their children of something… So do we. We do not want to see a problem, hoping that giving him time he will cure himself. Time of our non-reaction was drug for him. But when it started… No, I can’t say that. I remember his speech about Necronomicon, but now I think that it wasn’t the start.”
Alex shakes his head lightly:
“Necronomicon? Book of dead?”
“Yes. The same one. One Sunday after the church, Antony asked me do I know something about it? I said – yes, some films use it, as I know. It mentioned in a different creepy stories. He nodded and said that he found a story about it in the internet, then some guy who sells it, as he said – rewritten from an original. I said that I thought that there no place, for such a literature in our house, and that makes him laugh to the tears in his eyes. And you know why?”
“I can only suppose,” said Alex. “Maybe Antony knew the origin of that book?”
“Exactly! He told me a story of a Lovecraft’s pantheon, about all his gods and Necronomicon that Howard made up. Next, my question was why do he think about this book? In addition, he said strange thing for that time. He said – I think about the power of imagination. It easily can make some imaginary things real. I said that for that purpose you need also faith and followers. He nodded and said – you caught an idea.”
Jim silently places his cup near the Alex’s one, and Luc, finishing his coffee, took all the cups and place them into the sink.
“That day I thought that he told me about the church, some irony. Despite my parent’s I am not religious man and Antony too. Then I do not pay attention to that talk…So, if you want a starting point – that was it, but I do not saw it”
He turned to the interviewers:
“Let’s go to the living room.”
Three of them went to the hall and turned right. They came in a large, light room with photos on the walls. There were family photos and every part of it separately. Jim shoots them when Alex and Luc took their places.
“So,” said Barns. “You just said that when it starts you do not know, but when does you mentioned it?”
“As I had said – parents see almost at the start, but they do not want to understand it, trying to think that all ok, nothing happens, all is just a coincidence. Nevertheless, small things always tell you that something is wrong…It is always almost nonsense. We found strange pictures on his shelves, some bones, candles wax…But it all had no sense when your kid is a teenager, who had just left his country and friends… But at some point you can’t close eyes on facts, and you need face them…”
“When does that happen?”
“Crash,” answered Antony’s dad. «Although… No, there was one moment that scared me for a first time. I think at that moment I understand that something is wrong. It was… Hm. A couple of months after the crash. All that little stuff that I had mentioned we can’t ignore and one weekend we came into Antony’s room. There was a mess. Everywhere were some papers with a strange signs and loud music. We said that he must clean his room, and so on… In the finale of our fight, he said that if we ever enter this room without his invitation we would have some backwash that we do not allow to cross line at the door.” Luc looked to the side and said:
“Then he shut the door. After that, we argued with my wife do, he touches it? I was sure that he doesn’t, just waved his hand and door shut. But my wife said that was it was only my imagination.”
Alex held a pause that Luc put then asked:
“But he cleans his room?”
Antony’s father smiled:
“Oh yeah, cleaned. And shut music off. Moreover, sitting in the kitchen we heard his voice. Angry teenager shout something – what’s wrong? Nevertheless, there were two voices there, and we were afraid to look in his room again. It seems that he is arguing with someone. And after it, one day when I stayed at home, I entered his room. I cannot stay there even for five minutes. I felt lack of air, even when I opened a window and dizziness. I ask my wife to enter, and she runt from there after three minutes. Something was wrong there, despite total clearness.
He looked aside and continued:
“It became a very strange place. It was wrong. You cannot see the reason, but you feel it. Every dimension has some its own curve: volume that you saw doesn't equal volume that you feel, light was little bit bright or less then it must be, if you count angles sometimes it feels like you must find fifth, or count on three at all. Now it has only a light start of that effect - it's only uncomfortable, but even now you can't say why for sure.”
Barns turned some pages of his notebook:
“Here,” he said pointing on page with his writing. “Fred said that his room seemed had a pair of additional corners, but you can’t see them. A brain thinks that they are there, but eyes see nothing,”
Luc smiled:
“Fred. Smart and nice boy. How is he?”
“He’s fine. As much as possible.”
“Glad to hear. He’s a good friend. And yes, I think he found a way to describe effect of that room.”
“Can we shoot some there?”
Luc raised eyebrows:
“Yes. I will lead you there but now effect weaker with every day. Maybe it’s connected with symbols that we found on the walls and corners. Nobody can’t say what does they meant, but after we erase them room became bouncing back.”
“Signs? Was there a honeycomb?”
Mr. Tychov looked at Alex and nodded a little:
“So, you know about this too… Yes, they were on the walls too. Variations on the theme of a honeycomb. Lots of them. A small hexagon with a dot at one of the sides was a basic symbol. Even now I do not know what does they meant.”
Alex frowned a little:
“Let me clear one thing, Mr. Tychov. You can’t give us something that looks like proof of something weird?”
Antony’s father looked at an interviewer calmly:
“Proof, Mr. Barns?”
“It’s just… Everything that we heard last week is like your last words – one saw one thing, other – another. And no confidence.”
Luc nodded:
“I see. No, you do not find such things here. I think that this is one of the senses of this how you call it case. You’ll walk on the margin on and on.”
Alex sighed and said:
“A set of strange stories that connected with your son”
“I’m afraid that it is the most accurate description.”
“Ok,” said Alex and shook himself a little like after the dream. “Let’s go to another story. The crash. What do you know about circumstances?”
Antony’s father shook his head:
“No,” his eyes looked on the floor. «We had a call from the hospital, and they tell us “your son was hit by a car” … I’ll remember that word for the rest of my life. They denied telling me more and we went to the hospital… Their doctor came to us and said that all bad… He said that it would be a fantastic if he’ll be in the wheelchair. And he said that he and the other guy in the coma now…”
Antony’s father closes his eyes with his fingers. Alex and Jim looked at him in a total silence, they knew that in such moments total non-interference is a best way to interact and help. After a minute Luc’s hand dropped down and he said after a deep inhale:
“Sorry. So, they had said that both guys in a coma. Moreover, if we would, lucky Antony will have a disability… Three days after he opens his eyes and said something about silhouette, thunder and called his mom. Forty days after those words he came out on his own legs, smiling.”
Alex’s eyes widened:
“How that’s happened?”
Luc spread to the sides his hands and drop them on his laps:
“I wish I know. A doctor says that this is a pure miracle, because even if it was not a hard case – he had too many injures. Broken bones – the least of them. When I say that words to the Antony, he answered calmly that miracle is only an event with an extremely low probability.”
Mr. Tychov looked directly to the camera:
“He wasn’t surprised at all. He said about that like winning in a lottery.”
Alex smirked a little:
“You can say that he picked a lucky ticket. Unlike the other guy…”
Antony’s father dropped his head:
“Yes, that boy died. A nurse told me that Antony’s awaking and death of that guy were very close. She said in whisper that it happened in one same moment.”
A narrator placed something on the page of his notebook:
“Can you confirm this?”
Luc shrugged with his shoulders:
“I don’t know. When your boy opened his eyes after the coma, you can spit on the thousands other people, dead or alive.”
Barns nodded, showing his total understanding. Then he asked:
“Many of our respondents told us that after the crash Antony had changed.”
Luc nodded, and Alex said:
“Can you tell us how? What the changes are?”
There was a pause for a minute and Antony’s father slowly, as in search of right words said:
“He became a little shadowy… Sometimes I think that something from another side stick to him, and he bring it back with him. Looking on him was like seeing someone through the frozen glass. You can guess who it is, you can guess some general things, but details are dodgy.”
“He tells something about, as you said – other side?”
“Nothing,” Luc quickly responded. “He always said that he can’t recall anything. But I think that he lied. There was something… Like piece of glass from the fairy tale about Snow Queen it settled in his heart.”
“What do you mean?”
Antony’s father looked to the side, looking for right words:
“Sometimes I thought that he lost some emotions. He became cold and icy. He smiled and laughed, but all that he did with fakeness. Moreover, sometimes I thought that he became a different person at all. Like a car when people inside exchanging their places. Those who watch from the side saw the same car, but driving skills would be different”
Alex listened carefully, without noting anything and then asked:
“You mean that he had split personality?”
Luc grimaced and waved with his heat:
