The translation was done by computer.
Preliminary Clarifications to the Trilogy.
Davo
Fire – Any Price
Пожар — Любая Цена. (на русском языке)
There are goals that cannot be reached in one leap, but must be reached limping. And in these cases, it’s not a sin to limp. (Freud)
The action takes place in the United States in the 20s and 30s.
There is only one main character. A young man about 25-28 years old. Let’s call him John.
(I don’t remember the name of the hero, so I came up with it myself – let it be John)
This John was, so to speak, the average young man of that time. If we try to characterize his personality, we will find many flaws in him and about the same number of advantages.
But for now, the circumstances of his life at that moment are more important to us.
He has never been married. As for work, he did whatever came his way.
That is, in fact, he was unemployed, lonely, homeless, with decent debts and without any bright prospects.
One day, our John, completely unexpectedly for himself, learned that one of his relatives had died and left him his ranch with a plot of land as an inheritance.
Of course, he was glad. Perhaps for the first time in his life, John felt a state of happiness. At least, he had not felt that way for a long time. He quite logically assumed that if he had a ranch with a plot of land, it meant that he would have his own roof over his head and his own small farm so as not to starve.
Overflowing with joyful and bright plans, John set off to look for HIS ranch.
The nearest settlement from the ranch was the small town of V. Trains passed through the city of V.
(I don’t remember the name of the city either. But it doesn’t matter in the slightest.)
It was at the station in the city of V. that John got off the train. It was around noon. He had to settle some paperwork in the city of V. and only then continue on his way to his ranch.
One way or another, he reached his ranch in the evening, when it was already getting dark and it was quite dark.
The first impression was most pleasant. Exactly what he expected, and even more.
John hadn’t eaten anything all day and was very hungry, but there was a fairly decent supply of canned food in the house. He opened one jar, took a spoon and went out to look around.
He could see that behind the sparse bushes, about two hundred meters away, a small river was flowing. He saw a glint from the surface of the water.
It was almost night, so he couldn’t really see anything further than 10-15 m.
John finished his dinner in the can. Suddenly he realized that he was very tired, and went to bed with the anticipation of a wonderful morning.
The plans in his soul became even more joyful and even brighter.
But he couldn’t even begin to imagine what kind of BUMMER was waiting for him in the morning.
A bright sunny morning arrived with joyful excitement.
When John woke up, he decided that first of all he would go to the river and wash himself. He opened the door and left the house.
Three meters from the door lay the corpse of some kind of creature.
He looked closely and couldn’t understand what it was. Either a frog or a lizard. In short, some kind of creature.
John looked around. A little further on there was another similar corpse. He walked on and discovered that there were quite a few of them all over the area.
Where are they from? From the side of the river. It’s obvious. And he went to the river.
Along the river bank there was a strip of bushes. Only in one place (about 15-20 meters) there were no bushes. Most likely, this was done so that there was convenient access to the river. Since this place was not used for some time, it turned into a small area of swamp.
It was in this swampy place that these creatures appeared. And there were many of them. In the morning they began to crawl in different directions in search of food. The distance from the swamp to the house was just such that just by evening several creatures reached the house. By nightfall they were all returning to their swamp. But those who had gone too far did not make it back in time and died. That’s why their corpses were all over John’s plot. And the closer to the swamp, the more.
It was just morning, and all the creatures began their daily movement. He was amazed at how many there were.
The first thought is to find a shovel. There were several shovels in the shed. Using a shovel, he threw them back towards the swamp.
He saw that there were too many of them and he couldn’t cope. But he couldn’t stop.
(When there is a fire, it must be extinguished at ANY COST. Even if it is stronger, even if it grows despite your gigantic efforts, you still need to continue putting it out. And don’t stop until everything is completely extinguished. Hunger, fatigue, illness, injury, etc. are not reasons to stop.
FIRE – ANY PRICE.)
Towards evening the activity of the creatures began to subside, then they fell asleep until the morning.
John somehow made it to his bed and passed out. He had neither the time nor the energy to COMPREHEND what was happening.
The next morning came.
A short breakfast. And back into battle with a shovel in hand.
At first (superficial) glance, all this looked like a senseless, stupid fuss. But John felt that he was doing the right thing. Some inner voice was telling him what to do and giving him strength. All this was still maturing in the depths of his soul, had not yet risen to the level of consciousness, but there — in the depths — was already the ANSWER.
But in reality there was sun, heat, many creatures, his land with his house and lonely John with a shovel.
(The fire is still blazing. That is, we must not stop under any circumstances.)
The second day was very similar to the previous one — with one exception. Tonight, John managed to eat a light dinner before going to bed, and, most importantly, he began to THINK about the problem.
So far the most dominant (in fact the only) thought was to spit on everything, drop everything, run away from here tomorrow.
As we can see, his head was occupied with thoughts that were fueled more by emotions than by logic. In short, there was practically no pragmatism at all.
John understands all this himself. But he also understood that sooner or later the emotions would begin to subside, and he would begin to reason. He also understood that emotions should not be rushed.
Today he fell asleep happy. Because he made the FIRST DECISION: to continue fighting for now, and then we’ll see.
The morning of the third day came.
John woke up feeling full of strength and a desire to DEFEND HIS OWN.
Again, a quick breakfast, a shovel in hand and to the swamp.
This time he made all his movements unconsciously, like a programmed robot, but his head was occupied with something completely different – he was calculating what possibilities he had, looking for options.
In the evening, while having dinner, he was already reasoning CONSTRUCTIVELY.
(To extinguish the fire, first of all it is necessary to remove the source – gas, electricity, etc.)
In order for the creatures to become fewer, it is necessary either to poison them with something, or to find their natural enemies, or to remove the swamp.
1. Natural enemies may exist, but he didn’t notice anything like that during these 2-3 days.
2. To poison them. You need to know what to poison them with and where to get it. This means he must take one corpse and go to city V. to find out the answers to these questions from someone.
But he didn’t like this option.
Firstly, these creatures most likely live along the entire coast. There are probably swampy areas in the bushes. And that’s where the creatures live. They are rare, but there are. This means that even if he manages to deal with his creatures, they will appear again later.
Secondly, he did not want to poison the creatures with some strong chemicals, and at the same time his own plot.
And he didn’t have money for all this.
3. Drain the swamp. This will really solve the problem with the creatures, and at the same time open access to the river.
John decided to try draining the swamp first.
With this thought he fell asleep.
The next day, he waved his shovel, but never for a second stopped thinking about how to drain the swamp.
Planting bushes will not work for two reasons:
a. It’s a long time. It will take at least 1-2 years for everything to take root and start growing.
b. Access to the river cannot be closed. This will be useful to him in the future.
There was only one way left. But where to get so many stones? Now he was thinking only about this.
All around, wherever you look, there is flat steppe with rare bushes. There are practically no stones. There was also a hill, which was located at a distance of about 2-3 kilometers. There were rare trees on the hill.
That evening at dinner, John found himself thinking that his attention kept returning to this hill. Before falling asleep, he made another key decision. John decided to get up early in the morning, right at dawn. As soon as it starts to get light, he will go to this hill. But he would have to hurry to have time to return and continue his fight with the creatures again.
In the morning, on the way to the hill, he was noticeably nervous. He really hoped that the hill was rocky. A lot depended on it now.
And the hill really turned out to be rocky.
John stood happy again. He understood what to do and how to do it to solve the problem. He had a huge amount of work ahead of him, but that didn’t bother him. Now John saw a successful end to this unexpected story.
John took two cobblestones in both hands and hurried back to the swamp.
All day until evening, he waved his shovel again. But at the edge of the swamp there were already the FIRST 2 COBBLESTONES sticking out.
He dined with pleasure. He had a final plan.
The next day started again with a hike to the hill and then continued with a shovel.
So 3 weeks passed. He did everything automatically. Breakfast. ONE hike to the hill, 2 or 3 cobblestones in hand, back to the swamp. He took a shovel and continued his struggle with the creatures.
Of course, he was looking for more convenient solutions to the problem. But all the ideas were non-working, and John rejected them.
The brightest idea was to make a wheelbarrow. Then he could not carry 2-3 cobblestones on his hands, but 10-15 at once in a wheelbarrow. John searched long and hard in the barn for any wheel, anything. But all in vain.
It didn’t upset him. He had already once asked heaven on the way to the hill that there would be stones on the hill. And the heavens granted his request. Now he just had to carry out his simple algorithm of actions every day. And sooner or later there will be results.
(Have you noticed how all the trees in the world grow? They grow every day. In the truest sense, literally every day. But no matter how hard you try to see this growth, you will not succeed. A few months will pass, and everyone will see that they have really grown up.)
And one day it happened.
John noticed that there had not been a single corpse near the house for 2-3 days. At first he thought that he had already drained part of the swamp, the shore had moved away a little, so the creatures no longer reach the house. Then he abandoned this idea. Of course, he pushed back the edge of the shore – and this is true, but so far only about 1 meter. So, probably, his efforts have led to the fact that the number of creatures is beginning to decrease.
Anyway, it was a victory. So far, only an intermediate victory, but still a VICTORY.
After a couple of days, John decided that he now ALREADY HAD THE OPPORTUNITY to manage to go to the hill TWO times every day. And he decided to try it tomorrow.
Now the edge of the shore began to move away much faster. And now, after only 10 days, John saw the results — the edge of the swamp had been pushed back by 2-3 meters, there were noticeably fewer creatures, and there were fewer and fewer corpses on his land.
Now our hero had the opportunity to go to the hill THREE times during the day. But John decided to change his plans a little.
John decided that every day he would make only 2 raids to the hill out of three possible, then, as before, swing his shovel, but during the day he would sometimes REST a little. He could already afford it.
Another month has passed. The swamp was completely drained.
John calmed down. He began to calmly evaluate the past 2-3 months. Including thinking about my actions, thoughts and decisions. And he was pleased with himself. Maybe someone else in similar circumstances would have solved this problem differently, perhaps even better than he did, but John did just that.
His old dreams and hopes filled his soul again. And John began to figure out where to start.
ALL THE SUCCESS TO HIM! He deserved it.
Sunday, May 28, 2023
