Page 592
Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2026 10:05 am
“And do you know that every church or cathedral had another entrance through
the neighbouring house? And here nearby there’s some house through whose
basement you can get in, but we won’t get into the house. But there’s a passage
there. Or through the garden: there you have to dig somehow from the ground.”
And on one of the days we get out of the car into this garden, where the square
with the church is. And I won’t say what the church is called, because some people
might go and dig everything up there. There’s no need to dig anything, guys, by
no means. I’ll explain to you now why. So imagine, we get out of the car, a dude is
walking, passes by us, and goes through this garden. You know, when you enter
a park, you can go straight through it. So he’s walking like that and pretending
that he’s drunk. Just walking like that. And I feel that something’s off with him,
because when someone thinks about me, I feel the attention. And I tell the guys:
— Guys, this dude came for us, we mustn’t do anything. Let’s go back to the car
immediately.
— Come on, he’s drunk.
— Nothing of the sort — we need to leave. Let’s make a circle around the garden.
We make a circle around this garden, drive past a parked car. And in the car
sit that dude and another one just like him, and they’re looking at us, and we
at them. And everything’s so slowed down, just like in the films. And we’re in
shock. And I understand that it’s someone who’s come, who guards all this.
They were athletic, muscular fighters of some kind, shaved, some two men,
some special services. How did they find out that I’d come there? Who are
they, who controls them? Why do they guard it? Why didn’t they come up right
away? Why did they pretend? What’s the trick? Who was tailing me then? I don’t
know. Well, and, of course, on the basis of all these themes… Meladze recalled
what was in the books about how a certain boy called the mystic-old-man and
asked about me, and the mystic-old-man said: “Whoa. Who is this, then? Who
is this, that they said up top not to touch him? How can it be, in our time, that
it’s possible to say like that, that he mustn’t be touched?” And then the boy also
asked: “And is he not to be touched in the whole world, or in Russia?” And the
mystic-old-man says: “In Russia they said not to touch him. What on earth is
this? Who is he?” This boy answers him that it’s Alexandr, and he says: “Ah. I see.”
the neighbouring house? And here nearby there’s some house through whose
basement you can get in, but we won’t get into the house. But there’s a passage
there. Or through the garden: there you have to dig somehow from the ground.”
And on one of the days we get out of the car into this garden, where the square
with the church is. And I won’t say what the church is called, because some people
might go and dig everything up there. There’s no need to dig anything, guys, by
no means. I’ll explain to you now why. So imagine, we get out of the car, a dude is
walking, passes by us, and goes through this garden. You know, when you enter
a park, you can go straight through it. So he’s walking like that and pretending
that he’s drunk. Just walking like that. And I feel that something’s off with him,
because when someone thinks about me, I feel the attention. And I tell the guys:
— Guys, this dude came for us, we mustn’t do anything. Let’s go back to the car
immediately.
— Come on, he’s drunk.
— Nothing of the sort — we need to leave. Let’s make a circle around the garden.
We make a circle around this garden, drive past a parked car. And in the car
sit that dude and another one just like him, and they’re looking at us, and we
at them. And everything’s so slowed down, just like in the films. And we’re in
shock. And I understand that it’s someone who’s come, who guards all this.
They were athletic, muscular fighters of some kind, shaved, some two men,
some special services. How did they find out that I’d come there? Who are
they, who controls them? Why do they guard it? Why didn’t they come up right
away? Why did they pretend? What’s the trick? Who was tailing me then? I don’t
know. Well, and, of course, on the basis of all these themes… Meladze recalled
what was in the books about how a certain boy called the mystic-old-man and
asked about me, and the mystic-old-man said: “Whoa. Who is this, then? Who
is this, that they said up top not to touch him? How can it be, in our time, that
it’s possible to say like that, that he mustn’t be touched?” And then the boy also
asked: “And is he not to be touched in the whole world, or in Russia?” And the
mystic-old-man says: “In Russia they said not to touch him. What on earth is
this? Who is he?” This boy answers him that it’s Alexandr, and he says: “Ah. I see.”