Borislav had remained silent, until finally mustering up the courage to call the FCP. Unexpectedly, it was Mary's voice on the phone. He hung up right away, not having the courage to pull out a fake voice like he had done with Ms.Sweemey. He waited for the break's hour to call again, this time falling on some random person, and was redirected to Shattyk Liwei's line on demand. As soon as he heard the grumpy man's "Who is this?", Borislav notified him; "Azurfin. I want to quit.". "You're already fired." Shattyk Liwei informed him, before dryly hanging up.
Borislav spent the main of the next three days buckled up inside of his home, only going out to talk to Blobby briefly about business, and get the placebos delivered around the city. Flabby had started accompanying him at work, waking up at the same time as him in order to go out. He had noticed his hooman's lack of motivation to see the sunlight, and although he originally didn't mind it; it grew extremely annoying. It was time to stop being a tame dog, and start barking again. On Thursday morning, as they both headed back to the apartment after the deliveries, Flabby suddenly drifted apart, barking loudly at Borislav and embarrassing him in front of all the pedestrians.
Yet Borislav didn't care. The time when he could be intimidated by a simple bark was long gone. If Flabby wanted to drift off and get lost; that wasn't his problem. Besides, the dog knew the way to the apartment. But unlike Borislav, Flabby wasn't a quitter. He wouldn't just give up because life didn't give him what he wanted right away. The Pit-Bull-Dog ran at full speed towards Borislav and jumped on his back, biting the fabric of his shirt and hanging on to it. It was impossible to move without having Flabby tear it apart; his long teeth went straight through it as he was standing on his dog toes.
The stare of strangers became uncomfortable as the seconds went on, without either of them moving. As predicted by Flabby's calculations, this was enough to make Borislav give in. The young man looked behind him with his desperate eyes and sighed; "Fine." He followed Flabby around, all the while feeling the breeze through the holes the hound had poked into his shirt's back. He soon recognized the path that Flabby was taking, seeing the bright colors of the Ten Wonders park gleam in front of him.
Again, they strolled on the long stone path leading to the ex-leader's statue. Borislav caught a glimpse of the bench where he had talked with the girl that haunted his dreams. But she wasn't there; there was no Nomia in view. Still, he approached it, a bit more slowly than he had done the previous time, and upon sitting on it realized the presence of a book left there by an occupant. It was Ivan Lockal's "White Night On Sveta's Bed". Somehow, someone had forgotten it there. It had a torn piece of textbook paper as bookmark, folded hastily on its cover. As the park's heavenly air lulled Borislav to relaxation, he contemplated the book, unsure of what to do with it.
Flabby was rolling nearby in the grass and eating each type of flowerhead he could find, leaving Borislav alone with the bench, the book, and the ten wonders. Overpowered by his curiosity, the Hooman ended up laying his hands on the work, pulling it towards him, and taking a look at the bookmarked page. It was page 146, already at 1/3 of the book's content. It appeared to be an intense scene in Sveta's bed with The Prince Of Night, yet the graphic descriptions weren't what caught Borislav's eyes. All over the page, he could see pencil notes taken in messy handwriting, as well as drawings of flowers, fairies, animals... Skimming the pages from the book's cover to the bookmark, he saw these doodles on almost every one of them.
Proceeding to read a few of the pencil notes, Borislav began to recognize which ones were about analyzing Ivan Lockal's literature, and which were about the owner's personal life. It was quite simple to make the distinction; the first type of notes were almost unintelligible and little effort was put into them, while the second type were the clearest. To avoid torturing his eyes too much, and also out of sheer voyeurism, Borislav read a bunch of the second type's content.
Some notes mentioned a "Vinya", a "Brad" and a "Goldile". From page 120 onwards, a certain "him" started being talked about. The notes about the first three were related to her daily life in the owner's place of stay, probably roommates. Borislav had gathered that Brad owned a car and was shameless, that Vinya constantly stole from the fridge and that Goldile was an aspiring musician who also looked too insistently at the book's owner, who was certainly a woman. As for the "him", well. It was more complicated for (Not) Detective Azurfin to crack the concerned notes.
What was clear is that "him" was a torture. Not because "him" was bad or evil, but because she couldn't stop seeing him. He was an object of involuntary obsession. "Saw him again today, why?" asked one of the notes, the third mention of the man. After that mention, it talked of dreams where he appeared. Those dreams were eccentric and made Borislav chuckle by their absurdity as he roamed through someone else's thoughts. One that got him in particular described a situation where everyone she would met was wearing cheese on their head, everyone except this "him". Even in dreams where other people's faces were covered, she couldn't stop seeing his. She had started to squiggle little portraits, probably of "him". However, she would immediately cover it completely with her pencil, until the drawing was no longer discernable. After the bookmark, the doodles and notes stopped. But it didn't prevent Borislav's nosy fingers from quickly skipping through the rest of the book in search of new riddles.
He only found one at the very end of the book, where the abundant blank space was used to draw an intriguingly mysterious scene; two winged angels holding hands above the cushy clouds, one of them had their face covered up in the same way the portraits of "him" had been. It must have been "him". Borislav felt nauseous from looking at it. He couldn't place why, but this was off-putting, strange, even disturbing. He felt concerned by it, yet he realized he was prying into someone else's private business. He had nothing to do with it, so why did he feel his heart strain?
So many questions could be asked. But it wasn't his job to ask them. He closed the book at once, putting it back where it was, except turned upside down. His eyes rose back, drifting to nature, before falling into darkness. Slumber's sweet arms had taken Borislav away, in the Ten Wonders park in the middle of the day. He was back to nothingness. Unless. "Darkness, darkness, always comes." a sweet voice echoed through speakers somewhere close, set on a synth's melodious background. The bench's hard wood, the wind rustling, the smell of the flowers, Borislav could feel them again. Goodbye slumber, it was time for him to open his eyes.
It was night already, but it wasn't very dark. A bunch of fluorescent lights were thrown all over the park. How long had he been sleeping? A whole music festival had been assembled in front of him, with strangely dressed college students making out by the trees next to puddles of vomits, while a large crowd was moving to the slow beat of the song. Did nobody wake him up? The first thing he tried to do is call out for Flabby. He looked around, getting up from the bench but not moving; someone had taken the book, and Flabby was still nowhere to be seen. Is it possible he went home without his slave? "Flabby! Flabby!" Borislav continued shouting, his voice stifled by the music. He didn't gather any new outcome.
Suddenly, a perfectly clear voice came from behind him. He recognized it, it was Nomia's. "Hey", the voice said and made the night sky roll back to day as he turned around to see her.
It was broad daylight again, the sun shined from behind her silhouette, giving it a golden outline. No music anymore, just the birds and the wind. And Flabby slapping Borislav's chest with his paw, salivating all over his shirt. "Are you alright?" the tender voice asked again. There was no Tiger in Borislav urging him to reply something atrocious this time; not even a kitten. He was on his own as he instinctively replied "Sure.", still trying to understand what had just happened.
She stayed silent, mockingly smiling, being unconvinced by this reply. "What are you doing here?" Borislav asked, out of nowhere. Nomia opened her pretty red lips, explaining: "I came here to collect something...And I saw you...shouting." Her freckled face displayed clear embarrassment as she replied. "Oh." Borislav uttered, equally embarrassed. Nomia looked down to the bench fixating on the copy of "White Night On Sveta's Bed". She leaned over to pick it up, Borislav simply stared in awe at how well her retro fashioned blouse and skirt fit onto her body. For a few moments, he asked himself; "Is this heaven?". Her lean shapes distracted him so much that he hadn't realized that the book he had been stuffing his nose on was hers, before she held it firmly in her hand and stood back up.
"Is the book yours?" Borislav asked, as if he was completely slow. Nomia nodded as she answered; "Mhm. I have to...write something on it". "Why?" Borislav inquired, genuinely empty-headed. "College", she replied, chuckling. Then a more vulnerable expression appeared on her face, as she asked; "Did you open it?".
Now if Borislav had been an honest to god person, his answer would have been: "Yes. I read all about your life, your obsession with a guy whose face you hate and people wearing cheese on their heads." But considering the vomit incident, he came to the conclusion that lying was the best option not to completely ruin her day each time they met. "No. " Borislav stated, although admitting "I just read the synopsis."
Nomia pushed a smile of relief, before sarcastically asking; "What do you think of it ?". Borislav shrugged, as he stepped back to get Flabby off of him. His blue shirt had been tainted by the hound's dirty paws, but Nomia didn't seem to care at all. "I think it's interesting" he answered, astonishing Nomia. "Really ?" she immediately wondered, before receiving Borislav's anecdote about the work: "I have this friend who analyzed the book and has a big theory on it about psychology...". Of course, Nomia asked about what that theory was, causing Borislav to blabble about "White Knight" to "White Night" transformations, the intricacies of women's psychology and other things Edfone had told him.
All of this gibberish made Nomia laugh charmingly, prompting her to comment "Your friend seems full of crap" when Borislav was done with his monologue. It made the young man think, was Edfone full of crap ? "I guess" he answered nonetheless, going along with whatever Nomia would be saying. "Hey, what is your name again ?" She asked, half-way slipping up by adding "When I told my friend about you she just kept referring to you with...". Borislav was eager to know the rest, she had talked about him to her *friend*! He rightfully needed to know more, asking "With ?". "Vomitslav" she finished, cringing with her teeth. "Oh." Vomitslav looked down.
He tried to put on a fake grin as he reminded her that his name was Borislav, and not Vomitslav. The message was received, making her feel a bit guilty for what she had just said. She tapped her foot on the grass, trying to think up of what to say before leaving. But instead of a "I need to leave, bye Vomitslav", she came up with an offer; "Hey, did you visit the pond yet?". Borislav was shook. A pond? He never heard anything about it. "No." he replied, before Nomia asked him to come with her to visit.
The pond was within the Ten Wonders Park itself, hidden from views by the trees and small monuments. It was as large as a pool and had numerous swans floating upon it, along with pink leaves that fell from the trees above. Nomia and Borislav sat down together, spaced out by a few inches. As for Flabby he was wandering around the water, trying to catch the swans, in vain. Nomia told Borislav all about the pond's history and significance in local folklore. She mentioned a new-age religious group that worshiped Zhasylbek Oshakbai and would use the pond for naming rituals, the various parties and barbecues organized on Saturday nights next to it, and a story about how a student was drowned in it during an illegal concert 40 years ago. The last one was quite off-putting but it didn't prevent Borislav from being impressed by her knowledge of the place.
Nomia asked him about life in Slavlania, to which he just answered: "Oh. It's nice. Tons of snow...and stuff". Luckily she didn't ask further about this place he had never been to, distracted by a sudden splash sound coming from the pond. It was Flabby. With the demeanor of an obese swimmer, he dug with his body into the water, then flapped one paw after the other to try to catch a swan. However, they had all fled the scene from the moment he jumped in. Only little swanlings that had not yet learned how to fly remained, crying out for help to their mothers in the sky.
Borislav got up and got the closest to Flabby, murmuring his name in hopes of calling him. It didn't work. Flabby was on his way to meet the swanlets and neither Nomia nor Borislav could do anything but watch it happen. The hound's mouth was wide open, he smiled. Each flap of paws got him closer to his targets, that tried to escape the scene in horror. "Flabby!" Borislav called out a little bit louder. It was still useless. The moment soon came, Flabby's eager face rubbed against one of the swanlings, Nomia covered her eyes as he opened his mouth...and licked the duckling.
Hearing no scream of any sort, she opened back her eyes. Far from ruining Borislav's date with her, Flabby had made it positively memorable. Soon, the other swanlings swarmed towards the beast, all seeking to get the satisfyingly salivous tongue massage. "You still haven't bought a leash, have you?" Nomia asked, laughing. "Uh. I have" Borislav said as he scratched his shoulder's back, "He just doesn't let me put it on.". Somehow this dog was completely inoffensive with everyone but him. As he came back to sit with Nomia, she asked him if he was scared of Flabby. Borislav made up a whole explanation about how he wasn't scared, but not adhering to this beast's demands was extremely annoying. He showed the holes at the back of his shirt as proof of Flabby's short temper.
Time passed and for Borislav the whole world seemed to revolve around the woman besides him. They stayed quiet for a while, simply enjoying the moment. Away from any schedule, from any plans. Flabby did the same, drying himself by rolling in the grass, still surrounded by the ducklings. It wasn't long before their mother would reappear in the pond, and they'd leave the hound alone. "This place is cool" Borislav murmured, somehow this made Nomia laugh. Then the silence resumed. He wanted to phase out the space between them, to put his hand on hers and then...who knows. Maybe fly to heaven where she belongs. But the invisible wall remained. Just like last time, Nomia left after looking at her watch, realizing she had something else to do. Unlike the previous time, Flabby didn't follow her around. Borislav simply bid her farewell, to the great relief of Sir Belly to whom the butterflies were still just as painful.
Only three hours had passed since Borislav left home, and yet it felt like a whole day. He and Flabby walked home, completely relaxed and heads above clouds.