Luli

“we're not gonna call.
“Let them come themselves.
As the song goes:
“on a troika with bells on.”
That's how the goddamn revision of life works.

Yulia!
We have two liters of vodka and two liters of coke on the table.
It's a summer night.
And we spent the whole night writing burim;es in her dacha house.
Why the hell am I there now?
The flapping of a butterfly's wings is not a fantasy.

I don't just remember verbatim, I was there now.
Luli, I think we've had too much vodka.
We're girls, two liters.
Are we really girls?
Your first husband's gonna be a dentist, yeah.
Trust me, I know.
You unwrap the paper when you're writing the rest of the poem.
Because you're writing the hell out of it, honey, you didn't read the beginning.
Your son's gonna be a dentist, too. Yeah.
I hope your daddy likes how we painted the doors.
Let's go to bed.
We're not going to invite them,
they're provincials and we're very busy.
Look, it's the moon. No? Two?
Three?

The bar was made by Yulina's mom.
She laid every little tile.
It's really a work of art.
Why is it in my head?
The yellow light.

It's a memory I've had for years.
We were friends when we were in college.
Luli, we were friends when we were in college?
We were?
Remember we painted a blue matisse in your bathroom?
That was cool, we're real artists.
We're Matisse's daughters. We are Matisse.
Yeah, it's a copy in tile with paint. So?
Was that really Ouiji?

Yeah, we have great figures and
we drank two liters of vodka a night while we wrote our poems.
Well, we can't complain about our figures now.
How should I know? I haven't seen her in years.
Well, I'm not complaining about my figure, but I know Julie's in good shape.
How do I know? I don't know.
Lulie, cheers! What year? I really have no idea, baby.
What a year, we've already killed a liter of alcohol.
Maybe tomorrow we'll have a hangover.
Yeah, now the showers are always cold everywhere.
No, Luli, that half-naked construction worker is no match for you.
It's just that you're beautiful and he's ugly.
I think we've had too much vodka tonight.
Of course we could drink more.
But we're gonna go to bed now and you're gonna wake up
In the arms of your dentist husband.
I don't know what year it is. What am I, a deck of cards?
Ding ding ding.
Luli you're a dentist's wife. Can you imagine that?
Ding ding ding! Cheers, darling.
Write coherently, I beg you.
Yes, jing jing.
It's because you want to keep a perfect smile forever.
We need a dentist husband, don't argue with me.
Ding ding ding.

These folded papers were making us crazy.
Vodka? Luli, whatever.
But we called them after all. We shouldn't have done that. They were poisonous.
Your husband will be a dentist, trust me.
Luli, there's poison in them. Cheers! Cheers!
Oh, my God, we killed the second bottle.

Ouija, how horrible is that really my memory?
Lulie, if anyone asks, you can answer all the questions, it never happened.

Yeah, I called her Lulie.
We were kids and we'd write burimas at night and drink a liter of vodka each.
But there was no internet back then
and no one read our poems but us.
Luli, I hope everything is going well in your life.
It can't be otherwise.
Of course I remember your childhood secrets
but I won't tell them to anyone.
“We won't call.
“Let them come themselves.
As the song goes:
“on a troika with bells on it.”
Do we take back the energy of this moment when it passes?
Surely we're not out in public on this summer evening.
Then lulie, there's no one here right now. Imagine the metaphysicality of this Coke on your mom's handmade bar.
Look at the moon.
You want a poem about the moon?
On two. Pour.
No, you start.
I'll continue your thought.
You don't have to fold the paper.
You pass it to me, and I'll pass you mine.

Ouiji is torture? It's like it's real.
I'm watching it.
Is this a personal movie?
I'm a ghost in my past for what?
Scrooge Iacdac and Christmas?
Is there something to this scene?
So the girls drank alcohol.

Is that a knot?
A knot of what?
Lulie, imagine we have a knot.
Of course we have otherworldly forces.
You're slurring your words.
What language do you speak?
No, we write poems in pure Russian.
Esenin would envy us.

Weegee, I can't make this shift temporary.
It's too hard.
Luli, go to sleep, we're closing our portal.
Look, you're too perfect looking.
It's kind of cheesy, don't you think, honey?
Jing-jing.
Well, we're sitting here with you in 1993,
and we're portaled to 2024.
Yeah, baby, we drank a lot of vodka tonight.
Two liters. We're girls. I can't believe it.
Go to sleep.

Ouiji, what is this torture movie from the past for?
Is there something I'm supposed to realize?
But that night we really did drink over two liters of vodka
and wrote a ton of burime poems.
What do you want me to say now?
“We're not gonna call.
“Let them come themselves.
As the song goes:
“on a troika with bells on.”
I can hear that glass hitting the table.
And those words are whistling.
I don't know where Julie is or how her life turned out.
Did she marry the dentist?
Lulie, my smile costs a lot of money.
You wanted a perfect smile for free?
A dentist husband is a vested interest, honey.
Chin chin. No, we're gonna drink till we fall off the stool.
We have a third bottle.
Well, it's '93, but I'm looking at 2024.
How do I know why? Your husband will be a dentist.
Our tongues are slurred, of course.
But we write better than Yesenin, believe me.
Because you're a greedy woman.
Chin chin.
Cheers, Luli.