Monday 5 November 2018

'Ivan the Terrible Part 1' (1999) Rediscovered




Sorting out my eternal jumble of this-and-that (not to mention the-other)  I came across an old story (original notes dated 1999) which I'd composed for an elderly Austrian spinster who lived in a small house with five cats. The lady was learning English and had requested a story in English to read.

Unable to find anything suitable I wrote a story about a cat.  The story was titled 'Ivan the Terrible Part 1'. There is a sequel,  'Ivan . . .  Part 2'  but I haven't unearthed it yet. Perhaps it'll surface one day.

Here are some snippets from 'Part 1':








Sadly the old lady and her five cats including the red one named Ivan are no longer with us. They have, as we say, passed on. I like to think they may be in some other space-time dimension happily doing whatever people and animals do in other parts of the multiverse to amuse themselves if that's possible. We humans who've been around but a brief span cannot know how the ghost in the machine works but other galactic beings from civilizations millions of years older and more advanced than hours may know the trick. We must wait.


5 comments:

  1. I am sure it helped the lady and her understanding of English. She perhaps thought you were Professor Heinz and it was based on you.

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    1. It's Professor Heinz Stein (but I see that I didn't crop it very well!). I had to do it after an German-English Learning Course on Bavarian TV was shelved. It was called Mr Meter Man and it was about a meter man who came to read the electric meters in people's houses and was found time to chat and run small errands or do a quick repair. The old lady never missed an episode.

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  2. Funnily enough I thought you were Professor Heinz and I am English through and through.

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    1. Pat, you are English through and through alright. But remember in ancient times nearly 3/4 of what you call England today was not English. Only the SE corner was England. From Breton, to Cornwall, to Cymru, to Yorkshire and the Lakes, up to the edge of Scotia in fact was basically Welsh and Welsh speaking. The wizard Merlin lived in South Wales. King Arthur in Cornwall. Next time you go by Pendragon Castle up there in the Yorkshire Dales and see those impressive stone giants aligned upon skyline of the hill and the Welsh wind is blowing off Pen-y-Ghent you can ponder on your Englishness.

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    2. Some of my ancestors have names other than Williams and Jones! We have Powells, Armstrongs, Jacksons, and even a Pockets which we assume originated in Lincolnshire. I guess we're all pretty mixed up when it comes down to it.

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