Language: EngEnglish
Dawn in Ushguli, high in the Caucasus. Three slim stone towers stand on a green hill under a white mountain. From the top window of one tower a thin red line of song drifts out over the valley and fades. Far below, a small red car is climbing the road.

Three Voices

A story by GzaGzaCar

Begin

Page 2 of 19

Bebo stands on her wooden balcony in a red shawl, eyes closed, singing. Her song, a thin red line, drifts over the roofs toward the snowy peaks.
Every morning, Bebo sings to the mountains.

Page 3 of 19

The whole valley at dawn. Bebo’s red line of song wavers across the sky, breaks into a few strokes and stops halfway. She is a small figure far to the left.
The song has three voices. She has only one.

Page 4 of 19

Bebo stands by a narrow turquoise river that runs away down the valley. She looks the way it goes.
The river by her door runs to the sea. Bebo never has.

Page 5 of 19

The road climbs the green valley in three long bends. Far down on the second bend a small red car is coming up. High at the top left stand the towers, and on one balcony there is another tiny spot of red: Bebo’s shawl. She has seen it.

Page 6 of 19

At Bebo’s gate her grandson holds the car door open. Little Mariam hugs Bebo round the waist. A small bag waits on the ground, and the towers stand behind them.
Her grandson and little Mariam have come to take her there.

Page 7 of 19

Mestia, its towers among the houses and the two peaks of Ushba behind. By the road a young woman with a backpack and a green scarf, Nino, raises her hand as the red car slows beside her.
In Mestia, Nino is going the same way.

Page 8 of 19

The red car from the side. In the front window Bebo sings with her eyes closed, and a red line of song streams back. Behind her Nino has closed her eyes too, and a green line rises to run beside the red. Mariam looks from one to the other.
Bebo hums. Quietly, Nino sings the second voice.

Page 9 of 19

The road runs along a forested gorge high above a turquoise reservoir. The small red car moves right, and two lines of song, red above green, trail back across the water. In the big valley the car is very small.

Page 10 of 19

Samegrelo: flat green land, a wooden house on short posts, rows of hazelnut bushes. A big broad man in a blue jacket, Guram, a sack on his shoulder, opens the back door of the small car. His mouth is a straight line.
In Samegrelo, Guram takes the last seat. He doesn’t sing.

Page 11 of 19

Inside the car, looking across the back seat. Nino sings with her brows raised; in front of her is Bebo’s red shawl. The red and green lines of song climb steeply to the roof and fray. Mariam sits in the middle. At the far window Guram looks away.
Then the song climbs too high for two voices.

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Inside the small red car, seen through the windscreen: five faces. Bebo and Nino sing with their eyes closed. Behind them big Guram has closed his eyes too, and a broad blue line of song rises from him, lifts the red and the green, and the three twist into one braid above the roof. Little Mariam stares up at him.
Three voices.

Page 13 of 19

The road comes over the last green hill and the sea fills the whole picture, pale and wide under a peach sky, with a low cream sun over the water. The small red car has stopped at the top of the hill. There is no song, only the sea.

Page 14 of 19

A pebble beach at sunset. Bebo stands in the sea up to her ankles, holding up her skirt, her head thrown back, laughing. Mariam splashes beside her. The others watch from the pebbles.
Bebo walks into the sea, and laughs.

Page 15 of 19

Five people in a row at the water’s edge, seen from behind, arms round each other’s shoulders. Red, green and blue lines of song rise from them and braid together. Behind them the small car waits on the pebbles by the palms.
This morning, they were strangers.

Page 16 of 19

Night. The beach is a thin dark line at the bottom with five tiny figures. Their braided song climbs the whole height of the sky and loosens into the stars of the Milky Way, which in Georgian is called the Deer’s Leap.
The song rises into the Milky Way — the Deer’s Leap.

Page 17 of 19

Ushguli again, at dawn. Bebo is back on her balcony. A white shell lies on the rail beside her. She hums, and her thin red line of song is alone again.
Days later, at home, Bebo hums alone.

Page 18 of 19

The valley seen from above Bebo’s balcony. On the road below a pale car of strangers is passing. From its windows a green and a blue line of song rise and join Bebo’s red line above the towers.

Page 19 of 19

A pale road runs over soft green hills. The small red car drives along it, and above the road the braid of three colours runs on beside it and off the edge of the page.
Some songs can’t be sung alone.
Find a fellow traveller

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