"Hi... I miss you... I know we promised we would never miss each other's birthdays so here I am... all by myself in this graveyard at night..." the young man spoke aloud as he looked around the cemetery in anxious curiosity and fear. He did not like being in such a place at night and he wished more than anything that his friend could join him.
As soon as he had finished speaking, he felt the ground rumble beside him and separate as the lid to a coffin flung open. Grass and dirt flew as the earth re-settled with the coffin now lying wide open and a corpse slowly rose into an upright seated position. The young man could hardly speak or turn his eyes away from the sight of his dead best friend rising from the grave. The two stared at each other for what seemed an eternity before the corpse erupted into laughter and tackled the young man with a giant hug. Their embrace wore away the shock and the two excitedly began talking and catching up on all that had occurred since the death. After several minutes of conversation, the corpse reached into his coffin and removed a bottle of liquor and two gauntlets for them to drink and reminisce. The corpse poured mighty portions for each and the earth seemed to spin around them while they drank. The young man wondered what sort of liquor he was consuming but he knew his friend would never lead him astray so it must be safe. They both quickly finished their first cups without hesitation.
"Quaff another cup, dear friend!" the dead man exclaimed as he refilled each cup and returned one to the young man.
Accompanied by good conversation, they finished the second cups of liquor and looked around them. The world looked eerily different and the graveyard appeared to be in much greater degradation. It did not fully process for the young man what was occurring so he agreed to a third glass of the mysterious liquor. The young man and dead man enjoyed themselves so heartily that at the end of the third glass they drank, they both drifted off into a deep sleep.
The young man jolted awake several hours later by the bright light of the day and the chirping of birds. He slowly sat up and looked to the gravestone where his friend had been, only to see the ground undisturbed and the gravestone intact. He wondered by what magic he had been able to see his dear friend seemingly alive and in person and regretfully realized that he had not had the chance to say goodbye after such a fun night of merriment. He rose to his feet, feeling a pounding in his temples, and wandered to the entrance of the graveyard. He again noticed that it was in significantly poorer repair and grass and vines had grown up over many of the gravestones. He exited the gate and looked to his left and right, met with giant creatures made of some sort of metal and four round legs sitting in the grass. He shook his head in confusion and carried on to return home.
As he walked, he saw a giant, winding black object pass through the grassy field and when he stepped on it, he realized it was not a snake as he had initially thought but a hard, flat surface. He heard a rushing sound and looked behind himself just in time to leap out of the way as another metal creature rolled by at a high speed. He threw himself to the ground and hid, thinking it was coming for him, but it simply passed along and disappeared into the distance. The young man was absolutely bewildered at this point so he ran in the direction he remembered his town being in.
When he reached his hometown, he stopped in his tracks and stood still next to a statue of a man as hundreds of the motorized creatures spun around him on the black surface and blaring horns filled his ears. He saw multitudes of people walking along streets carrying small tablets with bright screens and chattering at fast paces. He whirled around trying to keep up but only become more disoriented. Finally, the young man grabbed the attention of a young woman who seemed pleasant and willing to help.
"Excuse me, miss, can you tell me where I am? And... what year it is?" he hesitantly asked, embarrassed by his apparent lack of knowledge.
"Well, it's the year 2017 and you're at the University of Oklahoma! How did you not know that?" she quizzically asked with a puzzled look on her face. The young man stood still for a second, wondering how to even begin telling her that his dead friend had risen from the grave and given him a drink that had somehow made thousands of years pass without his realizing. So he decided to skip that part and, since he did not know anything about the town or year he was currently in, to see if this beautiful young woman would assist him.
"It's... a long story. But I'm here now and I can't seem to go back so do you mind showing me around this... university? Is that what you called it?" he said with a hopeful smile.
The pretty young lady smiled at him, clearly interested in his offer and handsome looks, and agreed before turning to walk down the street and begin her tour of the greatest university on earth.
Bibliography: Russian Fairy Tales , a collection of Muscovite folklore by Ralston
Author's Note: To be completely honest, this story did not quite turn out how I wanted but I decided to follow through with it. I liked the premise of the original source story with two friends drinking the night away and many years passing by because everyone can relate to that, can't they? Only one of the friends was dead and had risen from the grave for such a fun night. I decided to make many thousands of years pass instead of only three hundred so that the young man could end up in modern times. While I was thinking of that and picturing the only cemetery I've ever been to being in Norman, I decided to place him on OU's campus. The thought of him stumbling upon the business of the south oval made me laugh and fit the idea I was searching for perfectly. While I didn't this because I liked the mystery of it, I formulated the idea of the dead man caring enough for the young man that he sent him into the future because he knew he would have a better future there and would find the woman of his dreams. Similarly, the original story had the young man traveling to find his bride when he found the grave but I wanted to remove that portion so that the beginning could simply focus on their deep friendship.
