Ronald & Tony

The last lantern

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The last lantern

Later. An upstairs room in a fictional relief shelter on higher ground. Blankets, a stove and local helpers. Both boat crews and all four rescued people are accounted for. The seamstress sits with her son; the lodger's injured foot is supported on a stool. Through the window, the flooded streets remain visible. The disaster has not ended. : Later, at a relief shelter.

Anya gives Pavel a blanket. Ronald stands beside them, Tony warm and drying on his shoulder. Karen and Harly help distribute hot drinks in the background. Pavel: I thought you hadn't seen me. We saw you. We had to work out where you wanted us.

A helper has dried and relit Pavel's lantern. Yakov sets it securely on a broad windowsill inside the shelter. Its glow is visible from the flooded street below. No one hangs it out over the water. Anya: Shall I put it out?

Final wide image from outside the shelter. Its lit window shines above two secured rescue boats. Within the window are Yakov, Anya and Pavel. Ronald, Karen, Harly and Tony are visible farther inside with the rescued residents. Storm clouds still hang over the city, with the Admiralty spire in the distance. Yakov: Not yet. Someone else may be looking.

Read the transcript

Later. An upstairs room in a fictional relief shelter on higher ground. Blankets, a stove and local helpers. Both boat crews and all four rescued people are accounted for. The seamstress sits with her son; the lodger's injured foot is supported on a stool. Through the window, the flooded streets remain visible. The disaster has not ended.
Later, at a relief shelter.

Anya gives Pavel a blanket. Ronald stands beside them, Tony warm and drying on his shoulder. Karen and Harly help distribute hot drinks in the background.
Pavel: I thought you hadn't seen me. We saw you. We had to work out where you wanted us.

A helper has dried and relit Pavel's lantern. Yakov sets it securely on a broad windowsill inside the shelter. Its glow is visible from the flooded street below. No one hangs it out over the water.
Anya: Shall I put it out?

Final wide image from outside the shelter. Its lit window shines above two secured rescue boats. Within the window are Yakov, Anya and Pavel. Ronald, Karen, Harly and Tony are visible farther inside with the rescued residents. Storm clouds still hang over the city, with the Admiralty spire in the distance.
Yakov: Not yet. Someone else may be looking.

Behind the adventure

Anya, Pavel, Yakov, the boatwoman, residents, print shop, rear house, connecting door, relief shelter and rescue are fictional. The courtyard passage is an invented setting. Pavel’s lantern gestures are improvised, not Morse code or a documented signalling system. The shelter light is a fictional ending, not an official relief signal.

St. Petersburg suffered a catastrophic flood on 19 November 1824, or 7 November under the calendar then used in Russia. Warning lanterns were displayed on the Admiralty tower as the danger developed. Accounts differ on their exact lighting time, which the story does not specify. Presidential Library: the flood of 1824.