a working vehicle and looked the least ridiculous. The seats in the thing were bumpy and hard like the original jeep it was modeled on. But, if the Toyota could adapt to the Sahara and the Australian outback, it would probably function fine in Siberia. One thing it had was traction.
Besides, in his big black ZIL, he would have looked like a mafia ganglord to the locals, and he wanted to be perceived as a man of simple honesty and honor. Which, of course, he was.
“I wouldn’t have to work hard, Ya ha deedle, deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum…” thump thump
There was plenty of land on the edge of the tundra, and the streets were wide, iced dirt expanded in honeycombed permafrost most of the year, - and the houses were set well apart from each other. Unlike southern European towns which had grown beyond the traffic expectations with lanes and streets too narrow to accommodate modern traffic; a century on, there would be no need to move anything in order to widen the streets for more people in Siberia. Though Sergey doubted that in another hundred years, there would be that many more people who would want to live there.
Chapter 2
Sergey pulled the Toyota up to the store as the snow eased off. Cigarettes and coffee – the universal diet. He shut down the engine – it was not yet cold enough to have to leave it on. Pulling the greatcoat together he got out of the vehicle. There was a government Skoda parked in front of him. Sergey took a second look. That certainly looked like his cousin Oleg. Couldn’t be. But he was looking at Oleg’s balding fair-haired head with the round face and the bulky shoulders. The only indication that he was an academic and not a labourer were the glasses that every academic wore. It must be Oleg.
He rapped on the window. Oleg broke into a smile as he recognized Sergey. He shut off the engine.
“Get in.” But Sergey just stood leaning forward on the driver’s door, disbelief written loud on his face.
“What are you doing here, Oleg?”
“Sergey, I came looking for you, but I have to get back to Moscow. I’ve been to a geological site near Yakutsk, and I’m just heading to the airport. Hoped to have a visit, but the plane was delayed getting here, and now I have barely time to pick up a coffee before it is leaving again…”
“That sounds like the Oleg we all know.”
“I can’t believe people willingly live in Yakutsk – they must know it is the coldest city on earth.”
“You can escape a lot of unhappy situations out here in Siberia, Oleg. Who’s going to come looking for you? Certainly not a woman who likes her comforts.”
“Too high a price, Sergey. Way too high.” He looked in the rearview mirror. “Are you driving that battered piece of junk, Sergey?”
“Just for a few days until my car arrives,” he lied, pointing his finger in Oleg’s face. “I can’t believe you came out here and you weren’t going to see me.”
“Well, I had hoped to but connections are difficult, and the weather plays such an important role in everything it seems. I just had no idea.”
“Time for another coffee or Knass?”
“That fizzy stuff made from rye bread? You aren’t drinking that slop, Sergey, come on.”
Sergey laughed. “I thought you were in America.”
“Oh I was, I was. Last week, energy conference on the West Coast. Nice place. Town called Seattle.”
“Did you give a paper or something?”
“No. To be honest, I registered, went to the opening address, and then I dodged back to my hotel room. You wouldn’t believe the TV shows, Sergey, 24 hours, gorgeous skinny women with boobs – movies, mysteries, sports, migod the soccer matches– spectacular. It was worth all those years learning English. Spent 2 days eating room service meals and watching American TV. I tell you, Sergey, if people in Russia had seen American TV, perestroika would have happened years ago.”
Sergey didn’t know what to make of this cousin. He had become closer to Oleg and his wife after his dad died and his brother went missing and then his mother ended in the home where she died. With no other family, the tenuous relationship with his cousin became more precious. Even so, he really didn’t know him that well.
And he certainly didn’t know what to say to this grown man playing truant from his science conference. He just smiled.
“All those beautiful women, Sergey – I couldn’t get enough of them. Oh, and cheeseburgers. You haven’t lived til you’ve eaten cheeseburgers with onions and sauce. Migod, it was heaven.”
“We’ll probably be getting them in Russia soon enough, Oleg.”
“Man, oh, man, I hope so.”
“What were you looking for in Yakutsk?”
“Ahhh, the gas & oil boys are checking out the locations of some of the big reserves in Siberia, so I was meeting with some of the parties interested in extracting the stuff. Looks like a lot of people have found out about the possibility of making big money out here.”
“Where there is money to be made, you don’t need to send out invitations. Are you sure you can’t stay a while after travelling this far?”
“I’ve got a plane reservation. As I said, and you know me, I didn’t plan on the scope of the land and the complexity of negotiations.”
Sergey’s hands were getting cold pressed against the metal door of the car. He rubbed them together, backing away from the car.
“Okay, Oleg. Let me know ahead of time when you are coming next time.”
“Keep your feet warm, Sergey.”
Oleg started the engine, put the car in gear, and pulled away from the crumbling muddy sidewalk, waving to Sergey as the car pulled out.
Sergey picked up the cigarettes and coffee in the store. He noticed the photos taped to the wall behind the counter. One of an ice sculpture.
“Nice, no?” the store clerk nodded, “That’s the ice sculpture on the Lena River to celebrate Orthodox Epiphany outside Yakutsk. We can celebrate these occasions again.”
Sergey looked at the picture of the people out in the middle of winter in Siberia making ice sculptures, their faces covered with face masks and rimmed with fur parkas, steam coming from their breaths like smoke.
“And that one?”
“That’s the icicles on the houses when there is a thaw.” Sergey noticed the icicles went all the way from the roof to the ground, and the picture showed a couple of muffled up kids laughing while smashing the icicles with sticks.
Chapter 3
As Sergey got back in the car, he wondered just what Oleg was really doing out there. This was a long way to come for something he could probably have discussed over a phone call. Oleg worked for the government and one wing of the government never knew what another wing of the government was doing, and most of the time this was deliberate. Nothing was ever what it was purported to be. He could probably find out if Oleg was telling the truth.
“When I am a biddy bid rich, idle-diddle-daidle-daidle man.”
In the isolation of the drive, his mind drifted to thinking what it would be like driving this road in the ZIL with Tatiana in the seat beside him. He knew he would be a different man than the one he was now. He knew he wouldn’t be so work obsessed, thinking of nothing but security issues and the mechanism of sabotage he was taking on. Though his mind’s default was Tatiana, he knew