Uncle Victor began patting Papa’s back and saying over and over, stariy druzhe, my dear old friend.
Papa laughed. “Not so old.” He lifted Uncle Victor up and twirled him around before setting him down.
“Still strong as an ox,” Uncle Victor beamed up at him.
Papa’s face became somber. “I want you to know. This has been hard for me, but our friendship should never have been at stake.”
Uncle Victor gripped Papa’s arm and gazed into his eyes.
When Papa began speaking again, his voice was halting. “I have had a hard time believing that the authorities are liars… that the tragedy happened for nothing.”
Uncle Victor’s head bobbed in sympathy. “I understand. Just as you are a loyal friend, you are a loyal citizen.”
“Your way is very painful for me, Victor. But I am…” Papa paused, “starting to accept the truth.”
Mama motioned to me. As we stepped out of the room, the two men were still talking. When I glanced over my shoulder, it was Papa’s cheeks that were wet.
Mama followed me into my room and sat down on the end of my bed. “It is good to see them together again.”
I agreed. At first, Mama questioned me about the job Uncle Victor had offered me, but she quickly returned to my eventful day. “So tell me more about Yanov,” she said.
At dinner, I had described everything I had seen, but I wasn’t ready to share my feelings. “I’m too tired. Tomorrow?” I lay down on the bed and crawled underneath the covers.
She kissed me tenderly. “Don’t go running off with a boy ever again.”
“No, Mama,” I promised. On her way out, she turned off the light.
I gazed at the shadows on the wall and listened to the rise and fall of the men’s voices, their laughter, their sighs. They talked until late into the night.
Chapter Thirty-Five
IN THE HALLWAY, I WAS RUNNING LATE when Mikhail stopped me. “Katya, is it true that you and Sergei climbed up the Ferris wheel?”
“Yes,” I said.
Before I knew it, a crowd of boys and girls formed around me: Natasha Lieven, Valentyna Shabo, Vladislav Tasriov, Theda Shanda, all the kids in my class who I had watched, but never had gotten to know.
“How tall is it?”
“Were you scared?”
“Who caught you?”
“Did they throw you in a jail?”
Sergei was used to being a celebrity for his soccer prowess, but overnight I had become one, too. I had always claimed that I wanted to be alone, and I had even discouraged anyone who tried to be friendly to me. But on this morning, the terrible isolation that had engulfed me since the accident seemed to have lifted. I knew I had done something amazing, and it felt good to have people talking to me at school. It was almost as if I had had a form of radiation sickness. And now I was cured.
I must have attended biology, history and math, but in the day’s excitement, I don’t remember. Finally, the lunch bell rang.
I hurried to find Lyudmila. I had been too late to catch her at her locker.
“Katya, what got into you two?” Lyudmila cried when she saw me.
“First, tell me how the guide discovered that we had left?” I begged. I wanted to relive every moment of that afternoon.
“No, first you tell me. Did Sergei kiss you?” Lyudmila asked.
I shook my head. “You first,” I insisted. I wasn’t sure whether I was going to share that kiss with anyone.
Lyudmila put her hands on her hips. “You are so infuriating.”
We picked a table on the edge of the crowded lunchroom. For the moment, I wasn’t mobbed by curious kids. I ate my chicken sandwich and listened to Lyudmila’s story. She said one of the bus drivers had caught a glimpse of us leaving. In front of a group of students, he had alerted Mokhoyida, saying, “I’m pretty sure that I saw a boy and a girl run down that alley.” After the guide did roll call, she confirmed that we were missing.
Angelika had told everyone who would listen that she had never liked me. “She’s a weird girl, who does dangerous things. She lies all the time. Now, she’s trying to steal my boyfriend! Again!”
“I’d never seen Angelika look so furious,” Lyudmila said, gleefully. “I told Angelika I don’t always understand you either. But you’re my friend, and you’re not a liar.”
“Thanks for sticking up for me,” I said. “When did the guide find out where we were?”
“We were going to the car graveyard, where they buried all the cars,” Lyudmila said, “when the bus driver got a call on the walkie-talkie. ‘They’re what?’ that awful guide said. The two of them put their heads together and conferred. Then, she told the kids nearest her, “They’re climbing the Ferris wheel.”
“At that point,” Lyudmila said with a big grin on her face, “all of us were stunned. You could hear, ‘Katya and Sergei are climbing the Ferris wheel,’ like the refrain of a song.”
I smiled, remembering. Our climb had been like a song. I pulled a pickle out of my lunch bag but left it on the table. My stomach felt too jumpy to eat anything sour.
“When Sergei got back on the bus, he called you a gutsy girl,” Lyudmila said. She winked at me. “And here he is.”
Footsteps sounded behind me. So suddenly that I didn’t have time to prepare, Sergei sat down at the picnic table next to Lyudmila. His blond hair was slicked back. I guessed that he had just finished showering after gym. I wanted to look into his eyes, but didn’t dare.
Lyudmila and I exchanged glances. As if she were able to read my mind, she puckered her lips and kissed the air.
I felt my face grow hot.
Sergei set his lunch down on the table. Like all popular kids, he just assumed that he would be welcome. As he was salting the cafe-teria’s version of chicken paprika, I searched for any trace of our kiss in his handsome face—in the blue flecks in his brown eyes or the high color on his cheeks—- but found none.
“I don’t know what your father said to Principal Goida, Katya,” Sergei said, looking up at me. “But I just got a warning.” He took a bite of his food. “Thank him for me.”
“I will,” I promised.
“I wish we could have stayed on top of the Ferris wheel for longer,” Sergei said.
“Me, too,” I admitted.
He gestured towards my plate. “Are you going to eat your pickle, Katya?”
“No,” I said. When I handed it to him, his smile was warm. Now, he was remembering our kiss. I was sure of it. I felt myself blushing.
“Why didn’t you take me?” Lyudmila demanded.
“I wanted you there,” I said. Actually, I had wished our whole class had been with us. Even Angelika, I thought as I spotted her heading toward our table. She was glaring at Sergei. I wondered if they were going out together, but when Sergei glanced in her direction, he didn’t seem happy to see her.
Angelika frowned. “I’ve been looking for you.”
Sergei shrugged his broad shoulders. His dark eyes twinkled. “You found me.”
“I thought I made it clear,” Angelika bent down and whispered loudly into his ear. “I don’t want you talking to her.”
“When was the last time that you climbed a Ferris wheel in the Dead Zone, Angelika?” Sergei asked.
“I’m not stupid enough to return to a buried village,” Angelika said.
I thought of those mounds of dirt. My trip home had been stupid, and yet…
Lyudmila leaned across the table towards me. “Yeah, Katya. Why did you go back to Yanov?”
“I missed my home,” I answered.
Angelika sniffed. “But Yanov is buried.”