His gaze fell on Nina. “I said no photographs!” he barked and snatched away her camera.
“What are you doing?” gasped Nina, forgetting that she was not supposed to speak Russian. “Give that back!”
“So, you’re Russian, are you?” Alov grabbed Nina by the shoulder. “How did you get onto the tribune? And who are you, anyway?”
Nina broke free of his grasp, beside herself with fear, and rushed down the steps.
“Stop that woman!” roared Alov, but the police were too busy to apprehend Nina. A fierce struggle between the police and demonstrators had broken out in front of the mausoleum.
Nina wandered about the city all day, at a loss as to what to do. She could not go back to her hotel room—the OGPU had almost certainly worked out already who she was and where she lived. For them, an emigrant who had returned to Russia to take pictures of a pro-Trotsky demonstration could only be a spy, and Nina would be arrested without fail.
She felt guilty about Magda. How would she manage now without her camera or her interpreter? Moreover, Alov was almost certain to question her about Nina. Nina hoped fervently that Magda herself would not be suspected of espionage.
Nina knew that she had to get away from the capital. She decided to buy a ticket to a city as far away from Moscow as she could afford and then work out how to get to Vladivostok and then to China. But at the station, she was told that all the tickets for the next few months had been sold.
Nina walked out of the station and boarded the first tram that came along. Her mind was racing. Where could she go now? Where could she spend the night? On a park bench? Even if she found a place to shelter, she would, in any case, get through all the money she had managed to save in less than a month. And what then?
“Fares, please, comrades,” said the conductor, pushing his way through the tightly packed passengers.
Nina reached into her pocket and froze. Her purse had disappeared.
“Are you going to buy a ticket or not?” asked the conductor.
“My purse has been stolen,” Nina said.
The conductor grabbed her roughly by the collar. “Off the tram with you. Look at you, dressed up to the nines in velvet without a kopeck to pay for your ticket.”
“The lady’s had a fight with her lover, I reckon,” grinned a blue-eyed soldier standing beside Nina. “And he sent her packing, skint.”
The passengers began to laugh.
Nina pushed her way to the door and, as the tram slowed down, jumped from the footplate out into the muddy street.
It was already dark. The howls of chained dogs in nearby yards echoed in the night air. The street lights were not lit, and the only glimmer of light came from the open door of a small church nearby.
So, that’s that, thought Nina. There’s no way I’ll get back to Vladivastok or to China. I’ll have to sell my coat tomorrow to eat, and then I’ll throw myself in the Moscow River.
She stood for a moment, looking distractedly about her. Then she headed toward the church. Surely she could find shelter there?
The church was almost empty. There was only a server in felt boots topping off the icon lamps with oil.
“You should be ashamed of yourself!” he whispered angrily at someone behind Nina.
She turned her head and saw the blue-eyed soldier she had seen on the tram.
“You should take off your hat when you come into a church!” the server told him.
“But I’m a woman, and women have to cover their heads in church,” said the newcomer, throwing open her greatcoat. “You can check if you like.”
The server faltered. “Good gracious… and I thought—but what a face!”
It was, indeed, difficult to tell from her face that she was a woman. She had no eyebrows to speak of, her throat sagged, and half of her front tooth had been broken off. She had the look of a heavy drinker.
Nina approached the icon of St. Nicholas the Miracle Worker, the protector of those in trouble, and began to pray under her breath. “Help me, desperate and sinful as I am, to find a way to live.”
As she was praying, the blue-eyed soldier-woman stood behind her, scrutinizing her intently.
“What’s your name?” she asked at last.
“Nina.”
“Really? That’s my name too. Only I don’t like it—everyone calls me Shilo.”
She stroked the golden dragon on the back of Nina’s coat. “That’s some coat. Present from your man, is it?”
Nina shook her head. “No, I made it myself.”
“So, you’re one of us, are you? A working-class girl? I thought you had a lover working for the state department store. I knew a guy who was the boss of a chemist’s shop; he gave all sorts of presents to his girlfriends—condoms, douche bulbs, you name it. A nice guy, but he got shot for fraud.”
“I don’t have a lover,” said Nina.
“You must have someone! Is it a husband?” Shilo opened her eyes wide and nodded sympathetically. “So, they’ve arrested him, have they? And confiscated his property? The police have gone crazy lately. They’re picking up every profiteer they can find and arresting them under Article 7 of the Criminal Code.”
Nina did not bother to contradict her. The woman was clearly unhinged.
“Here, will you sell me your coat?” asked Shilo suddenly. “I love it.”
“I don’t have anything else to wear though,” Nina replied.
“We can swap. I’ll get a coat for you. I can give you some money too.”
“Citizens, the church is closing,” they heard the server say.
Shilo grabbed Nina by the arm. “Let’s go back to mine—I can sort it out.”
“Where?”
“You can stay over at my place. You don’t have anywhere else to go, do you?”
Nina glanced in wonder at the icon. St. Nicholas had sent her a miracle after all.
Shilo led Nina to an ancient monastery in the center of the city. A lantern hung above the iron-bound gates, and from time to time, its faint light fell on the writing of a notice on the gate: “—Corrective Labor.”
Nina was too hungry and too cold to feel anything, including fear. She did not care where Shilo was taking her, to a monastery or a homeless shelter.
Shilo knocked quietly at a side gate. “Zakhar, open up!” she called.
Behind a metal grille in the window, a head appeared for a moment. “Is that you, Shilo?”
“That’s right.”
“And who’s that with you?”
“A seamstress. Fyodor Stepanych asked me to find one.”
The bolt rasped, and the gate opened. “Come in.”
Under a low stone arch, a guardhouse had been set up, lit dimly by a paraffin light. The gatekeeper, a strapping young soldier, looked at Nina with suspicion.
“Show me your documents!” he demanded.
“She doesn’t have any,” said Shilo. The next minute, Nina saw her take a purse out of her pocket—Nina’s own—and count off a couple of rubles for the soldier.
So, she was the one who robbed me, Nina thought, amazed.
What should she do? Demand her money back? But Shilo would never give it back, and then Nina would end up out on the street.
“Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s go,” ordered Shilo.
“Don’t be afraid if you see a skull lying about,” she added a moment later as they walked over a board that had been put down over a puddle. “This used to be an old cemetery for noble families. Some of our girls messed it up a bit. Time was, you’d dig up some dead fellow out, and there’s enough gold on him to open a jewelry store. Then we’d have a party with Fyodor Stepanych; he’d bring vodka and food, and we’d have a feast that went on for days. But there are no more graves left to rob now—nothing but bones. Fyodor Stepanych keeps telling us to bury them, but they keep coming up again. Seems they don’t like being in a common grave, so they come climbing up out of the ground.”