Cilka's Journey(40)

“I’ll wait for a while, and if she doesn’t come out, I’ll go back to the hut and think of something else.”

She has a good enough relationship with Antonina Karpovna by now, having lined her stomach with hospital food just like her hut-mates, so there’s a certain amount she can get away with. As long as Antonina also keeps the guard Klavdiya Arsenyevna happy.

Cilka lets Josie get a few steps ahead of her. When Josie enters the hospital, Cilka leans against the building, grateful for once for the swirling snow that covers her, blending her into the surroundings. She watches the door.

It finally opens and two men walk away without noticing her. She waits. She watches. Time passes.

The door remains closed.

Back in her hut, Cilka flings herself onto her bed, beating the thin mattress, screaming at the world, screaming at her stupidity in losing a job that kept her safe and helped to feed her hut-mates. She falls asleep, facedown, drained of energy, of emotion.

A hard slap across the back of her head brings Cilka back to time and place.

Klavdiya Arsenyevna stands over her, her hand raised to strike her again.

“What are you doing here? Get on your feet,” she screams.

Crawling to the end of her bed, scrambling to her feet, with her head down, Cilka stares at the foot tapping out a threatening tune on the wooden floor.

“I said, what are you doing here in the middle of the day? Answer me, zechka.”

“I-I work in the hospital, but I’m not needed there today,” Cilka mutters, trying to buy herself time to explain her dismissal.

“So you thought you could just spend the day in bed? In the comfort of a warm hut while everyone else is out working?”

In fact the stove is barely working, the temperature inside the hut is not much warmer than outside. Cilka is still in her coat and hat.

“No, I didn’t know what to do after I left the hospital this morning so came back here, that’s all.”

“Well then, let me put you to work.”

“Yes, Klavdiya Arsenyevna.”

Klavdiya pulls the blanket and mattress from Cilka’s bed, throwing it into the middle of the room.

“Your turn.”

“I’m sorry, what do you want me to do?”

“Strip every bed into a pile. You can then explain to the others when they return how you trashed their tidy little home. You will do this and bear the consequences. Now get going.”

Josie’s bed, being next to Cilka’s, is quickly added to the middle of the room. And then the next, and the next, until mattresses and blankets cover the entire floor of the hut. Klavdiya positions herself next to the stove, enjoying the scene.

With the last bed stripped, Cilka looks back at Klavdiya, awaiting further instructions.

Klavdiya walks to the back of the hut next to Cilka’s bedding and begins kicking it, looking for something that shouldn’t be there. A letter, something smuggled into the hut.

Next to Cilka’s bed, Klavdiya kicks the sheet that has clearly come from Josie’s bed, before picking it up and examining what looks like another piece of fabric sewn onto the sheet.

“What’s this?” she calls out to Cilka.

Hurrying to her side, Cilka examines the sheet with the attached piece of fabric containing words written in Cyrillic text, the names of medications.

“Who sleeps here?” Klavdiya demands to know, pointing at Josie’s bed.

Cilka doesn’t answer.

Klavdiya stares at her. “You will sit here among this mess until the others have come back and then I shall return. Don’t forget to tell them it was you who did all this,” she says, sweeping her hand around the room. “You did a better job than I would,” she adds with a snarl. “I want it to look just like this when I return, so don’t go getting any ideas about fixing it up. Tell Antonina Karpovna to be here when I return also.”

Punishing herself for her foolishness, Cilka curls up on the wooden slats of her bed.



* * *



The blast of icy wind alerts Cilka to the arrival of the women, Josie coming in behind them. They enter slowly, stepping over the scattered bedding, shaking their heads in disgust at yet another violation of their space.

“Antonina Karpovna,” Cilka calls out as the brigadier is about to shut the door and leave. “Please, Antonina Karpovna, Klavdiya Arsenyevna has asked that you stay until she returns.”

“Can we make our beds?” one of the women asks.

“No. And I have to tell you something.”

The women pause, all eyes on Cilka.

“It wasn’t the guard who did this, it was me.”

“Why did you do this?” Elena asks.

“Because Klavdiya made her, obviously.” Josie jumps to Cilka’s defense.

“Is that right?” Elena asks.

“Still, it was me who did it,” Cilka replies.

She flicks her eyes to Hannah, who is red-faced as she presses around the edges of her mattress, seeming to find her pills safe.

Antonina walks down toward Cilka.

“What’s this all about? Why weren’t you at work?”

“Well…” Cilka says, struggling to hold on to a voice that threatens to break.

She is saved by the door opening and Klavdiya stepping inside the hut, imposing in her uniform. She looks around with a wicked smirk on her face.