For some reason, Yuri did not feel like a winner.
‘She’s one of the teachers, isn’t she?’ said Catherine. ‘The one you were talking to.’
‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘Anya.’
‘She’s beautiful,’ she said, managing to make it sound not like a compliment.
‘Very,’ he agreed.
‘Are you two …?’ she asked, with a clouded expression.
He smiled. ‘It’s hard to know. You’d have to ask her.’
Catherine nodded and let the subject go.
In the afternoon, the two of them worked outdoors under floodlights, replacing a forty-foot length of pipe that had seen too many Arctic winters. As they carried the old pipe out of the way, Catherine’s strength surprised him. Not because she was a woman – there were plenty of tough Soviet women workers. But her frame was slight and it did not seem likely that she would be packing much muscle underneath her clothes.
‘I think you’re fitter than me,’ he said.
‘I’ve four brothers,’ she replied. ‘So it was kill or be killed, when we were growing up. And at uni, no one takes you seriously as an engineer if you can’t pull your share of the load.’
They dropped the pipe on the frozen, impacted snow, to be collected later.
A car pulled up nearby and Yuri saw Timur watching them through the windscreen. After a moment, he got out and signalled for Yuri to come over to him. Yuri had an unpleasant déjà-vu feeling. The last time Timur had done that it was to tell him that Semyon was dead. And he looked equally serious on this occasion.
‘I’ll be back in a second,’ Yuri said to Catherine. ‘Wait for me. Don’t try lifting that new pipe on your own.’
‘I could do it, you know,’ she said.
‘I’ll bet you could,’ he said, over his shoulder. ‘But wait for me. Where would I be if you put your back out? I won’t get another assistant for three months.’
‘And you’ll never get one like me,’ she shouted after him. ‘Not in a million years. I’m special.’
Yuri smiled as he crunched his way across a patch of hard snow to the waiting KGB man. He could see that Timur was in a bad mood.
‘What are you doing?’ the KGB man demanded.
‘Working, what’s it look like?’ he replied.
‘I mean with her. What are you doing with her?’ said Timur, losing patience with him.
‘She’s my new assistant. She’s good,’ he replied. ‘She knows her stuff.’
‘Who said you could hire her?’
‘I didn’t. Grigory suggested it. Is there a problem?’
‘Well, he should have cleared it with me first,’ said Timur, his face flushed with anger.
‘Why? She just wants to make a contribution,’ said Yuri.
‘She’s a foreigner, that’s why. She’s not one of us. She hasn’t been cleared. Don’t take her anywhere sensitive.’
‘Sensitive?’ said Yuri. ‘You mean your office. That’s the only sensitive place in town. The rest is a coal mine.’
‘If there are any issues with her,’ said Timur, ‘I’m going to blame you, so you better just make sure there are none.’
Timur got back in his car, slammed the door and drove off. Yuri turned and looked over at the waiting English woman. He wondered whether she had managed to overhear any of their conversation. If she had, she was not showing it.
‘Come on, comrade,’ she shouted. ‘This pipe is not going to move by itself.’
Chapter 7
THE EXTENDED PERIOD of endless night was a time when tempers became frayed, and depression could easily become an unwelcome guest, wearing people down. Yuri knew from experience that the solution was not to drink more, but to become more active. One of the problems was that the day lost its natural structure. For the rest of the world, the sun came up, and you got up shortly afterwards. You did a day’s work and then went home. After sunset, the sun went to sleep, and most people did the same. And so on. When the sun did not show itself for one hundred days, it was up to each individual to impose a rhythm on their own day. If you wanted to stay sane.
In winter, Yuri swam in the swimming pool almost every day before work, and sometimes after work too. Anya tagged along sometimes, depending on her mood. She didn’t swim, just sat in the viewing stand watching him go up and down.
‘Why don’t you get in,’ he shouted.
‘Too much effort,’ she replied. ‘My hair takes forever to dry.’
Yuri did it as much for the heat as the exercise. The pool water was heated like a hot bath. It was a tonic for bones that had difficulty shaking off the cold after a day spent outside in thirty below. When he had Anya for an audience, he pushed himself harder, just to impress.
Their peculiar romance continued. They sought each other out most evenings, without prior arrangement. They had become a couple, even if they did not acknowledge it in so many words. But their easy lifestyle had become a little too easy. He had started to notice her drinking more, and with a capacity well beyond his own. Every meal was accompanied by alcohol. If they met after dinner, they would still always have a glass in their hands. While intoxicated, she was at first high as a kite, seemingly in love with life, and him. Then a darkness could come over her in a flash, one which it was difficult to get her out of.
‘Hobbies,’ advised Catherine. ‘That’s what everyone needs.’
She continued to study the other residents’ behaviour in this sunless environment. When she was not working with Yuri, she wandered around accosting people with her questionnaires. Yuri had never thought about Pyramiden in this way before, but he had to compliment her on her choice of town. In winter, they may as well have been living on another planet.
‘Why are you bothering with this thesis?’ he asked. ‘I thought it was just an excuse to get here.’
‘Oh, it was. But I always finish what I start,’ said Catherine, as she flicked through a bundle of questionnaires. ‘Try to anyway. I tried to turn England in to a socialist society. Still working on that one. The happiest people here, from what I can tell, are the ones who have hobbies, who stay active. That’s what I’m doing anyway, and it seems to help.’
‘You don’t seem like someone who suffers from depression,’ said Yuri.
‘Oh, you’d be surprised, believe me,’ said Catherine. ‘I can go to some pretty dark places.’
He could see she was not joking.
‘What about you?’ she asked.
‘Ha. No,’ he replied. ‘Is this one of your questionnaires? You don’t catch me out so easily. I am not making an appearance in your thesis.’
‘Oh. But it’s all anonymous,’ Catherine insisted. ‘Really. There’ll be no names.’
‘No,’ he said.
Catherine sighed. ‘A man of mystery.’
‘That’s me,’ he agreed. ‘You won’t be short anyway. There’s plenty of people here who are more than willing to talk about themselves. Getting them to stop will be the hard part.’
‘Isn’t it amazing the way the sun controls our lives. Like we’re still some primitive Neanderthals excited by shadows on a cave wall.’
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘We have not moved on very much from that.’
When Yuri noticed that he had not spent a sober night with Anya for seven days in a row, he decided to take the unprecedented step of removing all alcohol from his apartment, before her drinking got out of hand. It had gotten to the stage where the telltale signs were starting to show. Red river lines in her eyes and dark shadows under them.
He had already witnessed some of the schoolchildren’s parents giving her sideways glances and whispered words in the canteen. Small towns were the same everywhere. Everyone knew everyone else’s business, and gossip at other people’s expense was the norm. Not that the others were not a hard-drinking bunch themselves. It was part and parcel of the Arctic way of life. However, most made sure that they stayed on the right side of the danger line.
It hurt him to throw away good vodka, so he hid
all he had behind a control unit at the power station. He did not consult Anya about their change in lifestyle. He knew what she would say. On the first dry night, she arrived at his apartment unannounced and opened his door with her own key, which he had cut for her himself. She kicked off her boots and made herself comfortable sitting on the bed. After a few moments she began to fidget with her hands, and started unconsciously biting her nails. Every now and then she glanced over at his fridge on the window ledge outside.
‘Aren’t we going to have a drink?’ she asked, finally.
‘No. Not tonight,’ he said. ‘I don’t feel like it. Is that OK?’
She did not look as though she thought it was OK, but she nodded. ‘All right. What will we do then?’
‘We could go to a movie,’ he suggested. ‘Or for a swim.’
Neither of those ideas excited her. She thought for a moment and then said, ‘Are they working in the mine tonight?’
‘No, I don’t think so. This is their night off.’
‘Will you take me there?’ she asked. ‘I’ve never been.’
‘Now? It’s the middle of the night.’
‘It’s the middle of the night all day, every day. If you’re not going to give me a drink, that’s what I’d like to do. Are you going to take me or not?’
‘All right,’ he said, with no enthusiasm. ‘But you’ll have to change into clothes you don’t like, it’s a mess down there.’
‘I only have clothes I don’t like now. I dress like a school teacher. I used to be able to buy nice clothes, silk and cashmere, and wool. Everything I have left from those days has holes in it.’
‘I like your clothes,’ he said. It wasn’t a lie. She was more stylish than anyone else in Pyramiden. And her figure made everything look good. Women here who were half her age admired her with envy. He did not know how she managed it, with her fiftieth birthday on the horizon, and partaking of almost no physical exercise.
As they walked past the mine bathhouse, he tried to talk her out of going up the mountain. But she had set her mind to doing it. And once she had done that, it was difficult to talk her out of anything. At the bottom of the railway, he helped her into the open carriage. Then he turned on the power and jumped in beside her as it moved off. She held on to his arm on the way up as if they were on a carousel ride. Above them, the mine shaft opening came into view and he was reminded of the night they had found Semyon’s body.
At the top, he asked her once more, ‘Are you sure you want to go through with this?’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Don’t you like it up here?’
‘No actually,’ he replied. ‘It’s my least favourite place in the world.’
‘But you’ve always worked in mines, haven’t you?’
‘No. I’ve always worked at mines,’ he corrected. ‘I don’t go in them, if I can help it. People are not moles. We are meant to live above ground.’
Anya smiled. ‘Are you scared, is that it?’
‘No. I am not scared.’
‘You are scared. You big baby. Come on, lead the way. I’ll protect you.’
He switched on the tunnel lights and led her down the principal pathway, so that they would not get lost trying to find their way back. One straight line down meant one straight line back up.
She looked around with interest for the first five minutes, before the black walls began to merge into one another and boredom set in, as Yuri knew it would.
‘I see what you mean,’ she said. ‘I don’t much like it down here either.’
Yuri stopped walking.
‘You want to go back up?’ he asked, hopefully.
‘No,’ she said. ‘Turn out the lights.’
‘What for?’
‘Just do it. I told you I’d protect you, didn’t I? Baby.’
Reluctantly, Yuri located the nearest wall switch and turned out the overhead strip lights. The entire mine shaft went black. He couldn’t see a thing in any direction; neither sunlight nor moonlight could penetrate this deep. Immediately, his other senses took over, and the dank smell of this underground world seemed to become stronger.
‘Now find me,’ she said, laughing, from somewhere in front of him.
Yuri still had one hand on the wall and was in no hurry to let go of it.
‘But what if I can’t find the switch again?’
‘Baby,’ she whispered. ‘Baybeeeeee.’
Between the first and second word he heard a change of direction, and he realised she had moved further away from him.
‘Baybeeee,’ she said, once more.
He turned his head in her direction, or at least where he thought she was. Then, against his better judgement he let go of the wall and hoped for the best. With his arms out in front of him, he moved forward, trying not to stumble over the loose lumps of coal that littered the ground.
‘Where are you?’ he asked.
She did not answer. For a moment, he feared she had gone even further down the mine shaft, and that he might not find her until the miners arrived for the morning shift. The thought occurred to him that Semyon could have been surprised in this way. With the tunnel in pitch black, he would not have seen his killer coming.
‘Talk to me. This isn’t funny,’ he said. ‘We could be stuck down here all night, you know.’
She still did not reply, but he heard her suppressing a laugh. She was within thirty feet of him, but in the darkness that may as well have been one hundred.
He adjusted his direction and swung his arms around in a semicircle. But he didn’t make contact with a wall or Anya. He didn’t like this game.
‘Psst,’ she said.
‘Can you see me?’ he asked. ‘How can you do that? What are you, a bat?’
‘No, I can’t see you, but I can hear you moving around. You’re like an elephant.’
She was very near now. He could smell her perfume in the air, mixed with the thick ever-present coal dust.
‘You know, sometimes I think you have a death wish,’ he said.
‘Maybe I do,’ she replied softly.
Following her voice, he kept in a straight line as best he could. He located her warm body six feet in front of him. Once he had her within reach, he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. He didn’t like the dark, or enclosed spaces, but he was not going to admit that to her. She leaned in to him and pressed her lips against his.
‘Really?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Why do you think I asked to come up here?’
They made love in total darkness. Even when her face was an inch from his own, he still could not see a thing. Not even her eyes. He wished he could. Seeing her was part of the pleasure of making love with her. He liked watching her expression change when he did something she enjoyed. At least he could hear from her breathing that she was having a good time.
When it was over, he said, ‘Now, I hope we can find the light switch.’
She took hold of his shoulders and turned him around.
‘It’s fifteen steps, that way, on your right.’
‘You counted before I turned the light off?’
‘Sure I did,’ she said. ‘You think I want to spend the night down here, even with you?’
Yuri walked forward, counting under his breath, and found the switch where she said it would be.
‘It’s not working,’ he said.
‘What! Oh no,’ she said, with a hint of panic in her voice. ‘What will we do?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe if I actually press it this time,’ he said.
The tunnel flooded with light as the bulbs came to life one after the other. They both took a moment to adjust their eyes to the brightness.
‘Very funny,’ she said.
Back at the apartment, they showered together, and scrubbed the coal dust off of each other’s body. He made her promise that they would never do that again.
When they were wrapped up warm in bed, he said, ‘Tell me about your husband.’
From her expression,
he immediately realised he’d walked on a landmine, again. He should have learned his lesson, not to ask her questions about her past. But he could not help himself; these were things he was curious about.
‘Why do you want to know about him?’ she demanded.
‘I don’t mean to intrude,’ said Yuri. ‘I know it’s a sore subject for you. It just interests me, I guess, the sort of man that would leave you.’
She smiled. ‘You will leave me too, some day. You’ll see.’
‘That’s not fair. How can you say that?’
‘This is my life,’ she said. ‘Bad things happen.’
‘Well you shouldn’t expect them to.’
Anya made a ‘what-do-you-know’ face.
‘So, go on, tell me about him.’
She sighed before speaking. ‘He was, I mean is, a scientist like me. I am sure he is still working, wherever he is. That’s why they wanted him, to work for them in the west. We met in a research study group, when we were young. He was the star student. He had this confidence about him. He believed in himself, and so did others. We both got picked for the third idea programme. We had already started dating by then, but we kept it a secret. I was afraid if they found out, then I would be kicked off the programme. They’d never do that to him.’
‘And you made bombs together,’ said Yuri. ‘How romantic.’
She looked annoyed at his cynicism.
‘I loved working there. It was the best time of my life. I was good at it. I still am. It wasn’t just about weapons. The future will be nuclear, you’ll see. One day there will be no more need for your coal.’
‘I presume you’ve tried to get them to take you back?’ he asked.
‘In the beginning. I thought they would see reason. It was so unfair to blame me for what happened. I tried to be good. I did every job they found me, with no complaints. But there was no reward for doing that. They just wanted me out of the way. To be forgotten.’
‘And you loved him, before, I mean?’
‘Yes. I did.’
‘And he you?’
Anya shrugged. ‘I thought so. It’s not every day you have your world completely turned upside down by someone you trust. It’s hard to take. I’ve been trying for years to make sense of it. Sometimes I wish I’d never met him.’
The Reluctant Contact Page 8