by Terri Dixon
Part XXXVI
I would not send a poor girl into the world, ignorant of the snares that beset her path; nor would I watch and guard her, till, deprived of self-respect and self-reliance, she lost the power or the will to watch and guard herself.
-Anne Bronte
For a moment I thought I was home. I woke the next day to feel the sun shining through the window on my face. I looked around my pseudo Finnish surroundings and realized that it was morning . The clock said 12, which had to mean noon . I walked over to look out the window. The sun was shining in a cloudless sky. The sun hadn’t shined since I’d come to this frozen country.
All of the houses in Lydia’s neighborhood were single family houses that weren’t attached to anything but a garage. Lydia’s house was two stories, so I could see a little bit of the area from my window. I could see a narrow spire piercing the sky in the distance. I didn’t know what it was. It was probably a well known monument or building. The old part of St. Petersburg was a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There was so much to learn. I couldn’t believe that I was spending all of my time trying to leave.
I couldn’t see a whole lot, but I could see enough to know that I wanted to see more. I was pretty sure that I would never get a chance, because if the weather was that beautiful, there was no way that the airport would still be closed.
I got dressed and went downstairs to see what everyone else was doing. When I came down the stairs into the living room, I saw that everyone else was already up and watching television. Television made me nervous in . Every time I turned around I was on it.
Lydia had gotten breakfast for everyone. They were all having bagels. I thought that must really be European if they had bagels. Tania didn’t look any worse for the wear after her drunken stupor. I that she’d be in the bathroom all day, but she was stuffing her face with bagels. Boris was sitting in the room’s recliner with his feet up and the TV remote in his hand. All of a sudden the place looked like any living room in America, Finnish décor included.
“Look who’s finally up?” Tania said, smiling at me.
Lydia got up and brought a bagel with cream cheese on a plate for me. She was smiling. “Good morning, well afternoon. Would you like some tea with that?”
I took the bagel. It looked delicious. I sat down where she indicated on the sofa next to Tania. “Thanks, yes.”
Boris was watching some kind of a sitcom. I hadn’t given TV much thought. The only thing that I’d seen so far was news. Mostly news of me being a fugitive. Of course they had all kinds of programming. It would be ridiculous to think that they didn’t have a variety. I wondered what they watched most.
“I guess we’ll be able to go home todaym” I said. “The weather is more beautiful than I’ve seen it since I arrived. There’s even daylight.”
Boris and Tania shot each other looks. Lydia came back into the room with tea. She handed it to me and sat down in a nearby armchair.
“What’s wrong?” Lydia asked.
“I’m sorry,” Boris said. “Stacey was talking about going home today.”
“You didn’t get to tell her yet,?” Lydia replied.
“What?” I asked.
“There have been some reports on the television. Kostov's people are waiting for you at the airports around the country. I talked to Peter. He is trying to come up with something to get by it. He said that he will call me as soon as he makes a plan.”
“Great. So, now what do we do? I can’t just sit here for very long. I’m too stressed out for all of this.”
“Boris and I were talking,” Lydia said. “He told me that you came here to study the Tsars. We thought that we would take you out to learn about them. The whole town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.”
Boris agreed. “The whole town is dedicated to museums, palaces and history. The land of the Tsars is fascinating. This way you could go home having learned about your ancestors first hand, so to speak. We could visit the Hermitage, Sts. Peter and Paul Fortress, Pushkin, Orianienbaum, the Aurora, and any number of places. It would cost you a fortune to go with a guide. This way, you have your own guides. You can’t get a better deal anywhere in the world.”
Boris was right. I couldn’t get a better deal anywhere in the world. People spent years tracing their family history. Most of mine was right here in this exotic of the North. The whole town was a living history of them. I couldn’t get a better education on the subject anywhere else. I really wanted to go home, but I’d come to except the fact that wasn’t going to happen. Why not? I could go around and learn the stuff that I’d always wanted to know. It almost sounded fun.
“Are these places open? There was a hell of a snow storm yesterday.”
Boris laughed. “You call that a hell of a storm? That was nothing. You should be here when we have a blizzard.”
Tania actually laughed. “I don’t want to know what it’s like when you people have a storm bad enough to call a blizzard.” She turned to me. “So, what do you say? I’ve been feeling cheated. At least if we go and see the sights, I won’t feel like I came here and didn’t learn anything that I paid for. Besides, you’ve got to be curious. You’re one of these people. Think about it, when you walk down some portrait hall in some palace, you’ll be looking at your family. How weird is that?”
“I don’t know. What if people recognize me from the television? I wouldn’t want to end up getting caught because I’m out running around the family estate. It’s all still a little overwhelming. Do you really think I should go? I mean, you guys can go. No one is looking for you, because you’re supposed to be a tsarina.”
Tania walked over and put my hat on my head. “Wear a scarf and a coat, and no one will have a clue what you look like. Think about it this way, its winter in the . No one will think twice about you being so bundled up that they can barely see your face. You speak Russian, so you won’t stick out because of your language. I can’t see a single reason why we should keep hiding. I mean, in the first place, we didn’t do anything. Screw the government. We’re tourists. Maybe we can spot the American Consulate while we’re out. That way, we can go there and get home.”Arctic
Boris smiled at me. “Please, don not leave without seeing where your family evolved from. You know, Peter the Great founded this city. He built a log cabin here so that he could oversee the building of everything else. I can show it to you. It is still here. It is one of the only dwellings ever inhabited by a tsar that looks normal. This area was Catherine’s home. I can show you her palaces, her private home, and even her grave.”
“You can?”
“You bet.”