Sapphire Skies

by Belinda Alexandra

  The woman pursed her lips and stormed off.

  ‘People like that disgust me,’ Oksana told Lily when she returned to her spot. ‘They have no compassion at all.’

  It was two in the morning before any of the cats ventured near the box trap. By then Lily had resorted to wiggling her toes and fingers to keep the blood flowing. The first cat that approached was a tortoiseshell that looked like Mamochka and might have been one of her daughters. But she only inspected the trap from the outside before scurrying away.

  Tuz was the next cat to appear. To the women’s astonishment, he went straight inside the box trap. Oksana pulled the string and the door closed. Tuz spun around in terror and Lily felt sorry for him, but she knew he would be better off after Luka had desexed him, and Oksana had found him a new home.

  In his panic, Tuz darted straight from the box trap into a cage with only a poke from Lily. Oksana shut the door.

  ‘All right, Tuz, my friend,’ she said, about to throw a blanket over the cage to calm him down, ‘off to a new life for you!’

  ‘Stop! Don’t move! Get down on the ground with your arms and legs spread!’

  Torchlight shone over them and Lily and Oksana turned to see two policemen scaling the fence and running towards them.

  ‘Shit!’ said Oksana.

  ‘Get down!’ yelled one of the policemen, pointing his gun at them.

  Lily wasn’t about to argue. She lay next to Oksana and felt one of the policemen grab her arms and pin them behind her back. It was surreal. She’d never even so much as received a parking fine in Australia and now she was being arrested?

  The policemen hauled the women to their feet and pushed them towards the fence. After they’d all climbed back over, they handcuffed Lily and Oksana and led them towards the police van. Oksana tried to explain about Tuz: that he couldn’t be left exposed in a cage like that; he needed to be let out. But one of the policemen told her to shut up.

  The sound of the van door slamming shut on them unnerved Lily. She was living Natasha’s story. Were she and Oksana about to be taken to the Lubyanka?

  ‘So explain to me again what you were doing,’ said the burly sergeant.

  Lily glanced at the clock on the wall. It was four o’clock on Sunday afternoon and she and Oksana had spent the whole day in a stinking cell along with a chain-smoking prostitute. The women had been permitted to make one call each, and Lily had phoned the Australian embassy’s emergency line. The official who’d responded had said he would contact her employer, but so far there’d been no word from the hotel. Oksana had used her call to contact Luka so he could provide evidence of their work with animals, but his receptionist had informed her that he was out on an emergency call. She’d also asked the guard to call the hospital where Natasha was, to explain that they would not be able to see her, but he’d just shrugged as if to say it wasn’t his problem. When the prostitute was let out she said to them, ‘I’ll get my things back and then I’ll telephone the hospital for you.’ True to her word, she’d returned a few minutes later to tell them that the nurse on duty had said that Natasha was fine and had been sleeping most of the day.

  ‘I’m a committee member for Moscow Animals,’ Oksana explained to the sergeant for the second time. ‘My colleague here is a volunteer. We’ve been rescuing stray cats from the building site and re-homing them. We’re trying to get all the cats out before winter sets in.’

  The sergeant looked at the policemen who had arrested them. They stood by the door, arms folded, faces stern. ‘You didn’t find anything on them? Narcotics? Dope?’

  The policemen shook their heads. The sergeant gave a weary sigh and turned back to Lily and Oksana. ‘An informant from an apartment opposite reported that she saw you selling drugs.’

  Lily thought of the woman who had confronted Oksana. Then she thought of Tuz, terrified and trapped in a cage with no food or water. That woman would probably do something terrible to him. It made her want to cry.

  The sergeant clucked his tongue. ‘At the very least I’ll have to charge you with trespassing.’

  There was a flurry of activity outside the door and Lily’s heart lifted when she heard Scott’s voice asking to see her. He was shown in, and the police sergeant explained what had taken place. Scott’s skin was glowing and he was wearing a plush tracksuit. He looked like he’d come from the gym.

  ‘You’ve been arrested for rescuing cats?’ he asked Lily, raising his eyebrows.

  Lily felt foolish, as if she’d been arrested for riding a unicycle nude down Tverskaya Street, holding a bunch of balloons.

  ‘No, for trespassing,’ said the sergeant.

  ‘Because she was rescuing cats?’ asked Scott.

  The sergeant looked exasperated. It wasn’t a good sign.

  Another policeman came in carrying the cage with Tuz in it. The tomcat was snarling and swiping like a lion at a circus. Lily was relieved to see him still alive.

  ‘We found this at the site,’ said the officer, placing the cage on the floor. ‘But no drugs, not at the site nor in the suspects’ car.’

  Oksana put her jacket over the cage to calm Tuz. ‘You must always cover them,’ she scolded the policeman, ‘or they panic so much they can injure themselves on the wire.’

  ‘You’re not wrong,’ said the policeman. ‘This one pissed all over the car.’

  Lily suppressed a smile. Undesexed male cat urine? It was going to take weeks for that smell to fade.

  Scott bent down and lifted a corner of the jacket to look at Tuz in the cage. ‘So this is one of the cats you were rescuing, is it, Lily?’ He went to poke his finger through the wire to pat Tuz.

  ‘Please don’t,’ said Lily. ‘These cats aren’t used to humans. They need to be desexed and socialised before they can be handled like ordinary pets.’

  She realised that everyone in the room was staring at her, and the feeling of being nude on a unicycle grew stronger.

  ‘So does this cat need a home?’ Scott asked.

  ‘We have a serious problem here,’ the sergeant interrupted. ‘These women have been arrested for trespassing. One of them is a foreigner and an employee of yours.’

  ‘I’ve already left a message for our hotel lawyer,’ Scott said, giving Lily an encouraging wink. ‘We’ll organise representation as the embassy advised me to.’

  The sergeant sucked in his breath and looked even more infuriated. Lily realised that Scott didn’t understand what the officer had been hinting at. Arresting her and Oksana had been a waste of time and would make the police look foolish. The sergeant wanted to be recompensed, not to become embroiled in messy paperwork and with lawyers. She wondered how to tell Scott that a bribe was what was called for.

  As she was trying to come up with a way to take Scott aside and explain, another man was shown into the room. It was Luka. He sent Lily and Oksana a serious look then addressed the sergeant.

  ‘I believe there has been a misunderstanding and I would like to correct it as quickly as possible,’ he said firmly, keeping eye contact with the man.

  He pulled an envelope from his pocket and placed it on the desk along with a bottle of vodka. The sergeant’s mood improved when he saw the envelope was well padded and the vodka was premium label.

  ‘Well, these things occur,’ he said with a gruff laugh. ‘No harm has been done. We can send everyone home now and not give it too much thought.’

  ‘I believe there are more cats at the site that need to be rescued,’ Luka said, keeping his gaze on the sergeant.

  Lily watched in amazement. Luka had always been so gentle and considerate; she hadn’t imagined he could also be stern and determined, bold enough to stare down the law.

  ‘Well, we won’t be arresting these two again,’ the sergeant said, indicating Lily and Oksana, ‘and we’ll warn the woman who reported them to stay away from the site.’

  With the matter resolved to everyone’s satisfaction, Luka picked up Tuz’s cage and led Oksana and Lily out to his car. Scott followed
, looking impressed by Luka’s decisive action.

  ‘Do you need a lift too?’ Luka asked him, opening his car doors for the women.

  ‘Oh, no, thank you,’ Scott answered when he realised Luka was talking to him. ‘I drove.’

  ‘Thanks for coming, Scott,’ Lily said. ‘I’m very sorry for the trouble.’

  ‘Not at all,’ he replied, still looking distracted.

  Oksana got into the front passenger seat while Lily sat in the back. Luka secured Tuz’s cage next to her with the seatbelt.

  ‘I don’t like resorting to bribes,’ he said, ‘but sometimes it’s the only way to get out of a tricky situation. As we say in Russia, “Let’s put a candle before God and a present before the judge.”’

  He settled in behind the wheel and handed Oksana a key from his pocket. ‘I’m sorry, I only got your message an hour ago. I had two animal emergencies today. All the other traps at the site were empty. I put them in your car and locked it. I’ll drive you there now.’

  ‘The police left the key in the ignition?’ asked Oksana incredulously. ‘I’m amazed it wasn’t stolen.’

  Luka was about to pull away from the kerb when Scott knocked on Oksana’s window. Luka lowered the glass so they could speak to each other.

  ‘Listen!’ Scott said, his eyes shining with excitement. ‘When you ladies next go trapping cats, can I come too?’

  It was six o’clock in the evening by the time they picked up the traps, and too late to visit Natasha on a Sunday night. Luka took Tuz straight to his practice to desex him.

  ‘He’s had enough stress in that cage all day,’ he said. ‘We’d better do it now so we can get him settled into a larger cage.’

  He arrived a while later at Lily’s flat with Tuz still drowsy from the anaesthetic and transferred him to a hospital cage Oksana had set up in Lily’s living room.

  ‘If you aren’t worn out from your brush with the law, would you like to come to the cinema with me tonight?’ Luka asked the two women. ‘Man with a Movie Camera is showing. It’s a late session, so we’ll make it in time.’

  ‘Not me,’ said Oksana. ‘I’m exhausted. But Lily ought to go — it’s a Russian classic.’

  ‘Sure,’ Lily said. She’d been wrought up by the day’s events and needed to relax before she could sleep. ‘I’ll just take a quick shower. I’ve heard of that film but I’ve never seen it.’

  ‘You’ll love it,’ said Oksana, giving her a wink.

  The cinema was in one of the skyscrapers known to foreigners as the Seven Sisters, built in Stalin’s preferred mix of Baroque and Gothic styles. It had the musky odour of an antiques store, and the ticket seller resembled a café intellectual from the 1920s in his turtleneck sweater and beret. Lily stopped to look at the framed posters of coming attractions, including Dark Eyes with Marcello Mastroianni and Dreams directed by Akira Kurosawa. She hadn’t been to see an art-house film since her university days. Adam had loved action films and going to the cinema with him usually meant watching something like Die Hard or Arnold Schwarzenegger’s latest release.

  ‘I hope you enjoy the film,’ said Luka. ‘The director is Vertov — he was at the forefront of the Russian avant-garde. The film was made in 1929.’

  Lily and Luka took their seats in the cinema, along with a group of students and some elderly Russian women. The lights dimmed and the opulent red curtains swept back to reveal the tiny screen.

  ‘It’s a silent film,’ Luka whispered. ‘The cinema’s giving it an orchestral soundtrack tonight.’

  Within minutes, Lily found herself hypnotised by the images on the screen. The film showed Soviet citizens in various Ukrainian cities from dawn until dusk. Machines and the way people interacted with them became ‘art’ before her eyes. The film didn’t show the suffering of the peasants in the countryside, or give any indication of how machines would be used to destroy life in the near future. Instead, it burst with vitality and a sense of optimism. It was exactly the sort of film she needed to see after the weekend she’d had.

  When it ended, she turned to Luka. ‘That was one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen!’

  ‘Many of the cinematic techniques Vertov used were experimental for the day — double exposure, jump cuts, tracking shots and so on,’ he explained.

  They headed towards the cinema café in the foyer, found a table and sat down.

  ‘You were great with the police sergeant today,’ Lily told Luka. ‘I think you even impressed my boss with your savoir faire. Have you had many run-ins with the law?’

  ‘No,’ laughed Luka. ‘And you?’

  ‘That was my first,’ Lily told him. ‘Thank you for saving us, by the way.’

  ‘No problem,’ he said, reaching out and touching her hand briefly. ‘I’ll always come to your rescue.’

  Lily looked down at her menu, embarrassed. It was a nice sentiment for Luka to express but it was something Adam would have said. He had promised to always be there for her and now he wasn’t.

  Lily found it difficult to concentrate at work on Monday. She wanted the day to be over with so she could go to the hospital and see Natasha again. She hoped that the old woman wouldn’t be angry and clam up on them. No one knew how much time she had left and Lily sensed it was important to her that somebody knew the truth about what had happened.

  ‘My thoughts are simple and concise.’

  Lily glanced up to see Scott standing next to her desk. Oh God, she thought, what’s my affirmation? Then she remembered it was Monday so she’d be getting a new one for the week.

  Scott handed her a slip of paper.

  ‘Thanks,’ she said, taking the paper and clipping it to her document holder. I have direction and purpose. I always know exactly where my life is going, the affirmation read.

  How did Scott so consistently manage to give her affirmations that were incongruous to how she was feeling? But instead of being annoyed she was amused. From the way that he had rushed to the police station to help her it was obvious that his intentions were good.

  ‘I like cats,’ he announced. ‘My wife and I used to volunteer at an animal shelter in Washington. I miss having a cat of my own.’

  Their conversation was cut short by Lily’s telephone ringing. Scott returned to his office. She watched him go, surprised that she was beginning to feel fondness towards him.

  When five o’clock came, Lily tidied her desk and checked her diary for the following day’s appointments. Then she rushed home to pick up Laika and meet Oksana. Before she left the apartment, she changed the litter tray and food dishes in Tuz’s cage. When Oksana had first brought Mamochka to Lily, the female cat had thrashed around in her cage, but Tuz sat calmly in his covered box. Maybe he’s figured out he’s better off here, Lily thought.

  ‘How was the film?’ Oksana asked her when they got in the car.

  Lily settled Laika on her lap. ‘I enjoyed it,’ she said.

  Oksana started the engine and pulled out onto the road. ‘Luka’s great, isn’t he? I’ve known him since he was a boy,’ she remarked after a while.

  Lily nodded. ‘Yes.’

  ‘Do you like him?’

  ‘Of course I do.’

  ‘Well,’ said Oksana, when they searched the hospital car park, ‘he seems to like you.’

  Lily frowned. ‘I don’t understand what you mean. He’s gay … isn’t he?’

  Oksana stared at her as if she’d just confessed she was an alien from outer space. ‘Where did you get that idea?’

  Lily shifted uneasily. Where had she got the idea? ‘He’s cute, he dresses well, he can cook, he likes to dance … he has cats named Valentino and Versace.’

  ‘I gave the cats those names!’ Oksana said. ‘Luka didn’t want them to get confused if he renamed them.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Lily.

  Oksana’s mouth twitched and she started to laugh.

  ‘Look,’ said Lily, trying to defend herself, ‘it’s not my fault. Australian men don’t wear satin shirts and wiggle their
hips when they dance.’

  An image came to her of Adam and his friends with their shirts untucked, bouncing around the dance floor to Midnight Oil. But her comment only made Oksana laugh more.

  ‘Luka got married ten years ago,’ Oksana said, becoming serious again. ‘He wanted a family, to be a young father and all that. He’d known Inna since university, and she seemed to want the same things. But two months after the wedding she decided she’d rather be single. He hasn’t looked at anyone since then.’

  Lily remembered the remark Luka had made about rescuing her and the way he’d touched her hand. ‘I hope I haven’t misled him!’ she said. ‘Especially if he is still shy of relationships after his bad experience.’

  Oksana glanced at Lily. She looked amused. ‘Why don’t you relax and enjoy yourself,’ she said, ‘and see where things take you? I don’t think there is a better man than Luka and you spend far too much time alone.’

  Natasha was sitting in a chair by the window. She looked forlorn, but her expression brightened when she saw Laika. Lily expected her to reproach them for not coming the previous day as they’d promised. She was surprised when the old woman turned to them with a thoughtful expression and said, ‘For a long time I thought I had lost all recollection of Svetlana. I pretended I was my friend because I was afraid to say who I was. But in talking about her with you, she has come back to life. It’s like my friend is here with me again. Thank you.’

  Oksana and Lily sat down on either side of the old woman and each held one of her hands. Laika settled near her feet.

  ‘Are you ready?’ Natasha asked them.

  Lily and Oksana nodded.

  Natasha looked at Lily. ‘I trusted you with Laika and I wasn’t wrong. And I know that I can trust you with this. Please keep your promise that everything I am telling you will never leave this room.’

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  Kolyma, 1945

  Along with hundreds of other prisoners, I was crammed into a train made up of cattle cars similar to those the Germans had used to transport their victims to Auschwitz. We too were starved and refused water on the month-long journey east, and those who were too old or too young did not survive. Their bodies were dumped on the side of the tracks to be finished off by wild animals.