Car 7...Compartment 7

     Car 7 was next to the restaurant car and the seventh compartment, a sleeping compartment, was clearly marked and easy to get into with a quarter turn to the right of the old style skeleton key that Katerina had given me in that moment of panic in the dining car. I closed the door as quickly and quietly as I could after I looked to see how close Vlad was behind me and if anyone had seen me go into Katerina and Zhenia's sleeping compartment. By my guess, no one had seen me nor could anyone know where I was after I left the dining car in such a rush...except, of course, my two new lady friends from the dining car. Holding my ear to the air vent on the door, I listened for any sign that Vlad was making a scene in the restaurant car. Quite the opposite, though. It was strangely silent. After about a minute, I finally heard people talking normally and assumed that Vlad had left or was sitting quietly at a table.  My heart had been racing wildly during the past five minutes and I finally felt myself relaxing slowly as my breathing slowed.

     I took a moment to look around and noted that the women had a much more comfortable space than I had sharing with Vlad, Toshek, and Yuri. It was the Russian version of a full fledged sleeping berth that you would get in countries like France or Germany...but with a bit of the Russian flair. Nice embroidered sheets on a real (almost real) mattress that was made up properly with down pillows and chocolates on down-turned sheets. Chai sachets, a refrigerator, nice china cups and plates, and three champagne flutes were behind a small glass door next to the private washroom doorway.  These women had also stocked up on juices, bread and other food that was neatly wrapped and stored on their mini-pantry shelves. The wardrobe was open and several dresses, all floral prints, were hanging neatly on the right side with sleeping gowns, underwear, and sexier night wear hanging on the other side from pink padded hangars. There were only three bunks on one side of the compartment that allowed for such amenities and comfort.

     

     I was already contemplating asking my new friends if I could offer some money to take the third bunk in their compartment if Yuri and Toshek deemed it best to stay out of sight from Vlad till he sobered up.  Considering whether to leave now and return my key to Katerina, I heard a knock at the door and assumed it was the women coming to reclaim their private space. In fact, it was.  Katerina had an arm around Zhenia, who appeared to be feeling unwell. She smiled weakly and excused herself to the bathroom. I started to leave and Katerina stopped me and suggested I stay for a bit. She said in a slightly hushed voice, "That crazy man chasing you will probably sleep now, Zhenia and I shouldn't have so much to drink but we don't want you to leave yet. Stay and have something to eat. Zhenia will lie down but I think we can all talk in this small space without feeling cramped."  She could see I was a little surprised that she was welcoming me to stay and said, "Don't worry, we don't take your money on first date."

     I very willingly stayed.

***

     "Why did you leave Moscow and go to Kiev? Oh, and since you said you were working from many Moscow hotels, do you know my friend Alyona who is a bartender at the Leningradskaya Hotel lobby bar?" I asked since Katerina seemed in a mood to talk.

     "Interesting you ask these two questions together, because there is a little connection between them." Katerina responded slowly as our discussion turned from events in the dining car to how we wound up on this train together. Zhenia was in her bunk fully clothed lying on her side with her head on her left hand listening to the conversation and only occasionally chiming in. I would look up to see if she was dozing off but she always caught my eye and smiled sweetly when I would glance at her.

     "Moscow hotels and the women working there are completely controlled by the police now. We did our business for two years without anyone controlling us."  Zhenia for the first time spoke up with a dissenting voice and said, "Not completely true. We also had an organizer that arranged for our rights to be in certain hotels. He arranged our entry cards and kind of license to do our business."

     "License?" I asked.

     Katerina continued, "Because the Russian Mafia controls who can be an escort or prostitute at all the Moscow hotels, it is necessary to pay them regularly and to be sort of 'registered' with them. Our 'agent', I call him, did this kind of work and was closely connected to them and to the new Russian government.  He was not too unreasonable. He disappeared after two years of being our agent and we were not allowed into the hotels anymore. We left Moscow since we had no 'license' and every person who we tried to find to be our new agent was only an asshole. When Zhenia's mother died, I made a kind of promise to Zhenia that, as bad as everything was, we would eventually be free of working for bad people and have the money to do what we want. The situation in Moscow would no longer allow me to keep my promise."

    I hesitated but asked her directly, "Were you an 'Intergirl' in Moscow?" Zhenia busted out laughing but quickly quieted down . (Intergirls were prostitutes that officially were entertaining foreigners as the FSB or KGB looked or listened on.)  "I am sure that we were but we never agreed to it officially." she said, looking at Zhenia slightly smiling as if they had shared secrets.

     "You said that my friend Alyona the bartender is somehow connected to all of this." I asked Katerina reminding her that she had linked Alyona with her problems in Moscow.

     "Rumors were that Alyona is connected to whoever killed Michael, our agent. Alyona is very slippery. No one can figure out if she is Russian spy or American spy or just another mafia controlled employee. Maybe you know something about her?" Katerina returned the question to me.

     Alyona was just as enigmatic for me as Katerina was describing now.  She had an uncanny sense of managing her huge bar so that everyone, regardless of who they were, felt that she was operating undercover for them. Instances where she seemed to know who I was meeting with and who was going to my room later, were just too well played.  Why and how rumors would get started about her being connected to getting rid of someone was probably the result of a customer, like me, that came to believe she was absolutely on their team. 

     "No, she is very secretive but the best bartender, concierge, and personal assistant I've ever seen. She never told me anything more than her interests in business, her hopes for a new great Russia, and desire for Americans and all Westerners to feel safe in Moscow."  I answered.

     "Kind of bullshit answer that Americans are very good at giving. Sorry Bill. I am sure she works for someone that has power. She's too good at what she does. And she has kept her job much longer than anyone I have seen after all the political changes." Katerina quickly countered. I didn't mind her cutting response and felt more respect for her analysis since she, too, could see that Alyona was operating at a different level.

     "So you escaped Moscow and set up shop in Kiev. Why Kiev and how did you do there?" I continued my questioning.

     "Not sure what is it 'set up shop in Kiev' but I think you mean moving and living there...prawda?"

     "Exactly...sorry about the English slang."

     "Family...not so close...helped us find a place and we quickly were able to build our contacts and business...almost like in Moscow.  Similar atmosphere but on smaller level."  She thought again and added, "Quieter in Kiev but sex is always something that can be sold.  Same customers. Businessmen, government officials, teachers, professors and scientists, too."

     "So now retirement for you Katerina? What about Zhenia?"

     "Teacher or travel agent I would like to try sometime."  interjected Zhenia from the bunk above me. "I have the Russian license to be travel agent and I did a small course for teaching English in Kiev."

     "I am impressed, Zhenia." I looked up smiling at her and hoping to give praise to a young person that had faced innumerable ugly nights and horrible experiences in her last three years.  I was only 33 at the time of this conversation but I was moved to see that these two women were neither demoralized nor unwilling to return to their homes and make new lives for themselves.

     "Are you sure that returning to Siberia is really where you want to be...having had a taste of the big exciting world beyond these barren steppes?"  Zhenia clapped lightly after I asked the question and Katerina responded, "There are things to take care of that have been waiting three years since my sister died.  After that, maybe we will travel. Zhenia won't always be with her aunt. Soon she will marry an American and live in Chicago...I hope."  Zhenia only slightly acknowledged her aunt's comments with raised eyebrows but an unchanged expression.

     "And you, Mr. Billy?  You did not mention a beautiful wife and I see no ring."

     "There is a Polish wife for now and a ring long ago lost on a trip to Yaroslavl. Probably stuck between cushions on another Russian sleeper car going back and forth between Yaroslavl and Moscow for three years."

     "Come back to the dining car. It looks like Zhenia is almost asleep." Katerina held her hand out and waited for me to assist her in standing. She looked at me differently for a moment then opened the door from the compartment to the corridor. With no sign of Vlad and normal sounding voices coming from the dining car, we walked in holding hands and had two shots of vodka with some orange juice. Katerina ordered a bottle of water to take to her room.  She kissed me twice during the 15 or 20 minutes in the dining car and suggested I come back with her. They were kisses that foretold an intimate encounter was approaching.

     Katerina opened the door to their compartment and shut off the light quickly. As the main light went out and a night light flickered on, I could see that Zhenia had closed the curtain to her bunk space.  Katerina whispered to me that we should be very quiet but she knew that Zhenia would be wearing ear phones from her Sony Walkman and would not want to hear us.

     Katerina took my jacket off and gently pushed me down onto the lower bunk. She whispered, "Please be here when I come back. If you want to wash yourself, you can do it after me." She then disappeared to her bathroom and I could hear water running for what seemed like half an hour. I did, in fact, take that quick shower and then slid into the bunk on top of her naked, laying my clothes outside on the floor. "Zhenia will see my clothes." I said in her ear as she moved slowly under me stirring even greater excitement. "Not a problem." she managed to whisper as I pulled away and caught my breath for a moment,

     She whispered to be silent, guided me inside her, and then kissed me for what felt like an hour nonstop as we were tightly clamped to each other and moving ever so slightly in that vice-like grip.  Finally, I could hold it no longer and felt my body overcome with an almost electrical wave and then a shiver that lasted for what might have been five minutes. 

     We continued our locked embrace but rolled over to our side. She was snoring lightly in about two minutes. I don't remember much more from that night except the rocking of the train and fleeting thoughts of Vlad kicking the door down.