Dalmatovo

     "Please make yourself at home. It will take me maybe 10 or 15 minutes to prepare the guest room for you. The bathroom is around the corner to your right, and the kitchen is to the left over there. I've warmed up some blinis with cabbage and pork. It is on the counter in the middle of the kitchen. I hope you will like it. Zhenia always asks me to fix it when she comes home from wherever she has been. They are really good with some sour cream and spicy sauce...we have many spicy sauces to choose from...from every country that likes spicy food, I think!"

     "Thank you very much, Nadezhda. I am very happy that I made the decision to come early. You are very nice and this home is fantastic." I told her.

     "Please call me Nadya. It is easier for American pronunciation I am told. But your accent is not so bad as most Americans. I think you have been in Europe for some time?"  she asked

     "Longer than most Americans I know. But in Poland. Almost 10 years now." I said.

     "Congratulations!" she smiled and said enthusiastically.

     "Why 'congratulations'?" I laughed and asked.

     "Because most Americans give up on foreign countries after a short time. They vacation for two weeks or maybe they try to live someplace else but not many are able to adjust to life outside their own wonderful country."  she explained.

     "You are probably right, Nadya. I sometimes miss my country, too. But I think I am sentenced to life in Europe now."  I said.

     She laughed and said, "I think I understand what you mean by 'sentenced'. Let me go get your room ready. I will invite you up later to inspect your room. If you want to take a bath or shower now, I think you might feel better. You will see the towels. Also, there are robes hanging in the bathroom. I will be happy to wash your clothes tonight when you are sleeping. Katerina also has clothes for men that are in closets all over the house. They belonged to cousins, uncles, and a lot of clothes we don't even know where they came from...but very nice ones."  and then Nadya disappeared upstairs.

     After the bath I decided to take following Nadya's suggestion, I had to choose the robe for myself. Since I didn't have a change of clothes, I selected a white silk robe that had matching pants hanging with them. They fit perfectly if I hiked them up past my waist. The robe was long and I loved the fit. Something between a Kimono and Indian style comfortable house wear I imagined. Before I left the bathroom, I noticed how dirty I had left the tub and returned to clean it. Nadya came down the stairs and laughed when she saw me bent over the tub and scrubbing the bath ring I had left. I finished and she said,  "You chose an interesting thing to wear. It was Zhenia's mother's favorite house dress when she visited her parents years ago. She was tall.  I think you look wonderful in it."

     "Oh, shit! I am sorry! I'll grab something else." I apologized and started looking for a better men's robe.

     Nadya said goodnight after taking me to my room on the upper floor. Family photos were all over the walls and diplomas and certificates were also framed and hanging proudly over an old cherry wood desk. There was a large set of built-in bookcases and I could see a section of textbooks that Katerina's father had been co-author on. I recognized that they were about metallurgy but that was all I could discern without looking up words in a dictionary. I was too tired for that but I was well fed and clean, finally, and ready for bed. I'd been conscious of what Nick had said earlier about the blood from my ear and did not see anything on my towel. I put a small dry hand towel under my head just in case I was leaking. Her linen sheets were too nice for me to ruin on my first night's stay.

***

     "Definitely a skull fracture." said Dr. Sokolov as he was fingering my swollen line on my head and looking at the discoloration in my eyes and on my scalp. "Any blood from your ears or nose?"

     "The driver that brought me here felt it was possible he saw blood coming from my ear but I got  so muddy and bloody after the incident that it could have been from my scalp." I explained to him.

     "You have lacerations on both sides of your head. Can you describe to me how it happened and what kind of force or fall it was that you experienced?" the doctor asked me.

     "I hope that this story stays between you and me, Dr. Sokolov." I told him and waited for him to acknowledge that he would be discreet.  When he shook his head to say 'yes', I told him, "I was kicked in the head by someone as I was bent over next to a metal wall. The scrapes on my left side are from his boot and the cuts and swelling on my right side are from where my head slammed into the wall.  I was unconscious for some time and then when I awoke, I was immediately nauseous and had problems seeing. I vomited for hours and have sketchy memories of the details of how I got here."

     "Can you go with me now to do an EEG at my clinic?  It sounds like a serious blow to your head." he asked as he was writing my story down.

     "I don't expect to be here very long, Doctor.  But if I have any problems, I will have Katerina call you. She is supposed to arrive later today." I told him without hesitation.

     "I suppose that is fine but please do not stress yourself at all." he said and then added, "Even sexual intercourse might cause some complications, I am sorry to say."

     As the Doctor was packing his things and leaving some pain killers and sleep aids, he pulled his glasses off and asked, "If you don't mind, I am curious how a young American businessman comes to this part of Russia and gets beaten so terribly. Is there anything you can tell me?"

     "Business secrets, Dr. Sokolov. I can't say anything." I responded.

     He finished packing and shrugged his shoulders and said,  "Some kind of business!"

     "What can I pay you for this house call, Doctor?" I asked as I was striding quickly to pull out my toolkit.

      "Nothing now, Mr. Mays.  Katerina will get my bill sometime soon."

     I felt a little funny about that but didn't protest and said goodbye. Dr. Sokolov was going down the stairs as I was getting dressed in my freshly laundered clothes when I heard a car drive up to the house and skid in the gravel below. Katerina got out of the car and was walking quickly toward the front door. Dr. Sokolov greeted her just outside in the courtyard and I could hear them talking. I opened the window and said, "Dr. Sokolov! Please don't change your story of how I am in perfect health, OK?!"

     Katerina waved excitedly to me and said, "I will be up soon! Let me talk to the doctor! He will tell me what is up with you, damn it!"

     They talked for a lot longer than I had expected but it gave me a chance to take inventory of what I had in my toolkit and how much money I still had. When Katerina finally came up to my room, I was in my famous Lacoste polo shirt, which was as white as it had ever been, and my camouflage pants were, well, clean. Camos in Russia made me feel like I was behind the lines in some secret war...which maybe I was...in a way. In any case, I was uncomfortable being in them since she had met me looking a lot more normal.

     Katerina started crying almost immediately. I was shocked. "Your face and head are swollen and bruised. It is for sure that your skull is broken and you have serious trauma to your brain." She held me standing in the room and her first question was, "Was it Vlad?"

     "No."

     "Are you in trouble? I mean, is someone bad still looking for you?" she asked.

     "I don't know. Maybe. But I don't think anyone is coming for me...except my people from the embassy might be trying to find out where I am now." I said as we were still holding each other and standing in the middle of the room.

     "We should call to let them know you are safe and I hope you will rest here at my house for a while.  I have my own security person here so I will tell them there is no one allowed without my permission.  Nadya has lived through some interesting times with me on 'high alert'". Katerina told me and then changed the subject. "Nadya told me that you have no clothes. She has been pulling out all of the clothes that might fit you and they are down on the big table. Let's go and see what we can find!"

     Downstairs, we decided to start the process of letting people know that I was alive. Katerina was not asking too many questions about the circumstances around my head injury but she knew it was some kind of dirty business...since all business is dirty.  She assumed I wanted to talk to an American Embassy. "Is there a certain number we should call to let your people know that you are OK? Is it the embassy in Moscow? I have the general number and the Consular Division number."

     "Thank you, Katerina! If you can get me through to the Consular Division, I can get to American Services faster, I think." I told her. I had to quickly fish out of my toolkit the codes and access request numbers for the Moscow CIA desk. These are used by people like me trying to report problems while carrying out tasks like I was doing.  Once I got through, I could basically stay on the line for 90 seconds and say anything. The tracing being done in the early 90's wasn't as good as today but I wasn't too worried about that. Once she got through, which was the most difficult part of the call. I told the embassy operator that I was reporting as an American citizen that had been missing. The operator then asked me if I was a certain type of missing person. I said "yes" and then I was transferred to a different operator that simply said, "Missing Persons". At that point I just said where I was when I went missing; where I am now; and the number to be reached if possible.  The operator said in a sweet voice, "Thank you! If you are in need of other American Services, please hang up and dial again."

     In less than 10 minutes, Joe himself called me. "Are you OK? Have you been to a hospital or seen a doctor?"

     "Yes"

     "Are you at your lady friend's house near Kamensk-Uralsky?" he asked.

     "My God! How did you know?" I was shocked to hear him ask.

     "You asked Yuri for help to locate her village on the map before you arrived at the debris site. Do you remember?"

     At that moment, I really drew a blank about it but said, "Maybe...not really.  I guess I did since you know I did."

     "Yuri couldn't remember the address but he remembered that it is near where the shuttle from the lake drops people off in Dolmatovo."

     I was afraid to ask but I did, "How are my colleagues?"

     "Yuri and Vlad are fine...they had a very successful fishing trip. Toshek is a little bruised up but not as bad as you were injured in the car wreck."

     "Come on, Joe! How is Cindy!?" I was mad that he was leaving her to the end. "She has a broken arm but was wearing a seat belt and is doing fine in  Chelyabinsk at a big hotel with nice restaurants, a bar, and a swimming pool and sauna."

     I hated the amateurish coding that we were talking in and had a million questions about what happened after I was beaten and everyone disappeared.

     I pushed Joe for more details, "So the guys in the other car...what happened to them?"

     "Michael went into a fit of road rage and nearly killed them. Cindy had already nearly castrated, I'm sorry, dismembered them by the time Michael found out about the wreck."

     Wow! That meant that Cindy had held her own against the two goons.

     "And finally, I understand that Yuri and Vlad limited out on their fishing trip but were the fish biting at the Lakes?"

     "As expected, we got some small trout and a carp or two. Not bad, though. As a whole the trip was more successful than we had hoped."

    Joe asked, "When should Yuri come to get you? Or will you arrange your own transportation and meet him in Chelyabinsk?"

    "Give me two days to rest up and see if my skull fracture kills me." I said. "Yuri can come. And Joe, I need to arrange two express visas for Russian citizens to the United States. We will send details soon.

     Katerina heard that in the next room and ran in quickly and said, "Bill...make it three visas! Please! Dr. Sokolov wants one, too!"

     "Three it is!" said Joe who had heard Katerina's impassioned plea for three.

     "Unless you have something else, I should sign off, Joe." I said as I began to feel a huge relief that everyone I had left behind was OK.

     "Fine. Don't linger, though. Need to see you soon back in Warsaw."

     "OK, Joe. Bye"