The Gardener from Ochakov

14

FIRST THING THE following morning Stepan went outside to have a look at the fence. He was in a good mood and seemed to have taken it upon himself to improve Elena Andreevna’s mood too. Either that or he was just trying to make up for his absence as best he could. The fence was his idea.

‘That fence seems a bit rickety,’ he said over breakfast. ‘When I shut the gate yesterday, the whole thing wobbled. A couple of the fence posts must have started to rot.’

Igor’s mother nodded and looked at him gratefully.

‘Those scales of yours are beautiful,’ remarked Stepan, looking over at the windowsill. ‘Every time I see them, they make me think about my life.’

‘They belonged to my grandmother,’ said Elena Andreevna. She looked lovingly at the copper scales. ‘She took them everywhere with her, even when she was evacuated to Siberia during the war. She lived to be almost ninety.’

Stepan looked at Igor’s mother thoughtfully.

‘You’re a good woman,’ he said.

As soon as Stepan finished his tea he went back outside and resumed his inspection of the fence. He walked along the entire length of it, on both the yard side and the street side. Igor stood by the window in the kitchen with his second mug of tea, watching the gardener apply himself enthusiastically to his task.

After a while Stepan came into the house. ‘We need to change three of the fence posts,’ he said matter-of-factly. ‘That’ll be 150 hryvnas.’ Igor was taken aback.

‘You mean, we have to buy them?’

‘Well, we’re not going to steal them, are we?’ Stepan spread his hands. ‘There’s a chap selling building materials not far from here. He’s got a few fence posts.’

Still taken aback by the unexpected outlay, Igor went into his room and took a 200-hryvna note from the bundle that Stepan had given him.

‘I’ll bring back the change,’ promised Stepan.

Alone again, Igor succumbed to an autumnal mood. The sky was cloudy and grey. It didn’t look like it was going to rain, but there was no chance of sunshine either. You had to make every day count, whatever the weather. In his heart Igor knew that whether the days of his life were filled with events or inactivity was entirely down to him.

Although it was autumn in the parallel world of Ochakov too, everything had been so vivid, so full of life. Not like here.

Igor called Kolyan on his mobile and asked what his plans were for the evening.

‘Why, do you want to go for a drink?’ asked his friend.

‘Yes, and I’ve got some news for you.’

‘Meet me at six, and we’ll decide where to go then,’ said Kolyan. ‘I’ve got some news for you too. I’ve just made two thousand dollars, without even taking my fingers off the keyboard!’

The conversation cheered Igor up. He only had a few hours to kill until the evening. But why wait? He could go to Kiev earlier and wander round for a bit.

Igor was on his way out of the yard when Stepan called to him.

‘Shall we go and pick up the fence posts then?’

‘I can’t, I’m already late. I’m meeting someone in Kiev,’ Igor answered hurriedly. The last thing he felt like doing was helping Stepan fix the fence. It was his idea, he can sort it out! he thought as he walked away.

According to its driver, the minibus would be leaving for Kiev ‘when it was full’, as usual. Igor looked irritably at the ten vacant seats. It was a quiet time, the lull between the morning crowds and the evening rush hour. He looked out of the window, mentally urging anyone contemplating a trip to the city to get a move on. Half an hour later, the last place in the minibus – the front passenger seat – was finally occupied by a young woman with a laptop bag, which she placed carefully on her knees. The driver, who had also been waiting impatiently for his final passenger, started the engine immediately and set off.

The young woman turned round and began looking at each of the passengers in turn. Igor’s suspicions were instantly aroused. As if to emphasise her strangeness, the young woman took out a folder containing a stack of paper and a bag of cheap ballpoint pens. She attached a pen to every piece of paper, then counted them and looked around at the other passengers again, ignoring Igor’s questioning look.

She’s counting us! thought Igor.

As the minibus taxi left Irpen the road began to straighten out. Pine trees flashed past on both sides of the highway.

‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ the young woman suddenly began, with the practised delivery of a sales agent, ‘you have been selected to enter a draw to win a Korean vacuum cleaner. All you need to do is fill out these questionnaires…’ She held up the pieces of paper to show the ‘ladies and gentlemen’, who were looking at her with interest. ‘It’s an official market research survey. And the pens are yours to keep!’

She leaned over the back of her seat to hand out the questionnaires. What Igor found most surprising was that all the passengers reached out to take one. Even Igor himself took one automatically when it was handed to him. He scanned through the information requested: name, address, telephone number, email address, monthly salary, number of pensioners in the family, size of accommodation.

What a cheek! thought Igor. I might as well give her my house keys! He handed the questionnaire and the pen back to the young woman.

‘Is there a problem?’ she asked, with a supercilious smile.

‘The problem is that I don’t like people trying to find out what I’m thinking,’ replied Igor, with what he hoped was a similar smile.

‘The questionnaire doesn’t ask you what you’re thinking. Or what your religious beliefs are,’ she calmly pointed out. ‘Nor does it ask how much beer you drink, or what brand.’

Igor glanced at the other passengers. They were all diligently filling out the questionnaires.

She’s just a con artist, thought Igor, but he managed to refrain from answering back. He knew she’d get the better of him and he’d probably just end up making a complete fool of himself.

If only I were an undercover police officer, thought Igor. I’d ask her for some ID. I bet that would wipe the smile off her face!

But Igor wasn’t a police officer, although he did feel a certain duty to maintain law and order. Or at least to uphold the cause of social justice. Maybe it was because he liked what he saw in the mirror when he was wearing the old police uniform. When you feel comfortable wearing a certain uniform, you find yourself adapting to suit it.

There was a cool wind blowing in Kiev, but otherwise the weather was unremarkable. Constant traffic noise. Early twilight. Street lamps coming on. Huge billboards, buzzing gently as one advert was replaced by another.

Igor met Kolyan at his office in the Podil district and they walked to Sahaidachny Street. They stopped in front of a cafe they both knew, but the music was far too loud. So they took the bus one stop to Kreshchatyk Street and went to an Irish pub on Malaya Zhitomirskaya Street, which was nice and quiet. Fake school blackboards hung about the pub, with details of upcoming football matches chalked on them, targeting customers who liked both beer and sport. Thankfully, there didn’t seem to be a match on that evening.

‘I need something to warm me up,’ said Igor, biting his lower lip as he looked up at the young waitress who had stopped at their table. ‘A double shot of Khortitsa vodka and a Chernigivske beer should do it.’

‘Mixing your drinks, eh?’ Kolyan smiled. ‘I prefer to drink one or the other. Either vodka or beer, but not both together.’ He looked at the girl. ‘I’ll have a Lviv beer and some bar snacks, please.’

The girl left. Kolyan looked at his friend.

‘So, what’s up? Come on, tell me.’

‘Let’s have a drink first,’ said Igor, brushing Kolyan’s request aside. It had suddenly occurred to him that it might sound like he’d made it all up. If Kolyan had told him a similar story, that’s what he would have thought anyway.

‘Right,’ nodded Kolyan. ‘I knew it. You’re bored out of your mind, aren’t you? Stuck out there in the sticks… Just admit it! Irpen’s not the same as Kiev, is it? You don’t even have anyone to go for a proper drink with. No intellectually stimulating conversation. “What are you looking at? No, what are you looking at?” That’s the only kind of conversation you get out there!’

Igor shook his head, but Kolyan’s mind was already on other matters.

‘I’m feeling rather proud of myself today, you know. You’ll never believe it… For the first time ever, I actually made some money out of my hacking skills. Two thousand dollars!’

‘How come?’ asked Igor, surprised. ‘Did you take it out of someone’s account?’

‘Of course not! It was all above board. I hacked into some rich guy’s email account and copied his email correspondence with his lover, and then sold it to his wife. She was delighted.’

Igor raised his eyebrows. ‘Delighted?’ he repeated.

‘Well, not delighted, obviously, but… Well, anyway, she wasn’t disappointed, that’s for sure! She’s going to take him to the cleaners. He’ll definitely be paying for his bit on the side.’

A slender female hand placed the long-awaited vodka shot on the table in front of Igor, then a large glass of beer next to it. The light in the bar made the beer glow an appetising amber colour. Igor knocked back his shot and chased it with a gulp of beer. There was a bitter aftertaste in his mouth, which was both pleasant and refreshing.

‘Excuse me… Another double, please!’ he called, smiling as he caught the waitress’s eye. She brought it straight over.

‘Hey, slow down, old man! At least have something to eat,’ said Kolyan, nodding at the saucer of salted croutons on the table.

Igor took a handful and started crunching them noisily between his teeth.

‘You won’t believe what I’m about to tell you,’ he said, casting a sly glance at his friend.

He thought about the way Kolyan had made him wait before showing him the printout of Stepan’s tattoo.

‘Why, what is it?’

‘No, you’ll never believe it… Oh, I’ll tell you later,’ continued Igor, deliberately taunting his friend. ‘After all, you don’t believe in fairy tales.’

‘Depends what kind… Come on, tell me.’ Kolyan took a large swig of beer. ‘Don’t keep me hanging on!’

‘Remember I got drunk at your birthday, in the Petrovich club?’

‘How could I forget?!’

‘Right, well, I wasn’t actually there at all,’ declared Igor. ‘I was in Ochakov… in 1957!’

Kolyan looked at the two empty shot glasses. ‘Doesn’t take much, does it?’ he grinned.

Igor sighed heavily. ‘Can you remember what I was wearing?’ he asked.

Kolyan thought about it. ‘I’d had a fair amount myself, you know… Birthday boy’s prerogative, and all that!’

‘Right,’ nodded Igor. ‘Well, I got dressed up in an old police uniform, put my jacket on and left for your party. Actually, I left for the bus station but ended up at the Ochakov Wine Factory…’

And Igor went on to tell his friend all about his first trip back in time. Kolyan listened attentively, with an incredulous smile on his face. His expression only changed when Igor told him how he and the wine thief Vanya had watched Fima Chagin’s house. As though he’d suddenly made the connection with the tattoo.

‘So, do you believe me?’ asked Igor, noticing Kolyan’s reaction.

‘Of course not,’ replied Kolyan. ‘But it’s a great story. Have you considered recording your fantasies?’

‘Oh, piss off,’ muttered Igor. He was a bit annoyed, but he wasn’t really angry with Kolyan. He turned towards the bar again. ‘Another double, please, and another Chernigivske.’

‘And I’ll have another Lviv,’ added Kolyan, taking advantage of the fact that they had the waitress’s attention.

‘Right, well, I’ll shut up then!’ declared Igor.

‘Why?’ Kolyan shrugged. ‘Drinking in silence is bad for your health. Now I’m wondering whether or not I should make a move on the wife of the businessman whose accounts I hacked into… She’s just found out her husband’s cheating on her, maybe she’ll want to get her own back? With me, for example? Why not, eh?’

‘If I were a girl, I might be able to rate your chances more accurately.’

‘Good job you’re not then,’ laughed Kolyan. ‘We need an expert opinion,’ he added, looking at the waitress as she walked past. ‘When you’ve got a minute!’ he called after her.

The girl was concentrating on carrying three glasses of beer to another table, but she looked their way and nodded.

‘So is it something you drink that enables you to travel back in time?’ asked Kolyan, turning back to his friend. ‘Or are you smoking some new kind of blend? Seems to be very popular these days.’

Igor cleared his throat, but it didn’t sound as exasperated as he’d meant it to. His mood was improving. The double shots of vodka, washed down with beer, had warmed his soul, and he felt relaxed and amiably indifferent to the world.

‘This is how it works,’ said Igor. ‘First you drink two glasses of brandy, then you put on an old police uniform and go outside, around eleven o’clock at night. Then you leave the yard and turn right.’

‘Excellent!’ exclaimed Kolyan. ‘If you dressed up as an astronaut, do you think you’d end up in space? Look, now you’ve got me talking nonsense too!’

‘And you’re not even mixing your drinks,’ Igor smiled.

‘Can I get you anything else?’ The waitress had stopped near their table.

Kolyan looked at the little name badge that was pinned to her white blouse.

‘Lena… Lenochka,’ he said, his tone familiar but not overly so. ‘Please bring me another Lviv beer, and he’ll have five’ – he glanced at Igor – ‘no, six shots of vodka! Out of interest, can I ask you a personal question? What do you think of me? You know, from a woman’s perspective. Be honest. I really want to know!’

The girl smiled. ‘You seem like a typical man to me,’ she shrugged. ‘An armchair football fan.’

‘What do you mean?’ Kolyan seemed genuinely baffled, and Igor couldn’t keep the smile from his face.

‘You men are all the same. You like watching football on TV, and drinking beer… I bet you work with computers, don’t you?’

‘How do you know that?’ asked Kolyan.

‘You look like you’re typing on the table. See, you’re doing it now,’ laughed the girl.

Alarmed, Kolyan looked down at the fingers of his right hand, which were drumming on the tabletop. He frowned, and his hand stopped moving.

‘She got you there!’ said Igor, not entirely unsympathetically, as he watched the waitress walk away.

Kolyan didn’t answer. He finished his second beer and put the glass to one side.

Instead of six shots Lena the waitress brought a whole bottle of vodka, and another beer for Kolyan. Igor filled his shot glass and knocked it back. He looked at his friend with a mischievous gleam in his eyes.

‘Don’t worry about it,’ he said. ‘You’ll have better luck with the wife of that businessman… As long as he doesn’t catch you at it!’

Kolyan only sulked for about five minutes. Once they stopped winding each other up the conversation flowed easily, interspersed with stories and jokes. The emptying of the vodka bottle was admirably methodical.

There were two young women sitting a couple of tables away, both about thirty years old. One of them had bright red dyed hair, cropped short. She was wearing jeans and a tight-fitting red polo shirt. Her friend had brown hair and was wearing tight leather trousers and a leather waistcoat over a black blouse. There were no other customers.

Igor peered at the red-haired woman, scrutinising her sharp-featured but attractive face.

‘I’m going to go over and say hello,’ he said, standing up with some difficulty.

He went over to their table and stared at the woman with red hair.

‘You’re not from Ochakov, are you, by any chance?’ asked Igor, with a drunken attempt at a charming smile.

Both of them looked up at him, amused.

‘No,’ answered the red-haired one. ‘We’re from Mariupol, actually. Would you like to join us for a drink?’ She nodded at an empty chair.

Despite his advanced state of inebriation Igor knew it was time to leave.

‘As you’re not from Ochakov, I’m sorry for bothering you,’ he slurred, returning to his own table.

‘Will you be all right getting home?’ asked Kolyan.

‘I’ll be fine,’ Igor assured him.

Before they went their separate ways Kolyan, who had managed to stay relatively sober due to not mixing his drinks, helped Igor to flag down a car. He even sat him in the rear seat of the red Lada and gave the driver precise instructions on where to drop him off, so Igor was able to doze off in the back of the car. They arrived at the Nivka metro station just as the last minibus to Irpen was getting ready to leave.

Whereas Igor’s journey in the red Lada had lulled him to sleep, the jolting and swerving of the minibus to Irpen was more of a rude awakening and soon sobered him up. He left the minibus in Irpen with the other late-night passengers and surprised himself by setting out towards home with a light spring in his step. The minibus driver may have succeeded in shaking the alcohol out of his system, but his head still felt cloudy.

After a traumatic labour, the thought was born in Igor’s mind that maybe the whole thing really was just nonsense. Maybe I’ve turned into an alcoholic and I’m seeing things that don’t exist in real life? he thought. It could be a withdrawal symptom, without the fever or the nightmares. But what about the red-haired woman at the market? And the one in the bar? Why am I being haunted by red-haired women? It’s like a new version of scarlet fever!

Igor thought about the woman from the bar. She was the spitting image of red-haired Red Valya from the Ochakov market. Only if that Valya didn’t really exist, then who did she look like?

It’s all too weird, thought Igor. I’ll have to do a bit of research… And then find out whether or not it can be cured!

He went into their yard, carefully closing the gate behind himself. He stopped and looked at the fence, which Stepan had been so determined to fix. Peering at it closely, Igor noticed that three of the fence posts were brand new. He walked round behind the house and looked at the shed. A strip of light was visible beneath the closed door, and light was also coming from the little window to the right of the door.

Why isn’t he asleep? wondered Igor. Well, let’s find out!

He clambered carefully onto the bench by the door. Straightening up, he stood on tiptoe and pressed his left cheek to the window.

Stepan was sitting on a stool directly underneath the light bulb that hung down from the ceiling, poring over a large book. After staring intently at the book, Igor recognised it as the one they’d taken out of the first suitcase.

Igor climbed down from the bench and spat on the ground. He walked over to the house and, trying not to make a sound, carefully let himself in. He went into the kitchen, opened the cupboard and took out a bottle of brandy and a glass.

‘Well, here goes,’ he whispered, before downing it and pouring another.

The warmth of the brandy remained on his tongue. He walked along the dark hallway to the dining room, then into his bedroom. He changed into the police uniform, put on the peaked cap and pulled on the boots. He put the heavy gold watch into one of the pockets of the breeches and walked over to the window. It was pitch black outside, like the inside of a cellar.

‘Right then,’ he whispered to himself. ‘Research time!’