And every day, Mom asked our landlord, from whom we rented our room, whether he had received a letter from Dad for us. And when the landlord saw our bucket, he asked Mom what had happened. Mom told him how our bucket was ruined. The landlord said that he could quickly fix it. And he did fix our bucket very quickly.
But Mom still worried about why Dad was not writing back to us. She also worried that Dad would worry about our bucket. Even though there was no need to worry about it anymore.
A letter from Dad came two weeks after we left home. And Mom was very happy that a letter finally came from Dad. She read it a few times to herself and to me.
But it turned out that Dad wrote us this letter one day after we left. And as soon as we realized that, we understood that there would be nothing in this letter about our bucket.
Our neighbors, who rented a room in the same house, also received a letter. They brought it out into the backyard and read it to everyone. And everyone listened because there was a lot about the weather and what was being sold in the stores.
And the neighbors said that they were going to reply about everything that can be bought in the stores in Ukraine and how cheap everything was.
The next day, we received a telegram informing us about a long distance phone call. It was Dad, who placed an order for this call. And Mom said that it was very convenient to be able to send a telegram. Because a letter could have come after we had already left Ukraine. But a telegram came the next day.
And I already knew that mail delivery might take a long time.
Once I heard Mom’s brother and Dad complain to each other that it took too long to receive letters. And Mom’s brother said that people should not write letters that were interesting for everyone to read. And I asked who was reading these letters. And Mom’s brother replied that some day, he would tell me all about it. In a few years. After I grew up a little[12].
And so, on Saturday morning, Mom and I took a bus to the telephone station in the nearby town. We waited there until one o’clock to be connected with Dad.
As soon as we were connected, Mom began to speak with Dad. She was so happy to be speaking with Dad that she began to cry. And I was very surprised that she was crying. And after they talked for a bit, Mom passed me the phone.
I said “Dad?” into the receiver and heard Dad’s voice. And I also felt like crying. But I was afraid that Mom would notice, so I was only listening to what Dad was saying and did not reply. Or I just said shortly “yes” or “no.” And after a very short time, the telephone operator said that three minutes were up and we had to finish our conversation. I heard Dad asking the operator for two more minutes, and then he asked me to give the phone back to Mom.
When Mom finished talking to Dad, she asked me what Dad and I spoke about. But I did not remember what we talked about. I only remembered Dad asking me whether I could hear him okay. I could barely hear him, but I said, “Yes.”
And Dad asked me again whether I could hear him okay. I again said, “Yes.” After that, I did not hear anything until the telephone operator said that three minutes were up.
I also asked my mom what she spoke about with Dad. But Mom answered that she did not say what she wanted to say because the connection was bad. She could only remember Dad asking her about how we were living here and whether Mom could hear him okay or not.
Then I suggested that Mom order a long distance call with Dad. But Mom said that she would never do that.
“Because it’s too expensive?” I asked.
And then Mom said that not only because of that but because she did not want to scare Dad to death.
“Why should Dad be scared to death?” I asked.
And Mom explained that very often they delivered telegrams after midnight. “Wouldn’t you get scared if someone knocked on your door after midnight?” asked Mom[13].
And I replied that I would not get scared. But Mom said that I would not get scared because I was still too young.
By then, it was almost two o’clock. Mom went to find out when our bus would leave. When she came back, she said that it would leave at three-forty. She said it in Ukrainian, probably the same way it was said to her. It sounded very funny, but I understood her.
And Mom said that since we had to wait for nearly two hours, we might as well try and go to the restaurant that we saw earlier in the same building. “If, of course,” my mom added, “it’s not too expensive.”
A woman who spoke Russian met us at the restaurant’s entrance. She told Mom that nobody can take a child into the restaurant. And Mom asked, “Why can’t you take a child into the restaurant?” The woman replied, “Don’t you understand why? There are many drunks in the restaurant. They’re all cursing. Is it right for a child?” And so we left.
And Mom said that we would walk home then. Because walking home would take us no more than an hour and a half. Mom also said that it might easily be that a lot of people from the resort would be on the bus and there would be no place left for us to sit.
So we walked home. And the bus did not pass us. And Mom and I were very happy that the bus did not pass us.
As we were walking home, I asked Mom whether there were usually many drunks in Moscow restaurants. And Mom said that she had never in her life been in a restaurant, neither in Moscow nor in any other city. One time, she and my dad decided to go to a restaurant in Moscow, but the doorman did not even let them touch the door of the restaurant.
Mom said that only foreigners were allowed into Moscow’s restaurants. And I, of course, asked Mom, why they only allowed foreigners into Moscow’s restaurants. To that Mom said that I should stop asking questions because for such questions, we would end up in prison.
And this is really very interesting. I noticed a long time ago that when I ask one question, Mom usually answers it and does not see anything wrong with it. However, if I ask a second question on the same topic, then it turns out to be the type of question for which we could be sent to prison.
That is why I never ask a second question in school. Well, I never ask the first question either. Because my parents strongly forbid me to ask any questions in school.
Many more interesting and funny things happened in Ukraine. But the most interesting thing happened at the market. At the market you were allowed to bargain.
For example, Mom asked some old woman, “How much are these potatoes?”
And the old woman replied that she was asking four rubles. Then Mom said that she would buy her potatoes for three rubles.
And the old woman said, “Let’s do it like this — not for you, not for me — three fifty.”
But the most surprising thing was the following. Mom approached an old woman who was selling cherries and asked her how much the bucket of cherries was. The old woman replied that she was asking twelve rubles for a bucket. And here Mom said that she could buy two buckets if the old woman sold each bucket for ten rubles.
At first, I thought that Mom was joking. I thought that Mom would have had to give the old woman three rubles just to be able to buy two buckets instead of one. But surprisingly, the old woman agreed to sell two buckets for twenty rubles.
Mom was very happy, and she told me she had planned in advance to share the cherries with Aunt Tamara. And we would be able to make enough cherry jam to last us the entire winter.
13
In Soviet Russia, a knock on someone’s door in the middle of the night most likely meant an arrest.