‘But we didn’t come out here to look at graveyards, Nikolai Dmitrievich,’ she said. ‘There is something I have to say to you.’
32
The church was not locked and he followed her inside. In the blackness a tiny point of red wavered above the altar. She led the way there, groping along the aisle. ‘There are candles somewhere.’
He heard a rattling. ‘Here. And they make a charge. Put a few coins in the box. I have no money.’
He lit the candle with his lighter and searched his pockets. ‘All I have —’ he peered, ‘ — a note.’
‘They won’t complain,’ she said dryly, and took the note off him. ‘Incense,’ she said, sniffing. ‘That’s what they spend money on! Well now, Nikolai Dmitrievich, I have an apology to make to you.’
‘An apology? For what?’
‘An attitude you might have found — incorrect. Perhaps unfriendly, even racialist. Do not mistake my mother’s attitude for my own. There is no trace of racialism in me. Quite the contrary. I have profound respect for all the peoples of the north. The fact is, I was not sure who you were − even if you were a Chukchee at all.’
He stared at her.
‘What else could I be?’
‘Well, you could have been something else. You know we have few strangers here, a security area. But a few weeks ago we did have one, in Green Cape. A Korean seaman, very ill; I took him off his ship to Tchersky hospital. I thought you resembled him.’
He shook his head. ‘I don’t understand,’ he said. ‘You have a seaman in hospital, and think I —’
‘He isn’t. He recovered and went away, to Murmansk, to rejoin his ship. But there were certain things about you — your accent, for instance. It didn’t sound to me Chukchee … In short, it’s why I brought you here. These people would know, of course, and I trust them.’
He flashed his smile. ‘Well, I hope Viktoria Eremevina’s guarantee is good enough. I don’t remember my birth personally, but she was there!’
‘Yes, I know. But understand my grounds. Even now the people here say you have some other accent — maybe a little like Evenk. It’s what I thought myself, and it puzzled me.’
‘Well, my friends are Evenk, it’s true. And my own language — I mainly lost it in Novosibirsk. Without even speaking Russian properly. I’m a mess, I know.’
‘Don’t worry,’ she said, a little more warmly. ‘But I wanted this opportunity to apologise, and to tell you not to be alarmed if the police question you.’
‘The police?’
‘As the medical officer for the district I must report any stranger I cannot vouch for absolutely. But there’s nothing to worry about. They will simply check over your background —’ She frowned at his expression. ‘Is there something you have not told me?’
He was silent, staring into the candle.
‘Nikolai Dmitrievich,’ she said, ‘speak in confidence. know there are people here who don’t want their affairs looked at too closely. Particularly drivers. Matters to do with women, things of that nature … It’s why they’re here. I don’t report such things. Is there something?’
‘Well, in confidence … There is. A woman, yes.’
‘Then have no fear. The police won’t tell her — they don’t bother with that.’
He was silent some moments longer.
‘Can I trust you further?’ he said softly.
‘If it’s not of a criminal nature, of course.’
‘It’s not criminal,’ he said. ‘But I’m not Khodyan. All that I’ve said of my life — the broken background, Novosibirsk — all that is true. Yet I’m not Khodyan. In Novosibirsk I knew Khodyan. His father was the schoolteacher. We were friends, and we became drivers together. But he was unsettled and went back north, to Magadan. Then this year — this summer, just a few months ago — we met again, at Batumi on the Black Sea. He wanted to stay there, and lose his identity. An affair of the heart, a girl he wished to marry. And he already had a wife and children! So, we exchanged papers. It was crazy, I know — although at the time it seemed a joke! But that’s it, and I can’t have the police searching through papers.’
She stared at him. ‘But this is a lunatic thing,’ she said. ‘If they had to investigate you for any reason — a driving accident, anything — they would soon discover the truth.’
‘How?’
‘I’m not a policeman. But fingerprints?’
‘What fingerprints? I have done nothing wrong, ever.’
‘And Khodyan?’
‘The same. I would swear to it.’
‘Then what have you to fear from an investigation, either as Khodyan or — whoever you are?’
He lowered his eyes.
‘Well. There is still something else, something very upsetting. Khodyan drowned. He drowned there at Batumi, a tragic accident. And he is buried there. Under my name! It upset me deeply. The authorities informed my parents — that I was dead. And also — also this other woman I mentioned to you. What was I to do? I couldn’t go back to Novosibirsk. I was dead! Or to Magadan — where Khodyan was known? Also I couldn’t stay at Batumi. He was known there too, Khodyan. And I had his papers. So in the end … Ponomarenko, who knew all this — the three of us had teamed up together — Ponomarenko said I should come up here for a bit, take his apartment, his job, until I’d sorted myself out. And that is the whole truth, I swear to you!’
She looked at him a long time in the candlelight.
‘Well, you made a good impression on your comrades, at any rate. As well as here. But this is an insane thing you did!’
‘Yes. I’m a fool. I think I have always been a fool,’ he said sadly. ‘But not bad! If I could convince you of that, Tatiana Petrovna!’
She pursed her lips and moved down the aisle with the candle.
‘You will not submit me for police investigation?’
She blew the candle out and set it on a bench and opened the door. ‘I must think about this.’
‘You know I am not a bad man!’
‘Look, Nikolai Dmit — What do I call you now, anyway?’
‘Kolya?’ he said, smiling anxiously.
‘All right, Kolya. I have a responsible function here, a trusted one. People trust me.’
‘Then trust me. You know me now. You have examined me — every part of me,’ he said, smiling more widely. ‘Tell me … do I have a murmur?’
‘No.’ Her own faint smile came on. They crunched down the path together. ‘I had to restrict your movements, in order to — Well, never mind. But it’s true you are very tired and need a few days off. Hand that form in on Monday. And we’ll leave early tomorrow. No church!’
‘Thank you. I know I can do with a rest.’
‘And while having it — your eagerness for the collective. It was the Evenks you wanted there, wasn’t it?’
‘They have always been my friends.’
‘A secretive man.’ Her smile remained. ‘And I can understand why now. But I was right to have my suspicions.’
‘I hope you didn’t mention them to anyone else?’
‘Of course not. I rely on my own judgment.’
‘Yes. I see why it is so respected. May I mention how much I admire you, Tatiana Petrovna — your thoroughness, your observation … among other things?’
She glanced at him swiftly. ‘You can mention that I observed five bunches of flowers — if asked. You will be asked. But thank you, anyway … Kolya.’
They went into the house, and he was asked, and mentioned the flowers, and they took tea with the old lady and went to bed.
And then all that was over, and only the events of tomorrow remained.
It was a long time since he had done anything of the kind. But he had gentled her, he had disarmed her; she would give no trouble. And she had told nobody.