by Terri Dixon
Part XXVIII
We're taught to be ashamed of confusion, anger, fear and sadness, and to me they're of equal value to happiness, excitement and inspiration.
-Alanis Morissette
I couldn’t think straight. I was so upset that I was losing my mind. I swear, I could feel it slipping away from my like the string of a balloon slipping from my fingers. I had to do something. I had no idea what. I knew that I would need that Hummer for something. I had to do damage to someone or something to get Tania and Steve out of trouble. I didn’t want to, but I could see that it was coming to a crux and there was nothing else that I could do. I hoped that I would have to destroy something instead of someone, but I was suddenly prepared to do whatever it took. I'd had enough and at that point, I was mad.
It was beginning to snow again as I trudged through the snowy streets of Tver. It wasn’t far from the museum to the train station’s hotel. I didn’t feel like looking for a taxi at that point. I needed to think, and I felt that the walk in the snow would do me good. It was dark, of course, as it always was in January around there. It made it difficult to see exactly where the sidewalks and the streets were, so I continually stepped into puddles of dirty slush. I didn’t care. I wanted the doomed visit to Russia to end. I wanted to go home to Indiana and deal with my own dirty snow.
Peter followed me silently back to the hotel. He had trouble keeping up with me, even though he was a good head taller than me and his legs were markedly longer as well. I almost ran out of frustration. It was involuntary, but it did work off some of the frustration along the way. I didn’t look back to see if he was keeping up. I didn’t really care. I was so upset and disgusted that I didn’t care at that moment if I never saw him again. I have a tendency to back away from people and go into withdrawal from those around me when I’m upset. I can't think well unless I'm alone.
I could hear Peter breathing heavily from the walk behind me as I walked into the lobby of the hotel. I walked straight to the main desk where I saw a completely different gentleman than was there when we’d left. I didn’t know if he had been there when the police had come or not. I didn’t know if he’d know a damn thing about all of it, and I didn’t care. I expected him to. I was an American, and I believed that someone should know something if I needed them too. I was still naïve.
“Where is the couple that was arrested?” I demanded of the man behind the hotel desk.
“I’m sorry; I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he replied.
I could feel rage welling up in my throat like mercury in a thermometer as it sits in the sun. “There was a couple arrested in this hotel less than an hour ago. Where did they take them?” I demanded once again.
“I’m not at liberty to say,” he replied with an attitude.
Peter took me by the arm and whirled me around to face him. “Look, we have enough trouble already. I don’t think you should make things any worse.” I hated it when a man grabbed me that way.
I didn’t answer Peter. I reached up and pried his hand from my arm and pushed it away. I turned back to the man behind the counter. “Look, I don’t care who you think you are. The girl that was arrested wasn’t Russian. She’s an American citizen. She is being arrested because of some stupid issue that the government here is having with me. This could cause an international incident. Do you want that?”
The man looked past me to Peter. I hate it when men do that. I wanted to reach across the desk and grab him and beat him. I couldn’t do that, so I did the next best thing. I reached across the desk and slapped his face. “You know, you can talk directly to me, asshole,” I said.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and heard Peter’s voice. “Calm down Stacey.”
“Did he say Stacey?” the man behind the desk asked me.
“Yes, why?” I asked.
“Because, Peter, your grandmother said that I should make sure that you and this Stacey got out of town. The police found you and she told me to have them arrest the others as a diversion,” the man behind the desk explained to Peter, still ignoring my existence.
I didn’t know what to think. Tish was too much. Tish knew too much. Tish had too much power. I turned around to face Peter. “How does your grandmother know so much about everything?”
From behind me the man at the desk spoke. “Ms. Zinkov is my boss. She owns the hotel. I do as she says. When she gives me a direct order, I do only as she says.”
I didn’t even turn to acknowledge that I’d heard him. I continued to face Peter. I waited for him to answer. I was too angry to speak without more information.
“I told you, my grandmother is very well connected,” Peter said, finally. “I’m sure she has our best interests in mind. She’s not as evil as you think she is.”
I finally calmed down enough to speak. “I don’t really care what her motives are. I’m not leaving the country and leaving Tania in jail somewhere in the middle of nowhere. That is where we are, right? We’re in the middle of nowhere. I mean, Catherine the Great had to build a house here in order to have a place to stay while she was traveling between Moscow and St. Petersburg, isn’t that what you told me?”
“Yes,” Peter muttered, head hanging, looking at the floor.
“Great. I’ve never even heard of Tver before, but my friend is in jail here, because the President is all worried about that stupid ring. We need to get them out of there. You will help me. Your grandmother did this. Steve is your friend. You owe them even more than I do.” I waited for some kind of an answer.
“I know,” Peter muttered. “I'm out of ideas. I don’t know what to do.”
I turned to the man behind the desk. “First you’re going to have to tell me where they took my friends,” I said to him. “Don’t tell me you can’t do that.”
“But, miss…” he started.
“What?” I yelled in his face.
“I have to answer to Ms. Zinkov” he replied.
I looked over my shoulder at Peter. I reached up to take the hat off of my head.
“No,” Peter said.
His objections were in vain. I ripped the hat off my head and turned to face the man behind the desk. “Have you ever been to your museum?” I asked. I could see the shocked expression forming on his face. “I see you have. Do you have any idea who I’m supposed to be? Who do I look like, bud?” I put the ring on my finger and held my hand out to his face. “Have you ever seen this?” I asked him.
The man behind the desk stood and backed away from me and the counter. “My God, that’s supposed to be nothing but an old tale,” he gasped. “You’re supposed to be an imposter. That’s what the police are saying.”
“Well, you’ve seen me now,” I snapped. “What do you think?”
“You look like Catherine the Great,” he said eyes still wide. I could tell that he was extremely confused. “Are you really the last Romanov?” he asked.
“I don’t have the slightest idea, but if it will get you to tell me where they took my friends and any other information you have that may help me get them out of jail, sure,” I told him. “I’ll be Mickey Mouse if that’s what it takes.”
It turned out that the man behind the desk was named Boris. Actually, he kind of reminded me of the little criminal from the Bullwinkle cartoons. He’d worked for Tish as the night manager at the hotel since she’d bought it ten years before. He was born and raised in Tver. He was well connected himself. He knew nearly everyone in town. He knew all of the cops. He didn’t care for them. He was one of the masses that thought of them all as gangsters and thugs. He was one of the masses that wanted to throw the government out and get a new one. Once I convinced him to quit listening to Tish, there was no problem getting him to help us against the police.
Boris told us where the police station was located. It wasn’t far from the hotel. He said it was only a few blocks. He told us that there were as many as twent
y police officers on duty there at night. There were some significant crime problems in that precinct, so they always had extra people on duty. He felt that it would be difficult to manage to get Tania and Steve out of the police station, unless they could do it with a lawyer.
I couldn’t wait for lawyers. They would be way more interested in me and my stupid ring than they would be in helping my friends. I needed to do something far less conventional to break them out. I had no intention of ending up in there with them. I knew that if the government people ever got a hold of me, that's exactly where I would be. I needed a plan. I needed a way to confront these policemen without getting killed. I needed leverage. I needed witnesses. I needed a lot for a little country girl who had nothing at her disposal.
I looked at Boris and thought. “How many people do you know that would do you a huge favor?” I asked him.
“Like what?” he asked. “They don’t allow us to carry guns in this country, so they can’t come and be soldiers for you.”
“I need witnesses,” I said.
“What do you want witnesses for?” Peter asked.
“ I have to do something. I didn’t do anything, and neither did Tania or Steve. I don’t think that the government here would stop me from correcting a huge mistake in front of a crowd of witnesses who no longer believe in their government already.”
“And what if they do?” Peter asked.
I held my hand out palm up to Peter. “Call grandma and then give me the phone,” I ordered him. “I think I know her well enough already. I bet grandma can do something to help.”
Peter pushed the number on his phone and handed it to me. I waited. “Hello” I heard Tish say on the other end. “Peter?”
“Guess again,” I said, wanting to punch her.
“Tsarina,” she said, sarcastically.
“Look, old woman, I don’t know who you think you are, but you had our friends arrested.” There was a pause. “I know you did it.”
“I wanted to give the two of you a chance to escape,” she said.
“That’s not going to work,” I told her. “I’m not leaving them here in jail. You caused this; you help me fix it.”
“How do you think I could do that?” she asked.
“I remember that you told me that you had never taken over the country because you thought it would be too much of a pain in the ass. Do you remember that?” I asked.
“Yes,” she replied.
“Well then, I’m guessing that you have substantial pull with newspapers, radio stations, TV, and maybe the government themselves. Why don’t you use some of that pull right now to help me get our friends out of jail? Then I’ll go home and leave your grandson alone. Do we have a deal?”
“Yes,” she said, flatly. “Give me an hour, and then do what you must. There’s just one thing that I must remind you of missy.”
“What?” I asked; angry with her.
“If you are the cause of one single hair being harmed on my Peter’s head, I’ll see to it that you never make it back to the farm.” The phone clicked off.
I looked at Peter. “She really doesn’t like me." I handed him his phone. "I really don’t care.”
The Ring of the Queen
