Lylya pushed the pastry into her mouth, bit off a tiny morsel, closed her eyes and slowly, methodically rolled the creamy filling over her tongue. Never in her life had she tasted anything so entirely luscious….
~~~
Maria pulled away and looked up into Todd’s eyes. "Was that what I think it was?" She buried her face in his chest. "That was the most— beautiful…."
"It was—amazing," Todd breathed.
Maria pressed her cheek to his and whispered in his ear."I love you. I love you—I love you forever."
They locked in tender embrace until Todd pulled back and moved a tuft of hair away from her face. “We were so close,” he said softly, “and then we just….” He paused considering his words before continuing. “And then we just… joined.”
Maria gasped. “Oh my God, Todd, yes! I felt it too. We joined like we were together as…one person. It was so…real.”
Todd slowly shook his head in wonder. “That was just… that was just mystical.”
Maria raised her eyes towards him, her face full of child-like astonishment. “Is that how it always is?”
Todd blinked the tears away and swallowed the lump in his throat. “No,” he groaned, his voice breaking. “That’s not…that’s not how it always is.”
She intently gazed up at him, her wide eyes glistening in the firelight. “People don’t usually become…together when they love?”
“Never…” Todd said. “They never…become together…never.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know…maybe it’s because they…think…”
“They think?”
“Their mind is not…they’re not completely there or…I don’t know but it’s, just different.”
Maria’s eyes glazed with tears. “Really? Our love is different?”
“Oh, God yes,” Todd said breathlessly. “Ours is different. Maybe...maybe that was what it was like before the… before fantasy and… inadequacy and… ego took over the world. When men and women didn’t have all this…crap to think about all the time.”
“No,” Maria said, her voice little more than a whisper. “It’s not for everyone else. It was never for anyone else. It’s just for us. It’s a gift just for us and no one else. We can choose to believe that, can’t we?”
Todd gently squeezed her. “Let’s do,” he said.
They lay together in contented silence for a time until a soft cackling sound rose from the hall outside the bedroom.
"The baby," Maria moaned. "He’s waking up."
Todd moved to get up."I’ll get him."
"Not yet," Maria said, holding on to him.
The cackling sound turned into impatient squawks.
"He sounds hungry."
"No," Maria said, pulling him back.
A high pitched wail rose and fell. Maria sighed and rolled away from Todd. "Why now?"
Todd threw the covers off and lay silently looking up at the ceiling.
"Wasn’t it sweet?" Maria said, her eyes welling with tears. "Can we do it again, all the time, every day?"
The wailing returned. Todd groaned and rolled away. He pulled his pants on, wandered into the living room, and made a quick right up the stairs to the loft.
~~~
He had seen the children mysteriously appear from within the trash pile in the alley and was reasonably certain he hadn’t been spotted.
Holding his breath in anticipation, he ducked behind an oversized trash can. The two little girls continued moving towards him. Within moments they were turning right onto Khankalskaya Street. He quickly glanced up and down the deserted street and back towards the girls who were by then practically on top of him. His heart thumped in his chest as he crouched, waiting for the right moment when he would leap out and…
Without warning he was accosted from behind by a great black beast. He reached for his weapon but it was too late. The beast was already upon him smearing his face with spittle. He yelped, went for his Kalashnikov and fired point blank into the beast…. But the beast kept coming…
"Sharpuddin!" Kheda hollered, surprised by the sudden appearance of her slightly older brother. "What are you doing here?"
Sharpuddin, lying prone on the ground, ignored his sister. "Pap – Pap Pap – Pap – Pap!" he shouted, pointing the stick at the wildly giddy puppy, now bouncing and barking in response to this strange new turn of events.
"Sharpuddin," Kheda said, "why are you lying there? Have you been following us?"
"Why do you call me Sharpuddin, Cossack? I am commander Khattab… and my face is the last face you shall see! Pap – Pap … Pap – Pap – Pap… Pap!"
"Stop making that noise," Kheda hollered. "Mother told you to leave us alone. And quit pointing that stick at us."
"Mother is a woman," Sharpuddin said, sneering. "Soon I’ll be a great Chechen fighter and she will no longer tell me what to do."
"She’s a woman with a big stick who still makes you cry every time it reddens your butt!" Kheda hollered.
Sharpuddin flushed and turned away from his cousin Lylya.
"He is only being kind," Lylya said, bristling. "No woman could ever hurt Sharpuddin unless he allowed it."
Kheda turned and laughed. "Lylya loves Sharpuddin!"
"No I don’t!" Lylya yelled, her face turning crimson.
Sharpuddin tried not to smile, but it was no use. He countered by quickly turning away. "I don’t have time to stand around talking to little girls," he said, walking north on Khankalskaya Street.
At precisely the same moment, Ortho the black puppy caught their collective attention. Sharpuddin stopped mid step. The puppy was staring strangely into the distance, his lips curled, the hair on his back uncharacteristically standing on end. He wasn’t moving, just standing there… staring.
"Ortho?" Lylya said nervously. "Are you OK?" She reached out to him. He snapped at her. She recoiled. The black puppy barked once, spun, and began running wildly away.
"Did he bite you?" Kheda said, reaching for Lylya’s hand.
"No… he just…"
That’s when they heard it, coming toward them from the west…
~~~
The baby was bawling now, kicking his tiny feet in frustration.
"Okay, Josh," Todd said as he approached. "I’m here now… sorry to make you wait, buddy."
He pulled the baby up, nestled him against his chest, moved down the stairs and back into the hall. He turned into the bedroom and found Maria crying, her face in the pillow."What’s wrong, sweetheart?" he said as he approached.
Maria looked up with tear filled eyes. She wiped her tears away, reached for the baby and shook her head. Todd handed the baby over and she pressed him to her breast. He hungrily took it and lay silently drinking, his tiny hands working away in contentment. Maria began crying again.
"Sweetheart, what is it?" Todd said, concerned.
"This can’t last."
"What?"
"This can’t possibly last—it’s too perfect."
Todd laughed and began stroking her hair.
"Why are you laughing?" she said. "I’m serious. Nothing this perfect could last."
“You act like we ain’t got nothing to say about that,” Todd said, still rolling his hand through her hair.
Maria pulled back, sniffed and studied his face with a new look. "Do all the men in Oklahoma have that deep velvet sound to their voice… that slow, rambling accent that just makes me want to chew their clothes off?"
Todd lay down next to her and put his arm under his head. "Nope, just me."
"You’d better be telling me the truth," Maria said menacingly. "Did you love it? Was it the most beautiful thing you’ve ever done? It wasn’t… just normal? You have to tell me the truth."
"It was the most beautiful thing I've ever done," Todd said, softly.
"No- no," Maria said. "You have to promise. Let me see your hands."
"My fingers ain’t crossed," he said, "but that could be a lie too, you know. That’s just a kid’s
game—"
"No Todd," Maria said, putting her hand to his lips. "Don’t say that. That’s our sign; you remember? Let’s make a pact between us… just us. If we lie about the fingers, we have to...we burn up in hell forever."
Todd Laughed. "Okay, I promise."
"So," Maria said, looking very serious. "In the presence of the fingers, you have to promise that our love is for no one else; never for anyone else. It’s just for us. It’s a gift just for us and no one else."
Todd smiled and raised his hands, exposing all his fingers.
"I do hereby solemnly swear," he said. His expression slowly turned serious. "What happened to us was real, the way God made it to be…pure love. We both felt it.”
Maria smiled, wiped a tear from her face and sniffed. "God huh? You’re all about God now?"
Todd smiled and looked away. "Well, we’ve seen things— I suppose there is a God but… I don’t know anything about him— or her, not even sure if I like him."
"Or her," Maria said grinning.
They both sat for a time silently watching the baby eat, listening to the sounds of the birds squabbling outside the open bedroom window. The sun was dropping behind the towering mountain peak and it was getting dark.
Maria giggled and put her hand to her mouth. "Were those orgasms?"she said, looking up at him.
Todd laughed. "Yes, Ma'am, I believe they were."
She giggled and shrugged in another way Todd found endearing.
He quieted and went back to stroking her hair. "It meant as much to you as it did to me, didn’t it?"
"Ooh," she said shivering, "let’s do it again."
"Hurry up, kid," Todd said, rolling his hand over his son’s tiny head. The baby stretched, lost the nipple, found it again and returned to his mother’s breast with renewed interest.
Someone knocked at the door. Todd looked out the window into the darkening sky. “Who could that be?"
~~~
As Lylya returned to consciousness she slowly became aware of the sound of screaming, distant at first, then closer. It took her another moment to realize the screaming was her own. She sat bolt upright, quickly checking her surroundings. It was getting dark. How long had she been unconscious? Kheda was laying in a fetal position a few feet away. She looked to the right. Sharpuddin was walking in a tight circle, his hands covering his ears.
Debris from the poorly constructed buildings lay scattered about. A large brick had tumbled to the ground, narrowly missing them. Lylya looked up. The wall the brick had been a part of was ominously leaning towards them twenty feet directly above their heads.
She reached for Kheda’s hand and pulled her to her feet. "We have to get out of here!" she shouted. "The city is falling on us!"
She pulled Kheda into the deserted street. Sharpuddin joined them as they began running towards home. Others ran past them.
Within a block of the apartment, they turned a corner and all but collided with Kheda and Sharpuddin’s father, Abbas.
"Where have you been?" he yelled.
Lylya pulled to a stop and stood looking up at him, winded. Kheda and Sharpuddin slid to a stop behind her.
"Hurry!" Abbas said. "Everyone is sick with worry. Is anyone injured?"
Kheda glanced around at the other children and back at her father. "No…Father, what happened?
"We’ll talk when your mothers know you are unhurt." He turned and trotted back down the street from where he had come. The children quickly followed.
The sound of wailing made them pull to stop only feet from the apartment door. They shared a collective glance before pushing through and dashing down the stairs.
"My child!" her mother cried as Lylya blasted into the tiny room. "Praise be to Allah!"
"Sharpuddin…Kheda," their mother called out." Where have you been? We thought you had been killed!" She jumped towards them, but Sharpuddin pulled away.
"Why would you worry, woman?" he said solemnly. "Kheda and Lylya were with me."
Lylya rushed forward and clung to her mother’s dress. "What happened, Mother? I don’t remember anything."
Sharpuddin surveyed the room. "Was anyone here injured?"
"No, thank God," his mother said. Her tone turned sharp and angry. "But we thought the worst had happened!"
Lylya’s wide eyes stared up at her mother."Was it an earthquake?"
"That was no earthquake!" Grandmother Satziyta said.
Abbas raised his hand. "Mother, these things are not for the ears of children."
"If these things are not for the ears of children,” Grandmother Satziyta said, “then why does almighty Allah choose to let them suffer along with the rest of us?"
Abbas sighed deeply. "I suppose Allah has chosen it so…the little ones have no choice but to understand."
He looked down at the children’s panicked faces. "Number one was rocketed," he said solemnly. "The very alley where you children play each day was rocketed. It’s by almighty Allah’s grace that you three are alive still."
"Rocketed?" Sharpuddin said. "Who—"
"The great Satan has decided to kill us again," Grandmother Satziyta growled through clenched teeth.
Kheda turned to face Grandmother Satziyta. "Who is that? Who is the Great Satan?"
"The Cossacks," Grandmother Satziyta said. "Putin and his Godless Russia."
Lylya was shaken by a sudden blast. Dust and debris rained down from the ceiling. Another blast knocked her to the ground. She staggered to her feet and quickly joined the yelling grownups clinging to each other in the tiny single room apartment.
"This building can’t take much more of this!" Lylya’s mother yelled. "It barely stands as it is."
Kheda’s father raised his hands."We should leave. The Russians intend to bomb Grozny into oblivion. We must go to the mountains of the Nozhai-yurt, Vedeno, and the Shatoi districts. Basayev and Khattab’s forces have made a stand. They will protect us there!"
"The Russians will not attack us," Kheda’s grandfather said. "They are not trying to hit us! They are trying to hit the cursed Wahhabites, who hide and fight amongst the women and children like the cowards they are!"
"It’s not the same as when you were in the military, father," Kheda’s mother said as she crouched over her children. "It’s different now…Putin is different. He’ll have us all dead."
Another blast rocked the apartment, this one even closer than the others.
Grandmother Satziyta hissed like a snake."Basayev! It’s him and his kind who have brought the Russians down upon us again! No one asked me if I wanted this war."
"Mother," Lylya shouted. "What’s happening? What are we going to do?"
Another blast all but knocked the huddling family to the floor.
Kheda’s father stepped forward, taking charge. "Go! We must get out of here. Where is everyone? Is everyone here?"
"Why must we always go?" Grandmother Satziyta wailed. "Why must it always be us? What have we done? We are civilians; we have nothing to do with this."
"When elephants fight the grass suffers," Abbas said loudly.
He glanced around the tiny room and hollered. "Everyone, get only the things you need to keep warm. We are leaving."
"I will not," Grandmother Satziyta said. "When Stalin told us to go my family went. It only got worse. I will not leave my home again—"
Another blast interrupted her.
"This is not our home, Mother," Abbas said quickly. "We are akkintsy clan. Home will always be Dagestan. We will return—"
Another explosion buckled the roof above their heads. More debris rained down on them.
"This way!" Abbas yelled through the dust.
Everyone, Grandmother Satziyta included, ran for the door leading out of the tiny apartment. Within moments they were in the street and huddling together.
"Follow me!" Abbas hollered. He turned and began running west on Kirov Street. The family followed.
"Slow down!" Lylya’s mother yelled as they turned left on Khankalskaya Street
."Mother can barely keep up with us!"
Moments later the family, shocked by what they saw, slowed to a complete stop. The city of Grozny was hardly recognizable. Most of the familiar buildings had already been bombed into rubble.
A group of men rounded the corner and passed them, heading in the other direction.
"Keep going," Abbas said, motioning the family forward. They turned another corner and automatic gunfire obliterated Abbas where he stood. Kheda’s mother quickly followed and fell into a heap on the bloody ground next to her husband. The family screamed.
Kheda moved forward towards her dead parents, but Sharpuddin took hold of her arm and dragged her back.
Lylya stood motionless, staring at the surreal scene.
Kheda’s grandfather slowly moved towards his stricken daughter and fell to his knee’s beside her. He turned to look into the direction of the gunfire. "Why?" he moaned. "Why have you done this? I am Colonel Junaidova vakha!" he cried out as he pounded his chest in despair. "This is my family. I was fighting fascists and Afghans before you were born—"
A cold white spotlight lit up the area exposing the entire horrific sight. Bodies were strewn round about, men women and children, lying scattered like rags blown in the wind.
An eerie moment of silence and another burst from a Kalashnikov sent Kheda’s Grandfather to the ground.
Grandmother Satziyta slowly moved forward shaking her fist in defiance. "What would your mother’s think of you today, you… you gang of shameless swine. You will forever be cursed of God—" Her words were cut off by another volley of gunfire.
Suddenly Sharpuddin was pulling Lylya away. Kheda was running along with them. Then they were at the hut; the hut under the trash. They pushed through the plastic and collapsed onto the cardboard floor, sobbing.
~~~
Todd found a shirt, went to the cabin’s front door and opened it. Louis Fasbender and his wife Gladys stood on the cabin porch shivering, their arms crossed over their chests, their aging faces pulled up in matching grimaces.
"Hey, guys, what’s up?" Todd said. "Boy, it got cold out here quick. Come on in before you freeze."
Louis grunted and stepped in. "Where’s my godson."
Johnson, C. W. Page 3
