Love by the Numbers

by Karin Kallmaker

  “No flights and no trains—are you suggesting we drive?” Her heart sank. She’d had no idea traveling by car could get so tedious.

  “It’s nine hours by car, without hitting any slow downs. Most of it’s fairly rural and we can make good time. Kind of like driving across Nebraska and Kansas, I would imagine. We can at least take turns driving too. I am so sorry about this.”

  Nicole glanced at her watch. “So if we don’t waste time at the airport, we’d get there before midnight. That’s not that bad. There’s a good chance of staying awake, but if we waste time at the airport and end up with no flights it will be harder to stay awake for the drive.”

  For a petite woman, Lily was taking improbably large bites of her burger. After a swallow of coffee she said, “We could be having blini or pirozhki, but instead I’m blissing out on…” She gestured with her last bite of burger before popping it into her mouth. “Blissing out on whatever that was.”

  “A taste of home. At least it’s hot.” Not that her feet felt any warmer. “Can you send my mother an e-mail? Let her know I don’t have a signal or she’ll worry about why I don’t call her on schedule. I should have asked you yesterday.”

  Lily typed furiously for a moment, then she glanced at the burger in Nicole’s hand. “And…” Her fingers typed as she spoke. “Nicole is eating her protein, I promise, and remains healthy as the proverbial horse, though the travel and my driving are wearing her down a little. We should be near phones in twenty-four hours or less when we reach St. Petersburg, finish our events and get to the hotel. I hope Kate is feeling better.”

  A few clicks later she said, “And away it goes. How is Kate, by the way?”

  “Bitchy, the last time we spoke. In other words, much the same. I don’t blame her. Inactivity was never her specialty. My mother is more worried than she is.”

  Lily closed her laptop and wrapped up its power cord. “Some mothers are like that. Not mine, but some are.” Her smile was wry, but there was no sign of tears.

  “Would you like me to drive at first—you navigate?”

  Lily agreed and Nicole braced herself, but it was easier than she had anticipated. When Lily said turn left, she turned left. When Lily said speed up to make an exit ramp, she floored it and veered. When they got lost she waited for Lily to sort it out, then they were on their way again. So much for trying to be less dependent. She supposed that Lily would like knowing that Nicole’s survival plan was “Trust Lily.” But it seemed like a good idea to keep it to herself.

  * * *

  “Now this stupid box thinks we’re in Lyubytino.” Lily stabbed at the volume control to silence the GPS’s repetitive announcement of “Off route. Recalculating.”

  Nicole slowed as they approached a junction. “So am I going straight ahead or bearing right?”

  Lily pored over the paper map they’d bought at the last town they’d passed. There was little daylight left at this point, and the overcast skies weren’t helping. “I think you’re going straight ahead. To Novgorod—see? We can’t be in Lyubytino. The sign says Novgorod is eighty kilometers. When we get there we…” Lily switched on the overhead light. “That’s better. When we get there we turn north.”

  “How long?”

  “Less than an hour.” She held the map up to the wan light. “Unless…Oh no, wait. I told you the wrong thing. We ought to have gone to the right for a shorter bypass. I think.”

  “Should I turn around when I can?” Nicole’s tone was patient, for which Lily was thankful, given how lost they’d gotten again trying to leave Moscow.

  Lily peered out the window at the dusk-shrouded landscape. They’d already stopped twice for more drinks and food. The clouds made the drive dreary and gray and the two-lane road was narrow. Unlike Europe, where a hamlet or village was around almost every corner, Russia did indeed remind her of the western United States with its huge, open spaces and cattle ranges. Out of nowhere a church would indicate where a town had once stood, but all of them seemed abandoned and the dirt roads leading to them looked cracked from drought and disuse. There were patches of what might have once been plowed fields but now were fallow with so little growth that she wondered if they’d been salted during one of the wars.

  “Lily?”

  “I’m sorry—no, don’t turn around. We actually want to go through Novgorod for gas and a break. We’ll be about halfway to St. Petersburg.”

  “Do you find it odd that there’ve been so few cars on the road?”

  At the moment the highway was deserted save for them. A scant forest of thin evergreens faded into the gloom on their left and on their right stray cattle nibbled at what remained of summer grasses. Other than the barbed wire fence keeping the cattle off the road, there was no sign of human occupation. “Not really, but I am wishing I hadn’t read The Gulag Archipelago in college.”

  Nicole laughed. “Do you want to see if there’s any music on the radio?”

  “Let’s hope. More Murphy’s Law—a long unexpected drive in a rental car without an MP3 adapter.” They were initially greeted with a blast of static, but with a few adjustments the radio picked up a thin signal playing a lighthearted Russian pop number. “Is this okay?”

  “I’ll live. Did you see that sign?”

  Lily craned to see behind them. The sign was already lost in the darkness. “No, sorry. What did it say?”

  “A list of cities and how far. None of them were eighty kilometers or less. The first city on the list was one hundred twelve kilometers.”

  Puzzled, Lily asked, “So, Novgorod wasn’t on it?”

  Nicole gave her a sour look. “I don’t know Novgorod from Albuquerque in Cyrillic. There were three lines. The first started with an odd W character. The second reminded me of Ilyria with something like an S for the first letter. That’s the best I can do.”

  Lily switched on the light again. “Novgorod in Cyrillic starts with an H. Maybe we should go back to the other route.” She scanned a widening radius on the map for any cities like Nicole had described, regretting that she hadn’t seen the sign as well. “There’s Shimsk. I can see that being a little like Ilyria. If we’re headed to Shimsk then we’re going southeast instead of northeast.”

  Nicole was slowing the car and easing onto the shoulder. “I’ll turn around. There’s nobody else out here and it’s wide enough.”

  Lily glanced at the GPS to see if the compass would at least help, but was surprised to see it no longer blinking “Lost satellite reception.” Its map was steady and clear and looked just like the one on her lap. “Hang on, we may actually be getting something useful here.”

  “Just in time.”

  She turned on the device volume again. “It confirms that we’re going southeast, so we’re definitely off-route.” Lily zoomed out on the display and studied the results. “I will take back every bad word I said if this is right. Supposedly, if we go ahead about eight kilometers, we can take a road north. It’ll be faster than turning back.”

  As they drove Nicole reported each passing kilometer and Lily looked anxiously for their turn. At about four kilometers the road pitched sharply downward.

  “I didn’t expect this,” Lily said. “Maybe we’re coming down off a steppe or something.”

  With no other cars, Nicole slowed to a crawl as the GPS announced, “In one hundred meters turn right.”

  “I’m riding the brakes. I don’t want to miss our turn.”

  “I don’t see anything there.” Lily hoped she didn’t sound as frazzled as she felt. “Let’s give it another couple hundred feet before we panic.”

  Nicole eased off the brakes a little and they quickly picked up speed. “Your statement presumes that panic is inevitable.”

  “There!” Lily pointed. “No marker—if we weren’t going slow we’d have missed it.”

  “Hang on!” Nicole slammed on the brakes and made the turn. Lily felt reassured as the GPS indicated they were now traveling north. The new road was as wide as the previous one and she was g
lad they were going in the right direction. The radio signal petered out after a few minutes, but they were making decent time.

  After about twenty minutes Nicole pointed at the GPS display. “It stopped updating our position.”

  As Lily leaned forward to confirm Nicole’s words the car seemed to rise off the road. Flooded with terror, she tried to scream, and bit her tongue when the car slammed down on the road so hard she saw stars. The clatter and ping of rocks on their undercarriage was so loud she couldn’t hear what Nicole was yelling.

  They slewed to the left, and Lily was thrown against the limit of her seat belt as they lurched to a stop.

  “What the hell!” Nicole’s voice was taut and high.

  “Are you okay?” Lily rubbed her shoulder and tasted blood in her mouth. “Are we off the road?”

  “This is the road. It’s not paved.”

  As the dust settled in the glow of their headlights, Lily saw that it was true. Ahead of them was an unpaved road, full of rocks.

  They were lost in Not-Sure-Where, Russia. Don’t panic, she told herself. We can always go back the way we came. We could stay here and wait for daylight.

  She got out of the car even as Nicole protested. “I won’t go far,” she assured her. “There’s nothing out here.”

  “Better safe than sorry.”

  “We ran out of pavement.” She shivered. The temperature felt like the mid-forties and falling. Thank goodness the car’s heater seemed fully functional.

  “I knew that from inside the car,” Nicole called. “Come back.”

  Lily walked to the edge of the light cast by their headlights before returning to stand at the driver’s door. “I don’t see that it resumes, but it might. We can go forward and hope to rejoin paved road, or maybe we should just go back the way we came.”

  “I vote for back.”

  Lily nodded. “It’s safer. I’ll guide you turning around. Not only is it unpaved, I think it’s a lot narrower.” She backed away, giving Nicole lots of room.

  A few seconds later she could hear Nicole gunning the engine, but the car wasn’t moving. The engine roared but nothing happened.

  Nicole rolled her window down all the way. “Flat tire?”

  “The car would still move.” Lily slowly circled the car. “I can’t see much of anything—Cole, get out of the car! I smell gas.”

  “What?”

  “Gasoline. Like the tank is punctured. And if broken metal has a smell, I smell that too.”

  A scant two minutes later they stood panting, breath visible in the air, some distance away from the rental car, their luggage beside them on the dirt road. Using the light cast by their cell phones Lily fished out her sneakers while Nicole looked for her warmest attire. Double layers of shirts weren’t going to be enough to keep out the seeping cold, Lily thought. We’re lost in Not-Sure-Where, Russia and now without shelter. Don’t panic…

  “I think we’re going to have to walk or freeze,” she said. She tugged her jacket around her. It was only a little warmer than a cardigan. “I knew this would be the coldest place we visited, but didn’t see the point of packing along winter gear for just a couple of days, most of which would be spent indoors. Not my best decision.”

  Nicole had covered her white blouse with a thick sweater and a windcheater over that. “I made the same decision. But any New Englander knows socks make good mittens.” She handed Lily one of her ubiquitous pairs of black socks.

  Lily gratefully slipped them over her cold hands. Her own thin hose wouldn’t make a difference, but Nicole’s sturdy knit socks would help enormously. “It’s at least fifteen kilometers back to that turning.” Lily tugged her suitcases after her. She hit a rock and her carry-on tipped, forcing her to drag it. Telling herself it would be easier when she reached the pavement she plodded onward.

  Nicole stumbled, but didn’t fall. “Watch out—there’s…Oh, I’ve found the edge of the pavement.”

  The paved road was at least eighteen inches above the gravel one. Lily discovered that by barking her kneecap on the ragged edge. “No wonder the car died. We were airborne!”

  “You were wrong, you know.”

  Lily wanted to cry. “I don’t think this is all my fault.”

  “No,” Nicole said quickly. “I meant you were wrong when you predicted we would panic.”

  Lily burst out laughing and quickly wiped away the tears that formed. It wasn’t as if she felt calm. “How do you know this isn’t how I panic?”

  “You don’t have the physical signs of low dopa—”

  “—mine, I know. Neither do you.”

  “It’ll be fine. So we miss an event. It’ll be—did you hear that?”

  The sharp click with a sliding shoosh stopped Lily in the act of stepping up to the paved surface. Twirling around to face where the noise seemed to emanate from, she thought distantly that maybe it was time to panic. It sounded heavy, like a large animal. Were there bears in Russia? Of course there are, idiot, it’s their national mascot.

  She did the one thing that she knew would help. She dropped her suitcase handle and groped for Nicole’s hand.

  Nicole pulled her close as the noise repeated several more times. It was getting closer. The warmth of Nicole’s body was the only thing that seemed real.

  Fire, Lily thought. Animals are afraid of fire. They could torch the rental car if only they had matches or a lighter. She couldn’t feel her feet but didn’t know if that was fear or the cold.

  There was a sudden glow of light. Nicole had activated her cell phone.

  “There’s no signal.” Lily hadn’t realized she could sound so squeaky.

  “I just want some light.”

  They both jumped as a voice shouted out of the darkness.

  “Merde.” Lily could feel Nicole shaking. It wasn’t a wild animal, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t dangerous. What kind of person would be out and about in Not-Sure-Where, Russia at this time of night?

  The voice rang out again and Lily cleared her throat. Still sounding squeaky, she shouted back in her third-grade Russian, “Please help. Our auto is dead.”

  The click-shoosh sounds came from all directions and she realized suddenly they were hooves on rock and dirt. She added the light of her cell phone to Nicole’s and huddled closer.

  Five riders abruptly materialized out of the darkness. All she could make out were outlines reminiscent of John Wayne.

  There was a sudden flash of sharp light, then it steadied to a bright glow that momentarily blinded her. She didn’t let go of Nicole.

  Several of the riders laughed as one said something Lily took to be, “God save us from tourists.”

  She squeezed Nicole’s hand. “They realize we’re lost.”

  One rider urged his mount a few feet closer. He said over his shoulder, “You were right, son. But I think the cows are safe.” He turned his attention to them. His words were at first too quick for Lily to follow.

  “Slow, please.”

  More carefully he said again, “Why are you here?”

  “We are going to St. Petersburg. We are lost. The car is there.” She pointed and fumbled through her shaky Russian vocabulary and hoped her gestures helped. “Gas on the ground. Fire? We left it. Can you help?”

  One of the riders guided his horse in the direction Lily had pointed, turning on a lantern of his own. He played the sharp beam over the car, and Lily could see that one of the front wheels was clearly bent out of position. He yelled back, “There’s a gas puddle.”

  Nicole said, “I did kill the car, didn’t I?”

  Lily nodded, unable to follow the comments of the men beyond a general consensus that the car was very broken. “You had help from the ground.”

  “I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

  The man who seemed to be in charge dismounted and walked slowly toward them. His bulky leather jacket and chaps over dungarees showed years of hard use. His thick, black beard obscured his mouth completely and almost covered his eyes as wel
l. “You can’t stay here. Come with us. In the morning we take you to Novgorod.”

  He sounded nothing like Great-Aunt Lillian Von Smoot. “Not tonight?”

  He shook his head. “Too far for horses. Truck comes in morning. Come.” He gestured at his horse.

  She realized he wanted them to get on the horses. She didn’t know anything about horses. She hadn’t made any preparations for horses. Nowhere in the itinerary was there anything about horses or cowboys or broken cars.

  Nicole said, “Does he mean what I think he means?”

  Lily took a deep breath and tried to steady her nerves. “Yes.”

  “I’d rather walk.”

  “We walk,” Lily said in Russian.

  He pushed his worn Outback hat away from his eyes and she could finally see his expression. He once again launched into a long sentence, but Lily shook her head. Scowling he simply said, “Too cold. Too steep. Too far.”

  The other riders circled back from the car and he began handing their luggage up to them even as Lily said, “Wait!” She watched her carry-on settled in front of one rider and Nicole’s behind him. Their large suitcases were each lashed expertly across the sturdy rumps of two other horses. Then they ambled off into the night.

  When she and Nicole didn’t budge their would-be rescuer was clearly annoyed. He stalked back to his mount. “Come.”

  The only remaining rider, the one who had originally turned on his lantern, said, “They’re scared, Father.”

  His father answered, “Silly women.”

  Lily said to the boy, who looked no more than twelve or thirteen, “Of course we’re scared.”

  He scowled to match his father. “I’m missing dessert.”

  Lily’s anxiety faded so quickly she felt a little lightheaded. They were still in the real world where a teenager’s stomach ruled. “I’m sorry.”

  Nicole whipped around to face Lily. “What are we going to do?”