Part One – There
(Eastern Hemisphere)
CHAPTER SEVENTY NINE – DEPARTURE AND ARRIVAL
And then we returned home, and seeing offs after seeing offs began. Feasts. Farewells. My classmates gave me a farewell party at Sveta’s (I talked about it in Chapter 21). Soon the plane tickets were in our hands. So we said goodbye to our city, and now we are leaving for Moscow. My classmate Anatoly, who never made it through the Aviation Institute and worked as a technician at the airport, walked me to the plane, and two soldiers of Lilya’s uncle’s from KGB brought into the cabin a box of wine and vodka prepared for the meeting in America.
In Moscow, pleasant meetings awaited us before leaving: with Lilya’s friends; with Ira, who, through her speculator mother, got beautiful clothes for Lilya without any overpayment; with our dear Valya, who was finishing her residency.
Life still gave us a problem. Ana, as always, rushed to the yard to play with old friends and spin on the horizontal bar. But over the past year she has gained a lot of weight and could not kept herself on a horizontal bar while spinning the “sun”. The poor thing, she fell and broke his front tooth. Good thing that not her bones! We had to go to America with a broken tooth.
Three friends of mine held for me the line at Domodedovo for my things checkup. Our luggage – three suitcases and a two of boxes had to be checked in one day ahead the leaving.
One box contained essential kitchen utensils. In order not to carry a kitchen board, I put two pieces of hard plastic there from the “Skillful Hands” store. On such stands, children sculpted from plasticine or built paper castles. One piece came under the hand of a border guard.
“Prohibited for transportation!”
I was amazed,
“Why is so?”
“Unknown material. A sample!”
I has laughed. Indeed – unknown thing, for all occasions.
“Well, throw it away!”
But I was lucky with the second box, which contained alcohol. The same soldier who banned the “unknown material” said,
“What are you doing? Are you crazy? A box of vodka!”
“Only four bottles of vodka and eight bottles of wine. What should you do when guests come, and what should you treat them to? They don’t allow you money with you.”
It was true, you could take out two hundred dollars for three of us, which seemed like something significant here, but in reality was not a significant amount there.
Oddly enough, the soldier shared my views on receiving guests.
“Distribute three bottles in each suitcase, and one bottle in each hand luggage – no one will count where your three bottles are located, and the box will definitely be confiscated.”
I was very grateful to this guy for putting himself in my position.
“Take yourself a bottle,” I said, “Saying to you like to a friend.”
“I see that you speak from the heart, but you can’t even imagine how badly they will kick my ass if I take something. Be happy there…”
The next morning my family and I arrived again at the airport with hand luggage.
The last inspection was not mean either. We were a little worried that they would get caught on things like rings and jewelry. This was a method of extortion. But Ana protected us all. She said,
“Aren’t you checking me? I also have rings and stones.”
The woman at the security check immediately lost interest in us. She realized who the main transporter of illegal valuables was.
“Come to me, my dear girl, I’ll play with your rings,” she said in a sweet voice.
Ana happily walked up and dumped from her bag a bunch of children’s rings, rubber bands and pebbles from the sea onto the table.
“You are free!” the woman said angrily, and we headed deep into the airport-aircraft passages.
The flight on the Aeroflot international flight was excellent. I have never seen such politeness, courtesy and comfort.
The plane landed in Reykjavik, and we were released into Duty Free. Passengers ran around the store with bulging eyes, admiring the luxury and abundance. I calmly walked along the shop windows. Everything was correct, as it should be. There was still half of the life ahead.
“We are moving in the right direction, comrades!” I said loudly, and the passengers laughed not at Lenin’s words, which finally found meaning, but in tune with their joyful mood at the upcoming changes in life.
We were already in the Western Hemisphere, and new life was waiting for its new adventurers.
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