Chapter 9
It had been nearly an hour since Natasha and Sonya left Marya’s house to go back home. Mugs with remnants of cold tea were scattered upon the coffee table, each one sitting on a white coaster. The only cups that were full and contained hot chai inside of them were Helene’s and Marya’s, as they were watching ‘The Lion King’ on the TV. They occasionally sipped on their mugs while laying on the opposite ends of the sofa, underneath the blanket.
Marya’s eyes were fixated on the screen until she noticed a little flitter of Helene’s eyes. She watched them slowly close as her head tilted back. Helene must've caught herself drifting away because she immediately jerked her head back up and turned to Marya to see if she saw.
A small smirk arose on Marya’s face.
“I can’t let you crash here two nights in a row Kuragina, or else your dad is gonna be furious.”
Marya reached for the remote and paused the movie.
“How about we call it a night?”
“No, no I can stay awake.”
Helene said through some incoherent mumbles.
“It’s only 8:30.”
“It’s 11:30. You’ve basically been here all day. You gotta go back sometime. Anatole is probably already putting up your missing persons sign.”
She chuckled at her own joke.
“Shit it's already 11:30? I guess I should head home.”
The small girl pried herself off the couch and stepped into her shoes.
“Sorry I couldn’t stay for the movie.”
She turned back to glance at the TV screen before glancing at Marya.
“It’s ‘The Lion King’ Helene, you’ll see it again sometime soon.”
Marya collected Helene’s things; her clutch and her bag of clothes from the gala. She handed them to Helene, who said thank you by giving her a small smile.
“Hopefully we can watch it on Monday after school…”
Helene brushed a stray hair behind her ear while looking to the floor.”
“On our date?”
“Uh- Sure. Yeah, totally. Maybe we can have some chips and salsa too?”
‘What are you saying Marya, you don't even have chips and salsa!??!...’
“I like chips and salsa.”
Helene nodded in agreement with Marya’s statement.
“Good good…. Chips and salsa it is then!”
‘To Do List: Buy chips and salsa.’
“I’ll see you on Monday then.”
Helene turned to walk to the front door, and Marya quickly jumped in front of her to open it for her.
“I'll see you. Text in the meantime?”
“Yeah.”
Marya, quite awkwardly opened her arms to Helene, and Helene leaned in with her arms outstretched as well. Together they embraced each other in a short hug… well as much embracing as two people can do in a two second hug.
Helene waved one final goodbye before heading down the driveway and onto the sidewalk, walking towards her house.
And even though they are neighbors, Marya watched to make sure Helene got home safely before retreating back into her own home.
“Chips and salsa??”
She groaned, picking up Natasha and Sonya’s mugs from the coffee table.
Helene walked into the home with the expectations of roars and scolding from Vassily Kuragina, but to her surprise, the house was quiet. The only sound she could hear was the crickets chirping outside and the speeding cars down the highway.
She figured Vassily would give Helene some time, and if that was the case, she respected him for that decision. She walked up the stairs and began to head to her room when Anatole suddenly opened his bedroom door, causing Helene to jump and murmur a Russian curse word under her breath.
“Anatole! Don’t ever do that again!”
She clutched her heart and breathed heavily with a scowl on her face.
“Where were you all day?”
Anatole looked at her wide eyed.
“Ugh, I expected this question from dad not you… I was at Marya’s house. Why?”
She picked up her clutch which she had dropped on the ground.
“I found something…”
He moved out of the way so that Helene could enter his room.
“Oh, you’ve also been decorating I see.”
She looked at the polaroid pictures strung up to the chandelier. They dangled just a few feet above Helene’s head. She grabbed a picture in her fingers to catch a better look at it.
Him and Dolokhov.
“Yes, but I’ve also been cleaning out my photo album box.”
Anatole went over to his bed and grabbed a photo album with a worn out sunset cover on it.
“I found this one -” He held up the album in front of her. “At the bottom of the box.”
He handed it to Helene.
“Okay, what’s so special about this photo album?”
She eyed the thick, rectangular item in her hand.
“Open it.”
Anatole started to pace around the room.
Helene opened the album to see a young woman with dark hair, sitting on the roof of an oddly designed car. The woman wore a thick winter trench coat, and a pair of black boots. You could tell it was 1990’s Russia by the characters on the street signs in the background.
“Mom…”
Helene awed at the picture. She traced her finger over where a seventeen year old, Thalia Kuragina (or at the time Kuznetsov) was shown.
“Now flip to the back.”
Anatole stood in front of her, somewhat chewing on his fingernail, waiting for Helene to see what he'd found.
Helene flipped to the back of the book. It was her mother again, but this time slightly older. With her, was her father Vassily. They stood in front of a large, brown brick building. But there was something peculiar about this photo… It’s edges were singed, and right down the middle was an obvious burn that tore the photo in two. Helene carefully slid the photo out of the holder, and studied it.
“And who is that guy?”
Anatole pointed his finger to the arm draped around Thalia’s shoulder. It for sure wasn’t Vassily, because his two arms were perfectly in frame as he stood to the left of her.
“I - I don’t know.”
Helene shook her head, flipping the photo between the front and backside.
“Why is it burned?”
Helene said, looking up at Anatole.
“I don’t know.”
He sighed, as he plopped down on the bed.
“Who has the other half?”
Helene looked at the left half of photograph once more. Her mother, father and a mystery man’s arm all were in view. She furrowed her brows trying to get something out of this, that could possibly give her a lead - any lead.
“I don’t know Helene… This has to have something to do with what dad said earlier right?”
He jumped up from his bed and walked in front of his new oak wood television stand.
“I mean, nobody just keeps half burned photos. Especially half burned photos with your husband on one side, and another man’s arm on the other.”
He brought his palm to his forehead and wiped the desperation off his face, clearly in distress over what is happening.
“We should show dad and ask him.”
Helene looked up from the picture with a glare painted on her face.
“Are you fucking kidding me Anatole?! If this is evidence of some kind, he will either take it away from us and move us to another million dollar house or he will just continue to hide the truth by saying some bullshit like ‘I can’t tell you now’ or ‘I have to protect you two’. Either way, it's cryptic as hell and we don’t get answers.”
Anatole nodded in agreement.
Helene placed the photo on the stand and stood next to Anatole.
“We have to figure this out for ourselves…”
She looked over at her brother who had anxiety written all over his face.
“What if we find out something we didn’t want to? Like what if mom was a part of the mafia or something? And after she married dad, they fled to America in exile so she could get out.”
Anatole ran all his words together so fast they were practically leaping off his tongue.
“Anatole, mom wasn’t in the mafia. Get a grip.”
She playfully shoved the boy in the arm, making him stumble back a few paces.
He chuckled, catching his footing, before sitting down on the bed.
A small silence happened between the two siblings as Helene also sat down on the edge of the bed.
In an attempt to clear his mind, Anatole turned his attention to his sister instead of the photograph staring back at them.
“So you were at Marya’s house all day?”
Helene looked over at him.
“Yeah. After that argument, I really just didn’t want to be here. Sorry if you missed me.”
“I didn’t miss you.”
Anatole said, creating some sibling banter.
“Ouch.”
Helene snarled back at him.
“Kidding.”
He elbowed her arm.
“You like her don’t you?”
He had a cheeky look on his face, grinning at his sister.
Suddenly, the young girl’s cheeks became light pink.
“I -I… N-no. She’s just a friend of mine.”
Helene fiddled with her thumbs and gazed down at the floor.
“Helene, I can tell when you’re lying. You do that thing with your nose.”
Anatole titled his head forward to catch a peek at her nose.
And as predicted, her nose was scrunched up and bright pink.
“I do not do that nose thing Anatole!”
Barked a slightly annoyed Helene.
And immediately after began to scrunch her nose again.
Anatole clicked his tongue.
“Okay, fine I have a small crush on Marya…”
Nose scrunch
Helene sighed.
“Big crush on Marya…”
“Awhh is this your first crush?”
Anatole scooted over closer to her, invading her personal space bubble.
“Yes…” She said standing up, getting away from her obnoxious brother.
“The first real one anyway. I just hope whatever is happening with this - “ She gestured over to the photograph. “Doesn’t break my chances with her.”
“So you have a chance with her?”
Anatole beamed with delight.
“She may have asked me on a date.”
Helene began to smile, thinking about Marya’s cute, adorable, awkward face.
“Awww. When’s the date?!”
He asked with curiosity.
“Monday. Her house. Khaki’s. Chips and Salsa. ‘The Lion King’”
She leaned against Anatole’s closet door and let her mind drift to Monday’s possibilities.
“I don’t even wanna know about the khaki’s but everything else sounds cute! I’m proud of you sister.”
He hopped up and engulfed her into a gigantic hug, which seemed like it lasted forever.
“Thanks Toly… Y’know today we went to Old Navy and I bought her nearly $400 dollars worth of clothes.”
“No you did not! With dad’s spare credit card?”
He had a shocked, but equally amazed expression on his face.
“Yup! I bought her this really cute black crop top with a little white circular emblem on the front pocket. She looked great in it, I mean she really….”
She trailed off her words when another thought popped into her mind.
She walked over to the TV stand and grabbed the photo.
“Helene?”
Anatole spun around to follow her.
She brought the photograph to her face.
“Dad’s emblem on his sweatshirt…”
She pointed to the symbol on his baggy, grey sweatshirt.
“It says SAU… I don’t know why I didn’t see this earlier.”
“Okay… I don’t see your point Helene. That’s just an acronym.”
Anatole shifted his attention between the photograph and his sister.
“Look it's here too!”
She pointed to the brick engraving on the building they were standing in front of. It read SAU 1996, in freshly painted, bold red letters.
“Remember in Moscow when dad showed us his old college? And wouldn’t stop bragging about the club he founded with a few friends?”
Her eyes flitted from the picture to Anatole.
“No, but go on.”
Helene sighed.
“He called it the ‘Science Alliance Union.’ It was curated so that students from the different science majors could all band together and fraternize amongst themselves to talk about science stuff.”
“That sounds like a horrible idea…”
Anatole pinched the corner of the photo, taking it out of Helene’s hands.
“It was a horrible idea. Only three people decided to join out of all the science majors in the university. One of those students was mom.”
She pointed to the woman in the photograph.
“The other two were freshman.”
“You really paid attention to when dad was talking about this huh?”
Said Anatole, running his finger over the burnt edges of the picture.
“Sadly yes. I needed money to go to the mall, and looking engaged in his story was the only way I was gonna get it.”
She huffed a rigid breath.
“Anyway, the club was a flop and they had to fire the professor who approved it. And that's where dad ended his story.”
“I still don’t get your point Helene. The club was a flop so what?”
Anatole shrugged.
“My point is… because two people besides mom and dad joined the club, and one teacher was fired for approving the club, we now have three suspects as to who this mystery guy could be.”
Anatole’s mouth formed an ‘O’ expression.
“We just need to find out the names of these three guys.”
Helene grabbed the photo from Anatole’s hand and set it down on the TV stand.
“How? In 1996 Russia, I don’t think many people were using Facebook messenger to stay in touch.”
“I was talking to one of Marya’s friends earlier today, her name is Sonya. Turns out she works at the local library. She was telling me all about their Russian literature and article’s section…”
Helene was about to speak her next sentence when Anatole finished it for her.
“If dad’s infamous club was so big of a flop that it caused a teacher to be fired, there’s bound to be news articles written on that.”
Anatole looked at her with a newfound determination.
“Exactly. And it most likely will contain the other students' names. We just gotta ask Sonya.”
There was a small glint in Helene’s eyes that demanded to know the truth, and with her brains and her brother’s help, they could very well gain the knowledge they needed to know.
“Tomorrow?”
Anatole gazed back at the photo which was propped against the small TV.
“Tomorrow.”
She nodded, staring at the charred distorted line that separated the photo from its missing other half.