Chapter 11
Classical music played through the old radio while Bolkonsky laid in his bed. The covers restricted him, only slightly allowing him to move when he had one of his coughing fits. His daughter, Mary, was seated beside him. She watched over him, aiding him in his sickness. She always made sure she had a good book with her when her father was asleep.
She flipped through her book - ‘ Pride and Prejudice’. She was always a speedy reader. Infact, this was her fourth time reading through the novel. It was her absolute favorite. Something about classical literature drew her in. When it was closing time at the library, sometimes Sonya would check out one or two books. The next day at school, she would give them to Mary and she would be elated by the artwork on the cover or the biography on the back. And sure enough, later that day Mary would call Sonya to tell her all about what she read. Those days would usually end with Sonya falling asleep to Mary’s excitable retellings.
Mary was just about to flip to the next page when the alarm on her watch began to beep. This signalled the time her father was due to take his medication.
She pressed the small button to silence the watch, and slid a bookmark on the page she was reading.
Gently pushing her father’s arm, she watched his eyes shift underneath their eyelids.
“Dad? It’s 3 o’clock. Time to wake up now.”
Her father slowly came out of his sleep, and upon seeing Mary’s face, he became startled. Suddenly pulling his arm away from Mary’s hand.
“Ah - You. Stop badgering me! Where is my daughter? Where is she?”
His voice was shaky from just awakening, and his breathing was rapid.
A few seconds went by before Nikolai Bolkonksy fully came out of his sleep. His eyes widened, fixated on Mary. He smiled softly before resting a hand on her’s.
“Oh. Mary… I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was you at first.”
He shifted underneath the heavy blankets, propping himself up on the pillows.
“It’s okay dad… It’s time for your medicine. After you take it, we’ll have chicken and potato soup for lunch. How does that sound?”
She grabbed the glass of water that sat on the nightstand.
“I don’t like potatoes Mary. You know that.”
He reached for his pair of glasses on the nightstand. He perched the glasses onto his nose.
“You said you liked potatoes yesterday though…”
“Did I? Hm. Well okay then…”
Mary knew her father’s dementia was getting worse and worse with every month that came and gone. Still, he refused to see a doctor for anything other than his medicine. Perhaps that was the reason why it was worsening… Mary hated how it made him forget the smallest of things. The other day, when Mary returned home from school, she found her father dressed in his old formal suit with nothing over his legs. He was pulling on his shoes, fully ready to go to the Kuragina’s gala wearing nothing but his suit, a tie, his dress shoes, and underwear.
Instead of giving him the proper care he needed, Mary just led him back to his bed, coaxed him to put on his pajamas, and prayed to God he would eventually fall asleep.
She rummaged through the drawer where she kept his medicine tablets. The only medicines she could find was his nightly medicine and his morning medicine. His midday medicine seemed to be anywhere but the drawer.
“Papa? Have you seen your 3 o’clock medicine? I can’t find it.”
She looked one last time before shutting the small drawer.
“I haven’t seen it.”
He took the glass out of Mary’s hand and sipped it gently.
She sighed as she got up from the chair.
“I’ll see if Andrey has seen it. Doubt it though…”
She trudged to the hallway and down the stairs, finally making her way to the basement stairwell.
She could hear Andrey animatedly playing his video games over the loud roar of the television.
Stepping into the room, she frowned at her brother’s behavior, as she could see many beer cans scattered across the small table in front of him.
“You came in here, you must want something from me.”
Andrey said, not even bothering to look Mary’s way.
“I came to ask a question.”
She kicked a fallen can that rolled to her foot.
“Okay, what's the question?”
Andrey continued to move his thumbs over the controller as sounds of gunshots blasted through the speakers.
“Have you seen dad’s 3 o’clock medicine? I’ve looked in the drawer where I keep it and it’s not there.”
“No.”
He shook his head and kept playing.
“Well can you help me look?”
Mary crossed her arms over her chest. A stern look came over her face.
“No.”
He said, still not looking at Mary.
“Wow thanks.”
Mary huffed and began to walk upstairs.
“I mean, it’s not like you helped me when I got punched in the face by that stupid faggot Anatole. Why should I help you?”
He cracked open another beer and took a long sip.
“Don’t call him that! And you were the one that kidnapped Natasha Rostova - my girlfriend’s cousin - and then attempted to hurt Anatole and Fedya…”
Mary stepped in front of the television screen, forcing Andrey to pause the game.
“Why would I help you after you got punched? Seemed like you deserved it.”
“Why can’t you ever be on my side?!”
Andrey tossed his controller on the other side of the couch.
“I don’t have to be on your side.”
She snarled, watching Andrey’s face go visibly red.
“I'm your brother! You're supposed to be on my side.”
“And when were you ever on mine?!”
Mary sternly stared back at her disappointment of a brother.
“What are you talking about?”
Andrey stood up and walked closer to the small girl. But she did not lose her ground. She bawled her fists, not breaking eye contact with him.
“All the times I had to miss my band concerts because I had to take care of dad? All the times I had to leave school early because dad fell? All the times I had to sacrifice my own time out of my day to take care of him?! And where were you? Getting high, getting drunk, nowhere to be seen!”
Her heart pounded in her chest, and it rang in her ears. All the stress she accumulated over the years of taking care of her father seemed to be lost on Andrey. She needed to yell to get through to Andrey. If she could even get through to him, that is.
“You never offered to help. It was always me that did everything! I saved dad, you did nothing. How can I be on your side?”
She turned to walk away when a firm hand grabbed at her wrist.
“When he dies… and he will die, who’s gonna be there for you? Mom won’t be, she’s never been. Dad won’t be. All you have is me.”
He gripped her tighter.
“Andrey?...”
Mary’s eyes shifted between her arm and her brother’s face
“If you want to get some part of the family inheritance, I suggest you start being kinder to me Mary, cause soon I’ll be the only family you’ll have left.”
“Let go of me, Andrey!”
She tugged at her arm, but made no budge.
Andrey suddenly let go of the small girl’s wrist.
It was discolored. A mix of red and pink splotches covered the space where Andrey’s hand was.
She took one more look at Andrey before holding her wrist in her other hand, and walking upstairs.
Continuing her search for the medicine, she decided to look on the kitchen countertop. Maybe she misplaced it when giving him his morning pills? She looked behind the bowl of fruit, the coffee machine, underneath the sink, even in the oven. Alas, the medicine was not there.
Next, she looked in a more plausible location - The upstairs bathroom. First she took a look in the medicine cabinet above the sink. All she found was a few bandages, an empty bottle of listerine, and some vitamin tablets. Surely, she thought they could be in there. She closed the cabinet and sighed.
“Dad, I don’t know where they could be. I’ll see if I can go to the pharmacy - “
She entered the room to see the glass of water spilled all over himself, as he slept with the glass resting by his side.
“Oh dad… lets get you out of these clothes.”
She took the glass from underneath his back and set it down on the nightstand. Once she got his shirt off of him, she walked it over to the laundry bin and tossed it inside. Looking through his closet for a new clean shirt, she found a nice blue one and took it off the hanger. Right when she was about to put the hanger back onto the rod, something caught her eye.
The pocket flap of Bolkonsky’s old suit was flipped up, and revealed a circular white cap.
A small smile arose on Mary’s face.
“Oh my gosh.”
She chuckled, pulling out the object, which revealed itself to be the prescription bottle of medicine she was looking for. He must’ve put it in there when he decided to go to the Kuragina’s gala. But something else brushed against Mary’s fingertips when she took out the medicine.
Something paper-ish.
She kneeled down to be eye level with the pocket, curious of what the item could be. She set the medicine down on the floor, and slid the thin object out of the pocket.
“A photo?”
She stared, confused at the photo in her thumb and finger. It was just her father, Nikolai, standing in front of some brick building, with his arm mysteriously cut off. The picture was burned down the middle, so his right arm seemed to be missing while his left hand was placed into the pocket of the very same suit Mary found the photo in.
This must be back in Russia…
The architecture of the building seemed incredibly foreign to Mary, and the Bolkonsky in the photo seemed to be considerably younger than the Bolkonsky which laid in the bed, snoring.
She flipped to the backside of the photo. Across the white back had a series of numbers, written in pen. 20811291 .
“What?... What does this even mean?”
Mary whispered, examining the strange photo in her hand. She couldn't begin to answer why the photo was burned, or who had the other half. And it wasn’t like asking her father was going to bring much help. He was lucky to remember his own daughter on most days, how could she expect him to remember something that happened years ago.
Suddenly, Bolkonsky awoke from his sleep, shouting and writhing about.
“WHERE ARE THEY? WHERE ARE MY GLASSES? MARY, GET MY GLASSES! I CAN’T SEE!”
She rushed to her father's side, with the photograph behind her back.
“Dad! Dad! I'm right here. Your glasses are on your head, just open your eyes.”
She shook him awake. His eyes shot open, and his glasses became askew on his face.
“Oh - I - Thank you Mary. How silly of me…”
He fixed his glasses.
“Why am I all wet?”
The old man wiped some water droplets off his face with his hand.
“You spilled water on yourself. Don’t worry, I have a clean shirt for you.”
She turned to get the blue shirt which laid on the floor next to the bottle of pills. On her way to the shirt, she quickly picked up her book and slid the photograph inside.
“I also found your medicine, so you put on this shirt and I’ll get some more water.”
She handed him the shirt, and set the pills down on the stand. She grabbed the empty glass and carried it off to the kitchen.
Putting the glass to the water filter, she saw just how bad her bruise had gotten in the last ten minutes. It was turning a shade of purple now. She winced at how ugly it looked against her pale skin.
If I apply ointment to it every night, it should be gone in a week.
She thought to herself.
She brought the full glass of water to her father, and gave him two of the pills from the bottle.
“How’d your wrist get like that? Did you bump it on something?”
He popped the medicine in his mouth.
“Yes. I bumped it on the countertop this morning.”
She lied. She did not bump it on the countertop this morning.
“Be careful next time Mary.”
He tipped his head back and downed the glass of water.
“Yes Father.”
She nodded, watching him gulp down the water.
After wiping his mouth with his hand, he leaned his head back down on his pillow.
“Do you think Andrey would like some chicken and potato soup for lunch? I have a taste for soup.”
He gave the glass to Mary.
“I… I don’t think he wants soup right now.”
Mary gazed down at the floor.
“How about you? Would you like some soup?”
“Yeah...I’ll go get us some soup.”
She nodded getting up from her chair and walked back to the kitchen.
====
About six hours later, Mary sat alone in her room, studying the picture once more. Her father was sleeping in the next room over. She didn’t have to worry about him waking up too much because once nighttime fell, he was usually down for the entire night.
Her phone, which sat on her bed by her feet, began to buzz. She dropped the photo and leaned forward to see who could be calling her...But she had a pretty good guess as to who it was.
“Hello my lovely, how are you?”
Mary said, putting the phone to her ear.
After hearing what Sonya was saying, she opened her curtains and peered through. The red head was outside at her doorstep, waving to her from down below.
“Date night again? At 9:07pm?”
Mary laughed as she walked downstairs.
She opened the door to see Sonya smiling back at her.
“Well it's not my fault you're gorgeous! Plus I wanted to see you. Helene and Anatole found something at the library today, and I thought you should know.”
Sonya hugged her girlfriend before walking into the house.
“Oh, what a coincidence! I found something today too. And let me tell you… it’s pretty odd.”
She hung up her phone and shut the door.
“Was that a Panic! at the Disco reference?”
Sonya gazed at Mary.
“A what reference?”
Mary said, somewhat confused.
“Panic! At the Disco. I keep telling you to listen.”
“Oh that band? I will listen to them… eventually.”
“Lemme guess, you're re reading ‘Pride and Prejudice’ again?”
Sonya sat down on the couch and Mary sat down next to her.
“It’s a good novel!”
She nuzzled into Sonya’s body.
Sonya began to play with a loose lock of hair that had fallen out of Mary’s braid.
“How is it that I work in the library, but you are more invested in books than I am?”
“It’s because I read the books, all you do is listen to me while I read the books. And then you fall asleep!”
Mary poked a finger at Sonya’s cheek.
“I do not fall asleep! Not often anyway.”
Sonya blushed.
“Mhmm….but okay, I wanted to show you something.”
Mary sprang up from Sonya and walked over to her room.
A few moments later she brought out the photograph.
“I found this in my dad’s suit pocket. I don’t know what it was doing there, but I found it.”
She gave the photo to Sonya.
“Isn't it weird? It’s burned down the middle and - “
“I know who has the other half!” Sonya looked at Mary with wide eyes.
“What? What do you mean you know who has the other half? You’ve seen this before?”
Mary shifted her attention from Sonya to the photograph.
“Yes! This is what I wanted to tell you. Helene and Anatole came to the library this morning and showed me the other half of this picture. They explained that they had evidence to find out who was on the other half of the photo. And so through reading many, many articles, they found out it was your dad. And here’s the photo to prove it!”
“What was on their half of the photo?”
Mary asked as Sonya set the photo down on the low table.
“It was their mom and dad. I guess your dad taught them at his old University back in Russia.”
“Did their half also have a code on the back?”
“A code?”
Sonya grabbed the photo and flipped it.
“20811291...What?”
Sonya stared back at the series of numbers.
“I know right… It's too long to be a phone passcode and it's too short to be a phone number.”
Mary pointed at the numbers.
“It could be longitu -”
“Oh my god Mary, what happened to your wrist?”
Sonya dropped the photograph on the couch and gently held Mary’s wrist.
“Oh, I bumped it. I’m fine.”
Sonya tilted her head to look at the bruise from all angles.
“Mary… are you sure that’s all that happened?”
She looked into her eyes.
“Yes, Sonya. I just bumped it on the kitchen countertop.”
A small tear began to roll down Mary’s cheek.
“Mary? What happened honey?”
She wiped the stray tear from Mary’s cheek with her index finger.
Mary sniffed, not wanting to tell Sonya. She averted her eyes to all around the room.
“Was it your father?”
Sonya’s voice became more and more serious with every second that passed by.
Mary shook her head slowly. Little streaks of tears rolled down her chin.
“Andrey?...”
She placed her wrist in her lap.
“Please don’t tell anyone Sonya… This was the only time he’s ever hurt me.”
She whispered through sniffles and tears.
“And it’ll be the last goddamn time….”
Her head turned to the basement door.
“Sonya. Please promise me you won’t tell. They’ll definitely take dad away and he’ll hate me forever for it. Please, please don’t say anything.”
She begged for Sonya not to say a word. She knew how strong willed she could be, and if it meant protecting Mary, Sonya would do it in a heartbeat.
“I won't tell…”
Sonya looked back at Mary.
“Thank you.”
Mary latched onto Sonya’s rigid body tightly. She could feel how angry Sonya was at the moment. Sonya wanted to destroy Andrey for doing what he did. She wanted to punch him, and swear at him, and show him everything she's got. But she had to show restraint for her girlfriend, Mary.
“You’re welcome, my love.”