Red Star

Chapter 12

25.04.78, Tuesday (my 64th day in the USSR)

Today, after school, I went back to my "train station run". The situation with my "cargo" in the storage cells was becoming intolerable. I literally felt in my skin that this would not end well. Therefore, full of determination, immediately from the last for today, Vitebsk railway station, I went straight to Lech.

He was not at home and out of two possible options: garage - gym, I chose the garage, and did not lose. Lech, as told, reanimated "Moskvich" for the spring and summer season. Judging by his rather rumpled appearance and dirty face, the "four-wheeled friend" was putting up a fierce resistance!

I liked the car, a kind of nice well-groomed retro light gray color with a light gray interior. The chrome push-button handles on the doors, the front seats without headrests and the proud shiny inscription "Moskvich" on the panel in front of the front passenger evoked a sense of emotion!

We chatted for a while, and I learned that "this bastard has a radiator leak in the deep honeycomb and the engine needs to be seriously sorted out", and I have city competitions starting on may eleventh and that there is "a decent kid who needs to be kept on the lookout".

Then I asked Lehi unobtrusively if he knew where to repair his Moskvich well and quickly. Lech laughed and said that he knew the address of the company's SERVICE station well, but he didn't know how to get there without waiting in line, how to get the necessary spare parts there, and where to get so much money for all of the above.

- Never mind, - said Lech, having stopped laughing - I'll do everything myself, but I need time and spare parts to look for cheaper.

- Lesh, - I mumbled, pre - prepared text-so time is just not much, ahead of the summer holidays, I will leave the city. At this rate, we will take everything to the fall, and then study will again interfere. What's the point of disfiguring yourself if you can do everything quickly and efficiently? Go to the SERVICE station, talk to the master, give him a triple price and let them make a candy out of the car - I stared questioningly at Lech, who put down the tool - and let them take the car for a guarantee, also for a triple price - I added, under Lech's gaze.

"Do you have any idea how much it's going to cost, your triple price for this wreck?" - calmly interested in Lech.

- More or less, - I answer just as calmly - no more expensive than money, which we, by the way, have available - I raise my index finger up - besides, this is not a wreck, but a very well-groomed car - I lovingly run my hand over the clean car wing.

- It is well - groomed only externally, - Lech frowned, - and in the car it is important to be well-groomed inside, first of all!

- Well, take it to the SERVICE station, there is no other car, and there it will be put in order, maybe even better done - I answer peacefully, not wanting to slide on the topic of car care. I reach into my pocket and pull out a pre-prepared pack of twenty-five rubles.

"There's exactly a thousand here. Enough, don't you think? - I put money in the trunk of the Moskvich.

Lech follows all my movements with round eyes.

"When can you go to the station to make an appointment?" "I'm asking to get him out of his stupor."

- So it means the truth... - my future partner on adventures in the country of developed socialism States in a colorless voice, quietly.

- Yeah, - I nod my head-and if it's true, then you changed your mind? "I'm interested in it with an assumed calmness.

Lech was silent for five seconds, then shook his head.

"No, I'm not changing my mind. Only, if you throw money around like this, it won't last long.

"Enough - I am serenity itself - we need the car badly. Meet people, carry equipment, and bring singers to the recording site.

- Well, so Yes... - pulls Lech, torn by conflicting feelings.

- Can you agree on a HUNDRED? You should also be able to slip a bribe! I smile.

- Don't be stupid, - says Lech irritably and takes the money from the trunk. He turns them in his hands incredulously, then, unable to stand it, takes one bill from under the black pharmacy elastic band and looks it at the light, in the direction of the light bulb.

I giggle.

Lech also grins crookedly and puts the money in his pocket:

- Well, look, the money is yours...

- Our, Alex.

"Then the car... is ours," he says.

I nod back.

After this response, Lech reaches out and shakes my hand:

- Tomorrow I'll go, come back after school and tell you about the results.

Then we talked about nothing for another five minutes and parted.

And let anyone spit at me, I was relieved to open the handle of a small Mauser in the left pocket of my coat...

26.04.78, Wednesday (my 65th day in the USSR)

Lech was already at home when I went to his communal apartment, and he was angry and upset. It turned out that he tried to save as much as possible, the funds provided to him, and it turned out very badly for him, in his opinion.

- You think what leeches on the neck of the working people - almost yelled Lech, telling me about his conversation with the master of acceptance - and I wanted to break this creature's neck! He is supplied with spare parts from the factory, and he winds up on the state price two or three ends! Where does a working man get such money?! Performs that for which he receives a salary and still profit from profiteering bastard! Where the anti-corruption squad is looking?! This NIT should be immediately felled in the Magadan forest, let the bears sell logs at three prices! - Lech was rushing around his huge 30-meter room, waving his arms and ripping off the imaginary heads of speculators in the country of the Soviets.

I calmly watched the pantomime play out.

- And this s**t still offers me,- Lech made a disgusting face and snorted, clearly parodying, the master of acceptance hated by him - let's put you a cheap front end as on the export version, a reverse headlight and paste chrome moldings, it will turn out just wonderful, and for only 350 rubles! b***h! Yes, this is my three monthly salary!!! - Lech has already switched to shouting.

- Lyosha, did you agree? "I'm tired of wasting my time.

- Not enough yet! I was

tempted to say Yes, but that wouldn't be fair. I could not openly tell the guy that if we spend 350 rubles every day, we will have enough money for more than two five-year plans. I had to find other arguments.

Moreover, he was right in his fiery anger against speculators. Only after all, if everything goes as it is now, then in these two five - Year plans the whole Great Country will turn into a fetid sewer of speculation, theft, corruption and lawlessness...

- You offend, of course you took it. They promised to do everything in a week - Lech began to calm down - I will stop by every day and check. Let them just try to put at least one old part! he started to get excited again. Then he reached into his pocket and took out eight twenty-five rubles:

"Here, I haggled for eight hundred. Don't give in any more, you NIT!

I got up from the old chair where Lech had put me and also walked around the room, standing in the big Bay window and looking at the street. Lech watched me suspiciously, my tone alerting him.

- Lesh, you call this master now and tell him to replace everything in the guts, including the gearbox. Well, in General, everything that is possible, except for the engine number. Let the new rubber everywhere put, wipers, wheels, lamp this rear and in the cabin will magician. Let him paint the car properly. Let him tell you how much it costs, and tomorrow you will deliver the money to him.

Lech, with his head bowed like a bull, and sniffing discontentedly, examined me.

- We need a normal car, at a certain point in time, until we can buy a new one. There is money and a lot of it. Why do you create problems where they can be avoided? What do we care for two hundred dollars when we're doing this? And there have always been speculators, they are caught and put in jail. That's where they belong. But let the police deal with this, and let's do what we planned - I finished my reprimand conciliatingly to an adult guy who was almost a child for me before. Moreover, Lech was not stupid, but he was kind, honest and somewhat simple-minded.

Lehi's look turned from displeased to sad:

"I myself wanted to go to the police after the army - suddenly, somehow out of place, he said, then paused and asked:

" What kind of BUSINESS is this that we are starting?" Write songs and books? So everything is good in them, but in life such reptiles thrive!

- Yes, songs and books. And then the opportunities will become bigger and life will be different. That's when our word will sound weighty. And now we are almost nobody.

Lech shrugged his broad shoulders:

- If you want, the money is yours, I can call and tell everyone to do what you listed.

- Perfectly. Also promise a bonus if they do it quickly and efficiently...

Lech trudged into the corridor to call the shared apartment phone. Through the half-open door, through the General "Boo-Boo-Boo", I could hear: "engine", "box", "painting a few days?".

When Lech returned to the room, he nodded in displeasure at my questioning look:

- another hundred to these two hundred. Are you sure?

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a brown Stolnik that I'd hidden just in case. There is another question here... - and I told Lech in detail about my Scam with the hangar in the "Harbor" - so you will need to pretend to be my brother and buy this hangar from Stepan Kuzmich. Lech didn't argue any more, just shook his head in surprise when he heard the price of the "boat shed".

- It Is Necessary, Alex. Your neighbors won't tolerate noise, and neither will I. And where-that in fact need to get together to rehearse, play. Do you have any other ideas?

Lyosha had no other ideas. And now I went to the phone to call Mitrich at the pier.

He was glad to see me, as if I were his own, and complained that he did not expect to hear from me, but in the meantime Stepan Kuzmich was ready to give up five hundred rubles and asked for a hangar and a boat 'only' two thousand!

I don't give a damn about this concession, but I put on an air of unprecedented enthusiasm and promised Mitrich that my brother would thank him. "Big brother "stood nearby and made a disgruntled face at my mention of"thank you."

Mitrich promised to contact Stepan Kuzmich today and arrange for our meeting.

27.04.78, Thursday (my 66th day in the USSR)

Today we had a shopping trip. Well, there should have been... A young guy dressed in proletarian style, like Lech, is simply incompatible with having two thousand rubles.

Buy junk "for beauty", Lech flatly refused. No explanations about the need to look outwardly like a wealthy person were perceived by them. I spent an hour explaining that in the society where we will have to communicate, "meet on clothes", but I was looking for the same answer - "and so it will do!"

Finally, I just felt sad. What makes me think I can manage an adult if I can't convince them of even such a trivial question? He may agree with me, deep down, but, first of all, does not want to go on about the sucker, and secondly, Lehi just has the usual human pride, and he is not ready for a situation when he, an adult healthy guy, someone buys pants, socks, shirts. In the end, I wouldn't be happy with that either...

What the f**k is saving the country when I can't buy a shed and jeans? And it is having millions of cash, gold with diamonds and even automatic with ammunition! Wrong age, wrong social structure... or I'm the wrong one... stupid and bad... in the

middle of Lech's argument that he was dressed as well as the others, I got out of the old shabby chair with a grunt. I left the room and went home...

***

...For the next few days, I practically reveled in the realization of my worthlessness. There was a real depression, which even at home could not be successfully hidden, which caused unnecessary mother's questions and worries.

If it affected my studies, it was only for the better. Trying to distract myself, I completely immersed myself in the study material, and one day, in General, I received an a in each of the six lessons. This became a kind of class record, but caused an ambiguous attitude of classmates.

However, silly luminesce: "Learned nerd", thoughtlessly said louder than necessary, I just walked up to the suddenly numb macho man, and with all my strength I slammed my fist, at the level of his face, on the door near which he was standing. A solid-looking dent was formed in the chipboard, with cracks radiating in different directions. And in the silence that followed, I quietly promised,

"next time I'll actually break your nose if you don't keep your f*****g mouth shut," and left the classroom.

I stopped going to Boxing, too. f**k it, I gave it up. Instead of Boxing, I started running in the morning. I didn't like running in my old life, and I still don't like it any better, but there was nothing to distract me from my thoughts.

And it was necessary to think and make decisions quickly. Once the hangar and the companion "covered with a copper basin", then you just need to do a banal "burial" in the forest. I can hide a little money and a pistol with a silencer at home, but I don't need more than that, in my current Soviet life.