Tuesday, September 13
Forgive me, brother. I have no money to send to you. It is all Alfonso's fault. Soon after I get job, I start seeing him with animals. He hates them. He torments them. I cannot bear this, so I am sneaking animals home as I can. Two weeks ago, I am caught trying to take lizard in pockets by Alfonso. He, of course, fires me. When landlord hears, he is kicking me out. I am living on roof of building now, because landlord forgot to take building key. I have small tent. It is not much, but I will manage.
I have been spending days watching city. From rooftop, people are seeming much less angry. I am watching one man, each day, in front of clinic. I think he is blind. Beggar too. Whenever someone gives him coin, he shouts strange things. Once, he says something about riddles. Riddles, eh Yuri? Remember, when we were young, by the lake, telling riddles? Riddles. So much simpler than here. At least they only have one answer. Here, I am doing right thing, but still being punished. Ach. At least I still have the animals. Some of them. A cat went missing a few days ago. I hope she is ok.
Thursday, October 6
I am no longer alone here on rooftop. I have been joined by strange girl. She is saying her name is Juli or something. I do not know. When I am asking her where she is from, she is not saying anything. So, I do not ask. I let her play with animals, though. She treats them well, not like Alfonso. Still, she will not speak. I am letting her stay, though, because she has been bringing me food. She brings me food each day, I tell her stories of home country. She will not give me food until I tell story. I only hope I do not run out.
С любовью
Dmitri.
As I passed the pet store on the other side of the street, I noticed a small tent peeking out from above the roof. This mystified me, but by now I was in a hurry to get to work, and there wasn't even time to go ask about Xiu Li.
ReplyDelete...
I went past the pet store, and looked up to get another glimpse of the tent. I was startled. A man was up on the roof next to the tent.
...
I headed back home, and crossed the street to take another look at the mysterious tent on top of the pet store. By this time, it was getting dark, so it was hard to see anything. With some very stealthy eye maneuvering, I managed to make out an outline of a person. It wasn't the same guy from before. It looked like a woman. She quickly moved out of my line of sight, but I lingered for a minute, and heard faint voices coming from the roof. There were two of them. I hoped they weren't up to anything disturbing. But honestly, in this town, there are a lot of strange bums. I decided to be glad for the two of them for having found company in the homeless world. I couldn't pick out what the voices were saying, so I went on my way home instead of lingering to stalk further.
...
The MISSING DAUGHTER poster I had just hung up on the door had already been taken down. Not ripped-- the tape was completely removed along with the flier. I was pretty shaken by this, and asked Alfonso if he'd taken anything off the door when I wasn't looking. [...] "Probably got stolen by that dumbass Russian dude who took the rest of the animals." He laughed, rather bitterly, and walked off into the night.
I wondered to myself if the 'dumbass Russian dude' was currently living on the roof of Alfonso's store. [...] As I went up the stairs [to my apartment], I couldn't help but ponder the matter of the pet store roof. Who was this random, apparently Russian guy, and who was the woman talking to him? More importantly, why didn't they want me to find my daughter? Maybe they knew where she was.
This last thought sent a huge wave of anger through me. Had these two people kidnapped Xiu Li? Were they going to hold her for ransom? I tried applying the brakes on this train of thought, but trains have a lot of momentum, so that failed. After all, this Russian guy had apparently already established himself as a thief. But why my daughter? And why hadn't I heard anything?
There were too many questions, and by now, I'd reached my floor.
I pushed open the door to the roof and walked over to my favorite corner, only instead of looking at the view I dropped down crosslegged and started crying silently. The tears were blurring my eyes, and I had to blink them out in order to see the tent a few feet away. Who lives on the roof? There hadn't been anyone before.
ReplyDeleteI sniffled once and stopped crying. Then I walked around the other side. A guy was sitting there with a lot of animals. It was like he was a crazy cat lady, except there were lots of animals besides cats. And he wasn't a lady. So I said hi. He looked up, a bit startled. I guess there usually weren't teenage girls running around on the roof. Then he said hi back. I sat down, and we were silent-but-not-necessarily-awkward for a little while, petting the animals and feeling the wind rushing by. After awhile, he started talking.
He wasn't American. I figured this out because he was talking about his 'home country,' which I soon figured out must be Russia. I think he said it was Russia. But he had a very Russian accent, which I kept having to resist the urge to imitate. He told me a few stories about the animals in Russia, and about his house there, and about his brother Something Russian Sounding who once hid his underwear when he was six. I personally wouldn't have told that last story to a random stranger... but I was flattered that I looked that trustworthy.
I sat and listened attentively for awhile. The guy obviously didn't have any food. I shuddered at the thought of him eating all of the animals. That was probably really judgmental and racist of me. Except he was white... country-of-originist? I needed to bring him something to eat, I concluded. He was being so nice talking to me about things I really didn't ask to hear. Not that it wasn't entertaining. I wonder what he was thinking, though. Oh, look! A random hobolooking teenage girl! How about I tell her stories from my childhood? Yeah, that made perfect sense...
He finished a story, and I bid him farewell and left. Ha, I sound so fancy. I've never actually said the word farewell out loud. Point being, I left the roof and went down the stairs. Where to get him food?
...
It was only when I glimpsed the grocery store on the way back to the tunnel that I remembered my promise to myself. I ducked into the grocery store and bought a loaf of bread, an orange, and a half-gallon of milk, and went to go see the guy on the roof. I went into Castle Apartments and up the stairs like a ninja, in case anyone saw me. (In case you're wondering, going up the stairs like a ninja is kind of like regular going-up-the stairs, except that you take them by twos and stick to the wall.) It's good that I'm in shape... t'was a lot of stairs.
When I came out on the roof, the guy looked kind of surprised to see me. I gave him the food, and he nodded gratefully and thanked me. Then he told me another couple of stories, almost like he owed me something for the food. I managed to figure out that his name was Dmitri.