[egg]

(/.\)

Later that cold winter day, I take the streetcar to downtown Moscow. I think about who my great grandmother was. I don't think I know who she was. Since it is a real fabergé egg, well I think it is, I figure she had to be someone rich.

I hop off the car a few streets from Kremlin Armoury, and briskly walk towards the building. As I enter, I notice the information desk and change course.

справочный стол

"Hello. Welcome. Can I help you with anything?" A tall, pale blonde woman in a blue uniform stands up behind the counter.

"Hi, um, I'm looking for some fabergé eggs."

She picks up a map for the museum, opens it, takes a marker and circles the section. Then she points with the tip of the marker to where we are standing. "Here we are, and if you go down this hall and turn left then right, you'll reach the fabergé gallery."

"Thank you." I turn around and follow her directions. I get there half a minute later. Lining the wall were dozens of eggs. Shiny jewels stuck in precious metals. Some had little picture frames centered in the front. The pictures were old, maybe a few hundred years old. A couple of young girls, a boy, a large man, and a woman were featured in a lot of them. I look at the labels.

Царь и семья

"Tzar and family..." I whisper, peering closer. My nose bumps the glass case and I jump back and see my startled reflection in the case and study it. My long, wavy brown hair spills over my shoulders and halfway down my back. Dull brown eyes, pale skin, pink lips.

I glance around the room then look very close at the pictures again. Even though the pictures are black and white, I can tell most of them had brown hair, thin lips and dark eyes. I look around the room again then pull my phone out. Quickly, I snap a picture of the eggs with photos. Then I put it away and walk to the other side of the room.

There are more eggs. I look closely at all of them.

I stop suddenly and move my face inches away from the case. There are four, almost identical eggs arranged together on little pedestals. But there is an extra pedestal. The middle pedestal was empty. Below the eggs were captions. Each caption had a name.

императрица Александра Empress Alexandra

Великой Княгини Ольги Grand Duchess Olga

Великая княгиня Татьяна Grand Duchess Tatiana (Privately owned)

Великая Княгиня Мария Grand Duchess Maria

Великая княгиня Анастасия Grand Duchess Anastasia

Each egg was silver with little polka dots of jewels and a letter engraved in the center. The letter, of course, was the first letter of the royalties names. The first egg had a gold horizontal stripe around the middle, just under the letter A.

I pull my phone out again and opened up the camera app.

"Hey!" I whip my head around and there's a security guard briskly walking towards me. "You can't take pictures in the gallery!"

"Oh! I'm sorry, sir. I didn't know." I quickly reply.

He points to the sign at the entrance.

Нет камеры

"What does this sign say?" He stares at me intensely.

"Uh... No cameras..." I mumble, then look at the ground.

"Right. I need to confiscate your camera now. Or you can delete those pictures and I will stay in the gallery until you leave."

"Ummm... I'll delete them." I hastily open my photos and send the photos to myself over text. Then I delete them. I show him the screen. "See? Deleted."

"Good. Next time I will take it." He turns and strides over to the sign. "I will be right here." He says with a glare.

"Okay." I return my focus to the eggs, staring at them, trying to commit them to memory.

After a few minutes, I can't take the guard practically breathing down my back from across the room, so I stand up to my full height and walk right past him and down the halls back to the lobby.

"Thanks for visiting today!" A different lady in a blue uniform calls out as I walk to the exit.

As soon as I walk out into the bright cold air, I immediately spot the streetcar across the courtyard.

"Crap!" I start sprinting towards it. "Crap, crap, crap!" I'm about twenty meters away when all the cross traffic speeds up after the car passes in front of them. When I get to the street intersections, the traffic is so heavy that if I try to cross, the only place I would go would be to the больница.

I take a step back and sigh. My heart rate is up from the running and my breath is heavy. I hear a car pull up to the curb and I hear a wolf whistle.

I pivot my my body around so fast, I almost fall over. Then I see my cousin Veronika leaning out the window of her black Lada Niva. "Hey, darling. Need a ride?"

I speed walk around the car and hop into the passenger seat. "Yes please."

She takes off down the street as she says, "Where to?"

"Same place as always."

"Your gramps?" Veronika quickly looks in the rearview mirror, then changes lanes.

"Yeah."

"Tell me, when are you moving out of that shack?" She tosses her cigarette out the open window then rolls it up.

"When you quit smoking, I'll move out. And it isn't a shack, you know that."

"You should come live with me, with your mom's side of the family."

"I'm okay for now. Something just came up at home and I want to stay until it's sorted out."

"Oh my god, did your grandpa die?" Her eyebrows furrow for a second then relax.

"No, he did not die! Will you please speed up? I need to get home."

"Yeah yeah." I look out my window and watch the mansions pass. Finally, Veronika pulls up in front of my grandpa's house and unlocks the car doors.

"Thanks, V." I climb out of her car, quickly shut the door, and run up to the large crystal cut glass door. I don't even pause to turn back, I just open the door and slip inside.