Summer Offense

Chapter Two

"Your going back there?" Ankropov said. "The meat grinder? The battlefield life?" I nod my head slowly. "But why be there when your safe here?" Ankropov responds. He takes a big drink of vodka and slams the glass on the table. "There is no reason whatsoever to go back there and die! You'll end up like Petrokov or Zakov!" He was talking angrily, but in his eyes, he seemed scared. I stay quite, unmoving. Oscar starts to talk. "He feels like it's his duty." He looks at me and shrugs. "Or maybe something else. I don't know myself..." I sigh and drink some more vodka. The drink suddenly tasted horrible, so I stopped. Kayla decided maybe some music would help us out, so she walked over to a record player and played some Mozart.
She tried to change the subject immediately. "Did you know Vladimir plays violin?" She says. "He's quite good at it, too." I look over at Ankropov and motion for him to play some music. "No, Yuri." He says. "I don't feel like it." I keep listening to the music. "Come on, just try!" I say. Ankropov rolls his eyes but soon grows a big smile across his face. "I'll be right back." He says as he walks out of the room. I look over to Kayla. "So, when did he learn to play?" I say to her. "Only about a month or two ago..." She says. "But he learned very quick." Moments later Ankropov walks into the room with a case.
"Alright, Kayla, do you know where I put the music book?" He says. She points to a bookshelf near the radio. "Ah, of coarse." He says and walks over to the bookshelf. He searches for a moment, then finds it in a stack of books. He walks back and sets the book on a chair. "What music should I play?" He says. "How about some Bach? He's my favorite composer!" We all just look at him. Bach is German, so that would be against the Union if he played that. Oscar didn't understand why we were looking at him, but then soon realized why. "Oh yeah, Bach would be barbaric." I just shake my head, and look back over to Ankropov.
"What about Pachelbel's cannon?" I say. Ankropov nods and turns to a page. He opens his violin case and takes out his violin. This was a dark brown violin that seemed to fit him accordingly. He adjusted his violin so his chin rested on the instrument, and he readied his bow. Kayla ran over to the record player and turned it off. Then she waited patiently by the record player. Then Ankropov nodded towards me and started playing the beginning of the song. Even though his strokes were soft and quite, the music seemed accurate. His rhythm was a bit off, playing slower then the song is actually played. Even though the rhythm was slow and the music was soft, he played very well.

He played the first few lines of the song, but stopped when the song just got to a start. "That was really good!" Oscar said. "I couldn't do that in a million years!" He just blushes as he puts away the violin. "Seriously!" I say and tap him on the shoulder. "Why didn't you want to show us your skill?" He just shakes his head and walks out of the room with the he case. I look over at Kayla. Kayla walks over to me and whispers in my ear. "The neighbors have heard him play songs by Bach." She whispers. "If they figure out it was him, he'll surely get fined, maybe even jailed." I felt really confused, and it looked like Kayla could tell. "Why would they send him to jail over music?" I say. She sighs, then starts speaking again, this time normally.
"You know how people treat the Germans, even if they don't support the Nazi cause. They will treat Vladimir the same way." Ankropov walks into the room and stopped. He knew exactly what we were talking about. "We ran into trouble last year." He says as he sits down at the couch, Kayla and I do the same. "A party master reported us to the government, and they almost sent us to the gulag." Ankropov says as he takes me vodka. "Mind if I?" He says. I shake my head. He gulps down the rest of the vodka, and slams this on the table. He coughs, covering his mouth, then continues.
"Stupid Russian purge. If someone does something wrong they send them to a gulag. No if, and, of but." He rests his head against the back of the couch and gets cozy. Oscar looks over at me, puzzled. "Don't know it?" I say to Oscar. He shakes his head and rests his head on the couch. "I have an idea though." He says. I sit up and look at Oscar. He sits up as well. "Long story short, Stalin thinks anyone who disrespects the government or think something other then what the communist party wants you to think they make you "disappear." I say. Oscar asks a quick question that I knew thee answer to right away. "What exactly is making someone disappear?" I look over at Ankropov, he was listening to the whole conversation. He continued.
"Since the government can't kill you because it's against the law, they send you to a gulag, which is often a prison located in the worst parts of Europe, where you either die or live a hard life." Oscar rests his head against the couch again, and then slams it against the table. "What...the...fuck!" He yells. "You can't just do this to someone!" Ankropov just shakes his head, then motions downstairs. "Party master is down there. Stupid son of a bitch." Ankrpov whispers in my ear over Oscar's yelling. "You'd better get going before he finds out what we are talking about, for your sake." I nod my head, then look over to Oscar. "We better go." I say and lift him to his feet. Oscar had tears in his eyes. His face was red and his eyes were bloodshot. I wave Ankropov goodbye as I lift Oscar out of the room. "Goodbye, Vladimir." I say. He just waves and shuts the door.