The Lies That Bind

Chapter 6: Warm Welcomes

"Do you like dogs, Miss Edith?"

The faint sound of his voice reached my ears and, once again, I'm drawn from my thoughts and I realized I had no idea what we had been discussing. For the past several minutes I had been shifting between staring out the window at random and gazing at Dr. Kolomna's elegant profile. Mostly the latter, if I'm honest. My mind drifted once more as I stared blatantly at his lips moving, not hearing a word.

"... Edith?" He snapped his fingers in my face, breaking my trance. "Are you all right?"

"I'm sorry..." I offered an embarrassed smile. "I was... distracted; what did you say, Doctor?"

Dr. Kolomna arched a brow at me, but the faint curl of his lips gave away his mirth. He turned his head briefly at the light to see if it had changed before looking back at me. "I asked if you liked dogs."

"Oh," I gave a half-hearted shrug, "They're alright I suppose. I prefer cats if I'm honest."

"As long as you're not afraid of them, we're good."

"I presume you have a dog, Doctor?"

"Da," Dr. Kolomna answered as the light turned green and we started off again. "Caucasian Ovcharka, a big dog breed from Russia, very fluffy. Used for hunting bears back home."

My brow rose, the breed rang no bells, so I took to my phone for answers. A quick Google search led me to a massive, monster of a dog, possibly bigger than a Great Dane, with a heavy coat. Some photos showed the breed to be as tall as an adult! I could very much see something that gigantic fighting a bear. I could feel myself pale slightly.

"Is it friendly?" I asked.

"Not really," Dr. Kolomna said with a chuckle. "She is overly protective and I usually keep her behind a closed door when I have company, which is rare. But seeing as how you will stay a while, you will run into her. I'm sure she'll get used to you after a few visits... hopefully." He let out a light chuckle. "I've had her since she was a puppy," He continued, "My brother had an Ovcharka and gave me one of the puppies."

"You have a brother?" I inquired.

"Unfortunately." Came his dull, disappointed sigh.

"Say no more, I understand fully!"

His eyes found mine again once we hit another red light; his brow arched quizzically, "You have siblings?"

I nodded as I folded my arms, "Yes, all of them younger and irritating."

"I have the opposite problem; brother is older but just as annoying."

Oh, so we do have something in common, and it seemed we slipped past the "no personal questions" rule. Perhaps he had forgotten or figured it wasn't something worth keeping a secret? I didn't want to discuss my family either, but it is only human nature to be curious and learn more about a person. I was willing to continue the conversation but was cut off by the phone ringing. Dr. Kolomna's sleek, black phone, sat on the Volga's dash as the caller ID lit up, displaying Cyrillic characters, and thus left me oblivious as to whom it was. He glanced at his phone and glared.

With a heavy sigh, he pressed the green button to accept the call with irritation in his tone. The male voice on the other end let out a jolly laugh and their conversation continued in what I could only assume was Russian. Whatever the two were discussing, Dr. Kolomna seemed agitated and eager to end the call as quickly as possible. I sat there awkwardly in the passenger seat and did my best to ignore it and not let my mind wander what in the world he could be talking about. Minutes rolled by and then, all of a sudden...