As tears go by

Day 3 // 27 The Answering Machine

She woke up. The light was pale white and ghostly. It was already day. She swung out her feet and shivered. It was dead cold. She reached out and unlocked the window. She pulled it open. The fresh icy air filled the room. It was snowing and it was windy. The ruthless coldness cut her face. She recognized the Buran. A Siberian wind. She felt alone and lost. In the silence of the mountains the force of the Nature was so strong that it made her feel frail and smaller more than usual. Her eyes scanned the clearing, ran over the snow, stopped underneath over a small artificial basin, a rectangular shape inside the boundaries of the house. Fresh iced water was pumping out of a pipe constantly. It was like an open air bath-tube. She nodded and started to strip naked and run. She opened the door, dashed down the stairs, and dived into the small basin. She shrieked and was out of the iced black water after five seconds. She returned inside, scooped up her clothes, giggling and hissing and laughing for the cold and the burst of energy the water had given her. It was a good way to kick away her blues. Her grand mother, the Night witch, used to say that in her niece, the Siberian blood of her father, and the Chechen blood of her mother had found the perfect balance; it was like fire and ice, in her niece's soul it was the only place in the Universe where they could survive together without destroying each other. She opened the stove. Tossed a couple of logs onto the warm ashes. She stared at them until a thread of smoke rose from the ashes and the logs caught fire. She prepared a black coffee and put it on the top of the stove. The coffee in the morning was a non-negotiable pleasure. She waited until it was ready and smelled the strong aroma. She sipped it while walking back and forth in the kitchen. The glimmer she saw on the wall before falling asleep the night before flashed back in front of her eyes. She stepped into the book room. She walked around the desk and discovered the source of the mysterious glimmer: the intermittent light splashed on the wall was the blinking of an old answering machine tell-tale light. The gizmo was there with its tape, together with an old rotary dial telephone. She got hold of her mobile and dialled the number. The phone on the floor rang almost instantly. She cut the phone call. She relieved. She had found the last number called by Cubays. She pushed "play" and for a moment she was back on the boat. The komandir was dying. She could tell from his puffing. His last moments of life. He mumbled non sense. She hit stop/rewind and play it again. The second time she recognized a phone number and a name. Remembered Nico Luvi's last words. - Go there. You need to rest, to think over what happened to you. There you'll find a clue to what you are looking for. I am sure he left you a lead. -

Cubays did not leave her alone. Even in death he willed to save her day as he did already in the past. She had the feeling that time was the last time.