Chapter 3 – Sernovodsk , Chechnya

Soon we were in Sernovodsk. The hotel there was completely plundered and the mineral waters were neglected. Straight on we started to feel the shortage of food.
- “I have to go to the Kazak settlement and try to barter my expensive necklace and earrings for something which could be eaten” suggested my mother.
- “Only not now,” contradicted my father, “keep them for a more serious situation. What about silk and velvet for dresses?”
- “Well,” agreed my mother,” no objections.
Next morning she prepared herself for going to the Kazak settlement. She put into a bag the silk and velvet fragments for dresses and went out. She returned at sunset, carrying her bag with difficulties. She entered the sitting room and took the seat on the chair.
- “I am tired,” said she, “tired as never before.”
- “Poor girl, a cup of tea, darling? I’ll make it for you straight on!”
- “It would be kind of you.”
- “Anything unusual in your bag?”
- “And what do you think? I was walking the whole day for nothing?” she cast a meaningful glance at him. “I’ve got some ham, some spare ribs, smoked sausage and a dozen bagels. What else do you want?”
- “You, Barby are a real angel!” exclaimed my father. He embraced her and kissed her. “For a while we’ll not have a food problem any more, for a short while.”
- “And what after that?” remarked my mother, “it is doubtful that we’ll get any suitable job from the town authorities, like in Groznyy. It seems that most of the positions there are occupied by Red sympathisers.”

My father shrugged his shoulders. For a while they kept quite…

- “Yesterday,” started my father, “I talked to a chap named Peter, who decided to join the army, and guess only where he was getting his income from?”
My mother lifted her brows interrogatively.
- “Danilo, another chap, who lived on charity, begging, pretending to be a cripple used to walk through the Kazak settlements on crutches. At the end of the day he would bring to Peter a solid bag of bread pieces and many other sweeties. The bread was dried, grained and minced up with some flower. Peter also got from the butcher meat wastes, grained them, added some spices and made pies which were immediately sold out. Peter wants to transfer this business to me and make me acquaintanced with Danilo, why not to go ahead with that?”
- “Disgusting!” remarked my mother, “ I would never turn to such a business!”
- “Neither would I, under normal conditions, but now everything is put on its head by the revolution and no sense to stick to the old principles. In our condition, I recon any legal business is good which keeps the wolf away.”
The production of pies started and I took an active part in it. An advertisement was placed at the most conspicuous place:

Here are sold appetiteful pies. Only three pies in a hand.
Preliminary orders are taken.
All three of us have been working very hard on making pies. The demand for them was colossal … but it didn’t continue for long. Suddenly Danilo disappeared without a trace. All our attempts to learn what happened to him failed. There were no more pies!

***

Once a captain of the White Army called in. My parents entertained him with alcohol, pork, sausage and pickled tomatoes and cucumbers. They were talking revivingly about politics. The captain was smoking without stoping and soon the room was full of dense biting smoke. I have got a head ache… My mother brought me to the sleeping room, put me I bed and tightly closed the door. I couldn’t fall asleep. All the night I was pursued by nightmare… grey warped faces all around!
At the breakfast table I was listening with great interest the parents conversation about the remarkable town Maykop about which the captain told so much. He left us late in the night.
- “So, then, Maykop and haste!” exclaimed my father, “we’ve got enough money to buy a house and furniture. We’ll get a couple of goats and chooks… If ever the Reds’ll come who’ll know who we are?”
- “It sounds promising!” exclaimed my mother, “Maykop and that’s all.”