the store early. They’re probably already in line to complain to me, as if I can do anything about the idiotic sizes the supplier ships.”
Marina turned away from the light, wrapped the pillow about her head. All was silent except… except what? Juli stopped breathing and listened. The balcony. There was someone on the balcony!
She could hear voices through the glass door and curtains.
“Marina. Listen.”
Marina sat up with her eyes closed, opened her eyes, stared at the closed curtains. “Who could be out there this time of night?”
Marina got out of bed and walked to the window. “Shut off the light so I can look out.”
After Juli turned out the light, Marina parted the curtains.
“People are down in the courtyard.”
“Who?”
“From ground-floor apartments, I guess. They’ve got coats on over their bedclothes.”
“What are they doing?”
“Looking at the sky. Looking at something orange in the sky.”
Outside, a steady breeze blew out of the south. Neighbors in the courtyard resembled plump birds standing about nodding to one another. Everyone wore coats. Showing below the coats were pa-jamas, nightshirts, nightgowns, and, in some cases, bare legs and bony white ankles. The neighbors stood looking south between Juli’s building and the next building.
“It’s the atomic plant,” said one man. “My brother works there.
Thank God he’s not there now.”
“Maybe it’s a grass fire,” said another.
“They’re burning palms for Palm Sunday,” slurred a man who was obviously drunk.
“It’s something for May Day,” said yet another man, this one not drunk. “They’re clearing a field for the parade.”
“Idiots!” said a woman. “They don’t burn palms until later, for the next Ash Wednesday. Who would purposely start a fire in the middle of the night?”
“Today is the Saturday of Lazarus,” said a woman in a soft voice.
“At our church they ran short of palms and they’ll use pussy willows this Sunday. A man who lives on Lesya Ukrainka Street was running home when I came out. He said the fir and pine forests are on fire.”
“Not a forest fire,” said a heavy woman in furry slippers, an overcoat, and a babushka. “Didn’t you hear the explosion? It knocked me out of bed.”
Two teenaged boys behind the woman laughed, and she turned about to scowl at them. The boys’ faces were lit orange by the glow from the sky.
“Look,” said one of the men. “Sparks flying. And smoke.”
“It’s poisonous,” said the heavy woman. “It probably has atoms in it.”
Another man who had been standing silently to the side said,
“Of course it has atoms in it. Everything is made of atoms.”
Juli stood with Marina, watching the sky.
“Is it dangerous?” whispered Marina.
The glow in the sky became more sinister as a column of black smoke leaned to the north and merged with the clouds.
Marina held Juli’s arm. “You said Mihaly was working tonight.
Can’t you call him and find out about this? I’m sure he’s all right.”
“Hey,” said one of the men. “You work at the plant. What do you think this is?”
“Juli, he’s talking to you. They want to know if you know anything.” Marina turned to the group of people gathering slowly like penguins. “She doesn’t know anything. We heard you out here and came to see what was going on.”
“But she works there in a laboratory. A technician should know what’s happening.”
“Juli,” whispered Marina, “say something.”
“I don’t know anything,” said Juli. “Some of you must also work at the plant.”
“Even so, you are a technician,” said one of the men. “Therefore, you must have special knowledge of what’s going on. You must know if there’s danger for us.”
“Why us?” said the large woman.
“Radiation,” said the man. “If a reactor explodes, it releases radioactive fallout like a bomb.”
Several heads turned to look at the glow in the sky. At the far end of the courtyard, a woman sobbed loudly as she ran outside.
“The phone!” screamed the woman. “My husband! He’s there tonight, and the phone is dead! Something terrible has happened!”
The man who had mentioned radioactive fallout turned back to Juli. “I know you work in the radiation measurement laboratory. If one of the reactors exploded and there is radiation leaking out, tell us what we should do.”
The man walked directly in front of Juli. Marina stepped up to the man. “She doesn’t know anything. Because she works there doesn’t mean she had anything to do with this.”
“I didn’t mean it was her doing,” said the man. “I simply want to know if there’s anything we can do to protect ourselves.”
“Yes,” said Juli.
“Speak up!” shouted the heavy woman. “We can’t hear you!”
“Yes! If there was an explosion and if the explosion involved one of the reactors, the initial radiation will be airborne.” She looked to the sky, the dark column of smoke crawling upward. “The best thing to do is go to your apartments. Stay inside and close all the windows.
Keep the outside air from coming in as much as possible.”
“Then what?” asked the man.
Juli looked from one shadowed face to another. “If there is radiation, the authorities will tell us what to do. But it could be smoke from any fire. It could be nothing.”
The sound of a car traveling at high speed came from the main road at the front of the apartment complex. Tires squealed as the car drove through the curve in the road beyond the apartments.
After the car passed, a truck came, its lights flashing in the trees.
When the truck appeared for a moment between buildings, Juli saw figures in off-white uniforms hanging onto the back.
An hour later, Juli sat on the edge of the bed, looking at the curtains closed over the balcony door. Even if the curtains had been open, she wouldn’t have been able to see anything because the balcony faced north. After coming up the stairs, they had run to look out the south-facing window at the far end of the hallway. The fire was definitely at the Chernobyl plant. Flames leapt into the sky at the base of its towers, and Juli knew the glow in the sky meant death.
Marina sat cross-legged behind Juli on the bed, massaging Juli’s shoulders as she spoke. “There’s nothing you can do,” said Marina.
“Worrying about it won’t help. Even if it was the number four reactor, Mihaly would have been one of the first out of there because he would have known if something was going wrong. He’s home right now, sealed in his apartment.”
“Mihaly wouldn’t have left, Marina. There’s no answer at the plant switchboard. They were going to do a shutdown. And now there’s no answer…”
“How bad could it be?” asked Marina. “My Vasily lives closer to the plant than we do. I wish he had a phone so I could call him.
What about the dosimeter you put out on the balcony? Will the dosimeter tell us if it’s safe?”
Juli stood, walked to the balcony door, and opened the curtains.
She slid the door open a few centimeters, reached quickly outside, pulled the dosimeter inside, and slammed the door.
“You should have asked me to get it,” said Marina.
