23
Although films of people swimming in the Pripyat River were finally stopped on Soviet television, commentators insisted the extent of the accident was exaggerated, and undamaged Chernobyl reactor units would soon be back on line. But as any Soviet citizen knows, what remains unsaid is all-important. Already eleven days since the explosion and resulting radiation release, but still no official speech from Gorbachev.
In Moscow, continued lack of news spawned a string of rumors: the military conducting an experiment caused the accident; evacuees being shipped by train to old Stalin camps already under reconstruction vomited blood until they died; the accident was a conspiracy by regional Ukraine officials to send their families and friends to Black Sea resorts for extended holiday. A joke whispered among Kremlin workers went as follows: “To the Soviet government, Chernobyl is the czarina’s stallion.” “I don’t get it.” “It fell from its tethers and killed her when she had it suspended above her bed.”
In Kiev, the mayor said children should be kept indoors and ordered more potassium iodide be available. Supplies of canned food were running out in the markets. Some Kievians decided it best to avoid the Chernobylites, as they were being called. A joke making the rounds in Kiev came from the Chernobyl plant: “Around here you can eat all you want, but be sure you shit in a lead box.”
Another joke among locals: “The Chernobylites will march in the Day of Victory Parade. A head count taken at the start and at the end will help researchers calculate future life expectancy.”
But despite rumors and warnings, life went on in Kiev. People went to work, babushkas swept sidewalks, and criminals did their business. Early in the morning on May 7, a man was found murdered in an old Zil limousine near the Monastery of the Caves.
Later the same day, a KGB agent was killed on a farm road outside the town of Visenka, east of the river. Neither of these deaths, even if they had been publicized, was of consequence to most Kievians.
So, what was important to Kievians? Eleven days after the Chernobyl explosion, the incident was being revealed by rumor rather than the Wednesday evening news broadcast.
On Wednesday evening, Juli sat on a bench in a brightly-lit hallway near a double set of glass doors that reminded her of the low-level counting laboratory building entrance. She could see headlights on the street as dusk set in and was reminded of the many evenings she had waited for Mihaly’s bus. But those evenings were gone forever.
She was not at the low-level counting laboratory. She was in the central Kiev hospital where she’d been tested before going to stay with Aunt Magda. It seemed long ago, yet here she was, sitting in line on a long bench with dozens of others to be checked for radiation contamination. At the rate the line progressed, it was unlikely she’d be checked until morning.
Most in line were women, a few with children. Every hour or so, an orderly with a Geiger counter came out of an examination room and scanned newcomers. The last time he did this, a man set the counter clicking. Without touching him, the orderly commanded the man to move down the hallway. The contaminated man reminded Juli of Marina’s Vasily. Even as he was being led away, the man smiled and nodded to those lining both walls. Later the man returned wearing white coveralls. His hair was damp, and on his way back to the end of the line, he nodded and smiled, repeating, “A cold shower for my hot body.” Those around him smiled back but did not laugh, and they gave him plenty of room.
Juli overheard snatches of conversation as she waited. One woman said ration coupons and ten rubles’ compensation would be handed out. Another rattled on about a story she insisted was in the Bible-a kingdom whose leader had the mark of the devil on his head in the form of a birthmark. She said the kingdom was doomed because its leaders dabbled in science, messing in God’s business. Someone mumbled, “Gorbie,” and the woman put her finger to her lips.
After potassium iodide pills were passed out to those in line, many spoke of folk remedies for radiation-milk, vodka, and red wine among them. The man in coveralls at the end of the line spoke loudly of government bonuses, which would be handed out when it was time to go back into the area to harvest crops. He laughed loudly, saying vodka made from wheat in the Chernobyl region would provide an extra kick, making the drinker glow like an ember. The joke, and the man’s laughter, put a damper on conversations when the orderly with the Geiger counter returned and, keeping his distance, motioned for the man to follow.
While she waited, Juli thought about many things-her final bus ride with Mihaly, their dilemma of wanting to be together but being unable to do so, the trip to Mihaly’s abandoned apartment in Pripyat, the trip to Kiev with Marina, Vasily, his mother and sister, and especially the baby growing within her. She worried about Aunt Magda. But mostly she worried about Lazlo.
She remembered the look on Lazlo’s face after he shot the man in the Volga. She remembered the despair she could feel as Lazlo drove the Volga to the metro station and as they rode together on the metro into Kiev.
Although it seemed months ago, it was only this morning that Lazlo had come and the men had chased them. Only a few hours ago, they had entered Kiev as fugitives. Only two hours ago, she had hugged Lazlo, praying it would not be the last time. Lazlo did not tell her his plan. He simply said there was something he must do before they fled Kiev. He said he would be back that night, and they would leave tomorrow. “After the situation has cooled.”
When they arrived in Kiev, Lazlo purchased clothing for them at a secondhand shop. They changed in restrooms near the hospital entrance. Lazlo emerged in baggy trousers and a mismatched worn shirt; she in a tired print dress. They looked like farmers. That’s what she was supposed to say if they were questioned. Olga Petavari, farm wife from the Opachichi collective, being checked for radiation and separated from her husband during the journey. When Lazlo left, he took with him some of their clothes in a fishnet bag. On her lap, the overnight case she had brought from Pripyat contained more clothing from the secondhand shop. Olga Petavari. She repeated it to herself until the woman to her right began speaking.
The woman’s name was also Olga. She had a baby boy of five months who slept over her shoulder, his fists clutching his mother’s back like a little boxer. Without getting into specifics, Juli told Olga the made-up name and said she was from the Opachichi collective.
This, and her saying her husband was helping at another collective during the evacuation, satisfied Olga.
Olga was about Juli’s age. While they spoke, Juli tried to imagine how it would be to have a baby. In her recent past as a single woman with a job and an apartment, it seemed impossible to keep the baby. But now she had changed her mind. Despite being a fugitive, she looked forward to raising the child, feeding it, and loving it. Perhaps she would be able to spend time with Lazlo before the baby began to show, and before he had to strike out on his own. And afterward? Besides becoming a mother, afterward was too far away to consider.
“You should have seen the excitement in my village when they came to evacuate us,” said Olga, shifting the baby to her other shoulder. “It was the day before May Day. We thought army trucks were part of the celebration. Were you also evacuated in an army truck?”
“We rode in a neighbor’s car,” said Juli. “Was the trip uncomfortable for your baby in the army truck?”
“Not him,” said Olga. “He slept through it. But for me…”
Olga reached behind and rubbed her lower back. “The pains of pregnancy returned. I should have left in the morning with my husband instead of waiting. He’s a bus driver. He’s been taking people out of the area around the power station for days. I don’t know how he does it. He left a message for me at the terminal here in Kiev.
When I was there, his boss said he was a hero and might even get a medal from the Transportation Ministry.”
“You must be very proud.”
“I am, but I worry about the radiation. Do you know anything about radiation?”
“No,” said Juli, “I don’t.”
An hour later when it was dark outside, two uniformed militiamen came through the double doors and walked slowly along the hallway, looking at the people waiting to be examined. Lazlo had told her not to look away from officers. She was supposed to be a farm wife, and a uniformed person might offer some hope. Looking away or hiding her face might make an officer remember they were looking for a woman her age, a woman named Juli Popovics last seen with Detective Horvath, who was wanted for murder.
