Sven chose truth and was naming all the drugs he’d tried. Katya was dared to dance a sexy dance with a chair which she managed to do quite well as the guys started to howl like wolves.
The second round began and Tanya chose truth this time.
‘You will not get me this time, sweeties,’ said Tanya laughing like a mad woman.
The cruel Sven wanted to know if she had a secret she had never told to a soul, and everyone agreed to this one.
Tanya stopped laughing, everyone saw her eyes go up reminiscing something, she shivered in disgust and sat silent, then she looked Sven in the eye and said, ‘I was raped by my Dad’s friend when I was twelve,’ tears began to roll down her cheeks. Her distorted lips managed to voice in a long sob, ‘THIS I’ve never told to anyone.’
Silence. Everyone froze. Yulya moved towards Tanya with her arms stretched out. Now that she was holding Tanya tight, she said, ‘You should have told it to your Dad. He would just cut his penis off right away.’
No one produced a sound. Instantly upset and deeply thinking pairs of eyes were observing the embracing ladies. Filip moved to join the union atop. Sven came up above to touch Tanya with his pitying arms. Katya managed to squeeze in and put her face against Tanya’s ear. Everyone went still. The song Losing my religion filled up the room.
‘I was afraid then and now it’s no point. The man was killed in a motorbike accident,’ Tanya responded quietly, she calmed herself down, brushed off her tears, and produced in a louder voice, ‘I think it’s time to go home. Fil, can you check the timetable, when is the next tram coming?’
Filip began checking the timetable, while Sven managed to think out loud, ‘Males can be creepy creatures sometimes. I’m sorry you had to experience that.’
‘That’s past. I’m fine now. No need to pity me,’ reassured Tanya everyone, regaining her composure.
‘The last tram has already left. I guess we’re destined to stay here,’ informed Filip.
Sven got up, poured a cup of water, placed it in Tanya’s hands inviting her for a dance. The latter drank some and put it on the floor. As Fringe got up, the floor seemed to whirl under her feet, but still she offered herself to dance the dark memory away and feel the music and her partner.
‘Fil, you’ve come by bike, right? Can you take me with you? Though it would be a bit peinlich, but I’ll manage,’ ventured Katya.
‘Peinlich? why would it be peinlich?’ wondered Filip raising his eyebrows.
‘You know, sitting on an iron thingy behind you may be hurting, may it not? Peinlich same as painful in English,’ Katya was finding the right words.
Filip chuckled and explained that peinlich actually meant embarrassing.
Meanwhile Yulya lay herself down on the bed to watch the dancing pair thinking how creepy it must be to be raped and what one needed to forget it and carry on living normally. If the recollection of the past made Fringe so emotional she was not all fine and it was not just past. She was crying now. The memory still tortured her. Yulya wanted to help but she knew not how, perhaps she should study psychology instead of languages.
Katya joined Red-haired to tell she was leaving with Filip by bike. They cheek kissed. Then Blondie approached the couple and embraced Tanya from behind and kept dancing with the two whispering into her ear that she loved her. She let them know she was leaving with Fil and thanked Sven for the lovely Eintopf. They rode off.
In the morning the curious girls had to ask whether there was anything between her and Filip.
‘Sure, the most intimate moment was embracing him from behind on his bike. He just brought me home and we parted. It was neither painful nor embarrassing, girls,’ reassured Katya.
In their turn they informed Blondie that Sven fell asleep on the floor listening to Depeche Mode. So Yulya was obliged to take drunk Fringe to bed, clean the table, wash up and finally turn in. When in the morning they left for their German classes, Sven was still asleep.
Their three weeks of freedom flew by sexlessly but full of interesting events to remember – the game Bottle, Amsterdam trip, once being caught in dodging a bus fare, sightseeing, hanging out with internationals. There approached the time to leave. Katya planned to stay in Germany. Yulya had to go to Paris to learn French. And Tanya was to visit her beloved cousin, Anya, whom she hadn’t seen for a long time as the latter had moved to London, when Anya’s mother married an Englishman. And so the three girls parted stating that it was damn fun travelling together.
chapter 7
Girls Meet on the 1st of September
September the 1st. Knowledge Day in Russia. Kids go to school. Students go to university.
‘Hel-lo, my lovely beauties! How come you aren’t running to hug me too, little bitches?’ yelled Yulya when she saw Katya and Tanya hugging each other and had to try and hug them both with her miniature body.
‘Hi, sweet heart. Can’t wait to tell ya about London. I bet you have something interesting to share with me too,’ sang Tanya happily as an opera singer.
‘Oh my, is that you Tanya? You-Singing? Looks like someone is head over heels here,’ Katya commented on Fringe’s singing.
‘Right. First, we have to sit through four classes, then we can have lunch together and talk, talk, talk our brains out,’ Yulya made a forecast rounding her smiling eyes.
‘Good plan, let’s get a move on, ladies,’ cried out Katya joyfully and gestured to go.
First lecture was Theoretical Phonetics. As the lecturer recited loudly and slowly her material she’d memorized from year to year, the ladies gradually became weary of scribbling down the never ending flow of words.
Stretching her neck and sighing Katya heard, ‘To convey information nowadays we use seven percent of vocabulary (as grammar is ignored altogether), thirty eight percent of vocal means. And nonverbal means (posture, facial expression, gestures and so on) account for fifty five percent of the message.’
The ladies raised their heads to look at each other and smiled. Tanya brought her lips into a foxy smile. Katya raised her index finger. Yulya whispered, ‘Oh, that’s why we love Phonetics.’
‘Gosh, I need a smoke,’ whispered Tanya back and grabbed a lighter from her pencil box to play with. ‘Hey, do you remember our first class of phonetics?’ Tanya pressed the button on the lighter to let gas flow into her mouth.
In about five seconds she pulled out the lighter, lit it and blew out the gas right onto the flame. A faint but distinguishable bang could be made out from the third row, left wing. The lecturer turned to the giggling trio and uttered in a superior tone, ‘The ladies disturbing, if you are not interested in my lecture, you may well leave and NOT disturb the ones who ARE interested.’ No one got up to leave. The silence was restored.
Their final lecture was about to begin. The girls sat all prepared. As Katya opened her bottle to have a quick gulp of water she could tell Yulya was daydreaming. The eyes of the Red-haired weren’t staring anywhere in particular but at some invisible screen nobody saw. Katya couldn’t help but put some more water into her mouth and spray it all over Yulya’s face.
‘What the hell?’ Yulya barked startled, looked around, at Katya and joined her laughter whisking the water off her face.
‘Sorry about that but I couldn’t help it. I’m glad you didn’t hit me back,’ Katya squeezed her apology through her fit of laughter, ‘Here is