Page 120 of Cilka's Journey
“What are his injuries?” Yelena asks again.
“He was unconscious when found. He has been hit around the head but I think he’s unconscious from being suffocated. Nothingin his body, thankfully, is broken. I’m so sorry, Cilka,” Raisa says. “Why don’t you leave us, and we’ll get you when we’re finished here.”
“I’m not leaving,” Cilka says angrily.
“All right,” says Raisa.
Yelena eases Cilka a pace or two away from the table.
“We have to work out how to protect him,” Cilka says.
Several hours later, Cilka accompanies Alexandr from the operating room to the far corner of the ward, where a screen is placed around his bed. A chair is brought for Cilka and she insists she will be his nurse. Neither Yelena nor Raisa argues with her. Food is brought to her, which she barely touches. The hot, calming tea she devours.
Yelena checks on the two of them regularly. As the day ends, Yelena tells Cilka she has spoken to the man who was in the bed next to Alexandr and found out more.
The patient next to Alexandr had been threatened by two men when he woke to the sound of wood thumping on flesh. He had received one punch to the mouth to intimidate him into silence. He was told he wasn’t to say anything to alert the nurse after they left in case Alexandr wasn’t yet dead. The man was shaken and very upset. Whoever it was that carried out the beating must have been waiting in the reception room outside, which is unstaffed at night. They may have bribed or threatened the guards outside the building, and Yelena is reluctant to question them in case she draws attention to the fact that Alexandr is still alive.
Yelena then confirms the plan they started hashing out overnight.
She speaks quietly. “We’ve changed his file to say he has died and created another file using the name of a recently deceased patient, amending the record to say that patient has been healed. So as far as the hospital records are concerned, Alexandr died from his injuries as a result of a beating. We will keep the screen around hisbed for a while and work out the next step. We’ve told the patient in the next bed that he is contagious and not to come near him.”
“Thank you,” Cilka says, mind racing. That buys some time, but what’s next?
“It is the best we can do for now, Cilka.”
When Yelena leaves, Cilka places her head on the pillow beside Alexandr’s.
The next morning, Cilka wakes to see Alexandr looking at her. For several moments their eyes are locked, wordlessly conveying their feelings for each other. They are interrupted by Raisa.
“I see you are both awake. Now, which one should I look at first?”
Cilka smiles. “Him, of course.”
Raisa tries to explain to Alexandr his injures and how he is to be treated. Cilka can’t help herself and constantly interrupts with her positive spin on his recovery. Alexandr says nothing, nodding, looking grateful but worried, echoing Cilka’s true thoughts.
Days pass as Alexandr slowly recovers behind the screen. His bruises fade, but movement still causes him pain. When Cilka runs into Kirill going in and out of the reception area she tries to act friendly and natural, politely declining his advances without making him angry, not wanting to draw any unnecessary attention to the screened area on the ward. She suspects it was him who either assaulted Alexandr or alerted the original attacker to the fact that he was still alive, but she has no way to prove it.
Alexandr happily accepts the pain of getting out of bed to walk with his arms around Cilka as she helps him. They are told Cilka is not the best nurse to be assisting him, their difference in height more of a hindrance to his recovery than a help. This is not the only advice they ignore. Each night Cilka is found sitting slumpedin a chair, her head on his pillow, sound asleep. She has barely left his side since the beating.
The number of patients admitted to the hospital has begun to slow, and word reaches the staff that numbers in the Gulag are reducing significantly. Prisoners are being released early on the orders of General Secretary Khrushchev, who has succeeded Stalin. He is reaching out to the West. The stain the Gulag system has placed over his empire is becoming known, and appeasement is required to continue talks with non-communist countries.
Alexandr is able to walk on his own now, and the screen has become conspicuous, drawing questions from patients and staff about how bad the “infection” is behind it. They need to work out the next step.
“Cilka, can I see you a moment?” Yelena calls one morning.
“I’ll be right back,” Cilka tells Alexandr.
Yelena steers Cilka into the dispensary.
“Nothing good ever happened in this room. What is it?” a concerned Cilka asks.
“Do you trust me?” Yelena asks.
“More than anyone I’ve ever known, besides my family.”
“Then I need you to trust me now. Alexandr will be discharged in two days’ time…”
“No, you can’t. You promised,” Cilka cries.
