White Shanghai by Elvira Baryakina

Author:Elvira Baryakina
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Glagoslav Publications Limited
Published: 2013-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 40

ABDUCTION

1.

Nazar lied. He did not live in an apartment but in a tiny wardrobe owned by a heavy drinking Russian woman from Odessa. She also kept there her washtubs and coats wrapped in cheesecloth.

One wall in Nazar’s abode was blonde: above a lopsided couch, covered by a ragged blanket, hung portraits of actress Mary Pickford, cut out of magazines. On the brunette wall, there were only five photographs and Klim was surprised to see his own wife on all of them.

“This Nina Kupina is a charm, not a woman,” shouted Nazar and, fast as a lizard, licked his thin lips.

He was happy to accommodate Klim and immediately asked him to lend some money. “Cigarettes all finished and my landlady, the cursed witch, won’t lend me anymore.”

He said that after Lissie had done a runner, the staff came to her editorial office for some time afterwards, but with no one going to pay them, they soon disappeared. Again Nazar was without work.

He didn’t dare go to the Bund. The policemen on duty knew all about the cheating photographer and Nazar believed they had laid a trap for him there.

“I would have returned the money to my customers,” he grumbled, “but let me earn first. Let me stand at the Public Gardens entrance! But no, they gave the cushy spots to all their buddies. One bastard has a parrot on a chain and the other—a wooden board for Chinese criminals. You know the one they hang on convicts’ necks? Tourists love taking pictures with them. Eh, I wish I had that board!”

The landlady only allowed Nazar to stay because she sent him on errands to get more booze. Plus, he helped her reach pots from high shelves. She came to Shanghai during the Russo-Japanese war to see her wounded son, an officer, recovering in the hospital. Tragically, the son died and the poor woman succumbed to alcoholism.

“Don’t think she’s so poor,” Nazar smirked. “Under her bed there’s a chest of money.”

Later he confessed that he’d once broken open the chest and saw that most of the crone’s money was fake—like the money that the Chinese burn in temples and call joss paper. She was almost blind and everyone who knew it cheated her, including Nazar.

“She’s one foot in the grave,” he would say. “What does she need those dollars for?”

Nazar was sympathetic to Klim’s troubles and told him how he spent one night in a dog kennel after an unsuccessful raid on a garden.

“The watchman was really evil, with a gun, but his dog was kind and let me in her dwelling. I’ll let you in my place, too.”

Craving news, Klim sent Nazar to buy some newspapers, but he brought back toffees.

“People wrap fish in newspapers or make pockets of them—for sunflower seeds and broiled shrimps. Why do you want to waste money for that damn thing?” Nazar protested. “At least toffees are tasty.”

Nazar didn’t have a clue what was going on in the city. He was much more interested in where to find a ukulele.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.