Maria's Story by Robin Barratt
Author:Robin Barratt
Language: eng, eng
Format: epub
Tags: Story, personal, suvival, true events, tragic, loss, sorrow, family
ISBN: 9781910295533
Publisher: Andrews UK
Published: 2014-11-11T16:00:00+00:00
Section Three
Walking Tall
Chapter Eight
Back to the UK
Tears rolled down Inna’s eyes as the clouds rolled in and we rushed into a dark corner of the dirty metro to shelter from the heavy rain. The rain battered against the grimy window behind the row of kiosks where we had settled, there was no place else and the station was packed with people waiting at the exit until the rain subsided.
I stood in front of Inna and Maria as they sat huddled against the grubby wall. I listened to Maria talking in Russian to Inna, not knowing what was being said but by just looking at the expressions on Inna’s face I knew that the story was sad and tragic but nevertheless astonishing. Maria told Inna that she spent about a month with Sasha and Irina looking after the baby. Lydmilla and Natasha visited them every weekend. She was so proud of little Anton, every hardship, every trauma, every difficulty was worth just one minute holding Anton in her arms, his face close to hers, his wonderful baby smell. He was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. She was going to be a good mother.
Lydmilla heard that the gypsies had moved on, no one knew where, but apparently they were no longer in Moscow. Maria wondered about her friends the beggars, and what had become of them? Where were they now, she thought? Had they gone with the gypsies or sold to another clan? Were they still begging on the streets somewhere? She thought about them often but had not seen any of them them since.
Lydmilla, with Sasha’s help, managed to find Maria one room at a hostel in Moscow. It wasn’t much, but it was a place of their own and cost just a few roubles a night. And so, after a month in the country, Maria and Anton went back to Lydmilla’s apartment for a few days until they moved into their room. Maria was no longer alone. She had friends, good kind friends and she had Anton; she is loved again and she could now love.
Anton stays with Lydmilla and Natasha from Monday to Friday while Maria goes out to beg. She has little choice but to beg; there are no jobs for the disabled in Moscow. She told Inna she found this spot to beg about three years ago, has lots of friends in the area and has remained here ever since. She still has to pay the local mafia boss, but he isn’t greedy and leaves her alone, and she earns just enough to support herself. She stays alone at the hostel during the week and at weekends either Natasha brings Anton into Moscow or Maria goes to stay with them. Anton is a bright little boy and he goes to kindergarten, which he loves.
Maria eventually went back to Siberia, but things were different and awkward and she didn’t stay long. Her sister lived in their mother’s apartment, but after a tearful reunion and a couple of days of somber hanging around, she left.
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