The Flight of the Dancing Bear by Mark Rascovich

Author:Mark Rascovich [Rascovich, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781839742507
Google: HV6MzQEACAAJ
Publisher: BURTYRKI Books
Published: 2020-01-15T16:08:57+00:00

Faversham brought the Pobeda to a stop on the road to Ushkalinsk and stared doubtfully at the tracks in the snow which turned off and vanished among the trees. Grigor, who was wedged in between him and Velia, pointed eagerly at those tracks, nodding his head.

“He claims that is the way,” Velia said, but with some doubt in her voice. She was holding little Piotr in her lap, and he was fast asleep with his head on her shoulder. Behind them Ana was standing up in the back, leaning forward across the front seat.

“Even if he’s right, old Poppy won’t go far in there,” Faversham exclaimed.

Velia spoke to Grigor in Russian. “Are you sure? Very sure?”

“Oh yes! I have been this way many times before.”

“You have not!” Ana corrected him, giving him a little slap on the shoulder.

“I have too!”

Velia shifted the sleeping Piotr and took Grigor by the arm, speaking to him with a gentle severity. “Now listen to me! You must not fool us! We cannot play games.”

“That is the road to Uncle Igor’s farm!” Grigor insisted in a wounded tone of voice.

Velia twisted around and looked earnestly into Ana’s face. “Is that the truth?”

“Oh, it’s the road, all right!” the girl answered brightly. “But he hasn’t traveled on it many times. Only twice!”

“Three times!” Grigor insisted.

“So what have you chaps decided?” Faversham asked patiently.

“It is apparently the right road,” Velia told him.

“Oh dear! I was rather afraid it was!” Faversham pushed the gear lever into low and swung the wheel to follow the truck tracks into the woods. They drove on in silence for a while, and even when the engine missed a beat nobody said anything. It picked up again and kept them going for a while longer as the trail wound down into a gully full of icicled thickets. But they had labored less than halfway up the opposite incline when it expired with a final thirsty whimper. The Pobeda stopped for a moment, then gently began to slide backward until it slanted sideways and bumped into a tall pine. The shock brought a minor avalanche tumbling off the snow-caked boughs, pelting the automobile with softly thumping blobs of white.

“Well, that’s that!” Faversham exclaimed with a shrug.

Little Piotr woke up. “Are we arrived? Can we eat now?”

‘Why is he stopping here?” Ana asked. “There is a long way to go yet.”

“We have no more gasoline,” Velia explained to the children.

“Your Englishman is a silly driver,” Grigor grumbled in disappointment.

Velia laughed without much mirth. ‘It is not really his fault. You see, my darlings, we too are running away.”

“From the police?” Grigor asked brightly.

Velia gave him a sad little smile and spoke to Faversham in English. “What do we do now, George?”

“Well, it’s no use sitting here chatting. We shall have to get out and hike.”

Velia stared out at the silent white forest pressing in on them. “But we don’t even know how far,” she objected unhappily.

‘If these chappies were going to walk it, so can we!” Faversham pushed open the door and climbed out of the car.

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.