Chapter 40 – What Now?
Slev sat next to Anna as Henric drove the boat back to the marina. Everyone was quiet, except Jinny, of course. He was enervated.
“I have to come all the way to America to get into a sea battle,” he said to no one in particular. “Saint Petersburg is on the ocean. It has a river. I was a crook there, stealing stuff from all over. But I never came close to being in a sea battle.”
“America has it all,” said Constantine. “Russia has nukes, and computers, and art, and Siberia, but it doesn’t have what America has. Things happen here that don’t happen in Russia.” The sea battle had made Constantine philosophical.
Pater said, “Russia has better ballet.” He looked over at Selgey and Bart, apologetically. They nodded agreement.
Gale said, “America has better food, and we wear better underwear, even if it comes from Italy.” The excitement of the encounter hadn’t entirely dissolved the effects of the Champagne on Gale, who still was a little sloshed.
Anna didn’t say anything, but she didn’t look too disturbed, either. It was almost like she had expected something like this from her grandfather.
Slev said to her, “He got up. He’s probably all right. He took a fall, and maybe he’s hurt, but not too bad.”
Anna nodded.
Richard said, “They had guns. I saw them. Thank God that didn’t happen. We have a lot more guns than they do.”
Anna nodded.
There wasn’t a lot more conversation. Most of the team just sat in the cockpit, thinking. Jinny and Roger climbed around the boat checking for damage. The railing on one side was completely gone, and the boom had torn loose and was bent in two places. Roger lay on his stomach and looked over the side, trying to see if the fiberglass hull had been punctured anywhere. Small pieces of Stirg’s boat lay on the deck.
As they approached the marina dock, a deckhand came out of the office shack to help them moor. He looked at the boat as it sidled up to the dock, and said, “Christ, what happened to you guys.” Constantine gave him the evil eye, and the guy forgot all about what he had seen.
Henric and Helstof spent the night on the boat, while the rest of the crew went home, without more conversation. Gwen kissed Anna goodbye, knowing she was in good hands with Slev.
When the three of them got back to the Sullivan’s house, Constantine said goodnight and went to bed. Slev kept Anna in the kitchen. She didn’t want her going out on the waterside deck and seeing the area where the battle had occurred. Slev poured two small glasses of brandy, and waited for Anna to talk.
“My grandfather doesn’t know what to do with himself in retirement. He goes up to the college with Nev and they hang out. He’s rich. He did great things when he was younger, but now he’s a little crazy. He can’t relate his past to his future, so his present is a mess. He likes living here, but he misses Russia. He’s still very smart, but now he’s crazy, too.”
Slev didn’t say anything, but sipped her drink.
“Do you think he’ll do this again? Do you think he’ll be violent again?” Anna said.
Slev took a minute, and said, “No, I don’t. It’s an intuition, but I think this will be the end of this behavior for both of them. If they were younger, then I’d say, ‘Yeah,’ they might try something like this again, but now I don’t think so. I think tonight will get it out of their systems. It’s not going to make your grandfather like himself again, or solve his problems, but I doubt there will be any more violence.”
Anna looked hard at Slev, and Slev looked back, empathetically. Anna drank some brandy, and Slev saw her relax in body and mind. She knew Anna would be ok.
The next day was business as usual for most of the team. The four dancers were down at The Hall, working on various parts of their project. They talked briefly about the previous night. Selgey said, “The Junes certainly are interesting people. One night I’m jumping onto the table in a fine restaurant and taking off my top, the next I’m in the crosshairs of a homicidal Russian billionaire.” She looked at Bart. “I don’t remember that happening very often in New York or London. Do you?”
He said, “There was the time when the light fixture came loose from the ceiling and crashed on the stage during our Midsummer Night’s Dream pas de deux. That was close.”
She said, “And there was the time when we arrived early for dress rehearsal to work out a difficult step, and found the two cellists and two French horn players having group sex down in the orchestra pit. That was interesting.”
“Yeah, two twenty-somethings and two fifty-somethings.”
“But no attempted murders, am I right about that?
He nodded.
“And neither of us ever assumed fifth ballet position on a restaurant table, right?
He nodded.
“So knowing the Junes for just a few weeks has been something of an adventure, right, dear?”
He nodded.
“Cool,” she said.
Peter and Pater then told the story of how they met Little Jinny Blistov in the gay bar in Saint Petersburg. They told Selgey and Bart how Jinny made them an offer they couldn’t refuse, and how that offer resulted in them living in Charleston, now working with two world-class dancers to open a ballet academy. They said the previous night was the second time they experienced violence since hooking up with the Junes.
Selgey again said, “Cool.”
Meanwhile, Henric, Helstof, Jinny, and Guignard worked on the boat. They got a couple of experienced marina guys to help them assess the damage and figure out how to fix it, after which Henric decided the work should be done in Charleston rather than down at Kiawah. The marina guys asked what had happened, because early that morning on the marine radio they had heard the call for a tug to go out to Fort Sumter and pull a large private yacht off the sandbar. The tugs guys had said the yacht was damaged, one side torn up. The marina guys looked at the sailboat damage, one side torn up, and wondered.
Jinny said, “We had a party last night. Got outta hand. You should see the other guy.”
Since Helstof was helping on the boat, Gale went over to Richard’s to hang out, and brought a bottle of Champagne. He looked at it, said, “You didn’t have enough excitement last night?”
She said, “Might as well keep the good times rollin.”
He said, “I’m a writer. I’m not used to excitement.”
“Well, dear, let’s see what we can do about that.” She popped the cork, took a long slug from the bottle and flopped on the couch. She began a kind of free association rambling about the confrontation on the not so high seas, which Richard processed and filtered through his own sensibilities. His fingers began dancing on his laptop keyboard. Gale kept drinking and Richard kept writing. After an hour, Richard joined Gale on the couch. The spontaneous writing was crap, but a horizontal interlude with Gale certainly wasn’t.
Roger took the dog for a long walk and then fixed lunch in the kitchen. He watched the two Russian blue cats while he ate, and they watched him. One of them appeared to be putting on weight, but Roger didn’t make the connection.
Gwen spent time in the upstairs study reading emails about The Deneuve’s Champagne project. She re-read the contract Anna had signed, and thought about what the project would mean to her, making a documentary with Catherine Deneuve and Steven Spielberg, in France. Gwen again got the Wow feeling, and called Slev. “How’s Anna doing?”
“She’s doing really well. She understands why her grandfather did what he did. She asked if I thought he would do anything like this again, this violence, and I told her, No, I don’t think so.”
“Good. I don’t either. He might try something else, but not like last night.”
“When is Anna going to France?”
“We’re waiting to hear from them. Film stuff happens when it happens. They said she has to be ready on short notice, so it could be soon. We should talk with her about it.”
/> “Whatever you say. Gwenny?”
“Yes, dear?”
“You had your gun out when Stirg attacked. Why didn’t you shoot? He deserved it.”
“He did deserve it. I didn’t shoot because of Anna. If I had shot, there was a good chance of damaging him and Nev, and Anna didn’t deserve that. Also, because Roger had taken command of the situation, and I figured he would get us of there. Which he did.”
“Yeah, he did. Life in Charleston with you is interesting, dear.”
“It’s there for the taking. Some people are unlucky and have short arms. They pick fruit up from the ground. Other people are luckier and have long arms, get fruit from the tree. That’s our job. Picking fruit and eating it.”