#elizaveta
Later that evening little Nataly sat in front of the dressing table mirror in the tiny apartment she shared with Yulia and Elizaveta. She looked at the image she saw in the mirror and saw her own face with Yulia standing behind her with a satisfied look on her face. Yulia said, “There. That is much better since I have plucked your eyebrows. You don’t have that ugly Caterpillar creeping above your eyes.”
“Oh, it wasn’t that bad,” replied Nataly.
As she said this, the door to the apartment opened and Elizaveta came in. She said, “Hello, roommates. I am home.” Then looking around, she added, “Unlike some people I know, I have both a real job and am working on my accounting degree. I can’t just lounge around the apartment all day gazing at myself in the mirror.”
Nataly started to tell Elizaveta that she had finally agreed to a screen test, but thought better of it. Instead Yulia, ignoring Elizaveta’s remark, said, “Come look. Without her little Caterpillar above her eyes, our little Nataly is almost beautiful. Why, once I put on makeup and lend her decent clothes, she will certainly do well at the screen test and soon be an actress like me.”
Elizaveta rolled her eyes and said, “Screen test! This nonsense again? Natalya, you should stick to your accounting classes. This acting talk is just all bullshit.”
“Not so,” cried Yulia. “I got a part in Bogdan’s and Alexi’s friend’s movie. They filmed it the other night. And now Alexi has finally convinced Nataly to try for an acting part. Perhaps she can be my co-star.”
“And what kind of part, excuse me. Yulia dear, just what was your role in this ‘movie’s of Bogdan’s and Alexi’s?”
“It was an erotic part,” sniffed Yulia. “Something an old maid like you wouldn’t understand.”
This seemed to set Elizaveta off. Her voice raising, she said, “Yulia, if you want to make porno films with your boyfriend, that is your own damn business, but you should not drag Nataly into it.” Then looking at Nataly, “This is a very bad idea. I do not trust either Bogdan or Alexi. They are nothing but never do wells looking for a fast Euro. Don’t be stupid!” She paused, nodded at Yulia and added, “Like her!”
Now Nataly was angry. “But I love Alexi. And he loves me. It is he who has my best interest at heart. You are not my mother! I am going to do the screen test. And if I am chosen, I will do the part!”
“You are impossible! Both of you!” shouted Elizaveta. And she stormed out of the apartment, slamming the door on the way out.
“She must be on her period,” said Yulia. Nataly giggled, and Yulia went on, “Now let’s do your hair and makeup. Bogdan and Alexi are picking us up at eight.”
Nataly didn’t see Alexi that night. After Elizaveta’s lecture, she called and said she couldn’t go out. Instead Nataly spent the night studying. But when she finally went to bed, she had very vivid dreams about Alexi and her. Nataly dreamed that she and Alexi were on a beach somewhere – probably the Black Sea. It was summer and Nataly was wearing a tiny bikini that Alexi had bought her. They frolicked on the beach and afterwards they lay beside one another. Alexi kissed Nataly on the lips, then on the neck, then he carefully pulled down the top of her bikini and kissed her nipples. Then…
The buzzing of the alarm clock awoke Nataly. As she lurched into consciousness, she realized that she was wet and aroused. She glanced around the bedroom she shared with Elizaveta and Yulia. Elizaveta was already gone, probably to her job as an accountant. Yulia was still in her bed – snoring loudly. “She came in around 3 am and woke me before falling into her bed without changing into night clothes,” thought Nataly. She won’t wake up for hours, thought Nataly as she pulled up her night gown and slid her hand down her belly and thought of Alexi and the Black Sea beach.
After Nataly finished masturbating, she got out of bed and padded into the other room of the apartment – a combination living area and kitchen. There she placed a teapot on the two-burner stove and heated water for her morning tea. Nataly thought to herself, “I am getting no where with my life. I am not doing well in my studies and I am making almost nothing at my job as a waitress. I understand Elizaveta having money; she is very reliable, and no doubt does good work at her job. Plus, she never goes out. She will probably end up well off, but single. Yulia I do not understand at all. She always seems to have money. She says she is an actress, but who knows. She stays out all hours. Maybe Bogdan gives her money; after all she did say that Bogdan and Alexi work in films and were perhaps going to get her a part in one of their projects.” The teapot whistling broke her train of thought.
Nataly was sipping her tea when Yulia appeared in the room. Nataly thought she looked awful – make-up smeared, hair all messy, still in her disheveled clothes from the night before. Nataly also noticed what looked like bruises on both wrists. “Good Morning,” said Yulia. “Is there more tea?”
“Help yourself,” replied Nataly. Then, “You came in very late last night.”
Yulia replied, “Yes, I know. It was a long day.” She paused, then, “But Nat! I got to be in a film! I told you and Elizaveta that Bogdan would arrange it.”
“Great,” said Nataly without much enthusiasm.
“Don’t sound so happy for me,” said Yulia. Then she picked up a pack of cigarettes from the table.”
“Those are mine,” said Nataly.
“You don’t mind, do you?” said Yulia, lighting one. When she lit the cigarette, Nataly noticed Yulia’s wrist. “Yes, that is a bruise, Thought Nataly to herself. Then as Yulia expelled smoke, she went on, “That night gown of yours. Ugh! It looks like something my grandmother would wear. If you asked, I bet Alexi would buy you a new one. A sexy one.” Then after a short pause, she added, “Bogdan and Alexi wanted me to ask you if you would be interested in doing a screen test. What should I tell them?”
While Idetta and Anne Claire were chained in their respective beds at Haus der Sklavin and trying to get to sleep, another drama began to play out about 2400 kilometers to the north-east. Nataly was a tall (1.7 meter) young Russian girl in her late teens. She was quite pretty by Slavic standards, albeit on the skinny side – oval face with wide cheek bones; coarse, straight black hair that she usually wore in a ponytail; and large gray-brown eyes. She was the first born to a lower middle-class family in Veliky Novgorod. As a schoolgirl, her good looks caught the attention of her classmates – boys and girls. Nataly envied those who could afford nice clothes and lived in nice apartments while she had only two or three dresses and had to share a room with her two younger brothers. “But Papa, I’m a girl. I need my privacy!” she had said. “Then move out!” he replied. So, as soon as possible Nataly had moved out, and moved to Moscow where she got into a school for accounting.
But Nataly’s living conditions scarcely improved. She shared a one-bedroom apartment with two other girls Yulia and Elizaveta. Elizaveta was a classmate, and Yulia fancied herself as an actress. Both Elizaveta and Yulia seemed to have more money that Nataly who around her school schedule worked as a waitress in a coffee shop near campus. Nataly knew that Elizaveta’s family in Smolensk, but where Yulia got her money was a mystery. Yulia had several outfits, all new, even if a little bit slutty by some standards. Whenever Elizaveta commented on Yulia dressing too provocatively, she would laugh and say, “But I am an actress, not a prudish accountant.”
It was early March, Nataly’s birthday, her 20th, was next week, and she was depressed. She had not heard from her family since Christmas; they had pretty much disowned her when she moved to Moscow. And after paying her share of the rent and buying the books for the next class, she was almost broke. She held a few Rubles in her hand, looked at them bleakly and said, “This will have to do until I get paid at the coffee shop, and that won’t be for a couple of weeks.” It was at this moment that Yulia walked into the room. “Why so glum, Nat,” she said.
“I’m broke and it’s two weeks until payday, and I have an exam coming up,” answered Nataly.
“Well, come with me,” said Yulia. “I have a date with Bogdan, and he has a buddy, Alexei who is very cute. I’ll call Bogdan and tell him to bring Alexei to the club. And I’ll even loan you some clothes, so you don’t look like the country peasant you are,” she teased Nataly before adding, “They both have money from some venture.”
Nataly thought for a bit, considering her alternatives before answering, “Well, Okay I guess.”
And so it began.
“Don’t even think that, Nataly. You are too young. Besides you haven’t finish schooling yet. And I have noticed that since you began seeing him, you are not doing so well in school. The teacher mentioned it to me. He is concerned about you.”
Nataly responded, “But Alexi is so handsome. And quite worldly. And I think he and Bogdan have good jobs. They are with some sort of company that makes movies. Alexi told me that Yulia has been having parts in some of the films.”
Elizaveta replied, “Well, Yulia seems to be working some now. She had no problem coming up with her part of the rent last month.” She paused and said, “By the way, rent is due in two weeks. Do you have your part?” Not yet, but Alexi said he would loan me the money if need be.”
Elizaveta, who was several years older than the nineteen-year-old Nataly, said, “That is not a good idea. You shouldn’t be taking money from a man. He will expect something in return.”
Nataly flounced over to a table by the sofa in their tiny apartment and picked up a pack of cigarettes that Yulia had left there. She withdrew one, lit it and inhaled.”
Elizaveta said, “And when did you start smoking. You know it’s bad for you.”
Nataly only looked at her and said, “And you know you should not lecture me. You are not my mother!”
Exasperated, Elizaveta said, “You’re impossible! I give up.” And she walked out the door of the tiny apartment, slamming it on the way out.
After she was gone, Nataly looked out the window to the street below. She thought to herself, “Perhaps Elizaveta is correct. But I do think I am in love with Alexi.”
