Orest Stelmach - The Boy from Reactor 4

Karel shook his head. “No. Arkady was an eccentric man. He shared his results with me but never the formula.”

“He was an eccentric man? Past tense?”

“He died ten days ago from natural causes.”

Nadia felt the air go out of her. “That’s terrible. I’m so sorry. And the formula?”

Karel shook his head sadly. “He kept everything in his head. He put nothing on paper. He was notorious for it.”

“What about his laboratory? Didn’t he have a laboratory?”

“Yes. In Kyiv. I must confess, I searched it before I destroyed it. But there was nothing.”

“You destroyed it? Why?”

“Because that was his wish. He wanted all trace of his work to die with him.”

“But you must know the chemical compounds.”

Karel shook his head firmly. “No. I only saw the product of his labor. Never the formula. I swear to you on my wife and child’s graves that I am telling you the truth.”

“The formula’s lost?”

“Gone. You asked me what five-androstenediol is. You deserved an explanation. I have given it to you. But I’m afraid you are too late. The formula is gone forever.”

DAMIAN AWOKE AT 7:45 A.M. Nadia waited patiently as Oksana made him tea and fed him stewed prunes. After she was done, Nadia went into his bedroom.

Damian didn’t waste any time. “Karel says I have Chernobyl syndrome,” he said, propped up and lucid. “That the structure of my brain is changing. I have fevers, rashes, and paralysis of the legs. The fevers come and go. I faint during the day for no reason. My brain is like a computer going bad.”

“Why aren’t you in a hospital?” Nadia said.

He smiled. “Hospitals are for citizens, not for ghosts. I don’t exist. There’s no record of me. No hospital in Ukraine would admit me. Besides, Karel brought a doctor from the power station who looks in on squatters from time to time. He told me I have two to three weeks to live. That was two weeks ago.”

Saddened by this news, Nadia started to reach for his hand.

“No, no,” he said, pulling it back. “It’s not safe for you to touch me at this point. I’m too hot.”

Nadia fidgeted, uncertain what to do. She had wanted this connection to her father, to the family she had never known, and now her nearest relative over here was at death’s door. “It’s okay,” he said. “I’m at peace now that I know you’ll take my son with you to America.”

“What?” She had forgotten about that part. “Oh, no. That’s not—”

But Damian was already off down memory lane. “I met his mother in the café eighteen years ago. She was for hire. They earn extra here in the Zone, where a woman never knows if a man is infected with a lot more than a venereal disease. I paid. We danced. She fell in love. I did not pay again.”

“I’m sure you charmed her.”

His eyes bored into Nadia. “A true thief can make anyone his willing accomplice.”

“What happened to her?”

“She was addicted to painkilling medication. And other drugs. She died of an overdose.”

“Oh. I’m very sorry.” Nadia returned to what they’d been talking about before. Ever since she had come to Ukraine, she had been followed by men who were trying to kill her. How could she bring a boy into that situation? “What is your son’s name?”

“Adam.”

“Where is he now? I ask, but please understand, there’s no way—”

“He lives with a man who used to work in the shelter with me. He played on the Soviet Olympic Hockey Team in the 1970s. When he killed a man in a barroom brawl, he was given the choice of life in prison or fifteen years’ labor in the shelter because of his status as a national hero of the old Soviet Republic. He chose the latter, and this is how we met.”

She was relieved to hear that the boy lived somewhere else. She couldn’t imagine a child growing up here. “That explains the hockey uniform.”

“Eh?”

“The hockey uniform. In the picture you sent.”

“Ah, yes. You saw the picture. Good, good. How is your mother?”

“She is well.”

“And your father, he died.”

“Yes. Did you know my father?” she asked hopefully.

“Of course.”

“He told me about his time with the Partisans. It sounded so exciting, so noble.”

Damian studied her for a moment, as though debating something internally, and shook his head. “I’m not going to lie to you.”

“Lie to me? Lie to me about what?”

“Yes, your father joined the Ukrainian Partisan Army. After he moved to Lviv with your mother. But he was with me first.”

“With you?”

“Yes.”

“What does that mean, he was with you?”

“What do you think it means?”

Nadia felt like a building block of her past had been yanked loose. “I don’t know.” But of course, that was a lie. She knew exactly what he meant.

“Your father was one of my crew. One of the three that got away.”

“What are you saying?”

“Your father was a thief, Nadia. You are a thief’s daughter.”

The walls closed in on Nadia. Her father wasn’t who she’d thought he was. Whatever her issues with his parenting, however demanding, strict, and unrelenting he’d been, she had always respected him. He was a man of integrity. Maybe she didn’t always like him, but she looked up to him. Now it turned out he’d been a thief, a criminal, and, by definition, a liar.

“Surely you’ve noticed that you have a certain resourcefulness. Who do you think you inherited that from?”

She was a thief’s daughter, Nadia thought. It was in her genes. And all this time she had thought she was just clever.

Damian saw how shocked she was. “What does it matter? Let go of the past. Look to your future. Your father would want it that way. You are his legacy. My boy is my legacy. He is a good boy. You must take care of him.”

They were returning to the big problem. “Uncle Damian, that’s just not realistic.”

“He has never been hugged,” Damian said, ignoring her comment.

“What?”

“He has never been hugged. His mother never touched him after she gave birth. She had problems, and she wasn’t the mothering type. Oksana takes care of me for the money. As for the coach and me… Men don’t hug their sons.” Damian nodded confidently. “You will hug him.”

Nadia shook her head as she searched for the right words to tell him that just wasn’t realistic.

“There are the hockey games, of course,” Damian said. “But they don’t count.”

“Excuse me?”

“The hockey games. Hockey is the main sport in Pripyat. There is a winter league for all the workers in the Zone. Coach brings my son to the games. He is the best player in the league. He is a defensemen. Defensemen usually don’t score many goals. But when he scored his first goal, at age thirteen, he got hugs from his teammates. They do that in hockey. So he started scoring more goals. Lots and lots of goals. But now that won’t matter so much. Because you are a woman. And you will give him proper hugs.”

Nadia needed to stop this fantasy before it went any further. “Uncle, I’m sorry. It’s just not possible.” Rather than discuss the dangers with a dying father, she tried to point out, “He doesn’t even speak English… How would he manage in America?”

“Once you sell the formula, you can use the money to help him build a life.”

“Excuse me?”

“The formula. Karel told me he took you to his laboratory.”

“And he told me Arkady never gave him the formula.”