Morgan Stone - The Russian Factor

The Skater’s voice, modulated by the familiar rasp of Internet telephony, squawked from the desktop’s plastic speakers. “I did it for you, Anna. I was so worried. I don’t know who she is and where she is taking you. Who else can help you, but me? Who will look after you?”

“I’m an adult. I can look after myself and Jess isn’t taking me anywhere. I can go where I want with who I want. I’m not going to live under you for the rest of my life. I told you I am happy, why can’t you just accept it?”

“Look what you are doing. You must be insane! That woman, that ‘friend,’ she could be a cult leader. She has brainwashed you. Do you really think she likes you? She probably wants to sell you into prostitution or kill you for your organs. How can you possibly trust her? A woman, Anna! What could she want from you?”

Anna clenched her fists. “Stop this! Jess is not a criminal. It is you who is a criminal.”

“What? What are you saying? You are speaking in this manner to your mother? If only your father could hear you.”

“I phoned the bank. You took all my money. Every last kopeck! The shares too.”

Only hissing from the speakers. It might have been The Skater inhaling for another tirade.

“You stranded me here. Do you know that? You took my money, my stocks, my passport. I’m entirely dependent on Jess now. If you think she is going to do me harm and you care about me, you would not have done this to me.”

More hissing.

“What stocks? Shares of what?” First I’d heard anything of Anna’s finances. “How can she take your money from the bank, Anna?”

The microphone was open and The Skater heard me. “So I can hide it from you, Americanka! ”

“But Mother, it is my money. I earned it.” It was Anna. “How dare you! Do you not have any conscience?”

“It is only because of me you had this job! Nobody will ever hire you on your own. You are a weak and sick woman! You betray Misha, such a perfect man for you. He loves you more than you deserve and you abandon him for stupid dreams of western perversion. If you think life will be better there with that woman you are insane and one day you will crawl back to me and beg my forgiveness.”

“Mama, stop. Enough!” Anna pulled back from the microphone. The speakers emitted an earsplitting, rasping squawk. Anna cut the sound with the speaker-mute button. Taking a breath and leaning back in to the microphone she spoke without knowing whether or not her mother was even listening. “I am not insane, I know what I am doing, and I want you to give me my passport back.” When Anna disengaged the speaker mute, we heard the tail end of a series of square-wave modulated shrieks and yells. The skater hadn’t heard a thing.

Anna turned down the volume, looked at me and waited for what sounded like a coyote attack on a chicken coop to abate. Then she repeated her request. “Give me back my passport.”

Silence .

Then, “No, no, no!” rasped from the speakers. “You are in danger. You can not leave like this. Come home and we’ll talk it over. You will explain to me and father where and why you are leaving and then go. I need to see you off.”

“You had a chance to see me already. Why didn’t you use it?”

“We needed to take you away from her . She is a criminal.”

“If she is a criminal, why didn’t you call the police?”

“They wouldn’t help. You know our police, come on, you are not that stupid. They wouldn’t move a finger.”

“And that’s why you trapped and beat me? What am I supposed to think about you after that? Do you really believe that I will respect or trust you after that?”

“I was terrified for you Anna. What could I do?”

“If you worry about me, give me my passport and money back so I’m not trapped and completely dependent on Jess.”

The Skater reverted to ice-cold. “No, Anna. I won’t give anything to you. You don’t know what you are doing! I am not going to help that criminal. You have already taken everything from me. I am destroyed now. Think about my well being for a change? I might need that money, your father and I, we are not getting younger.”

“Then at least give me my passport.”

“No! I won’t give it to you. You are not going anywhere. I gave up my entire life for you. You have no right!”

“Yes I do! Don’t you understand that? In the real world you would get arrested for this!”

“What do you know about that real world of yours? What kind of fairy tales did she tell you? Anna, don’t be so naive. Whatever she tells you isn’t true. All you need to know is that father and I love you and want the best for you.”

“Do you really know what’s best for me? You think I want to be with your dearest Mikhail, marry him and raise his children? If you really know me and care about me, how can you not see that I am hurt, that I am in pain every single day? I’ve never told you this, I was never strong enough and I knew you would destroy me if I did. Well, I’m telling you now, I don’t want to live the life you intend for me. I hate this life and from now on I am deciding what’s good for me, not you!”

“Anna, I am tired of this, you are definitely not well. God, knows what she is doing to you there. I will not give you the passport. Do not ask me again. I am doing this for your own good. And please, Anna, don’t tell your friends about this… whatever you are doing there, it is such a shame on us.”

Anna cut the connection with a blow to the mouse that had me wondering what a replacement would cost. “I am sorry you witnessed that.”

“I’m not. It gives me some idea of what you’ve been dealing with.”

“What I am dealing with.” Anna corrected me. “This is actually not bad. Things could be worse. Mother once wanted to make me the wife of an oil sheik in Dubai.”

“You have got to be kidding.”

“Not at all. A friend of my mother’s was visiting with her daughter. She was so happy because her daughter was going to marry a rich sheik. Mama was so impressed, she wanted me to go along as a bride for one of the sheik’s rich friends.”

“What about those shares she was talking about? I didn’t know you had money, stocks, investments. I’m bleeding money here keeping us alive.”

“I guess I should have told you. The shares are from my uncle. He gave them to me for my future. I didn’t know my mother could take them. I didn’t believe she could or would steal my passport, or the money, or even the shares. Right up until she admitted it, I just didn’t believe she could do something like that to me.”

“When did you find out that the shares are gone?”

“In Kiev.” Anna turned away.

“What are the shares of? How could she get them from you?”

“Gazprom, they are the actual paper certificates. I was told there are 60,000 of them.”

“Hoo-lee shit! Do you know what that’s worth?”

“Enough to buy a nice apartment or house.”

“Enough to buy a passport and first class ticket to anywhere. I don’t know why you needed me.”

“Without you I would not need the whole world! Don’t you see, I don’t need the West, I need you. I ran away with you because I could not be without you. I can not be with you here in Russia, which means there is only West.”

I went back to the share certificates. “Because the shares were actual sheets of paper your mother just took them from your room?”

“I never saw them. I was only told about them. Maybe it was even a lie, but I don’t think so because my uncle kept telling me he gave them to me so I should be grateful.”

“But you never saw them?”

“Mama said they would be sold to buy a home for Misha and me after I marry him.”