Дато Турашвили - Flight from the USSR

“But we’re not intending to kill anyone,” Paata interrupted as he shot an angry glance at Dato. “We need the weapons only to frighten the pilots, nothing else.”

“Fatalities always follow fear. Besides, the pilots won’t be allowed to land in Turkey.”

“Why not, if the Lithuanians managed to force them?” Paata interrupted him again.

“That’s exactly why you won’t be able to force them again. The Russian won’t repeat that mistake again.”

Kakhaberber and Paata stood up, took their jackets, and left without saying goodbye.

Dato and the monk were left alone in the room. After a long pause, Father Tevdore smiled and said:

“They probably thought I was afraid…”

Giorgi met Soso on a crowded street, and was to the point:

“That priest isn’t coming.”

“I know.”

“Only one option remains.”

“What option?”

“That girl, Gega’s girlfriend, has to take the weapons onto the plane.”

“How?”

“Pretend she’s pregnant and hide them on her belly.”

“She’s not even his wife yet.”

“He’ll marry her first and we can go right after the wedding.”

“Is he going to agree?”

“I don’t know, but you have to convince him.”

“Gega—yes, but Tina?”

“Is her name Tina?”

“Yes, her name’s Tina.”

“Gega will make her agree. We have no other option. And not much time either,” said Giorgi as he left.

Soso stood on the pavement for a little longer, then crossed the street and walked away.

“Has the snow already disappeared?” Dato asked Father Tevdore with surprise, breaking the silence in the monastery yard.

“It’s the autumn sun. It’s going to snow again in a week.”

“It is so quiet here.”

“There’s peace here and we need more peace than quiet.”

“Did you call me here for some peace?”

“No. Why didn’t you bring Gega?”

“He’s got filming and said he’d definitely come up next week.”

“I wanted Gega to be here today too, I wanted to tell you both.”

“What?”

“I know you have already decided to go.”

“We haven’t decided anything yet.”

“I’m saying this to you, because I know that if Gega decides to go, you’ll follow him.”

“They haven’t decided anything yet, as I said.”

“And I’ve told you what I feel. And Gega’s not coming up here because everything is already decided.”

“I told you—no.”

“You are free to not tell me anything. That’s not the reason I wanted to see you. Quite the opposite. I wanted to tell you what I’ve already told the others. But they are different, they don’t have what the Lord has bestowed upon you.”

“And what is that?”

“Common sense. Other languages might not have such an accurate word—when a person’s sense and soul guides their actions.”

“You know I’m not the one who’s making decisions in this case.”

“That’s why I’m telling you that if you say no and don’t go with them, others will also begin to think that even one person’s life is more precious than any goal, no matter how great and noble it might be.”

“There won’t be any fatalities. You believe me, right, that I would never kill anyone? I would rather be a victim myself than for someone else to die. I really would.”

“You won’t kill. But the special forces will. They will kill their own passengers, innocent people and…”

“And blame us?”

‘Of course they will blame you. Worse than that, you really will be responsible for the people they kill.”

“Why us?”

“Those people will be killed because of you.”

“There will be no victims.”

“There will be! You don’t know the people who you intend to slap in the face, and Gega probably thinks that it’s another play or a film awaiting him to play the part.’

“If several people escape from here, what will this supposed great empire lose?”

“Several… hundreds… thousands, it doesn’t mean anything to them. Human life doesn’t mean anything to them at all.”

“All the more reason to go.”

“They won’t forgive the insult.”

‘We’re not going to insult anyone.’

“You don’t know how evil arrogant people can be when they come to power.”

“The same government was unable to do anything about the Lithuanians who hijacked a plane, and let them go.”

“That’s why they aren’t going to repeat that mistake. They won’t let you go!”

“We haven’t decided anything yet…”

“I know you already have, but if you refuse, someone else will dare to say no too, then another, yet another and all of you will survive. The whole thing will collapse and everyone will survive.”

“Nothing is decided yet.”

“It’ll be too late then. That’s why I want to see Gega. He probably thinks that backing down now is a sign of cowardice. I want him to know that it’s more important to think about the Lord than about those who want to use him.”

“No one can use Gega. No one can force him to do anything he doesn’t want to do himself.”

“That’s exactly the reason I want to see him before it’s too late. That’s why I’m going to wait for him and reason with him. Tell him I’m waiting.”

“I will.”

“I’ll be waiting for him every day.”

“I’ll tell him.”

When Dato walked down the hill a considerable distance from the monastery, he looked back to where his friend, the monk, was standing at the monastery door. He waved goodbye one last time. Then he turned around and continued and went away…

The wedding looked like a traditional Georgian wedding, but was also totally unlike one. Everything was as it should be, but several people still showed signs of anticipating something extraordinary. They were nervously waiting. For others, it was only the wedding of a happy couple and they enjoyed themselves. Some simply lost themselves in the feast. The bride, whose belly was already showing, looked tired. Gega’s mother, with her maternal instinct, could sense something. She didn’t know exactly what was going on, but she could clearly feel that the partying, dancing and singing was tainted with sadness.

The behaviour of one guest, Giorgi, seemed especially strange to her. She hadn’t met him before. Gega was unable to convince him to join them in the restaurant, so they stood in the entrance talking for quite a long time. Geg’s mother Natela, couldn’t hear their voices, but she could sense that they were arguing; as if Gega was explaining something to him, but the stranger wouldn’t agree with the groom. Giorgi finally left, having never entered the restaurant.

Gega’s mother was sure she saw the stranger, who was clearly older than Gega, shake his finger at Gega before he left. Gega then let his head hang down. When he finally returned to the table, he didn’t smile for the rest of the party. Natela never knew for sure, neither then nor afterwards, whether she imagined it or whether it all really happened.

The only thing she remembered for certain was to take good care of the guests. There were quite a lot of them, and as a hostess, she was trying to give her share of attention to everyone. She made sure not to neglect anyone. She simply didn’t have enough time for her son. But her eyes were in constant search for him. She tried to keep Gega in sight throughout the wedding, especially after the incident with the doves.

It was tradition in Georgia at the time to bring two doves to a wedding and giving them as a symbolic gift to the newlyweds. No one could remember how the two doves appeared at Gega and Tina’s wedding. It might have been someone’s idea of a joke. When to everyone’s delight the doves were set free in the restaurant hall, it was followed by general laugher. But what followed next was beyond anyone’s imagination: one of the doves hit the floor as if stricken. In the ensuing silence, someone uttered in a horrified but loud voice: