Lola Smirnova - Twisted

The business was going well and we were making enough money to keep our family financially stable – and, what’s more important, together. The girls even managed to buy a car when they came back from France – an old silver Opel Vectra with an automatic transmission. Both Lena and Natalia had been to driving school a few years ago, but were still too nervous to sit behind the wheel, so most of the time the car remained parked under our apartment building, getting covered with dust. It was a useless purchase, although it made them both feel so much more significant and successful.

Frankly speaking, I have a green-eyed monster that keeps reminding me that I’d also made a fair amount of money in the past year, and that I could also have had a car or some kind of business of my own. But I try to toss it away, reminding myself to be grateful for being alive, and filling my thoughts with admiration for my sisters instead.

For the last few days, the salon has been overcrowded. It is the end of December and New Year’s Eve is two days away. It is eight in the evening. Lena has just finished her last client for today. Instead of going home to relax, she decides to change her hair colour.

‘No! Don’t even think about it!’ I hear Natalia’s irritated voice.

Here we are; another family drama is about to happen. Maybe I should wrap it up for today and slip away before these two crazies put me in the middle of it…

‘What is your problem? It is my hair and I want to go black!’

I hear the volume picking up drastically between the two.

‘Lena, you will regret it. It’s no way to treat your depression! Go and shop for new boots or hook up with some guy but leave your beautiful golden hair alone!’

‘Jul?’ Lena is calling me to help her to deal with Natalia.

Crap! Too late to slip away!

As I walk into the room where my sisters are just getting started, Natalia’s cellphone starts to ring.

She picks it up and Lena and I fall silent, letting Natalia speak in peace.

‘Hello? Yes. Irina? Hi! Haven’t heard from you for such a long time! How are you? Where are you now?’

While she is busy on the phone Lena grabs my hand and pulls me to the little storage area where we keep all the hair and nail products. She pulls out the box that says ‘blue-black’ and silently lifts her eyebrows, asking me what I think about her choice.

While I am trying to pick the right words so as not to upset her, Natalia walks in.

‘That was Irina…’ She pauses, looks at the box in Lena’s hand, frowns, but says nothing about it. ‘She is in Cape Town… in South Africa. She got married there and quit working.’

‘Oh, good for her!’ I exclaim with a grin. ‘Where is South Africa?’

‘Anyway,’ Natalia interrupts, ‘now she works as an impresario and is looking for girls to bring there. She says the money is good, and the work is clean. She swears that the strip club is for real…’

Unfuckingbelievable! She is actually considering it! She was the one who was all, ‘Never again!’ and ‘Look what happened to Jul!’ and ‘It’s so nice to be home together’… and now there is this sparkle in her eyes! She is actually considering going to this who-the-hell-knows-where-it-is country! No way! Over my dead body…

Published by Quickfox Publishing

PO Box 12028 Mill Street 8010

Cape Town, South Africa

www.quickfox.co.za| info@quickfox.co.za

First edition 2014

Copyright © 2014 Lola Smirnova

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the author.

Edited by Angela Voges and Chuck S.

Proofread by Vanessa Wilson

Front cover photography by Bradley Ruiters

All names and characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Natural currency of Ukraine since 2 September 1996

Leap in acrobatics – double back somersault with double full twists.

French, ‘ Tak-tak … there… impossible’

French, ‘After… change… tak-tak ’

French, ‘Oh, my love!’

French, ‘No! Very hot! Very hot! Change!’

French, ‘Jealous! Very jealous. Love! Change! Change!’

Russian, ‘Jerks!’

French ‘I love you’

French, ‘magnificent’

Russian, ‘And as they say in Odessa, they are two huge differences.’

Poppers: a slang term for alkyl nitrites that are often inhaled to enhance sexual pleasure

Russian, ‘Toilet’

Russian, short for ‘cents’

Russian, ‘Thanks’

A contraceptive sponge that women often use during menstruation to stop the bleeding during intercourse.

Turkish, ‘Cheers’

Yoga position also known as the Shoulder Stand

One of the supermarket chains in Turkey.

Italian, music term: allegretto , meaning a moderately fast tempo; furioso , meaning an angry and furious way of playing.

Turkish, ‘My love!’

Karl Marx, The Critique of the Gotha Program

Turkish, ‘whore’