Lara Vapnyar - The Scent of Pine

“ ‘Come on, girls,’ Galina said, ‘Vedenej and Yanina? They are husband and wife. They don’t exactly publicize it, but everybody knows that.’

“Nadezhda peeked from behind the shelves.

“ ‘Vedenej and Yanina? I can’t believe you didn’t know!’

“More counselors were coming in with their laundry and joining in the discussion. It turned out that everybody who had been to this camp before knew the story. Some knew just parts of the story, but others eagerly supplied missing links, as well as their opinions on the story. It went like this: a new pile of laundry unloaded onto the floor, a fresh bit of info added to the story. But the counselors didn’t leave after they dumped their laundry, they stayed to listen to what the others would say, and to correct them in case their info or their opinion was wrong. It seemed like the story expanded along with the pile of laundry on the floor. And the voices got louder and louder trying to outshout the drone of washing machines and each other.

“The story went like this.

“ ‘They met here six or seven years ago. Vedenej was married then. You should’ve seen how Yanina was throwing herself at him! Well, Vedenej used to be very into her as well. Must be the sex stuff. Yanina must have done something—you know—that a decent woman wouldn’t do.’ ( Last Tango in Paris ! Butter! flashed through my mind.)

“ ‘But when the summer was over, Vedenej called it quits and went back to Moscow to his wife. He thought he got off easy. Right! Yanina looked up his home address—pulled some serious strings at the Ministry—and went straight to his apartment. Nobody knows what she did, whether she enticed him or threatened him, but the fact is that he divorced his wife and married Yanina. The main problem is that Vedenej is getting sick of Yanina now. He comes to the camp, he wants to fuck somebody else—there are so many temptations, Yanina watches him all the time.’

“And then one woman said: ‘I think he still loves Yanina. If he cheats on her, it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t love her.’ And then she started to cry.

“Inka and I exchanged glances.

“Love seemed to be this grim, hard, confusing thing.”

Lena looked down at Ben, apprehensive of his reaction. He was fast asleep. She lay down next to him. There was a little leaf stuck to his forehead. She gently removed it and closed her eyes.

That night at the camp, the counselors’ room got so hot that Inka and Lena could barely breathe.

Finally, Lena got up and opened the window, letting in a feeble trickle of warm air and a swarm of mosquitoes revived and seemingly refreshed after their day of rest. “You idiot!” Inka yelled. Lena shut the window, but it was too late, mosquitoes buzzed and zoomed in on them, and they swatted at the annoying insects with the Art of Cinema until most of them were dead.

“I’m taking off my nightgown,” Inka said. Lena took off hers too.

“You have a nice body,” Inka said, “I wouldn’t have guessed.”

“You too,” Lena said.

She couldn’t help but look at Inka’s breasts. Discreetly, she hoped. They were large and low-slung, and looked like a woman’s breasts rather than a young girl’s breasts. They looked serious. Lena liked Inka’s nipples, though. They were small and pale-yellow. She imagined that they were extremely tender and sensitive to touch. Not that she wanted to touch them. She did think about touching Inka’s stomach—she thought it was okay to want to touch a person’s stomach as opposed to a person’s breasts. Inka had squashy folds over her panty line. Lena wondered what it would be like to press her face into her stomach and sink into its soft warmth. She never dared to imagine what was below Inka’s panty line.

“So, do you think they really do it?” she asked Inka.

“Who?”

“Yanina and Vedenej?”

“They are married. They must be doing it.”

“Can you even visualize it? I can’t. How do they go about it?”

“I think they come to his office at night.”

“No, I mean what does she do? How does she make him want it?”

“Don’t men want it all the time?”

“Well, they work close by in the headquarters. She probably comes into his office and unbuttons her blouse and says: ‘Oh, oh, isn’t it hot today, my dear Yasha.’ ”

“Uh-huh. And he stares at her tits and says: ‘Oh, yes, Yanina Ivanovna, it’s certainly hot today.’ ”

“And she says:

“ ‘Oh, give me the kisses of your mouth,’

(How does it go in the Song of Songs?)

‘For your sweet loving . . .’

(Yeah, yeah, sweet loving!)

‘For your sweet loving is better than wine,

Your juices are fragrant,

Your essence pours out like oil,

This is why all the young women want you.’

“And he says:

“ ‘Your lips, my bride, drip honey,

Honey and milk are under your tongue,

And your clothes hold the scent of Lebanon.’ ”

“What’s the scent of Lebanon?”

“I don’t know, some kind of rose water?”

“Rose water? Yanina smelling like rose water? No, no, it should go like this:

“ ‘Your lips, my bride, drip borscht,

Beets and cabbage are under your tongue,

And your clothes hold the scent of salami.’

“And she says:

“ ‘And your cock is like a tower of Babel!’ ”

“And he says, ‘Hm, Yanina Ivanovna, really?’

“And she says: ‘Oh, yes, yes. In fact, it’s even bigger than the tower of Babel. I love it more than anything in the world! I love it more than that salami we’ve been stealing from the kids.’

“ ‘More than salami? Really? All right, Yanina Ivanovna, just you wait!’ And then he jumps over his desk.”

And the next thing Lena knew, Inka was on her bed on top of her, and they were rolling around laughing and squealing. Inka was so soft all over. Her breasts pushed against Lena’s ribcage and they were really soft. Lena grabbed her on the back and her back was kind of soft too. Inka was soft, but so very strong. Heavier and stronger than Lena. Lena felt that Inka could do whatever she wanted with her. And she was pressing too hard and it became hard to breathe, and Lena squealed “Inka, let me go!” If she had said “Yanina Ivanovna, let me go,” she probably wouldn’t have. But she called her Inka and that brought them back to reality. Inka moved away from Lena and surveyed the scene. The two of them on the bed. Two girls. One chubby and one skinny. One wearing light blue panties. The other one wearing white panties with small flowers on them. Both topless, red-faced, and disheveled. Inka jumped off the bed and went to put on her nightgown. Lena put on her nightgown too.

They went to sleep facing in opposite directions.

In twenty minutes or so, Ben shifted and opened his eyes. Lena smiled at him. The rosy glow around them had faded, and the thin gray dusk settled in, not yet ready to get really dark.

“Did I sleep?” he asked.

Lena nodded.

“Did I fall asleep in the middle of your story?”

“Yes, you did.”

“Oh, that’s bad.”

“I was just about to tell you how Inka and I almost had sex.”

He sat up and stared at Lena. “You and Inka had sex?”

“We came close, yes, but we got scared at the last moment.”

“Tell me what happened.”

“We fooled around. That was it.”

“You fooled around, huh?”

Ben rubbed his forehead and looked away.

“What?” Lena asked.