Tuesday, March 11, 2014

russian soldier girl


the snow was deep and hard. they sky was grey but everything was flooded in the reflected light bouncing off the dirty snow banks so it seemed very bright. i could see my breath every time i exhaled and even though i was wearing standard issue grey military mittens, my hands were freezing. it did not help matters that i had to hold my rifle (which may as well have been a giant icicle) across my chest 'at the ready'. it also didn't help that i was in a skirt. my company and i were at the nearly empty train station (in the middle of nowhere...) for a show of force, but for some reason all the soldiers had been ordered to wear their 'dress gear' (the impractical uniforms we wore when we were paraded in front of putin on state occasions) and for the women, that meant long o.d. green wool skirts with (thankfully) army boots. my male comrades laughed at my sorrows and i thought about how good it would feel to give each one a sharp poke in the eye. i was also tired of speaking and hearing russian. all of the knots i had to make with back of my tongue just to get out simple phrases was wearing on me. my tongue and my ears ached for even a few words of  plain, mid-western english. i decided not to talk for awhile and stand out of direct earshot of my fellow soldiers to give my ears a rest. just beyond the platform, a little furry winter squirrel poked around the snow looking for his lunch. i reached into my pocket and pulled out a nut and tossed it to him. he sat up and took notice of me for the first time. i said, 'go on...' very softly in english. he immediately took my suggestion and bounced up to the nut. after he finished eating it, i reached into my pocket and tossed him another- this time a bit closer. soon he was sitting directly at my feet munching contentedly. now the other soldiers noticed and loudly clomped over to my end of the platform to marvel at the little guy. they began digging through their empty  pockets to find anything that might tempt the squirrel nearer to them. 'make him take it from your fingers!' they yelled out to me. without looking at them, i dropped another nut at my feet. one of the soldiers snatched it up and gingerly held it out for the squirrel. the squirrel sat up, looked at the spot near my boot where the nut had been only a moment before and then made two hops over to the soldier holding the nut. as the squirrel reached up for the nut, the soldier pulled it just out of his reach until the squirrel was stretched on his tippy toes and grabbing for his fingers. the other soldiers were laughing and calling out approval. when the soldier looked up to share a wide grin with his friends, the squirrel grabbed his index finger and bit clean through the tip popping it like a grape. the soldier screamed and dropped the nut. the squirrel grabbed the fallen nut and whooshed away at lightning speed. as my fellow soldiers fell into a panic and tried to figure out what to do, i casually sauntered to the other end of the platform. i felt my frozen lips curl into a little smile and thought, 'that's why you don't feed squirrels with your fingers...'

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