THE HEAT OF ARKHANGELSK

Having checked in a cheap, though very cozy single room of Belomor Hotel and had a twix saved on the train for supper, Olive started thinking what to do next. Fortytwonteller's phone number was on her, all she had to do now was grabbing a telephone and dialing the six simple figures. But this seemingly easy task felt to Olive just as challeging as jumping in cold water. Of course, it was him who had given her the phone number, but it had been ages since then. Last time they had talked on Mail Agent was in the beginning of summer. Then Olive left for her grandma's in the country for a month, but on coming back she couldn't find him online...

Nastya was not just as close a friend to Olive as Yana, but she had known her for a longer time. Ever since primary school, when at the third grade a new girl was brought in - a short poor-dressed thing with Oriental features and unkempt hair tied in an effortless braid. Judging from the scruffy, sickly, skinny little figure of the new girl it could be easily assumed that the child was totally neglected. Even the teacher, had she not known that the newbie's parents were both engineers with a degree, would have thought her abandoned. It happened at recess. The kids ran one after another, screaming...

It drizzled outside. Olive holding on to Yarpen's hand dragged him on through the puddles, bending over backwards trying to get where the huge sugar cube of the skyscraper was seen behind the trees. As the travellers were getting closer to the skyscraper Olive was quickening her step until finally she broke into a run. "What time is it?" she asked Yarpen, and, panting, she flew into the porch of the skyscraper. "Half past five." "Precisely?" "Yes." "We've made it... Thanks to God..." she breathed a sigh of relief and leaned against a column in the lobby.   At five-thirty five a flow of employees gushed downstairs...

A furious gust of wind blew the window open, and along with the rain breaking inside large hailstones tapped on the window seat. Nickey pulled herself free from Cosmos' hugs and approached the window to shut it back. "It's raining like a cow peeing on a flat rock," she remarked, "The guys have definitely got caught out there, I think. They must be all wet through now." "The pack of fools," replied Cosmo disdainfully, "I can't believe they set up for walking all the way to Honeylake. it's all about Olive and her crazy ideas!" Nickey shut the window and having drawn the curtains she crept back to bed and curled up next to Cosmo...

Arkhangelsk, as is well known, is not too big a city. Frankly speaking, it's rather small. No wonder that any news there spread like wildfire. As Saltikov would say, "Fart at one end of town, at the other they'd say you've shat your pants". Although experience shows that the big size of the city is not always a guarantee that you can safely hide in the crowd and avoid prying eyes. Even in Moscow, the biggest city of Russia Olive couldn't do that, not to mention Arkhangelsk... Ironically, Olive wandering off from the railway station towards the lamp factory was last seen by Pavlya who was standing on the platform at that time...