05-11-2014, 03:25 PM
Week 4
It is Sid's final week in Russia. Her time here has been more or less quiet. Quiet time in the lab with Zoya and her team, ignoring the looks that Zoya gives her. It's an illusion, isn't it? The closeness that people feel. It's only because Sid is a new face and they've spent time cloistered in a lab poring over slides that Zoya thinks she feels an attachment. Sid knows that now, or at least that's what she tells herself. There are true attachments, true friendships like what she's building even over a distance, even over electronics with one or two people back in Denver. And then there is this other kind of attachment. The one that is so easily broken. Sid avoids Zoya to the best of her ability, outside of the lab, at least. Only accepting the occasional dinner offer, only accepting the occasional lunch trip. Zoya is smart, Zoya is perceptive. It doesn't take her long to realize her attraction isn't reciprocated. It doesn't take her long to turn her attentions elsewhere.
Sid doesn't think that she's closed herself off. She doesn't think she's shut herself down emotionally, gone back to who she was when she first came to Denver, reset the clock. She doesn't feel like that person, anyway. There are others in the area that she spends time with, going to bars and clubs. Being a tourist with. She's not hiding, not like she did for years and years before settling into Denver Colorado. So she doesn't think it's the same.
Most of her free time is spent at Phoenix Tattoo, leaning forward while Sergei puts the needle to her back. What she's having done should take months, it should take ages, but she heals more quickly than he was expecting. Sid takes the pain well, too, but then, she would, wouldn't she? When she removes her shirt he can see the scars. The first time he saw them he found them disturbing, but now, as the time nears that Sid moves on to some other place, he's used to seeing them. He assumes they are a part of her, just as the lines he makes on her back and shoulders and arms. He's never asked about them, it's not his business. They talk about other things, and it's from him that Sid learns the more conversational side of the Russian language. From him she learns slang, and the vernacular sayings. From him she learns to speak less properly and more like an ordinary human being. He tells her stories, things to make her laugh and take her mind off...this. That. Everything outside the four walls of the parlor.
And she continues to make contact with the people back home who wish to contact her. Lena gets pictures of the clubs Sid visits, and gets grainy shaky-cam samples of what this or that deejay is playing. She sends Adam pictures of the bookstores she finds, asks him if there's anything he'd like while she piles up on her own. Before she leaves Moscow she'll have a box to send home, and that box will be full of books and nicknacks and things. And Kalen? Kalen gets the random things. Pictures of food and drinks, pictures from the tourist places and the parks and the courtyards. Some commentary on this or that thing. Sid does not contact them often, she is busy after all.
The last week comes almost before she knows it, and certainly before she's ready for it. But Zoya and her team don't need her anymore. They're on the right track for this and that project. It's time to move on.
Sid takes one last stroll around the city, following the line of the Moscow River, wondering if she'll run into that Etherite again, or if it'll be someone else. Vaguely, she starts to wonder if she'll see the one she wants to see - but before the thought can fully form she pushes it back, because no. That's unrealistic. That's impossible. And from now on she's going to listen to her gut when her gut tells her not to want more than what's possible.
Early morning (so, sometime in the middle of the night for them) on May 10th, Sid sends a message to Lena, Kalen, and Adam.
"Headed to Sydney today. See you on the other side."
It is Sid's final week in Russia. Her time here has been more or less quiet. Quiet time in the lab with Zoya and her team, ignoring the looks that Zoya gives her. It's an illusion, isn't it? The closeness that people feel. It's only because Sid is a new face and they've spent time cloistered in a lab poring over slides that Zoya thinks she feels an attachment. Sid knows that now, or at least that's what she tells herself. There are true attachments, true friendships like what she's building even over a distance, even over electronics with one or two people back in Denver. And then there is this other kind of attachment. The one that is so easily broken. Sid avoids Zoya to the best of her ability, outside of the lab, at least. Only accepting the occasional dinner offer, only accepting the occasional lunch trip. Zoya is smart, Zoya is perceptive. It doesn't take her long to realize her attraction isn't reciprocated. It doesn't take her long to turn her attentions elsewhere.
Sid doesn't think that she's closed herself off. She doesn't think she's shut herself down emotionally, gone back to who she was when she first came to Denver, reset the clock. She doesn't feel like that person, anyway. There are others in the area that she spends time with, going to bars and clubs. Being a tourist with. She's not hiding, not like she did for years and years before settling into Denver Colorado. So she doesn't think it's the same.
Most of her free time is spent at Phoenix Tattoo, leaning forward while Sergei puts the needle to her back. What she's having done should take months, it should take ages, but she heals more quickly than he was expecting. Sid takes the pain well, too, but then, she would, wouldn't she? When she removes her shirt he can see the scars. The first time he saw them he found them disturbing, but now, as the time nears that Sid moves on to some other place, he's used to seeing them. He assumes they are a part of her, just as the lines he makes on her back and shoulders and arms. He's never asked about them, it's not his business. They talk about other things, and it's from him that Sid learns the more conversational side of the Russian language. From him she learns slang, and the vernacular sayings. From him she learns to speak less properly and more like an ordinary human being. He tells her stories, things to make her laugh and take her mind off...this. That. Everything outside the four walls of the parlor.
And she continues to make contact with the people back home who wish to contact her. Lena gets pictures of the clubs Sid visits, and gets grainy shaky-cam samples of what this or that deejay is playing. She sends Adam pictures of the bookstores she finds, asks him if there's anything he'd like while she piles up on her own. Before she leaves Moscow she'll have a box to send home, and that box will be full of books and nicknacks and things. And Kalen? Kalen gets the random things. Pictures of food and drinks, pictures from the tourist places and the parks and the courtyards. Some commentary on this or that thing. Sid does not contact them often, she is busy after all.
The last week comes almost before she knows it, and certainly before she's ready for it. But Zoya and her team don't need her anymore. They're on the right track for this and that project. It's time to move on.
Sid takes one last stroll around the city, following the line of the Moscow River, wondering if she'll run into that Etherite again, or if it'll be someone else. Vaguely, she starts to wonder if she'll see the one she wants to see - but before the thought can fully form she pushes it back, because no. That's unrealistic. That's impossible. And from now on she's going to listen to her gut when her gut tells her not to want more than what's possible.
Early morning (so, sometime in the middle of the night for them) on May 10th, Sid sends a message to Lena, Kalen, and Adam.
"Headed to Sydney today. See you on the other side."