◆ SpookStack

= ee | *— bh he = —_ a ee eS en =a eee [ — dil met eee Ld, he ed explained season, a stove is always thrown i Fo" Kim it was a for- midable t 4, not realising how “be had sl. ca over it, I must have hurt his feelings those first few days by some of my remarks. For example, I said 1 thought we should get rid of a blue wicker settce which he had placed in a corner of the living-room, along with some - plants. Only later I discovered that It was a rare find, which Kim was very proud of. On the other side of the living-room was a bright-green sofa with matching armchairs, a piass coffee table and a large and ideous silver-plated electric samovar, sitting in solitary splendour on a small table. Kim explained that, for prestige reasons, our Russian friends insisted that we had to have a television set, which sat in. his study—there was a huge waiting-list for them— but we switched it on only once that winter, to see the American Globe- trotters play the Russians. as Kim had never seen a basketball game before. He knew I adored birds and had already bought me three: a gold-coloured canary in a small cage by itself on a side table and, in one of the windows, a pair of blue and green budgerigars in a charming, hand-made cage. Home comforts The kitchen was modern and well equipped. There was a washing- machine from Czechoslovakia, a vacuum-cleaner from Romania, a floor-waxer (unworkable) from Yugoslavia; only the refrigerator was Russian. But the washing- machine, which gave out a fierce high-pitched hum and terrified the maid, we converted into a table in the kitchen. The vacuum- cleaner--something we could never afford in Beirut—was a godsend, Cleaning our many Oriental rugs. It had taken Kim months, and several thousands of roubles. to* furnish the flat. Sergei had driven him all round the city, showing him dozens of aparimenis, but he had eventually settled on this older, pre- Stalin building, as it seemed more * solid and reassuring than the rather flimsy, prefabricated blocks which were springing up everywhere in the suburbs. Knowing my musical background. our friends bad even . Offered us a’ grand piano. but Kim — -4,000_ oe which Burnses..bod. . had turned it down for the simple reason of spacc. As I walked round the flat on that first night—with Kim pointing © _ everything out to me like an exvited child—I noticed piles of books stacked hich against the walls in every room. Tkere were more than co aS MANY aa PMSSUik, We scoured, every ~-ssible furniture shop in town. 7 'y bookcases with sliding gi ou ors appeared in many shops. In one day we bought nine, and arranged them in all four rooms. Waking in my narrow bed, on my | first morning in Moscow, I was immediately aware that there was a third person in the flat. I could hear 4 firm, authoritative tread, and the scrape of furniture in the fiving- room. Whoever it was clearly did Mot care whether we slept or woke. ‘Who on earth is it?” I whispered to Kim. * It’s Zena, the housekeeper,’ he said. She was to become my first headache in Russia, The boss Zena was a tough, small, henna- haired woman in her early thirties, attractive in a rather coarse way. She was to be an intimate part of our life from around eight in ths morning until four in the afternoon. She had been looking after Kim for several weeks and had already taken over the household in her own fashion. She obviously resented me. She made it only too clear that she did not welcome any alteration in her domestic routine. She was the boss. If 1 decided the rugs and floors snould be cleaned and polished and she disagreed, she would sometimes spend an hour or so sulking in our living-room in true Stavic fashion, chain-smoking our cigarettes and doing nothing. I did not speak a word of Russian _and Kim, at that stage. stitl knew very little, but could manage extremely well by writing out what he wanted in his small, exquisite sctipt. But quite apart from the language barrier, she and I just did not get along. What irritated me from the first day was that she ate her midday meal with us. It wasn't’ that I had any snobbish reasons for not wanting her there, but rather that { found her presence at the table inhibiting, Why should that head of heanaed hair sit between Kim and me? * Does she have to eat with us every day ?"Tasked. §n Kim's silent teprocf I saw that I had unintention- ally given oifence to his open-armed tolerance of every tovarich. At a first glance Kim looked spry enough in his new Russian clothes, but physically he was not in very good shape. The almost unbearable ~ strain of his last months in Beirut had been followed by the ordeal of his mysterious escape to Russia —from the Jittle he told me of this episode I believe he walked a good deal of the way, 2: leasi at the start of his journey. Although he left Beirut in January 1963 hs arrived in Moscow’ only some Mmooths later. or an. bees 4 é Pa