By the time the few lantern lights of the tiny village showed in the cold stillness of the night, both man and dog were ready for warm food and a roof overhead.

Yevgeny knocked on the heavy plank door and called softly to Katrina. She swept the door open and ran into his arms. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. “I was so worried. You were gone so long.”

Smoke thrust his muzzle into her hand. Katrina looked down. “And who’s this big furry thing? A friend of yours?”

Yevgeny laughed. “This big furry thing is Smoke. He helped me get back here.”

“In that case, both of you can come in and get a decent meal. Smoke, you and I are going to be good friends.” Smoke licked her hand and brushed against her leg as he walked into the house.

Yevgeny went in to look at Maya. Katrina joined him. “She is doing better. She may not need that expensive medicine. She has no fever and is eating and sleeping much better.”

While Yevgeny and Katrina were watching over their first child, Smoke searched the room and lay down by the fireplace. He was sound asleep before Katrina was halfway finished putting a meal together. While she worked, Yevgeny told her the story of his trapping expedition and escape from the police pursuing him.

Katrina stopped cooking and took Yevgeny in her arms. “My love, you don’t understand Russian police. They will never give up. They will follow every little clue no matter the costs in money or time. They answer to no one. You cannot ever go back there again.”

“My Katrina, I must go back one more time. My traps are hidden nine days to the northeast.”

“If they find your traps they will wait for you to return. The police know how important traps are to everyone out here. And you cannot buy more, even if we could afford to. They will investigate every purchase of enough new traps to run a trap line. Your traps were all marked. If they find your traps, I think they will put up a reward for anyone who can tell them whose mark is on the traps.

“You cannot sell any furs unique to that area in our local fur market. The police will be looking for any stranger selling furs where you were trapping or anyone selling furs from outside their local area. My father traded in furs and he could instantly identify unusual quality and where the furs came from. He could even recognize the skinning skills of the trappers.”

“There is even more,” Yevgeny said. “The cops may find those thieving villagers were killed with a .30-40 Krag rifle. It is not unique here, but it’s not common, either. Ammunition is getting hard to find and our supply is getting low.”

“I know we’ve been happy here,” Katrina said. “But it is time to leave. I want Maya to have some decent schooling and a different choice of lives than she will have if we stay here.”

“Okay, but we don’t have to move right away.”

“Yes, we do. I have a fear and an appreciation of the tenacity of the police you will never understand. It comes with generations of living in a country where there is law but no justice. Where the accused are guilty before, during, and after trial. The sentence doesn’t matter. I know several people who have been sent to the prison camps. I know no one who has ever come back.

“Tomorrow we begin our planning. In thirty days we begin our move closer to Irkutsk and the services our children will need to survive in this society. You see, I believe things will get very much worse in the next ten years. The Bolsheviks will stop at nothing in their zeal to transform Russian society. The little people, like us, will pay the price. So accept there is urgency in our need to move.”

“But how will we live? Here I earn enough by hunting and trapping for our needs. What will I do in civilization?”

“We’ll become low-level party members and workers. I already have some of the documents we will need. Thousands of records have been destroyed in the war. With some forged documents and a few new ones from the government, we can establish ourselves with new identities. We must be careful to never stand out. Never be exceptional. Strive constantly to be a part of the masses. No one must be envious of us or our position. It is the Russian way to achieve equality by pulling people down. Not by everyone improving.”

“This is your country. I’ll follow your lead.”

“You must think, my husband, that this is also your country or your attitude will bring us all down.”

“Katrina! You have been planning this for some time.”

“Yes, I knew at some time we would have to disappear and emerge as different people. Your language is now good enough and the danger to us if we stay here in the village is real. Now, think hard. I need your advice. Parts of my plan you will not like, but let me finish before you comment. Agree?”

Yevgeny nodded and Katrina started to lay out her plan. “Thirty days is not an estimate. It is real. I will take Maya and Smoke and find a place to live near or in Irkutsk.”

Seeing Yevgeny getting ready to say something, Katrina held up her finger and stopped him. “Maya and I will change our names in this move. I’m taking Smoke because I don’t want him arriving with you a month later. A man arriving from the wilderness with a big white dog is too much of an identifier. No one will think twice about a woman and a child traveling with a dog.

“You will arrive wearing poor urban clothes like a migrant worker who is looking for construction work would wear. Your past as a trapper, hunter, and woodsman will not come with you. If the authorities come here looking for the trapper who killed five policemen, the villagers would eventually identify you and describe the dog as your constant companion. A trapper traveling with a big white dog is too easy to find. Smoke would give you away. I know you well enough to know you would not kill him as most men in your position would. I respect you for that but I will not let Smoke endanger Maya or you. So he comes with us.”

“And where does that leave me?”

“You, my love, disappear. In ten days you go on your last trapping run of the season. You find a well-hidden campsite, maybe in one of the many caves in the area, and wait two months before coming to find me. At noon every Sunday and Wednesday in the Irkutsk central train station I’ll be drinking a cup of tea.”

“So after two months I leave my hunting and trapping equipment behind and join you and Maya?”

“Yes. Leave everything behind, including your furs and rifle. An old Siberian saying is, ‘Leave everything behind except a trail.’”

“How long can you live on the money we have?”

“Many months. I’ve hoarded the money you had in your pockets at the train wreck and some more I got from other dead soldiers. Gold and silver coins are good anywhere. But you must be careful where you use them. The corrupt officials and thieves are always on the lookout for gold. You always earned enough money from hunting and trapping for us to live on without using my hoard. Even when Maya was sick I didn’t want to expose our treasure for her medicine. If she got worse I would’ve but I was sure you would bring in enough furs.”

“I’m convinced. What will my name be?”

“When you meet me at the train station I’ll give you your documents. I’m not even going to tell you what name Maya and I will use. It’s better you don’t know. If you are captured, they will make you talk before they kill you.”

All of Barry Kelly’s novels are available in print in digital formats from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or your local bookstore. Visit www.factsandfictions.com for more by the author.