By the time we reached the apartment Liliya had rented, I thought my neck was going to break from trying to see everything. Funny-looking cars, brick buildings where they didn’t even scrape off the mortar, and so many people.
I thought back to the map I had found of Tatarstan, and this city of Kazan. The information I found said that the population of Kazan was 1,118,000. 2005 was also the year that Kazan celebrated its 1,000th year. Denver only had a population of 561,570 in 2005, so Kazan was twice the size. I was blown away.
We walked for a few blocks until we came to a wide road with what looked like taxis parked along the side. Liliya leaned in the window and told the driver where we wanted to go. The driver helped me put my luggage in the trunk, and we were off.
Liliya knocked on the unassuming metal door on the third floor of an apartment building and stepped back a bit, taking me with her. A tall woman with dark hair opened the door and looked us both up and down. With a smile on her face, the woman stepped forward and took Liliya’s hand and then mine, motioning for us to enter.
The apartment was cozy with a table for 4, a couch that could seat 3, a closet to my right, and another door to the left. The two ladies started talking too fast for me to even try to understand. After a few minutes, Liliya pulled out some of the rubles we got and counted some into the lady’s hand. When that was done, she handed Liliya a key, and she left.
I had set my luggage by my leg as they talked, but now it was time to figure out where to put them. “You put bag there.” Liliya told me and pointed to the closet. Once that was done, she set the bag with some food we bought on the way on the table. At last, we were alone and could actually talk.
Both of our plates were full, and she had poured us some tea. “You okay, Ken?” She asked. I looked at her in surprise. Her English had improved.
“Yes. I am okay. So many new things, and I want to see everything I can.” She had a look of heavy concentration on her face, and then her face lost some of the tension.
“You much to learn. I help. My English not so good yet. You help me?”
“Yes, I will help. I will remember to speak slowly. We will be fine.” I stretched forward a little and gave her a little kiss. To my relief, she didn’t pull back, but she didn’t exactly kiss me back.
We spent more time talking after we moved to the couch. About 8 o'clock pm, my eyes were closing a little. She could see this and said, “We talk more . . “She made a motion like jumping over something.
“Tomorrow. We will talk more tomorrow. You are doing very well with your English.”
“Tomorrow. I take more English classes when I know you come. I not want make bad for you.”
“I understand. I don’t expect you to be perfect now. It will take time. Don’t worry.”
She showed me how to pull out the bed that was inside the couch. I was impressed. Together we put on the sheets and the blanket, then I chose a pillow. I kept hearing a meow from different directions in the living room. Finally, I got a glimpse of an orange tabby cat.
Liliya saw me looking at the cat. “He is Rijik. The woman says sometimes this cat is bad. I not know.” she shrugged. With another hug and a kiss, we climbed under the covers, and I was out like a light.
A few hours later, I was sitting straight up in the bed, yelling. Rijik had attached himself to my left foot and was biting me. Liliya jumped up and slowly pulled the cat off my foot. “Sorry.” She said as she carried the cat to the bathroom and tossed him inside.
After she had cleaned the bite marks and the scratches, we tried to go back to sleep, but the cat was making noise like he was being killed. Before Liliya could make it to the bathroom door, there was a knock on the entry door.
A man and woman were very agitated and almost screaming, motioning at the bathroom door. Liliya said something very guttural to them and slammed the door on them. In a few seconds, the cat was sitting on the bed, very proud of himself, licking his paw and meowing every few seconds.
Needless to say, we didn’t sleep much from then on. I like to sleep with my feet out, and not more than 20 minutes later, Rijik had me again. We got up, made the bed, and made some coffee. Even though it was 5 am, Liliya said it was good, so we could catch the bus to Chelny. I would have liked to have seen more of Kazan, but the sooner we got away from the cat from hell, the better.
By 6:30 am, the lady came back and was so embarrassed that her cat had caused so much trouble and pain. She even gave Liliya 200 rubles back and gave me a quick hug and a sorry.
We grabbed our bags and headed for the taxi and then the bus station. The next part of my adventure was about to begin, and to tell you the truth, I was excited.
Chelny, here we come.