This is Lena. it's the only photo I could find of her, unless if I go searching for ages. This is years later an that's my brother on the right. They're seeing us off on our road trip to move to Tynda, further east. Lena downstairs was a tender-hearted woman. We’d often call her Тётя Лена- Aunty Lena because we were so close. We stay for long hours at her house, and she’d visits ours. We were almost in the same home because we didn’t have to change into our “outside shoes” when we went downstairs.

In Russian culture, there are two different types of shoes. Some for outdoors, which you don’t wear inside otherwise you’ll get slush on the floor. I carried a bag with me to school with indoor shoes. I left my outdoors shoes in the bag during the day. I’ve already told you this, haven’t’ I?

We’d exchange visits, drink tea, chat. Mum left me at their home so Lena could babysit me.

I remember this one time when Lena was trying to find something for me to watch on TV after we’d played for a while and I was getting kind of sleepy. She kept suggesting DVD’s, but I was pretty convinced that I shouldn’t watch them. I probably had something to base that off with some, but other ones I wasn’t sure. I was one of those “better safe than sorry” kids. To this day, I’ll drop a book if I find it fishy and something I wouldn’t want to read. Lena was getting frustrated with how picky I was, a little annoyed because she probably wanted a moment’s rest, one that I wouldn’t give. I eventually picked up her implied frustration, and let her turn on a show which I wasn’t confident in, but was actually fine. I didn’t pay much attention. I fell asleep. I tend to do that if I’m looking for a form of escape and if it’s not at school. Zoning out works better at school.

Mum took a while to come back. When she did, I was pretty much asleep- it’s hard to sleep with the noise of a TV. I think she eventually turned it off. I stirred a little when Mum came, and I heard Lena mentioning my exhausting tastes. Mum smiled and took me home.

I was relieved because I was still unsure whether the show, I was watching was fine. It was, but I’ve found that if you don’t devote attention to something it doesn’t really affect you. Actually, it can’t affect you unless you let it.





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