Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
points. Guards waving their excellently bulky Geiger counters over the car to test it for con-
tamination. And detectors like phone booths, for us to hug, to test ourselves. And the road
back to Kiev, through roadside villages, past pairs of men swinging scythes in the fields,
and onto the highway, already swelling with the first weekend traffic streaming out of the
city.
I wasn't done with the Exclusion Zone. In the back of my mind, a scheme was beginning
to form. A scheme for a picnic near Strakholissya, the town I'd seen on the map. A scheme
that would require Olena to help me borrow a rowboat. Maybe on Sunday?
But for the moment, the world was still half-spinning, and I couldn't look. I rolled the
window down and felt relief stream in with the wind. Nikolai hugged the edge of the road
as we picked up speed, and I leaned my head against the frame of the car and listened to the
rising drone of the engine, eyes closed, mouth hanging open, gulping in the sweet, sunny
air of the Exclusion Zone.
