Travel Reference
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T
HE NEXT DAY,
shortly after 8:00 a.m., Sergei and I are walking out of the hotel when his cell
phone rings.
“Marina,” he announces, seeing the number.
“Zdravstvuyte, Marina.” After offering this greeting, Sergei doesn't contribute much
more to the conversation, just listening to mouthfuls and offering brief responses. All I hear
on our end is “Da . . . , Da . . . , Da, da . . . , okay.”
Marina and her driver are already waiting for us at the entrance to the
sanatoriy
. We find
her, not expecting such a cramped seating arrangement. It turns out that Marina is going to
Izhevsk with us. And we are taking Tatiana, the color-therapy psychologist. The car is cozy.
Sergei and I squeeze into the backseat with Tatiana. Sergei is in the middle, I am to his right,
with my knees up against the back of Marina's seat.
First stop, an office in Uva that runs the hotel where we stayed. We have to return our
keys and check out. The process is not so simple.
Inside, the desk clerk tells Sergei that she received a call from the local immigration au-
thorities asking about me, and requesting that we call him back. Sergei and I are suddenly
nervous. We return to the car, and Sergei calls the number, with Marina listening.
I hear him tell the person that we were interviewing the Buranovo Babushkas.
“Babushkas—hoorah!” Marina says, hearing this. I'm glad she is optimistic, as I am con-
templating my imminent arrest.
Sergei speaks for a few more minutes, then hangs up. The man on the phone asked how
long I was staying in the region, and when we were leaving. “I told him we were leaving
from Izhevsk tonight,” Sergei says.
“What was his name, Sergei?” says Marina.
“Dennis Alexandrovich.”
Marina quickly calls her friend, who works in the region's immigration department.
“She's never heard of him. Maybe he called from a different department.”
I'm convinced it is the FSB, or some related agency, just following our movements. My
only worry is we have not been too careful in registering me each time we stop. It is an an-
noying and time-consuming process. But foreigners are supposed to register with the local
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