Foreign Correspondence: Postcards from the Past
Chapter 3
by
Mo
Disclaimer: The X-Men and Alpha Flight belong to Marvel. The movie belongs to Fox. Hotmail belongs to Microsoft. Belarus is an independent country and belongs to its citizens, mutant and otherwise. Bryn Mawr is a private women's college founded in 1885. It belongs to the women, mutant and otherwise, who have lived and learned there for the past 116 years. The Miami Herald is a real newspaper but AFAIK has never had an Adam Greenfield on staff. I do feel like Scott and Logan are a little bit mine since I've been borrowing them for so long.
"Jean-Paul, you know him?" Wendy whispered, her hand on my arm. I nodded, belatedly realizing I had spoken my thoughts on seeing Sasha aloud. We both looked at the television screen where Sasha was still smoothing his papers, still trying to speak. No sound was coming out, that ravaged face frozen in an expression of intense frustration. The voiceover of the reporter, belaboring the obvious, informed us that "Mr. Cherevko" seemed to be having some difficulties. It was painful to watch. Painful for everyone, I'm sure, but when I think of what he used to look like, how he used to move. Tabernak!
Greenfield took matters into his own hands. He strode angrily back to the podium, hollering to someone off-camera to turn off the microphone. Then his expression turned gentle and concerned. He said something to Sasha, putting an arm protectively around him, then guided him off-camera. The screen returned to the newsroom where the anchor told us that the press conference had been postponed.
Warren turned the sound down. "How do you know him, Jean-Paul?" Logan asked. Scott and Warren looked my way in surprise. I had spoken softly and their attention had been on the drama unfolding on the television screen. Only Wendy, sitting next to me, and Logan with his heightened senses, had heard me talking about Sasha.
"We were in Salt Lake City together," I said. Then, noticing a couple of blank expressions, "In the Olympics. He's a skier, too. Or was. Esti! I could barely recognize him. But it's him; it's Sasha. I haven't seen or heard from him in - I don't know - a couple of years. He called to offer his condolences when Joanne died, so that's two years ago. Last I heard he was a photo-journalist with Svoboda - it's a newspaper in Minsk. Greenfield might have meant it when he called him a colleague. Maybe they worked together previously."
"Did you know him well?" Scott asked. He had been standing throughout the broadcast, but sat down on the couch facing me now. Logan sat down next to him, resting a hand affectionately - or possessively? - on Scott's knee. Hmmm. I'd wondered when they showed up together, half-clothed.
"I would have said I knew him pretty well if you'd asked me before that broadcast. He stayed with me in Montreal for a while. In Cote St. Luc. Remember the house where we met with Heather and Mac when we were starting up the project?" Logan and Scott both nodded. "Well, that's where we were. Alpha Flight wasn't using the place at the time. I had some friends visiting; Mac said we could all stay there. Sasha was there for a few weeks. He was even talking about immigrating to Canada. Yeah, I thought then I knew him well. But now - well, I didn't even know he was a mutant!"
"Did he know about you?" Wendy asked.
I shook my head. "Not then, anyway. He did later. We talked about Alpha Flight that last time he called. But he didn't let on at all that he's a mutant, too."
I closed my eyes for a minute, just picturing the young, strong athlete Sasha had been six years ago. Maybe he'd even been like that six weeks ago. What a contrast with the frail, sickly old man we had just seen on the screen. Old? Sasha and Kolya were both barely five years older than me. I realized with a start that next week would be Kolya's thirty-fourth birthday. Sasha was only a few months older. The man on the screen had looked like he was twice that age.
"I'm sorry," I said. "I'm just still so shocked to see him like that." April, who had been playing with a wooden windup train on the floor, brought it over to me to wind up for her. But she didn't go back to the floor with it, just climbed into my lap and sat there with the train on top of her. Arthur moved to take April off of me, but she protested. "It's fine. I'm happy to have her here."
"Do you know any other Belarussians?" Wendy asked. Everyone else was obviously wondering the same thing.
I nodded. "I know - it's strange. We've been talking about Belarus for weeks now, ever since this crisis began. I never once mentioned knowing people there. There was a reason. I'm not saying it's a good one. In fact, it seems pretty stupid right at this moment."
"You don't have to tell us anything," Scott interjected. "You don't owe us any explanations." Then, after a pause, "But we are trying to find out as much as we can about what's going on there; what we can do to aid the mutants there. If you *do* feel comfortable talking about it, anything you can tell us about Belarus could be a help. I'd totally forgotten about the Olympics. Belarus did well that year, didn't they?"
"Yes. They had only been in two previous winter Olympics as an independent country and hadn't won any medals. Then 10 medals in 2002, including two gold. Sasha - Aleksander Cherevko - was one of the gold medal winners. He got it for the Super G, beating out all the favorites."
"Which event was your medal in?" Wendy asked.
"Downhill. I was shocked to get gold, didn't expect to medal at all. I was careful not to use my powers. I was really cautious through the whole process - I worried I'd get kicked off the team if it came out that I'm a mutant. Or that I'm gay. I didn't think Canada would want me representing the country. I planned on just keeping to myself, laying low. So the surprising thing - well, surprising to me - is that I fell in love at the Olympics. I went to Salt Lake City single and came home with a Belarussian lover."
It suddenly occurred to me that what I'd just said could be misconstrued. Judging by the expressions, it had been. "No, not Sasha! Another athlete. His name's Kolya. He and Sasha had been best friends since they were little boys. They'd been at school together, got into skiing together. I'd met them both at the World Championships the year before but didn't know them very well. Kolya didn't speak much English but he speaks very good French - he and Sasha always trained in Switzerland. So he suggested we hang out together and I could interpret.
"Kolya and I, well it just all happened so quickly. We were together all the time, whenever we could manage it. I got to know Sasha, too, just because he was Kolya's friend. For a while there we had plans for Kolya to emigrate. We wanted to be together; we thought it would be easier to be a gay couple in Canada than in Belarus. Sasha came to visit us and was thinking of trying to become a Landed Immigrant, too. That's the time we were in the house in Cote St. Luc."
"What happened?" This time Arthur voiced the question they were all itching to ask.
"I was going to tell Kolya. Really I was. I just didn't know when to do it, how to do it. I mean, when I met him I didn't want anyone to know I was a mutant. Like I said, I was pretty much closeted on both the gay and mutant fronts. Kolya understood hiding being gay. It seems most everybody in Belarus is closeted - there's no open gay life to speak of. But, I don't know, at first I worried that he might react badly if he knew I was a mutant - I didn't know what kind of knowledge or exposure he'd had. There's strong and deep anti-mutant feeling there - I think some of it's related to things that happened in the aftermath of Chernobyl. It was evident even back then, long before anybody heard of mutant cleansing. So, I was a little frightened to tell him. And then, after a while, well I felt like I couldn't tell him because I hadn't told him. Comprenez? Here we were planning a life together, and I hadn't told him this major thing about myself. So, how do you start?"
"It's always harder to tell something important when you've put it off," Scott concurred. "What did you do?"
"I just decided I had to do *something*. I mean, I couldn't go on indefinitely like this - being vague about my job, avoiding introducing Kolya to obvious mutants. 'Obvious mutants' is a category including my best friend and my twin sister - it wasn't a tenable position. So, I brought the topic up obliquely. I asked him what he thought of the 'mutant phenomenon' like it was some sort of academic question." I took a deep breath, remembering that day. "He said he'd kill every one of us if he could. 'The only good mutant is a dead mutant.' I felt like he'd kill me with his bare hands right then if he'd known."
Nobody said anything. I put April down, saying, "Go to Daddy now, ma petite" and walked out of the room.
***
I was sitting on my bed, looking out the window, when I heard a knock on the door. "Not now!" I called out, but April pushed the door open and came in anyway, followed by Wendy, apologizing for her daughter and saying she'd take her out. "No, don't. Stay," I said. "Maybe company's not such a bad idea."
April toddled over and handed me something - a large white feather. "Une plume!" she said as she gave it to me.
"Not again?" I said, laughing.
"Warren said she could have one. I think she thought it would cheer you up." Then, looking at me closely, "Are you okay? I'm worried about you. We all are."
"I'm okay. Don't worry - I'm just a little shaken." I smiled to reassure her.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not right now."
"Okay. We can talk about something else."
"Bien. So what's the story with Logan and Scott? Are they back together?"
"I was going to ask *you* that," Wendy said, eagerly. "You know them better. It sure looked like it to me."
"Yeah, the heat's better since you and Arthur revamped it, but still - that wasn't a lot of clothes for winter in Saskatchewan. Plus, I've never seen Scott with his hair mussed except in training or in combat."
"I doubt there was any combat going on, but maybe they were training together?"
"Training? I don't think so. Well, we'll know soon enough. Ask Warren if you're really curious. He has the room next to Logan's. I was next door to them in Cote St. Luc. They're not exactly quiet." She smiled at that. "I hope they're back together, for both their sakes. I think they're pretty miserable apart."
"They're such an odd couple, though, don't you think? Logan's so...I don't know, prickly, I guess. And Scott's so polite and, well, gentle. He teaches English, for God's sake. I just can't see Logan with someone like that."
"There's a lot more to Scott than that, Wendy. You're just seeing one side. I've been in battle with him. He's not always gentle - far from it. He can be truly ferocious, yet at the same time, still so in control. Totally aware of where everyone is, who's wounded, who needs backup. There have been a few times where I wouldn't have gotten out alive if not for Cyclops.
"He's a really complex guy. In so many ways. I happen to think I have pretty good gaydar, but I never spotted him. I would have said he and Jean were the perfect couple. Scott was so deep in the closet he was gathering mothballs. And he's had a rough time coming out. He left it too long and it got harder. Sort of like me with Kolya," I added ruefully. "I'm sure it was tough for him. And maybe this thing with Logan was the catalyst he needed to come out? I can't pretend I understand the pressures. I guess it's a little like being a mutant, no? Since being gay isn't a visible difference for most. Well, good for Scott that he finally managed to come out, hard as it was. Still, the two of them seem so different to me. Don't get me wrong. I really do like Logan. I like fighting with him," she added with a smile. "But I also do truly respect him. This project would never have gotten off the ground without him. And for all his gruff manner and rough appearance I think he really does care about making this into a safe place for mutants. I think he really cares about us. But Logan and Scott? They're just totally different types."
"I don't know. They are really different, but they've been through a lot together. I think they have more in common than is obvious at first. And, anyway, sometimes opposites do attract." I waited a minute, trying to decide whether or not to talk about Kolya. "Maybe that was part of it for me with Kolya. I was young and scared - hiding two things about myself was wearing on me. And I'd had a pretty chaotic life up until that point. Kolya seemed so confident, so comfortable in his own skin, so settled. Oh, he was closeted but it somehow wasn't *part* of him. Where he came from it was just the way you got by."
"So, we're going to talk about Kolya and Belarus after all?" I smiled and nodded. "So what happened downstairs? Why did you leave the room, Jean-Paul? What were you feeling?"
"I don't know - confused, I guess. A little ashamed of how I behaved back then, making a fool of myself over someone who would have hated me if he'd known what I am. Do you know Voltaire? 'Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.' Well, in my imagination Kolya really loved me, but in real life he didn't even know me. So, I feel like an imbecile for loving him. Plus I was embarrassed that I didn't tell any of you about this before with all the discussions we've had of the mutant crisis in Belarus. And I was just so shaken by seeing Sasha like that." I paused, not sure whether to tell her what was really worrying me. Decided to go for it. "And, Wendy, here's the worst part. How did Sasha get found out? He has been successfully passing as normal forever. He fooled *me*, remember? He must have been fooling Kolya all their lives. But someone found out and he got sent to that camp. What if the someone was Kolya? What if Sasha told him, thinking he could trust his oldest and best friend?"
"God, Jean-Paul. That would be the worst. Do you think it's possible?" I nodded. "I just can't believe anyone would do that. And there must have been more to Kolya, no? 'On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur.' I can't see you falling in love with someone who was so hateful."
"Well, he was awfully good in bed."
She laughed a little. "That only goes so far. I'm not knocking sex, believe me, but I do think other things are important, too. For example - 'doesn't want to kill me and everyone like me' is a really good trait in a lover."
"I'll remember that if I ever decide to place that personal ad."
She laughed again. "Jean-Paul? Kolya's short for Nikolai, right?"
"You learned something in that Russian dorm at Bryn Mawr, hein? What did you call it? Siberia?"
"Yeah, Siberia. And I was the worst Russian student. I only took one year of Russian and only to give me an excuse to live in Russian House, where all the mutants were. If not for Laura I never would have gotten through that year. But, yes, at least I understand about Russian names and diminutives. What's his family name?"
"Ivankov. Why?"
"N.I. Right? That's how Greenfield referred to his Belarussian confederate. Maybe Kolya didn't turn Sasha in, Jean-Paul. Maybe he got him out."
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