Beef Stroganoff No. 038

I awoke the next morning in the back of my Volga. It was nice and comfortable, a definite upgrade from the rocky cave that had been my little crack.

I opened the door and got out and stretched out, my back was stiff and dirt fell off as my skin stretched and I began to move about.

Opening the garage, I looked out and saw Yaromir sleeping against the wall next to it. Going back to the middle I checked the glove compartment and center console to see if I had any rubles. After digging through I found 20 rubles and remembered that it cost 16 for two meals of beef stroganoff. I left and ran around looking for the place where I could get the food and I was attracting a lot of attention. As I began to leave the street someone came out and grabbed my arm.

I could hear a kid say, "Mister? Are you looking for something?"

I turned around and could see a little boy, I squatted down and smiled at him, "Yes, I'm looking for where I could by some food for me and my friend, do you know where I could get some?"

The kids face lit up, "Oh, you mean Mrs. Pavlova! I can take you too her! She is this way!" and then the kid began to walk towards a house on the north side of the street.

It was an interesting house and it seemed to be in incredible shape for the environment everyone was in.

As I walked past the door I could see a large room with about 5 tables with 12 guests there and a small bar to the right that seemed to be occupied by about 4 guests who were looking in my direction. What seemed to be an entryway to the kitchen was to the left. As the door shut behind me I could hear the little boy as he ran away, "Here you go mister! Thank you!"

I was confused as I hadn't done the boy any favors. I turned back and looked around and everyone was looking. Surprisingly there was a record player playing Videnie in the background, it was amazing hearing music when energy was expensive.

My observation was halted when I heard the doors to the kitchen swing open,

"Ah who walked innnn, oh it's you! The one who sneaked outside! What are you looking for!"

"Uhmm I was looking to get breakfast for Yaromir, it seems he slept in front of the garage and I wanted to make sure he got some food, and uhh how much will it be."

Mrs. Pavlova chuckled "You've been out there for three days and you are worrying about him! Hah he was sweating about you left and right! Let me cook something up for you as well! It will be 10 rubles for 2 beef stroganoff or 4 salmon Rillettes, I can't give them for free, but I can give you a large discount!"

My face became red with embarrassment, thank god my face was still caked in mud.

"Uhm the beef stroganoff would be fine, thank you very much." I said as I handed here 10 of my rubles.

She smiled and went back to the kitchen, and then I could see the stares intensify. The people were examining me and I had no idea what to do.

After an awkward few seconds one man got up from a table and walked over to me.

I looked at him and he seemed well dressed. As he walked over I tried to stand up fully and look back.

The man went and stopped a few feet away and looked me up and down.

Then he let out a laugh, "HAH, so you are the bastard that took down that pesky creature! It must have been a pain, my name is Desya Alexeev, what is yours?"

I was startled by his friendly nature "Uhm it's just Bratan, and I guess it was hard, I got lucky." A simple response was all I could muster.

He turned and motioned for me to sit down, "HAh, don't be humble man, come sit, you are the talk of the town, everyone could hear a few faint gunshots and new you were close. How many times did you have to hit the beast before it fell? Huh? You are the talk of the town and everyone is trying to get some details! So come! Sit!"

As I made my way over to his table in the middle of the room, the men from the bar left and grabbed a few empty chairs and sat down. Everyone was moving, inching their tables closer, one man went and turned off the music so that they could hear my story.

As I sat down I looked around and responded to Desya's questions, "Well I would say the second day I hit the creature about 8 times, then the fifth day I would say another 8 or 9. I then grabbed a Molotov cocktail and threw it on the creature!"

Everyone was leaning in as I recounted the specifics of the fight, as I got back to the part where I hit the creature with the cocktail a man raised his hand, "If it was raining, why did you use fire, couldn't you have tried to tie it up?"

A few men nodded in the crowd and whispered about it. They were interested in my choice of weaponry.

"Well, Yaromir said that it could only be killed by burning it, and I didn't have a flamethrower, so I thought 'this will do' and went for it!"

The men all laughed at that remark and let me continue to tell them about getting the creature back to the city. About the feeling off despair as I made it to the gates and the silence shook fear deeper into my core than when I was fighting the beast. I then got to the part where they opened the gate and finished my tale, "And after that gentlemen, you know what happened!"

The men laughed and cheered at what I had just said, everyone was in a joyous mood. I then turned to Desya and asked him an important question, "So where it the body?"