This story is fictional, though some events and places may be real. The characters and events surrounding them are completely fictional. This story does not, in any way, denote the sexuality or opinions of any non-fictional persons or places. This story has no bearing on the opinions of said places or known people or events. If homosexual content offends you, you might not want to read this story.
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Worlds Apart
Chapter 1
Grozny had been under siege by the Russian army for a year now. Everything was in shortage. Food, water, and medicines was un heard of. The only things there was plenty of was shelling and death. It didn't matter if you were Christian or Muslim. They would shoot you. Most of the time for sport.
Misha huddled in the bombed out building. He kept looking out into the street where his mother laid from where he had been hiding for two hours in the cold. He had no more tears. At five years old he had a good understanding of what had happened. He just didn't know why it was happening. He couldn't understand why the men killed his momma. Why did they kill his daddy for getting them some bread to eat? He was scared. He wished Dmitri was here.
He had watched as the men came down the street. He watched as they looked at his momma. One bent down and unwrapped the blanket his baby sister was in. He heard her crying. Misha wanted to run to and take her but the man took his rifle and shot her. "To dvenadtsat' dlya menya" n (that's twelve for me) said the one with the gun
"Eto byl prosto rebenok, vy ne dolzhny ubit' yeye Boris." said the other one sadly. (It was just a baby you didn't have to kill her Boris.)
"Odin men `she Teper' davayte posmotrim na begu, kotoryy bezhal." (one less now let's go find the one that ran.)
"The baby's still alive. No don't." said the other one as he bent down and picked up his baby sister. "You hit her in her leg."
"Leave her Sasha. She is maimed for life anyway. She is no longer human. We are going to look for the one that ran away." Boris growled.
"You go. I am here to kill rebels not children. I am going to take this little one to the medical."
"You are soft Sasha." Boris yelled to Sasha as he started to hurriedly make his way back down the street.
"No not soft Boris. I just see who is an enemy differently." Sasha said over his shoulder as he started jogging down the street with a crying baby.
Misha watched the man Boris start coming towards the build he had hidden in. He looked around and remembered what Dmitri had told him if the Bad Russian army came to find something big or sharp to hit or stab with. He saw a metal bar that was laying on the ground. He had seen them sticking out of the walls on the broken up building.
Misha climbed up into a hole in the wall. He stayed quiet. He watched from his hole the bad man come near the place he was hiding. "Come out little one I won't hurt you." He yelled. Misha did not believe him for a single second. "I won't leave until you come out." That Misha did believe. He waiting quietly.
The man walked around the room while trying to convince Misha to come out of hiding. He was standing with his back to Misha hiding in the hole that was about three feet from the ground He backed up towards the hole swinging his rifle around. Misha lunged the piece of sharp metal into the man's back.
He heard the man gasp and turn with the metal bar sticking out of him. His automatic rifle started shooting as the man stumbled backwards over some rubble and fell backwards. The gun fire went up into the building. The metal bar hitting first went right through him. He watched as the man's eyes became like mommy's eyes. They no longer saw.
Misha crawled out from his hiding place. He ran down the street until he found a place to hide in a factory. Misha wrapped the old coat around him and closed his eyes and went to sleep. He dreamed about his father. He was a big man who always made time for his two sons. Misha remembered riding on his father's shoulders before the tanks came. When they came through everything changed. When they bombed his house they moved into their basement.
Misha's father went out one night to find food only to return with the food and to die several hours later from the bullet holes left from the Russian soldiers. They buried him in the back yard with only a cross and his name carved into it. Dmitry, Vadim's sixteen-year-old brother then started to go looking for food. Then three days ago he never came back. Vadim's mother decided to take him and his baby sister to her parents' home in Ukraine.
With no car they had to walk. Momma carried six month old Anya in her arms, buddle up in a blanket. They were walking down the wide rumble filled street. When the shots rang out. Vadim watched as his mother fell letting go of his hand. "Vypolnit' Misha." (run Misha), she cried out as bullets hit her spinning her around. Vadim stared at his mother's sightless eyes. He ran.
Over the next few weeks Misha scavenged around for food. Many times digging into trash cans to pull out discarded food from the soldiers at nights. During the day he had hidden and slept in different places. It was nothing a six-year-old should have to do not alone know to do. The past three days though he had found nothing. The soldiers started burning their trash in pig piles every night.
Misha was exhausted tired and hungry when he crawled into the trunk of a burn out car after searching for hours for food only to find nothing. He didn't care if he never woke up again. He dreamed of kicking the ball back and forth with Dmitry and his father. Of wrestling with his brother before his called out to tell them to go to sleep.
The next morning, he peeked to see if any of the soldiers were there. Satisfied there was none he crawled out. He walked carefully down what was left of the streets. He was tired and weak. He had walked for several hours roaming the streets. He had seen many people and some other children but none seemed to see him, not alone offer any help. He didn't know where he was or where he was going. He felt sick and he was dizzy. Misha crawled into a corner of a building that had a hole in it. He laid down. It had been three days since Misha had eaten.
When Misha felt a wet rag on his face. He woke up, he was scared. He looked up and saw a woman with head scarf and brown hair peeking out from under it smiling down at him. He started to cry. She pulled him into her arms and held him. "It's alright my sweet child your safe." She said soothing and stroking him for a minute of two. Misha saw the big boy and the girl watching them.
"Momma we have to go before they come." Said a girl behind her.
"Come Child." Misha stood up and his head spun. His legs were week. he took a step and fell.
He was picked up by strong hands. He opened his eyes and saw a boy who was about his brothers age holding him "Haven't eaten in a while have you." Misha shook his head no. The boy carried him as they made their way through alleys, in the near distance Misha could hear gunshots and tanks firing. Misha was scared. "It ok little brother, Momma will take care of us." He smiled. Misha laid his head on the big boy's shoulder and closed his eyes. He felt safe.
Khadizhat Gatayeva or Momma as the thirty odd children called her had filled a tub full of water. She had tried to get the poor little boy to strip down but he refused. "Yuri, see if you can get the little one in the tub and scrub him good."
"We can do that can't we little man?" he said to Misha.
Misha allowed Yuri to take off his clothes. He took of his next. Misha looked at Yuri's naked body. He had a big thing surrounded by dark brown hair. His brother had hair there and so did his father but they didn't have a big thing like that.
Yuri picked him up and grabbed a bar of soap and stepped into the tub of warm water. He started scrubbing Misha's black hair. "You need this mop cut little brother." Misha didn't say a word. He had yet talked. He was still remembering his mother. He was still remembering that he had to stay quiet in order to stay safe.
Yuri scrubbed him down. He looked at the water. "I don't know if I'll get clean in this water but I am going to try." He said looking at the dirty water.
Once they were done Yuri gave him a pair of pants and a shirt to wear. They were a little big but they were clean. After eating a little bit of soup Momma had given him Yuri took him to a room Yuri lad down on an old mattress by the door. He motioned for Misha to lay down. He laid down beside Yuri he cradled him. Misha had another bad dream and woke up screaming. Yuri cradled him and soon he was sleeping again cradled into Yuri's arms.
Over the next few days they started calling Misha Vadim, said like Va deem which means; to know or masculine Misha had refused to give his name. He was told by momma never to give his name to strangers. Misha who is now Vadim didn't talk much to anyone. He would talk to Yuri in simple yes or no answers but still didn't talk. After a few weeks Misha started to talk to Yuri. He eventually talked to everyone who didn't scare him. Which meant very few people. He didn't say much.
By the age of eight he was shifted to another orphanage after the war ended. Yuri had moved on at that time to start his life. Vadim clung to him. Begging him to take him with him. Yuri picked up a crying Vadim and held him. "No more tears little brother. I will find you some day but I can't take you with me. Momma taking you to a better place to live."
"No Yuri. I want to be with you. I won't be any trouble for you." Vadim said sniffling. He stopped crying when Yuri told him to. He always did what Yuri told him to do.
"I know little brother but I couldn't take care of you. I will have a hard enough time taking care of myself. I promise you my little brother I will find you someday." He said. Vadim looked up into Yuri's face. He saw the tears there. Vadim believed him. He hugged Yuri and kissed him on the lips.
"I love you Yuri." He said as Yuri put him down.
"I love you too little brother. I will find you." He said and then walked away with a handmade back pack slung over a shoulder with what little belonging he had.
At the new orphanage Vadim learned to survive and that meant stealing and running the streets. He went to school and learned also. The one thing he learned was to speak English. He had heard the stories of how the Americans where are rich and there were no food shortages. When the war broke out again in 1999 he was nine, he Ran away from the orphanage. He knew the cruelty of the army men. He had learned later that the very orphanage he fled from was Bombed by the Russian army.
When he made it to Moscow he was caught stealing and ended up in an orphanage again. He was ten now and small for his age with dark hair and green eyes. He was considered pretty and at times the victim of the older boy's sexual attentions. He didn't fight it. He just waited until they were done. He learned if he squeezed his butt when they put it in there they would be done faster. He started to learn to fight back and eventually they stopped.
The only thing that kept him sane the whole time was sketching. He'd draw on anything he could find. Brown wrapping paper, a cardboard box or anything else I could find. He liked drawing people the most. His favorite was the one a did of Yuri, his momma, Daddy, Dmitry and his baby sister. It was really good for a ten-year-old. He thought of Yuri as his family now.
It all changed though when the American came to visit from the embassy with American families to adopt a child. Vadim wasn't really one that they would want because he was sullen, argumentive and at times hostile. Though still small for his age he could hold his own against the bigger boys. Many of which ended up with black eyes and in tears. Soon they left him alone or tried to be his friend. That Vadim didn't want. Friends left him.
Since he could speak English they used him to translate for the orphanage. After several visits he had decided to try and get an American family to adopt him and he was soon rewarded. Nathan and Carla Lockwood met a the sullen and at times hostile young boy. They read the file on him. They read about the fights. Instead of a mean spirited boy they saw a boy that needed love and stability. He needed a chance to be happy. They adopted him.
Vadim was nervous about the people who adopted him. They seemed like nice people. He was tall with blonde hair and green eyes. She was smaller and had dark brown hair and brown eyes that sparkled. He heard them call her doctor. He learned that people pretended to be nice when they wanted something. He figured if they were not nice when he gat to America he would just run away. Either way he was getting out of the hateful Russian life he had to live. This is where the story of Vadim really begins.
Note to my readers:
Though this is a fictional account of the Chechnya war. Many of the atrocities that are mentioned did happen though this is a fictional account of those circumstances. The orphanage was bombed in 1999 by the Russian army. Khadizhat Gatayeva is a real person to learn more about her read Angel of Grozny.
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If this story gets your interest read Hazard in the high school or rural sections.
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