She turned the ignition key and the engine woke up at once.

She climbed out of the car.

She was indeed alone at the end of the Nether flight street. Scorching sun shined right down at her head. There was nobody around the car. There was nobody under the car.

She collapsed on hot cracked pavement. Her legs no longer carried her. Her fingers refused her commands. The music that she detested was blaring loudly. She no longer had any strength to think or worry. The only thing she still could do was to stay in the shadow of the car, to avoid the sun hitting her straight in the head. Heat stroke was the last thing she needed right now and the closest thing about to happen.

At least half an hour passed while she sat in the shadow of the truck under an opened front door while the music played at a loud volume and the diesel engine idled.

With some effort, she got back on her feet. She could feel her legs carry her just enough to climb into the car and turn down the volume. Only after that did she think to check that the camera was all right and the rest of the necessary equipment also in place and intact.

Kadri shut the driver side door, crawled across the bench seat and then also shut the passenger side door. She turned the vehicle around and then drove back down the street, finally parking it right behind Mariann’s red convertible in front of the bar. Further away on the opposite side of the street still stood the black factory limo, as crooked as Kadri had parked it. It was pure relief to see that.

She got out of the car and then as a next source of relief noticed that Leopold’s bar again had a door. With some force, she pushed opened the door and then the inner door as well. She stepped into a dark and refreshingly cool bar. Leopold raised his eyes towards the person entering to complain about letting in outside light and heat, but noticing who it was, he gave up.

Mariann was back at the bar counter. Or was she still there?

“It seems you’ve had quite an adventure?” Mariann asked, looking at the girl. She smiled as if knowing exactly what Kadri had just experienced.

Kadri did not reply to her.

“Cool water, please.” She said. “And a whiskey.”

Without saying a thing, Leopold placed in front of her a crystal whiskey glass, a one liter bottle of golden nectar and a pale white porcelain pitcher.

Kadri first emptied the porcelain pitcher into her mouth and then filled the whiskey glass half way, emptying that as well.

“I don’t know if you noticed, but next to the cottage, there is a sauna as well.” Mariann said. “The water should be hot by now.”

Without saying a word, Kadri placed the camera and two black cans of film in front of Mariann.

“The third’s in the camera.”

She grabbed the whiskey bottle and ignoring Leopold’s protests, stepped out of the bar.

“Don’t worry.” Mariann said. “She’ll return it. Afterwards.”

“And if she doesn’t?” Leopold asked, displeased.

“Then you have a reason to ask what she did today. And she has a reason to talk. That’s what you really want, isn’t it?”

“In that bottle is not something you can distill in the village.” Leopold grumbled. “Money would be better.”

“Are you sure?” Mariann asked, now sharply eyeing the barkeep. “Are you really sure you’d rather have the money?”

*

Kadri, having left the bar, headed straight across the street towards the tall yellow fence. She easily found the foot gate into the yard of the cottage that Mariann used. Before, when she had left it driving the car, she had not really noticed it but on the side of the garage there was indeed low flat-roofed building of white brick and two chimneys on top of it. Out one of them faint white smoke was rising.

Inside it was a simple sauna where the stove also heated water in a big copper pot. Before the hot room, there was a washroom with a crudely poured concrete floor and before that a long yet somewhat narrow changing room with a small stove.

She placed the whiskey bottle on a small table by the wall. Despite how it looked, she had not brought the bottle to drink it while in the sauna. Well, maybe a little. She raised the bottle for a sip. The real reason was because she was almost sure that running through the field and through the overgrown forest ground in soft tennis shoes had cut something or blistered something on her feet. Whiskey was better for cleaning than water and worse than even higher content alcohol or iodine or brilliant green.

She only needed enough of the sauna to wash herself and any wounds. Dry her hair and wash and dry her underwear. And then find some of Mariann’s clothes that fit her. Having hot water for that was merely a pleasant bonus.

That last one was a much simpler assignment than she had originally thought. A bit less than an hour later she again pushed open the doors to the bar where it was so dark that her eyes needed a few minutes to get adjusted.

“What did I say?” asked Mariann as soon as Kadri stepped into the bar once again.

“Well, fine.” Leopold grumbled, seeing that the bottle of whiskey was still more than half-full. “But this will remain only for the use of you two.” He gave a deep sigh.

Kadri placed a bottle with the golden faintly smoke-flavored liquid on the counter. Mariann grabbed it right away to fill two two crystal glasses.

“So you found something from my wardrobe?”

Kadri said nothing, only lifted her now long green skirt to show black leather boots laced up to the knee. She pushed some of her black hair over her shoulders and got up on the bar stool by the counter.

“Were you mistaken or lying?” Kadri asked. “You said that taking part in the ritual would bind us to the ritual site and would not let us slip away.”

“I did say that.” Mariann nodded. “You went there, didn’t you? And something happened.”

“Something.” Kadri stressed and drank her whiskey.

“Okay, but you have to be precise in your words. Did you slip away or did something slip towards you? Usually we could argue about how much you slipped away and how much whatever you experienced slipped towards you. But not in this case.”

Mariann looked at Kadri rolling a drop of whiskey in her glass.

“So. Did you slip away or did something slip to you?”

“On the air field...”

“We did not perform the ritual on the air field.” Mariann replied. “The air field does not fall into my purview this time.”

Kadri had no mood to ask what she meant by “this time.” Repeating everything that had taken place in her mind’s eye, she could not find any perspective for arguing against Mariann. She had not slipped away, not like she had on the air field. All she had seen could have been connected to that white ball of fog. The deafening silence, inexplicable fear, the red legs. Kadri remembered the film cans she had given to Mariann. It was quite possible that the images revealed something that she herself was unable to see. At this very moment she did not even want to think of what the film negatives could depict.

“You mentioned the air field…?”

“Yes.” Kadri replied and took a small sip of whiskey. “The world fabrics…, the Nameless Towns that can be placed on top of one another… one with the tower, the other without.” She said, more to herself than to Mariann.

“Quite a shock, isn’t it?” Mariann asked. “When all the pipe stories, bar and radio tales suddenly turn from bullshit into reality?”

“Did you know this would happen? Am I following in your footsteps right now?”

“In some sense you do.” The girl in black replied. “But definitely not down the same trails.”

Kadri pushed herself off the bar stool and headed toward the wall to the right of the bar counter. On the wall there were several photos from the past glory days of the bar but also some artistic hand-drawn maps of the Nameless Town and the surrounding area. She knocked a whiskey glass against one of the drawings in a crude wooden frame.

“These maps do not depict this Nameless Town, but the other one.” She said, drinking her whiskey.

“Are you finally understanding why girls in black don’t pay?” Mariann asked. “Because of remarks like that. Because of the experience that allows making such remarks. Because of the activities that allows gathering such experiences.”

Kadri gave Mariann a venomous glace and walked back to the counter.

“I have something for you.” Mariann said. “If put your drink down first.”

Kadri placed the empty glass back on the counter and then followed Mariann who was holding open the doors outside, waiting for her. They stepped out onto the street and Kadri raised her hand to shield her eyes from the sun.

Mariann stepped to her red car and opened the trunk, revealing three red steel fuel canisters.

“What’s that?” Kadri asked.

“Gasoline. A little over fifty liters. For the three full film rolls.”

“Did you foresee this happening?”

Kadri no longer had any idea how many times in different forms she had asked Mariann that question.

“I kept that possibility in mind.” Mariann replied. “If you had done your job in a manner of driving to a location, taking a single image and then driving away, well, that would have been fine too. But I would have kept the gasoline. But since you get at least one roll out of each location, it is obvious that you’re not just snapping pictures but instead doing your job with with some fullness to it.”

With surprising ease, Mariann lifted the canisters out of the trunk.

“Fifty liters of gasoline should be enough to get your black limo… home! Just barely.” Mariann smiled.

She pushed the trunk lid down until the soft-close motor caught it and closed it. Kadri tried one of the canisters. It was most certainly full and not nearly as light as the impression Mariann had given her.

“I have some other thoughts for you as well.” Mariann continued, easily lifting two canisters off the ground. “First, you should find a third notebook and write down the situations and circumstances under which you have taken the images. Not just the camera settings but also the weather the time, how and where you went and other stuff.”

“What’s the other idea?” Kadri asked.

“One of your current goals is to take photos for the client’s picture book. Maybe you want to make your own picture book?”

“My own picture book?”

“As you have already managed to see, the people in this place are not too interested in the world around them. They live in it and for them it a gray and dull day-to-day. Just like during the Soviet era. But back then when only few people managed to travel abroad and even traveling within the country took a lot of time, all sorts of day journals and travel journals were quite popular. As were picture books full of photos and drawings. One might think they only depicted faraway places, but no. There were also such books of closer places, hidden away in the countryside, of places one could walk or even drive to, made during a season, weather or an era that has already become far too distant.”

“You think there would be a point?”

“There most certainly would be. People in this place interact and make sense of the world through things exactly like that. The accent of subjective vision and experience brings the world closer than just dry documentary writing and photography. And it would also allow you a real opportunity to finance your activity.”

“Is that the source of your freedom?” Kadri asked.

“No. I moved too fast. I wasn’t interested in documenting things. I was interested in learning. By the time opportunities like that started reaching me, I had already moved onward to… let’s just say to more interesting solutions.”

With both hands, Kadri barely managed to lift a single canister off the ground and step by step head for the black factory limo. At the same time, Mariann was seemingly carrying two empty canisters. It took her maybe a dozen seconds to make it to the limo while for Kadri with single canister it took far longer than a minute and it ended with hip pain on the side on which she was carrying the canister.

“I have one other thought.” Mariann continued when Kadri finally made it to the car. “Of the two thoughts I gave you springs a third one. You could write down not only details on the photos you take but also your own experiences. Those too could be something interesting that the locals would enjoy reading.”

“I don’t feel like I could write any good literature.” Kadri replied.

“You don’t have to.” Mariann said. “Because it would not be literature. It would be a diary. I myself cannot do that. Not in the place I currently am. There are so many things that can be conceived in the mind but cannot be said out at once and in their absolute completeness. It is easier for me to talk about what I am thinking of at any given time. Which seems to be true only at the time I am saying it out loud.”

“I might be able to keep a diary...” Kadri said, leaning on the rear door of the limo.

What she was actually thinking though was a lot stronger a conviction. The ritual site on the road and what transpired at the air field. At the moment all she had experienced were just a knotted mess in her mind. While she did not write it down, it remained as a knotted mess. Until she forgot it all. And until she had written it down, it could not be anything linear and clearly communicable, only a knotted mess. Which meant that she needed more notebooks.

“Just know that should you embark down that trail, do it on a typewriter or a computer. In this way you can be more sure that whatever you write down won’t disappear so completely that you yourself won’t remember writing anything down at all.”

Kadri finally remembered why they were here with the canisters. She produced the keys to the limo from her satchel and handed them to Mariann.

“Things like that happen?”

“I think they happen far more often than people notice.” Mariann replied. “If one is to believe the most recent stories from the bar.”

“When I went to the radio station, Allan Helde gave me a tape with some electronic dance music...” Kadri continued.

“Oh yeah. I asked him to compile a tape. It would seem I forgot. Allan had a series of radio shows on which the various village hags came to his studio to talk about interesting and weird stories about the history of the Nameless Town and the area that surrounds it. Allan Helde often gives the guests on his show the option to choose their own music. Can you imagine Allan’s surprise when the village hags named the tracks I later asked him to put onto the tape and Allan, absolutely certain that nothing like that exists in his music library, nevertheless found all the music on vinyl? From there on I got interested in it. In a way it is music that should not exist.” Mariann said.

“I listened to that tape.” Kadri said.

Mariann opened the trunk of the limo and with an experienced move found the hidden fueling nozzle that attaches to the mouth on the canister. She shut the trunk lid and flipped the license plate down exposing the fueling filler cap.

“Wasn’t your taste, was it?” Mariann asked.

“No it was not. But there is something in it. It reminds me of something.”

“Believe it or not, the village hags on the radio show said something similar. That it allows them to remember.”

“There is something else there. I think it anchors the human mind in some way. It disallows it from slipping away.” Kadri took a long pause after finally saying out what had been on her mind. As ridiculous as it sounded to her.

“It is interesting to hear you have had such an experience.”

“Some time ago you spoke of bands whose music is possessed by a spirit guiding the writing of the music. Old people on the radio speaking of strange yet familiar music created more than half a century after their childhood. Isn’t there something similar here?”

“I have never thought about it in that way.” Mariann said. “And that idea of yours has some other shortcomings as well.”

“Like what?”

“Empty out the canisters and we’ll talk.”

Kadri opened the fuel cap, attached the fueling nozzle to the canister, and making use of every drop of strength she had, she managed to lift the canister just enough to get the fuel flowing from canister and into the filler neck. The canister too got lighter but much slower than her reserves of back and arm strength.

“Will you do the next one yourself?” She asked.

“I can.” Mariann said. “It seems I should not have helped you.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Kadri did not bother to reply to it.

“You haven’t lived until you’ve dragged a filled up gas canister three kilometers in a dark and stormy summer night.” Mariann smiled.

“Is that something I have to do in the future?” Kadri asked, having finished her rest and started on the second half of the canister.

“You will have to do that far more often than you might think right now.” Mariann replied. “And I’m not only speaking of pouring gas. But you could also suck until it starts flowing.”

“Ugh. No thanks.” Kadri replied.

Half a mouthful of gasoline for not having to lift the canister seemed like too high a price to pay right now.

“Look at the positive side.” Mariann said. “To fill up the passenger car you need to lift the canister to a much lesser height than to fill up anything offroad-worthy.”

Kadri emptied the last liquid drops from the canister into the filler neck and then placed the canister in front of her. Without a word, Mariann detached the fueling nozzle and attached it to the next canister, which she started to empty into the gas tank.

“Maybe you will instead take the third one with you?” She asked.

“Why not?”

Kadri raised her right hand in front of her and watched it tremble. She was undoubtedly able to empty the remaining canister as well if really need be but it would have been much better to let Siim or Johannes do it. She opened the trunk once more, then checked that the hatch on the canister was really shut tight and then lifted it into the trunk and set in lying down on its side.

Mariann emptied the other canister into the trunk seemingly without any effort at all. She then set it down, removed the fueling nozzle and put it into the trunk, then closing it. The two empty canisters she picked up and moved around the back of the car to the yellow fence.

Let us sit then.” She said.

Kadri unlocked the driver door to reach in and unlock the rear door by pulling the knob. She opened the wide rear door and sat down on the navy blue cloth interior and slid on the other side to the still locked door. The interior of the car was pleasantly cool. A bit like a huge refrigerator.

“This alone should tell you something.” Mariann said.

“What?”

“A black car with dark interior which has been sitting in direct sun since morning. There’s no way it can still be be cool a few hours after midday. That should make you think that maybe your car is not exactly ordinary.”

“My car?” Kadri asked. “Is it indeed my car?”

“That’s an important question, isn’t it?” Mariann replied.

“That music on the tape that Allan gave me...” Kadri changed the topic.

“You said it acts like an anchor...”

“Those are not the right words.” Kadri replied. “It creates a field of some sort which repels all this anomalous stuff...”

“And you thought that this could be connected to some soul in the music?” Mariann asked. “Are you meaning to say to me that electronic dance music has no soul? The energy of its creator? That it cannot be possessed, that it is somehow less real than music created on physical instruments?”

Kadri did not say anything in response. It was hard to argue Mariann’s point. Both types of music had the imagination and the will of the people who created it. The music itself was really reducible to literal sonic waves in the air. Which in turn meant that making any difference between the two was purely arbitrary. But this did not mean…

“But this does not mean that there is no effect at all.” Mariann said. “To you. Only to you.”

“My presence is invoking this effect?”

“You have given meaning and made sense of this effect. Maybe subconsciously, maybe even in memories you cannot recall.”

For Kadri, Mariann’s response also meant that she could not infer anything of the tape she had not yet received from Allan. She could infer nothing from herself or her own consciousness. And at the same time she could not accept anything at face value.

“As with all mind-altering substances, the best place to try them is somewhere you feel safe.” Mariann said.

“Does a place like that even exist in this area?” Kadri asked.

“Aren’t we completely by chance in a place like that already?” Mariann asked in return.

“Are we?” Kadri asked.

“Is it your car?” Mariann continued. “If you admit that this is your car then this may also be your safe space. For music but also for anything else. Perhaps that was my mistake. The M1009 has not yet become your car, not in that sense. Not in such a sense as this one here may well be.”

“That’s absurd.” Kadri said.

“It is, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m wrong.”

Kadri did not say anything in reply. There was too many different ideas, too little solid ground to stand on and to trust.

“There was once an American writer. Lovecraft. Don’t let the name fool you. He wrote a short story about a scientist who discovered that by affecting human pineal gland with electromagnetic radiation, he could expand human consciousness into dimensions otherwise considered extrasensory. But at the same time the things living in those extrasensory dimensions could also access his senses and through these senses his physical presence and this world.”

“Our senses are the limit of our world...” Kadri mused… “And at the same time they are our bridges to everything outside our being.”

“Yes. And consciousness can indeed be affected with music.”

“But that would still be connected to an affinity only peculiar to me?” Kadri asked. “Because that’s not what I’ve experienced.”

“Your experience is not wrong. And it is indeed possible to affect human consciousness with music. But right now you have too little information to tell whether the effect lies in the music or within yourself. You should continue down this trail. Try to experience more of it and make sense of more of it.”

“Doesn’t the short story you mentioned caution me to not do that?” Kadri asked.

“I never said that understanding new things does not bring consequences.” Mariann smiled.

“I’m keeping the drum and bass tape.”

It didn’t even matter whether she was right and the power was hidden in the music or Mariann was right and the force was within herself and the music only helped to bring it forth. In both cases her belief and her conviction were important components.

“Be my guest.”

This brought new questions about the second tape. But only after a few seconds she reached a conclusion that those questions were irrelevant. She already knew what Mariann would answer. She had already answered. If she had any doubts or fears, the best place to experiment was somewhere she considered safe. And right now it was difficult to find a safer place than the navy blue ceiling before her eyes.

“Is your red car your safe place?” Kadri asked.

“It was. Once in the beginning.”

“And now.”

“Now?” Mariann smiled again. “The entirety of the Lost County.”

Experience. Experience was the thing separating her from Mariann. Experience was the thing that allowed Mariann to say that.

“Damn it.” Kadri said. “I have to return to the air field. I did not learn anything. But at the same, I don’t want to re-experience what happened today.”

“So take your safe place with you.” Mariann said. “There is one other facet to this which, honestly, I’m surprised you have not yet noticed.”

“What?”

“When we sat into the car right now, it was cool on the inside. Considering the weather right now, it should not have been cool.”

“True.” Kadri agreed to that. It was weird.

“And when we spoke on the air field that time, when we parted, your friends brought the car away from there. And none of you know how this car ended up on the air field nor how any of you got to the car or inside it.”

That was also true.

“Thus… it is possible that this car is not at all from here. It is from somewhere else. Thrown out or away into this place. And it still carrying energy from that other place within.”

Kadri wanted to say once more that this was an absurd statement but she decided to stay silent. It was something too obvious to say.

“It is not necessarily a bad thing, should it indeed be so.” Mariann continued. “It would be afford another layer of protection. It would protect you should you end up somewhere else with the car. Or to put it better way, it would legitimize your presence there.”

“I have to keep the car.” Kadri sighed.

“I would go even further.” Mariann replied. “You should use it as much as possible. Maybe even sleep in it. The more it is ‘your car’ the more it is your ‘safe space’. This does not prohibit you from driving other cars nor that other cars or places can not become your safe spaces in the future. But the situation now is that this is the closest option.”

Kadri sighed again.

Daily driving this black vehicle seemed completely pointless. The thought alone was as repulsive as the dance music on the tape she had received from Allan. And yet there was a growing feeling that she could not do without one or the other. At least not now.

“I left my clothes into the dressing room of your sauna.” Kadri suddenly said, still eyeing the ceiling. “And I need more clothes.”

“Right now? Or can you wait for some time?” Mariann asked.

“What’s the difference?”

“In Tontla, there is a store that sells used clothes. And in Valgepalõ there is a tailor.”

Kadri took the satchel from around her neck and dropped in on the car floor.

“Have you decided?”

“Yes. I will go and gather my clothes. Haven’t decided yet what comes after that.

*

She indeed did not know. Even now, lying down on the cloth rear seat of the factory limo. The seat was wide enough for her to stretch out. The seat bottom could have been a bit longer, making her bed wider, but the situation right now was fine as well. The car was still sitting in the same place she had left it in the morning. The only difference being that now on the car floor, in addition to the satchel and the camera, there were also her sweaty clothes, packed into an old plastic shopping bag that carried the image of a Zhiguli.

Inside the car, it wasn’t much warmer than before. Which was perfectly fine for Kadri. And at the same time it wasn’t. Due to the scorching summer heat both days and nights, Kadri had not managed to get proper sleep for days now. But here it was cool. And the glass on the car was heavily tinted. And she was tired. Perfect coincidence of circumstances for her to remain here and sleep until it got dark. Maybe even longer, considering her debt of sleep.

And indeed, what should have been a short rest to think what and in which order to do next, turned into sudden awaking in the dark as soon as she no longer wanted to get off the seat. No blanket, no pillow, no nothing. Only refreshing cool air that cut her down at once.

Kadri opened her eyes. It was dark inside the car. Not quite pitch black darkness but dim enough for her to barely see her fingers raised above her face. She got up, pulled on the locking knob on the door and opened it into the night.

It was still hot outside. Slightly cooler than during the day, and there was no sun, but for her, still hot. She had no idea what the time was. Whether it was late evening or past midnight. And maybe it didn’t even matter. Kadri exited the car and pushed down on the locking knob before shutting the door. She slid the ring with the car keys on her ring finger and then locked the other doors as well.

On the streets of the Nameless Town, only a few lone pale orange street lights were on. But this was enough to notice that Mariann’s huge diesel powered military vehicle was gone. Probably back in the very same shed that Kadri had seen it in the beginning. Also, Mariann’s red car now had a white cloth top on it. As for other stuff, everything seems to be the same as during the day. She headed back towards the Nether flight street. Or the Cemetery flight street. Some used one name, some the other.

However her first destination was not Leopold’s bar but instead the Radio station. And the tape Allan was supposed to record for her. Right now, this tape was of primary importance and overshadowed all other necessities, even hunger and thirst. Listening to the tape however… She could not say. Despite what Mariann had told her, the contents of the tape now scared her a little. Maybe it was really true that she could not just listen to it while driving back to the Cottage District or to Tontla, but instead had to stop the car in some safe spot and only then could she push ‘play’. Which reminded her that she had left the drum and bass tape into the cassette radio on the military truck.

The nighttime streets were empty. Not a soul on them. But surprisingly, many windows on building shorter and taller were illuminated. Also, as she passed Leopold’s bar, she could hear the usual bar noises leaking out onto the street. This also meant that it could not be too late into the night. But probably late enough for Allan to be on the air with his show.

The town radio was the next building on the street. One building before the Town Hall and a few three and four story buildings apart from Leopold’s bar. From a covered passage on one such building she could see into the courtyard and there stood an old mossy green sedan with a white vinyl roof in some diffused pale light.

Kadri continued on her way. Toward the large metal-framed doors with large glass panes acting as the entrance to the radio station building. She pulled on one of the doors to open it and stepped into the foyer. This too looked no different from the morning. Worn floor and to the right a dark resting room. But right before her was a counter and the secretary desk. On the counter there were two audio cassettes in plastic cases. On top of them was a folded up piece of paper which read “To the other girl in black” in careless scribbled handwriting.

Had she not introduced herself in the morning? Had Allan not remembered her name during their conversation night after the ritual? The very night that should have been a test run for a possible new radio show format? Or maybe he simply did not care? It didn’t matter. Kadri got her tapes and she headed right back towards the car, to drop the tapes into the driver door pocket. On that short walk back towards the car, these two tapes were the most precious treasure she had. Only after putting away the tapes and locking the car could she take some easier breaths.

She leaned against the car. Everybody knew Mariann’s red car. According to Mariann, nobody dared to touch it because everybody knew it was her car. Even if it had no roof on and stuff was carelessly strewn about the interior. Was there any hope that in time, her connection with the black factory limo became the same? Kadri couldn’t even say, whether connection like that felt something positive or negative. It was hard to imagine that she would park the car for a week or several along the busiest of main streets with unlocked doors and when returning would discover that not a single item in the car is missing nor has even changed places.

She was hungry. That’s what had awakened her. She pushed away from the car and walked back down the street towards the bar. Mariann had a habit or parking her car right before the entrance so approaching from the street, instead of the footpath, one inevitably had to get around Mariann’s car. She stepped into the doorway and then pushed open the door. Then the interior door as well.

The majority of the bar folk had gathered around the large circular table in the middle of the hall. On top of the table was a late Soviet era transistor radio from which emanated a conversation one party of which seemed to be Allan Helde. However at the moment she could not focus on it. She could not even interest herself in it. The other part of the bar crowd was either at the counter or sitting at the line of small tables next to the windows. Some drinking and maybe listening to the radio, others perhaps even having dozed off.

“Can I get something to eat?” Kadri asked, as she stepped to the counter.

“We’re out.” Leopold said.

“Out?” She asked.

“Everything’s out for today. Meat, nuts, bread. Even fish and potatoes. The only thing there is enough of, is the drink.”

Kadri looked at the man with a questioning gaze.

“I can offer you liquid bread.”

“No thanks.” She pushed off the bar counter and turned around.

One bottle of heavy dark beer was not enough to fill her up and she wasn’t too sure about being able to drive home in the dark after two or more.

“Go to the market, that’s still open.” Said Leopold right before the door closed after her.

Only now did Kadri remember the market. And indeed, in the morning all sorts of good things had been sold there, dried, cured and smoked. She glanced back at the black factory limo. The market was on the next street towards the air field, almost at the Eastern end of the town. In short, not far away enough to start the car.

Before when she had gone to the Radio station to pick up the tapes, she had not smelled this, but now she did as soon as she hit the intersection with the Northern parallel street. From somewhere, the smell of food being smoked reached her. And the market was one of the few places this smell could originate at this time of night.

In warm yellow light of the single gas mantle lamp, the little market looked completely different. The one lamp in the middle of the market area gave off uniform warm white light. The post itself was maybe four meters high. Above the lamp was an aluminum helmet which diffused the light and reflected it downwards.

The bus which had been open like a clam shell during the day was now back in its usual shape. In this dim light it was difficult to say where the seams even were or how it could have been open during the day at all. Right across the bus, there was a crude market stall made of unfinished wooden planks, on, behind and around of which hung all sorts of smoked and cured foodstuffs more and less familiar to her. Sausages and ham, pork fat, fish of every kind and of course poultry. Even cheeses. Next to the stall two wood fired steel smokers were going at full burn.

“Can I offer you something?” An older bald man asked, having stepped out from behind the stall.

The man seemed to be slightly over sixty years old. With a bare head and a gray ring of hair at about ear-level. His face was shaven clean. The man was only slightly taller than her and of average build. He was wearing a blue tee with dark linen pants and wellingtons.

“To eat. Here.” Kadri said.

“We have hot fish right off the smoker.”

“That’ll do.”

“For drink I can unfortunately only offer water from the well, or this.”

The man handed Kadri an antique glass beer bottle. Made of thick dark brown glass and sealed with black wax. The label on the bottle was in Russian and Kadri’s understanding of the language was barely enough to tell that it was dark beer.

“What’s that?” She asked.

“Dark beer. With a royal warrant of import and manufacture from the Russian Imperial court. About 10% by volume it is. This is just about the only thing that does not spoil on its way here.”

“Where is it made?”

The man’s fingers pointed at an additional smaller label on the neck of the bottle which mentioned a place called Dorpat.

“Of course sometimes it needs to be shipped in from afar on boats.”

“I’m driving.” Kadri said. “And I would like to make it home with it.”

“Very well.” The man said.

Kadri took a seat at a small wooden table nearest to the stall and soon enough, a large porcelain platter was set before her with half of a hot-smoked red fish wrapped in aluminum foil along with a silver fork and knife.

In the end it seemed that she had indeed been hungry, since it did not take her much time to eat everything that had been placed in front of her.

She got up and in the pocket of Mariann’s green skirt, next to the car keys, she found the only bill of money she had. Of lilac color and carrying a portrait of a bearded middle-aged man with glasses. She dropped the bill onto a coin tray at the counter of the stall.

The old man behind the stall took a long look at the bill and then scratched the back of his head.

“I have a small problem with this bill of yours.” He said. “First, I don’t have enough change to give you. Second, I don’t want to give you all my change. Don’t you have anything smaller?”

“Not right now.” Kadri said.

“I have an idea. I can give you three hundred in cash. And the rest in food.”

“How much would that rest be?” Kadri asked.

“One case of beer, fifteen bars of sausage, a kilo of each cheese and the rest would be fish, ham and other stuff.”

“That is fine.” Kadri said.

To be truthful, she did not feel like haggling. She picked her bill off the coin tray.

“I’m gonna go get the car.”

She did not feel like haggling. But if she was left with enough money to buy clothes and she also managed to take at least a week’s worth of food to the others, then all in all, it did not look like a bad choice.

The walk from the market back to the car seemed to ta a lot more time than the walk to the Radio station before or from the car to the market. She unlocked the car front door, sat in the car, and having fought with the fuel pump and getting it started, she drove the car straight to the Northern parallel street, stopping the car right at the entrance to the market, halfway on the sidewalk.

She stepped out of the car and opened the long rear side door and then stood next to the door.

“You don’t want to put all this in the trunk?” The man asked.

“I have a canister of gasoline there and I don’t know if the seal on it holds.”

“Right, right.”

He started on loading everything he had promised onto the floor of the rear seat. A case of beer, bars of sausages, bars of braided cheese. Ham, pork fat and cheeses in nets. Smoked whole chickens and ducks and even some more fish in foil.

After he finished, Kadri handed him the one bill she had and the man handed her one blue bill, two bills in aquamarine shades, tons of red ones with an oak tree on the oblique and the rest was in coins.

“Come again tomorrow and bring back my coinage.” The man smiled.

“Good night.” Kadri replied.

“’Night.” The old man replied.

He observed Kadri getting back in the car and driving towards East.

*

Maybe having a very late supper at market with no other customers in the Nameless Town was a mistake. It was harder to stay awake on a full stomach. Harder to make important decisions. For example, instead of finding a place where she could turn the limo around, she decided to drive towards the Eastern gate of the town, where the radio tower was located. And then to use the circular road to reach the road to the Cottage District.

The Southern part of the circular road passed what people called the town cemetery and the Unknown Lands and because of that she was not going to pass through there at night. But there should not have been any problems with the Northern section. At least nothing that would stop her from driving. Especially if she drove slow with high beams on.

And indeed there wasn’t. The tarmac blacktop was surprisingly smooth, no cold swell-ups, no tram-lining, potholes or other damage that would make the ride uncomfortable. As if the road had seen hardly any use. As if all traffic to Valgepalõ and other places used some other roads unbeknownst to her.

Also the whole way was a long and steady turn to the left. On either side of the road there were deep ditches and forest beyond those. Therefore there was no hope of seeing the air field from this side either. Also she saw no cars traveling along her or coming from the opposite direction. She could also not see any other unknown or unexplainable lights. Not even fog.

What happened during the day still played in her mind. Also the thought that she might have seen something she was not supposed to. Despite having discussed what she saw with Mariann, a slight fear still lingered that suddenly a black old-time passenger car would appear, with tall tail fins and glass as black as carbon paper. Or maybe she will be followed by a bright sphere of light in the sky, which ends up stalling the engine at an opportune time.

She reached fog only on that old and familiar section of the road North of the Tontla-Luiga crossroad. It seemed like this stretch of road was always in fog. And slowly but surely the fog was flowing in a North-Westerly direction. As if it all originated from the air field or the town.

Kadri slowed the car down significantly. The fog was so dense that neither low nor high beams were of any use. Eventually she had to move at walking pace to be sure that she would not hit anything, drive off the road or something altogether more horrific would not take place.

Having exited yet another fog of wall, she decided to stop the car on the near side curb. The next fog wall was about a 30-40 meters ahead. But between the two walls of fog, visibility was pretty good. Suddenly, recognition hit her. This was the place. This was the place when one strange night their accident had taken place. The accident she could not recall.

She left the lights on and the engine running and exited the car. The fog was pleasantly cool. Pleasantly misty and damp. There was no sign of the heat which had taken over the Nameless Town or the Cottage District. Kadri took deep breaths to get as much of the cool damp freshness inside her as possible. Had she had a bed and a blanket anywhere near here, she would have probably fallen asleep at a moment’s notice.

She walked to the center line of the road and towards the next fog wall. Arms raised to her sides, taking deep breaths. Thinner and thicker ebbs of fog still flowed past her towards North-West, not considering her of any obstruction.

Kadri turned around and before she could react nor even notice that she could no longer see her limo on the side of the road, a pair of lights rushed out of the wall of fog with the driver relentlessly sounding the horn. She immediately froze in the beams of the car headlights. At the last moment the car managed to swerve her and lost control as it entered the next wall of fog. She could not see what happened, but she could hear how the car ran off the road into the ditch and then into the trees maybe only a few dozen meters ahead.

Without any further thought she raised her skirt and started running in the direction the car had disappeared to. Right into the fog wall. It was only about five meters thick and soon she could see more than just a few steps ahead of her. The fog was dense but she could still see about three or four meters in either direction. She also saw the ditch and the forest beyond it. But what she could not see was the car which had run off the road.

She ran even further but could not see anything. No car that had run of the road. No injured people. No fresh signs of accident in the ditch, on the other side of it or the trees. But she heard sounds. Sounds of the accident. Sounds that the injured would make. Sounds of the car, the trees and the brush burning. And then she heard it again. Somebody frantically sounding the horn, tires wailing and a traffic accident happening. But she heard it from behind her. At that very moment, she remembered the factory limo and she started running again, now back towards the car.

When she finally made it out of the fog, she saw the factory limo still standing on the side of the road. Both low and high beams were still on. The huge eight-cylinder engine was still running at an idle og slightly over six hundred revolutions. The car stood at the same place Kadri had stopped it. It had not moved an inch in either direction. Also nothing had hit it. Whatever it was that she had heard before, it did not happen to this car.

Kadri got into the car and started to take off when she again saw brights in the rear-view mirror. This time the black Volga swerved the factory limo with the horn blaring, flew towards the wall of fog ahead with the side first and before disappearing into the fog, it instead ran off the road and into the ditch. No, not into the ditch. But also not into the fog. It looked as if the car which was still made of metal at the time of passing the limo, lost control and drove into darkness in the ditch and on the side of the road. Into the kind of darkness that could not be illuminated by car headlights. As if on the other side of the ditch, under the dark trees ruled this mysterious darkness which Mariann had spoken off. The one that acted like a separate force of nature, which swallowed strong light until even the most powerful lantern was reduced to the level of a single candle.

She finally took off and put on speed. She had no idea what she had just seen. And she did not want to know. Not tonight. She did not even want to give it a name. But still it did not leave her in peace. Did the car which she saw swerving but not running off the road react to to her? Or to the factory limousine? Would the swerving and running off the road have taken place had she not been there on the road? Would the car have emerged from the fog at all? Was this the kind of memory of the land which Mariann and Toomas had spoken of on separate occasions? How under the randomly correct conditions, the minerals recorded some events and later upon a happenstance of other such conditions played these events back again and again?

The fog in which all of this had taken place disappeared as fast as it had appeared. By the time she made it to Tontla-Luiga crossroad, there was no more fog to be seen. Even the air here was different. Hotter, dryer. And although she had just exited the dense fog, she could not see the fog wall or any fog at all from her rear view mirror. As if it had never been there in the first place.

Kadri had heard stories how this region played tricks with peoples perception. Travels from the same starting points and to the same destinations were not necessarily equal in travel time nor distance. Sometimes people could see weird things taking place. Was this sudden fog at the accident site one such phenomenon?

Soon, she made it to the turnoff to the Cottage District, where smooth macadam was replaced with potholed gravel road full of granite pebbles which ran between forests and fields. This made her slow down. Was there really no better road to the Cottage District? The cottage district itself was fully paved, wasn’t it? She was sure there was. On the other side, through the Officers’ Village. Beyond that, the road that passed through the Cottage District and eventually reached the Underground Base should have met the road heading to Valgepalõ. She had to find it. Heading into town every day along the gravel road with the long limo hitting every pothole along the way was not something she was willing to put up with.

She felt relief to finally pass the section running between the forests and to reach the section running between the fields north of the Cottage District. Only a bit more to go now. On one of the roads on the left from which one could access the fields sitting slightly below the road, that same blue-green four door sedan Siim and Johannes had been tinkering with during the day suddenly appeared into the headlights of the car.

Kadri slowed down and even stopped to better see into the darkness around her. There was nobody around the derelict car. Neither could she see any lights on the fields below or on the grasslands and the forests on the other side. Whatever had happened here, the boys had probably left the car here and walked back to the Cottage District.

Soon the car headlights fell on a sharp yet wide paved turned to the right which headed towards the Underground Base. To the left and slightly before that was the main street of the Cottage District. As she pulled up to the first house on the left and turned the engine off, the lights in the windows were still on.

She was back in the Cottage District. Her long day in town was finally over.