Concrete Jungle

Chapter 17

      The following day, Sasha, Ben, Rahel and the others decided on a farewell lunch as opposed to an early dinner because of the flights some had to take. Everyone wanted to get to the airport early or the train station as was Sasha's case. As promised the night before, no one was going to mention Sasha's extension to go to Belarus and her birth city to continue on a more private portion of this trip. Their lunch was a celebratory one as they finished the hardest and probably scariest portion of the expedition. No one got any extra radiation doses and the photos and videos taken on top of regular and scientific evidence could probably fill several books let alone an issue of a magazine.

      Rahel had already sent Alexei's drone videos and her own to DC because they were also going to release a documentary that same month in conjunction with the issue on the expedition. It had interviews with locals, plus the editors in DC were going to use 30 year old footage to really make this documentary special. But nothing would or could overshadow the issue itself and Sasha's work. Especially given the last very personal story she was going to add that no one save two other people on earth knew about. Ben was excited to put his and Vasily's scientific research down as well plus the interviews with the paranormal investigators would be a fascinating addition. DC had agreed to add the paranormal investigators videos to the documentary if they had them. The project was growing and yet finalizing all at the same time with the puzzle pieces all making the perfect kind of sense.

     The lunch ended with a round of hugs and well wishes and everyone looking forward to the issue and documentary both translated into Russian. But that is one thing they never had to worry about as NatGeo translated their issues into over 90 languages. Vasily and the rest left. He was more reluctant to part with them then the others as he'd grown so attached to Ben and Sasha with even Rahel growing on him a bit though he still kept her at a healthy arms length as she warmed up to the rest. Vasily looked like a young kid about to be orphaned and Ben noticed it as he put his arm around him:

"Remember this isn't a forever goodbye. You just get your resume ready in English as we discussed, send it to me, and we'll send that along with mine and Sasha's references to NatGeo. I don't think you will have any problem finding at the very least a paid internship with me as your mentor." Vasily's eyes lit up as he nodded adamantly.
"Yes! As soon as I wake up tomorrow, I will get on that and send it to you!" Everyone laughed at his eagerness.
"Well, give us both a few days to return from our travels and settle in at home, please. Then we will gladly send in our references." Sasha said kindly.
"Absolutely, please don't rush because of me!"

    It was decided between them as Rahel watched from the side. She couldn't offer anything up herself as it was also her first job officially with NatGeo that wasn't a freelancer gig. She wanted a permanent job with the organization too but she was going to only do so through her own work and not necessarily someone else's references. If references were ultimately needed during an interview, she would seek out Sasha and Ben but until then, she was--as always--determined to let her work speak for itself. Vasily was just as young as she was but he had fewer resources than she did and therefore understood that he needed all the help he could get. It also didn't escape her notice that he had a major work crush on Sasha which after the inner growth she went through, she thought was very cute.

     After Vasily finally left, happy with his new mission to fulfill and hopefully a future working with both Ben and Sasha, Ben and Rahel stood discussing something as they waited in the lobby of their hotel for Sasha to come downstairs with her bags and take the taxi to the train station. Their flight was a bit later and therefore she was leaving first. When she did, they all hugged.

"Godspeed Sasha." Ben wished and blessed her as she got a little tearful.
"Thank you both. Really, truly. I will email you when I get back to New York." They nodded and hugged again.

    They watched as she got into the taxi after the driver loaded her things into the trunk and waved as she drove away. She was onto the final leg of her journey. At the train station, she didn't have to wait long and went to find her train. Once boarding and the conductor helped her with luggage, she knew she wouldn't have to use English until she got to Amsterdam on her trip back home. This was really going back to the beginning of things for her. She found a seat near a window and placed her earbuds into her ears. Instead of her usual Lindsey Stirling, Sasha decided that for that 1.5 hours she would play two songs on rotation by two young Russian singers. The rhythm, words, and instrumental portions of both songs just felt right for this journey. She closed her eyes as the train started moving out of the city and the deep voices of both young women, lulled her in her ears towards her own beginnings with the haunting past rushing to meet her present.

*Diana Ankudinova - Реченька (River)*

*Anastasia Prihodko ~ Вера (Faith)*