September 3rd, 2010

It was a cold October night and Victor Barisov was visiting his sick father. Victor always did the right thing and always tried to make the right choices, but now he was slipping into a minor depression due to a feeling of helplessness. His father Demitri Barisov was always there for him and gave the attention that his mother could not. Now he could go forever.
“Father?” Victor said in a near whisper. “Father?”
“ *cough* Yes son?”
“How are you feeling?” His son said, obviously concerned. Demitri noticed.
“I’ve been through worse. Don't worry so much about me. You are young.
Demitri smiled. “27 isn’t very young.”
His father smiled as well. “Still, you have nothing to worry about. I’m worried about you Victor. Your too concerned about me. Natasha will take care of me.”
Natasha was Victor’s sister. She was the best doctor in Moscow (his father’s words)
“I know she will take care of you father but I’m still concerned about your health…”
“I will get better son.” He then leaned forward and spoke in a whisper, not in an intimate way, but in the manner that secretive things are discussed.
“I have a request, my son. Go to my gun cabinet; take out the AK and the ammo. Load it and take the spare cartridges. Keep it with you.”
“Why such an odd request?”
Victor had long known of is fathers gun. Nearly everyone who had been in the army before the collapse of the Soviet Union possessed one. What was odd was that his father asked him to handle it.
“Please Victor; I want to know you are safe at your new house.”
Victor gave the sigh one usually gives when stressed.
“Ok father. I will.”
His father seemed to relax after that. “Say hello to Vlad for me.”
“I will.”
“And tell him to stay out of trouble.”
They both laughed at that.
“I’ll be sure to pass the message on. Bye father.”
“Bye son.”
Victor walked through the door to the next room where the gun cabinet was and did what his father told him. He kept on wondering about why his father wanted him to take the gun with him. Nevertheless, he followed his orders, a true Russian. After packing up the guns and ammo in a suitcase, he peeked into his father’s room to see if he was awake but discovered that he had already fallen back to sleep and was snoring quite audibly.
Well no sense in waking him up to say goodbye again Victor thought with a smirk. He carefully, quietly closed the door, put the suitcase into the trunk of his car, and climbed into the driver’s seat. (im still working on this)