Page 104 - LEIBY

104 Leiby – Border Smuggler

Berele stuffed a bundle of rubles held together with an elastic
band into the driver’s hand and motioned to Leiby to sit beside
him.

“Put on these laborer’s overalls,” the driver threw a pair of dark-
colored, stained overalls at Leiby. “Sit next to me on the train,
and when we stop, you’ll have to stand by the engine and make
it look as if you’re working on it. And now, I recommend that
you snoop around a little and see how other apprentices are
working, so that you’ll have a basic idea of what to do.”

Leiby nodded, put on the overalls, and went out onto the
platform. He watched the station employees intently, taking
note of how they worked,how they stood beside the engines,and
how they operated the machinery. He offered them assistance,
and did not leave them until his face was black with soot and
his overalls even more stained with machine oil than they were
before. Finally, Igor, the driver of ‘his’ train, sounded the horn
and Leiby hurried to clamber up into the driver’s cabin. Igor
was in a jovial mood. His pockets were filled with rubles, and
an oversized bottle of vodka, another gift from Berele, swelled
his pockets too. The deal was definitely lucrative, as far as he
was concerned.

“You want to get to Poland, to see the world a bit – you’re one
brave lad!”

As the fields they passed became greener and more verdant, and
the Belorussian straw huts were replaced by handsome wood
and brick red-roofed houses, encircled by lush lawns, the driver
became more and more talkative and let his tongue run away
with him.

“I wish I was a Polish citizen and could emigrate to Poland
instead of staying here to rot away in the communist paradise…
I travel to Poland a lot, and unlike other Russian citizens, I
see what the rest of the world has to offer, and so the life in
Russia depresses me even more. Once you’ve seen the light, the
darkness becomes so much denser,” the driver ended his doleful
monolog on a poetic note, as his voice dropped to a whisper,