Stories from Yakutia

Easy Money

This took place somewhere around the 60s. Some "no fucks given" kinda guy leaves for the Amga district from Yakutsk - he was russian, by the way, not a yakut. His reason for going to Amga was that a buddy of his promised to employ him at the local collective farm, since he fainled to find a job in the city, and lost all his money on gambling too. He hitched a ride to some point, and then went further on foot , following a small country road. It was early summer, no mosquitoes yet, it was warm and bright, and he had some food and vodka in his backpack — life was good.

And so we have our hero, minding his own business, when he notices near some glade by the road a big branchy tree covered by all kinds of multi-colored rags. Naturally, he has no clue of what it was. At first he was only slightly amused, but then, as he got closer — my God, there were all kinds of coins and banknotes just lying in a heap under it! Without a second thought, he collected everything he could (the sum was quite good for the time ), put it into his pockets and went on ahead in a terrific mood. By the evening he reached an empty hut amidst a glade. He laid his own jacket atop the bed, drank some vodka and went to sleep.

It didn not take him long to feel that someone was pulling at his leg. He tries to pay it no mind, but to no avail, as the pulling grows stronger and stronger. He jumps up, looks around — no one, only a light summer night, an empty house, an empty glade. So he lays down again. As soon as he is starting to drift off to sleep, pulling begins again, just like before. This time he rose, swearing, ran out of the house and around the hut, but foudn no one yet again. Half asleep, our hero did not feel any fear. So he went to bed again, turning to the other side. At first he could not fall asleep for some time, as soon as he managed to, he was pulled so strongly that it fell out of the bed, and was even dragged a little on on floor. But when he opened his eyes, he still couldn't see anyone...

This kept happening all night long — the guy tried to fall asleep, and someone did not allow him to do it. Finally, at daybreak after another pull, he opened his eyes and rose — and saw in the morning twilight a black silhouette of the large person of the powerful build standing over him and holding him by the leg. Here nerves gave out — he jumped up from the bed, and, shouting at the top of his lungs, ran out from the house and kept running without looking forward blindly. Only later did he understand that left the backpack in the hut, but could not gather enough courage to come back for it. He ran all morning, until he reached a village, knocked on the door of a random house there and told the people about his troubles. He was advised to return to the tree and put all the money back where he found it. He remembered that he still had the money on him in a pocket, reached down — and found a hole, that everything fell out of while he was running away. He , of course, did not intend to return, and continued his journey to Amga with accompanied by a local.

© 1996 Archive66