A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

The morning of Akhmed’s third day at the hospital, Akhmed and Sonja drive to Grozny. Akhmed is frustrated that Sonja refuses to look at him or chat with him. As they pass through a checkpoint, Sonja presents letters written by Federal colonels that she pulls from her glove box. The letters convince the lieutenant at the checkpoint to let them through. Before Sonja can close the glove box, Akhmed notices several more letters from important military figures.

When they arrive in Grozny, the city is in ruins. Akhmed remarks that the few standing ruins look like scaffolding. Sonja explains that the street kids deconstruct the buildings and sell the rubble back to the Russians.

Sonja and Akhmed arrive at a huge warehouse. A guard allows Sonja and Akhmed to drive the car inside. Sonja leaves Akhmed alone and returns with Alu’s brother, who forces Akhmed to sit in a folding chair. The guard presses a gun against Akhmed’s back. Sonja, believing Akhmed to be an informer working for the Russians, demands that Akhmed explain how he knew her name. Akhmed tells Sonja about the rebel field commander whose chest was sewn up with floss. Later, a woman refugee told Akhmed Sonja’s name. Sonja asks if the woman was named Natasha.

Sonja and Natasha are native Russian. Their parents were born in Moscow. In 1946, Chechens were deported from their homeland, and ethnic Russians were sent to resettle in the empty republic. As children, Sonja and Natasha’s parents were first taken to Grozny and later Volchansk. Years later, they ran into each other in a bread line and discovered that they were both from the same part of Moscow. They married and had two daughters, Sonja and Natasha.

Sonja is older than Natasha by four years. Growing up, Natasha was beautiful and popular in school. Sonja was very smart and focused on her schoolwork. After graduating secondary school, Natasha receives a secretary position and spends her weekends at a nightclub. At the nightclub, Natasha meets Sulim, and they begin a romantic relationship. Sulim is involved in criminal activity and eventually arrested for fraud. While out on bail, Sulim, unable to stay with any of his family or friends, attempts to stay with Natasha but she sends him away. A few weeks later, Natasha and Sonja’s mother dies. Shortly after, Natasha and Sonja’s father takes a five-week job in Turkmenistan. However, he dies when a truck crashes into his cabin. Then Sonja accepts a medical school fellowship in London.

Natasha loses her job after the declaration of national independence. She eventually takes a job with a woman named Lidiya Nikitova, who shuttles stolen goods from Hamburg to be sold in the local bazaars. But when bombs begin falling on Grozny, Lidiya runs away to Petersburg.

For a while, Sonja and Natasha talk regularly on the phone. Sonja promises to find a way to bring Natasha to London, but it never happens. Sonja and Natasha talk less and less, and Natasha eventually avoids Sonja’s calls. In December 1994, the Federal government orders the army to disarm “all illegal armed units in Chechnya, or, as they were known locally, the government” (184).