The coming war

Simon sits at the coffee table and stares out at the waning afternoon light. A waiter approaches as he finishes his espresso, asking in Russian if Simon wants another.

“Whiskey, straight,” he says.

The waiter nods and leaves with the espresso cup. Simon rubs his beard stubble. The power has been out for almost three weeks and the charge on his electric shaver emptied a few days ago. The power outage has been the only indication that war is coming, Russia at border crossings all over Ukraine. The restaurants and shops have resorted to an almost camp-like setting: propane stoves for cooking, kerosene lamps for light, candles for cafe tables. Other than that, from what Simon could tell, Ukrainians continued about their days as they normally did, albeit colder than normal.

Simon has one tiny, portable solar panel that he uses to charge his mobile. He packs it up as the last of the light descends behind the city’s building. His mobile, charged now to thirty-eight percent, is enough for him to write and email his story to his editor. The waiter returns, sets the whiskey on the table. He eyes the mobile, a half-smile on his face, and says something in Russian but he’s too quiet and Simon’s Russian too rusty for Simon to understand. Instead, Simon says “Spaseeba” and the waiter nods in recognition.

The whiskey goes down like turpentine, stripping the mucus and membrane from his throat. Simon recalls the first time he drank Ukrainian whiskey, coughing and sputtering like an old truck starting for the first time in decades. The whiskey awakens him. He needs something to wake him up, the monotony of waiting for war is wearing on him. Ukrainians around him go through the motions of the day, a resigned silence when Simon asks them about their thoughts on the impending invasion. One old man told Simon that all there was to do on the eve of war was drink and love and fuck, although Simon may have misunderstood the exact last word. His editor crossed that line out, which Simon thought was unfortunate since it seemed to sum up the Ukrainian’s thoughts about war with Russia.