Salty Air - # freewrite

"Salty Air,"  Anastasya said with spite. "That's what I cannot stand."

Vladimir looked at the girl's choppy blond hair emerging from her furry hat.  He could not help loving that funny creature in between an elf and a woman. He had for his sister an unconditional love, built upon the years of abuse that he tried to spare her from.  He volunteered to absorb their drunken father's alcoholic rages, because he feared that his sister would break under them.

Anastasya always found something to complain about. But this time she was right.  Salty air ruined everything.  Especially the salty air of the Russian Black Sea. When they ran away from their dark village they found themselves lost in the seaside town of Dzhubga. It was too cold to enjoy being runaways. It was too cold to be alive, damn it. The air entered into their pores like icicle knives, and broke the parts of the skin that they could not protect from the elements. 

"Why put more salt to your wounds?" their mother would often say when Vladimir told her that he was going to end the abuse once and for all.

"You are just a silly boy.  You'll end up in jail, and then I will be a widow, taking care of your useless sister. Do you know what that means, around here?"

Vladimir tried to erase all thoughts of his mother: they hurt too much. He took a deep breath in.  He could feel the salt in his nostrils, and he wanted to cry.

"Come here, turtle dove," said Vladimir, giving his sister a hug that swept her off her feet.  She was barely 13 years old, minute and fragile like a crystal, but she could make any grown man fall in love with her porcelain skin and fine features.  Her eyes were as brilliant as the spring sky.   

"It is a dog of a night to be here. Drink some vodka. It will warm you up." Vladimir said.

Anastasya put her hand under Vladimir's jacket to grab the bottle.  She could feel the cold of the bottle, and she did not know which one was colder, the bottle itself or the barrel of Vladimir's gun.

For a moment, she hoped that they would find Sergei soon.  She would stick the gun in that bastard's mouth, and all of it would be over.

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