Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief - by Katrina Nannestad

When Doctor Orlova arrives, I am sitting up in bed, the flowers in my lap and a strange mix of objects lined up across my blanket: a dead beetle, eight buttons, three pencils, a piece of frayed rope, a handful of feathers, twelve matchboxes, a harmonica, a ball of string, a pair of underpants, six spoons, a piece of chalk, two blocks of soap, a brick, a furry ushanka hat and a photo of Nurse Irena’s family in Siberia. Doctor Orlova’s eyelids flutter, but otherwise she doesn’t seem surprised. And then I realise. She already knows I’m a thief ! And if she knows, Nurse Irena and Nurse Sophie know, too. I blush at the idea. Doctor Orlova takes one of the pencils and uses it to lift up the pair of underpants. ‘I hope these are clean, Sasha.’ They are. I stole them from the laundry three days ago – from the clean pile, not the bag of dirty clothes. Doctor Orlova tosses the underpants aside and takes the buttons in her hand, all eight of them. She jiggles them about and chuckles. ‘So this is where the buttons from Doctor Kozlov’s robe got to. And the buttons from Sergeant Stepanov’s pyjama shirt. Poor man. First his buttons, then his feathers. You’ve been picking on him, Sasha.’ She reaches for the harmonica, but I interrupt her. ‘Flowers,’ I whisper. Doctor Orlova sets the harmonica back down. She pushes a frizz of hair away from her face and sits on my bed.

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