|
I had called Donna and told her we were back in town. They were going to head out for the restaurant where we would meet them. Vitaly and I discussed getting a taxi or taking the Metro. Metro would bring us to the same block as the restaurant, and much more quickly than a taxi. Off we went. I’ve used the Metro quite a bit. In fact, I’ve learned to read Russian well enough to use Metro on my own, and have done so frequently. One thing you notice in the underground is the gypsy beggars, both women and children. They are quite proficient as pick-pockets, as well. As we rode along in the subway, Vitaly’s cell phone rang. I couldn’t believe it. He was getting the signal so far underground. It was Alyona. He told her he might lose the call since we were on the train. But, the signal held and he continued his conversation. The train stopped, we exited and headed for the escalator as Vitaly continued to talk with Alyona. The station was quite busy, travelers coming and going in large numbers. As we approached the glass exit doors, Vitaly, who was about 3-4 people ahead of me, headed for the open door. As there were many going for the same door, I side-stepped to the right for the next door. Just as I pushed on the door, a man started pushing back from the other side. Being the nice guy I am (ok, stop laughing), I stepped back to let him come through. But, I couldn’t step back. By then, people were pushing from behind. Oh well, I thought, we’ll just push him back. WRONG! It was a set-up. I was surrounded. As one man began forcefully going for my wallet, another was reaching for my camera bag. They continued to pin me in the corner, pulling at my clothes. The moment this started, Vitaly, who had by now exited the building, lost the signal on his phone. Instead of trying to reconnect, he turned to be sure I was still behind him. Surprise! He was shocked to see what was happening and sprung into action immediately. He came running back in screaming and swinging. At the same time, I was pushing back away from the door, and reached back with my right hand, hitting two of them in the face. As the saying goes, you gotta hate it when your plan doesn’t come together. Their plan wasn’t coming together. Instead of me giving in and being a good victim, I was fighting back, not to mention someone else they had not seen entering the fray. They thought I was alone. The whole event didn’t last as long as it is taking me to type it. We were back in the hallway; the five guys were standing there looking at us, as surprised as we were. One of them continued to fight with Vitaly, as he began to dance backwards toward the escalator. I thought Vitaly was trying to disengage. The other four stood there looking at me. Why did they stop? Why were they just standing there? Were they afraid of one 55 year old man? Or, did they see something else? As we had explained to Richard, one of the Biblical descriptions of angels is that of warriors, not pretty girls with wings. Was I standing there alone? I truly don’t know. But they were through with me. I started down the hall toward Vitaly and his new-found friend. As I approached, I saw the guy take a swing at Vitaly’s side. It didn’t look like he was throwing a punch, “Knife!” I yelled. Sure enough, as quickly as the man had swung, he turned and ran. Yep, he had a 4” folding knife in his hand. It was over, they were all gone. We looked at Vitaly’s side…nothing, no contact. Good. After determining we were both ok, and I had lost nothing, he asked if I wanted to call the police. I said no, as I had all my stuff and we weren’t hurt. As we left the Metro building, a teenager and a man came up, very excited. All I could make out was the kid wanted to know if I was ok. The man insisted Vitaly was hurt. Vitaly insisted he wasn’t. We looked down at Vitaly’s hand. It was covered with blood. He thought it must be the other guy’s. But, for some reason, he reached down to the seat of his pants. More blood. I looked and, sure enough, he had blood in the seat of his pants. By now, the kid and the man’s wife had summoned the police. The man insisted Vitaly go inside with them. Apparently the man had four years of medical school. Insisting Vitaly pull his pants down, he wanted to see the wound. After a quick exam, he indicated it was about a two inch long cut. The cop in the Metro station was trying to dissuade Vitaly from filing a report or calling “911”. But, the man insisted on calling the medics for him. A brief inspection on their part convinced Vitaly to go to the emergency room.
The doctor said the knife went in the full four inches. He also said the man knew what he was doing with the knife. He missed the femoral artery by ½”. Had he hit it, Vitaly would have probably bled to death before reaching the hospital. God was with us. (By now, Vitaly has had the stitches removed, and is recovering. Please pray that the knife wasn’t dirty, and there will be no infection. Stephanie tried to ask the doctor about a Tetanus shot, but we are not sure it translated well.)
I won’t bore you with the details of filing a police report in Russia. Let me just say, I think we could have made better use of the six hours. As I said earlier, I thought Vitaly was trying to disengage the man, but he was backing up, trying to draw the action back to the police office at the top of the escalator. Of course, instead of being on the floor as they should have been, they were in the office smokin’ –n- jokin’. Oh well. I asked Vitaly, “Why did the guy stay on you so hard? Did you tag him a good one to start?” “No,” Vitaly said, “I didn’t use bad words, but I was telling him how ugly he was and how bad he smelled.” Oh well, some people can’t take a compliment. One of the first things Vitaly said to me after it was over was, “You saw they were not Russians.” In fact, they were not. They were either Chechens or Azerbaijani. Oh well, score one for the good guys. Thank You, Lord. The problem in St. Petersburg is really unusual. A lady working the desk at our hotel said public transportation was not safe in St. Petersburg. The problems have developed recently. That surprised us. We have never had any problems before. Though we usually don’t use the Metro for groups, we’ve never had any cause for concern when we did use them in Moscow. Stefan and I have criss-crossed Moscow many times, alone, on Metro. I have meandered around all of our Russian cities by myself. We have never had any reason to be unusually concerned for our safety. In fact, I would rather walk the streets of Moscow than New York. We will stay alert, but we won’t fear for our safety in Russia. There is no more need to there than here at home. |
||||
|
|
