Chapter XII.
My parent's money was buying everything else, like transportation, film for the camera, and fare for the Mercedes to and from the airport. I shake my head in despair when I ponder it.
I returned home with a $2 UAH bill in my pocket (the equivalent of forty cents). I framed it as a souvenir. It is a symbol of survival that I made it home!
It was seven days of continuous headaches, being locked up in a one-bedroom/living room, one bathroom, a small kitchen, and cable TV. I had warm water in the shower, unlike my first apartment. I had an assortment of VHS movies to watch; I slept on a pull-out couch.
It may sound dangerous (fire code laws), but Oksana would lock me into my apartment for eighteen hours a day. I was only allowed to come out six hours a day.
The fire hazard alluded to above made me extremely jittery. I was on the second level, locked in from the exterior. I would have had to break a glass windowpane, and jump into the courtyard to save my own life!
Oksana's explanation of locking me in for the duration, came with the following explanation: Russian Mafia, which she had never mentioned before. She then takes her fists to my head, like shadow boxing, and says to me; Boom-Boom-Boom.
Ergo, Oksana was “looking out for my safety.”