He recognized the car of Vera Grach, and he sighed. To his surprise, the car was moving very erratically, and he thought that Vera might be drunk.
However, when the vehicles neared each other, he saw Nina Lapina was driving and Vera was next to her. Jeff understood that Vera was teaching her friend how to drive. The car passed by the police cruiser, and Jeff continued to watch it in the mirror.
A few hundred yards farther down, the road turned. Nina lost control, and the vehicle, still heading straight, left the road and vanished from Jeff’s view into a ditch.
Jeff gasped and whirled his cruiser around.
He reached the place where the accident had happened, got out, and looked down.
He sighed with relief. The slope of the ditch was not steep. The car just stopped, and both the women, safe and sound, were standing near it looking at each other in confusion. They heard the police officer’s arrival and turned toward him.
Vera waved her hand, and Jeff neared.
«Officer,» she started to talk. «We have a problem.»
«Don’t you remember me?» asked Jeff, and both Russians gazed at him.
«What am I talking about?» He thought trying to take himself under control. «Who am I to her? Just a policeman.»
«I remember you.» Vera smiled. «You took away the cat that we found.»
Chuckling, Nina gently poked Vera and whispered something into her ear.
«Stop it, Nina.» Vera did not let on, but he understood.
«They noticed my feelings!» Jeff thought, averting his eyes. «I look stupid.»
«I read somewhere,» Vera was addressing Jeff. «A man put a bouquet of the flowers on the porch of his neighbor. The owner of the house reported it to the police, and the man was arrested.»
«Crazy lady,» Nina giggled. «I wish someone put flowers on my porch.»
«I think you’re right, Nina.» Vera fixed her glare on Jeff, and the embarrassed policeman wanted to change the subject. He looked at her car.
«Your car is much cheaper than your husband’s,» he said with surprise.
«We have separate accounts and budgets,» Vera calmly answered, reviving hope in his heart. «We spend money how we want. I need to pay for my study, and the paints are very expensive. Oleg has his own business in Russia. But my account is all the money that I have. I have to be practical.»
«I don’t understand,» Nina cut in. «Why Vera doesn’t kick her light-headed hubby out and find some good, serious man instead.»
«Oleg loves me,» explained Vera, moving her braid in front of her. Enchanted by the view, Jeff watched her long thin fingers mechanically playing with her chestnut hair. «Immigration is a very difficult process. It would be a dishonest act and a betrayal to divorce him.»