WE WERE TRYING to escape. From what I don’t know. It was through some kind of cave system, or tunnel. I cannot say if it was man-made or not. What I do remember is that I was surrounded by Ingrian girls. Dozens of them, maybe. Hundreds. There were so many of them, and they were all trying to climb out of the passageway and get out into the cold but welcoming December air. I don’t know what their names were, but they seemed to have been of uniform age and appearance. They had red curly hair and their skin was milk white. They wore black shirts and blue jeans. They were beautiful but desperate and very aggressive.
One Ingrian girl climbed up my back and then sort of pushed herself over my head, as if doing some kind of acrobatic trick. and another pushed by my arms. There were just so many of them. I can’t say anything was really inviting about the thing. It was a stampede. Ingria was the historical name of the territory connecting what is now Estonia with the current Finnish border. It covers the swampy area where Peter the Great decided to build his imperial city.
The only hint at civilization in the cave was an old monument that had been built into the walls. Words were chiselled into the granite, maybe about the Estonian War of Independence, or perhaps the Finnish Winter War, but I could not read them. I only gripped the stone as I pulled myself out into the light. A dozen or so Ingrian girls were already standing there looking down at me. I remember their curly red hair, the slope of their faces, those haunting blue eyes.
I remember how uncompromising they all were.
north! 