Sunday, July 29, 2007

Roma's not in a coma

This is good news, is it not?
I'm trying to look on the bright side.
Let me tell you the long, sad story.

We were in church. The singing part had finished and I'd scooted around the back of the church to sit with Tracy and Simon and Ira, who translates the sermons for us.
2 minutes into the sermon, Trac got an sms from Anton who was at home, asking her to call home right now.

So Trac and I went out the back to make the call. I spoke to Jenya- he had just had a call from Roma's girlfriend (well, ex-girlfriend by one day) Alissa, to say that Roma had been in a car accident in Korsakov (port town, to the south of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk) and was in a coma in Korsakov's hospital. It wasn't long afterwards that I, Simon (who kindly offered to drive us for the day!) and Tracy, Anton, Jenya and Alissa were in the car, headed for sunny Korsakov.

We found the hospital- but there was no such young man, named Roma or otherwise, admitted to the hospital. Our one source of information was the man answering Roma's cell phone, which was intermittently available throughout the day. His name was Dima... or was it Andrei? There seemed to be a name change at some point. We called the police, but they had no record of a car accident yesterday in the area. The second time we spoke to Dima/Andrei, he said Rome had been moved to a Yuzhny hospital because it was such a severe situation. He would meet us on the highway at a bus stop near the site of the crash to hand over Roma's phone.
He didn't show.

Later, when we got home, Natasha tried Roma's phone number again and Dima/Andrei answered it, then put Roma on! Something is true: Roma's not in a coma. Roma told Natasha that he IS in hospital in Korsakov, he'd just woken up and spoken to the doctor, and he would be there for at least 2 months. So we called Alissa who had gone home herself, to let her know the latest news- Trac could hear her yelling at Natasha over the phone- it's not true! Alissa had called Roma's phone again herself, and one of his friends answered- maybe Dima/Andrei. He told her that it was all a joke- that when Alissa had called Roma late last night, they were pretty drunk and Roma didn't want to talk to her. He told his friends to say he had been in a car accident and was in a coma.

So- what to believe?
There are a lot of un-accounted-for facts here.
Did Alissa hear about the accident from Roma's friends late last night, or at about 1pm today as she'd told us?
Was there a car accident? Or was it not reported to the police because the car was driven off the scene? If there were narcotics involved they would want to steer clear of the men in navy blue.
Why did the hospital tell us he wasn't there, if he was?
Why was Dima/Andrei going to meet us on the highway to give us Roma's phone if he was with Roma (in the hospital?) when Natasha called him, about an hour later?
Why did he tell us Roma had been transferred to a Yuzhny hospital?
And another point, which seems seems insignificant but still doesn't make sense- did Roma and Alissa break up 3 days ago, which is what Roma told us three days ago, when we last saw him, or yesterday, which is what Alissa told me?
Where is Roma? He is probably in Korsakov, at a friends house, or at the hospital?
Is this true? Or completely fabricated?

Only one thing we know for sure: Roma's not in a coma.

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