Maya and Natasha by Elyse Durham (Fiction ’22)
Fiction alum Elyse Durham talks about her new novel Maya & Natasha. Read her essays, an interview, and an excerpt from the first chapter of the novel below!
Maya & Natasha
CHAPTER ONE
LENINGRAD, SEPTEMBER 1958
Maya and Natasha sat in the back of a cramped red trolleybus, trying not to look at their watches. They were seventeen years old, and they were very, very late—which, as usual, was Natasha’s fault.
It was the first day of their last year at the Vaganova Ballet Academy. Half an hour before, they’d left Katusha’s apartment with plenty of time to catch the 4:30 trolleybus, which would have put them at the Vaganova early enough to claim their favorite room in the dormitory, which would have settled the nerves that had cost Maya sleep since June. But Natasha turned back at the last minute to repack her suitcase for the third time. Though the bus trip was only twenty minutes long, Natasha was convinced it would permanently wrinkle everything she owned.
The bus was crowded, and the two girls shared a seat, both to save room and because closeness was their usual attitude. When they were little, they’d pushed their beds close enough together that they could sleep holding hands. Katusha had reminded them that morning to stick together and care for each other during this last year of school, but her words were unnecessary. For Maya and Natasha, being close was less a preference and more a biological necessity, as if each held some source of energy the other couldn’t live without.
