Episode #2: Inconvenient Refugees 2: Natasha and Victor

Mar,18 2025

We let Illi and Ziri to visit their future home before committing to our free zone and our way of living. We also fed them properly, and let them wash up and spend a few hours as a family.

Fatima did suggest that they spend those few hours nude, as when she would be back, they would either to leave forever and return to the lottery of who would accept them, or they would stay, keep their home, get their children educated, all be well-fed and treated, but they would need to remain nude.

Only then would they get their skin cancer vaccine.

We got rejected by two other families, including one which quarrelled, with the father thinking it was the best for their family and the mother insulted he would ever think that. The other talked for a long time, but they had an almost adult daughter who wanted to come, but not her parents.

And when I say almost, 2 weeks later and she would have joined us. Sadly, she can't until 18. Maybe she will get stuck long enough around the textile free zones and will be able to come here? We definitely told her we would welcome her.

But then, Natasha and Victor showed up, with their 4-year-old son, Gregory and their baby daughter, Eliana.

"You are not Algerian..."

"We sure are. Eliana was born on the boat, but conceived in Algeria. Gregory was born in Algeria, but conceived in Kaliningrad". Said Victoria in perfect English, but with a faint hint of a Russian accent.

"Ah", I said.

Kaliningrad was an exclave of Russia. When Russia invaded Ukraine, it became a Pariah state. When climate change thawed Siberia, Russia believed it would become rich, but instead, it released old viruses and bacteria which, thankfully, remained mostly contained.

It still put Russia under heavy quarantine, including the Suwa?ki Gap, which is the small area between Belorussia and Kaliningrad which allowed to send supplies to the exclave.

Many of the million or so inhabitants weren't lucky and couldn't secure access to stable food supplies during the crisis, creating an exodus of residents, most of which were pushed back to Russia itself.

Natasha, however, left about 5 years ago, a few years after the main migration event, when Suwa?ki Gap reopened and things got better.

"We left when my husband when the rumor began circulating that he was targeted as a political opponent of Moscow"

"Aren't you political refugees, then?"

"No because, when the investigated, they realized that the rumors were false."

"Right, but you can't go back because of Russia's new refusal of return of its citizens"

"Exactly. My husband is a power substation engineer, so Algeria took us in with open arms, but now, we got hit by the earthquake"

"Couldn't he work on the reconstruction?"

It's Amanda who speaks up. "They aren't reconstructing. They are letting go of the region"

"Oh. Well, we need help with our substation, if you want in, you get a house. What do you do, Natasha?"

"I am an English as a second language teacher"

"Do you speak Arabic?"

"I do. Well enough"

"Ok, that could be swell. We will get new Algeria students, and you could help them learn"

"I would love that"

"There is one catch"

"We know, we can't leave"

"No, well, yeah, you can't leave. But we are a naturist free zone. We are linked with a few others, including one with a university, and we have a pretty good hospital"

"That's it? That's the cost of living here?"

"And you need the skin cancer vaccine"

"We both have it. Gregory too, but Eliana is too young and only knew the boat"

"We'll give it to her when she is old enough"

"Ok, did you get all that, Victor?"

He speaks to her in Russian. She replies, and laughs. He laughs.

"He is in. He is good at understanding English, but speaking, he will get better. He mostly spoke in Arabic"

"And he doesn't mind?"

"No, do we undress now?", she asks.

"Let us show you your house, you can decide them"

"Is it made of dirt and without running water?"

"No, why?"

"Is it shared with three other families inside with rotten bread for breakfast?"

"Hell no. Your kids will get a room each, and you will have a kitchen and fresh food"

"Then it's better than the house we had in Algeria or the time on the boat. "

"Then you should love it here. So you know Illia and Ziri?"

"The farmers?"

"Yes, they accepted too"

"We barely knew them. They are nice."

I thank them, and Fatima sends them to their new house, after Amanda assigned it.

She then tells me, "That's 8 people, we still have a few empty houses"

But the new chaperone, sent from the Costa Rica government, announced a delay for the next candidates. Perhaps 2 or 3 hours.

He leaves, and I leave Amanda to handle the paperwork for the two families we welcomed. She is less bothered by being forced to dress up than I am, so I undress on the other side and asks Fatima to let me go see the two families.

When I get to Illi and Ziri's house, I find Ziri, nude, with his two kids, also nude.

"Sorry. Illi in the bath"

But Illi yells for me to come.

The bathroom door wasn't fully closed, so I talked to her.

"You want me to come in?"

"I have to get used to being nude"

I get in and find her in the bath, washing her arms.

"I am happy you are all settling in"

"Well, I am the mother, so I am the last to wash up, of course. I want to talk you, the house is beautiful and Fatima showed us the fields, and my husband will love working here"

"Good. So you are staying?"

"We are. For good."

"Amanda will come to let you sign your contracts. I don't live far from here, I'll show you my house, my wife will want to talk to you to get new recipes, I am sure"

She smiles.

"We got a second teacher. Natasha"

"For real? I like her a lot. I helped her with her baby a little"

"She said she didn't know you much"

"No, she doesn't. People on the boat were guarded, reserved. But she is kind, and nice"

"Good. I'll let you to your bath"

"Dave? Can I call you, Dave?"

"It is my name"

"It's not so bad, being nude"

"No, it's not", I say, smiling, as I grab Fatima who was speaking with Sakina.

We get to Victor and Natasha's house. All of them are nude, and in the process of eating a meal.

Victor hadn't spoken in English in the conference room, but he managed to string along a few sentences. It's slow, but he manages to express his gratitude.

"You knew that naturism was", I said to Natasha

"Well, we got the Skin Cancer Vaccine in Kaliningrad, and when we fled, we hid some time at a naturist resort in Germany from immigration officials"

"And you liked it?"

"We would have stayed, but they couldn't house us forever"

"I get that"

There were grateful, and even offered me some of their meal, but I just hung out with them.

"Victor, we have a problem with electricity"

"Yes?", he says.

"Costa Rica always wants us to use more electricity, but it's not like we can just invent more. Our main factory, is mostly manual. In the past, we could do bitcoin mining, but that's gone"

"Can't you set up a data center, assuming you have the funds?"

"We could, but our power substation isn't powerful enough, but one of our neighbors is, and they have no problems. We use their data center for our development"

"Wait, each zone has power substation?", he says, well enough to be understood.

"Yes"

"The one with the data center, it's ok with power? They don't need to spend more"

"No, they are fine. That one and the one with a dark factory. The others struggle"

He laughs,

"I have your solution then"

"Huh?"

"Export electricity to them, all of you, they spend less, you more"

I look at him,

"We don't know how to do that"

"I do"

"And you could do that?"

"Need supplies"

"Oh, you will get them. Ok, this is... I am so happy, we got a new teacher, and a solution for our power requirements"

"I will need to wear work clothes"

"Of course. We have some for working with electricity. We aren't stupid."

He smiles.

"Your English isn't that bad"

Natasha speaks up. "It's bad enough that we got rejected for England."

Right, England has strict English exams now as they managed to avoid being hit too hard by climate change.

"Well, we don't mind. I think you will both find yourself fitting in very well."

I leave them, and I realize that seeing them eat made me hungry, so I get to my house, and see that Cathy has the same idea as she is preparing a roast.

In the last decade, almost everyone on the planet began reducing the quantity of meat eaten in a week. This suited my wife, but not me.

She began experimenting, making meet centered meals I enjoyed, like a beef roast, but reducing the quantity of actual meat in favor of more vegetables and tofu.

At first, it was just a little bit of tofu, perhaps 5% of the meet volume, and maybe 20% more veggies to replace another 5% of meet. Now, I think we get like 3 cubes of meat per plate and the rest is vegetable.

It took me years, but I got there. Now, the meat that was in each of my plates, is what we need for a roast spanning a few days.

I kissed Cathy. She is the morning and noon cook for our hospital. It's a delicate job because food in hospital taste bland for a reason. People get in with a lot of different conditions and food needs to not affect blood pressure, cause allergies or hurt the immune system. It's a challenge...

But at home, her food is far from bland, apart from perhaps a lack of salt, but I got used to it.

"How was your day?", I ask her.

"Good. Jackeline arrived late, but not that bad today"

"What was her excuse this time?"

"Billy was sick"

"Ok, that's a good one. How old is he?"

"Seven I think?"

"Right. She is older than us"

"How was your day?", she asks me.

This means nothing of note occurred while she was working. This is how she likes it. Boring, routine, and then, she can come home, relax, work on her next novel or cook something for her husband.

"Horrible. Costa Rica is pushing way too far"

"Oh God, what do they want this time?"

"Well, more electricity, but I might have a solution."

"It's like that every month. I hear their internal consumption is down", she says.

I have no idea how she could get that information, but I think. She understands Spanish well enough and listens to the local radio while working.

"Well, here is the thing. A refugee ship sunk on the coast"

"Yeah, I heard. Tragic. From Algeria?"

I look at her.

"Maybe you should tell me more about the news"

"Hey, you said it depressed you"

"It doesn't do that to you?"

"Hell no, I feel so happy to be here, and to be married to the administrator", she says, getting close and kissing me.

I love her so much!

After our kiss, I tell her the issue. "Each of the naturist free zone needs to accept 10 of them"

"Wait, why, they have a depopulation problem. That's stupid"

"They are Christian and Spanish speaking. The refugees are Muslim and speak Arabic."

She laughs nervously. "Seriously?"

"I don't know. Did you get a number of refugees?"

"It's over 4500 people, Dave"

"Oh, so we only get the tip of the iceberg. "

"Still, they lose like 10,000 residents in the regions per month"

"Yes, but the cost to integrate them?", I tell her.

"Right. I wonder why the news isn't talking about sending us 10 of them"

"Do they talk about us at all?"

"Only how we are free loaders", she says, thinking,

"There you go"

"Right. Only negative stories. Still, getting them to accept naturism..."

"I have 8 settled in already. Two families"

"Wicked!"

"And one of the fathers, Victor, is an electrical engineer working with substations. It wasn't in his file, or they wouldn't have sent him to us"

"Victor?"

"From Kaliningrad"

"Oh poor couple, Kids?"

"4-year-old, born in Algeria and a baby. Born on the boat"

"Shit. That's rough."

"They hid in a naturist resort in Germany for a while"

She laughs. "That's one way to hide"

"She worked as an English teacher in Algeria."

"Nice, so you will get the other 2?"

"Well, more. I will coordinate for the other zones"

"My knight in a shining armor"

"The way I saw it, is that we might get 12, and another 8, but if we combine, we both get the quota, you know?"

"Always counting. "

"Did you get a few words down?"

"I did, but later in the story. I still not know how to put the red herring to highlight the killer"

"But that's the strength of your books!"

"Yeah, but it's a lot of work"

"I bet."

"When are the next interviews"

"In about an hour"

"Oh, the roast won't be ready, I have a few hours of cooking"

"Darn. Maybe I can come between interviews to get a bite?", I offer.

"No, I'll come bring you the thermos and a fork. You'll eat between interviews"

"I am with Amanda"

"I make her one too. You know how she eats crap."

She does. She works a lot harder than she should.

"She loves your roasts"

"Invite her more often, I like her"

"Sure. I think she likes you, but she tries to keep work and her private life separate"

"And you are her boss. Got it"

"Maybe you can invite it? It won't feel like I am ordering her"

"Sure"

I kissed my wife again. We've been trying for a kid recently, but didn't get lucky yet.

I make it back and Fatima tells me that the one arrived. I sigh, they are early.