My first short story on Steemit - especially for @sndbox

Since I'm part of @sndbox now, I feel more and more 'obliged' to create better content, different content, MORE content and as always original, authentic and quality content!

Since I'm obsessed with Chernobyl [at the time I was 2 years old and living in Greece so I might have caught some radioactivity anyway...], I wrote this...

20 km from Pripyat, April 29th 1986
-Mom, are we going to die? Please tell me we're not going to die ... I don't want to die!!! And where is Dad? Why did we leave home?
-We are not dying sweetie pie ... it's just a precaution. We will go back in a few days. Dad is there, helping the other firemen to get through. Don't worry, everything is going to be alright... I love you...

New York, January 29th 2016

Hello Mr Prescot. I'm glad to finally meet you. To our topic...As you know, my name is Hanna Belovol and I am Ukrainian - I think your secretary told you more or less why I'm here. I live in New York but I come from Pripyat, the little town near the nuclear reactor in Chernobyl, the land of the unseen catastrophe, in Ukraine. It is now almost 30 years after. And I'm here to tell you the whole story.

I heard nothing but screams but no one was around. It was kind of strange. I was in a dark place, I didn’t see much, I was just hearing the screams and feeling the heat. It was more than warm, my skin was in pain – I was in pain. I felt like melting, literally … Was I dying? I started screaming too when I realized I was in the reactor – the Reactor 4 was eating me alive, I could feel the radiation inside me, destroying every inch of me. I started screaming louder, but no one came, no one heard!! My hands were actually melting, I could see that clearly now. My nails were already gone. I was in terrible pain and the heat didn’t let me breathe anymore. That’s the moment I thought I was really dying. No, no!!! That couldn’t be happening, not to me, I left on time, I don’t want to die, no!!! Help me!!!

I woke up all sweaty with my heart beating like crazy. Just another nightmare. Ivan was trying to calm me down, but didn’t succeed this time. ‘I must go Ivan, I think I must go’ I said, still trying to breathe. ‘You don’t have to go. No one is forcing you to go. Besides, what’s left there? Nothing! Why do you want to go so much?’ he answered. ‘Because I just have to’.
And indeed. Three weeks later I booked my air tickets to Kiev.

My name is Hanna and I’m Ukrainian. I left my country on the 5th of May 1986, and never looked back. I was eleven years old at the time. I never saw my father after we left Pripyat. My mother died of skin cancer seven years after that, in much pain. So, I was left all alone. Now I am a photographer in New York, where I’ve lived most of my life. But I can’t stop having this urge, of going back there, for some reason I’ll never get. Ivan is right – it really has no point, but there’s something that needs to be done, for some weird, unexplainable, silly reason. Maybe I miss it afterall, who knows. Ivan is my soulmate.

Pripyat, February 4th 1981
-Mom, what is that?
-What honey?
-Those buildings we see from our kitchen window.
-Oh, that’s the nuclear station sweetie.
-What is that?
-Those buildings you see are called reactors, and they create nuclear energy that is very valuable to our lives.
-It seems dangerous.
-Why do you say that?
-Because it smells bad.

April 26th 1986
Dear diary,
I don’t think I’ll manage to write much this time because we have a lot to do. One of the reactors kind of exploded. They said everything is ok but either way we have to leave the village for some days. I know it seems normal, but I’m worried. Dad just left and I feel sad. He said he must go there and help, I didn’t get much.

Let me know what you think and -most importantly- if you want it to be continued ! It's up to you to decide!

The pictures are all mine and the closest I have to this atmosphere... (not from Chernobyl)

With this chance though...

I hereby present to all of you my new photo project: 'Chernobyl, 35 years after' - The book will be out on April 26th 2021, exactly 35 years from the Chernobyl disaster...

Wish me luck! [and if you have any Ukrainian friends/connections in Kiev or closer to Chernobyl, put me in contact please!]

This is one of my favorite -and related to the story- songs...

*...''is in the air for you and me''...* *'...'discovered by Madame Curie''...*

And as I always say...

Don't forget to smile!

Yours

Mean Mommy