Trafika Europe 3 - Latvian Sojourn

“No,”– he laughed, – “Naģe, you’re a Naģe.” – he said, as he drove off waving in farewell.

Naģe is used the Kurzeme region of Latvia to mean ‘frog’, but Nadezhda did not know that and she liked the nickname. That day by evening she had earned twenty-five lati and her life began to change beyond belief. Always when a young one comes on board, she looks over Naģe in disbelief. Client taste is incomprehensible, the young one concludes. But their desires are like law. It’s better for all of them that Naģe is here – she, like a foxhound sniffs out footprints, smells evil clients a mile away, she pities and comforts, lends money, brings home- made delicacies and rescues the girls who have got in trouble. She has self-respect – silently she endures the sneers of the young johns, their repulsive curses, when they stop to pick up a girl. Her takers are a special breed. Decent men. Driving by, they reverently greet her. With each successive client Nadezhda Mihailovna grew more certain that there were no more unhappy and misunderstood people than men. She fell in love with all of them – like she loved the berry mounds, the tiny fists of mushrooms in the wooded valleys eroded by ancient seas, like the veil of white cobwebs between the fir trunks. Perhaps God stood by her – not once was she beaten or humiliated. There was one man, who to begin with wanted to talk to her tenderly, but when he finally got down to

106