Tania- Snow Woman and Patrick

Tania shows me this picture and says:

"This ship is full of men who have been lured to Alaska by the Snow Woman. Away from Alaska, it stands still in the waters, time does not exist on this ship. The Snow Woman, when she tempts men from the Nevada desert, sends some of their warmth back to the Nevada desert to warm their hearts. Finally, she extracts the heart from the man's chest and boards them on this ship. On this ship, there are men who live without hearts, but they do not age. Time doesn’t exist on this ship.”

Tania stands with me in the pool, the same place where I first saw her. She’s slightly thinner, with frown lines on her face, her movements filled with anxiety. Her words remind me of a remote village where I was born and lived for ten years. I have written extensively in the "The Drowned" about a creature called "El" or "Yal", a woman who loves to sing and lives in the sea. However, Boslema, the god of the seas, has set conditions for the sea woman to sing. The main condition is that she goes to women who are pregnant, and during childbirth, takes out their hearts to give to him. In my homeland, whenever a woman died during childbirth, we believed that it was the work of the mischievous god of the seas, and that El or Yal was forced to go for the heart of the woman giving birth. I don't know what the Snow Woman does with the hearts of the men. Who or what power compels her to extract human hearts? I ask Tania, but she doesn’t know either. However, she says: "Perhaps our job is to find out what the Snow Woman does with these hearts."

I don't ask Tania where she heard the story of this ship, just as no one asked me about Yal. I just say, "How normal this ship looks, as if it's a cruise ship."

Tania returned with her daughters. Finally, she managed to get visas for them and brought both to her. The story of bringing her daughters is astonishing. Tania says, “One morning in a camp on the Ukraine border, a postman came straight to me. He handed me a package stamped with "Alaska" but without a sender. I opened the letter. and read, 'I am the Snow Woman. In a week, you can take your daughters to America. Their visas will be stamped and ready in two days. Your tickets are in the packet.' When Tania told me over the phone that the Snow Woman had sent a letter, I screamed with joy. I said, 'Wow, so I can finally read a letter from the Snow Woman.' From the other side of the phone, Tania said, 'I’ve arrived in Henderson. I'll tell you what happened.'

In the pool, I wait for Tania who's taking deep breaths, eager to finally talk about the letters and when I can see them. However, Tania just shrugs, smirks, and says, 'She's cleverer than all of this. Her letters disappear as soon as you finish reading the last word.' I’m stunned in the pool, nearly shouting, 'What do you mean?'

"It means exactly what I said."she said.

If Patrick's head hadn't appeared at the end of the pool, I might have remained perplexed and upset. But as soon as Patrick shows up, it's my breath that's taken away, and my connection to the world breaks. The only thing I hear is Tania's angry and frustrated voice, sounding as if it’s coming from a distance: 'Are you still hung up on this man?'