Russian

Six in the morning at Leningradsky station, the fast train to St Petersburg: did you take your passport, I took it, I bought the tickets online, I forgot my charger, I took two, what time did you get up, I didn't sleep at all, then sleep on the train.

On the fast train to St Petersburg, Katya asks what Sam's first year was like, before her: every day I tuned the pianos at the school, in the evenings I played at the club and walked around the Arbat, I called home every Sunday, I studied Russian every day, your mother corrected me.

Checking in at a small hotel on Vasilievsky Island: did you book, two nights, have you ever been to Petersburg, never, Katya was here once as a child, third floor, the bridges go up at one, we've never seen them, then don't go to bed tonight.

The end of a day on Nevsky Prospekt and in the Hermitage: we walked for three hours and never sat down, we stood in the queue for an hour, but we saw the Rembrandts, you can't see everything, how long were we in there, five hours, my feet hurt, did you eat anything, one pirozhok, let's go and have dinner.

One in the morning on the embankment, in full daylight, as the Palace Bridge goes up: we left the hotel at midnight, we walked along the embankment to the bridge, we got there at one, then they raised the bridge, it's light and it's two in the morning, where did all these people come from, they all came to see, let's not go back till morning.

Peterhof by hydrofoil: two tickets for the hydrofoil, in ten minutes, back at six, we got here in forty minutes, last time you came by bus, with grandmother and it took three hours, the fountains come on at eleven, we arrived just in time.

A jazz café on the Fontanka: where did you learn to play like that, in Portland, I started at seven, when did you stop, I never stopped and I started tuning too, will you sit in with us, we begin at ten, with pleasure, you finished at one and they wanted more, come back next summer.

A bench on the Neva in the white night, Katya tells why she became a doctor: one day grandmother fell ill at the dacha, first we called the ambulance, then we waited two hours, then a doctor came and stayed all night, in the end she got better and I decided I'd be like him.

The same bench on the Neva, the next white night, Sam's turn: tell me from the beginning, I was born in Portland and grew up with a piano, who played it, my grandmother taught me, did you study music, I studied at college with Dima, then I became a tuner, why not a pianist, a tuner works every day and a pianist waits.

Moskovsky station, three minutes before the fast train home: where were you, the train's in three minutes, I was buying coffee and the queue was enormous, run, did we make it, we made it, just, we nearly missed the train, and you nearly left the coffee behind, I didn't, here's yours.

The morning after Galina Petrovna's birthday dinner, Katya rings from the hospital: where were you, I was going to come at seven, you came at eleven, Igor called, you promised mum, I meant to call, but you didn't, not now, I'm at work.

The quarrel in Sam's room near the Arbat: I waited two hours by the window, I was playing and didn't see the phone, you didn't call, you didn't even write, I forgot, last month you were late too, I was late once, you weren't late, you didn't come, you're right.

The flower stall by the metro, with Dima: have you called her yet, twice, she hasn't answered yet, and flowers, not yet, that's why we're here, which ones, those pink ones, five please, an even number is only for a funeral, Katya told me last year.

The bench by the hospital gate, making up: I should have called, forgive me, yes you should have, I was wrong, I shouldn't have shouted, was your mother angry, he's a musician, they're all like that, I had to work but come first, give me the flowers already.

Dima's studio, the morning after the flood: what happened, on Saturday night a pipe burst upstairs, the water came down into the studio, the desk burned out, the piano got soaked, the client cancelled, suddenly everything broke at once.

The landlord at the studio: I raised the rent last year and you didn't pay on time, we paid, two weeks late, and the month before last, then you have a month to pay what you owe, a month ago we had a client, and now you have water, we'll pay, we always paid.

Sam opens the soaked grand for Igor and Dima: could you save it, I managed to dry the soundboard, and the hammers, I couldn't, they swelled, can new ones be bought, I found some in Moscow but it didn't work out, too dear, two hundred thousand, we couldn't pay that.

The Sokolniki kitchen, planning the benefit night: I wrote to every musician, I made the poster and printed two hundred, I called the club and they gave us Friday, I persuaded the whole hospital to come, did you agree a price, three hundred roubles a ticket, then everything's ready, Lena, you did more than all of us.

The club at two in the morning, after the benefit night: how did it go, it went brilliantly, a hundred and twenty people came, we collected two hundred and ten thousand, enough for the hammers and the desk, Sam played three hours and didn't notice, I noticed, thank Dima, he wrote to everyone.

The first session after the repair; Sam asks Igor how the studio began: we were young, there was no money, where did you record, in a basement near Taganka, it was damp, then a singer came and recorded a song, she became famous, and we bought a second microphone.

The ticket office at Kazansky station, three places on the night train to Kazan: where to, compartment or open carriage, we decided on a compartment, upper or lower berths, two lower and one upper, agreed, departure at 23:10, we chose well.

The platform at Kazansky station and carriage seven of the night train: your tickets and passports, here you are, carriage seven, compartment three, we're on, we'll be off in a moment, it's moving, we're off, tea in glass holders, three teas please, we made it.

Tea in the compartment and the classic questions from the fellow passenger: where are you from, young man, from America, have you been in Russia long, almost two years already, and you speak like that, he lived a year with us, have you known each other long, two years, a year together.

Lights out in the compartment, and the fellow passenger tells how he met his wife on this train: are you from Kazan, born there, I met my wife here, when I came in she was reading, while she read I looked, when she finished I asked her name, when did you marry, a year later.

A taxi from the station to the Kazan Kremlin: where to, the Kremlin please, first time in Kazan, a mosque and a cathedral together, never seen it, you'll see them now, and the Volga, I saw the Volga once from a train, here you'll see it properly, look, that's the mosque, I've never seen anything like it.

A concert hall in Kazan, a folk ensemble, a take and a retake: can we do it once more, from the beginning, from the second verse, the altos came in late, recording again, was that better, much better, but the piano is a little off, I'll tune it again by tomorrow, then tomorrow we'll re-record it all.

Sam tunes the hall's old grand while the ensemble's director tells its history: before you came nobody had tuned it for three years, who played it, earlier a famous pianist, after him students, is it older than the hall, the hall was built later, when I finish I'll play for you, then we'll play together.

Evening on the Volga embankment in Kazan: since when have you wanted to stay, since the dacha, since last summer, in September residency, night shifts, since when have you known, since Tuesday, I waited until Kazan, my contract runs until June, then a permit, we'll do the papers together, until then not a word.

The Sokolniki kitchen, back from Kazan: well, tell us, how was Kazan, it turned out the piano is older than the hall, did they feed you, it turned out chak-chak beats cake, says who, did the recording work out, it worked out, we recorded everything in two days, and it turned out Sam speaks Tatar.

The family table in Sokolniki: I proposed to Lena and she said yes, at last, a year he thought and decided on a platform, at Kazansky station in front of everyone, Sam, you've been with us two whole years, in these two years I've learned to speak, to argue and to make up, and to eat pancakes, to Dima and Lena.