Dead End Subplots

What adds more to an historic saga than a shipboard romance?  Just look at what it did for the blockbuster Titanic.  In Ikons: Saint Nicholas the Wonder Worker, I wanted to add one, but I could not very well have Massey, a happily married man, engage in oceanic high jinxes.  So the amorous task is performed by the addition of two young Polish brothers, Marko and Roman Kozlowki.

* * *

"They both looked like barrels with heads attached.  Although the heads seemed ridiculously small for the bodies, the determined look emanating from the faces told Massey the heads knew exactly what to do with the strength on which they rest.  With arms thick as stovepipes the closest Pole picked up Massey's belongings swung them away from the bunk and let them fall to the deck."

* * *

Following this inglorious meeting, the three become fast friends.  Marko, the more outgoing of the two, is a real lady's man.  However, his random evening flings came to an end when he meets and falls in love with the alluring Korin Meshanko.

* * *

"She was attractive, blond, tall, and promised to wed another.  Marko had watched for her each day since they left Danzig.  Korin would stand alone by the rail watching the sea, her blond hair tangled from the wind.  She did not wear her hair braided as the others, nor did she keep it covered.  Instead, she wore the scarf over her shoulders and allowed her hair to flow free." (I would write this passage much different today, but I was just starting my writing career.)

* * *

Immigrant Women enjoying the fresh air topside

Marko's romance with Korin is ill-fated.  In my intended subplot, Korin's father is leader of a Lithuanian nationalist group conspiring against the Tsar.  In order to unify her father's power within the cabal, Korin agrees to marry her father's rival. I had plans to integrate her story into Ikon's plot, but found it was too complex.  Instead, I allowed Marko's romance to fizzle when the ship docks in New York.

* * *

"All the waiting women were dressed in their best clothes with colorful scarves adorning their heads.  All that is but one.   A tall blond woman stood off to the side with her head bare, as if in defiance to the rest.  Korin Meshanko waited for her name to be called.  Waited to see for the first time the man who would be her husband."

* * *

Korin just disappears into the crowd, never to be seen again.  I intended to reintroduce her later, but never did.  

A more seasoned writer probably would have rewritten the Atlantic passage chapters and deleted Korin.  But I liked her subplot and knowingly violated the rule about "killing your babies."  Several readers have inquired as to what became of Korin.  To  them, I can only shrug.  

The Men of Hutava

This is my grandfather Massey Pribish.  It was probably taken in 1913 or so.  I believe it was a picture he had taken when he was arrived Joliet, Illinois and sent it to his wife in Russia.  But I'm getting ahead of the story.

Massey Pribish Circ 1913

The story of Ikons begins in 1904.  Massey and his brother Sam are planning to leave their home in Hutava to claim their fortune.   Since I didn't have any pictures of the two brothers when they were young, I chose to use a picture of two Russians I found in a history book as inspiration. 

Massey and Sam's Stand-ins

"Victor looked carefully at each man trying to decide who would give the most work for the least pay.  Over to one side he saw two young men standing apart from the rest.  They were of medium height and strongly resembled one another.  One, the oldest, already had a dense growth of hair on his upper lip; the other lad, only a mere shadow.  Both were lean.  Not the hungry lean Victor usually saw, but a sturdy, muscular lean.  Their hair was black and close cropped, more in the fashion of a soldier than the bowl-shaped chasha of a peasant, and their skin was still dark from days in the sun.  It was obvious both were just off the land and not yet broken by factory labor.  Victor leaned toward the yard-boss and pointed a leathery finger at Samuel and Massey.  "Those two," he said and quickly walked back to the mill."

* * *

Based on this photo, I constructed a story line for the brothers.  At the time I didn't have all the family information about the two, so I made it up resulting in two mistakes.  First, in my novel Sam was the solid older brother and Massey the feisty little brother.  In actuality, Massey was older.  Second, I named Sam, Sam, an honest mistake.  All my life I knew my great-uncle as Sam.  It turned out his name was Sergei and he had changed his name to Sam when he came to the United States in 1910.


For the rest of the men in Hutava I used this photo.  Notice the man on the far right.  He became my great grandfather, Major Sergei Pribish. Many years later I obtained records from the Department of Homeland Security, which listed Massey's father's name as Lucian Lukaszewicz.  I have no idea what that means.

The Men of Hutava

My father called his grandfather on the Pribish side, The Major.  It could be he was a major in the Tsar's army or was mayor of Hutava.  Both words are similar in Russian.  I chose to name him Serei and make him a retired army officer.  Note the medals on his chest.  Russian officers in 1900 were usually of noble birth.  The only way Sergei could attain commissioned rank was by serving in the Asian frontier.  So that's how his story came to be.  Sending him to the Far East also allowed me to explain my father's Tatar features.  Sergei's story is the frame upon which Russia's participation in the Great War was constructed.

According to DHS, my father's maternal grandfather was Andrew Kotchik.  Not knowing this in 1992, I named him Boris Koscik.  My father claimed he was a horse thief.  Boris' story is based on the recollections of my then ten year-old father and is instrumental on projecting the story of politics in the Russian village.

Other villager men were the inn-keeper, mayor, assorted farmers and of course, the village villain, Shako.

Using old photos was not an original idea of mine. It actually came from Sue Grafton (Alphabet Murder series).  She taught my class at the Antioch Writers' Workshop and brought in photos to use as props.  One of her photos became a character in my second book.

Giving the brothers opposite personalities and placing them under the thumb of a domineering father allowed me to create a coming-of-age story for the two boys.  I used my own experience and those of my friends to paint a picture of young men leaving home, looking for work and finding it the lower levels of the factory.  While our lives may have been sixty years removed from that of our grandfathers, our experiences were similar.  It would have been something to actually be able to have a discussion between me and my grandfather at age eighteen.

Russian Factory Workers - Circ 1900

Based on this photo, I do believe our grandfathers had it rougher than we did.

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