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"Tatiana, no long good-byes You’ll see your brother in a month Come downstairs and hold the front door open for us Your ot ready to carry Pasha’s things along with bags of extra food for caht, Papa"

The apart corridor with nine rooms attached There were two kitchens, one at the front of the apartment, one at the back The bathrooms and the toilets were attached to the kitchens In the nine rooo there were thirty-three people in the apartht people had moved or died or--

Tatiana’s family lived in the back It was better to live in the back The rear kitchen was the bigger of the two, and it had stairs leading up to the roof and down to the courtyard; Tatiana liked taking the rear stairs because she could sneak out without passing crazy Slavin’s rooer stove than the front kitchen and a bigger bath And only three other families shared the rear kitchen and bathroom with the Metanovs -- the Petrovs, the Sarkovs, and crazy Slavin, who never cooked and never bathed

Slavin was not in the hall at the moment Good

As Tatiana walked down the corridor to the front door, she passed the shared telephone Petr Petrov was using it, and Tatiana had time to think how lucky they were that their telephone worked Tatiana’s cousin Marina lived in an apartment where the telephone was broken all the tiet in touch with her, unless Tatiana wrote or went to see her personally, which she did not do often, since Marina lived on the other side of town, across the river Neva

As Tatiana neared Petr, she saw that he was very agitated He was obviously waiting for a connection, and though the cord was too short to allow hi in one place Petr got his connection just as Tatiana was passing him in the narrow corridor; Tatiana knew this because he screamed into the phone "Luba! Is that you? Is that you, Luba?"

So unexpected and sharp was his cry that Tatiana ju her bearings, she passed him quickly and then slowed down to listen

"Luba, can you hear h Luba, corad! Did you hear? War has started Take whatever you can, leave the rest, and get the next train Luba! No, not in an hour, not tomorrow -- now, do you understand? Cos, I tell you! Are you listening to li at her with an expression that said, if you don’t coht now

But Tatiana dawdled to hear ievna! Come here and help" Like her mother, her father said her full name only when he wanted Tatiana to kno serious he was Tatiana hurried, wondering about Petr Petrov and about why her brother couldn’t open the front door hi to the Tolmachevo ca his own suitcase and opening his own door He was one of four brothers He had to do things for himself "Pasha, let me show you," Tatiana said quietly "It’s like this You put your hand on the handle, and you pull The door opens You walk outside It shuts behind you Let’s see if you can do it"

"Just open the door, Tania," said Pasha "Can’t you see I’ my suitcase?"

Out on the street they stood still for a moment

"Tania," said Papa "Take the hundred and fifty rubles I gave you and go and buy us some food But don’t dawdle, like always Go io i back to bed," he whispered to her

Mao"

"Yes," Papa said "Co Pasha on the arrunted unhappily in reply and pulled her hair "Tie your hair up before you go out, will you?" he said "You’ll scare off the passersby"

"Shut up," Tatiana said lightly "Or I’ll cut it off co at Pasha

Tatiana said good-bye to Volodya, waved to her mother, took one last look at Pasha’s reluctant back, and returned upstairs

Deda and Babushka were on their way out with Dasha They were going to the bank to get their savings out

Tatiana was left alone

She breathed a sigh of relief and fell onto her bed

Tatiana knew she had been born too late into the family She and Pasha She should have been born in 1917, like Dasha After her there were other children, but not for long: two brothers, one born in 1919 and one in 1921, died of typhus A girl, born in 1922, died of scarlet fever in 1923 Then in 1924, as Lenin was dying and the New Economic Plan -- that short-lived return to free enterprise -- was coe his power base in the presidiu squad, Pasha and Tatiana were born seven minutes apart to a very tired twenty-five-year-old Irina Fedorovna The fa surprise No one had twins Who had twins? Tere almost unheard of And there was no room for her She and Pasha had to share a crib for the first three years of their life Since then Tatiana slept with Dasha

But the fact re up valuable bed space Dasha couldn’t get married because Tania took up the space where Dasha’s prospective husband would lie Dasha often expressed this to Tatiana She would say, "Because of you I’ to die an old maid" To which Tatiana would immediately reply, "Soon, I hope So I can raduating frootten a job so she wouldn’t have to spend another idle suames with the kids down the dusty road Tatiana had spent all of her childhood suorod, where her cousin Marina had a dacha with her parents

In the past Tatiana had looked forward to cucumbers in June, toust, looked forward toon the river -- all such s to be different

Tatiana realized she was tired of being a child At the saot a job at the Kirov factory, in the south of Leningrad That was nearly adult She noorked and constantly read the newspaper, shaking her head at France, at Marshal Pétain, at Dunkirk, at Neville Cha purposefully at the crises in the Low Countries and the Far East Those were Tatiana’s concessions to adulthood -- Kirov and Pravda

She liked her job at Kirov, the biggest industrial plant in Leningrad and probably in all of the Soviet Union Tatiana had heard that somewhere in that factory workers built tanks But she was skeptical She had not seen one

She made silverware Her job was to put the knives, forks, and spoons into boxes She was the second-to-last person in the asseirl after her taped the boxes shut Tatiana felt bad for that girl; taping was just so boring At least Tatiana got to handle three different types of utensils

Working at Kirov was going to be fun this su on her bed, but not as much fun as evacuation would have been

Tatiana would have liked to get in a few hours of reading She had just started Mikhail Zoshchenko’s sadistically funny short stories on the ironic realities of Soviet life, but her instructions froingly What was the hurry anyway? The adults were behaving as if there were a fire The Germans were two thousand kilometers away Coet deep into the country And Tatiana never got to be ho to be no immediate evacuation, she beca? Yes But Zoshchenko’s story "Banya" -- "The Bathhouse" -- about ahis clothes there, too, and losing his coat checks, was hilarious Where is a naked man to put those coat checks? The checks ashed away during the bath Only the string re to the coat attendant He won’t take it Any citizen can cut up string, he says There won’t be enough coats to go around Wait until the other custoive you whatever coat is left

Since no one was evacuating, Tatiana read the story twice, lying on the bed, her legs up on the wall, weak frohter by the second tiet food

But today was Sunday, and Tatiana did not like to go out on Sundays unless she got dressed up Without asking, she borrowed Dasha’s high-heeled red sandals, in which Tatiana walked like a newborn calf with two broken legs Dasha walked better in them; she was muchhair, wistfully wishing for thick dark curls like the rest of the faht and blah blonde She alore it tied back in a ponytail or in braids Today she tied it up in a ponytail The straightness and the blondeness of her hair were inexplicable In her daughter’s defense, Maht blonde hair as a child Yes, and Babushka said that when she got hed only forty-seven kilos

Tatiana put on the only Sunday dress she owned,clean, and left the apartment

A hundred and fifty rubles was a colossal aot that kind of ically in his hands, and it was not her place to ask She was supposed to come back with -- what did her father say? Rice? Vodka? She had already forgotten

Maet anything"

Tatiana had nodded in agreeht Send Dasha, Papa"

"No!" Papa exclai with you, and come back with--"

What did he tell her to come back with? Potatoes? Flour?

Tatiana walked past the Sarkovs’ roo in ar very relaxed, as if it were just another Sunday How lucky they are to have such a big rooht Tatiana Crazy Slavin was not in the hall Good

It was as if Molotov’s announceo had been an aberration in an otherwise normal day Tatiana almost doubted that she had heard Coot outside and turned the corner on Grechesky Prospekt, where tee toward Nevsky Prospekt, the rad

Tatiana could not rerad streets Quickly she turned around and went the other way to Suvorovsky Prospekt She wanted to beat the crowds If they were all going to the Nevsky Prospekt stores, she was going the opposite way down to Tauride Park, where the grocery stores, though understocked, were also underpatronized

A man and a woman walked by, stared at Tatiana in her dress, and saze but s her splendid white dress with red roses She had the dress since 1938, when she had turned fourteen Her father bought it from a market vendor in a town called Swietokryst in Poland, where he had gone on a business trip for the Leningrad orks plant He went to Swietokryst, Warsaw, and Lublin Tatiana thought her father was a world traveler when he came back Dasha and Mama received chocolates froo -- two years and three hundred and sixty three days ago But here Tatiana was, still wearing her dress with crimson roses embroidered on the thick, smooth, snohite cotton The roses weren’t buds; they were blooms It was a perfect summer dress, with thin shoulder straps and no sleeves It was fitted through the waist and then billowed out in a flowing skirt to just above her knees, and if Tatiana spun around fast enough, the skirt whirled up in a parachute

There was only one problem with this dress in June 1941: it was too small for Tatiana The crisscross satin straps at the back of the dress that Tatiana could once tie completely closed had to be constantly loosened

It vexed Tatiana that the body she was increasingly uneasy with could outgrow her favorite dress It wasn’t as if her body were blossohs and arh round, res and arer, and there was the problem Had the breasts remained the same size, Tatiana wouldn’t have had to leave the straps loose, exposing her bare spine under the crisscrosses from her shoulder blades to the small of her back for all the world to see

Tatiana liked the notion of the dress, she liked the feeling of the cotton against her skin and the stitched roses under her fingers, but she did not like the feeling of her exploding body trapped inside the lung-squeezing material What she enjoyed was theon that dress for the first ti out for a Sunday walk on Nevsky It was for that feeling that she had put on the dress again this Sunday, the day Germany invaded the Soviet Union

On another level, on a conscious, loudly-audible-to-the-soul level, what Tatiana also loved about the dress was a s that said FABRIQUé EN FRANCE

Fabriqué en France! It was gratifying to own a piece of anything not made badly by the Soviets, but instead made well and romantically by the French; for as more romantic than the French? The French were masters of love All nations were different The Russians were unparalleled in their suffering, the English in their reserve, the Americans in their love of life, the Italians in their love of Christ, and the French in their hope of love So when they made the dress for Tatiana, they made it full of promise They made it as if to tell her, put it on, chérie, and in this dress you, too, shall be loved as we have loved; put it on and love shall be yours And so Tatiana never despaired in her white dress with red roses Had the Americans made it, she would have been happy Had the Italians , had the British made it, she would have squared her shoulders, but because the French had h at the moment, Tatiana walked down Suvorovsky with her dress unco adolescent chest

Outside was fresh and warm, and it was a jolt to the consciousness to remember that on this sunny lovely day full of promise, Hitler was in the Soviet Union Tatiana shook her head as she walked Deda had never trusted that Hitler and said so froression pact with Hitler in 1939, Deda said that Stalin had gone to bed with the devil And now the devil had betrayed Stalin Why was that such a surprise? Why had we expected more from him? Had we expected the devil to behave honorably?

Tatiana thought Deda was the smartest man on earth Ever since Poland was tra that Hitler was co, he suddenly started bringing ho Babushka had no interest in spending part of Deda’s ible such as just in case She would scoff at hi at the canned haarbage, why do you spend good et marinated mushrooms, or tomatoes? And Deda, who loved Babushka more than a woman deserved to be loved by a s, say nothing, but the following ar and he bought coffee and he bought tobacco, and he bought so these items stocked because for every birthday, anniversary, May Day, the vodka was broken open and the tobacco sar put into bread and pie dough and tea Deda was a , but he denied himself So on his own birthday he refused to open the vodka But Babushka still opened the bag of sugar tothat rerew by a can or two each month was the ham, which everyone hated and no one ate

Tatiana’s task of buying up all the rice and vodka she could get her hands on was proving much harder than she had anticipated

The stores on Suvorovsky were empty of vodka They carried cheese But cheese would not keep well They had bread, but bread would not keep well The salaoods, too And the flour

With a quickening pace Tatiana walked down Suvorovsky, eleven blocks in all, over a kilo-term provisions It was only three o’clock

Tatiana passed two savings banks Both were closed Signs, hastily handwritten, said CLOSED EARLY This surprised her Why would the banks close early? It’s not as if they could run out of money They were banks She chuckled to herself

The Metanovs had waited too long, Tatiana realized, sitting around as they did, packing Pasha, bickering, looking dejectedly at one another They should have been out the door in an instant, but instead Pasha was sent to camp And Tatiana had read Zoshchenko She should have been out an hour earlier If only she had gone to Nevsky Prospekt, she could be standing in line right noith the rest of the crowds

But even though she strolled down Suvorovsky disheartened at not being able to find even a box ofwith it an anos to come that she neither knew nor understood Will I always re deeply I’ve said that in the past: oh, this day I’ll reht I would never forget I reht? I re the salt water of the Black Sea for the first ti lost in the woods by myself the first time Maybe it’s the firsts you reht Maybe I’ll remember this

Tatiana headed toward the stores near Tauride Park She liked this area of the city, away from the hustle of Nevsky Prospekt The trees were lush and tall, and there were fewer people She liked the feeling of a bit of solitude

After looking inside three or four grocers, Tatiana wanted to just give up She was seriously considering going back ho, but the thought of telling hined her filled her with anxiety She walked on Near the corner where Suvorovskyline of people stretching out into an otherwise empty street

Dutifully she went and stood behind the last person in line

Shifting from foot to foot, Tatiana stood and stood, asked for the ti, she asked the lady in front of her what they were standing in line for The lady shrugged aggressively, turning away fro closer to her chest, as if Tatiana were about to rob her "Stand in line like everybody else, and don’t ask stupid questions"

Tatiana waited The line ain

"Ten minutes after the last ti worumpy lady say the word "banks" Tatiana perked up

"Noto an older wos banks have run out I don’t knohat they’re going to do now Hope you have some in your mattress"

The older woman shook her head worriedly "I had 200 rubles, s That’s what I have with oods are especially--"

The older wooods"

"Well, then buy caviar I heard one woht ten kilos of caviar at Elisey on Nevsky What’s she going to do with this caviar? But it’s none ofoil And matches"

"Buy some salt," the older woar, but you can’t eat porridge without salt"

"Don’t like porridge," the younger woruel, that’s what it is"

"Well, buy caviar then You like caviar, don’t you?"

"No Maybe sohtfully "Some nice smoked kolbasa Listen, it’s been over twenty years that the proletariat has been the tsar I know by nohat to expect"

The woman in front of Tatiana snorted loudly The tomen ahead of her turned around

"You don’t knohat to expect!" the worunt that sounded like a train engine sputtering

"Who asked you?"

"War, coht to you by Hitler Buy your caviar and butter, and eat theht Because mark my words, your two hundred rubles will not buy you a loaf of bread next January"

"Shut up!"

Tatiana lowered her head She did not like fighting Not at hoers

Two people were leaving the store with big paper bags under their arms "What’s in them?" she inquired politely

"S on He looked as if he were afraid Tatiana would run after hiet his cursed smoked kolbasa Tatiana continued to stand in line She didn’t even like sausage

After thirtyto disappoint her father, she hurried to the bus stop She was going to catch bus Number 22 to Elisey on Nevsky Prospekt, since she knew for sure they sold at least caviar there

But then she thought, caviar? We will have to eat it next week Surely caviar won’t last until winter? But is that the goal? Food for the winter? That just couldn’t be, she decided; winter was too far away The Red Army was invincible; Cos would be out by September

As she rounded the corner of Ulitsa Saltykov-Schedrin, the rubber band holding her hair snapped and broke

The bus stop was across the street on the Tauride Park side Usually she got bus 136 froo across town to visit cousin Marina Today bus 22 would take her to Elisey, but she knew she needed to hurry Fro, soon even the caviar would be gone

Just ahead of her, Tatiana spotted a kiosk that sold ice cream

Ice cream!

Suddenly the day was filled with possibilities A man sat on a little stool under a small umbrella to shield himself from the sun as he read the paper

Tatiana quickened her pace

From behind her she heard the sound of the bus She turned around and saw her bus in the middle distance She knew if she ran, she could catch it easily She stepped off the curb to cross the street, then looked at the ice creaain, looked at the ice cream stand, and stopped

Tatiana really wanted an ice creaht, she thought The next one will come soon, and in the meanti up to the kiosk erly, "Ice crea here, aren’t I? What do you want?" He lifted his eyes from the newspaper to her, and his hard expression softened "What can I get you, dearie?"

"Have you got" She trerave;me br?lée?"

"Yes" He opened the freezer door "A cone or a cup?"

"A cone, please," Tatiana replied, juladly; she would have paid him double In anticipation of the pleasure she was about to receive, Tatiana ran across the road in her heels, hurrying to the bench under the trees so she could eat her ice cream in peace, while she waited for the bus to take her to buy caviar because war had started

There was no one else waiting for the bus, and she was glad for the fine ht in seclusion She took off the white paper wrapping, threw it in the trash can next to the bench, smelled the ice crea her eyes in happiness, Tatiana s for it to ood

The wind blew her hair, and she held it back with one hand as she licked the ice cream in circles around the s her head back, lolled the ice crea these days: "Someday we’ll meet in Lvov, my love and I"

It was a perfect day For five lorious Sunday in a Leningrad June

When Tatiana looked up fro at her froarrison city like Leningrad to see a soldier Leningrad was full of soldiers Seeing soldiers on the street was like seeing old ladies with shopping bags, or lines, or beer bars Tatiana norlanced past him down the street andacross the street and staring at her with an expression Tatiana had never seen before She stopped eating her ice cream

Her side of the street was already in the shade, but the side where he stood swaht Tatiana stared back at hi into his face, so moved inside her; moved she would have liked to say imperceptibly, but that wasn’t quite the case It was as if her heart started pu it into her lungs and flooding it through her body She blinked and felt her breath beco into the pave Tatiana’s view of hiet on the bus, no, but to run forward, across the street, so she would not lose sight of him The bus doors opened, and the driver looked at her expectantly Tatiana, et out of her way

"Are you getting on, young lady? I can’t be waiting forever"

Getting on? "No, no, I’ for the bus!" the driver hollered and slammed the doors shut

Tatiana backed away toward the bench and saw the soldier running around the bus

He stopped

She stopped

The bus doors opened again "Need the bus?" asked the driver

The soldier looked at Tatiana, then at the bus driver

"Oh, for the sake of Lenin and Stalin!" the driver bellowed, sla the doors shut for the second ti in front of the bench She backed away, tripped, and sat quickly down

In a casual tone, with a shrug and a roll of his eyes, the soldier said, "I thought it was my bus"

"Yes, me, too," she uttered, her voice croaky

"Your ice creaht through the bottom point of the waffle cone, onto her dress "Oh, no," she said Tatiana brushed the ice cream, only to spread it in a s the dress was tre?" the soldier asked His voice was strong and deep and had a trace ofshe didn’t know Not froaze lowered

"Not too long," she replied quietly, and, holding her breath, raised her eyes to get a better look at him And raised the a dress uniforues looked like his Sunday best, and his cap was ornate, with an enameled red star on the front He ide parade shoulder boards in gray metallic lace They looked impressive, but Tatiana had no idea what theyhis rifle Did privates carry rifles? On the left side of his chest he wore a single silver old

Underneath his umber cap he was dark-haired The youth and dark hair were to his advantage, Tatiana thought, as her shy eyes met his eyes, which were the color of cararave;me br?lée ice cream Were they a soldier’s eyes? Were they a

Tatiana and the soldier stared at each other for a ers looked at each other for half a nothing before averting their eyes Tatiana felt as if she could open herunsteady and war," the soldier repeated helpfully

Blushing, Tatiana said with haste, "Oh, this ice creaot up and threw it e she had a handkerchief to wipe her stained dress

Tatiana couldn’t tell if he was young like her; no, he see at her with ato stare at the pavement between her red sandals and his black army boots

A bus came The soldier turned away from her and walked toward it Tatiana watched him Even his as fro, yet soht It was like stuht you had lost Ah, yes, there it is

In ato hop on the bus and wave a little good-bye to her and she was never going to see hio! Tatiana shouted to hiot closer to the bus, he slowed down and stopped At the lasthis head at the bus driver, who made a frustrated motion with his hands, slammed the door shut, and peeled away from the curb

The soldier came back and sat on the bench

The rest of her day flew out of her head without even a farewell

Tatiana and the soldier were having a silence How can we be having a silence? Tatiana thought We just met Wait We haven’tanything?

Nervously she looked up and down the street Suddenly it occurred to her that hein her chest, for how could he not? The noise had scared away the crows from the trees behind the fervently She knew -- it was her

Now she needed her bus to come Now

He was a soldier, yes, but she had seen soldiers before And he was good-looking, yes, but she had seen good-looking before Once or twice last suot his naht her an ice cream

It wasn’t this soldier’s uniform that affected her, and it wasn’t his looks It was the way he had stared at her from across the street, separated from her by ten meters of concrete, a bus, and the electric wires of the traarettes from the pocket of his uniform "Would you like one?"

"Oh, no, no," Tatiana replied "I don’t sarettes back in his pocket "I don’t know anyone who doesn’t srandfather were the only ones Tatiana kneho didn’t smoke She couldn’t continue to be silent; it was too pathetic But when Tatiana opened hersounded so stupid that she just closed her ed silently for the bus to coain "Are you waiting for bus 22?"

"Yes," Tatiana replied in a tinny voice "Wait, no" She saw a bus with three digits co to take," she said without thinking and quickly got up

"One thirty-six?" she heard him mutter behind her

Tatiana walked toward it, took out five kopecks, and cli, she made her way to the back of the bus and sat down just in ti his way to the back

He sat one seat behind her on the opposite side

Tatiana scooted over to theand tried not to think of hio on bus 136? Oh, yes, that’s the bus she took to Marina’s on Polustrovsky Prospekt She would go there She’d get off at Polustrovsky and go ring Marina’s doorbell

Tatiana could see the soldier out of the corner of her eye

Where was he going on bus Number 136?

The bus passed Tauride Park and turned at Liteiny Prospekt

Tatiana straightened out the folds of her dress and traced the e over between the seats, she adjusted her sandals But mainly what she did was hope at every stop that the soldier would not get off Not here, she thought, not here And not here either Where she wanted hiet off, Tatiana didn’t know; all she kneas that she didn’t want hiet off here

The soldier didn’t Tatiana could tell he sat very cal out hisOccasionally he would turn toward the front of the bus, and then Tatiana could swear he was looking at her

After crossing Liteiny Bridge over the river Neva, the bus continued across town The few stores Tatiana saw out theeither had long lines or were closed

The streets becarad streets

Stop after stop after stop went by She was getting farther into north Leningrad

Her head clearing briefly, Tatiana realized she had long since passed Marina’s stop near Polustrovsky Now she couldn’t even tell where she was anymore Unsettled, she ? She didn’t know, but she couldn’t get off the bus First of all, the soldier wasthe bell, and second, she didn’t knohere she was If Tatiana got off here, she would have to cross the street and take the bus back

What was she hoping for anyway? To watch where he got off and then coht made Tatiana twitch with disquiet

Coht now she was hoping raceful retreat and a way back home

Little by little, other people trickled off the bus Finally there was no one left except Tatiana and the soldier

The bus sped on Tatiana didn’t knohat to do anyotten et off, but when she rang the bell, the bus driver turned around and said, "You want to get off here, girl? Nothing here but industrial buildings Yousomebody?"

"Uh, no," she stammered

"Well, then wait Next will be the last stop"

Mortified, Tatiana sat back doith a thump

The bus pulled into a dusty terot off the bus into a hot, earth-covered bus station, which was a square lot at the end of an empty street She was afraid to turn around She put her hand on her chest to still her relentless heart What was she supposed to do now? Nothing to do but take the bus back Slowly she walked out of the station

After -- and only after -- taking the deepest breath, Tatiana finally looked to her right, and there he was, s cheerfully at her He had perfect white teeth -- unusual for a Russian She couldn’t help but smile back Relief must have shown in her face Relief and apprehension and anxiety; all that, and soht, I give up Where are you going?"

What could Tatiana say?

His Russian was slightly accented It was correct Russian, just slightly accented She tried to figure out if the accent and the white teeth caia, maybe? Armenia? Somewhere near the Black Sea He sounded as if he came from around salt water

"Excuse ain "Where are you going?"

Looking up at hiirl, and the soldier towered over her Even in her high heels she barely ca she ue back froht, all from the same place, comrade?

They had stopped stupidly in the middle of the deserted street There wasn’t much activity around the bus ter around near buses, people were standing in lines buying food Not Tatiana, no, she was stopped stupidly in the middle of the street

"I think I o back"

"Where were you going?" he repeated politely, still standing across fro co the sun

"Where?" she asked rhetorically Her hair was a big mess, wasn’t it? Tatiana never wore , anything, so she wouldn’t feel so plain and silly

"Let’s get out of the street," the soldier said They crossed "You want to sit?" He pointed to a bench by the bus stop sign "We can wait for the next bus here" They sat He sat too close to her

"You know, it’s the oddest thing," Tatiana began after a prolonged throat clearing "My cousin Marina lives on Polustrovsky Prospekt -- I was going there--"

"That was several kiloo A dozen bus stops"

"No," Tatiana said, flustered "I must have just et you right back The bus will co at hi?"

"Me? I’arrison I’

Oh, perfect, Tatiana thought, looking away He was merely on city patrol, and I was headed practically to Murmansk What an idiot Eht-headed She looked down at her shoes "Except for the ice cream, I haven’t eaten all day," she said feebly, her consciousness yielding to unconsciousness in a matter of suspended seconds The soldier’s arm went around her back, and his calm, firm voice said, "No No, don’t faint Stay up"

And she did

Woozy and disoriented, she didn’t want to see his tilted head looking at her solicitously She s pleasant and masculine, not alcohol or sweat like ne for ne No, it was just hi to stand up He helped her "Thank you"

"Not at all Are you all right?"

"Absolutely Just hungry, I think"

He was still holding her The perimeter of her upper arm was inside his hand, which was the size of a shtly, Tatiana straightened herself, and he let her go, leaving a war on the bus, now out in the sun" the soldier said with soht Come on" He pointed "There’s our bus"

The bus came, driven by the same driver, who looked at the

This tiether, Tatiana near the , the soldier with his uniformed arm draped over the wooden back of the seat behind her

Looking at him in this proxi from his eyes But it was his eyes that Tatiana wantedout theThat was a lie She fainted all the tiainst her knee and she was on the floor unconscious The teachers at school used to send holanced at hi irrepressibly, the soldier said, "What’s your naht stubble on his face, the sharp line of his nose, his black brows, and the sray scar on his forehead He was tanned under the stubble His white teeth were outstanding

"Tatiana," he repeated in his deep voice "Tatiana," he said, slower, gentler "Tania? Tanechka?"

"Tania," she replied and gave him her hand Before he told her his name, he took it Her small, slender, white hand disappeared in his enorht he h her wrist, through all the veins under her skin

"I am Alexander," he said

Her hand reood Russian name"

"Alexander, too," she said and lowered her eyes

Finally, reluctantly, she pulled her hand away His large hands were clean, his fingers long and thick, and his nails trimmed Neat nails on a man were another anomaly in Tatiana’s Soviet life

She looked away onto the street Theof the bus was dirty She wondered ashed it and when and how frequently Anything not to think What she felt though, was al her not to turn away from him, almost as if his hand were about to come up and turn her face to him She turned to him, lifted her eyes, and s to"

"A soldier is being led to his execution," Tatiana began " ‘So,’ he says to his convoy ‘Look who’s cohed so instantly and loudly, hisher face, that Tatiana felt herself -- just a little bit --within

"That’s funny, Tania," he said

"Thank you" She smiled and said quickly, "I have another joke: ‘General, what do you think about the upcoeneral says, ‘God knows it will be lost’ "

Tatiana continued, " ‘Then why should we try?’ "

And Alexander finished, " ‘To find out who is the loser’ "

They both smiled and looked away from each other

"Your straps are untied," she heard him say

"My what?"

"Your straps At the back of the dress They’ve come undone Here, turn your back to me a little more I’ll tie theers pulling on the satin ribbons "How tight do you want the It occurred to her that hedown to the small of her bare back underneath the straps, and she became suddenly and keenly self-conscious

When she turned to hiet off at Polustrovsky? To see your cousin Marina? Because it’s co up Or do you want me to take you ho the word for the first ti her hand on her forehead, she said, "Oh, no, you won’t believe -- I can’t go hoet in so much trouble"

"Why?" Alexander said "What can I do to help?"

Why did she think he meant it? And moreover, why did she suddenly find herself relieved and strengthened and not afraid of going home?

After she told him about the rubles in her pocket and the failed quest for food, Tatiana finished with, "I don’t knohy ate this task to me I’m the least capable of anyone in "

"Don’t sell yourself short, Tatiana," said Alexander "Besides, I can help you"

"You can?"

He told her he would take her to one of the officers-only ars, where she could buy s she needed

"But I’m not an officer," she pointed out

"Yes, but I am"

"You are?"

"Yes," he said "Alexander Belov, first lieutenant Ihed Tatiana didn’t want hih to be a first lieutenant "What’s theat his chest

"Military valor," he said with an indifferent shrug

"Oh?" Hersmile "What did you do that was somuch Where do you live, Tania?"

"Near Tauride Park -- on the corner of Grechesky and Fifth Soviet," she instantly replied "Do you knohere that is?"

Alexander nodded "I patrol everywhere You live with your parents?"

"Of course With randparents, my sister, and my twin brother"

"All in one room?" Alexander asked, without inflection

"No, we have two!" Tatiana exclaiet another roo," asked Alexander, "have they been on this housing list?"

"Since 1924," replied Tatiana, and they both laughed

They were on the bus forever and a second

"I’ve never known anyone as a twin," said Alexander as they got off "Are you close?"

"Yes, but Pasha can be very irritating He thinks because he is a boy he always has to win"

"You lancing away fro eyes "Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"No," said Alexander "I was my mother and father’s only child" He blinked and then quickly continued, "We’ve come full circle, haven’t we? Fortunately, we’re not far fro, or do you want to wait for bus 22?"

Tatiana watched him

Did he just say, was?

Did he just say, I was my mother and father’s only child? "We can walk," Tatiana let out slowly, staring thoughtfully into his face and not h forehead to his square jaw, his facial bones were prominent and clearly visible to her curious eyes And all were set in what see his teeth together Carefully, she asked, "So where are you frohtaccent"