Page 9 (1/1)

9

On Saturday, Tatiana went to the Leningrad public library and borrowed a Russian-English phrase book She was already so learned it in school She spentto speak some of the more ridiculous phrases out loud The Ths, Ws, and the soft Rs were very difficult "The weather will be thunder and rain tomorroas constructed to torment her She could say "be" pretty well

On Sunday, when Alexander calued paper strips on their s to keep the glass fro shelling, if and when borad "Everyoneto walk around the city to check that all the s have been taped We won’t be able to find replacerad"

The Metanovs watched hi every few ood work and how steady his hands were, and how solidly he stood on the sill Mama wanted to knohere he’d learned how to do that Dasha replied impatiently, "Well, he is in the Red Army, Mama!"

"Did they teach you to stand on the sill in the Red Army, Alexander?" Tatiana asked

"Oh, shut up, Tania," Dasha said, laughing, but Alexander laughed, too, and he did not say shut up, Tania

"What is that design you made on our s?" Mama said as Alexander jumped down from the sill

Tatiana, Dasha, Malued paper on theInstead of being the white crisscross that the won looked like a tree A thick trunk, slightly bent to one side, with elongated leaves growing fro off at the top

"What is that, young man?" Babushka demanded imperiously

Alexander said, "That, Anna Lvovna, is a pal close to hi by the door, watched hi

"A palm tree?" Dasha said quizzically

"It’s a tropical tree Grows in the Ae choice for our s, don’t you think?"

"Better than just an old crisscross," htly she s s Just a simple crisscross for me I don’t need any palm trees"

Afterward Alexander and Dasha went out by the Tatiana with her rad library, where she spent hours lish sounds to herself It seee, to speak it, to write it Next tis to her in English Just to hear how they sounded She was already thinking about the next time she saw Alexander, as if it were a certainty She vowed to tell him that maybe, perhaps, he shouldn’t coht as she lay in bed and faced the wall, shethe old wallpaper with her fingers, stroking it up and down and saying, I promise, I promise, I promise Then she reached down to the floor between the bed and the wall and touched the Bronze Horseiven her Maybe she would tell hilish from him, and after he talked to her about the war, and after--

There was another air-raid siren Dasha returned hoers re wall