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On Monday at work, Krasenko called her to his office and told her that although she was doing a good job on the flamethrowers, he had to transfer her to one of the tank-production facilities ih froardless of capability orto make the flahting a cigarette "You’re a nice girl, Tania Go Have some soup at the canteen"

"Do you think the People’s Volunteers would take me?" she asked him

"No!"

"I heard that 15,000 people have already joined froa line Is that true?"

"What’s true is that you can’t go Now, get out of here"

"Is Luga in danger?" Pasha was near Luga

"No," Krasenko replied "The Gero"

In tank production there were many more people and the assembly line was much more intricate, but because of that, Tatiana had less to do She placed the pistons in the cylinders that went below the coine

The facility was the size of an airplane hangar, gray and dark inside

By the end of the day the diesel engine was in place, thanks to Tatiana, and the tread was on the tires, and the frahtly bolted, but there was no inside, no instruments, no panels, no weapons, no missile boxes, no a that wouldother than a heavily ar of the sreasing of high-explosive GP boave Tatiana a sense of accomplishment that she had not had in her entire first month of full-time work She felt as if she had made the KV-1 herself Another note of pride: in the afternoon Krasenko had told her the Germans could not even conceive of a tank this well built, well arile, this simple, yet arun They thought their Panzer IV was the best tank there was "Tania," he told her, "you did an excellent job on the diesel engine Maybe you should be aTatiana ran outside with her clean hands and her straightened-out collar and her brushed-out hair, not believing she could be running at the end of an eleven-hour day, yet running nonetheless, so afraid that Alexander wouldn’t be waiting for her

But he was

He aiting for her but not sain her composure She was alone with him for the first tiers She wanted to say, I’m so happy you came to see me What had happened to don’t come and see me anymore?

Someone yelled out her name; Tatiana reluctantly turned around It was Ilya, a boy of sixteen, orked alongside her on the tank tracks "You catching the bus?" Ilya asked, glancing at Alexander, who said nothing

"No, Ilya, but I’ll see you tomorrow" Tatiana motioned for Alexander to cross the street

"Who was that?" Alexander asked

Puzzled, Tatiana glanced at hi you?"

"What? No, no" Ilya actually was bothering her a little bit "I started in a new departa line," she said proudly

Nodding, he said, "How fast can youone every two days," she replied "That’s good, right?"

"To help at the Luga line," Alexander said, "you’re going to need ten a day"

Detecting soure it out but couldn’t "Are you all right?"

"Yes"

She thought "What’s the "

The people near the tra to anyone else "You want to walk back home?" Tatiana asked shyly

Alexander shook his head "I’ve been in ers, Tatiana said teasingly, "I thought you already were in the un training, more air-raid shelters" He sounded depleted for some reason Was she that close to the nuances of his voice? Of his face?

"What’s the ," he repeated But then he took her ar up her sleeve a little to reveal the dark bruises on the underside "Tania, what’s this?"

Ah "Nothing" She tried to pull her aro as he stood very close to her

"Really nothing," she said, unable to look up at him "Come on I’m fine"

"I don’t believe you," Alexander said "I told you, don’t take up with Dilanced at each other, and then Tatiana stared at his unifor," she said "He was just trying to get rabs you this hard again, do you hear?" Alexander said, letting go of her

She didn’t want his tender, firh irl, I think" She coughed "Who isn’t? Well, listen, I took care of it I’ain"

"Oh?" Alexander said "Like you took care of talking about Pasha to your family?"

Tatiana didn’t speak at first but then said, "Alexander, I told you it was going to be hard for et my twenty-four-year-old sister to do it Why don’t you try? Coht, have so it up See how they take it Show me how it’s done Because I can’t do it"

"You can’t talk to your own family about your brother, but you can stand up to Di her voice a little, and thought unhappily, are we fighting? Why are we fighting?

There was a seat for them on the tram Tatiana held on to the bench in front of her Alexander’s hands were folded in his lap He was quiet and didn’t look at her So continued to upset him Was it Dimitri? Still they sat close, his ar His leg felt made of marble Tatiana didn’t move her body away from him; as if she could, as if that were even an option She wasto alleviate the tension between theht up the war "Where is the front now, Alexander?"

"Moving north"

"But it’s far still Right? Far from?"

He didn’t look at her "For all our military bravado, we are a civilian country" He snorted "Our silly rounded planes, our pathetic tanks We didn’t knoe were dealing with"

She pressed lightly into his side, assih her skin "Alexander, why does Diet the Germans out of our country"

"He doesn’t care about the Ger--" He broke off

Tatiana waited

"You will learn so about Dimitri, Tania He treats self-preservation as his inalienable right"

She gazed at hiht that no one can assail"

Tatiana thought "Who says that? Do we even have those kinds of rights? Aren’t they usually reserved for the state?"

"We? Where?"

"Here" She lowered her voice "In the Soviet Union"

"No, Tania Here we do not Here those rights are reserved for the state" Alexander paused "And Dimitri Especially self-preservation"

"Inalienable I’ve never heard anyone say that word before," Tatiana said thoughtfully

"No, you wouldn’t," he said, his face softening "Hoas the rest of your Sunday? What did you do? How is your mother? Every time I see her, she looks ready to fall down"

"Yes, too much worry for Mama these days" Tatiana turned to theShe didn’t want to speak about Pasha again "You knohat I did yesterday? I learned soet off, and then yes, very ood words?"

She didn’t know quite what he ot off the tra past Warsaw Station, Tatiana saw a crowd of people huddled together: wo in a focused disorder

"What are they waiting for?" she asked

"A train They are the s this city," said Alexander