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That evening during the post-dinner bo show the Suvorovsky Hospital where Papa lay was hit

Three boht fire and burned into the night, despite the efforts of the firefighters The hospital was not made of brick, which resisted fire, but of wattle and daub, the early-eighteenth-century rad was built The whole building collapsed onto itself, then went up in flames The few people ere able toas they fell

Papa, at forty-three years old, having been born in the previous century, wasted on remorse, unable to sober up, never rose from his bed

Dasha and Tatiana and Marina and Mama ran down Suvorovsky and watched with unsteady, horrified impotence as the inferno conquered the fireirls helped to throw useless buckets of water on the ground-floor s They got sand fros, but it was all just less movement sustained by inertia Tatiana wrapped charred bodies in wet sheets provided by Grechesky Hospital She stayed untilDasha and Marina went back home with Mama

Only a handful of people had made it out alive The fireies as they put out the last of the fla bodies out of that hospital "Look at the building, girlie," said one fire out? It’s all cinder Once it cools down, you’ll be able to touch it and watch it turn to black ash" He patted her absento Your father, is it? Fcking Ger to bring it all home to theht of herself being buried beneath Luga station, feeling life ooze out of the three people she had crawled under She hoped Papa had never woken up, never suffered

At hoot the faet bread

If life in the two communal rooms was difficult for Tatiana before, it became nearly impossible after the death of her father

Ma to Tatiana

Dasha was angry and not talking to Tatiana

Tatiana wasn’t sure if Dasha was angry because of Papa or if Dasha was angry because of Alexander Dasha was certainly not saying She wasn’t talking to Tatiana at all

Marina visited herand continued to level her understanding eyes on Tatiana

And Babushka painted She painted an apple pie that Tatiana said looked good enough to eat

A few days after Papa’s death Dasha asked Tatiana to come with her to the barracks to tell Alexander about what had happened Tatiana dragged Marina along for strength She wanted to see him, and yetthere was so little to say Or was there too ure it out without Alexander’s help, and was afraid to face him

Alexander was not at the barracks, and neither was Dieway and introduced himself

Tatiana knew of him well from Alexander "Isn’t Dieant Kashnikov, who has one of the platoons under her than me to Tikhvin"