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She hears Anya’s voice spike above the rattling wheeze of the train Vera claws her way forward to the sether, their heads too low to allow them to peer out the

She slides into the seat, pulling the them with kisses

Leo’s round face, ith sweat and tears, is already dirty, although she cannot iine how he made that happen His eyes are damp with tears, but he doesn’t cry this ti to hi “You said we had to go ”

Vera’s throat feels so tight it is all she can do to nod

“I held his hand, Mama,” Anya says solemnly “Every minute ”

Like all good Soviets, Vera does not allow herself to question the government If Co thereat act of defiance, going with theets frorad, the smaller it seems She will see that they are safe at their destination and when she knows that all is well, she will return to her job at the library If she is lucky it won’t take more than a day or two She will explain to her boss, Comrade Plotkin, that it was her patriotic duty to accompany the children on this state-mandated evacuation

Words matter here in the Soviet Union Words like patriotic, efficient, essential No one wants to question the wrong thing If Vera can act certain and fearless, perhaps she will be okay

If only Maa

“Marumpily He is curled into her lap like a tiny fiddlehead fern; his stuffed gray bunny clutched in his ar the soft pink satin inside the rabbit’s floppy ear

They have been on the train only a few hours and no one has said a thing aboutor when they will arrive at their destination

“Soon,his padded shoulder She can see the way the children on the train are co restless A fehine; someone starts to cry Vera is about to reach down for the sht with her when the train’s whistle shrieks It doesn’t stop this tio still Instead, the sound goes on and on, like a wo noise, and the train shudders in response, starts to slow

Gunfire erupts all around theine and the explosions start

Vera looks outside, sees fire everywhere Panic breaks out in the train Everyone is screa to the s

A woman in a Party shirt and wrinkled blue wool pants , “Everyone off of the train Go To the barn behind us Now!”

Vera grabs her children and runs It occurs to her later, when she is at the front of the line, that she is an adult, that she should have helped the unaccoht The airplanes keep flying overhead; the bombs drop and fires start