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“Follow htly lit corridor, past hunched old women alkers and tiny old men in wheelchairs, to a room at the very end of the hall

There was a narrow hospital-style bed in the center of the rooht in for thisIn the bed lay a shrunken man with a bony face and toothpick ar from his bald, spotted head and his wrinkled pink ears His nose was like a raptor’s beak and his lips all but invisible At their entrance, his right hand began to treht side of his mouth tried to smile

Maksi into his ear

The , but Nina couldn’t understand a word

“He says he is so glad to see you, Anya Whitson He has waited a long time My father is Vasily Adamovich and he welcomes you all ”

Mom nodded

“Please, sit down,” Maksi the chairs On a table by the ere a copper saies and strudel and sliced cheese with crackers

Vasily said so, his voice crackled like a dried leaf

Maksim listened, then shook his head “I’ about the rain, I think I a to record your story, Mrs Whitson Anya— okay?”

Mo copper salass teacups “Da,” she said softly, flicking a hand in dismissal

Nina hadn’t realized that she was the only one still standing She went to the chair next to Meredith’s and sat down

For a moment, the roo of the rain on the roof

Then Mo, slow breath and released it “I have told this story in a single way for so long, I hardly kno to start now I hardly kno to start ”

Maksi sound and the tape started to roll

“I am not Anya Petrovna Whitson This is the name I took, the woman I became ” She took another deep breath “I arad is o, I knew those streets like I know the soles of my feet or the palms of my hands But it is not my youth you are interested in Not that I had row up at fifteen when they took my father away, and by the end of the war, I was old