Tatiana and Alexander: A Novel(102)

"Commander, may I just ask what in f*ck's name you're talking about?" Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

"I'm talking about your path in life, Ouspensky. One way lies the rest of it. The other way the rest of it too--but shorter."

"What makes you think we'll do better downriver?"

Alexander shrugged. He didn't want to tell him about a soft-fleshed girl named Faith. "I know that Dolny is deceptively quiet."

"Commander, you have a commander too, don't you? I heard you on the horn this morning. General Konev was clearly giving you orders to take Dolny."

Nodding, Alexander said, "Yes. He is sending us to our death. The river is too deep and wide, the bridge is exposed. The Germans don't even mine the bridge, I bet. They just shoot us from Dolny across the Vistula."

Ouspensky backed off into the woods and said, "I don't think we have much choice, Captain. You are not General Konev. You have to go where he tells you. And even he has to go where Comrade Stalin tells him."

Alexander was thoughtful. He did not move from the bank. "Look at that bridge. Look at that river. It's carrying the bodies of thousands of Soviet men." Alexander paused. "Tomorrow it'll be carrying you and me."

"I don't see them," Ouspensky said casually, squinting. "And someone must make it through." That was less casual.

Alexander shook his head. "No. No one. All dead. Like us. Tomorrow." He smiled. "Look at the Vistula carefully, Lieutenant. Come sunrise, this will be your grave. Enjoy your last day on this earth. God has made it a particularly beautiful one."

Ouspensky chuckled. "Good thing then you had it off with that girl, isn't it?"

Alexander got up and as they were walking ten kilometers back to Lublin, said, "I am going to call General Konev about changing our mission. But I need your full support, Lieutenant."

"I'm with you till the day you die, sir, much to my infernal dismay."

Alexander managed to convince Konev to let them travel fifty kilometers south down the Vistula. It wasn't as difficult as he had anticipated. Konev was well aware of what was happening to the Soviets at Dolny, and the main divisions of the Ukrainian front were not at the Vistula yet. He was not averse to trying a new position.

As Alexander's battalion set off for the woods, Ouspensky complained and whined the entire time he was breaking down Alexander's tent and getting their gear together. He complained up until the time he hopped into the open tank and told Telikov to step on it. He complained when he saw that Alexander was walking behind the tank and not getting on.

Alexander walked behind, through the narrow trampled path that led through the summer fields to the forest stretching for fifty hilly kilometers along the Vistula. He turned around. A squadron of NKGB Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

troops armed to their miserable gills marched doggedly behind him.

They broke camp three times, and fished in the river, and carried carrots and potatoes with them from Lublin and stories of warm potatoes and warmer Polish girls, they sang songs and shaved until no hair was left on their bodies and behaved like Cub Scouts, not like convicted felons on the way to a road with no hope. Alexander sang louder than most and was more cheerful than all and walked faster than his men with the wind at his back.

Ouspensky, however, continued to grumble each and every kilometer. At one point during a late afternoon, he jumped down from the tank and walked next to Alexander for a bit.

"Only if I don't hear a breath of complaint from you."

"I am allowed to use my soldier's privilege," Ouspensky said grumpily.

"Yes, but why do you have to use it so much?" Alexander was thinking of the river and listening with only one ear to Ouspensky. "Walk faster, you one-lunged malingerer."

"Sir, the girl back in Lublin...Why didn't you avail yourself of her kindness?"

Alexander did not reply.

"You know, sir," said Ouspensky, "I had to pay for her regardless. The least you could have done was have her. Just as a courtesy to me, dammit."

"Next time I'll remember to be more considerate."

Ouspensky marched closer. "Captain, what is wrong with you? Didn't you see her? Did you not see her tit-for-tats? The rest of her was just as succulent."

"Oh?"

"Didn't you find her--"

"She wasn't my type."

"What is your type, sir? If you don't mind my asking. The canteen had all kinds--"

"I like the kind that haven't been to a canteen."

"Oh, dear God. It's war!"

"I have plenty to keep my mind occupied, Lieutenant."

"Do you want me to tell you about the Polish girl?" Ouspensky cleared his throat.

Smiling and looking straight ahead, Alexander said, "Tell me, Lieutenant. And you may not leave out any details. That's an order."

Ouspensky spoke for five minutes. When he was finished, Alexander was silent for a moment, taking in what he just heard, and then said, "That's thebest you can do?" Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

"The story took longer than the actual knock!" Ouspensky exclaimed. "Who am I, Cicero?"