Tatiana and Alexander: A Novel(119)

One of Alexander's men was bitten by something in the woods. The next day he lay dead. Nineteen men. Back to where they were before Pasha. But they had eight bound prisoners to barter their lives with.

The German army was not advancing. It certainly wasn't retreating. Nor were they sitting still. Their singular purpose seemed to lie in finishing off Alexander's battalion.

Alexander managed to hold out for a fifth day. But then there were no more bombs, no more shells and the guns were nearly empty. Borov had been killed. Pasha cried when he buried him in the mud under Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

wet leaves.

Then Sergeant Telikov. Ouspensky cried when they buried Telikov.

The bandages were gone. The food was gone. They collected rain water into leaves and poured it into their flasks. The morphine and the medic were gone. Alexander bandaged his own men.

"What now?" asked Pasha.

"I'm fresh out," said Alexander.

Retreat was the only option.

"We can't retreat," Alexander said to Ouspensky, who was ready to turn back.

"Yes, Lieutenant," said Pasha. "You know retreat is punishable by death."

"Fuck you," said Ouspensky. "I'd like to punish you by death."

Alexander and Pasha exchanged a look. "And you wonder why I chose the Germans over death," said Pasha.

"No," said Ouspensky. "You chose the Germans over your own people, you bastard."

"Look at the way our own people are treating their army!" Pasha exclaimed. "They've put you in here without any support, they've sent you to certain death, and to add insult to your injury, they made surrender a crime against the Motherland! Where have you ever heard of such a thing happening? In what army, in what place and time? You name me where." Pasha made a scornful sound. "And you ask why."

Alexander said, "Oh, Pasha, you take it all so personally. Who do you think cares for our death?"

He and Pasha mutely glanced at each other, and then Alexander stopped talking. He was sitting on a broken tree, pushed up against another, covered with his wet trench coat, carving a stake with his knife. From another tree Ouspensky called to Alexander to stop his useless tasks. Alexander replied that with the stake he was going to catch a fish, eat it himself and let Ouspensky starve for all he cared. Pasha mentioned mournfully that Borov always caught the fish for them, that he was his best friend and his right hand for three years. Ouspensky said, cry me a f*cking river Vistula, and Alexander told them both to shut up. Night fell.

Alexander and Tatiana are playing war hide and seek. Alexander stands very quietly in the woods, listening for her. He can't hear a thing except for the bugs and ticks and flies and bees. Many insects, no Tatiana. He looks up above him, nothing. Slowly he moves forward. "Oh, Tania," he calls for her. "Where are you, tiny Tania? Where are you? You better have hidden yourself good from me, because I'm getting the feeling that I need to find you." He is hoping to make her laugh. He stops talking and listens. There is no sound. Sometimes if she is near he hears her cocking the pistol he gave her. But today not a sound.

"Oh, Tania!" He walks through the woods, turning around every few seconds, watching his back. This Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

game ends once she is behind him, his own gun in his kidney. "Tatia, I forgot to tell you something really important, are you listening?"

He listens. Not a sound. He smiles.

Moss lands on his head. She is doing it again. Where did that come from? He immediately looks up. Not there. He looks around. Can't see her. During this game she puts on his camouflage undershirt and becomes nearly invisible. He is already laughing. "Tatiasha, stop throwing moss at me, because when I find you--" He hears a noise and looks up. Water pours on him from above; not just water, but a whole bucket. He is doused. He swears. The bucket is in full view dangling from a branch, but she is nowhere to be seen. The rope connecting to the bucket descends and disappears behind a fallen log to Alexander's right. "All right, that's it. The gloves are off. Just you wait, Tania," he says, taking off his wet shirt. "You are in so much trouble." He moves towards the log, and suddenly he hears a little whoosh, and in the next instant he is covered with a white powder that gets into his hair and face. It is flour; now it is moist glue around his wet hair and head. Alexander can't believe it. How long had she been planning this, to lure him into the woods, to an exact position first for the water, then for the flour? Marveling at her, at what a formidable opponent she makes, Alexander says, "Oh, that's it, Tania, that's just it. If you think you were in trouble before, I can't even tell you what--" He moves towards the log, but hears a soft tread behind him, and without even turning around extends his hand and grabs her as she is at his back. He doesn't actually grab her, he grabs the gun. Tatiana squeals, lets go of the gun, which remains in his hands, and runs wildly through the woods. He chases her. The forest near this part of the river is sloppy--not the neat pine forest leading from Molotov to Lazarevo, or like the one around their clearing, but overgrown with the underbrush of the oaks and the poplars, the nettles and the moss. The low-hanging branches, the fallen trees slow Alexander down. Nothing slows her down. She jumps over them, passes underneath them, zigzags, and squeals. She even manages to pick up moss and a handful of leaves and throw them back at him.