Tatiana and Alexander: A Novel(125)

Tatiana didn't know what to do. But the seeds of doubt were formidable and growing. She called Sam Gulotta, who told her he had heard nothing about Alexander, and confirmed for her the dire situation in the German POW and concentration camps, and the fate of the Soviet prisoners incarcerated there. The more Tatiana thought about it, the crazier the plan sounded even to herself and the more guilt she felt about her child.

She asked everybody she could about Orbeli. She asked all the German soldiers and all the Italian soldiers, and the nurses, and the refugees, and then Tatiana went to the New York Public Library, but even there, amid the research books, the microfilm, the magazines, the periodicals, the atlases, the maps, the reference indices, she could not find a mention of an Orbeli.

The very fact of its obscurity made her think less of it, not more. The pointlessness of it diminished it in her eyes instead of magnifying it. It wasn't a forest or a village, or the name of a fortress, or the name of a general. More and more it seemed a meaningless remark, less to do with her or Alexander than with perhaps a small unrelated thing he had wished to convey to her, like a joke or an anecdote to be promptly forgotten when larger things overtook it. It wasn't a message, it was an aside, and then he was in the lake, and it should have been forgotten. It wasn't forgotten because what followed expanded it out of proportion, not because Orbeli deserved expanding.

But the medal, the medal? TheHero of the Soviet Union medal? How did that end up in her backpack?

But finally Tatiana had an explanation for that also. When Dr. Sayers first told her about Alexander, perhaps he had neglected to tell her that he had taken the medal off a dying man's neck instead of burying him in the lake with it, and then larger events had overtaken it, he had meant to tell her he put it into her backpack in a tiny secret compartment so she would find it someday but not right away, but he was dying and forgot.

She did not go back. Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Poland, November 1944

ALEXANDER SLEPT, SITTING UPagainst the tree with Pasha's head on his lap. At dawn Pasha's throat swelling subsided. He put his finger over the opening in the plastic tube and took a few gasping breaths through his mouth. Alexander, encouraged, used some medical tape he carried to tape around the tube, to close up the opening as much as possible. He refused to take out the plastic pipe, worrying that if Pasha needed it again, he wouldn't be able to reproduce his work. Pasha placed his index finger over the opening in the tubing and croaked, "Tape it up, I can't speak with it open."

Alexander taped the end shut and watched for a few minutes as Pasha spluttered and struggled to take deep breaths.

"Alexander, listen," he finally whispered, weakly and faintly. "I have an idea. Carry me on your back out of this no-man's land to the defense line. I'm still wearing a German uniform, aren't I?"

"Yes."

"You'll save yourself by my German uniform. If you want to save him"--he pointed to Ouspensky and breathed hard--"have him carry one of the German wounded. Do we have any, or are they all dead?"

"I think we have a concussed German."

"Perfect." Breath. "Surrender to them carrying their own wounded. You will save your life."

"The other three can walk."

"Good. Remain in charge though, don't let the prisoners talk for you. When you get to the defense line, saySchie?bsen Sie nicht . Don't shoot."

"Is that all I have to say?" said Alexander. "Why didn't we say that back in 1941? Or even 1939, for that matter?" He smiled. Pasha breathed.

"What are you two conspiring to do there?" said Ouspensky, overhearing. "You're not planning to surrender, are you?"

Alexander said nothing.

"Captain, you know we can't surrender."

"Can't retreat, either."

"We're not retreating. We're staying put. We'll wait for reinforcements to come."

Pasha and Alexander exchanged a look. "We are surrendering, Ouspensky. I have a wounded man. He needs to be treated immediately."

"Well, I'm not doing it. They'll kill us," said Ouspensky, "and then our own army will disown us."

"Who says we're ever going back to our army?" said Pasha, struggling up with Alexander's help. Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

"Oh, you're a fine one to talk. Certainly you, a dead man walking, have nothing to lose and nowhere to go, but the rest of us have families at home."

"I have no family," said Alexander. "But Ouspensky is right."

Ouspensky smiled with satisfaction at Pasha.

Alexander said, "Stay here, Nikolai. Wait for the Red Army to get to you."

The smile was wiped off Ouspensky's face. "Captain! You have a family. I thought you said you had a wife? And he"--pointing derisively to Pasha--"has a sister?"

Alexander and Pasha said nothing.

"Why don't you two care about her? She'll be sent to Bolshevik Island in Archangelsk because of your surrender." No one returned from Bolshevik Island.

Ignoring Ouspensky, Pasha glanced at Alexander. "Ready?" he said.

Alexander nodded, motioning for the four German prisoners. One was delirious. One had a superficial but very bloody and gloriously conspicuous head wound.