Tatiana and Alexander: A Novel(170)

Sam Gulotta motioned three people out of his office and shut the door.

"Sam, how are you? I need your help," she said.

"Tatiana, I'm tired of hearing that. Look, you think I don't understand? You think I don't know? Why do you think I've been helping you all these years? You think if there were some way I could bring my Carol back, I wouldn't do it? I would, I would sacrifice everything to have her back. And so I've bent over backwards for you. I did everything I could for you. But I can't help you anymore." Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

"Yes, you can," she said calmly. "I need you to get me passport for Alexander."

"How can I get him a passport?" Sam yelled. "On the basis of what?"

"He is American citizen and to come back he needs passport."

"Come back from where? How many times do I have to tell you..."

"Not one more time. Your own State Department says he has not lost his citizenship."

"They say nothing of the kind."

"Oh yes, they do. Doesn't the federal code for dual nationals read, and I quote"--she took out a piece of paper and brought it to her nose--"`The law requires that the U.S. national must apply for the foreign citizenshipvoluntarily .'" She put special emphasis onvoluntarily and then, just in case Sam didn't get it, she repeated it. "Voluntarily."

Then she sat with a satisfied expression on her face.

"Why are you looking at me like the cat that ate the canary?"

"I say for third time--voluntarily."

"I heard you the first time."

"I quote more." Paper to nose again. "`He must apply for foreign citizenship by free choice and with the intention of giving up U.S. citizenship.'"

Sam rubbed his eyes. "The codemight say that. What is your point?"

"Military conscription in Soviet Union for boys sixteen years of age iscompulsory !" Just in case he didn't get it, Tatiana repeated it. "Compulsory."

"Oh, for God's sake, what is this, kindergarten? I got it the first time you said it to me."

"Voluntary. Compulsory. Do you see, two words have polar, opposite meanings?"

"I see, thank you for defining English words to me, Tania."

"That's what I'm saying. He did not give up his citizenship by free choice, he did not surrender it voluntary...ly. He wasforced to join Red Army at sixteen."

"You told me he enrolled in an officers' program at eighteen. That sounds voluntary to me."

"Yes, but sixteen comes before eighteen. At sixteen he was already forced to conscript and made to believe he had no right to America." She paused. "And he does. And I need you to help him."

Sam stared blinklessly at Tatiana. At last he said, "Do you know something about his whereabouts I don't know?" Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

"I know nothing. I wish you could help me with that. But I know that one way or another he is going to need passport."

"Passport? Tania! The Soviets have him. Do you understand? Why can't you accept that he is more lost now than ever, without a doubt in the clutches of the Soviet machine that threw millions of their boys at the Germans?"

Tatiana said nothing. Her lower lip quivered slightly.

"And I can't issue a passport without a photo. Without a regulation black-and-white, face only, nothing-covering-the-head photo. I suppose you have one of those?"

"I don't have one of those."

"Then I can't help you."

She stood up. "He is American citizen and he is behind Iron Curtain. He needsyou ."

Sam stood up, too. "The Soviets are refusing to give us information on our MIAs. How do you suppose they will give us information on a man they've been hunting for the last ten years?"

"One way," she said, "or another. I go now. I will wire you when I need you."

"Of course you will."

BOOK THREE

Alexander

She is coming, my life, my fate;

The red rose cries, "She's near, she's near;"

And the white rose weeps, "She's late;"

The larkspur listens, "I hear, I hear;"

And the lily whispers, "I wait." Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Eastern Germany, March 1946

TATIANA WENT TO GERMANYon faith.

She was partnered with a short nurse named Penny--shorter than Tatiana!--and a doctor just out of residency named Martin Flanagan. Penny was a bubbly, heavy, funny gal. Martin was medium height, medium weight, medium paunch under his dress shirts, and excruciatingly serious. Martin was losing what thin hair he was born with, which Tatiana thought might have contributed to his humorlessness. Still, she thought Martin was all right until the day before they were leaving when he told her she was putting too much gauze in the medical kits.

"Is there such thing as too many medical supplies?" she said.

"Yes. Our instructions say one gauze, one adhesive tape, and you're putting in two of each."

"So?"

"That's not what we're supposed to do, Nurse Barrington."