Tatiana and Alexander: A Novel(175)

No wonder the sectors were so hard to contain, Tatiana thought. There isn't one way in and one way out, there are hundreds of ways in. Tatiana wondered how the Soviets were keeping all the Germans from escaping into the American, French and English sectors.

Martin explained. "I told you, because all the Germans are in jail."

"All the Germans?"

"The rest are dead."

They met with the American military governor in Berlin, an ageing brigadier general by the name of Mark Bishop originally from Washington Heights in Manhattan, who fed them, was very interested in news from back home, and let Tatiana telegraph a wire to Vikki and Anthony ("AM WELL AND SAFE. M Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

ISS YOU. LOVE YOU.") and one to Sam Gulotta ("INBERLIN. ANY NEWS? ANY HELP?") and put them up in a hostel for the night. The building was badly damaged but inhabitable. The inside walls had partly collapsed and the windows were all blown out. But many medical and military personnel used the building to sleep in, and so did Tatiana, Penny, and Martin. Tatiana and Penny shared a room. It was June, it was breezy and cool and there was the constant noise of awake men coming from the outside. Tatiana slept lightly with her hand heavily on the pistol.

Alexander of the broken hearted! Alexander of the innocent, the eloquent, the invincible, the invisible, the inordinate, Alexander of the warrior, the combatant, the commander, Alexander of the water and the fire and the sky, Alexander of my soul--good Lord, deliver me to you, to my soldier man of the tanks and the trenches, of the smoke and the sorrow, to Alexander of all my bliss and my longing, to you wherever you may be--I am searching for you. Please O God be on this earth, Alexander of my heart.

The next morning, there was a telegram from Sam waiting for her at Bishop's administrative offices. "Y OU ARE MAD. JOHNRAVENSTOCK CONSULATE. HE WILL HELP."

Vikki also telegraphed: "COME HOME. WE HAVE NO BREAD."

Mark Bishop himself, eager to get the Red Cross inside the Soviet zone of occupation, took the three of them through the Brandenburg gate to meet with the lieutenant-general of the Berlin garrison who was also the military commander of Berlin.

"He doesn't speak English. Do any of you speak Russian, or do I have to get an interpreter?" asked Bishop.

Martin volunteered Tatiana. "She speaks Russian."

She would have to talk to him about volunteering her for things.

"Tania, you don't mind translating, do you?" said Penny.

"Not at all. I do my best," Tatiana replied, and then took Penny a side. "Penny," she whispered, "don't call me Tania, all right? We're in Soviet territory. Don't call me by my Russian name. Call me Nurse Barrington."

"I didn't even think, I'm sorry," Penny said and smiled. "All that lovin' must be going to my brain."

"Did you take your penicillin shot today? Yesterday you forgot."

"I took it. I'm nearly all better. Thank God for penicillin, huh?"

Tatiana smiled wanly, cringed slightly.

The buildings on the boulevard Unter den Linden in the district of Mitte that had been commandeered to quarter the Soviet army were as decrepit as the hostel Tatiana had slept in. Tatiana was stunned most of all not by the destruction, but by the absolute and foreboding lack of reconstruction, a year after the war. New York, which was not even bombed, was building feverishly as if it were gearing up for the next century. Yet the eastern section of Berlin was stagnant and ruined and sad. Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

"Commander Bishop, why is it so quiet here? Why isn't Berlin rebuilding?"

"We are rebuilding. Slowly."

"Not that I can see."

"Nurse Barrington, the tragedy that is Berlin I cannot explain in the five minutes before we meet the Soviet garrison commander. The Soviets don't want to pay for the rebuilding. They want the Germans to pay for the rebuilding."

"All right," said Tatiana, "Berlin is a German city. They should."

"Ah. But first the Soviets want to rebuild the Soviet Union. It's only right."

"It is."

"So there is no money for eastern Berlin. Or brains. They're sending all the engineers and all the money to the Soviet Union."

"Why don't the western Allies help?"

"If only it were that simple. The very last thing the Soviets want is our help in their occupied zone. They hate us being in Berlin. They wish we weren't here. They're going to try to force us out, you'll see. They accept nothing from us. You'll see how impossible it will be to convince the garrison commander to enter the concentration camps even for humanitarian reasons."

"They just don't want us to see how badly they're treating German men," said Tatiana.

"Maybe. But they want us out. I'm not looking forward to this meeting."

The stairs inside the building were marble. It was broken and chipped marble, but it was marble nonetheless. The lieutenant general was waiting for the four of them in his quarters.

They went in. He turned around and smiled. Tatiana gasped out loud.

It was Mikhail Stepanov.

Penny and Martin turned around to look at her. She stepped behind Martin to collect herself. Would he recognize her with her black hair and no freckles and all that makeup? After making the introductions, the governor said, "Nurse Barrington, will you come forward and translate for us, please."