Tatiana and Alexander: A Novel(68)

"Good. I am your commanding officer. Choose twenty men and take them to lay the tracks for the train to get through. Do me a favor and don't fight with your charges anymore. It diminishes your authority."

"Thanks for the tip."

"Go pick your men. Who was your superior officer before me?"

"You're joking. No one. We had three captains die in the last two weeks. Then they started sending the majors to the railroad. Two of them died. We've got no one left. The idiots have not yet figured out that if the Germans have such a good view of the railroad they're constantly blowing up, they have just as good a view of the vertical men who are fixing it. Just this morning we lost five men before we laid a single millimeter of track."

"Let's see how we do under the cover of night."

It turned out not much better. Twenty men went with Ouspensky, and thirteen came back, including Ouspensky. Out of the thirteen, three were injured critically, two were superficially wounded, and one man was blind.

The blind man escaped in the night, was stopped at the Lake Ladoga shore and shot on the spot by the NKGB.

The army base between Sinyavino Heights and Lake Ladoga was set up on a flat, boggy stretch of land with canvas tents and some wooden structures erected for the colonels and the brigadier generals. Two battalions were quartered here, comprising six companies, eighteen platoons, and fifty-four squads, 432 men in all. Because of a lack of commanding officers, Alexander had a battalion all to himself, 216 men he could send to their deaths. Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

Stepanov was not here. Alexander didn't get to see Stepanov again after the tribunal hearing. He must have gone back to the Leningrad garrison, his only home for many years. Alexander hoped so.

Meeting Dasha Metanova, 1941

Alexander was at Sadko, standing near the bar as usual. He preferred going to the officers' club; he found it awkward socializing with noncoms. The gulf between them was too large now.

On this June Saturday night, Alexander was standing talking to Dimitri when two girls came and stood near them. He glanced at them briefly. The second time he looked, he found one of them staring at him with frank interest. He smiled politely. Dimitri turned his head, looked them both over, raised his eyes at Alexander, and stepped around so the two men could face the two women.

"Could we buy you girls a beer?" Dimitri asked.

"Sure," said the taller, darker one. She was the one who had been staring at Alexander. Dimitri was making friendly conversation with the shorter, less attractive one. It was hard to talk in the bar. Alexander asked if the dark girl wanted to go for a walk. She smiled. "Sure."

They went outside into the warm barely dusky night. It was just after midnight, and still quite light out. The girl sang a bit, then took his hand and laughed into his face. "So am I going to have to guess," she asked, "or will you tell me your name?"

"Alexander," he said, and did not ask for hers because he had trouble remembering names.

"Aren't you going to ask me my name?"

He smiled. "You sure you want me to know?"

She looked at him with surprise. "Do I want you to know what my name is? Is that what you soldiers have regressed to? You don't even ask the girl's name anymore?"

"Hey, listen," said Alexander, patting her. "I don't know what the other soldiers regressed to. I just know that I tend to forget names."

"Well, maybe after tonight, you will never forget my name." She smiled suggestively.

Slightly shaking his head, Alexander wanted to tell her that she would have to do something pretty extraordinary for him not to forget her name, but he said nothing except, "All right. What's your name?"

"Daria," she said. "But everyone calls me Dasha."

"All right, Daria-Dasha. Do you have a place you want to take me to? Is anyone at home?"

"Is anyone at home? Where are you living? Of course. I'm never alone for a second. I've got everybody at home. Mama, Papa, Babushka, Dedushka, my brother. And my sister sleeps in the same bed as me." She raised her eyebrows and laughed. "I think even an officer would have trouble having two sisters at the same time?"

"It depends," Alexander said, putting his arm around her. "What does your sister look like?" Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

"About twelve," Dasha replied. "Is there anywhereyou can take me?"

Alexander took her to his barracks. It was his turn tonight.

Dasha asked if she should undress. "I don't want anyone to walk in on us."

"Well, this is the army barracks," said Alexander, "not the European Hotel. Undress, Dasha, but at your own peril."

"Are you going to undress?"

"They've all seenme ," Alexander pointed out.

Dasha undressed, and so did Alexander.

He enjoyed her as much as many other girls. Her body was a typical Russian fleshy body--large hips, large breasts--the kind that drove men like his quartermate Grinkov crazy. What Alexander liked about Dasha, though, was a slightly familiar quality, a friendly, easy-going manner that came from knowing someone a while. Also, her response to him was somewhat above the mill. She actually said, "Oh, my...Alexander,where do you come from?"