Tatiana and Alexander: A Novel(88)

All made from moonsilver

A song is faintly heard and then subsides

During these quiet nights."

"Shura, are you hungry?"

"No." They were sitting side by side. He wasn't looking at her.

"You sure? We haven't eaten since six, and it's--"

"I said no."

Silence. "Are you thirsty? Want another cup of tea?"

"No, thank you," he said a little gentler.

"What about a little vodka?" She nudged him. "I'll drink with you."

"No, Tania. I don't want anything."

"Can I get you a cigarette?"

"Tania!" he exclaimed. "I'm fine. Believe me, if there is something I want, I'll let you know, all right?"

He felt her body tense. She took her hands away. He put them back. "I want you to continue to touch me, I don't want to move, or have you move. I'm fine, right here." He didn't look at her.

"Come here, darling," she said. "Come. Put your head on me."

The lion spoke. The lamb obeyed.

His head was in her lap and she was lightly tickling his neck and murmuring.

"Tania, can you just stop?" he whispered. "Can you just quit for a second? Please. I can't take you."

She cradled him, bending over him, kissing his hair. He felt her breasts soft against his head. "Shura...Shura..." she purred in her sing-song voice. "Husband man, lovely man, big man, soldier man, beautiful man, Tania's man...Shura, beloved man, adored man, worshipped man, alive man, Shura..."

Alexander couldn't speak.

"Shura, listen. Look at me, and listen. Are you listening?"

"Yes," he said, opening his eyes and looking up.

Her eyes were twinkling. She cleared her throat. "In the year 2000, three crocodiles lie on a river bank. One says, `We were green once.' The other one says, `Yes, and we could swim.' The third one says indignantly, `Enough of this. Stop wasting your time. Let's fly around and gather some honey!'" Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

Laughing, Alexander put his hands to his face. The crocodiles might not have known what they were, but he knew very well what he was.

"Shura, stop, come on now. Don't laugh yet. My mission is to make you laugh until you cry." Tatiana peeled his hands away from his face and said, "A husband says to his wife--"

"Please, no more."

"A husband says to his wife, `Dear, did you hear the rumor that the postman has had all the women in the village except one?' And his wife exclaims, `Oh, I bet it's that stuck-up Mira in hut number thirty!'"

Alexander laughed. "Okay, here is mine: `A pest is a man you'd rather make love to than explain why you'd rather not.'"

Tatiana hugged him and said, "And here's mine: `Honey, what do you prefer--my beautiful body or my beautiful face?'"

"Your sense of humor," returned Alexander, holding her to him until she couldn't breathe. Nine days left, he wanted to say, but didn't. Couldn't.

She was struggling with a large basket of wet clothes near the water while he sat on the bench smoking. He had been hacking away at the forest all morning, swinging the axe at the branches as if it were some kind of absolution from his sins. He spent three hours making kindling bundles for her, because he knew it would get cold at night after he had left. But he was upset with her--again. She had been gone all morning, helping the old women clean their house, or plant, or f*ck knows what else.

Alexander watched her resentfully as she struggled with their wet sheets. Tatiana couldn't lift the heavy basket to bring it to the line. He watched her and smoked. Finally she turned around, saw him sitting on the bench and looked surprised and then disheartened.

"Shura," she called to him reproachfully, motioning him to her. "What are you doing? Come and help me."

He didn't move.

"Shura!"

Alexander got up and walked over. Without looking at her, he swung the basket up with one hand and carried it to the line, where he dropped it on the ground and went back to the bench. As he turned to sit down, Tatiana was standing in front of him.

"What?" she said. "Whatnow ?"

"Don't give me the `what now,' all right?"

"What?" she said. "What did I do too much of, or not enough of?"

He opened his mouth, but her hand went over it as she brought her face to his and said quietly, "Stop it. Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

Stop yourself before you say something you will have to apologize for in ten seconds." She held her hand over his mouth and then kissed his forehead. Patting him lightly on the cheek, she went to hang the laundry, leaving him dumbfounded and stung by conscience.

Alexander went inside and made her tea. Walking over, he handed her the cup and said guiltily, "Here, you drink, let me do this."

She sat down on a tree stump while he fiddled with the clothes pins. When he was done, he went to her, watched her for a moment, and then slowly descended to his knees. Tatiana parted her legs to let him closer.

"Tania..." he said in a stilted voice.

She stopped him. "Shh. You don't have to apologize for anything. Be whatever you want, Shura, justbe ."