Tatiana and Alexander: A Novel(93)

"Yes."

"Well, well," Gulotta said. "You were very lucky."

"Yes." She looked down into her hands.

"No more Red Cross in the Soviet Union. Verboten. Forbidden. A few months ago the U.S. State Department asked to have the Red Cross to help at the Soviet hospitals and the Soviet POW camps, and Foreign Minister Molotov himself refused. Quite amazing for you to have left." He looked at her with renewed surprise. She wanted to look down again.

"Tatiana, let me tell you about Alexander Barrington and his parents. He left the United States with his parents in 1930. Harold and Jane Barrington sought voluntary asylum in the Soviet Union despite repeated requests from us not to do so. We could not guarantee their safety. Despite his seditionary activities on our soil, Harold Barrington was still an American citizen and we had an obligation to him and his family. Do you know how many times Harold Barrington was arrested? Thirty-two. His son had been arrested with him, according to our records, three times. Twice he spent his summer vacation in a juvenile detention center because both his parents were in jail and they preferred their son to spend his summer vacation in jail rather than with relatives--"

"What relatives?" interrupted Tatiana.

"Harold had a sister, Esther Barrington."

Alexander had only ever mentioned his father's sister once in passing. Gulotta's low voice was disturbing Tatiana, as if he were measuring his words so as not to spill the really awful news behind them.

"Can you tell me what all this means?" Tatiana said. "What you saying to me?"

"Let me finish. True, their son did not rescind his U.S. citizenship, but his parents rescinded, they surrendered their passports in 1933. Then in 1936 Alexander's mother came to the U.S. consulate asking for asylum for her son."

"I know. That trip cost her her life."

"Yes, indeed," said Gulotta. "But this is where our jurisdiction over Alexander ends. By the time he escaped on his way to prison, he was already a Soviet citizen."

"Yes."

"In 1936, the Soviet authorities came to us asking for our help in finding Alexander Barrington. They Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

said he was a criminal and a fugitive, and we no longer had any right to grant him safe passage should he come to us, and in fact we were bound by international treaty to turn him over to the Soviet Union." Gulotta paused. "We were asked to immediately notify the Soviet authorities should Alexander Barrington come asking us for asylum, since he was a Soviet citizen and a political criminal who had escaped justice."

Tatiana stood up.

"He belongs to them," said Gulotta. "Not us. We can't help you."

"Thank you for your time," Tatiana said, her voice trembling, placing her hands on the handles of Anthony's carriage. "I sorry to bother you."

Gulotta stood up himself. "Our relations with the Soviet Union are stabilized because we're fighting on the same side. But the feeling of mistrust is mutual. What happens when the war is over?"

"I don't know," she replied. "What happens when war is over?"

"Wait," Gulotta said, coming around his desk and going to stand in front of his office door before he opened it for her.

"I go now," she barely said. "I must get train back."

"Wait," he repeated, putting his hand out. "For a second, sit."

"I don't want to sit anymore."

"Listen to me," Gulotta said, motioning her to sit. She was grateful to fall into the chair. "There is one more thing..." He sat in the chair next to her. Anthony grabbed hold of his leg. Gulotta smiled. "Have you remarried?"

"Of course I haven't," she said faintly.

Gulotta looked at the boy.

"That's his child," said Tatiana.

Gulotta didn't speak for a while. "Don't talk about this to anyone. About Alexander Barrington. Don't go to the Justice Department, don't go to the INS offices in New York or Boston. Don't go looking for his relatives."

"Why?"

"Not today, not tomorrow, not next year. Don't trust them. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. You don't want them making inquiries either on his behalf or out of some misplaced affection. If I contact the Soviets asking them for information on Alexander Barrington they will be less than accommodating. If I ask them the whereabouts of a man named Alexander Belov, who is really Alexander Barrington, if he is still alive, that might only lead the Soviet authorities to him."

"I understand that even better than you think I do," Tatiana said, looking down at her boy and away from Gulotta. Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

"You said you have residency here?"

She nodded.

"Get your citizenship as soon as possible. Your boy, he's an American citizen or--"

"He's American."

"That's good. Good." He cleared his throat. "There is one more thing..."

She said nothing.

"According to his files, last year, in March 1943, the Soviet authorities contacted the State Department about one of their citizens, a Tatiana Metanova, who was wanted for espionage, desertion, and treason, and was suspected of escaping to the West. They sent a telegraph wire asking if a Tatiana Metanova had either sought asylum in the United States or had tried to make inquiries about her husband--an Alexander Belov who is suspected of being Alexander Barrington. Tatiana Metanova apparently has not revoked her Soviet citizenship. Last year we said she had not contacted us. They asked us to get in touch with them if she did and requested she be denied asylum status."