Home.

He couldn’t believe he was still calling it home.

The Soviet Union was well and good, but it wasn’t his home, and the Soviet Communists knew it. They were done protecting him, no matter how much he had refused to believe it. Now he was the enemy of the people. He understood.

Harold derided America. He despised America with its shallowness and false morality, he hated the individualist ethic, and he thought the idea of democracy was embraced only by a special kind of idiot. But now that he was sitting in a Soviet concrete cell, Harold wanted to get his boy back to this America, at any cost, at any price.

The Soviet Union couldn’t save Alexander. Only America could do that.

What have I done to my son? Harold thought. What have I left behind for him? Harold couldn’t remember what Communism was anymore. All he saw was Alexander’s admiring face as Harold stood on a pulpit in Greenwich, Connecticut, screaming invective on a Saturday afternoon in 1927.

Who is the boy I call Alexander? If I don’t know, how will he? I found my way, but how will he find his in a country that does not want him?

All Harold wanted during his year of endless interrogations, denials, pleas, and confusion was to see Alexander once before he died. He called on Slonko’s humanity.

“Don’t call on my humanity,” Slonko said. “I have none. Also, humanity has nothing to do with Communism, with creating a higher social order. That, comrade, takes discipline, perseverance, and a certain detached attitude.”

“Not just detached,” said Harold, “but severed.”

“Your son will not be coming to visit you,” Slonko said. “Your son is dead.”

Speechless, Tatiana sat next to Alexander as both her hands caressed his arm up and down. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered, wanting desperately to touch his face but unable to bring herself to do so. “Alexander, you hear me? I’m so sorry.”

“I hear you. It’s all right, Tania,” he said, getting up. “My parents are gone, but I’m still here. That’s something.”

She could not move from the bench. “Alexander, wait, wait. How did you get from ‘Barrington’ to ‘Belov?’ And what happened to your father? Did you ever see your parents again?”

He looked at his watch. “What happens to time when I’m with you?” he muttered. “I have to run. We’ll save that for another day.” He gave her his hand to help her up. “A later day.”

Her heart swelled. There would be another day, then? Slowly they walked out of the park. “Have you told Dasha any of this?” Tatiana asked.

“No, Tatiana,” Alexander replied, not looking at her.

She was treading softly next to him. “I’m glad you told me,” she said at last.

“Yes, me, too,” said Alexander.

“Promise you’ll tell me the rest someday?”

“Someday I’ll make that promise.” He smiled.

“I can’t believe you’re from America, Alexander. That’s definitely a first for me.” She blushed when she said it.

He bent and kissed her gently on the cheek. His lips were warm and his stubble prickly. “Be careful walking home,” Alexander said after her. Her heart aching, Tatiana nodded, watching him walk away with a feeling that resembled despair.

What if he turned around and saw her? How silly she must look standing there staring at him. Before she could think another thought, Alexander turned around. Caught, she tried to move, her slow legs betraying her confusion. He saluted her. What must he think, seeing me gaping at him as he walks away. She wished she had more guile and made a vow to herself to get some. And then she raised her hand and saluted him back.

4

At home Dasha was on the roof. Each building had already designated their air-raid workers, first clearing debris from the attics, then taking shifts on the roofs, watching for German planes.

Dasha was sitting down on the tar roofing paper, smoking a cigarette and talking loudly with the two youngest Iglenko brothers, Anton and Kirill. Near them were buckets of water and heavy bags of sand. Tatiana wanted to sit next to her sister but couldn’t.

Dasha got up and said, “Listen, I’m off. Will you be all right here?”

“Of course, Dasha. Anton will protect me.” Anton was Tatiana’s closest friend.

Dasha touched her sister’s hair. “Don’t stay up here too long. Are you tired? You’re home so late. We knew Kirov would be too far for you. Why don’t you get a job with Papa? You’ll be home in fifteen minutes.”

“Don’t worry, Dash. I’m fine.” She smiled as if to prove it.

After Dasha left, Anton Iglenko tried to jolly Tatiana out of her mood, but she didn’t want to talk to anyone. She just wanted to think for a minute, for an hour, for a year. Tatiana needed to think herself out of what she was feeling.

Finally she relented and played the dizzy geography game. She put her hands over her eyes while Anton spun her around, stopping her suddenly, and she had to point in the direction of Finland. In the direction of Krasnodar. Which way the Urals? Which way America?

Then Tatiana spun Anton.

They named as many geographical locations as they could think of, and when they were done, they counted up their correct points. As the winner, Tatiana got to jump up and down.

Tonight Tatiana did not jump up and down. She sat down heavily on the roof. All she could think about was Alexander and America.

Anton, a scrawny blond boy, said, “Don’t look so glum. It’s all exciting.”

“Is it?” she said.

“Why, yes. In two years, I’ll be able to join. Petka left yesterday.”

“Left yesterday for where?”

“For the front.” He laughed. “In case you didn’t notice, Tania, there’s a war on.”

“I noticed, all right,” said Tatiana, shaking a little. “Have you heard from Volodya?” Volodya was with Pasha in Tolmachevo.

“No. Kirill and I wish we could have gone. Kirill can’t wait to turn seventeen. He says the army will take him at seventeen.”

“The army will take him at seventeen,” said Tatiana, getting up.

“Tania, will somebody take you at seventeen?” Anton smiled.

“I don’t think so, Anton,” she replied. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Tell your mother I have some chocolate for her if she wants. Tell her to come by tomorrow evening.”

Tatiana went downstairs. Her grandparents were reading quietly on the couch. The small lamp was on. She squeezed in snugly between them, almost on both their laps.

“What’s the matter, dear?” said her grandfather. “Don’t be afraid.”

“Deda, I’m not afraid,” said Tatiana. “I’m just very, very confused.” And I have no one to talk to, she thought.

“About the war?”

Tatiana considered. Telling them was out of the question. Instead, she asked, “Deda, you always said to me, ‘Tania, there is so much still ahead of you. Be patient with life.’ Do you still feel that way?”

Her grandfather didn’t reply at first, and she felt she had her answer. “Oh, Deda,” she mouthed plaintively.

“Oh, Tania,” he said, putting his protective arm around her while her grandmother patted her knee. “Things have changed overnight in this world.”

“It does seem that way,” said Tatiana.

“Maybe you should be less patient.”

“That’s what I thought.” She nodded. “I think patience is overrated as a virtue anyway.”

“But be no less moral,” said Deda. “No less righteous. Remember the three questions I told you to ask yourself to know who you are.”

She wished Deda wouldn’t remind her. She had no interest in asking herself those questions tonight. “Deda, in this family we leave the righteousness to you,” Tatiana said, smiling weakly. “There is nothing left for the rest of us.”

His head of thick gray hair shaking, her grandfather said, “Tania, that’s all that’s left.”