"Sasha?" Alexei walked over to the cat and picked it up. Its body was completely limp. "Oh, Sasha!" Tenderly Alexei sat the tiny body back down and began to sob. Alison held him and stroked his hair. "I'm so sorry," she murmured.

After a few minutes Alexei's sobs subsided, and he silently walked to the door.

"Where are you going?" asked Alison.

"To get shovel. I must bury her."

"It's almost dark, Alexei," Alison said gently. "Why don't you just wait until tomorrow?"

"You are right." Alexei sighed deeply. He wrapped the cat's body in a pillowcase and left it beside the door.

"Please stay, Alison," he said. "I do not want to be alone tonight."

"Of course I'll stay," said Alison.

Alexei held Alison closely all night, as if he never wanted to let her go. Later in the night she awoke and heard him sobbing again.

The next morning he took the cat's body into the back yard and buried it. Alison went with him and helped him to arrange stones in a design to serve as a grave marker. Then they went back inside and ate breakfast.

The bustle of Christmas shopping soon helped assuage Alexei's grief over the loss of the cat. Having never celebrated Christmas before, he was awed by the music and decorations.

"My grandmother tell me about Christmas," he told Alison. "She remember back in the days of the Tsar, before it was outlawed. She tell me the story of baby Jesus in the manger, the angels and the shepherds who follow the star."

"You were very close to your grandmother, weren't you?" asked Alison.

"She live with us, take care of us every day while our parents work in factory," Alexei explained. "My grandfather, he die in gulag a long time before I was born. Someone betray him, accuse him of speaking against Stalin."

"Was that your grandfather who was a Bolshevik?"

"Yes."

Serves him right, Alison thought, remembering her dream. Then she thought of Alexei's grandmother and felt guilty.

"I think that's really sad, to grow up without Christmas," she said.

"We get presents on New Year's Eve instead," said Alexei. "Ded Moroz bring them, put them under tree."

"Oh, I get it." Alison laughed. "So, how old were you when you found out Ded Moroz wasn't real?"

"Ded Moroz is real." They both laughed heartily.

One day at the mall, Alison met up with a couple of her friends from high school, Carol and Donna.

"This is Alexei," she told them. "He just immigrated from Russia about six months ago."

"I finally get exit visa, after twenty-five years," Alexei said with a grin.

"Donna and I finally came out of the closet after about the same length of time," said Carol.

"What?" Alison was shocked. She remembered that while Donna had been into sports in high school, Carol had always been very feminine.

"Carol and I have been in love for a long time, but we always had to keep it a secret," added Donna. "Our parents would have killed us, and we would have had a hard time finding jobs."

"I can imagine," said Alison. "So how are things going for you now?"

"Much better," said Carol. "Our church has been very supportive of us. We've met other gay and lesbian couples there, and there are all kinds of different groups to join and other things to get involved in."

"What church is that?" asked Alison.

"The Unitarian Universalist church," Donna told her.

"I've heard of them, but I don't know very much about them," said Alison.

"They're very accepting of all different kinds of people," Carol said.

"So they do not stand on street corner and hand out pamphlets?" asked Alexei.

Carol and Donna looked confused. Alison told them about Alexei's experience with the street corner preacher, and they both burst out laughing.

"Oh, no. They're not into that at all," said Donna. "You should come sometime. You'd probably enjoy it."

"What you think, Alison? Should we go?" Alexei asked Alison after the women had left.

"Sure, if you want. We could try it," said Alison.

"I think I tell you my grandmother go to Russian Orthodox church before Revolution," Alexei said. "I wonder if it is like that."

Alison laughed. "I doubt it."

"Why so many different churches?" asked Alexei.

"I don't know. I never really thought about it," Alison said. "Growing up with freedom of religion, I guess you just take it for granted."

Suddenly there was a lump in her throat. She turned to Alexei and embraced him tightly.

"You feel sorry for me." Alison nodded.

"No reason to," said Alexei. "I have good life now. New home, good job, and best of all, my Alisonka." He kissed her, and she felt better.