Part 31

Quinn felt like she was at the top of the world, standing in Red Square. It was cloudy. There were a lot of people milling around, coming from and going in every direction, but it didn't feel crowded.

"There's the Spasskaya Tower," Zander said. "See the red star at the top? And the big clock."

"The one that chimes on New Year's?"

"Exactly. What a top notch memory!"

"The square is so big!"

"It's easy to orient yourself. Turn this way. That's St. Basil's. Turn left. That's the big department store."

"Looks more like a palace, or a fancy hotel."

"It's a communist leftover. Turn left, that's the historical museum. Then the last side is the Kremlin wall."

"There's Lenin's tomb. I can actually read the name. Thanks to my teacher."

"I knew that the first thing you'd want to see would be that corpse, nurse."

The temperature in a glass vault of a coffin, was kept at 61 degrees, to keep the body from decaying. They stared at the body of the long departed Lenin, who looked kind of waxy, but like he was sleeping.

"He died in 1924. He's been here since 1924," Quinn marveled, staring at him.

"It's stupid," Zander said. "Now, down at Monticello, there was a simple stone memorial to Jefferson, right on his own property, and he was buried there, like a decent human being. This tyrant, he's preserved in a refrigerator. There's a lack of dignity to it. He deserves it, though."

"That must not be the way they looked at it."

"No, they treated it with reverence."

"From what I've managed to pick up about this, I thought Stalin was the tyrant. That was the era that decimated your family."

"Yes. Carrying on the idea through, though. Or Lenin was the one who started it being done."

"Get them back. You could do it by having a lot of children. Wasn't it that they erased them, or something? They tried to erase the Kanishchevs. So have lots of little ones."

"Lots of American ones. I may call them Smith."

Quinn laughed. "Your wife may not want to carry around a name that has no meaning."

"I'll never ask you to marry me. No, you'll have to do the asking."

"All because I was unfortunate enough to be asked by two of the wrong people? I had to turn them down!"

"OK," he laughed. "but it also proves you ought to be the one to ask. You do the choosing, because you can. You're the one everybody wants."

She put an arm around him. "Let's go out," she said, kissing him on the cheek. "And leave his refrigerated tyranny to chill."

They were in the little apartment. Zander had gotten the key from Aleksei, the neighbor who kept it for Sergei.

Quinn unpacked a little.

"It is so cool to see you in this place," he said. "You can't imagine what fun it is for me."

She smiled, went over and kissed him, then went back.

"I'm amazed Sergei didn't rent this place out," she said.

"It's not worth it," Zander said. "In US dollars, what you would get for it makes it worth keeping so he can stay here if he comes over for business trips, rather than stay in a hotel. I wish there was an air conditioner, but it's not worth it, either, for the number of days use you would have for it."

"I don't think it's too warm in here," she said.

"You wouldn't" he grinned. "Now I realize something. I have to get you back here in the winter so you can find out what it's really like over here."

"I'm cold just thinking about it."

She put her passport on the table.

"Don't lose your passport," he said. "You could spend the rest of your life in Russia."

"I remember. But that might not be so bad, if you're here!"