Ch 33 Moscow Revisited
All windows were cross-taped to prevent shattered glass from hurting people during air raids. Wooden signs of "bomb shelter" were nailed on walls. Sandbags and plywood boards were stacked up on the side of the roads. Fortification structures set up in the previous year remained in streets as Moscow was already prepared for street combats. Luckily, efforts in the front didn't put these defensive structures into use. For a person returning to Moscow from the frontline, everything the eyes could see sent a painful mixture of emotions to his heart.
These were what Wang Yao had seen on February 13, 1942. At noon, after he finished his errands and returned from the city council, he headed directly to the military hospital. People there told him that Braginsky recovered very quickly after the surgery and had just been discharged two hours ago. "He's going to the 62nd army before the seventeenth." said a patient in the same room, "But he said that he was going to visit his sister before he leaves…"
Wang Yao didn't ask any further and left the room. He didn't know where Ivan's sister lived—and what if he did know? Perhaps Ivan already left Moscow. In wartime, railway schedules were often unreliable due to so many unexpected factors, so one usually set out extra time for a planned trip. Perhaps Ivan would drop by their unit on the way, to say goodbye to his comrades—and, of course, to him. But then, the soldiers could only tell him, "Wang Yao already left this morning…"
In a split second, he felt at ease: their reunion was in vain, and so was his planned parting following the reunion. Since he had lost Vanya once, now he wouldn't have to lose him a second time. For hundreds of years, people prepared for separations with tremendous passion, only to savour this bitter wine as they spent time alone in the future. But they only had a quarter hour's time, along with that sentence drowned in the truck engine's soaring sound:
"…want to hug you like before…but the left hand…"
As he walked on the bridge over the Moscow river, Wang Yao looked at the frozen water that was glowing an iron-like shine and thin smokes arisen from the ice. He stood on the bridge for a moment, thinking that he heard the spring tide that was concealed beneath the ice.
"Talking about spring at this time is rather too early. But I think the cranes are about to fly back to Moscow." His mind wandered aimlessly, "Except that they will not meet Vanya or me…"
But right at this moment, he actually met that "all-knowing, all-powerful five-star general" Elizaveta Hedervary. To be exact, she discovered him first and ran from the other side of the bridge, flying to his arms cheerfully.
"I know I will meet you again! I need to catch up with your love life telling!"
…
"The ComIntern leadership was taken away by bad people!" "General" Elizaveta said with a serious face, "Come with me to Hungary, comrade!"
The excitement couldn't hide away her tiredness. The voice told him that this six-year-old girl had been walking for quite a distance. He quickly got everything out from her. The nursery was dedicated for the offsprings of revolutionaries from many different countries and was called "ComIntern" by "General" Elizaveta—of course the leader being her, the "General". But a group of bad people spearheaded by aunt Vera had seized the power, and not only did they ignore her order, but instead often nagged her. Thus, this morning, "General" Elizaveta deserted those snivelling "generals" in bibs and stepped on the glorious and tragic road of exile.
"I tell you everything because I trust you." the shining green eyes stared into his eyes. "All my generals are defeated by the bad people. Only General Feliciano agreed to cover me up, but he didn't want to flee with me…I order you to come with me to Hungary! I have told you that my papa and mama are in the guerilla troop. They are all big heros. The Nazi Germans ran for their lives when they saw them…I have our trip fare here, a silver thimble on top of six roubles…"
"But I'm going to Ural military school. The train leaves in the morning on the day after tomorrow." Wang Yao knelt down to look at the "General" into the eyes, "Come, let me walk you back to the nursery."
"I'm going to find papa and mama!" "General" Elizaveta shouted stubbornly, "I love them. Comrade, don't you want to be together with people you love?"
"How I envy you, general. You can do whatever you wish to do…"
The tenderness and melancholy hidden long inside could be restrained no more and flowed through his voice. Even the self-important "General" could only watch his gloomy eyes and lost for words. In a second, her agile green eyes caught something and the puffy little hand reached out to his neck to touch the skin near his collarbone.
"You're injured?"
Wang Yao nodded. He couldn't see that area, but he was sure the little girl saw a scar. Whipping marks during his captivity would not disappear soon in the near future.
"Does it still hurt?"
Wang Yao shook his head. No, it stopped hurting a long time ago, along with all the scars eyes could see. Ever since he fell into Ivan's arms at the death's door, he could no longer feel pain on skin and flesh. Because they all sneaked into his heart.
"I know you're a brave man! People that are hurt but don't complain are all brave! Lovino isn't. He cried the loudest last week when we had vaccine shots." The little girl raised her thumb, then pulled out from her neck the juju that was contained inside a cloth pouch, "I will ask the juju to give you the best lover! First question: have you ever been in love…"
"I already have the best lover. I love him, and will continue to love him*…"
"Really?" the little girl cheered in her top voice. "Why don't you stay together? When people are in love, they will stay together. Like my papa and mama are fighting together in Hungary…"
"I lost him…Beside, my parents were loving each other, but they spent so little time together…"
He stood up and faced the frozen Moscow river. It was not something shameful for people coming back from the battlefield, but he must turn away his face as to not let the child see the truly painful tears—a man's tears—on the face of a soldier who had withstood the test of war.
When Wang Yao put his eyes on the little girl once again, a glimmer of smile reappeared on his face:
"Accompany me for a walk on the street, my General! I want to see Moscow one more time."
They walked hand in hand. "General" Elizaveta came to know that they had the same identity in the Soviet. She also knew that Wang Yao had a little sister named Chunyan who was exactly twice her age.
"It's so nice to have a big brother like you!" "General" Elizaveta envied, "I don't have a big brother, but Feliciano does. But I don't want a big brother like his!"
"So, you're jealous of Chunyan?"
"I'm not! I have the best papa and mama in the world…"
Through their chit-chat, Wang Yao fooled the little girl to tell him about the nursery's address. Back then, little Chunyan grew up through all his coaxings, so handling little Elizaveta came easily. Now, he was able to bring her back to the street where the nursery was located without her realized.
As they turned around the street, they were discovered by the "bad people" who were looking for this girl. Before the "General" had the chance to throw a resenting glance of trachery, the older nurse, aunt Vera, whom Wang Yao had met last year hurried over, "Liza! Where have you been!"
"I came back to Moscow from the front for some errands." Wang Yao felt that he should be on the little girl's side. "I met little Liza on the bridge and she said that she's going to see her parents. Maybe she missed home. Isn't that what kids do…"
"Kids should be honest! We told her many times, but she just stick with her nonesense…She's not going to see her parents. Her parents were killed before she was sent here…"
Wang Yao took a step back. The jittery little girl turned all red and was tyring to explain, but aunt Vera continued.
"She knew all these things. If you don't believe it, ask her yourself! The people from Hungary who sent her here said that she was in the crowd when the Nazis executed her parents. The red scarf she wears is the only thing her mother left…Comrade, don't think that I am unkind or unreasonable. We are in a war right now. Children should better recognize the reality. What should they do growing up if they keep lying to themselves…"
He cupped her small hands tightly inside his palms, "Liza, is it like what aunt Vera said?"
The little girl trembled, but inside her shaky voice was a disproportionate stubbornness and fierce, "So what if I saw it…I ordered them to come back to life anyway…I'm the General and I can give orders. If it doesn't work then I'll just give another order…"
"People can grow up without a father." Wang Yao wiped away the rolling tears from her small, pale face, "Like me…"
"But you have a mother…"
"Then, you will have to become more courageous than me. Liza, do you understand?"
…Before he left, he looked back at that small figure in front of the nursery for the last time. The scarf—the only thing a mother left to her child—that she was wearing was like a cape worn by all the fearless commanders in history. "General" Elizaveta's parting words still echoed in his ears—she was already in smile,
"Actually, it doesn't matter! See, my papa and mama always fought together, and they went to die together. So, they're still together in my heart. People in love always stay together…"
*The third-person pronouns (he, him, she, her, etc) are all pronounced the same in Chinese.