Red Shadow by Paul Dowswell

Author:Paul Dowswell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2014-02-12T05:00:00+00:00

The next Rest Day, Misha went to Yelena’s home. Nikolay and Valya had wanted to come with him but he had persuaded them to let him go alone. It made no sense to put all their futures at risk.

The Rozhkovs lived in a small apartment near his Grandma Olya. Her parents were quite elderly and worked at the office of the People’s Commissariat of Heavy Industry. They were ‘prominent people’, although Misha was sure they would now both have lost their jobs. He knocked on the door and was half surprised to hear movement behind it. A frightened voice called out, ‘Who is it?’

Yelena’s mother pulled back the door a crack. She looked as though she had been crying. ‘You are lucky to find us, Mikhail,’ she said, opening the door to let him in. ‘We have to move out in two days, to a kommunalka in the Sokolnichesky district.’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Misha. ‘Can I help you with your packing?’

‘Anton, he wants to help with our packing,’ she cried out to her husband, suppressing a hysterical laugh. ‘Mikhail, we can only bring one suitcase each.’

Misha looked around the apartment aghast. It was comfortably furnished and full of books and ornaments and paintings. They would have to leave behind almost everything they owned.

‘I just wanted to tell Yelena how sorry I am that this has happened and that I wanted her to keep in touch,’ Misha said.

Yelena’s father had come to join them. ‘She always had a soft spot for you, Mikhail, and that is a very touching gesture. I wish you could tell her that. I wish I could too . . .’ He clenched his jaw as he fought back his emotions. ‘She has gone to fight with the partisans. She told us if she did that, then nobody would be able to accuse her of being an enemy of the people.’

Misha felt as if he had been kicked in the stomach. He told the Rozhkovs how sorry he was that this had happened to them, then he left. He managed to walk two streets before he had to sit down in a doorway and fight back his tears.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.