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right past her apartment building. She was a few hundred meters down the block, almost near the corner of Suvorovsky, when she stopped.
    “You want another rest?” Alexander asked.
    “No,” she said, trying to hide the feelings from her voice. “We missed my apartment building.”
    “Missed it?” exclaimed Dimitri. “How can that be?”
    “We just did, that’s all,” said Tatiana. “It’s at the other corner.”
    Smiling, Alexander lowered his head. Slowly they walked back.
    After entering the front door, Tatiana said, “I’m on the third floor. Will you two be all right?”
    “Do we have a choice?” Dimitri asked. “Is there an elevator? Of course not,” he added. “This isn’t
America
. Is it, Alexander?”
    “I shouldn’t think so,” Alexander replied.
    They climbed the stairs in front of Tatiana. “Thank you,” she whispered behind Alexander, mostly to herself; in fact, she was just thinking out loud. The thoughts were too loud, that was all.
    “You’re welcome,” he said, without turning around.
    Stumbling, she continued upward.
    When she opened the door to her communal apartment, Tatiana hoped that crazy Slavin would not be lying on the floor in the middle of the corridor. This time her hopes went unanswered. He was there, his torso in the corridor, his legs inside his room, a snake of a man, thin, unkempt, malodorous, his ragged mop of greasy gray hair covering most of his face.
    “Slavin has been pulling his hair out again,” she whispered to Alexander, who was right behind her.
    “I think that’s the least of his problems,” Alexander whispered back.
    With a growl, Slavin let Tatiana walk by but grabbed hold of Alexander’s leg and laughed hysterically.
    “Comrade,” said Dimitri, coming up behind Alexander and sticking his boot on top of Slavin’s wrist, “let go of the lieutenant.”
    “It’s all right, Dimitri,” said Alexander, moving Dimitri away with his elbow. “I can handle him.”
    Slavin squealed with delight and squeezed Alexander’s boot harder. “Our Tanechka is bringing home a handsome soldier,” Slavin shrieked. “Excuse me…
two
handsome soldiers! What’s your father going to say, Tanechka? Is he going to approve? I don’t think so! I don’t think so at all. He doesn’t like you to bring home boys. He’ll say two is too much for you. Give one to your sister, give her one, my sweet.” With glee, Slavin laughed wildly. Alexander yanked his leg away.
    Slavin reached out to grab hold of Dimitri, then looked up into Dimitri’s face and let his hand drop without touching him.
    Calling after all three of them, Slavin screeched, “Yes, Tanechka, bring them home. Bring more! Bring them all—because they’ll all be dead in three days. Dead! Shot by Comrade Hitler, such a
good
friend of Comrade Stalin!”
    “He was in a war,” Tatiana said by way of explanation, relieved to be past him. “He ignores me when I’m alone.”
    “Why do I doubt that?” said Alexander.
    Flushing, Tatiana said, “He really does. He is bored with us because we ignore him.”
    Leaning into her, Alexander said, “Isn’t communal living grand?”
    That surprised her. “What else is there?”
    “Nothing,” he replied. “This is what it’s going to take to reconstruct our selfish, bourgeois souls.”
    “That’s what Comrade Stalin says!” Tatiana exclaimed.
    “I know,” said Alexander, keeping a serious face. “I’m quoting him.”
    Trying not to laugh, Tatiana led him to her front door. Before opening it, she glanced back at Alexander and Dimitri and said with an excited sigh, “All right. Home.” Opening the door, she said, smiling, “Come in, Alexander.”
    “Can I come in, too?” Dimitri asked.
    “Come in, Dimitri.”
    Tatiana’s family were in Babushka and Deda’s room around the big dining table. Tatiana stuck her head in from the hallway. “I’m home!”
    No one even looked up. Mama said blankly, “Where’ve you been?” She could have been