AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"No, thanks, but I'd like some tea. "
He did not have a samovar, but she made tea in a saucepan and gave him a cup with a lump of sugar. When he had drunk it he felt a little better. He said: "The worst of it is, I could have avoided the draft-but Pinsky swore he would make sure I didn't. "
She sat on the bed beside him and took from her pocket a pamphlet. "One of the girls gave me this. "
Grigori glanced at it. It appeared dull and official, like a government publication. Its title was "Aid to Soldiers' Families. "
Katerina said: "If you're the wife of a soldier you're entitled to a monthly allowance from the army. It's not just for the poor, everyone gets it. "
Grigori vaguely remembered hearing about this. He had not taken much notice, as it did not apply to him.
Katerina went on: "There's more. You get cheap home fuel, cheap railway tickets, and help with children's schooling. "
"That's good," Grigori said. He wanted to sleep. "Unusual for the army to be so sensible. "
"But you have to be married. "
Grigori became more alert. Surely she could not possibly be thinking. . . "Why are you telling me this?" he said.
"As it is I won't get anything. "
Grigori lifted himself on one elbow and looked at her. Suddenly his heart was racing.
She said: "If I was married to a soldier I'd be better off. So would my baby. "
"But. . . you love Lev. "
"I know. " She began to cry. "But Lev is in America and he doesn't care enough even to write and ask how I am. "
"So. . . what do you want to do?" Grigori knew the answer, but he had to hear it.
"I want to get married," she said.
"Just so that you can get the soldier's wife's allowance. "
She nodded, and with that nod she extinguished in him a faint, foolish hope that had flared briefly. "It would mean so much," she said. "To have a little money when the baby comes-especially as you'll be away with the army. "
"I understand," he said with a heavy heart.
"Can we get married?" she said. "Please?"
"Yes," he said. "Of course. "
{II}
Five couples were married at the same time in the Church of the Blessed Virgin. The priest read the service fast, and Grigori observed with irritation that he did not look anyone in the eye. The man would hardly have noticed if one of the brides had been a gorilla.
Grigori did not much care. Whenever he passed a church, he remembered the priest who had tried to have some kind of sex with eleven-year-old Lev. Grigori's contempt for Christianity had later been reinforced by lectures on atheism at Konstantin's Bolshevik discussion group.
Grigori and Katerina were getting married at short notice, as were the other four couples. All the men were in uniform. Mobilization had caused a rush to matrimony, and the church was struggling to keep up. Grigori hated the uniform as a symbol of servitude.
He had told no one about the marriage. He did not feel it was a reason for celebration. Katerina had made it clear that it was a purely practical measure, a way for her to get an allowance. As such it was a very good idea, and Grigori would be less anxious, when he was away with the army, knowing that she had financial security. All the same he could not help feeling there was something horribly farcical about the wedding.
Katerina was not so shy, and all the girls from the boardinghouse were in the congregation, as well as several workers from the Putilov plant.
Afterward there was a party in the girls' room at the boardinghouse, with beer and vodka and a violinist who played folk tunes they all knew. When people started to get drunk, Grigori slipped out and went to his own room. He took off his boots and lay on the bed in his uniform trousers and shirt. He blew out the candle but he could see by the light from the street. He still ached from Pinsky's beating: his left arm hurt when he tried to use it and his cracked ribs gave him a stabbing pain every time he turned over in bed.
Tomorrow he would be on a train west. The shooting would start any day now. He was scared: only a mad person would feel otherwise. But he was smart and determined and he would try his best to stay alive, which was what he had done ever since his mother died.
