It was a perfect day. For five minutes there was no war, and it was just a glorious Sunday in a Leningrad June. When Tatiana looked up from her ice cream, she saw a soldier staring at her from across the street.
I could have lived through it all if only I continued to have the feeling that at the end of childhood, at the end of adolescence, there was something else in this life that would be mine, that I could make with my bare hands, and once I had made it, I could say, I did this to my life. I made my life so.
The struggle doesn’t end just because you know the way. That’s when it’s only beginning.
Shura, I’m going to die.
Tatia, let me take care of you.” He stopped and took a breath.
You know that we all need one other person. One other person to remind us we are still human beings and not beasts.
Some words were like that. Whole lives attached to them.
All Alexander hears is his mother pleading, screaming, crying into the closed face of the consulate guard, as he keeps trying to pull her away, Please please please help him, we have money, a place to live, help him, help him, help him –.
A good man has as much chance of dying as a bad one. Maybe more so.
He’s not dead. He is still alive, and while he is alive, he is mine.
La memoria... esa cruel enemiga del consuelo.
He hugged her. “Be strong for me, Tatiana,” Alexander said hoarsely. “Save yourself for me.” “That’s what I do, Shura,” Tatiana said. “I save myself for you.” Alexander bent to her, but she couldn’t even look up. He kissed the top of her hat. They held on for a few more seconds.
Alexander shows Anthony how he crouches and she climbs on his shoulders; he straightens up, holding on to her hands and then lets go, and she also straightens up and balances, standing on top of his shoulders for a long moment before pushing off his trapezoid in a nearly perfect, splashless forward dive. Mom, says Anthony, looking impressed, where did you and Dad learn to do that? And Dad, glancing at Mom in the water, says, Lazarevo.
I know what keeping a promise means.” “No, you only know what making a promise means,” Alexander said. “You are very good at making the promise. It’s keeping the promise you have a problem with.
Tatia, let me take care of you.” He stopped and took a breath. “Please. Don’t be afraid. I will never hurt you.” “I know that,” she muttered, unable or unwilling to open her eyes.
The sponge of my heart had been filled up sometime last evening and had begun to drip.
Dasha bent him to her and kissed him on the mouth. And kissed him and kissed him. And kissed him.
Sometimes the beast needs to be loved before it can be lovable. Love her in her sin, that’s what divine love means. Love her with the highest form of love on earth. Love everything. Then you will see mystery in everything.
What does it mean to be human, to be good, to be moral, to be all three at once? It means that flawed beings often must choose between two flawed options.
You sweet thing,” he murmured. “You’re the sweetest thing. I don’t know what to do, what to do, Tania.” He kissed her lips.
We walk alone through this world, but if we’re lucky, we have a moment of belonging to something, to someone, that sustains us through a lifetime of loneliness. For an evening minute I touched him again and grew red wings and was young again in the Summer Garden, and had hope and eternal life.