by Smith, Dan
Now that she was free, the relief was overwhelming her.
When the children turned, Pavel called out, ‘Papa!’ and ran to me as I climbed down from Kashtan, the faithful friend who had brought me so far and never let me down.
Misha ran too, keeping up with his brother, and then my sons were putting their arms around me as if to test that I was real.
‘Papa,’ they said over and over, squeezing me tight and staring up at me.
I hugged them back and kissed them, and I put my face to Pavel’s hair. And as I did it, I looked over the top of their heads at Marianna.
She was so much thinner than I remembered, but just as beautiful.
I took off my coat and held my hand out to her.
She began to cry, her face crumpling, her shoulders rising and falling with great sobs as she took my hand.
‘Marianna.’ I put my coat around her. ‘I found you.’
‘Kolya,’ she said, touching her fingers to my face and staring in quiet disbelief. ‘Kolya.’
I drew her closer so that we were all together and we stood as a family, holding one another as if we would never be parted again.
I closed my eyes and held them for a long time.
When I finally opened them again, Anna was standing close, waiting, with Tuzik at her side.
‘This is Anna,’ I said. ‘She’ll be coming with us.’
‘Anna.’ My wife repeated the name as if to test it. She spoke gently and looked at Anna.
‘She’s part of our family now,’ I said, holding a hand out to her.
‘Where will we go?’ Marianna asked. ‘Home?’
I had been so single-minded I hadn’t given much consideration to what we would do when I had found them. Perhaps I had been too afraid that they might not be alive and that we’d have no future together. We couldn’t go home, though, I knew that.
There was nothing for us in Belev anymore but the dead.
Then I remembered the last place I had experienced real warmth and comfort. I remembered Lev’s friendship and how welcome he had made me feel.
‘There’s a place,’ I said, as Anna put her hand in mine and I brought her to be with us. ‘A farm that’s far from the road. I think we’ll be safe there for a while.’
‘And then?’
‘And then we’ll be together,’ I said, ‘all five of us. Whatever happens.’
About the author
Dan Smith grew up following his parents across the world. He’s lived in many places including Sierra Leone, Sumatra, northern and central Brazil, Spain and the Soviet Union, but is now settled in Newcastle with his family. His debut novel, Dry Season, was shortlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award 2011, and was nominated for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
Copyright
AN ORION EBOOK
First published in Great Britain in 2013 by Orion Books.
This eBook first published in 2013 by Orion Books.
Copyright © Dan Smith 2013
The moral right of Dan Smith to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978 1 4091 2817 5
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