The rumble of airplanes overhead reminded him their invasion wasn't over. Looking to the southwest, Matti spotted a tiny, insect-like formation of Russian bombers heading toward the border. "Bombers overhead!" Ducking as close as he could to the muddy trench, he took cover while the crackle of anti-aircraft guns reverberated through the air.
Whew. At least the good guys had seen them coming.
Matti couldn't help but think back to the Winter War when they had been dismally outnumbered and short on supplies. Oftentimes, their anti-aircraft guns sat silent as Russian planes flew overhead and bombed at leisure, the exhausted and shell-shocked Finnish troops without ammo to respond.
But not anymore.
Suddenly, the Finns seemed to have endless supplies. And firepower.
An explosion in the sky made Matti tremble and he didn't have to look to know that a Russian bomber was going down. He'd heard that sound before. A few seconds later, a second ear-splitting boom told him that at least one of the Finns had good aim today. He swallowed the bile that crept into his throat and clenched his shaking hands at his side. Even if the Russians had started it, Matti hated the thought that lives were being lost today.
And for what?So that the Russians could keep a tiny tract of land that wasn't theirs to begin with? What a shame.
But the explosions sounding around the trench told Matti that shameful or not, it was happening. Anti-aircraft fire opened up again, this time to the southeast of them.
Takala stole a glance at his men. "Stay put. This isn't our battle," he reminded them.
As infantrymen, they had their own assignments and targets, and getting caught in the middle of an air-to-ground battle wasn't part of the plan. Instead, they hunkered down and waited for the planes to head back to Soviet soil so they could move toward Viipuri.
Scanning the trench as more flack bursts echoed, Matti looked at each of his company members, hoping a calm look would bring reassurance. The men sat with varying states of panic, fear, and resoluteness showing on their faces. Could he be a calming influence on some of the new guys who had never been in battle before? But he didn't have to.
As quickly as the air raid started, it stopped, and an eerie silence fell over the trench.
"All right, men. It’s time." Takala's voice sounded calm and steely. "Grab your weapons, keep low, and head straight south-southwest. Viipuri is just two clicks away. Intel says we will find pockets of resistance holed up in houses, so check every corner before proceeding. Rally point behind the town square at eleven hundred hours. Questions?"
"No, sir!" They all seemed to know the drill, fresh faced as they were.
Matti gripped his gun tightly and double-checked to make sure he had all of his ammo still strapped to his hip. Then, with a quick prayer, he crept out of the hollow and ran across the open meadow alongside hundreds of other Finnish soldiers who were also heading straight toward Viipuri. As he sprinted forward, Matti braced himself for the sound of rifle fire, flinching in anticipation of having to hit the ground at the explosion of a Molotov cocktail, but nothing happened.
They made the two-kilometer trek in complete silence.
Had they managed to invade Karelia without a lick of resistance? It seemed that they had.
Marching along the familiar roads, Matti ran his hand along the rough-hewn planks on the wooden fences that lined the way, allowing the sights and sounds of home to take him back to his childhood—to happier times, when this city was his parents’ favorite vacation spot. As he sneaked along, he thought of the weeks they had spent vacationing at Viipuri resorts along the Gulf of Finland. And the afternoons wading in the cool waters, to seafood dinners, to winter days cross-country skiing through these forests.
Maybe he'd bring Anna here after this war was over. Maybe they'd honeymoon on the shores of the Gulf…Matti stopped himself. He needed to focus. He was marching into Viipuri…into Russian occupied Viipuri…and he was so distracted by nostalgia he could get himself shot.
He backed against a rock wall and peered around the corner into the square where they were set to rally in ten minutes. Carefully checking each of his touch points, he looked at College and shook his head.
Viipuri was theirs.
43
Kalajoki, Finland
Anna's father ran into the farmhouse kitchen waving a copy of the newspaper. "We recaptured Viipuri!" He spread the newspaper on the table so they could see, and then ran into the living room to turn on the radio.
Anna's heart thudded to a stop. Matti was in Karelia. Fighting. What if he had been injured or…worse?
She followed her father into the living room and turned up the volume on the radio as loud as it would go. She dropped onto the sofa beside her father, rested her head in her hands, and prayed silently. Please, Lord, help him to be all right.
Finnish troops entered Karelia on the tenth of July with four divisions marching straight into the capitol city.
Anna drew a deep sigh. That didn't tell her anything at all. How would she tolerate the wait?
Her father rubbed her back and whispered, "They'll not exactly tell you the fate of a specific soldier on the radio, Anna."
She glared at him.
"But the papers said that the resistance was weak."
"It did?"
“Russian resistance was nearly non-existent as our boys marched back into the Isthmus, recapturing major cities and villages alike.”
"The Russians have one of the strongest armies in the world. Why would they let us just march into Karelia without a fight?" Anna looked at her father in confusion.
"Because they're too busy fighting the Nazis to the south." Mr. Ranta tramped into the living room holding the newspaper, and found a seat in an armchair. "It says right here that the Russians sent three Karelian divisions south last week, assumedly to protect Leningrad from the Nazis."
That was the best news she’d heard in a long time.
Maybe the Nazis weren't so bad after all. Just as long as they didn't think they could help them reoccupy or govern Karelia. The Finns could do that just fine, thank you very much.
Mr. Ranta grabbed his wife and swung her up in a spin. "We're going home, my love."
"We're going home!" Mrs. Ranta raced toward the fields where the boys were planting to tell them the good news, stopping to hug Anna along the way. "Matti will be home soon, my dear."
And everything in Anna's heart prayed she was right.
~*~
Anna grabbed her pencils and a sketchbook, needing to get outside before she started dancing through her parent's living room. It would definitely dampen her mood if she crashed into her mother's china cabinet or something of the sort.
They had Karelia. The Finns had Karelia.
And Matti was coming home soon.
He had to be. They had recaptured Karelia, what else did they have to do? Now that Karelia was in Finnish hands, the soldiers could come home and do normal non-war things like, for example, get married.
Anna sashayed out of the front door and skipped out to the orchard like a giddy five-year-old. Once in the orchard, she pulled out her sketchbook and began to draw a sky covered in fireworks. Celebratory fireworks. Below, she drew hundreds of people stood with eyes raised to the sky, cheering and laughing and smiling. She scrawled the words "victory" in curvy cursive across the top and then stepped back to look at the page. It needed a bit more color in the sky and the fireworks could use some flecks of white paint, but overall it was pretty great. She smiled, laughing at her new reality.
She'd have Arvo make a wooden frame for the sketch and give it to Matti on the day he came home.
Leaning back against a knotted log, Anna allowed herself to daydream for the first time in months. It was July. It would take a couple of months to stabilize Karelia, but surely that would be done by September. October, at the latest. Maybe they could plan a fall wedding.?
Something simple, maybe even when the weather was still warm so they could get married outside? She could
string leaves together to make brightly colored garlands and they could dance in the moonlight…
"Anna?" Anna jumped at the sound of Kaino's voice, coming from behind the barn. "I've been looking all over for you. Did you hear the news?"
"Over here, Kai!"
Kaino raced over to her friend and plopped down. "Did you hear?"
"That we retook Karelia without even a fight?"
"Well, yes! That's news. But there's more. I just heard that the United States has reopened applications for visas. Any Finnish citizen with a familial sponsor in the United States is welcome to apply."
Anna swallowed hard. That was news she would have jumped at a year ago, but now, with things between her and Matti so uncertain?
He wanted to settle down on the banks of Lake Lagoda and raise babies. But would she ever be happy knowing she had missed the chance for what she'd dreamed of for so long?
44
Kalajoki, Finland
It wouldn't hurt for her to apply, would it?
Anna rolled over and pulled her pillow up under her elbows, propping up her head so she'd be able to stare out at the rolling hills of the Kalajoki countryside. It was beautiful. And serene. And most likely the last place on earth where there was peace to be had with the entire world wrapped up in this terrible war.
Yes, it was a great place to be.
So why couldn't she squelch the feelings of restlessness that always seemed to creep up when she thought of living her entire life in Kalajoki? She considered her options as she ran her finger along the visa application she had picked up yesterday at the immigration office in town.
Was it a betrayal to consider applying without talking to him? It wasn't as if he was her boyfriend.
She used her finger to scrawl Anna Ojala on the page, imagining what it would look like to see her name written on the official document.
"No, wait." She bit her lip and smiled, rubbing her finger over the imaginary letters she’d just written. "Anna Ranta." She pretended to rewrite her name, this time with a series of imaginary hearts down the side of the page.
Much better.
Matti wouldn't be upset if she applied, would he? He would understand that she was planning for her future. No, their future.
"Even if I apply, I don't have to go," she whispered, as if saying the words out loud would take away some of the sting. Frowning at the blank paper in front of her, she considered her options.
Maybe he'd be glad she had the foresight to apply. He'd understand that he was gone and she'd had no choice but to see what happened. It wasn't as if she was leaving without talking to him. Most likely, she wouldn't get a visa anyway.
This was a rare opportunity. With hundreds of thousands of people trying to get out of Europe, the fact that there was even an immigration quota for Finland was a miracle.
She may never have this chance again.
Grabbing a pen before she changed her mind, Anna quickly scrawled her name and birthday onto the application, filling in the rest of the blanks covering her general information.
After she finished, she hid the pages in her sock drawer away from prying eyes. Her parents would be appalled if they knew she was applying for a visa when Matti was off fighting. In their old-fashioned loyalty, they would think the whole idea reeked of dishonor.
Her mother would cry and her father would rant about a woman's place. Or something like that.
No, they could never find out about this. They simply wouldn't understand.
45
Luga, Russia
They may have been hailed in the papers and on the radio as the brave resistance fighters of Russia, doing whatever it took to save Leningrad from destruction and doom, but for Tanya, the resistance fighting felt a lot like digging. From sun up to sun down.
For two weeks now, they’d spent every day camped out in the northeast section of the Luga line, digging sticky clay soil out of trenches and moving it to fortified tank defense mounds.
Shovelful after shovelful.Wagonload after wagonload.
It really wasn't so bad, not when she had Feodora and Agripina to talk to, but the days did drag on. She missed Verushka fiercely.
Pushing her shovel into the ground once again, Tanya wiped sweat off of her brow and turned toward Feodora. "Another day as a proud resistance fighter for the motherland."
Feodora pointed a shaky hand toward one of the tin box rations that they had been surviving on since they had arrived. "But at least we get a delicious, well-rounded meal three times a day. That is, if you consider a tin of canned ham a well-rounded meal."
"I know too well that food is food."
Feodora looked at her intently. "I just wish they had some…"
Tanya patted her friend's back in understanding.
Feodora's flask had been empty for about a week now and her friend had worked through flashes of anxiety, nausea, and trembling for the last seven days. The trembling was slowly subsiding, but Feodora was miserable.
"Have the headaches stopped?"
"Somewhat. It still pounds behind my eyes."
"And the nightmares?" There had been many nights that Feodora had awakened their entire tent with her screaming.
"They just keep coming back."
Tanya gritted her teeth and blinked back tears. Feodora had such a kind heart and amazing tenacity. How could God have allowed her to suffer so greatly?
Because God didn't exist, that's why.
"Is there anything I can do to help, Feodora?"
"You could…pray."
"Pray?" Tanya's mouth dropped open. Feodora had always felt like Tanya did about God. She had once believed, but after everything that had happened to her, she was a bit more realistic about religion.
"Actually, I'm glad you asked because I've wanted to talk to you about that."
"About praying?" Tanya whispered. What had happened to her friend?
"Well, in the last few weeks, Agripina has been talking to me about God."
"And?"
"Well, she's led this incredibly sheltered life. Her parents are rich and she's never wanted for a thing. She's gone to mass every Wednesday and Sunday every week for her entire life. And yet, she always felt as if something was missing. Until…"
"Until?"
"Until she met us. She said she had prayed the morning she went out to work the lines in Leningrad that God would reveal Himself to her in a powerful way. And she believes He did."
"She thinks God revealed Himself by letting her meet a ragtag single mother and her alcoholic best friend?"
Feodora drew a sharp breath. She clenched her lips together. "That's not fair, Tanya."
"I know. I'm sorry. I just can't believe that God is up there in the sky worrying about us." Tanya waved her hand over the line they were building, the scent of gunpowder from last night's air raid still heavy in the air. "How could He care about a woman's prayer to find friends when there is so much else going on?"
"I don't know all the answers, Tanya, but I do know that when I finally prayed God would forgive me, things got a whole lot easier. It was like a weight was lifted."
"So just like that, you believe in God again?"
"I don't think I ever stopped, Tanya. For a few years there, I let my own worries and struggles push God aside. But He was always there. And somewhere deep inside, I think I always knew that."
"So what now? Will you, you know, change?"
"I hope not!" Feodora stood up and spun around, her arms flailing above her head. "What's there to change about this?"
Tanya laughed for the first time in days.
"Actually, I hope I do change. I've spent too long not trusting anyone and allowing my fear to guide me. Right now, I'm trusting God to get me through these headaches and while they still hurt awfully bad, I'm also glad I'm getting there. Who knows? Maybe this is what it takes to break this addiction."
"And when we get back?"
"I'm trying to trust God to provide for us when we have no income." Feodora's eyes clou
ded as she must have realized the uphill battle they faced when they returned. "I don't want to go back to…"
"All right, you trust. I, however, cannot blindly trust some God when my baby's life is at risk."
"I understand how you feel, Tanya, I really do." Feodora's eyes glistened. "I'll pray that your heart will be softened."
A tiny part of Tanya ached, wishing she could believe again. How she yearned for the comfort of having someone she could trust. But she was also realistic. She knew what trusting in God had gotten her before.
"Oh, and Tanya?" Feodora's eyes were pleading. "I'm so sorry."
"For what?"
"For getting you into...you know."
Tanya glanced away from her friend and dug her toe into the ground. "It's okay, Fe. You saved my life. And Veruskha's. Neither of us had a choice."
46
Luga, Russia
The whining of air raid sirens awoke them with a start.
Tanya sat up quickly and looked at Feodora, the confused look on her friend's face mirroring what she felt.
Glancing out the tent flap, she tried to gauge the time based on the position of the sun, but it was difficult to tell. The midnight sun sure wasn't making it easy to work under cover.
She struggled to her feet and grabbed her helmet and gas mask before helping Feodora who was still groggy from being awakened so quickly.
One of the unit commanders screamed into their tent. "We have orders for an immediate evacuation of all women from the Luga area. The entire line is crumbling. Grab your things and run for the train depot. Now!"
Tanya snatched her tiny knapsack and grabbed Feodora's hand. They ran out of the tent, searching the cloudless skies.
To the west, a perfectly formed triangle of tiny, black planes headed straight toward them.
Tanya froze. The planes grew larger as they got closer until she was clearly able to see the red, black, and white Nazi swastikas painted on the sides of each plane.
"Run!" She dropped her knapsack and sprinted down the dusty road that led to the train station, refusing to look backward as the roar of the engines grew so loud she could no longer hear her own heartbeat.
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