But on that sunlit Sunday, Alexander knew nothing, thought nothing, imagined nothing. He forgot Dimitri and war and the Soviet Union and escape plans, and even America, and crossed the street for Tatiana Metanova.
Paullina SimonsIf there is God, I thought...Please some day let me make love to this girl while she wears that dress." "Oh..." "Tatiasha...isn't it nice to know there is a God?
Paullina SimonsHere, take this, she would say, take this, and tell me where he is. Tell me whether he's dead or alive, so I can walk as his widow or his wife. No one would, or could, tell her, and so she continued to cook, and to learn new things all the while searching for an answer among the outcasts. The way he carried his body, the way he walked in my life, Tatiana thought, declared that he was the only man I had ever loved, and he knew it. And until I was alone without him, I thought it was all worth it.
Paullina SimonsYou are my hand grenade, my artillery fire. You have replaced my heart with yourself.
Paullina SimonsDo you see the Field of Mars, where I walked next to my bride in her white wedding dress, with red sandals in her hands, when we were kids?โ โI see it well.โ โWe spent all our days afraid it was too good to be true, Tatiana,โ said Alexander. โWe were always afraid all we had was a borrowed five minutes from now.โ Her hands went on his face. โThatโs all any of us ever has, my love,โ she said. โAnd it all flies by.โ โYes,โ he said, looking at her, at the desert, covered coral and yellow with golden eye and globe mallow. โBut what a five minutes itโs been.
Paullina Simons