Read The Dressmaker's Son Online
Authors: Abbi Sherman Schaefer
CHAPTER 55
Gregori, the head
of Shlissel’burg Prison, sat rereading a bulletin that was written on the
letterhead of the chief of the Secret Police with a formal picture of Major Misha
Novikov in the middle. Underneath it read:
“This soldier is
wanted for treason and desertion from his post.
If seen he is to
be captured and returned to Petrograd via the Secret Police.
Contact Boris Ivanov
directly.
He could be
traveling with a woman and the child pictured below.
The woman has
kidnapped this child and was headed for Finland.
She too should be
apprehended and returned to Petrograd immediately.”
There was a
picture of Mishka that Catherine had given Boris. Underneath in big, bold
letters it read:
“REWARD OF 1000
RUPLES FOR THE CAPTURE OF ANY OF THESE THREE FUGITIVES!”
Gregori recognized the little boy
immediately. He shouted for one of his aides. “Dmitry, come in here.”
“Yes, sir,” Dmitry said,
appearing in the doorway.
“There is a woman and a
little boy who were arrested a few months ago. I remember receiving an answer
from the Department of Justice to transfer them. Can you check if they have
left, and if so, where they went?”
“Yes, sir,” Dmitry
answered and turned to leave.
“And, Dmitry, if they
are here, bring them to me.”
“I will, sir,” he
replied and headed for the door.
Within thirty minutes
Dmitry returned. “They were sent to Novgorod Provincial Prison, sir,” he
reported. “I spoke to Sergei, one of the guards who was on the train with them.
They left early yesterday morning and should arrive at the camp some time
tomorrow.”
“Contact the prison,”
Gregori ordered “Tell them to have someone meet them at the station and separate
them from the other prisoners and take them personally to the prison and watch
them. I will contact this Boris, head of the Secret Police, and let him know
we have them.”
CHAPTER 56
Jacob paced
nervously as he waited for the rest of the family to come down. It was a big
day for him. Several days after Solomon left, he had made an announcement at
dinner.
“I’ve made a big
decision,” he said, putting down his fork and leaning his elbows on the table
with his hands folded in front of him. This was a signal that something
important was about to happen. Everyone looked at him.
“Well, Papa, what
is it?” Miriam asked. She didn’t yet appreciate his passion for dramatic
effect.
Everyone smiled. “Well,
Miriam,” Jacob replied unfolding his hands and placing them on the table. “I
have decided to become a citizen.”
Rachael was the first
to speak. “That’s wonderful, Jacob. Why now?”
“Because it is time,
Rachael. We have worked hard and because we have worked hard, America has been
very good to us. Is it perfect? Of course not. But when you consider where we
were and what we were subjected to, we are in a very good place. And,” he paused.
“We have a son who became so much of an American that he is willing to fight
and even give his life for this country.”
Rachael shuddered. “God
forbid,” she whispered to herself.
“I know you feel that
way, Rachael, and I do too,” Jacob said. “But my point is that he is willing.”
“We’ll help you study,
Papa,” Joshua volunteered. He was now almost fifteen and seemed to be taking
over where Solomon had left off.
“Thank you, Joshua. I
will need all the help I can get.”
He studied hard
with the help of everyone in the family, but he did not find it to be a chore. Actually,
he enjoyed learning more about the history of this country he was about to
adopt as his own. He passed the test with flying colors.
Today was the
swearing in ceremony and the whole family was going, as well as several
friends.
Rachael came down first.
“You look very handsome Mr. New Citizen-to-Be,” she said, giving him a kiss on
the cheek. “I am very proud of you.”
Jacob gave her a hug. “Thank
you, Rachael. You know without you I wouldn’t be the man I am.”
She looked in his eyes.
“It works both ways, Jacob,” she responded, blushing.
“What’s going on here?”
Joshua said sternly, catching his parents in an embrace and smiling.
“I’m just
congratulating your papa,” Rachael answered. “Now, get your sisters or we are
going to be late.”
The ceremony was brief,
and when the judge declared Jacob’s group citizens of the United States of
America, everyone cheered.
When they got outside
Rachael huddled them all together. “I have a surprise,” she announced. “To
celebrate Papa’s citizenship we are all going out to dinner.”
This was an extreme
rarity and Jacob looked her. “Are you sure, Rachael? That will be very
expensive.”
Rachael smiled and
reached into her pocketbook. “I saved up the money, Jacob. Please, you have
earned this.”
“Dinner it is,” Jacob
answered, giving her a hug.
“I don’t believe this
behavior,” Joshua said in a mock scolding voice. “Hugging twice in one day. What
is the world coming to?”
Dinner was wonderful
and that night Jacob wrote a letter to Solomon.
Dear Solomon,
Your
papa is now a citizen of the United States of America. I am proud to be one,
but I am even prouder of you for doing what you believed was the right thing. To
be willing to fight and possibly give your life for your country is a wonderful
thing. Of course we all hope it will never come to that.
The
newspapers here don’t always have the latest news about the war, but at the
Bund meetings there are some who say that it has been the worst for Russia.
A
new member recently arrived from St. Petersburg says that they are losing as
many men on the western front as they did at Tannenberg. He reports also that
the streets of Petrograd are filled with deserting soldiers and revolutionaries.
Food is all being sent to the front lines and people wait on line for hours to
get even a loaf of bread. He didn’t know much about what was going on in
Yelizavetgrad, but he did say that many have fled to the country to try to
survive. All this I tell you just to keep you aware of what is happening.
I
hope your training is going well. We all look forward to a letter from you
when you have time.
Meanwhile, G-d
bless you.
With love from
your Papa
CHAPTER 57
As always the
train was crowded with soldiers and civilians. Only this time there seemed to
be many more civilians than soldiers. Misha, Rebekah and Samuel found two
seats toward the back. Rebekah took the seat next to the window and had Samuel
sit on her lap. He was getting to be too big for this, but she wasn’t going to
let him sit by himself, and she knew she had to talk to Misha. For several
minutes they sat in silence, waiting for the train to leave the station. When
it finally did, Rebekah turned to Misha. “Why are you doing this, Misha?” she
asked.
“I don’t know
where to begin,” he answered taking a deep breath. “When I heard you had taken
little Misha, I was at the front commanding troops. Boris, my father-in-law,
sent me a nasty telegram, and I responded asking him to relieve me of my duty
there and let me come back to Petrograd.”
Rebekah
interrupted. “Please, Misha, call him Samuel or Sammy. That is his name.” She
added in a softer tone. “But his middle name is Misha.”
Misha smiled. “All
right, I’ll call him Samuel. Anyway, when I got back I was furious at you. Boris
agreed to assign me as a major to the Secret Police so I could look for Misha,
I mean Samuel, as long as I didn’t ignore my work. I just backtracked from the
store where you kidnapped him and found the family that helped you. Once I knew
where you were going, I worked with someone at the train station and eventually
followed your trail here. The ticket agent remembered you and Samuel, and told
me you had gotten on the train filled with prisoners. He checked the schedule
and I was waiting for the next train to Shlissel’burg to see if you were there.
When you walked in with Samuel, I thought I was dreaming. But what about you?
How did you find Samuel, and what happened at the hotel?”
It was Rebekah’s
turn to sigh. “I was so angry at you for taking him, Misha. I would have
killed you if I’d had a way. I saved the money and came to Petrograd to get
him back.”
“But how did you find
him?”
“I worked at
Volonsky’s and the woman who was my boss became my friend. I finally told her
and her family who I really was and why I was there. Will you do anything to
harm them?” she asked, suddenly realizing she could be endangering Sara’s family.
Misha laughed. “Are
you kidding? I am being hunted as a deserter. I could be shot on sight.”
Rebekah shuddered
and continued. “Sara’s father asked about you and found out who you were. Then
Sara remembered your wife had shopped at Volonsky’s. She gave me your address
and I just started watching your home until I finally saw Samuel.” She stopped
for a minute and smiled.
“Why are you
smiling, Rebekah?”
“Because the first
time I started watching the house, you came out with Samuel. He looked so small
holding your hand. He was trying to tell you something and finally you picked him
up in your arms. I was able to hear that he wanted chocolates. You seemed so
tender with him. It was a side of you I hadn’t seen since we first met.”
“You're amazing,
Rebekah.”
“Not really. Snatching
him at the store was easy. I couldn’t believe I finally had him. I disguised
him as a girl when we left for Helsinki,” she said smiling.
He returned her
smile. “What happened in Vyborg? Did you really kill somebody?”
“Do you really
want to know that?” she asked.
“Yes, Rebekah, I
want to know everything.”
Rebekah looked
down at Samuel who had fallen asleep so soundly that there was almost a snoring
quality to his breathing. She told Misha the rest of her story including
Shlissel’burg prison and how Ivan had arranged for her escape at Vyborg. “So
you see, Misha. There really are good people.”
Misha leaned over
and put his arm around Rebekah. “I would like to be one of them again, Rebekah.
There is no glamour to being a soldier and even less in being with the Secret
Police. They are a bunch of brutal barbarians.”
She liked the feel
of his arm around her. “What has changed you?” she asked.
“Many things,
Rebekah. I was raised to be a soldier, to defend the czar, but war is not
pretty. I watched hundreds of soldiers die, marching into battle to be mowed
down by the Germans. Now I ask myself, ‘For what?’ This war isn’t really ours.
It was all political. Some of the soldiers were peasants drafted from little
towns, being torn from their wives and children and sent to fight without
enough gun power and shoddy uniforms, for a czar who gives them nothing.
“But I think what
changed me the most was Samuel. I didn’t know I could love a child so much. I
thought about his future. I knew I didn’t want him to be what I am, even though
that is what I told him. When I heard he was gone, I thought I would go mad. My
anger at first was all toward you, and then I realized that you couldn’t help
yourself. You would stop at nothing to find him. And that’s when I realized I
wouldn’t either.”
Rebekah sat
quietly for a few minutes. Finally she said, “Remember how it was when we
first met? Our tea time and cookies? Our conversations about music? That is
the Misha I fell in love with.”
“I know that,
Rebekah. You brought out a side of me I didn’t even know I had.”
“And you did the
same for me, Misha. But what do we do now? Where do we go from here?”
“I don’ know,
Rebekah. We have to think. There are big decisions to be made, the most
important of which is the safety of you and Samuel.”
Samuel began to
stir on Rebekah’s lap. “Here,” Misha said reaching over and pulling him onto
his lap. “Let me hold him for a while. You must be exhausted. Try to rest
for a while.”
Rebekah smiled,
offering no resistance. “I hope this isn’t a dream,” she said to herself as
she put her head back and drifted into sleep.
CHAPTER 58
Boris received two
phone calls the same day about Misha, Rebekah and Mishka. All the news was
good. Gregori, who called from Shlissel’burg prison, had assured him that
Rebekah and the boy would be getting off the train to be transferred to the trans-Siberian
railway that would take them the rest of the way north to Novgorod Provincial Prison.
There she would be met by guards from the prison who would await orders from
Boris as to what they should do with them. Then a ticket agent had called from
the Vyborg railway station saying that Misha and the woman and child had been
in the station. The agent had determined that the three of them were headed for
Lappeenranta because he discovered three tickets to that city were missing from
his ticket book. “Obviously, Rebekah and Mishka somehow escaped from the train,”
he thought to himself. The ticket agent had been quite specific as to when the
train had left and how long it would take to get to Lappeenranta. He also told
him that Misha was not in a soldier’s uniform but in civilian clothes and
wearing a brown cap. Boris called the chief of police in Lappeenranta and
instructed him to apprehend all three of them.
“Take several
men,” he told him. “If he runs, shoot him. I’d rather have him alive and see
him shot for treason, but it’s not my priority. I just don’t want him escaping.
I don’t care what happens to the woman, but don’t harm the child. He is my
daughter's stepson. Once you have him, we will figure out how to get him back
to Petrograd.”
Then he called
Catherine to give her the news. It amazed him that as angry as she was at Misha,
she thought if she had Mishka she could get him back. “What part of ‘he is a
traitor’ does she not understand?” he thought to himself.