Page 93 of Cilka's Journey

“I want to come with you.”

“You’ll need to ride up front. I will be in the back with Katya.”

The guard hands Maria her coat. Cilka grabs hers on the way out of the room as they follow Pavel and Kirill to the ambulance.

Cilka climbs in the back first and helps Pavel slide the stretcher toward her. Kirill has the engine running, shutting the back doors. Pavel hops into the front. The guard holds the door for Maria and helps her sit next to Pavel.

The drive to the hospital is silent, Maria’s perfume filling the truck.

Word has reached Yelena that the commandant’s daughter is en route. She is waiting for them.

Following a quick examination, she tells Maria she will need to take Katya to surgery straightaway. She is certain she has appendicitis, but won’t know for sure until she opens her up. If correct, Katya will be back on her feet within a couple of weeks.

“Can I come with you?” Maria asks.

“Well, no, not really, Maria Danilovna. I’ll leave Cilka here with you; she can tell you what we’re doing.”

“No, I’ll be fine while I wait for my husband; I’d rather she was with you.”

“Let’s go, Cilka, scrub up.” To the orderlies standing nearby she says, “Take the patient to the operating room, please. We’ll meet you there.”

As Yelena walks off, Cilka quickly speaks to Maria.

“She will be fine. We will have the two of you back together as quickly as possible.”

As Cilka walks from the room she hears the booming voice of the commandant. She takes a moment to watch as he wraps his wife in his arms and she tells him, in a voice thick with emotion, what she knows. Man, woman, child, and the luxury of caring only about one another.

Yelena tells Cilka she can go and get Maria and the commandant and bring them to Katya, who remains asleep, minus her appendix. Cilka stands at the back of the room while Yelena explains what the procedure involved, the recovery period, and offers to stay the night with her.

Maria thanks her, asking if it would be possible for Cilka instead to stay the night with Katya and her. She’s not leaving. The commandant wants his daughter brought home but agrees she can spend one night in her own room here, away from the prisoners. Chairs are brought into the operating room for Cilka and Maria. There will be no more operations today.

CHAPTER 24

Katya wakes several times during the night. Cilka checks on her, and administers further injections for the pain, while Maria reassures her daughter that she will be home soon.

After settling Katya once again, Cilka sits back down, aware that Maria is staring at her.

“Is everything all right?” she asks the wife of the commandant who imprisons her.

“I don’t know how to thank you for your kindness, your care. Watching you with Katya overwhelms me. I don’t know why you are here, I don’t want to know, but will you let me talk to my husband, ask him to help you?”

Cilka doesn’t know where to look.

“Do you mean that?”

“Yes, we owe you so much. If it was up to me, you wouldn’t spend another night here. Katya is very special to Alexei Demyanovich. Don’t tell anyone, particularly our sons, but I think he does have a favorite child, and it’s that young girl lying in the bed.”

Cilka stands and walks over to Katya. Looks down at her: fairand pretty, soon to be moving out of girlhood. Cilka moves a wayward strand of hair from her face.

“I’ve never had a child,” Cilka says, feeling safe in the warm, quiet room. “But I am a daughter. I know the love of a mother and a father.”

“One day you will, Cilka, you are young.”

“Perhaps.”

It is too much to reveal to Maria, this well-fed, cared-for woman, that she doesn’t think this will happen for her, ever. If it was possible, surely it would have already happened. She no longer functions inside like other women.

“Let me help you leave this place and it could happen sooner. This is only a temporary post for my husband. We may be back in Moscow soon. This may be your only chance to let me help you.”