The Summer Garden
Paullina Simons
 Four years have gone by since World War II has ended; and Tatiana and her lover, her husband, her Shura, her Alexander - are married and living a life together with their son, Anthony. Yet they are strangers to each other. Having been separated from each other for years, they do not know each other anymore. They live a satisfactory life, with Alexander working as a lobster-man - coming home each day smelling of fish. Tatiana is now known to outsiders as 'Tania'. They move from place to place. After Alexander confesses to why he was so cold to her, they reconcile and move houses. Finally living in a place that they've dreamed of, Tatiana's friend Vikki phones her to say that the USA government is looking for Alexander. Fearing for her husband's safety, she does not tell him. Finding out himself somehow, he goes to Washington to make everything right - also finding out that his supposedly executed mother "is still alive" in a concentration camp. Realising though, that he has been tricked by an enemy, he does not go to search for her. He meets Tom Richter - a lieutenant colonel - and earns himself a job in Yuma as a captain of the Military Intelligence arm of the U.S. Army. Time passes by, and the family moves to Phoenix. Alexander gets a job as a builder/architect in Balkman's company and Tatiana (after persuading Alexander) gets a job as a nurse in the ER terminal care ward in the Phoenix Memorial Hospital. Making friends with Balkman's son, Steve, Alexander has finally found the peace that he has always wanted. Here Phoenix, they can forget who they once were, and nobody would know about them. Steve, when they first meet, talks about a girl that he has met at the hospital when he broke his hand; saying that he's "never met anyone like her". Tatiana when she comes home, is tight-lipped when she hears about Steve. She is initially cold to Steve and never warms up to him. Alexander later figures that his wife was the "not like anyone else" girl that Steve was talking about. After a time, Steve introduces a man named Dudley to Alexander. But Dudley sees the tattoos - the SchutzStaffel Eagle, the blue numbers, the hammer and sickle, the swastika. To make matters worse, he storms into Alexander's house: threatening to rape Tatiana and then kill both of them. With no choice, Alexander shoots Dudley in the head. After revealing what had happened to the police, the doctor, the coroner and the media; Alexander starts his own company and Balkman and Steve were ruined (Dudley had turned out to be an escaped murderer - it was illegal to hire escaped convicts). After years of trying for a second baby (with Anthony once accidentally seeing them trying without knowing about sex - he thinks his mother is getting hurt in the process: "Dad, I don't think Mom wants to have anymore children. Didn't you hear her?"), things have cooled off. Caught cheating on his wife, it is then revealed that Tatiana is pregnant. Tearfully forgiving him, they have a son - Charles Gordon Pasha Barrington. Following Charles are two more children, Harry, about two years later, and Janie. Almost eight years have past and Anthony has made his job choice: he is going to Vietnam to fight. With his parents initially protesting, he goes. Sunday evening, July 20, 1969 - while the family (Tatiana, Alexander, their children - Pasha, Harry and Janie) are watching the man on the moon, a call comes from Richter. Anthony has been reported missing for three days. Weeks go by, and Vikki visits. Tatiana and Alexander find out that Vikki and Anthony have had a romantic relationship since he was eighteen. She shows them a letter Anthony sent her - he is married to a Vietnamese girl called Moon Lai and she is pregnant. Alexander travels all the way to Vietnam to find his son. Using their heads, Anthony's comrades, his father and Richter realise that Moon Lai is a North Vietnam communist who is just a bait for Anthony. Alexander and a group of six (twelve?) people go to rescue him. They first capture Moon Lai who tells them everything. Despite being a trap, she actually loves Anthony. She then tries and sort of fails to stab Alexander and Ha Si (a member of the group), aiming for Alexander's thigh and Ha Si's face. In self defense, they slit her throat. Alexander rescues Anthony (who has had his right arm amputated by the North Vietnamese) losing Richter, Ha Si and others on the way. The novel then skips ahead thirty years to Thanksgiving 1999, Alexander and Tatiana's children are all grown and have children of their own. A very large family. Alexander and Tatiana seem content with their lot. The novel ends one hot day in near their home in Scottsdale, Arizona, Tatiana sitting on the bench eating ice cream, Alexander stands across the street, returning from buying a drink, staring at her, a bus passes and he comes around it, reminiscent of the first time they met all those years ago on 22 June 1941 in Leningrad.