Hugging Shu-Shu, Aleksei burrowed deeper under his blanket. I'll never let them give you a bath, he thought.
Anyway, there weren't so many of them left to torment him. Five days ago, another boat had appeared through the fog, and had drifted alongside them. While all the boys had scrambled to the rail to watch, Nadiya and Gregor had walked back and forth, calling out name after name. Nikolai Alekseyenko.t Pavel Prebrazhensky.t There were whoops of triumph, fists punched in the air as each name was called. Yes.t I have been chosen.t Later, the ones not chosen, the ones left behind, remained huddled at the rail, watching in silence as the motor launch carried the chosen boys to the other ship.
"Where do they go?" Aleksei asked.
"To families in the west," Nadiya answered. "Now come away from the rail. It's getting cold up here."
The boys didn't move. After a while Nadiya didn't seem to care if they stayed up on deck or not, and she left to go below. "Families in the west must be stupid," saidYakov.
Aleksei turned to look at him. Yakov was staring fiercely out to sea, his chin jutted out like someone hungry for a fight. "You think everyone's stupid," said Aleksei. "They are. Everyone on this boat is." "That means you too."
Yakov hadn't answered. He'd simply clutched the rail with his one hand, his gaze directed at the other ship as it glided back into the fog. Then Yakov had walked away.
Over the next few days, Aleksei scarcely saw him.
Tonight, as usual Yakov had disappeared right after supper. He was probably in his stupid Wonderland, Aleksei thought. Hiding out in that crate with all the mouse turds.
Aleksei pulled the blanket over his head. And that was how he fell asleep, curled up in his bunk with dirty Shu-Shu cradled against his face.
A hand shook him. A voice called softly in the night: "Aleksei. Aleksei."
"Mommy," he said.
"Aleksei, it's time to wake up. I have a surprise for you."
Slowly he drifted up through layers of sleep, surfacing into darkness. The hand was still shaking him. He recognized Nadiya's scent.
"It's time to go," she whispered.
"Where am I going?"
"You must get ready to meet your new mother."
"Is she here?"
"I'll take you to her, Aleksei. Out of all the boys, you've been chosen. You're very lucky. Now come. But be quiet."
Aleksei sat up. He was not quite awake yet, not quite certain if he was dreaming. Nadiya reached up and helped him off the bunk. "Shu-Shu," he said.
Nadiya put the dog in his arms. "Of course you can bring your Shu-Shu." She took his hand. She had never held his hand before. The sudden rush of happiness shook him fully awake. He was holding her hand and they were walking together, to meet his mother. It was dark and he was scared of the dark, but Nadiya would see to it that nothing happened to him. He remembered, somehow he remembered: This is how it feels to hold your mother's hand.
They left the cabin and walked down a dimly lit corridor. He was stumbling through a joyous daze, not paying attention to where they were going, because Nadiya was taking care of everything. They turned down another corridor. This one he did not recognize.
They pushed through a door.
Into Wonderland.
The steel walkway stretched before them. Beyond it stood the blue door.
Aleksei stopped.
"What is it?" asked Nadiya. "I don't want to go in there."
"But you have to."
"There are people living there."
"Aleksei, don't be difficult." Nadiya gripped his hand more firmly.
"This is where you must go."
"Why?"
Suddenly she seemed to understand that a different tactic was called for. She crouched down so that they were eye to eye, and took him firmly by the shoulders. "Do you want to ruin everything? Do you want to make her angry? She expects an obedient little boy, and now you are being very disagreeable."
His lips trembled. He tried so hard not to cry, because he knew how much adults hated children's tears. But the tears were starting to fall anyway, and now he'd probably ruined everything. Just as Nadiya had said he would. He was always ruining everything.
"Nothing is settled yet," said Nadiya. "She can still choose another boy. Is that what you want?"
Aleksei sobbed. "No."
"Then why aren't you behaving?"
"I'm afraid of the quail people."
"What? You are ridiculous. I wouldn't be surprised if no one ever wanted you." She straightened and snatched his hand again. "Come."
Aleksei looked at the blue door. He whispered: "Carry me."
"You're too big. You'll hurt my back."
"Please carry me."
"You have to walk, Aleksei. Now hurry, or we'll be late." She put her arm around him.
He began to walk, only because she was there beside him, hugging him close. The way he was hugging Shu-Shu close. As long as they held each other, the three of them, nothing bad would happen.
Nadiya knocked at the blue door. It swung open.
Yakov heard them on the walkway above. Aleksei's whining. Nadiya's impatient coaxing. He crawled to the edge of the crate and cautiously peered up at them. They were crossing to the blue door now. A moment later, they vanished through it.
Why does Aleksei get to go in there, and not me?
Yakov slipped out of the crate and up the stairs to the blue door. He tried to open it, but as always, it was locked.
Defeated, he went back to his crate. It was quite a comfortable hiding place now. Over the last week, he had scavenged a blanket, a flashlight, and a number of magazines with naked ladies in them. He had also lifted a lighter and a pack of cigarettes from Koubichev. Sometimes Yakov would smoke one, but there were so few cigarettes, he was careful to save them. Once he'd accidentally set the shavings on fire. That had been exciting. Most of the time, though, he just liked having the cigarettes around, liked holding the pack, reading and re-reading the label under the beam of the flashlight.
That's what he'd been doing when he'd heard Aleksei and Nadiya on the walkway.
Now he waited for them to come back out of the blue door. It was taking a long time. What were they doing in there?
Yakov threw the cigarettes down. It wasn't fair.
He looked at a few pictures in the magazines. Practised flicking the lighter on and off. Then he decided he was sleepy. He curled up in the blanket and dozed off.
Sometime later, he was awakened by a rumbling sound. At first he thought something was wrong with the ship's engines, then he realized the sound was growing louder, and that it was not coming from hell, but from the deck above.
It was the helicopter.
Gregor tied the twist top and set the plastic bag in the cooler. He handed it to Nadiya. "Well, take it."
At first she didn't seem to hear. Then she looked at him, her face drained white, and he thought: The bitch can't handle it. "It needs ice. Go on, do it." He shoved the cooler towards her.