Chapter 21

A night without a dream.

Early in the morning, although no one disturb, but I still habitually wake up early. I sat up and looked around. The quilts on the other three beds were neatly folded. Aksala was not there. I was the only one in the room. Lift the cover on the body of thin quilt, I turned out of bed, went to the bathroom. In my heart, I felt that it was the hotel where important people were received. The heating in the room was really full. Although I was only wearing underwear, I didn't feel the biting cold of Moscow in the early morning.

After washing and gargling, I came out from the bathroom and saw that there was still no one in the room. I picked up the military uniform on the head of the bed and put it on. When I was ready to put it on, I went to the dining room for breakfast, and then asked Colonel Korolev, what was the purpose of our trip to Moscow? You know, it's the war time, the situation in Leningrad is still very serious, and so many officers have been dispatched to Moscow. There must be something important to do.

As she was getting dressed, aksala knocked the door open with her back, carried a plate in her hands, and stepped back into the room. Seeing me getting dressed, she said in surprise, "Comrade commander, you're up, and I'm going to call you."

"Yes, aksala." I called her name, with a smile on my face, politely responded to her: "I just got up, ready to go out to the restaurant for breakfast."

"Don't bother, comrade commander. I've brought you breakfast. " She put the plate in her hand on the table. I saw that there were two plates of mashed potatoes, four pieces of black bread, a pot of tea and two small crystal glasses, a small plate of sugar, knives and forks, napkins and so on.

"Thank you, dear."

The amount of breakfast was too little. I ate the mashed potatoes in a few mouthfuls, then picked up a piece of bread and chewed it. Black bread is no longer fresh. It feels sour and hard to eat. It's really hard to swallow. I picked up the teapot, poured tea into two glasses and politely asked her, "how many pieces of sugar do you put in, one or two?"

"Two. I like it sweet." She is eating mashed potatoes, listen to me ask her, quickly swallow the food in the mouth, a little nervous to answer me.

I put two pieces of sugar in her cup. I stirred them gently with a small spoon. When I saw that the sugar had completely melted, I handed the cup to her.

"Thank you." She picked up the glass, took a big drink, and then buried herself in the food in front of her.

I picked up a piece of sugar from the plate, did not put it into the cup, but in my mouth, and then sipped the tea, enjoying the sweet feeling of the sugar melting slowly in my mouth.

"Comrade commander." Aksala called out to me“ May I ask you a question? "

I looked at her, nodded with a smile and said, "yes, you can ask."

"Your husband, the man named o'shanin, where is he now?" Her words remind me once again that I am now a married woman. The husband, who doesn't know what he looks like and is called oshanin, will always be the focus of people I know. I hesitated again and again, and felt that this matter could not be completely avoided, so I sighed and said, "he is a captain of the border guard post. Soon after the outbreak of the war, he disappeared."

After hearing what I said, aksala looked at me apologetically and said, "Comrade commander, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned your sad story."

I gathered a few wisps of hair at my temples and gave a wry smile: "it doesn't matter. It's war time." After a pause, I said, "aksala, can you stop calling me commander comrade? Although my rank is higher than yours, I feel uncomfortable to hear you call me that in private. You'd better call me Rita, just like other friends. And don't be so divided between us, just call each other "you."

"All right, Rita!" She agreed very simply.

I looked up and suddenly saw the military coat hanging on the wall. The captain's badge on it was very striking. I just remembered that I came to Moscow empty handed. I didn't even have a piece of clothing to keep out the cold. It doesn't matter if I wear this military overcoat temporarily at night, but it would be a bit arrogant if I still wear this military overcoat during the day. So I hesitated for a moment, and then asked with some embarrassment, "aksara, do you have a military coat here?"

"Army coat?" She was stunned for a moment, and then replied, "yes, of course, I have two here."

I was a little embarrassed to ask her: "can I borrow one?" Hearing what I said, she was very surprised and said, "don't you have an army coat?"

I blushed and murmured to her, "I came to Moscow yesterday because I left in such a hurry that I didn't bring any luggage. Although it hasn't snowed in Moscow in October, it's already winter, and I'm still wearing a summer uniform, which doesn't keep me warm at all. If the well meaning uncle Colonel lent me his clothes last night, I would have been frozen. "

After listening to me, she immediately ran to a closet on the wall, opened the door, took out a gray army coat from it, turned to me and said, "this is ina's army coat. You can take it and wear it." I took her military coat and asked casually, "she won't object if you lend me ina's clothes."“ No, "she said, her eyes suddenly red." ina has died. "“ Ah? " I was startled and asked, "how did she sacrifice?" I feel that it should be very safe to work in this well guarded hotel. How can there be casualties? She said chokingly, "a week ago, ina's mother was ill. Yina asked the political commissar of the hotel for leave and went back to see her mother. As a result, when she passed Gonzales, she was killed in an air raid. " Gangchamonisgaya, hearing this familiar place name, I immediately thought of Kajia, who was seriously injured and died in Leningrad hospital. I promised to bring her information to her family. Maybe someone from the Civil Affairs Bureau had informed her family about her sacrifice, but I have never forgotten my promise. Since I have the opportunity to come to Moscow and have free time, I will definitely go to gonchamonisgaya to find her family and tell them everything about her“ Oh, dear She screamed suddenly, which startled me. She pointed to the wall clock and said, "just now, when I was bringing breakfast, I met a colonel. He asked me to tell you to meet at the hotel gate in 30 minutes. And now 25 minutes have passed, and you should be late if you don't go. " This Colonel, needless to say, is colonel Korolev. He is waiting for me outside. I can't be late. So I put two army coats on my left hand, said goodbye to aksara, opened the door and walked out quickly. There were a lot of pedestrians in the corridor outside. From time to time, officers came face to face. According to the regulations, a commander with a lower rank should salute a commander with a higher rank. I sighed to myself that I didn't know that I was a junior officer until I arrived in the capital. All these people had higher military ranks than me, which made me raise my hand to salute each person I saw. In this way, on the way to the hotel gate, my right hand kept raising and lowering, mechanically repeating the salute. It was so easy to come to the door of the hotel and see the familiar figure of Colonel Korolev standing next to a bus. Suddenly, with a feeling of breaking away from the sea of misery, he trotted forward a few steps and cried, "good morning, uncle Bavier." Korolev heard me and turned to smile and wave at me: "good morning, Rita! Hurry up and get in the car. We'll start right away. "