Katyusha's Redemption

Chapter 4

 When Katyusha woke it was late into the morning. No one had come to wake her up. Usually, someone would do this for her; either Nonna when she woke Katyusha from her naps or from her rest. Or while incarcerated, the guards would usually wake her up. But now, there was no one to wake her. Katyusha sat upright and stretched. She looked around the room and spotted something for her to do her daily exercise with.

Katyusha jumped to reach the steel hanger rack within her bureau and dangled herself from it, giggling as she did so. It reminded her of all the times she would do this at the palace. When Nonna would deride her for trying to stretch herself tall. Katyusha knew Nonna didn't really hate it. She only acted like she did to try and get Katyusha to stop, to grow up. But, Katyusha never wanted to have to grow up, she loved the time she and Nonna had together.

Katyusha finished her morning routine and left her room for breakfast. She walked down stairs expecting to find Vanya, but she discovered the kitchen to be empty. Katyusha decided to look around the house for him. First, she would check the foyer. She'd yet to go in there before. On the wall there were a few pictures. One was a portrait of Vanya and another woman. The one below that had them both but also two kids.

Katyusha looked for the next and found another picture, this one of a young man wearing an army uniform. The other was of a young girl wearing a light blue dress. They all looked rather happy in the pictures. Above the mantle, there sat a rifle. It was too high for Katyusha to reach, but it was there none the less. And a pistol slightly lower than that, which she just barely could reach.

"Huh, a Remington model 1858," she commented as she inspected it. It was strange to see such a unique pistol in their lands. Katyusha recognized the pistol as the one he wore on his belt the day before as she set it back down again. Now Katyusha turned her search upstairs. Moving up the steps she knocked on the door to the study, but got no response this time. "Vanya?" she asked.

"Vanya?" she asked once more. When there was still no reply, Katyusha entered the study and looked around. There was another door in the back of the study and plenty of things within the study to look at. Since he was gone, Katyusha figured she could look around for a moment. The first thing she did was walk to Vanya's desk and look at the papers on the table. Most were just meditations, or different pieces of literature, nothing of interest.

Then she spied the drawers going down the side. Katyusha pulled at the handles, only to find them locked. "Damn," she muttered. Then Katyusha spied another item of interest. A set of dog tags with Vanya's name on them. It also had his date of birth and... his rank. Katyusha's jaw dropped as she read it. "Commandant of the armed rebellion!" she exclaimed in a hushed voice.

Katyusha looked around further. She noticed a few paper clippings on the wall. They were from before the war, the first of which stated, "Local hero, defends village from new oppressors.... Local hero turned sheriff by people's request.... Village separates from the union.... War breaks out!" Katyusha looked for more papers, but the clippings seemed to stop at that point.

Katyusha looked around and wondered. "Could he be... no," Katyusha looked once more to his dog tag. "Vanya Alexander." She froze in place as she let it all sink in. At first she didn't know what to do, but then, she knew exactly what she needed to do. Katyusha walked back down the steps and took the pistol from the mantel, then returned to the study and approached the door at the back of Vanya's study. That had to be his room. Her hand quivered as she held the pistol.

Sure, she figured Vanya was some sort of rebel, given what the judge said, that he dressed like a soldier, and that he had similar behavior to one, but the Vanya Alexander: revolutionary, the symbol of the people's will. What ever could a man like him want with Katyusha? Nothing good certainly. Katyusha opened the door to his room and entered, finding the man asleep half naked, now. On his chest were many scars and even a few large divots where it seemed he may have been shot before. He was muscular, though certainly not bulky, and he looked disheveled.

Katyusha rose the gun to his head and held it tightly as her arm shook violently. She tried to calm herself but couldn't. She closed her eyes and said, "Hey! Get up!".

At this, Vanya rose and quickly looked around only to find Katyusha holding his gun and pointing it at him. He didn't seem that shocked, but he was upset to see her. "Why are you in my room, and what the hell are you doing with my gun?" he asked. "It's not even loaded."

Katyusha dropped it and cowered, "Please, don't hurt me!" she cried.

"Hurt you?" he asked.

"You're a revolutionary! Not a revolutionary, but the revolutionary! You probably want to do something terrible with me. You probably want to skin me alive or torture me or...."

"What are you talking about?" asked Vanya.

"You're Vanya Alexander, leader of the People's Armed Rebellion!" she stated through tears. "The leader of the force that for so long attacked me and my friends and my nation!"

"Oh, that. So you figured it out finally, huh." he mused. Katyusha looked up at him as he hadn't moved from where he sat on the bed. "I wasn't sure when you would, but...."

"Wait is that what you were waiting for, to begin training me?" she asked.

"No, you still are far from ready. But I figured at some point you'd realize who I was. I don't want to hurt you, if I did why would I have stopped the others from doing it? What 'To keep all the fun to myself'? Even if that were the case, you've been here one night already and I've not gone after you. I know it may sound strange but I really want to help you, Katyusha. I'm not a revolutionary. I just found myself in a hard place to deny the title."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Vanya hesitated. "I can explain later. But for now, how about you go downstairs and I'll meet you for breakfast so we can talk this over."

Katyusha left Vanya to get dressed and the two met downstairs to eat. Vanya set a pot of coffee between the two of them along with their meals. "So who were the people in the pictures?" asked Katyusha. Vanya looked at her and tipped his head. "The ones in the foyer."

Vanya nodded and looked back down to his food. "My wife. And our children."

"You're married?" she asked.

"I am."

"Where's your wife? Or your kids?" asked Katyusha.

"In a better place than here," replied Vanya, swallowing his food. Katyusha wanted to ask more, but she could see pain in Vanya's eyes as he said this.

But still, she could not help herself as she asked, "Your son was in the army? Which..."

"He was in an artillery battalion. Which one I could not tell you. He moved around quite a bit in the war. Specialized in working on truck mounted guns."

"If he was working with armored divisions, I may have met him, I always made sure to spend time with the armored divisions. Before I was premier, I was a tank commander. I always loved working on the tanks, but as time passed I had less and less time to.... I really wish I had more time."

"What stopped you?" asked Vanya.

"The war. Did you talk with your son, much?" she asked.

"No. I stopped talking to him after the war started."

"Why?"

"How could I tell him that I was made leader of the rebellion he was bound to crush. How could I tell him it was I who could be standing on the other side of the battlefield. How could I tell him..." Vanya stopped and choked back tears at painful memories that came into him, but even once he composed himself, he did not continue.