Katrina could hardly wait. It was the first Sunday she and Maya were going to the central train station to meet Yevgeny. She knew if it were possible Yevgeny would be there at noon today. She and Maya would be in the canteen drinking tea. Katrina hadn’t told Maya they were going to meet her daddy. She didn’t even want to look as if she were waiting for someone. She fit in well. There were many mothers raising children without a father. The war and party campaigns to prune away all vestiges of dissent had made eligible young men scarce.

Katrina waited an hour, sipping her tea while chatting with Maya, who was acting like a little lady enjoying her tea and cookie. She had settled well into a private school that Katrina could afford now that she had a job interpreting for the Irkutsk Department of the Trans Siberian Railroad. She could speak Russian, some Siberian dialects, English, French, and Polish, at least well enough to handle most situations. Maya was proficient in English, French, and Russian. At 1:00 PM Katrina paid her bill and left.

For the next month she took her tea every Sunday and Wednesday at noon. Then, afraid she was becoming a local story by her regular tea schedule, she only went to the railroad station on Sundays. By this time it was obvious to all she was carrying a baby. In her heart Katrina knew something had happened to Yevgeny. He was never going to show. Her Johnny Brandon. Katrina always thought of him as Johnny, the young American they had pulled out of the snow after the Red Army ambushed the train his platoon was guarding. She knew she was carrying his son and that gave her great comfort. She would bring another Brandon into her life. Maybe someday he or his offspring would get back to America. Katrina said a silent prayer for her husband, put her cup down, and merged into a crowd of tired, arriving passengers moving slowly toward the exit.

All of Barry Kelly’s novels are available in print and digital formats from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or your local bookstore. Visit www.factsandfictions.com for more by the author.