Chapter 38 the same day

Since Ivan's death was immediately classified as a murder because he was a spy of the Ministry of State Security, it must have been an atrocity committed by anti-establishment, anti-Soviet elements.The criminal is an outsider and a person without faith, so a comprehensive and legal investigation should be launched immediately, and there is no need to cover it up.Fortunately for Leo and Raisa, Ivan must have made too many enemies.This is a man who has spent his life selling out curious commoners, luring them with censored material the way a trapper lures his prey with bait.The review materials have always been provided to him by the state.

Before leaving the apartment, Raisa took the list, crumpled it up and stuffed it in her pocket.Leo hurriedly collected the case materials. They didn't know how long it would take for the National Security Department to respond after receiving Ivan's call.They opened the front door, ran down the stairs, and by the time they left, the mood was near calm.They glanced back as they reached the end of the street, and underground workers had just entered the apartment complex. In Moscow, no one believed that Leo and Raisa had returned; they were not immediate suspects.Even if the officer in charge of the investigation thought of this, if he confirmed it with the local state security department in the town of Vowalsk, he would find that they were on vacation in the mountains.That excuse would probably stand unless there were witnesses to prove that a man and woman had entered the apartment complex.If this is the case, further careful investigation of their alibi may be warranted.But Leo knew that all these facts were trivial.Even if there was no evidence, even if they had actually gone on vacation in the mountains, the murder would be a pretext for their arrest.This has absolutely nothing to do with evidence.

In the current situation, it would be pure madness to want to see his parents.But the train to Vowalsk didn't leave until five in the morning, and what's more, Leo thought it might be his last chance to see his parents.Although he has not been in touch with his parents since leaving Moscow, and their whereabouts are unclear, he only got their addresses a few weeks ago.Knowing that the various departments of the state intend to operate independently, Leo felt that if he asked the housing department about Stephen and Anna's problems, the request might not be forwarded to the Ministry of National Security.Just in case, he gave a fake name, pretended to be on business, and asked several names, including Galina Sapolina.He managed to find his parents' addresses even though all the other names were missing.Vasily may have been anticipating such an effort, and indeed, he may have even ordered the address to be made public.He knew that in exile, Leo's weakness was his parents.His parents were the perfect trap if he wanted to see Leo defy orders.But for four months, it seems unlikely that both his parents were under long-term surveillance.The family his parents were forced to share with seemed more likely to double as informers.He had to meet his parents without anyone else seeing, hearing or knowing. His parents' safety, as well as their own, depended on the secrecy of the operation.If they were caught, they would be linked to Ivan's murder, and their entire family would be dead, perhaps shot before daylight.Leo was ready to take the risk, he had to say goodbye to his parents.

They found it according to the address. The house was still an old house before the revolution-divided into hundreds of small apartments with some dirty sheets.There is no comfort here, no running water, no indoor restrooms.Leo saw pipes protruding from the windows to vent the smoke from the furnace, the cheapest and dirtiest form of heating.As they scrutinized the building from a safe distance, the mosquitoes landed on their necks, they slapped their skin so hard that their hands were stained with blood.Leo knew that no matter how long he stood here, he couldn't be sure it was a trap.He has to go in.He turned to Raisa, and before he could speak, she said, "I'll wait for you here."

Raisa felt ashamed.She trusted Ivan; her attitude to him was based solely on his collection of books and newspapers, his meditations on Western culture, his plans to help smuggle the works of important dissident writers into the West.Lies, all lies - how many writers and opponents of the government have been framed?How many manuscripts did he burn so that they were extinct from the world?How many artists and free thinkers did he arrest by the secret police?Just because he was distinctly different from Leo, she was deeply infatuated with him.This difference is just a disguise.Dissidents have been the secret police, and the police have turned into counter-revolutionaries.The dissident betrayed her, and the police rescued her.She cannot go with her husband and pretend to be a loyal, loving wife to say goodbye to his parents.Leo took her hand: "I want you to come with me."

The downstairs public door was unlocked, and the air inside was stuffy and hot, and they immediately began to sweat, with their clothes sticking to their backs.The door to apartment 27 upstairs was locked.Leo had broken into many apartments, and the old locks were generally more difficult to open than the current ones.He turned the metal plate with the point of a switchblade, revealing the lock's mechanism.He stuck the point of the knife in, but the lock would not open.He wiped the sweat off his face, paused for a moment, took a deep breath, closed his eyes, dried his hands on his trousers, completely ignoring the mosquitoes—let them eat their fill.He opened his eyes, concentrated, and the lock clicked open.

The only light came from the street-facing room, which was full of people sleeping and gave off a foul stench.Leo and Raisa waited by the door for a moment, getting used to the darkness.They were able to discern the outlines of three beds: an adult couple slept on two beds, and three children seemed to sleep on a small bed.Two small children were asleep on the kitchen rug like puppies on the table.Leo walked towards the sleeping adults, neither of the two couples was his parents.Did he get the wrong address?Such incompetent behavior can be said to be commonplace.Or maybe he gave him the wrong address on purpose?

In the darkness, he saw another door, and he walked toward it, the floorboards creaking with each step, and Raisa followed, much softer.The couple sleeping in the nearest bed moved slightly.Leo paused, waiting for them to quiet down.The couple was still fast asleep, and Leo walked on, Raisa following.He reached out and took the doorknob. There were no windows in the room and certainly no light.In order to see what was inside, Leo had to leave the door open.He could vaguely see that there were two beds in the room, and there was almost only a gap between the two beds, not even a dirty sheet.Two children slept in one bed, and a couple in the other.He moved closer and saw that it was his parents, sleeping next to each other in a cramped single bed.Leo stood up, walked up to Raisa, and whispered, "Close the door."

The room was pitch black at this moment, and Leo almost squatted on the floor and groped for his parents.He heard them sleeping and was glad to see nothing inside.He cried.The room was smaller than the bathroom in their previous apartment, and they had no space of their own, much less the possibility of cutting ties with the family.They were sent here to die, and he was executed for the same purpose: humiliation. He put his hands over their mouths almost simultaneously, and he could feel them waking up and startled.To keep them from shouting, Leo whispered, "It's me, Leo. Be quiet."

The tension in their bodies disappeared instantly, and he took his hands away from their mouths.He heard them sit up, and he could feel his mother touching his face.In the pitch-black darkness, she was touching his face.When her fingers touched the tears, her hands stopped sliding.He heard her voice, almost whispering: "Leo..." His father's hands followed, and Leo pressed theirs to his face.He swore to take care of them, but he didn't.The only thing he could do was mutter, "I'm sorry." His father replied, "You have nothing to apologize for. If it weren't for you, we would have lived like this for the rest of our lives."

His mother interrupted them, all the questions on her mind: "We thought you were dead, we heard you were both arrested." "They lied and we were sent to the town of Vowalsk. I was demoted and not jailed. I am now a militiaman. I wrote you many letters and asked them to forward them to you, but they must have intercepted and sent them to you. Destroyed." The child on the bed next to him was turning over, and the bed frame creaked.Everyone fell into silence.Leo waited until he heard the deep, slow breathing of the children: "Raisa is here, too." He led their hands to Raisa, and the four of them held hands, and his mother asked, "Where's the child?" "Gone." Not wanting to complicate the reunion, Leo added: "Miscarriage." Raisa spoke too, her voice very agitated: "I'm sorry." "this is not your fault." Anna continued: "How long are you going to stay in Moscow? Can we meet tomorrow?" "No, we shouldn't be here at all. If we get caught, we'll all be jailed, and so will you. We're leaving early in the morning." "Can we go outside and talk?" Leo thought about it, but it was impossible, they could only leave the apartment without waking anyone up. "It's more dangerous, it will wake them up, we can only talk here." For a while, no one spoke, and the four hands were tightly held together in the darkness.Finally Leo said, "I have to find you a better place to live." "No, Leo, listen to me. You often make us feel like our love is based on how much you can do for us. Even as a child. That's not the case, you have to focus on yourself We are all old and it doesn't matter where we live anymore. The only thing we have to live on is waiting to hear from you, and we have to accept that this will be the last time we see each other. We don't have to waste our efforts , while we have the chance, we must say goodbye. Leo, I love and am proud of you. I hope you have a better government to serve." Anna's voice is very calm now: "You have each other, you love each other, you will have a happy life, I believe that. Things will change for you and your children, Russia will be different, I'm hopeful about that." It was a fantasy, but she preferred to believe it, and Leo didn't refute it. Stephen grabbed Leo's hand and stuffed an envelope into his hand: "This is a letter I wrote to you several months ago. I have never had a chance to give it to you because you were sent away. I also I don’t want to send it to you, if you are safe on the train, then read it. Promise me not to read it earlier, promise me.” "What's in the letter?" "The content of this letter, your mother and I have been thinking about it for a long time. It includes things we want to say to you but for some reason cannot say to you, all these things we should have said to you a long time ago." "Father……" "Here, Leo, it's for us." Leo took the letter, and the four embraced one last time in the dark.