The Summer Garden

The next morning before work, when he came to the kitchen to get his coffee, Tatiana said to him, deeply blushing, “Alexander, what would you like for breakfast?”

And he, taking her into his arms, lifting her, setting her down on the kitchen counter in front of him, embracing her, madness in his eyes, said, “Oh, now that it’s morning, I’m Alexander again?” His open lips were over her open lips.

“Rebecca says he’s her first real love,” says Tatiana.

“At eighteen it all seems like real love,” he

cca says he’s her first real love,” says Tatiana.

“At eighteen it all seems like real love,” h

Alexander, you broke my heart. But for carrying me on your back, for pulling my dying sled, for giving me

You said, I let you go once. This time we live together, or we die together.”

Prostrate, he knelt between her legs. “Babe, Tatiasha, my whole life,” said Alexander, pressing his forehead into her heart. “My cradle and my grave, my wife, the only woman I have ever loved—I’m sorry. Please, Tania, help me. Have mercy on me. Please forgive me.”

followed you a thousand miles to the front,” she said brokenly. “I would’ve followed you to hell. And did.”

Please turn to me, my one wife.”

“Except for this—anything you do is fine with me,” Tatiana said, and started to cry. “Our son is right. Anything you do is fine with me. Every day I love the ground on which you walk, Alexander,” she whispered. “From the beginning, this was so. So if you raise your voice or your hand to me, I bow my head and take it. And if you need me, any way you need me, any time you need me, I give you my body and take it. You have ruled over me with your scepter. And if you’re shut away and can’t find your heart, I walk beside you up and down the Stonington hills, walk beside you through our entire America, waiting until you love me again. And when you raise

The crown and the cross are in your tea cup, Tatiana.”

man can be perfectly happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her,