Page 15 of Angel on the Square


  It was only when I came to say farewell to Mama that I nearly lost my courage. I did not see how I was to live apart from her.

  “Come with me, Mama,” I begged.

  “Katya, I could never face St. Petersburg now. I am better here. I feel a kind of peace here at The Oaks, where I played as a child. Nina and Stepan will look after me. My greatest happiness will be in knowing that you and Misha have each other.”

  It was late fall when Misha and I walked out of the St. Petersburg train station and onto the Nevsky. The city welcomed us with a golden October day. We crossed Anichkov Bridge. The great bronze horses still pawed the air, but how different from the noisy, cheerful crowds of my childhood were the silent pedestrians on the prospekt with their suspicious, closed faces. Rough-looking soldiers wearing badges of the revolutionary government were everywhere. Misha took my hand, for we were both nervous walking openly in the street. Many of the stores were boarded up. Even the clanking of the trams seemed subdued.

  I wanted to see the Zhukovsky mansion that had been our home. At first Misha tried to discourage me.

  “It will only make you unhappy,” he said.

  “Perhaps it will, but I won’t start my new life with my eyes closed. There has been enough of that.”

  We crossed the Griboedov Canal, with its perfect reflection of the domes of the Church of the Resurrection still looking like a tumble of crown jewels. There was our mansion. My heart stopped at the sight. Strung across the entrance was a crudely lettered sign that read: REVOLUTIONARY WORKERS’ CENTER. I could see the yellow silk draperies fluttering from the open windows in Mama’s room. I looked up at the balcony where I had stood with Misha to see the celebration of three hundred years of Romanov rule. The child who had gazed with such excitement at the golden carriage of the Tsar and the Empress was gone forever, but the city was still there.

  The Neva’s arms were still wrapped around St. Petersburg. The Winter Palace was surrounded with barricades and soldiers, but in the square the angel looked down at us. I thought of how Lidya had promised me, “Difficult times and even wars may come to the city, but as long as the angel watches over St. Petersburg, the city will survive.”

  Misha must have been thinking of the same legend, for when we turned back to the Nevsky, he was smiling.

  GLOSSARY

  babushka: grandma; old woman

  beliye nochi: white nights of spring and summer, when it is light until the early-morning hours

  borsch: beet soup

  chudo: miracle

  da: yes

  dacha: vacation home

  Duma: the Russian parliament

  kasha: buckwheat groat porridge

  Khristos voskres. Voistinu voskres: Christ is risen. Indeed, He has risen.

  khorosho: very good

  koshevy: basketlike Siberian wagon

  krasivo: beautiful

  kulich: Easter coffee cake

  Lebedinoye Ozero: Swan Lake

  Mamochka: Mommy

  molodyets: well done!

  nyet: no

  paskha: Easter cheesecake in the shape of a pyramid

  perina: featherbed

  pirozhki: filled pastries

  podruga: special friend

  proshchayte: farewell

  S rozhdestvom Khristovom: Merry Christmas

  sluzhanka: female servant

  tovarich: comrade

  troika: carriage drawn by three horses abreast

  Tsar-batyushev: little father

  tsarevich: crown prince

  tvorog: cottage cheese

  voina: war

  vorobyei: sparrow

  vranyo: white lie

  zabastovka: labor strike

  About the Author

  GLORIA WHELAN is a poet and the award-winning author of many books for young readers, including HOMELESS BIRD, winner of the National Book Award; RETURN TO THE ISLAND; ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, winner of the Great Lakes Book Award; FAREWELL TO THE ISLAND; and MIRANDA’S LAST STAND. She lives with her husband, Joseph, in the woods of northern Michigan.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

  ALSO BY GLORIA WHELAN

  HOMELESS BIRD

  ONCE ON THIS ISLAND FAREWELL TO THE ISLAND

  RETURN TO THE ISLAND

  THE INDIAN SCHOOL

  MIRANDA’S LAST STAND

  Credits

  Jacket illustration © 2001 by Peter Malone

  Jacket design by Alison Donalty

  Jacket © 2001 by HarperCollins Publishers

  Copyright

  ANGEL ON THE SQUARE. Copyright © 2001 by Gloria Whelan. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  EPub © Edition NOVEMBER 2008 ISBN: 9780061975783

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  Gloria Whelan, Angel on the Square

 


 

 
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