Tatiana turns to him, looks up at him, and smiles. “Do you know what a happy ending is to a Russian?” she says. “When the hero, at the end of his own story, finally learns the reason for his suffering.”
Taking another swig of Coke, Alexander says, “Your jokes are getting so lame.” He knocks into her with his stretched-out leg. She takes hold of his hand.
“What?” he asks.
“Nothing, soldier,” says Tatiana.
He is thinking of sailboats in distant oceans, the desert from dimmest childhood, the ghost of fortune, the girl on the bench. When he saw her, he saw something new. He saw it because he wanted to see it, because he wanted to change his life. He stepped off the curb and out of the deadfall.
To cross the street. To follow her. And she will give your life meaning, she will save you. Yes, yes—to cross.
“We’ll meet again in Lvov, my love and I ...” Tatiana hums, eating her ice cream, in our Leningrad, in jasmine June, near Fontanka, the Neva, the Summer Garden, where we are forever young.
THE END
About the Author
Paullina Simons is the author of nine internationally acclaimed novels, including Tully and The Bronze Horseman. Her books have been translated into twenty languages. Born and raised in St. Petersburg, Russia, she graduated from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, and she has lived in Rome, London, and Dallas. She now lives near New York City with her husband and four children.
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Also by Paullina Simons
The Bronze Horseman
Tatiana and Alexander
A Song in the Daylight
Road to Paradise
The Girl in Times Square
Eleven Hours
Red Leaves
Tully
Cookbook
Tatiana’s Table
Credits
Cover design by Mumtaz Mustafa
Cover photograph by Ellen Hawk / folio-id.com
Copyright
THE SUMMER GARDEN. Copyright © 2005 by Timshel Books, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, 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.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
ISBN 978-0-06-198822-6
EPub Edition © 2011 ISBN: 9780062087973
11 12 13 14 15 ID/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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