Chapter 14
Danilo and his friends arrived in Kyiv. It had been a long trip by plane and two trains from Spain.
There was chaos in the streets. He hadn’t seen his father since Christmas.
They found a car to take them straight to the hospital where Anton worked.
They were shocked by the condition of the hospital.
Parts of it had been hit by shelling, and it had been hit by a bomb and badly burned.
One floor was no longer serviceable, but most of the hospital was still functional.
There was a makeshift desk in the hallway just inside the emergency unit.
Danilo asked for his father. The resemblance between them was striking, and the nurse smiled when he asked.
She was almost sure she knew who he was.
“And you are?” she said with a knowing look.
“His son,” he said, smiling at her. There were people on gurneys in the hallways.
The hospital was overflowing with war victims. Danilo and his friends waited for about fifteen minutes, and then a tall man walked toward them in surgical scrubs with a cap and mask.
Anton pulled the mask down and smiled broadly with tears in his eyes when he saw Danilo.
He walked straight up to him and hugged him tight, while the tears overflowed.
“I thought I’d never see you again,” Anton said in a whisper, and Danilo was crying too. He introduced his father to his friends. “What are you doing here?” his father asked him.
“We came to do whatever we could to help, since the war is continuing.” Danilo explained the program the university had agreed to, for credit toward his residency if the hospital would allow him to work there, or on one of the international military medical programs.
“We need the help desperately,” Anton said, and thanked Danilo’s friends for coming and hugged them too.
He promised to speak to the hospital administrator and suggested that in the meantime they go to the tents that had been set up as field hospitals by the various armies.
They talked for a while and then the four young men went to the American field hospital, where they were warmly received as volunteers.
They spent the rest of the day carrying people, dressing wounds, bringing food to patients, taking histories, helping with whatever was needed. And the needs were endless as patients continued to pour in.
Anton found them there hours later and drove them back to his hospital for dinner in the cafeteria.
He spotted Sasha picking up dinner to eat on duty.
Anton beckoned her over on her way out and introduced her to Danilo and his friends.
She chatted with them for a few minutes, then had to hurry back upstairs, and Danilo commented that she was really nice.
He mentioned her to Anton again later, when his friends went outside for some air and father and son were alone.
He remarked on the condition the patients were in after four months of war and then mentioned Sasha again, curious about her.
They seemed very at ease with each other.
“Is she…you know…like a special friend, Papa?” Danilo asked him, trying to sound casual.
Without hesitating, Anton said she was just a friend from work but a dedicated, great doctor and a good person.
He had lied so often about the women in his life that it came easily to him, and it was no secret to Danilo how unhappy his parents had been in their marriage for as long as he could remember.
The conversation moved on to other things, what they’d been doing all day and how many victims there were.
Thousands of people had been injured. It was all worse than the four young doctors could have imagined.
Danilo felt guilty for not coming sooner to defend the country, but his father was glad he hadn’t.
He didn’t want to lose his only child to this senseless war, and so many people had died, children and young people, soldiers and civilians alike.
The subject of Sasha didn’t come up again.
The boys had secured cots in the American tents for medical staff.
The Americans were happy to have them, and they’d been helpful that afternoon.
The staff invited them to volunteer again the next day. They were grateful for the help.
But that night in their converted broom closet, Anton lay awake for a long time while Sasha slept beside him, and in the morning, he got up looking serious. “I owe you an apology,” he said to Sasha.
“For what?” She looked surprised.
“My son asked about you yesterday, and I lied to him. I said we were just friends. I’m going to tell him the truth this morning, that I love you and you’re not just a friend.
” She was touched by what he said, and she knew it was a big step for him to admit to his son that there was a woman in his life, and that she was important to him.
He hadn’t seen Danilo since Christmas, and he hadn’t wanted to tell him on the phone that he and his mother were planning to get divorced.
It seemed a little soon to tell him about Sasha, but she was a reality in his life and precious to him, and he wanted to tell Danilo the truth.
Anton had no idea what his mother had said to him.
When the young men arrived at the cafeteria to have breakfast with Anton before he started work, he took Danilo aside while the others got in line to pick their food. He looked so serious that Danilo was worried about what his father was about to say, and he wanted to put him out of his misery.
“If you want to talk to me about you and Mom, she’s been hinting ever since she arrived that things are pretty much over between you two.
It’s not a surprise, Papa. I know things haven’t worked between you for years.
You two are so different, you’re a complete mismatch.
If you’re planning to get divorced, I think it’s the right thing.
” Anton looked at him, surprised that his son had made it so easy for him.
“It’s nice of you to say that,” Anton said gratefully. “We talked about it minutes before she left, when the war started, and I haven’t spoken to her about it since. Our marriage just doesn’t make sense anymore, for either of us.”
“It hasn’t for a long time,” Danilo said. “I think she’s worried about the money and how she’ll support herself. She’s never had a job,” Danilo reminded him.
“I have to talk to her. I’m not going to leave her without support, although having something to do might be good for her, but that’s up to her.
I need to reassure her about the money. There’s been so much going on with the war, it just didn’t seem pressing to talk to her about it.
But I’ll deal with it now. And actually, I wanted to talk to you about something else, although it’s related.
There is someone in my life. You met her yesterday, and I lied to you when you asked me about her.
I’m sorry that I lied. I told you we’re just friends, which isn’t true.
I love her, and she’s a very special woman and I hope you get to know her.
It’s Sasha, the doctor you met in the cafeteria last night. ”
“Thank you for being honest with me.” Danilo smiled at him.
“I got the feeling you were lying, but I figured you’d tell me at the right time for you.
She seems like a very nice woman, and I could see that she cares about you.
I think she’s perfect. A doctor would be better for you.
You and Mama just don’t want the same kind of life.
She wants a jazzier life than you two had, with movie stars and famous people.
She thinks medicine is boring. She’s not interested when I talk to her about it either. ” Anton laughed.
“I could always see her eyes glaze over when I told her about my work. Is she happier now?” Anton asked him.
“No, but she will be when she figures out what to do with her life, or when she meets someone who suits her better. She’s trying to decide where she wants to live. She doesn’t want to come back here, ever. She hates it.”
“I know. And I want to stay here and help the country get back on its feet.” Anton hadn’t told Sasha that yet either.
He’d had other offers recently, but his preference was to stay in Ukraine.
He didn’t know what Sasha’s would be, but he hadn’t asked her yet, and he wanted to know. He didn’t want to lose her.
As they were heading slowly back to Danilo’s friends, Sasha walked into the cafeteria, as though they had conjured her by speaking about her.
He beckoned her over and she joined them with a warm smile as they got in the food line together.
She didn’t kiss Anton or do anything obvious in front of Danilo, for which he was grateful.
She didn’t want to shock him. And she thought he would need to adjust to a new woman in his father’s life.
He wasn’t a child, but she assumed that he was loyal to his mother, and she wanted to respect that.
As they stood in line for breakfast, Anton spoke discreetly to Sasha. “I just told Danilo that you’re very important to me and that I love you,” he said, stating the obvious. Danilo stepped into the conversation then, in a very adult way.
“And I’m very happy for both of you.” He smiled at her. “As you probably figured out, my father’s only interested in medicine. He needs another doctor to talk to.”
“So do I,” she said, smiling.
“Me too,” Danilo agreed. “My mother is not that person. She hates medicine and everything about it.”
“Speaking of which,” Anton said to Danilo as they advanced toward the head of the line, “I’ll speak to the administrator today about your residency, if he has time.
Things are crazy here, and we’re very shorthanded, but I want to get that set up for you.
And until they do it officially, you can volunteer at all the foreign field hospitals. They need a lot of help.”
“I could see that yesterday,” Danilo said.