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
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.
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
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)
Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
Toronto, ON, M4W 1A8, Canada
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com