Reunited After 25 Years 46: Breakfast In Bed

Snug in her husband's arms, Andrea fell into a troubled sleep in which she watched Anton and Sally make love, helpless to do anything about it. She awakened to the delicious aroma of cooking food, and a few minutes later, Anton appeared in the doorway holding a tray upon which sat two plates, each piled high with sausage, eggs, and the round, flat cakes which she called pancakes and Anton called blini.

"Zavtrak in bed." Anton grinned. "To make up for being a jerk yesterday."

"Oh, Anton, you're not a jerk," said Andrea. "We just had a little disagreement, that's all." She eyed the food hungrily. "This looks delicious!" She broke off a piece of sausage and a little bit of egg with a fork and put them in her mouth together. "Yum!"

"Only the best for my Andrea." Anton grinned as he spread sour cream on his blini. Andrea preferred margarine and syrup. Cultural differences, she supposed.

"Sallochka's husband will come home in few days," Anton said after a few minutes. "He was wounded in Iraq. He will come back to America when he is discharged from the military hospital over there. Sallochka was very scared. She thought maybe he would die when it first happened. He bled a lot. She told me all about it yesterday. I went over there for comfort after you and I fought. I ended up comforting her instead. She is a good friend. It is good to have a friend like her."

Andrea didn't say anything.

"You were worried, right?" Anton chuckled. "No need to worry, Andrea. Nothing happened between me and Sallochka. We are just good friends. That is all."

Andrea smiled with relief.

A few days later, Sally's husband, Rick, came home on crutches with one leg heavily bandaged. At Anton's urging, he and Andrea went next door to visit.

"Got too close to an explosion," Rick told them. "Piece of shrapnel got embedded in my leg. I've got nerve damage, and it might be permanent. I may even be facing a medical discharge." He sounded as if he were about to cry.

"It's been his dream to become an army officer for his entire life," Sally told Anton and Andrea. "He was so close..."

"Perhaps all is not lost. He may make a full recovery after all," said Anton.

Rick looked at his injured leg and sighed deeply.

"I could go back to temping," Sally offered.

"Even if the worst thing happens, I will help you all I can, and Andrea will too," said Anton. "She helped my Dasha get a job at the library, and she will help you, too."

"All my skills are military," said Rick. "It's the only thing I've ever really been trained in."

"My skills I acquired in the Soviet navy many years ago helped me get the job I have now," said Anton.

"What do you do now?"

"I create and install navigational devices in vehicles."

"I've done some work in navigation as well," Rick replied.

A few days later, Anton and Andrea received an unexpected visit from Denny and Darya.

"We came to bring you your first anniversary present," Denny told them, handing his mother an envelope. Andrea quickly opened the envelope and gasped in surprise when she found two train tickets to New Orleans inside.

"Oh, thank you!" Andrea exclaimed, hugging first Denny and then Darya around the neck.

"We know you have both been through hard times. You deserve a nice vacation, so we went together and got them for you," Darya explained.

"I appreciate it very much. It was so sweet of you," Andrea replied.

On the weekend before their first anniversary, Anton and Andrea boarded the train at the station in Gloucester at nine in the morning. "I've never ridden a passenger train before," Andrea told her husband.

"When I was a young boy and lived in Moscow, I took the train to school every day," Anton replied. "Everyone did."

"I took the bus," Andrea told him. "I've never been to New Orleans, either, but I've heard a lot about it."

"It is in Louisiana, right?"

"Right. On the Bayou."

"Bayou?"

"It's on the Mississippi River. A lot of it's swamp land, with alligators and crocodiles." Andrea grinned. "Maybe we'll get the chance to ride a real old-fashioned steamboat like they had back in the eighteen hundreds." Her eyes looked dreamy.

"That would be a real adventure for me," said Anton.

"I can't wait to visit the French quarter and walk down Bourbon Street," Andrea said enthusiastically.

"There is a quarter that is French?" Anton looked puzzled.

"Louisiana was originally settled by the French," Andrea explained. "It was named for King Louis XVI, the king who helped the Americans so much in their war for independence. There's still a very strong French influence in that state."

"Your country is a fascinating place, Andrea," said Anton. "There is influence by so many different other countries. Very much variety."

"There is," Andrea agreed as the train traveled on.