35

I’M LOSING STRENGTH and what’s left of my hope when a sound comes, a motor engine of some kind, a vehicle. I hear it pulling up, brakes screeching. The engine coughs and chokes, a door creaks open then shuts with a bang. In a moment, Ivan Ivanych, whistling and swinging his briefcase, enters the orchard. By the funny way he is walking, almost skipping, I can tell he is happy about something. The ball in the grass stops him. He quits whistling, stares at the ball for a moment then looks around. Not finding me, he picks up the ball, drops it on his foot and tries juggling. He is no better with the ball than he was with the doorknob. I can’t see him going into the house, but I know he did because I hear him calling for me inside, probably poking his head into my room, then into his, opening the door to the bathroom and getting worried.

“Arcady!”

Now he’s outside again, circling the house, looking. He stops near the hanging tablecloth. “Arcady! Where are you?”

I want to shout, “I’m here, look up in the tree,” but my throat is so thick I can’t make a peep. And it’s just awful, just horrible, listening to him calling my name and not being able to answer. It’s the worst ever. If he weren’t so soft, so easily scared, I would call to him somehow. But I know what will happen if he sees me up in this tree. He’ll lose it. He might even start crying.

“Arcady! Arcady! Come back, please!”

I begin shaking like it’s cold and my fingers dig deeper into the bark, but I’m barely holding on. All this shaking makes the branch go crack and drop a bit lower, jolting me.

Ivan Ivanych looks up. “Arcady!” he wails. He takes off running, doesn’t watch where he’s going, and runs smack into the tablecloth. The rope snaps off at both ends, and he tumbles through the grass wrapped up in cloth, trying to kick himself free and growling like a wild animal.

A second jolt, then—snap!—whoosh!—I’m falling. Air blasts through my shorts, leaves and branches flicker by, whipping me in the face, and just as I am about to hit the ground, Ivan Ivanych catches me in his arms wrapped in tablecloth.

“I got you!”

I never let anyone in my life see me cry, not ever, but this time I lose it. He draws me in to his chest, hugging me so deeply I feel his heart beating wildly against my cheek.