57

Kirjasalo, Karelia

"Wait up!" Takala jogged up to Matti and Käärme as they strapped their rifles onto their backs for their early morning patrol. "I'll go with you this morning, Ranta. Käärme, you just earned yourself the morning off. I can't sleep and I need to get out of that tent."

"As you wish, boss." Käärme clapped his hand across Takala's back. "Thanks.”

"You owe me."

"Yes, sir." Käärme headed back to his tent and the two men set off due south, carefully making their way down a worn path through towering white birch trees as the sun started to rise.

"Brrrr! It's cold." Takala wrapped his parka tightly around his shoulders and shivered.

"Usually we have snow by this time of year," Matti explained. "Maybe soon we'll be able to do ski patrols."

They walked on in silence, each carefully observing the edges of the road to look for something out of the ordinary. But everything was calm. Peaceful, even.

Takala waved his hand toward a huge stack of moss covered rocks that were clustered on a hillside. "Just look over there…the green of the moss covering the towering trees. It's like a picture from a Christmas card."

Matti looked up at the evergreen trees that formed an emerald green canopy over their head and smiled slightly. "Home sweet Karelian home."

Takala put his hand over his eyes and looked out into the forest, pointing out a white speck from behind the boulders. "What is that?"

"I don't see anything." Matti squinted.

"Right over there." Takala pointed again toward the cluster of rocks, already reaching for his rifle.

Matti looked closely. There was something white behind those rocks—maybe an old shirt someone had left out there or something. He put his finger to his lips and gazed toward the rocks. "I'll check."

"I'll come too."

The two men crept off the path, silently making their way through the thick underbrush, doing their best not to make a sound. Creeping around the biggest boulder, Matti peered around the rocks. Was that a wheel?

"It's a baby carriage," he whispered to Takala, gripping his rifle to his chest as he crept closer.

Takala reached the carriage first and peered inside, his eyes immediately growing wide. "There's a baby in it!"

Matti threw his rifle down and ran toward the carriage, reaching down to grab the tiny child wrapped tightly in pink blankets. She was warm. He fumbled through her blankets to find her pulse. "She's alive."

Turning to search the area, Matti scoured the rocks for any sign of the baby's mother…there! Matti spotted her next to a cluster of three boulders. He ran over to her. "Ma'am!Ma'am?"

"откуда Вы приехали?" The woman looked up at them with wild eyes, frantically scrambling to her feet.

"Russian. She's speaking Russian!" Matti's face twisted into a frown. There shouldn't be any Russians out here in the military zone.

"I know a little Russian." Takala leaned in closer.

"I do too," Matti whispered as he leaned in and did his best to prop up the woman. "I grew up near the border so I learned it in school."

Takala bent down eye level with the woman, gently reaching out to put his hand on her shoulder before asking her name.

"Tanya," came the whispered reply.

"What are you doing up here?" Matti asked softly, trying his best not to scare her.

She scooted into an upright position, her eyes showing clarity that they hadn't a few minutes earlier. "I-I'm from Leningrad. I'll do anything you want if you give me bread for my baby."

Matti's heart wrenched, compassion filling him as he saw the desperation in the woman's blue eyes. No one—not even a Russian prostitute—should have to watch her baby starve.

Takala looked frantically from Matti to the woman and back again, obviously torn as to what to do. "Our orders say that all Russians should be taken prisoner on sight."

"But she's starving. She needs our help. Who knows what they would do with a woman and a child in prison camps." Matti shook his head at his commander, praying that he would have some empathy.

"Go get our packs. Let's give her something to eat while I try to figure out what to do," Takala barked, his face taking on a hardness.

Matti ran off, returning a few moments later with two heavy packs.

"Ranta, we could get into a lot of trouble for this, you know," Takala said as he grabbed the pack.

"If we let an innocent child starve because we have orders...I couldn't forgive myself."

Takala frowned.

"Let's start by getting these two something to eat." Matti pulled out a ration pack and tore it open, removing a small rye cracker and handing it to the woman.

She turned her head and clamped her mouth shut.

"Why is she doing that?" Takala asked.

"The baby," Tanya whispered.

"Go get the baby. We have to feed her first."

Matti ran to the pram and gently scooped up the tiny baby, who remained asleep, even through all the yelling. "Do we have any milk? Something a baby could eat?"

Matti dug frantically in his bag. "No. No milk. Tanya, is your baby able to eat some hard tack?"

Tanya shifted, trying to pull her body further into a sitting position, her eyes cloudy.

"Try to wake her up." Takala gently took the baby from Matti, cradling her in his arms and stroking her face.

The baby's soft cry echoed through the rocks. Takala held the cracker and put it in the baby's mouth. She devoured it and instantly reached for another.

"Now will you eat?" Matti said to Tanya in Russian. "We have enough for you too."

But the woman just shook her head.

"What's the baby's name?" Matti asked.

"Vera," Tanya whimpered weakly. "We…call her Verushka."

"And how old is she?"

"She's...ten months old. Born…January twenty first." Tanya's words came in wisps, barely audible in the early morning silence.

"OK, well, you and little Vera will be fine." Matti tried to reassure her, wiping away the tears that streamed down her cheeks.

"Bring…her to me."

Takala gently placed the baby in Tanya's trembling lap, making sure she had a cracker in both of her hands before he let her go.

Silence fell over the forest as Tanya closed her eyes and nuzzled her baby's head. After what seemed like an hour, Tanya looked up to Matti. "Water?"

He ran back to his pack and grabbed his canteen, squatting down to give the baby a swig before turning to look Tanya in the eye. "Tanya, we have enough for both of you. I promise."

She hesitated before grabbing a cracker and eating it slowly, closing her eyes after each bite.

"So, tell me what you're doing up here?" Compassion flooded his soul.

"I… I had no bread, no way to feed…her. I thought that maybe I could find a soldier who would trade…you know…"

"Have you done that before?"

"Before the war, I…I uh, I lost my husband and so I dated the officers in the army for money." Tanya confessed readily, as if purging her soul.

Matti's heart flooded with compassion. The poor woman had been desperate for so long.

"God forgives you," Matti whispered softly.

"God…I don't believe in Him anymore." Tanya's words were barely a whisper.

"Why not?"

"He took everything…everyone…from me."

"And you wonder how a loving God could allow all this suffering?"

Tanya opened her mouth and then shut it again.

Matti lowered himself onto the hard ground next to Tanya and looked her straight in the eye. "I can't explain why things happen when they do. I don't know your story or what has happened, but I do know that God is here. He is everywhere. And He loves you."

"He could…never love me."

"He led you here, to us, didn't He? I have a feeling we're amongst the only soldiers in this entire encirclement who wouldn't have taken you prisoner or worse."

Tanya smiled weakly. "He did…do that."

"Did you pray for a miracle?"

Tears welled up in Tanya's eyes. "I didn't, but my friends did. My friends Vera and Feodora and Agripina all prayed fervently that somehow, some way, little Verushka would survive this siege. Every one of them believed she would survive. Even when things looked impossible."

"Do you believe now?"

"No," Tanya whimpered.

"Even after God brought you here?"

Realization dawned in her crystal-blue eyes. "I can't."

"You must."

"But what if He won't take me?"

Matti turned back to Takala who leaned against a tree, listening to their conversation.

They were talking about much more than the baby's survival. "He will. God takes anyone—saint or sinner—they just have to trust Him and be willing to give their whole life—heart and soul—to Him."

A wave of understanding showed on her face. "I do want that. I want Him."

"Will you pray with me?"

She nodded slowly, her blue eyes sparkling with tears.

"Father God, thank You for bring Tanya and Verushka to us. Thank You for leading them here so that we can help them. Lord, we know that You are real and You are working in our lives and I pray that You fill Tanya with a sense of peace right now that goes beyond human understanding. Help her to feel Your presence and to know without a doubt that You are real. And that You love her…"

Tanya interrupted, her voice gaining strength as the words poured forth. "God…please…forgive me. I want to come back to You."

Her words came out weak and feathery but Matti understood them perfectly. He leaned closer and rubbed Tanya's arm, helping her take another bite of her cracker.

Did that really just happen? Had he just led a desperate Russian prostitute to Jesus?

Praise God.

Matti looked up at Takala, who stared at him wide-eyed.

Maybe next he'd start working on Takala's relationship with the Lord.

He smiled and turned his attention back to Tanya, slouched down against the rock. Baby Verushka lay on her lap, fiddling with a string on her dress.

"Are you feeling better?" Matti hunched forward.

Tanya managed a weak smile. "Much better. My heart feels…so light."

"I meant physically, but I’m glad you're spiritually better too."

"I'm better than I…have been in years." Tanya's smile radiated with a strength that seemed superhuman.

"I'm glad. Now let's try to figure out what we're going to do to get you out of here to someplace safe."

"No," Tanya's voice was getting weaker. "I...can't...I'm so tired."

Matti gripped her shoulders and turned her toward him, desperate for her eyes to focus on his. “Stay awake, Tanya.” He shook her gently.

But her head flopped forward.

Matti cried out, "She's dying, Takala. Help me! Do something."

Takala leaned over and put his fingers in front of her lips. "She's breathing, but so weak." He grabbed his canteen and dripped water into her mouth.

Matti's throat tightened as emotion filled his chest. He had only known Tanya for a few minutes, but he already felt an eternal connection. He would save this woman and her baby even if it meant losing everything.