That evening, Kaarina, Natalya, and Louise met at the orphanage.
News of the race and raffle had spread to churches, where the bets were mostly on Arnie. It spread to labor unions, where the bets seemed about even between Arnie and Mikhail. It spread to organizations dominated by the Communist Party of Finland, where Mikhail championed the People and a future free of religion and imperialism. When Louise asked for the numbers, a smiling Kaarina Varila announced that raffle ticket sales were nearly double what they’d initially hoped for. Had Kaarina been American, she would have been clapping her hands and popping champagne.
Louise took in the news with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the money was flowing in. On the other hand, as each ticket and its money were counted, she could see that for Natalya, the more successful the raffle the more people knew about the race, and that she was just another step closer to the punishment her husband and children would endure if Mikhail lost. Natalya’s eyes had a deer-in-the-headlights look, and she was occasionally chewing on her lower lip. Louise wanted to reach across the table to touch her but worried that would be inappropriate. Instead, whispering in French she said, “It will be alright. We’ll find Arnie and get him to throw the race.”
Natalya’s eyes darted from Louise to Kaarina and then back. She whispered fiercely, “We don’t know where he is.”
Kaarina was giving Louise a puzzled look, not understanding the French.
Not wanting to be rude, Louise quickly said to Natalya, “Let’s talk about this on the way home.” Natalya nodded and leaned back in her chair, holding her upper arms, as if comforting herself.
Louise hesitated, glancing at Natalya, before she explained to Kaarina, “Natalya is very worried what will happen to her family if Mikhail loses.” She glanced at Natalya, who didn’t understand the English. “I feel terrible,” Louise added.
“You have no responsibility for the action of a totalitarian government.”
“But I didn’t think—”
Kaarina’s face was a stoic mask. “It is a lot of money. A lot of orphans will be better off. You are responsible for that.”
“I know. But it’s a Pyrrhic victory.”
“No. A real victory.”
Natalya was looking between Kaarina and Louise, wanting someone to explain what was going on.
“But surely, we must consider Natalya and her family in this,” Louise said. “It’s my fault.”
“And you want to assuage your guilt.”
That stopped Louise. Her eyes flared. “It’s more than that. You know it.”
Kaarina sighed. “Yes. It’s become America and freedom versus Soviet totalitarianism. Whether they’re Reds or Whites, Finns all over the country will be rooting for their side. But you yourself said controversy is good for fundraising. The more people we get to buy tickets, the more money we get for the orphans. Perhaps you should consider that some sacrifices are worth making.”
Louise firmly but quietly said, “I do not want to be responsible for knowingly sacrificing a family for all the money in the world.”
A Finn would see no need to speak and Kaarina did not respond.
Louise broke the silence. “We have to find Arnie and get him to throw the race.”
“Not even the newspapers know where he is,” Kaarina said.
“Arnie gave me a general route,” Louise replied. “What if I gave that to your son, Pietari? He was a ski trooper. He must have friends. If we get enough of them out there, I’m sure they’ll find him.”
“What is she saying?” Natalya finally asked Louise in French.
“She was just thinking out loud about how to find Arnie and Mikhail.”
Natalya went silent, obviously hoping Kaarina and Louise would come up with some sort of plan.
Louise turned back to Kaarina. “What do you think?”
“About Pietari?” Kaarina shook her head. “Louise, you see Mikhail and Natalya here as a husband and wife, as friends. Do you really know anything about them? How many orphans did Mikhail create? How many German women did he rape? How many Finnish women? Don’t forget, it was the German soldiers, not the Russians, who were our staunch allies.”
“Mikhail would never rape someone.”
“You don’t know that. Natalya and I have lived through a war. You were alive when a war was going on. Those are two different experiences.”
Louise felt as if she were wading through mud.
“What are you two talking about?” Natalya asked again.
Louise wanted to shout at Natalya, She hates your country and she doesn’t give a shit if your husband is sent to Siberia or what happens to you and your children.
Louise’s thoughts were stopped when she saw tears in Natalya’s eyes. “Oh, Natalya,” she said. She could see that Kaarina had also been moved.
“Maybe we could try other ways to get a note to Arnie besides Pietari and his friends,” Louise said to Kaarina. “We could give notes to any reporters covering the story.”
“Why would those reporters who would be rooting for the American even deliver the message? Those rooting for the Russian would see a thrown race as potentially embarrassing to their cause, particularly because the pro-Western reporters would all have notes asking Arnie to throw the race. They could use those notes to discredit Mikhail’s victory, even if he did win the race fair and square.”
“What about an airplane? The US Army Air Corps has airplanes all over Europe.”
“Sure, but none here.”
Louise wanted to scream at the way Kaarina kept coming up with objections—objections she couldn’t counter. It was like talking to Arnie’s mother. Was it some sort of Finnish gene? “What if we hired a Finnish pilot to find Arnie and drop a note?”
“He’d take your money and say he will,” Kaarina replied. “You have no guarantee he’ll actually do it, even if he does manage to find him. There’s a lot of land between Rovaniemi and Kuopio and a lot of that is covered in forest.”
Louise felt herself sinking even deeper into the mud.
She made one last appeal. “Kaarina, I know you’ve lost sons and your husband. I know the Russians ravaged this country. Millions have suffered. Still, if we are ever to get free of all this numbness and hatred created by the sheer numbers and horror, someone has to start valuing individual human lives over history and politics.”
Kaarina studied her. Then she grunted. “Maybe.”
Louise felt a bit of hope. Now she had to appeal to Pietari directly.
As soon as they were outside, Natalya grabbed Louise’s arm to stop her. “What were you two talking about?”
“How to get a note to Arnie so he’ll throw the race.”
“How do you know he’ll do what you ask, even in the remote chance that you do get a note to him? Do you actually think a professional soldier will choose to dishonor himself or even the US Army because maybe a Russian family will get sent to the gulag?”
“For your family, yes, I know he will,” Louise said.
“In your mind,” Natalya said. “In Arnie’s and Mikhail’s minds, honor is what they live on. You think they serve their country for the pay and easy working conditions?”
“Your point?” Louise prompted.
“Asking Arnie to throw the race, to surrender without a fight, would be like asking him to dishonor every member of his unit who he watched die.”
“Natalya, I promise you, and I know Arnie is a warrior as you say he is, like Mikhail. But I know he’ll do it.”
Natalya gave a typical Russian shrug of her shoulders. The shrug of who knows? The shrug that spoke of years of endurance under hardship and repressive governments. The shrug of I don’t care. It’s beyond me, what can you do? The shoulder shrug of I’m a Russian. I will endure this as we have done for centuries.
Louise did not have a shoulder shrug like that.