A burst of applause broke out when board number three knocked his king over. Ivan removed the scarf from around Alex’s eyes before he turned to face the crowd and took a bow.
‘Will we get a chance to win our money back?’ demanded one of the losing players.
‘Of course,’ said Ivan. ‘Come back in a couple of hours, and to make it even more interesting, my partner will play ten boards.’ Alex tried not to show the anxiety he felt. ‘Let’s go, kid,’ said Ivan once the crowd had dispersed, ‘and have that pizza your mother promised.’
When they entered Mario’s Pizza Parlour it was clear that Elena was no longer doing the washing up. She was standing at a large wooden table, kneading a lump of fresh dough until it was flat and even. She was so skilful that she produced a new base every ninety seconds.
Another chef then moved in and checked the order, before he covered the dough with the next customer’s chosen ingredients. It was then scooped up on what looked to Alex like a flat wooden spade and placed into an open wood-burning oven by a third chef, who took it out three minutes later and shovelled it onto a waiting plate. Alex calculated that they were producing a piping hot pizza every six minutes. Americans clearly didn’t like to be kept waiting.
Elena smiled when she looked up and saw her son.
‘This is Ivan,’ said Alex. ‘We work together at the market.’
Elena pointed to one of the few unoccupied tables.
‘How much did we make?’ asked Alex once they’d sat down.
Ivan checked his notebook. ‘Nineteen dollars,’ he whispered.
‘Then you owe me nine dollars and fifty cents,’ said Alex, holding out his hand.
‘Not so fast, kid. Don’t forget you’ve got a bigger challenge this afternoon, so we’ll settle up at the end of the day.’
‘If any of them are as good as the guy on board three, we might even lose the odd match.’
‘Which wouldn’t be a bad thing,’ said Ivan, as a waitress placed two pizzas and a couple of Cokes in front of them.
‘How come?’
‘If you lose the occasional game, the suckers become more interested. It’s a gambler’s weakness. If they see someone else win, it convinces them it’s their turn next,’ said Ivan, before he devoured a large slice of pizza. ‘Must remember to thank your mother,’ he said, looking at his watch.
Alex glanced around at Elena, who hadn’t stopped turning out perfect pizza bases since they’d arrived. He wondered how long it would be before she was giving the orders.
‘Right,’ said Ivan, ‘let’s get back to work.’
When Alex arrived back home for dinner that night, he was surprised to find that Dimitri wasn’t sitting in his usual place.
‘He was offered a job on a merchant ship bound for Leningrad,’ Elena explained. ‘He had to leave on the first tide.’
‘Do you sometimes wonder if Dimitri is too good to be true?’
‘I judge people by their actions,’ said Elena, raising an eyebrow, ‘and he couldn’t have been kinder to us.’
‘I accept that. But why did he take such an interest in two Russians he didn’t know who might well have been criminals?’
‘But we’re not criminals.’
‘He had no way of knowing that. Or did he? And was it just a coincidence that he joined us on deck the first night we were on board?’
‘But he’s a Russian, just like us,’ protested Elena.
‘Not just like us, Mama. He wasn’t born in Russia, but in New York. And I can tell you something else. His parents are very much alive.’
Elena turned to face Alex. ‘What makes you say that?’
‘Because when he helps you with the washing up, he sometimes takes off his watch, and engraved on the back are the words, “Happy 30th, love, mom and dad”, dated 2-14-68. Only last year. So perhaps...’
‘Perhaps you should remember that without Dimitri’s help, we wouldn’t have a roof over our heads, and there would be no possibility of you going to university,’ she said, her voice rising with every word. ‘So I’ll say this once, and once only. You will stop spying on Dimitri, because if you don’t you could end up just like your friend Vladimir, a lonely, sick individual with no morals and no friends.’
Alex was so shocked by his mother’s words that he didn’t speak for some time. He bowed his head and apologized, telling her he would never raise the subject again. After she left for work, he once again thought about her outburst. She was right. He couldn’t have done more for them, but what he hadn’t told his mother was that he feared that Dimitri was working for the KGB.
12
Sasha
London
Although Sasha worked hard when he returned to school for his final year, once the last football game had been played he hung up his goalkeeping gloves and began a strict regimen that even impressed his mother.
He rose at six every morning, and had already done two hours’ work before breakfast. He ran to and from school — almost the only exercise he took — and while the other boys were in the playground enjoying French cricket, he remained in the classroom, turning another page of another book.
Once the bell sounded at the end of the day, and everyone else had gone home, Sasha remained at his desk and, with the help of Mr Sutton, tackled yet another past Isaac Barrow exam paper. Finally he would run home and eat a light supper, before going to his room to do his prep, often falling asleep at his desk.
As the day of the exam drew nearer, he somehow managed to work harder still, finding hours even his mother wasn’t acquainted with.
‘The exam will be conducted in the Great Hall at Trinity,’ the headmaster told him. ‘It might be wise if you were to travel up to Cambridge the night before, so you don’t feel rushed or under any unnecessary pressure.’
‘But where would I stay?’ asked Sasha. ‘I don’t know anyone in Cambridge.’
‘I’ve arranged for you to spend the night at my old college.’
‘Perhaps I should take the day off and come up to Cambridge with you,’ Elena suggested.
Sasha managed to talk his mother out of the idea, but he couldn’t stop her buying him a new suit that he knew she couldn’t afford. ‘I want you to look as smart as your rivals,’ she said.
‘I’m only interested in being smarter than my rivals,’ he replied.
Ben Cohen, who had just passed his driving test, drove Sasha to King’s Cross. On the way, he told him about his latest girlfriend. It was the word ‘latest’ that made Sasha realize just how much he’d missed out on during the past year.
‘And my dad’s going to buy me a TR6 if I get into Cambridge.’
‘Lucky you.’
‘I’d swap it for your brain any day,’ said Ben, as he turned off the Euston Road and parked on a yellow line.
‘Good luck,’ he said, as Sasha climbed out of the car. ‘And don’t come home with a clean sheet.’
Sasha sat in the corner of a packed carriage, staring out of the window as the countryside rattled by, not wanting to admit that he wished he’d agreed to let his mother come with him. It was his first journey outside London, unless you counted away matches, and he was becoming more nervous by the minute.
Elena had given him a pound note to cover any expenses, but as it was a clear fine day when the train pulled into Cambridge station, he decided to walk to Trinity. He quickly learnt only to ask people wearing gowns for directions to the college. He kept stopping to admire other buildings he passed on the way, but when he first saw the great gates above which Henry VIII stood, he was transported into another world, a world he suddenly realized how much he wanted to be part of. He wished he’d worked harder.