The message was simple. Just «Ludmilla Zhivkov. St. Petersburg,» written in the Cyrillic alphabet on a small piece of paper. Nothing that would really identify her, nothing that the gambling businessman could turn over to the authorities to curry favor. Even if there was a reply, she told Mae Su—meaning it—she would think long and hard before actually meeting this person. If he in fact existed.
When Mae Su and the cart and the pony came again floating on a tiny raft down the Yellow River three days later, she brought a reply.
Praise God for His mercy in Preserving you.
If you tell this woman to tell me where you are, I will come pray with you.
God bless you, my child.
Father Boris
Three weeks later, in the first week of January 1943, when Edward Edwardovich was now five months old, Father Boris walked up the steep path from the Yellow River. He did not look much like a Russian Orthodox priest. Most of his face was hidden by a conical straw hat; and he now had a full, yellow-white beard, which hung below the top buttons of his ankle-length black cotton garment, the dress of the successful elderly. He wore sandals and carried a heavy staff. And he was accompanied by four Chinese, each almost as large as he was, each carrying a similar staff.
When he saw her with Edward Edwardovich in her arms, his face reflected both pleasure and great sadness.
The first thing Milla said to him, defiantly, was, «I am married. In the eyes of God, I am married. This is my son.»
«He is a beautiful baby. God loves him.»
«He is not christened.»
«I will take him into the arms of Holy Mother Church.»
«And will you now grant me absolution?»
«Are you sorry for your carnal life? Will you abstain in the future?»
«I am married,» she said.
«How can that be?»
«I tell you, I am married.»
«By whom, my child, were you married?»
«By an Englishman, an English priest. In the Anglican cathedral in Shanghai.»
His face beamed.
«The Anglican apostolic succession is valid,» Father Boris said. «I am happy for you, my child.»
«I don't know what you're talking about.»
«Their priests, Anglican priests, like those of Holy Mother Church and the Roman Church, can trace their ordination in an unbroken line back to the Holy Apostles. If an Anglican priest gave you the sacrament of marriage, it is as valid as if I did.»
Milla began to weep.
Father Boris raised his hand and made the sign of the cross. «In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, I grant you absolution. Go and sin no more, my child.» He held out his hand, and she kissed his ring. «And we will take the child into Holy Mother Church,» he said, adding, «after we have something to eat.»
After Father Boris had time to think it over, while devouring an entire duck, and a huge plate of rice and peppers, the christening of the baby initially had seemed to pose problems he had not originally thought of. «I don't know where we are going to find a second male godparent,» he said. «We are surrounded by heathens, of course, and we need Christians. Two Christian males, because the baby is a boy, and one Christian female. In extraordinary circumstances like these, you may serve as the child's godmother.»
«And you will be his godfather, Father Boris?» Milla asked, pleased by the notion.
«That is impossible,» he said, suggesting disapproval of her lack of canonical knowledge. «Lee Tsing is a Christian,» he went on, indicating the larger of the four men he had with him, «but we need two males.»
«My children are Christian,» Mae Su announced. It was the first word she had spoken.
Mae Su had watched the initial encounter between Father Boris and Milla with mingled suspicion and curiosity.
Father Boris looked at her. «How is that? You were educated by missionaries?»
«My man is a Catholic. He took them to a Catholic priest.»
Later that afternoon, Father Boris invited Gang-Cho, both as Mae Su's uncle, and as the presiding elder of the village, to the christening of Edward Edwardovich Banning. He placed him in a position of honor beside the blue porcelain vessel he had put to God's use as the baptismal font, and then very respectfully explained to Gang-Cho that the baby was now under the protection of God and Holy Mother Church. It was instantly clear to Milla that Mae Su's uncle understood this to mean, in a temporal sense, that the child was now under the protection of the four large Chinese men who accompanied Father Boris, at least two of whom—including Edward Edwardovich's new godfather, Lee Tsing—were carrying Mauser Broomhandle 9 mm machine pistols under their long black robes.
After his first visit, Father Boris visited Milla at Paotow-Zi regularly, at intervals of two or three weeks. On his second, and subsequent visits, he brought Mae Su's uncle a bottle of the very best rice wine, as a gesture of respect between Wise Elders, always thanking him profusely for using his wisdom and influence to protect Milla and Mae Su and their children. Before long, Father Boris became known in the village as the Wise Foreigner.
And he brought news of the war.
Most of that was not good, at least at first. But Father Boris thought Milla especially should have the knowledge.
The Japanese struck the American Pacific Feet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and sank most of America's battleships; they took the British Colony at Hong Kong on Christmas Eve; Singapore surrendered; they invaded the Philippine Islands; and after a long battle, the Americans there had surrendered. The Japanese were all over the Pacific. They were on New Guinea, off the Australian continent, and for a while it looked as if they would invade Australia itself.
Meanwhile, the Japanese behavior in Shanghai was even worse than anyone expected. They had all been wise to leave Shanghai when they did, Father Boris explained to Milla.
The news was not all bad. The Japanese were a long way from winning the war. There was even a story that American bombing airplanes had struck Tokyo itself,and in august 1942—the month Edward Edwardovich was born—American Marines had invaded an island called Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. The Japanese had promised to throw them back into the sea within days, but as there had been no announcement, Father Boris assumed that the Americans were still on Guadalcanal.
Milla had never heard of Guadalcanal, had no idea where it was, and it didn't matter anyway. Ed's—and Ernie Zimmerman's—4th Marines had been sent to the Philippines, and the Philippines had surrendered. The best outcome for either of them was maybe they had managed to avoid being killed in the battles and were now prisoners. Which, in itself, was a false hope, considering how much the Japanese hated Americans, and how they treated prisoners.
She had to accept the fact that Ed was probably dead. What she had to do now was survive the war, pray the Americans and the English would somehow win, and then somehow establish contact with Ed's mother and father, in Charlestown, South Carolina, USA, so that Edward Edwardovich could be taken to them and enjoy his heritage.
Once she accepted that hope and that responsibility, things somehow didn't seem so terrible. She and Edward Edwardovich were safe in Paotow-Zi. There were more than enough precious stones still sewn into the seams of her mother's girdle to last four, five years, maybe longer—as long as Mae Su's uncle's demands remained more or less «reasonable.»