The youth orchestra was sharing the train with the Soviet delegation, which was the reason for its elegance. Despite Josef Stalin’s rhetoric about serving the proletariat, about hating the bourgeoisie, about eliminating social class and unifying Russia’s economy, he and his cronies lived exactly the way the czars had before them.
For once Karen was glad of their hypocrisy. She never met Stalin, of course, nor did she meet his top general, Chuikov, nor any of the lesser members of the Politburo. Karen’s and the rest of the young musicians’ movements were carefully orchestrated to avoid chance meetings with the leaders of Russia’s totalitarian regime. It would be a disaster, Madame Nadia knew, if one of her music students inadvertently disturbed the important men heading to the summit. So she admonished the children to remain hidden in their berths until they could be sure of no inadvertent encounters, threatening them with dismissal from the orchestra and, more important, immediate expulsion from the train.
Neither Karen nor Petr minded. The members of the youth orchestra did not have sleeping cabins. Those were reserved for the important politicians and generals. But they did have beds or, more accurately, bunk berths. Those bunks were stacked on top of each other against one wall of a sleeping car, with a narrow aisle providing access along the other wall.
Since Karen and Petr were believed to be brother and sister, they were forced to share a single bunk. It was the only way to allow Petr on the train, since he wasn’t part of the orchestra. The bunks were stacked so tightly that Karen could barely sit up in theirs without smacking her head, and Petr, much taller than she, had to remain prone or just slightly propped up on his elbows. At least the thin curtain gave them a small amount of privacy from the aisle and the other berths.
They left Moscow at midnight, in secret. The summit was no secret, but their departure had to be, for the safety of the delegation. The young musicians were sent immediately to bed. But, of course, they were all too excited to sleep. They peeked out of the curtains dividing their bunks, gossiping and giggling with one another all night long.
The constant chatter gave Karen and Petr the audio camouflage they craved. They could whisper to each other without fear of eavesdroppers.
“What are you going to do when you get there?” Petr asked.
“I’m going to play the concert,” Karen replied after giving this careful thought, “and see who is in the audience. If I can identify the Americans, I should be able to find a way to approach them.”
“Won’t it be difficult to see past the stage lights?”
“There won’t be any stage lights,” Karen explained. “It’s a dinner concert; we’ll just be background music.” She hesitated, thinking. “But if you could get inside, you could help. We need to identify all the Americans, not just the ones I can see from the stage.”
“I’ll try.”
“Then, once we know what they look like, I need to find a way to approach them in private so that I can reveal who I am and tell them my circumstances.”
“And just like that,” Petr replied skeptically, “they’ll take you home?”
“They’ll have to.”
Petr shook his head in disbelief. “No, they won’t. Why should they care? They could just leave you. Worse, they could report you to the NKVD.”
“They’d never do that.”
“How can you be sure?”
“America isn’t like Russia. Our government cares about us. It protects us.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“Of course I’m right. It’s why you should come with me.”
“The only reason?”
“Of course not,” she whispered, taking his hand in hers. “Have you decided?”
“Not yet,” Petr admitted.
“Don’t you want to come with me?”
“Convince me,” Petr teased.
Karen smiled coquettishly and leaned forward. She kissed Petr on the lips.
It wasn’t their first kiss, but it was their first romantic one, and it was something they’d both desired for a long time. They closed their eyes and enjoyed its erotic pleasure. She’d kissed and been kissed like this before, by Bobby in New York. But she hadn’t been back to New York in almost two years, and hadn’t heard from Bobby in more than six months. He had most likely forgotten her. Now, lost in the thrill of this kiss, Karen forgot him, too.
It was as if their souls lived not in their bodies or in their hearts, but in their mouths. Touching their lips together was like touching their inner selves. That kiss lasted as long as either of them could hold their breath.
It was their first real kiss, but it wasn’t their last. It stripped away all their emotional defenses and laid bare their feelings for each other. No longer did they have to worry about rejection. They knew how they felt about each other; they knew they were both in love. The kiss proved it. It meant they could kiss again, without fear, all night long.
They didn’t just kiss each other’s lips. They kissed necks, shoulders, chests, and stomachs. They sought out bare flesh, slipping their hands under pajama and nightgown, seeking to feel bodies that were as naked as their emotions. But they still had to be careful. They were pretending to be brother and sister, after all. Their movements were restricted. They couldn’t make a sound for fear of revealing what they were doing. Oddly, that made the experience even more exquisite.
Neither knew exactly when they fell asleep. But they couldn’t have slept more than a couple of hours before Madame Nadia appeared, rousing all the student musicians from bed and admonishing them to get breakfast quickly.
Breakfast was another indication of how luxurious this trip would turn out. Madame Nadia and her orchestra were allowed in the dining car only after the last Russian dignitary had left, but even then the banquet of food was amazing. They chose from scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, kippers, sausage, pâté, an assortment of hard and soft cheeses, black bread, butter, and jam—all served from silver trays from which the young musicians could take as much as they pleased. Matching silver pitchers provided coffee, hot water for tea, and cream.
Lunch saw a return of the black-bread-and-cheese platter, along with an assortment of sliced vegetables, including onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, and radishes. Black caviar was added to the menu, complete with crackers to eat it on.
Karen had tried caviar once before, with her father, when they’d celebrated their arrival in Leningrad. She didn’t much like it then and didn’t like it now, either, until Petr found an open, half-empty bottle of champagne that the dignitaries had left behind. Somehow the bubbly, sweet, sparkling wine perfectly complemented the salty fish eggs, and Karen learned to savor the slight crunch of the caviar bursting between her teeth.
Dinner brought kidney soup, pork pies, dressed herring, potato dumplings, and traditional goulash, in addition to foods with which Karen was more familiar, like beef stroganoff. Crepes and lemon pie were served for dessert. While the other students picked at only those items they particularly liked—the lemon pie was especially popular—Karen made it a point not only to try but also to finish an ample helping of everything that was served. She devoured as much as she could, until she felt as though she would burst. It was an orgy of food, and she was determined to make up for those months of deprivation she’d experienced in Leningrad.
Between meals the young musicians were allowed to explore, so long as they restricted their movements to the back of the train.
Petr and Karen were more interested in exploring each other’s bodies. They looked for hiding places where they might indulge in each other’s kisses. They were like drugs, those kisses, that first real one igniting their addiction, and now they couldn’t stop.
But they had to be even more careful than the night before. They couldn’t be certain someone might not come around a corner and catch them. It made their romantic encounters both more frustrating and more exciting. They would duck around a corner and embrace and kiss each other for mere moments before hearing approaching footsteps and quickly separating, catching their breath so they could act as if nothing had happened. This went on for days. Karen indulged all her senses, devouring both the dining car’s exotic food and Petr’s erotic passion, barely hesitating long enough to look out a window and notice the passing countryside.