Epilogue

"Dad?" my eldest son said, coming into the sunroom early on a Saturday morning.

"Hey, Jesse, what's up?" I asked.

"The moms sent me to talk to you. I have something going on that they felt needed your input."

I put down the Chicago Tribune and Birgit got up from where she was cuddling me and left the room.

The usual reason Josie and Jennifer sent him to me was for discipline, and that was only on the rarest of occasions. When he needed advice, he came on his own, but when he was sent, there was something important that needed to be dealt with.

"What do they think you did wrong?" I chuckled.

"Nothing! I know that's usually why they send me. It's about what I want to do. They said I had to ask you."

"That's a refreshing change!" I chuckled. "Usually I get told to butt out!"

Jesse smiled, "Yeah, they do that, don't they? But you know I come to you privately for advice when I need it."

"True, but your moms don't ever send you to me for that. So, what's up?"

"Did you know that Larisa Dmitriyevna was coming to the University of Chicago?"

I nodded, "Of course. I talk with Tatyana Ivanovna regularly, now that she's teaching at Harvard. I saw her and Dmitry before my government-paid vacation! Why?"

"She and I went on a date when her parents were here, remember?"

"I do remember. So?"

"So I asked her to move in with me when she comes to Chicago. Into my room in the coach house. The moms said that I had to ask you because of your relationship with the Russians."

I chuckled again.

"Are they looking for me to be the bad guy here? What did they say?"

"Mom One said that it was OK if you agreed. Mom Two wasn't sure it was a good idea."

Mom One was Jennifer. Mom Two was Josie. Jesse had come up with that shorthand when he'd started talking in complete sentences. One thing I knew for sure was that before I approved, I'd need to talk to Tanya or Dima about this, as well as place a call to Saint Petersburg to talk with Vanya as well.

"What I think is that you are asking the daughter of a former Soviet diplomat who is now a highly respected professor of International Relations, and of a retired General Colonel of the Russian Army, to live with you. She's also the granddaughter of a member of the Russian Parliament! I think I'm the LEAST of your worries!"

"Tatyana Ivanovna told Larisa that it's up to her, because she thought I was some word that sounds like culture."

"«культурный»," I chuckled. "You never did follow through with learning Russian, and Larisa Dmitriyevna doesn't usually speak Russian. You might regret not learning now! And you had better be «культурный» if you're going to be involved with Vanya's granddaughter! It means that you are cultured, civilized, and behave properly. Take it as a compliment! It's a word that Tanya used for me all the time. Well, except when I used to French kiss her in public!" I said with a wink. "Then she'd call me «некультурный», which is the opposite. Let's call Vanya and see what he thinks."

Jesse cringed a bit, but nodded.

I was sure what Vanya's response would be, but I wanted to impress upon Jesse just how important these friendships were to me. He knew most of my story with Tanya, and of course, he knew her husband, but he'd last seen Vanya on a trip to Russia when he was much younger. We went to my study, and I looked up the number in Saint Petersburg and dialed it.

"«Привет», Ivan Konstantinovich," I said when he answered the phone.

"Hello, Stephen Rayevich! It is good to hear from you! How are you?"

"I'm fine. I have a young man here who wants to take us up on something we discussed in Washington just before you were reassigned to Moscow," I chuckled.

"Jesse Stepanovich and Larisa Dmitriyevna?" he asked expectantly.

"Yes. Exactly. I see Tatyana Ivanovna has already spoken to you. Shall we take this step to try to do what Tanya and I could never manage to accomplish?"

"Yes, of course!" he chuckled. "Larisa Dmitriyevna is eighteen and old enough to make such decisions for herself. You know I believe this, but the question is really for Dmitry Sergeyevich. I think that Jesse Stepanovich should call and speak to him personally."

I chuckled, "That should be an interesting phone call!"

"Dima is a good man, Stepa, you know this."

I did know it. Dmitry Sergeyevich Grigoryev was about ten years older than Tanya. She had married him in 1987. He had sided with Boris Yeltsin and was promoted two grades for his quick action to protect the Russian White House during the attempted coup in 1991. Dmitry had been a Lieutenant Colonel then, and was field-promoted to General Major by Gorbachev after he defied his own commanders and refused to participate in the coup. It had been a tank from Dmitry's unit on which Yeltsin had stood to give the speech that foiled the coup.