To New York

“ We need to discuss the next course of action. The Russians are getting too hard to deal with. They have twice our troops; if we go to war, we will lose. “ Nikolai stated.

We were in Ana’s living room holding a meeting. In as much as we were glad that Nikolai had come back to us, we couldn’t let ourselves forget that we had a problem on our hands. We might have been alive but our lives were in danger.

Staying in France forever was not an option. At one point, we needed to go back to Italy. Despite the argument I had with Nikolai, he was still hell-bent on going back to Italy later in the day.

I had only spent one night and morning with him and that wasn’t enough. He had told me that his men needed him. Quite frankly, he was more of a man than my father would ever be. My father always hid while his men did the dirty work for him.

I admired Nikolai’s service to the very people who would put their lives on the line for him. That said a lot about him. I could imagine him as a father. He