Page 35 of Pioneer Summer

“I don’t—” Yurka choked on his own words. His throat went dry. Heat surged through him.

Volodya knotted the neckerchief so deftly, it was as though he’d spent his whole life doing nothing but that: wrap this end around here, stick that bit through there, give it a tug, and done. As he tucked it into Yurka’s collar, Volodya’s fingers lightly brushed Yurka’s neck. It seemed just an accidental, momentary touch, but it sent an electric shock through Yurka.

“So? You coming with me to Central Command?” asked Volodya again, as though he didn’t notice that something was going on with Yurka.

“No, I’m going out into the woods with my troop. At our troop meeting we decided I’d be a spy, try to find out where the other troops’ flags are.”

“Oh, okay, then ...” The hopeful light in Volodya’s eyes went out and his face fell. Yurka felt a pang of conscience.

“It’s just that I promised!” he hastened to explain himself. Although he actually hadn’t promised anybody anything. He’d only been thinking of asking to be a spy. Why was he lying—again? And to Volodya!

But there was no more time to ponder the question. Outside, over on the square, Yurka heard that the microphone had gone quiet and the bugle had sounded, calling the Pioneers to fall into formation and head over to their stations for Summer Lightning.

“All right ... let’s go.” Volodya went over to the door and waved at Yurka. “Maybe we’ll see each other this evening. My kids also asked to go out into the woods, but they’re so hard to manage ... Lena and I haven’t figured out how that might work yet.”

Yurka grunted his assent and hurried off toward the square, where columns of Pioneers led by the phys ed instructors and troop leaders were going in different directions, each team headed to its own area.

Even though Yurka had eluded Volodya, he couldn’t elude his own thoughts. He couldn’t stop himself from thinking about everything that had happened and about his reactions. He couldn’t not think about Volodya. Even though Yurka did his best to forget about his early morning awkwardness, all his thoughts led back to Volodya anyway. He wondered, for example, how Volodya was doing out there, whether he was able to manage the little kids over in Central Command. And he wondered if Volodya would indeed visit him at his troop’s base out in the woods and bring thekids so they could see the tents. And then he revisited yesterday’s argument and their conversation. Volodya had looked so guilty yesterday at the chain-link fence around the tennis court! And so sincere, too. So sincere that now Yurka berated himself: How could he ever have doubted Volodya? How could he have possibly called Volodya a liar—even to himself—and failed to believe that Volodya’s friendship was sincere?

And then Yurka’s thoughts about friendship circled back to what had happened at morning exercises and then in the cabin. Volodya’s sincere friendship ... but was Yurka himself sincere, though? If he was, then why had he been so afraid of an accidental touch?

The fact that it wasn’t fear he’d felt was something Yurka really, really,reallydidn’t want to admit.

The Summer Lightning mock battle began. Yurka tried to concentrate, but to no avail. He got mad at himself—How much time can you waste thinking about irrelevant things?—then hastened to justify himself:Wait, how’s this “irrelevant”? Is Volodya really “irrelevant”? No, he’s ... he’s very ...But he found himself unable to formulate a precise definition of how and in what way Volodya was “very” for him.

At least Ira Petrovna gave him permission to be a spy for his troop. She was even glad for his initiative and convinced he’d be the one to identify an enemy location. Yurka, Vanka, and Mikha had started setting up their tent when Yurka was blindsided by some miserable news: Masha had managed to get assigned as his spying partner. She had begged at great length, apparently. At first Ira hadn’t wanted to leave the two of them by themselves, but she’d given in. As he buttoned up his uniform shirt, Yurka looked askance at the rest of his troop as he kept thinking the same question: What in the hell, he’d like to know, was Masha doing asking to be paired up with him?!

Her motive was revealed soon enough. When they got to the middle of the forest, where enemy spies and fighters could’ve already been on the prowl, Masha hemmed and hawed and finally asked timidly: “Yur ... you and Volodya are friends, right?”

Yura rolled his eyes and clicked his tongue. So that was it. What else did girls need him for? He was there to be a radio receiver, obviously, broadcasting everything he knew about the Troop Five leader!

“Yur, why doesn’t he go to the dances?”

At first Yurka tried to ignore her. He decided that if he just kept demonstratively silent and didn’t answer her questions, she’d understand.

She probably did. But that didn’t keep her from pestering him. “Yur, come on, it’s not like I’m asking you todoanything ... Just tell me! He has a girlfriend, is that it? ... Yur, does he like Polina? He must have told you ... The way he was looking at her during the last rehearsal ...”

After maybe a dozen questions that started to repeat themselves like a broken record, Yurka began to get angry.

“What way?!” Yurka burst out. “He wasn’t looking at anybody, any way! He’s a troop leader! You do know he has ajobhe’s trying to do?”

The outburst surprised Masha so much that she stopped and stared at him, then blinked fearfully. He jerked his chin at her, telling her to keep walking, and added more quietly: “Mash, we’re spying out here! Do you understand that? If the enemy sees us and captures us or kills us, our troop will lose a ton of points!”

She quieted down. For maybe twenty minutes.

“Yur ... has he ever talked about me?”

He was so irritated that the hair on the back of his neck stood up.

“Come on, Yur. What’s the matter? Is it hard for you to talk about it? It’s just that ... you know ...” She blushed and moved closer to him, then reached out and plucked at his sleeve. “The thing is ... I like Volodya. But he’s so hard to figure out. It’s like he doesn’t notice anyone else—like he’s not interested in anybody ... So you’re my only hope of getting closer to him ...”

“Getting closer to him?! Masha, whatever you do, don’t get me involved in your business! I’ve already gotten into enough trouble because of you. Let it go.”

“Come on, Yur, am I really asking all that much? Just ask him about me. It’ll be easy. You spend a lot of time together, just the two of you. Late at night, you could ... or maybe earlier, during quiet hour ... you could just tell him—I mean, ask him ...”

“Hold on a second,” Yurka ordered, and stopped walking. “How do you know I go find him during quiet hour?”

“Like it’s some big secret!” she scoffed. “Everybody knows you do. And that you go see him late at night, too.”

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