I took a deep breath, trying to stay calm. “Then who is in charge? My name is Charlotte Mason. My mother had investments. The manager took care of the funds. I need those now.”
He shook his head. “We’re out of money. People took out what they had. There is none left. I gave out the last hundred rubles to the man ahead of you. The government has nationalized the banks, and people came to get what they could.”
“But you have our money!” My voice rose. We had to have that money. No one was going to take us to the United States for free.
The man frowned. “Young lady, banks aren’t stuffed full of everyone’s money. That’s not the way it works. Once our supply is gone, it’s gone unless we get more, and no one is putting money in the bank these days.”
I knew that. I’d just never expected them to run out. “What am I supposed to do?” I said. I wanted to reach over the counter and grab his arm until he gave me a solution. “What are we supposed to do?”
I glanced around, hoping to see someone I knew. Another line had formed over by the vault.
“What is that other line? Do they have money over there?” I asked.
“No, people are being allowed to open their safety deposit boxes.”
I hadn’t thought about my mother’s safety deposit box since she died. She’d put my name on it when she was ill, but I hadn’t ever looked in it. I knew it had some of her jewelry in it. I didn’t know what else.
I ran home to get the key and then went back, praying they wouldn’t have closed the bank in the meantime. If the box didn’t have something of value in it, I didn’t know what we’d do.
When I got back to the bank, I waited a long time in the other line. It moved slowly, and I thought I would scream with impatience. The soldiers only escorted one person into the vault at a time. None of those who went in would answer any questions when they came out. They’d just scurry away, looking from side to side as if they expected someone to rob them. I realized that was a real worry and I began to wish I’d asked Hap to come with me.
Once it was finally my turn, I had almost convinced myself we’d be lucky and the box would be full of money I didn’t know about. When I opened it up under the watchful eye of the militiaman, I saw the glittering of both jewels and gold coins, and underneath those, some old papers. My elation was brief.
“The coins are for the state,” the man said. “Put them in the basket on the table.”
I cursed under my breath.
“What did you say?” The man scowled at me.
“Nothing. I was just clearing my throat.” I scooped the coins up, wishing I could slip one or two in my pocket, but he was watching me too closely. Once they were all in the basket, I turned back to the jewels. They were what I remembered, mostly rubies and diamonds, my mother’s favorites. I tensed up, expecting the man to demand those too, but he looked at the clock and said, “Hurry up. Take your baubles and go.”
I tried not to show my excitement in case he decided he needed another look. The “baubles” would be worth a lot of money. I put them all in the little bag I’d brought and grabbed the papers too and then hurried out, afraid he’d change his mind. I had no idea what the papers were, though I doubted they would be of use to us now. I just didn’t want to leave them behind.
I walked home as fast as I could, trying not to look as if I was carrying a fortune in jewels. I put everything in my room until I could pack them and then headed back out to the American embassy. Someone there would have to know the steps we needed to take to get out of the country. Now that we were planning to go, I didn’t want to drag it out. I didn’t want to stop and think about it.
The streets were full of people again, most of them milling about aimlessly as if waiting for someone to take charge. The main danger came from the automobiles. Groups of men had commandeered any they could find and sped around the city with their guns pointing out the windows, firing randomly.
I wanted to yell at them for their stupidity. Somehow they thought having a gun made them important, when all it really did was make people hate them for turning the streets into danger zones. The city was falling apart, and they were making everything worse. It made me furious, and I stomped along through the snow, not even noticing the cold.
The embassy was overrun with people all wanting the same thing I did. I waited in another long line and when I finally reached the front, I tried to explain to the man at the desk what I was trying to do. I had to speak loudly so he could hear me over the noise in the room.
“Everyone is trying to leave,” he said, flipping through a large stack of papers like he was looking for something. “And yes, the train to the east is definitely the safest route now. Once you get to Japan, the embassy there will know more about ships across the Pacific. Of course, you’ll need to make sure your passports are up to date, and you’ll need the proper Russian stamps to leave the city.”
“That’s one reason I’m here. My little sisters don’t have passports, except for the internal Russian ones. They’ve never been abroad.”
He looked up at me and frowned. “If they’ve never been abroad, do you mean they were born here?”
“Yes.”
“Well, your parents must have been given their birth certificates. It will state their citizenship. Bring that in and we’ll issue them passports, though your parents should have done that when they were born. I must say—even though I’m an American, of course—Americans abroad take too much for granted. They assume whatever they need can be produced on demand.”
“My stepfather, their father, is Russian, and we didn’t think about passports.”
He set down the papers and shook his head at me. “If their father is a Russian, then they’ll need Russian passports, and I can’t help you with that. Now, the line is very long behind you. Move aside, please.”
“But my mother was American,” I said.
“It doesn’t matter. Children born in Russia to Russian fathers are Russian. That’s the law here.” He craned his neck so he could see around me.
I moved to the side, berating myself for not having realized that and for wasting time standing in line. I knew there would be another long line at the Russian passport office.
But when I reached it, it was closed, and no one could tell me when it would reopen. I rattled the door handle as if that would make the office open. Nothing.
I leaned my face against the door, suddenly overcome with weariness. As I stood there, anger began to spark in me again. We weren’t going to be defeated for the lack of a few papers. We weren’t going to wait around to see when it might open again. We just weren’t.
I knew what we had to do. I’d heard rumors that before the revolution people could get fake passports. Surely they were still being made, and while I had no idea how to go about finding the right people, I could find out. Raisa’s father might know. As a newspaperman, he seemed to know everyone.
I headed home, wanting to tell Dmitri everything that had happened.
I’d barely gotten in the door when someone began pounding on it. “Let us in! Arrest warrant for General Feodor Ivanovich Cherkassky.”
I was done being afraid. I was too angry to be afraid. They weren’t going to get him.