Not long after Selyosha and Oshanin left, Sokov heard someone shouting a report outside the tent. He turned his head and looked in the direction where the sound came, and saw Lieutenant Grissa, the fourth company commander, standing at the door like a telephone pole.
Somehow, when Sokov saw Grissa for the first time, he found that the other party was a bit abnormal today. According to Grissa's personality, after calling out a report, he walked in casually without waiting for Sokov to respond, but today he was still standing at the door of the tent, like a student who made a mistake and was waiting for the teacher to punish him.
"I'm talking about Lieutenant Grissa," Sokov looked at Grissa standing at the door and said in a teasing tone: "Why don't you come in? Have you made any mistakes? I'm afraid of being scolded by me, so I dare not come in."
When Grissa heard Sokov say this, he quickly walked into the tent, raised his hand to salute Sokov and Berkin, and then stood there in a standing posture without saying a word. Seeing his reaction, Sokov couldn't help but skip a beat, and he secretly said that he had guessed it by himself, did Grissa really make any mistake?
"Why don't you speak, Comrade Lieutenant?" Belkin also noticed Grissa's abnormal silence. He said curiously: "This is not like your usual personality."
"Brig Commander, Comrade Political Commissar, I may have made a mistake." Grissa said hesitantly: "I came here specifically to receive punishment."
"Make a mistake, what mistake did you make?" Belkin asked in surprise: "Let me tell me quickly, I see if the nature of the mistake you made is serious?"
After a long silence, Grissa said with difficulty: "Brig Commander, Comrade Political Commissar, I am married today! But I did not ask you for instructions in advance, and I wonder if this is a mistake."
"It's a good thing to get married." Sokov was stunned at first, then smiled on his face, and he stretched out his hand to Grissa: "Lieutenant, please accept my blessing to you."
After Sokov shook hands with Grissa, Belkin also reached out his hand and said with a smile: "Our hero is finally married, this is something worth celebrating." When he shook hands, he suddenly remembered a question and quickly added, "By the way, who is the woman? Is it from the health team?"
If Belkin didn't ask this question, Sokov really didn't expect to ask Grissa's bride. At this moment, Belkin's words aroused his curiosity. After passing the existing female health workers in the health team one by one in his mind, he didn't expect anyone would become Grissa's bride.
"This is my marriage certificate." Grissa took out a piece of boxy hard paper from his top pocket, handed it to Belkin, and said, "There are my signatures and my bride."
Belkin took the paper, opened it and frowned. He looked up at Grissa and asked, "Comrade Lieutenant, who is this Ekaterina? There seems to be no female health officer named this name in our brigade's health team."
"Yes, Kaja is indeed not from the health team." When Grissa mentioned the bride's name, he called the other party's nickname: "She is still a tenth-year student. We met accidentally on the street today..."
There is no difference between primary schools in the Soviet Union, junior high school and high school. Before going to college, there were only grades one to ten. Compared with the school categories in China, grades one to five are primary schools, grades six to eight are junior high school, and grade ninety are high school. Thinking that the other party was just a second-year high school student, Sokov's muscles on his face couldn't help but twitch violently. He looked at Grissa and asked, "Comrade Lieutenant, according to our country's laws, the woman must be eighteen years old before she can get married. Your bride... Kajia, is she eighteen years old?"
"Yes," Grissa nodded vigorously and said in a affirmative tone: "She just celebrated her eighteenth birthday the day before yesterday, so we successfully received our marriage certificate today."
"Comrade Brigade Commander," Belkin said to Sokov after handing back his marriage certificate to Grissa, looking at Sokov, "Lieutenant Grissa got married, but it was a big happy event. Do you see if we celebrate and hold him a lively wedding?" He may be worried that Sokov would object, and he emphasized specifically, "There is not too many people participating, the commander at the platoon level and above in the entire brigade can be done."
"I think it's OK." Sokov simply agreed to Belkin's proposal. Then he turned his head and asked Grissa who was sitting beside him: "What do you think, Lieutenant Grissa?"
Unexpectedly, after hearing this, Grissa shook his head and said, "Brig Commander, Political Commissar, thank you for your kindness. But forget about the wedding, Kajia may have left this city now."
"What, Kaja left this city?" Sokov's face showed a surprised expression when he heard Grissa say this. He asked in surprise: "Comrade Lieutenant, what's going on?"
"Lt. Grissa, sit down and talk." Belkin brought a bench from beside him, placed it beside Grissa, and politely greeted him to sit down: "Tell us the cause and effect of the matter."
…………
Back five hours ago, Grissa went to the city to buy some daily necessities, and he was Sergeant Yelizavita.
Although Stalingrad officially announced the war two days ago, he could still see young girls wearing pigtails, floral dresses and low-heeled slippers on the streets from time to time. This beautiful scenery on the street not only made Sergeant Yelizavita look at it, but even Grissa felt a little dazzled. If it weren't for the barricades everywhere and the anti-tank obstacles on the streets, he even had the illusion that he had returned to a city before the war.
Both of them are soldiers, so they must not go to ordinary stores if they want to buy things. In those places, they have to queue up, but they need local supply certificates. Apart from a small amount of cash, they do not have such necessary tickets in daily life. Therefore, they must find a special military store to buy the items they need.
At this moment, a beautiful girl with a medium figure, oval face and a white dress passed by the two of them. "Girl, please wait a moment." Grissa called out and asked embarrassedly: "Can you ask you something?"
The girl stopped, looked at the two soldiers standing in front of her, and asked politely: "Comrade Soldier, is there anything I can do for you?"
Yelizavita took a step forward and asked, "Girl, do you know where the military store is?"
The girl smiled and blinked a few times, nodded and said, "I happened to know there was a military store nearby."
"This is so good." Yelizavita's face showed joy when she heard the girl say this. Before Grissa could speak, he couldn't wait to ask, "Can you take us there?"
"Sergeant Yelizavita," Grissa said to the sergeant in a stern tone before the girl answered, "Maybe there are other things for this girl, and we can't cause trouble for her casually." Then he looked towards the girl, "Just point us in the direction."
"It's okay, comrade Lieutenant." The girl said with a smile: "I'm fine now. If you agree, I can take you to the military store."
As the three walked along the street to the military shop, Grissa said to the girl with a side face: "Introduce yourself, I am the company commander of the 73rd Infantry Brigade, Grissa, who is my subordinate Sergeant Yelizavita. I wonder what I should call you?"
"My name is Yekaterina, you can call my nickname Kajia." The girl replied openly: "Also, please stop calling me "you" anymore, you can use 'you' directly."
When he arrived at the military store, Sergeant Yelizavita, who was walking in the front, quickly pushed open the closed glass door and held the door with his hands, waiting for Grissa and Kajia to enter the door after him.
Although Kajia had passed this military store many times, she had never come in due to her identity. When she entered the door, the goods in the store surprised her. First, there were no one in line here, only a few soldiers standing in front of the counter, whispering something with the salesperson behind the counter. Secondly, the glass counter and shelves were filled with various goods. The air in the store was filled with smoked ham and fish, and the aroma of chocolate and coffee.
Grissa stopped and said to Kajia: "Kajia, if you want to buy something, just talk, just think it's thank you for leading us."
A quarter of an hour later, each of the three walked out of the military store with bread, canned vegetables, white sugar and a few dried sausages in their hands.
"Kaja, it's time to break up." Although he had not been together for a long time, Grissa felt that he had known each other for centuries. He said reluctantly: "I don't know when we will meet again next time."
Kaja also had some good feelings for Grissa. When she heard Grissa say this, she smiled faintly, and then said, "Grissa, do you know? Before you call me, I was about to rush to a nearby cafe to meet a young commander waiting there, who was the marriage partner arranged by my parents for me. After we meet, we will immediately go to the nearby marriage registration office to register for marriage."
Kajia's words were like a basin of cold water pouring on Grissa, which made his heart suddenly cold. He was silent for a long time before he said awkwardly: "I'm sorry, Kajia, I really don't know you were going on a blind date. I feel deeply regretful that you have delayed your affairs..."
Before Grissa finished speaking, Kaja raised his hand to stop him: "Grissa, you don't need to say anything more. It's not your fault for this. Actually, I don't know the officer either, but because he is about to go to the front line soon, his parents arranged for me to marry him."
For everything Kaja said, it was not a rare thing for Grissa. This kind of flash marriage, which was incredible before the war, had become very common during the war. After Kaja finished speaking, he asked carefully: "What are you going to do?"
"Grissa, if you don't object, I want to register for marriage with you." Kaja looked at Grissa and said bravely: "Is it OK to let me be your wife?"
Grissa never dreamed that Kajia would say this, and his mind suddenly became confused. He kept thinking: "Is this true that Kajia wants to marry me? You know, I have known her for less than an hour, and she took the initiative to marry me. God, this is simply incredible."
Seeing that Grissa was reluctant to speak, Kajia felt a little disappointed when she thought the other party disagreed with her proposal. She tried hard to squeeze out a smile on her face and said happily: "Grissa, if you don't want to, I won't force it. Thank you for buying me these things, goodbye! Good luck!"
Grissa woke up from his meditation. He grabbed Kaja's arm and said loudly: "Kaja, it is my honor to marry you as my wife. How could I not want to? I am willing, of course, I am willing. If you don't object, we will register for marriage now. By the way, where is the marriage registration office?"
The smile returned to Kaja's face again. She looked at Grissa and smiled sweetly, saying, "Little fool, the marriage registration office is not on this street, on the street we just met."
Grissa took the paper bag from Kaja and stuffed it to Sergeant Yelizavita in his hand, then held Kaja's hand and said, "Let's go, Kaja, let's go to the marriage registration office to register for marriage now."
Under Kajia's guidance, they came to a marriage registration office. At the door, they happened to meet a newly registered couple and walked out the door surrounded by relatives and friends. The festive atmosphere infected Grissa, and he immediately took this as a good sign. He let go of Kajia's hand and sorted out his military uniform. Then he held Kajia's hand in the palm of his hand again and said, "Let's go, let's go in now."
The two of them held hands and walked into the marriage registration office. Sergeant Yelizavita, holding three heavy paper bags, also followed in with a smile.
The staff sitting behind the desk saw Grissa and Kaja walking in hand in hand, quickly stood up and asked politely: "May I ask, are you here to register for marriage?"
After Grissa and Kaja looked at each other, they nodded at the same time and replied, "Yes!"
"Very good." The staff sat down again, opened a hard-faced registration book in front of them, picked up a pen, looked at the two of them and said, "Please show your documents!"
Chapter completed!