Chapter 15

“I’m halfway through. It says this is the first of the series. Can you ask Colin if I could borrow the rest of them?” Donal begged. “I promise I won’t so much as turn down the corner of a page.”

“You can have your own books. We’ll get you a book reader and all of Colin’s books. I’ll open an account on Amazon for you. Vasily and Grigory have one. I must get one too. We can do it together. Vasily, Grigory, and Boris used Amazon to learn to read English once they started negotiations for my release from the gulag.”

“Gulag?” Donal cocked his head.

“Russian prison in Siberia…”

“You werea prisoner.” Donal was astonished. How could anyone imprison this wonderfully kind man?

“Yes, little mouse. As I told you, I too was a prisoner, a prisoner of my government for the crime of being gay. I can never go back.”