Chapter 9
When Dimi arrived back at Sts. Nicholas and Alexandra Orphanage with Alexey, he was met with the sense that they had failed not only the institution but all of Russia. There were taunting chants of “Reject” and “Retard” from the other children—that pack of wild dogs, Dimi thought, they who had never even had the chance to be adopted, to travel on a plane and visit Dollywood and wear new sneakers. And though Nadia talked a good game to the handlers who had delivered the boys back to her, in the manner of all proud Russians—blaming the “stupid, fat Americans”—Dimi saw the devastation writ large on her face, the notion that Dimi and Alexey’s “parents” had rejected not only the boys but her and all of Russia. Well, almost everyone had been rejected. When Nadia discovered that Dimi o
