Page 481 of Edge of Eternity (The Century 3)

After mass, Danuta shook hands with everyone in the church.

Then Tanya and the Gorski family went to the polling station. The ballot paper was long and complicated, so Solidarity had set up a stall outside to show people how to vote. Instead of marking their preferred candidates, they had to put a line through the ones they did not like. The Solidarity campaigners gleefully showed model ballot papers with all the Communists crossed out.

Tanya watched people voting. For most this was their first experience of a free election. She observed a shabbily dressed woman moving her pencil down the list, giving a little grunt of fulfillment each time she identified a Communist, and running her pencil through the name with a smile of pleasure. Tanya suspected the government might have been unwise to choose a system of marking the paper in which rejection could feel so physically satisfying.

She talked to some of them, asking what was on their minds when they made their choices. "I voted Communist," said a woman in an expensive coat. "They made this election possible." But most seemed to have picked Solidarity candidates. Tanya's sample was of course completely unscientific.

She went to Danuta's place for lunch, then the two women left Marek in charge of the children and drove in Tanya's car to Solidarity headquarters, which was upstairs at the Cafe Surprise, in the city center.

The mood there was up. The opinion polls gave Solidarity a lead, but no one relied on that because almost 50 percent were don't-knows. However, reports coming in from all over the country said morale was high. Tanya herself felt cheerful and optimistic. Whatever the result, a real election seemed to be taking place in a Soviet bloc country, and that alone was reason to be glad.

After the polls closed that evening Tanya went with Danuta to see her votes being counted. This was a tense moment. If the authorities decided to cheat, there were a hundred ways they could fix the result. Solidarity scrutineers watched closely, but no one saw any serious irregularity. This in itself was amazing.

And Danuta won by a landslide.

She had not really been expecting it, Tanya could tell from her look of pale shock. "I'm a deputy," she said unbelievingly. "Elected by the people." Then her face broke into that huge toothy grin, and she began to accept everyone's congratulations. So many people kissed her that Tanya began to worry about hygiene.

As soon as they could get away they drove through the lamplit streets back to the Cafe Surprise, where everyone was gathered around the television sets. Danuta's result was not the only landslide: Solidarity candidates were doing better than anyone expected, by far. "This is wonderful!" said Tanya.

"No, it's not," said Danuta gloomily.

Tanya realized that the Solidarity people were subdued. She was baffled by this glum reaction to triumphant news. "What on earth is wrong?"

"We're doing too well," Danuta said. "The Communists can't accept this. There will be a reaction."

Tanya had not thought of that.

"So far the government hasn't won anything," Danuta went on. "Even where they're unopposed, some Communist candidates haven't even gained the minimum fifty percent. It's too degrading. Jaruzelski will have to disallow the result."

"I'm going to speak to my brother," Tanya said.

She had a special number that enabled her to get through to the Kremlin quickly. It was late, but Dimka was still at the office. "Yes, Jaruzelski just called here," he told her. "I gather the Communists are being humiliated."

"What did Jaruzelski say?"

"He wants to impose martial law again, exactly as he did eight years ago."

Tanya's heart sank. "Shit." She remembered Danuta being dragged off to jail by the ZOMO thugs while her children cried. "Not again."

"He proposes to declare the election null and void. 'We still hold the levers of power in our hands,' he said."

"It's true," Tanya said dismally. "They have all the guns."

"But Jaruzelski is scared of doing this on his own. He wants Gorbachev's support."

Tanya was heartened. "What did Gorbi say?"

"He hasn't responded yet. Someone's waking him up right now."

"What do you think he'll do?"

"He'll probably tell Jaruzelski to solve his own problems. That's what he's been saying for the last four years. But I can't be sure. To see the party rejected so completely in a free election . . . that could be too much even for Gorbachev."

"When will you know?"

"Gorbachev is just going to say yes or no, then go back to sleep. Call me in an hour."

Tanya hung up. She did not know what to think. Clearly Jaruzelski was ready to clamp down, arrest all the Solidarity activists, throw civil liberties out the window, and reimpose his dictatorship, just as he had in 1981. It was what always happened when Communist countries got the smell of freedom in their nostrils. But Gorbachev said the old days were over. Was it true?

---