Girl: a camp filled with girls, a well-regulated daily routine, political instruction every morning and evening. Anna had known since those days that the Party’s directives were like so many bridges and handrails that could assist a person in negotiating the complexities of daily life. The simplification of the data helped one to keep the goal in sight, to overcome setbacks, and to learn to deal with one’s own demons. Meanwhile, things had progressed to the point where Leonid was sitting beside her on the sofa, half-naked, and she clambered over him. Despite her excitement, she couldn’t ignore the musty old man’s smell that emanated from the sofa cushions. It was as if Viktor Ipalyevich were there with them. Anna shut her eyes and caressed her husband.
The sight of the letter on the table a few feet away made Leonid feel ashamed. He’d hardly begun to write an amorous note to Galina, and now he was betraying his lover with his wife. Although he’d wanted to give his letter a simple opening, the first few sentences had turned out unusually ardent; Leonid didn’t recognize himself as the author of such lines and couldn’t imagine what had become of his vocabulary. The revival of his married life distressed him, and he’d felt the need to write straight from the heart, to cry out to Galina and implore her to return his love. If he didn’t receive some sign from her, and very soon, he’d lose himself completely in his old life, and his psychological homecoming would be allowed to follow the physical one. Sex with Anna was unavoidable, but even after their long separation, sleeping with her brought him nothing more than ordinary pleasure. They’d never introduced much variety into their lovemaking; in the afternoon, the sofa had always been their chosen venue, so as not to rumple the freshly made bed. Leonid listened to the pitiful springs, doing their duty, and watched the lovely breasts, soft and full, bouncing up and down before his eyes. He tried to force himself not to think of Galina, as decency required, but his efforts failed. The images, the smell stole upon him, the inadvertence with which he’d thrown himself into her embrace, the intoxication that had sprung from it. He longed for Galina, right then, and his longing shamed him.
The sound came from just outside the door, and in the next moment someone entered the apartment. Before Leonid could snatch up his pants or Anna climb off of him, Viktor Ipalyevich was in the living room. Reflexively, with the movement of a character in an animated cartoon, he pivoted on his heel; the look of embarrassed surprise crossed his face only after his body had already reacted. He vanished as he’d appeared, with spectral swiftness.
“It’s such beautiful weather,” they heard him say in the foyer. “Why should we come back to this stuffy apartment so soon?”
“I’m hungry,” the child’s voice said.
“Is that a reason to stay inside?” There was a sound of rustling fabric, followed by the jingle of keys. “What do you say we go to the old Antler bakery and get some blini?”
“Blini?” the two on the sofa heard their son say. His grandfather’s answer was overlaid by the closing of the door.
Leonid had a sudden mad desire to top off the already ludicrous situation. “So you’re going to see that CC member,” he said. “Where is it that you two meet?”
Anna, who’d been holding her breath, exhaled with a gasp. “Stop it, Leo,” she said, jerking his head down to her chest.
“But it interests me.” Now, he thought, I’ve got to ask some questions that have been unspoken for a year and a half. “How often have you two been together? All told, I mean.”
Her upper body sagged. “I don’t know how often.” Like so many questions, this one couldn’t be answered.
“Only once a week, or more than that?”
“Stop it! Stop it!”
“Would you say every three days?”
“He doesn’t have much time,” she let herself be coaxed into saying. “And he’s married.”
“So … once a month?” Why am I tormenting her? Leonid thought. Wouldn’t this be the time for him to say, “I’m no better than you, I was lonely, and now there’s this woman, and I want her. Unlike you, I can’t say I’ll never see her again, because I will. She’s the reason why I applied for this new transfer”? Sensing that the interruption had incapacitated him, Leonid pushed Anna gently aside, stood up, and adjusted his clothing. She’d