Pegasus, Lion, and Centaur. Дмитрий Емец

he’s rich?” Anya was surprised. “He’s practically a pauper. He hangs around forever as a guest. Yes, he has the largest diamond, but he has no money.” “But if he can’t even see his diamond, why doesn’t he sell it? At least to your father?” Paulina did not understand. “Really so hard to understand? Then he wouldn’t have the largest diamond in the world!” Anya laughed, dragging Paulina further.

      “And there, that uncle with the goblet…” Anya whispered, pushing Paulina to the side, “smells the smell of money. Roubles, dollars, Euros, any paper money rustling. He can distinguish the smell of a hundred from the smell of a thousand. A one-rouble coin from a two-rouble coin! And all this, mind you, through a concrete wall! But only money! He can’t distinguish a fish from a rose by the smell! Well, to him they have no smell!”

      Paulina looked with interest at the man who could not distinguish the smell of a rose from a fish. He smiled at her and dashingly, like a hussar, drank up the champagne. His Adam’s apple rolled along his neck. The goblet was empty. “Two hundred and two roubles and four kopecks! One of the notes is slightly torn. Should be more careful, girl!” he shouted to Paulina, nodding towards her right pocket.

      Anya laughed and dragged Paulina further. “And do you see that tall woman there?” she continued to chatter. “Ask her what will be the value of any stock for next Friday, and if she makes a mistake even down to a kopeck, I’ll give you my shoes with rhinestones. Well, the ones you called ‘Turkish slippers’.”

      Manoeuvring among the guests, the friends by chance turned up by the “enclosure.” “Anya!!! How are you!!! Come to us!” someone shouted. A quite young girl with rosy patches on her cheeks jumped out of the “enclosure” and with happy exclamation threw herself at Dolbushin’s daughter. With a speed difficult to expect from a man so solid, Dolbushin cracked from the waist up, roughly caught the girl by the neck with the handle of the umbrella, and threw her back inside the enclosure. “Tries to sneak up to my daughter again, shoot her!” he ordered the bodyguard. That one, not surprised, thrust his hand under his coat and extracted a small, toy-like and not-scary-looking crossbow. Anya gripped her father’s hand. “Only try! What’s the matter, Dad? It’s Ella!” “Was Ella! It’s such a good Russian verb: was!” Dolbushin persistently looked at the guard, showing him that the order stood, and, as if nothing was the matter, proceeded further.

      Anya turned around to her friend. Paulina, having squatted down, was pressing her temples with her hands and swaying. “What’s with you?” “My head… hurts!” Paulina said slowly. “Why?” “Don’t know. Sit me down somewhere. I can’t see a thing… Doesn’t matter, it’ll soon pass.” Anya sat Paulina down on the steps, and indeed, she soon became better.

      1

      Clms (c.l.m.s.) is pronounced “clams”.

      2

      A pistol crossbow.

      3

      “Vend” is an abbreviation and will be explained in Chapter 6.

      4

      In geology, bedding is the arrangement of sedimentary rocks in strata.

      5

      In the Old Testament, Gomorrah was one of the two ancient cities, the other being Sodom, destroyed by God because of the wickedness of its people.

      6

      A 4-door sedan produced in the Soviet Union between 1970 and 1988, the compact is known as Zhiguli domestically and as Lada outside of Russia.

      7

      “Nekalaev” is very similar to the common last name “Nikolaev” and the pronunciations of both are almost the same. “Nekalaev” can even be “Nikolaev” misspelled.

      8

      Psyose will be explained in Chapter 7.