Swallows Have Arrived Page #4

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Get off, please.

I have a pass.

Look at him.

You put a pair of glasses on,

pretend to be an intellectual,

and you're too miserly to pay

three roubles for a ticket?

So, show me your pass,

or get off the tram.

Stop the tram!

Leave him alone.

Take this.

You should be ashamed

of yourself, young man.

Intellectual!

Lout!

Hooligan! Lout!

People like you...

Wretched intellectual!

Why the long face?

What's up now?

Murik, I need some money.

What did I tell you last time?

I told you not to come to me

with this obscenity again. Never!

Didn't I tell you that?

I'm telling you honestly

what I need the money for.

It's nice to know

you're not decieving me,

but I'm not giving you

any money, do you understand?

I went to the other end of town,

to Haly-Galy's.

Even though I was having

really violent withdrawal symptoms

as a rule they come

on the second day without...

I got off a stop

before I needed to.

I had to collect my thoughts

about what I was going to say

and to make sure

the house wasn't being watched.

I already owed Galya

for four doses,

and she had already

sworn three times

that I wouldn't get round her

like that again.

Listen, PiK.

Where do you think you are,

in heaven?

It's like you can't live

without the high

and you're too scared

to start thieving?

There's lots of you

and only one of me.

What am I supposed to do?

To pay the man with my body?

Listen, PiK.

Don't come back here again

without the readies.

I'll set the dogs on you.

Got it?

I could, of course,

have phoned beforehand.

That would also have been

less dangerous.

But, that would have meant

being left with nothing, for sure.

And with the surprise visit

I still had some chance.

It would be good

if Galya wasn't at home,

but Valya was,

Galya's younger sister,

who was also in the know,

but wasn't such a b*tch yet.

And it would be better still

if Valya wasn't there,

but Gerasim was,

Valya's fella, alone.

He's a f***ed up old Junky,

but a big heart.

And it would be ideal

if the whole gang was there.

Then it would be easy

to shoot up on the sly.

The artist presented a series of

works called "Temporary presence".

A compressor inflates

shapeless forms with the air,

turning them into men and women.

And in a second

the air is blown out.

The same air gives life

and takes it away.

You're watching

"The Culture news".

I stopped about a hundred metres

from the cherished house

and sat down on a bench to catch

my breath and have a look around.

Sitting was even

more difficult than walking.

To my left I saw a swing

and I suddenly and desperately

wanted to have a swing.

Picky-Wicky, brother.

How's it going?

That was Gerasim.

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