Trafika Europe 13 - Russian Ballet

TWO STORIES By Igor Sakhnovsky Translated from the Russian by Alexander Cigale

IF YOU’RE ALIVE

The boy had no father whatsoever. And his mother was there so rarely, he sometimes doubted her existence. You would begin to doubt it too, if your mother kept calling you an “animal” for no reason, rushing off at seven AM on some sort of business and, crawling back home after eleven PM, flinging herself on the couch wearing a bra only, moan: “I’m tired as hell! Leave me alone.” He did however have an aunt Ada, mother ’s sister – though you wouldn’t guess it by just looking at them – who was being courted by some nine very impressive gentlemen, each genuinely wanting to become the boy ’s uncle. One of them was even the director of a factory that manufactured refrigeration units. One can of course understand what these suitors saw in her, for aunt Ada was, to put it mi ldly, a ravishing beauty. First of al l , she wore spike heels (and that in itself is a sure sign of hotness), in contrast to the mother, who never took off her grandma booties. Ha, 19