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around the real grunting and smelly pigs right there in the
farmyard.
Laura can’t peel her eyes away.
It’s not the aunties that fascinate her, no, not at all. The
aunties’ armpits and feet stink, Laura doesn’t like the
Lejasupītes’ aunties one bit.
It’s the cards. Laura can’t take her eyes off the cards.
The last time she saw some cards was in Siberia. In
Madalina’s hands.
Laura’s heart suddenly aches, that’s how much she misses
Madalina. Madalina with the black curly hair and ever
laughing eyes.
Madalina who was as pretty as the devil. It’s just a pity that
she didn’t have legs.
The legs are with the devil’s mother, Jukka, the Finnish guy
had said, and had been ready to marry Madalina right on
the spot. But she just laughed. The legs that had frozen in
the deadly cold were
k chertovoy materi
– with the devil’s
mother – but, nonetheless she was the soul of the Barrack.
It was that very Jukka who gave Madalina the nickname
Ciganka Moldovanka – the Moldavian Gypsy, because she