Trafika Europe 13 - Russian Ballet

A Light in the Night

“Funny people they are. The cell phone is their whole world now. I remember when Ilya Jr. was born, I tried to scale the hospital drain pipe up to the third floor. The police had to come get me down. And still they didn’t take me in, people could be understanding back then too. “Oh, how things worked out with Ilya Jr. I am Ilya Ilych and he is Ilya Ilych. And all in our male line, as my father used to say, had been Ilya Ilyches. Had been… The youngest Ilya did not come home from the remote African country of Angola. Near thirty years ago now, but still I recall it every single day. ‘The Motherland will remember your son,’ – that’s how he put it I think, the major from the army recruitment center, on that fateful day. And indeed, she did not forget. We get not only a pension, but also an additional allowance for the loss of a breadwinner. But what about the loss of an only son – how do you allow for that? ‘Just an unfortunate accident,’ they said, ‘can happen to anyone, he could have been run over by a car outside his home.’ People did not know about the war in Angola back then, not unless they overheard it on foreign radio, and so misfortune fell upon most people completely unawares.” Lifted myself from the bench, swayed over to the curb, threw out my arm. As anticipated, a car pulled over immediately. If you look like a goon, that’s a different story, some people are fearful about giving a ride to a thug, but an old man, why not?

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