Summary

In the summer of 1980, Olya took “a train from Simferopol to Moscow” with her friends Volodya and Vitka (132). They ordered food in the dining car. When a bald man greeted them, the friends invented a story about his life. When the man tried engaging them in conversation, the friends were annoyed. Volodya told him they did not “want to talk” (134). The man continued speaking, irritating the friends.

The friends ate their food, each lost in their private thoughts. Olya cut her food carefully. When she noticed the man staring at her, she demanded an explanation from him. The man extracted “a certificate of release from a correctional labor colony” (137). The paper said his name was Boris Ilyich Burmistrov. He told the friends he had been at the camp for seven years after the government caught him with a bag of citric acid. The...