Constant Nobody

Начало книги

— Swallow each and every one, or your cock will fall off.

— Wait, what?

She rattled the bottle. —You have gonorrhea. These sulpha pills will shoot back up your throat and taste like bile. Unpleasant, I know, but you must take one every eight hours until they’re gone.

He squinted at her. —Nurses don’t wear trousers.

— I do. Now, for the crabs. This ointment will smother them, and it will soothe the kerosene rash, too. Please don’t use kerosene again. Stand too close to a fire and you might become a lamp.

He took the ointment. —Petroleum jelly?

— I’ll fetch you a nit comb. What’s your name, comrade?

Kostya fastened his trousers. Despite weeks of drill, he still spoke Spanish with a Russian accent. His friend Misha spoke much better Spanish and never lost a chance to remind Kostya of the fact. Then Kostya considered the common rumours — rumours he knew to be true — of the heavy presence in Spain of NKVD, the Soviet secret police. NKVD agents hunted, tortured, and killed members of POUM, an anti-Stalinist communist faction that ignored and defied orders from Moscow. Disobedience caused disunity, and so POUM must be purged. Even as NKVD destroyed POUM one bullet at a time, Moscow sent arms and food for the republican side of the Spanish Civil War, the side on which the communists all fought.

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