Chapter 5

Anna spends the entire evening with Omar’s name written on her cheek. Apparently as a punishment. After his orgasm Yuri goes through his usual crash. His heart aches, the melancholy is terrible, his wounded pride weighs on his soul. He decides not to throw Omar out. Fine, he thinks, let him live among decent people for a while. “I’ll wait a month before calling immigration ... Well, at least two weeks ... Five days, in any case...” Yuri seriously considers reporting Omar to the immigration authorities while Anna is away. She will not let him simply throw the old man out. Energetic and lively during sex, Omar spends the rest of his time groaning and complaining that his body still hurts from the fight with the teenagers.

Yuri begins guarding his wife. No trust, only control. Fear itself seems afraid to move a step away from her; it guards his treasure silently and greedily, and whenever Yuri thinks about her escapades, his head clouds with helpless jealousy and anxious misery rolls over his heart. At such moments he wants to wrap ten arms around her and drag her into a burrow, down into some basement, into a hut ... into the secret depths of some pitch-black hiding place. He wants to lie on top of her, shielding her with his body from predatory eyes the way a parent shields a child during shelling — and die. Quasimodo: there is the character he understands without end, his favorite hero, the one whose sorrow echoes sympathetically in his soul.