Chapter 7

Suhrob proves to be extremely self-assured and talkative. He says he “runs the market” where Omar’s friends do business. But for a long time he has wanted to take on a new, larger project. Omar told him about Annette, about how many people practice meditation and yoga using her method, and Suhrob became interested. He spends a long time explaining to Yuri that he knows how to create the center Annette needs. And Yuri believes him; it is impossible not to. The guest is utterly certain of himself, his strength, his capabilities. You can tell he is the sort of man who rapidly becomes the leader in any group.

“Drink, Yuri,” Suhrob says, having already shifted into an easy, overfamiliar tone. “I’ve never tried this wine before. I always make a point of buying something new. Too much faithfulness in wine is just as harmful as too much faithfulness in love...”

Yuri flinches. He peers into Suhrob’s eyes. What did Omar tell him about Annette? Only about her success with yoga? Or did he also say she was “easy for men”? Even thinking of his wife in terms like that makes Yuri recoil in disgust. Once he would never have allowed himself such thoughts about her.

And then, as though confirming Yuri’s fears, Suhrob puts an arm around Annette. He does it with the same casual confidence he brings to everything else, making outrage almost impossible. Suhrob creates the impression that he has the right. Annette grimaces but says nothing. Deep down she feels a certain contempt for foreigners. In Omar’s case that instinctive prejudice was softened by pity; with Suhrob there is only chauvinistic contempt.

Yuri nervously drains an entire glass of dry wine.

“Whoa!” Suhrob laughs, squeezing Annette’s shoulder. “Now that I respect. Should’ve bought whiskey. We live in a shitty world where the stink reaches all the way to heaven, so even the Creator wrinkles His nose — and He’s already soaked through with it too. There’s only one pleasure left: booze and broads.”

He pulls Annette closer. The beauty is plainly bewildered. A moment ago, it seems, she was waiting for her husband in a sexy outfit, and then Omar unexpectedly brought an acquaintance over ... without asking. Now that acquaintance is holding her as though he owns the house and, for that matter, owns her personally! Some immigrant man! ... There is something disorienting about it ... but exciting too. More exciting precisely because it is happening in front of her husband. So, the beauty does not knock his arm away. Annette glances at the mirror. What would she see if she looked into it now? Herself, or...

...”Yes,” Yuri agrees meanwhile, glancing at his wife. “Women save men, and the world in general.”

“Now you’re exaggerating,” Suhrob says, shaking his head. “Women bring pleasure, but they don’t save the world. If anything, the opposite. Everything is bad precisely because women are running everything now; women run the arts and everything else through their henpecked husbands!”