FICTION
201
" 'People and Professions.' We look for people in rare profes–
sions, and also unexpected angles ."
"Do you know the profession of this Mr. Sild of yours?"
"Of course. He's a tailor. A theatrical tailor. That ' s the
unexpected angle. "
"That's now. And earlier?"
"I don ' t know what he did earlier."
"Then you should know that during the war he was an
executioner. He served under the Germans . He hanged Soviet
patriots . For which he served twelve years in prison ."
"Oh Lord! " 1 said .
"Do you realize what you've done? You have honored a
betrayer of the Motherland! You have damaged the reputation of an
interesting column forever!"
"But he was recommended to me by the director of the
theater."
"The director of the theater was a former S.S . full lieutenant.
Besides that, he's blue ."
"What does that mean-blue?"
"That was what homosexuals used to be called . Didn't he
make a pass at you?"
"Make a pass at me? And how. He shook my hand, and me , a
journalist. Was 1 surprised."
At that moment 1 remembered a conversation with a certain
Frenchman. We were talking about homosexuality.
"You can be prosecuted for practicing it in this country," 1
boasted.
"How about for having hemorrhoids? Do they prosecute you
for that too?" the Frenchman growled.
"I don't really blame you," Turonok said. "You acted in a
proper way. That is, you wrote an article on the director's recom–
mendation . But all the same, one should be more circumspect. The
choice of a hero is a serious matter, extraordinarily serious ."
Everyone at the office talked about this incident for about two
weeks. Then my colleague Bush distinguished himself. He wrote up
an interview with the captain of a West German merchant marine
ship.
It
was the eve of the anniversary of the October Revolution.
Bush's captain praised the Soviet regime. Then someone found out
that the captain was in fact an Estonian defector. He had made it out
to Finland by canoe in the summer of 1969 . Then gone from there to
