176
PARTISAN REVIEW
jangled his handcuffs and sang loudly: "And I go , walking about
Moscow...."
"Tomcat's in the mood for Pussy," the orderly grumbled. He
looked into the peephole and yelled, "Agayev, shut your trap and go
to sleep! Otherwise you get a fist in the eye!"
In answer, we heard, "Chief, the horns you're wearing are get-
ting awfully long!"
The orderly responded with a torrent of ornate obscenity .
"Suck me till you're good and stuffed!" the zek yelled .
This concert lasted about two hours . On top of everything, I
ran out of cigarettes.
I went up to the peephole and asked, "You wouldn't happen to
have any cigarettes or
makhorka?"
"Who are you?" Agayev asked, startled.
"I'm on assignment from the Sixth Camp Subdivision."
"And I thought you were a student. Is everyone so polite in the
Sixth?"
"Yes," I said, "when they're out of cigarettes ."
"There's a ton of
makhorka
here. I'll push it under the door. You
wouldn't happen to be from Leningrad?"
"From Leningrad."
"A fellow-countryman . I thought so."
The rest of the night was passed in conversation.
In the morning I went looking for Dolbenko, the officer in
charge of operations. Presented my orders to him. He said, "Have
breakfast and wait at the checkpoint. Do you have a weapon on you?
Good."
In the mess hall, they gave me tea and rolls. They had run out
of hot cereal. To make up for it, they gave me a piece of lard and an
onion for the road . And an instructor I knew shook out ten cigarettes
for me .
I sat in the checkpoint cabin till the convoy brigades moved
out. The orderly was relieved close to eight. It was quiet in the penal
isolator. The zek was sleeping off the night of talk. Finally I heard,
"Prisoner Gurin with belongings!"
The latch-pins clicked in the transit corridor. A security officer
entered the cabin with my ward .
"Sign out," he said. "You have a weapon?"
I unbuckled my holster.
