Memoir of a Russian Punk

21

Eddie and the sergeant are left by themselves. Nearby, shots and cries are heard – the militia officers are rounding up the soldiers.

The sergeant, still lying prone just as Sanya and Cat left him, raises his bloodied face from the ground and whispers,

"Untie me, son, huh? I'm a Russian, from Saratov. And you're a Russian too. Untie me!"

Eddie-baby remains silent.

"You little fuck!" the sergeant whispers. "I'll untie myself and rip your dick off!" He begins to strain his hands in an effort to loosen the strap binding them together, and propping himself on the ground with his knees, he tries to stand up.

Eddie-baby, hardly even looking at him, kicks the sergeant in the ribs as hard as he can with the tip of his shoe.

"Oh-h-h!" howls the sergeant. "You little scum! You filthy little bastard! You little shit!"

A couple of years ago Eddie-baby would have untied the sergeant. Once, in response to a tearful plea, he had released mean Lyonka the Vixen after beating him up in Building No.3 – Lyonka lay underneath Eddie-baby, who had his hands around Lyonka's throat. Eddie-baby let him go. That unnecessary civility turned out badly for Eddie in the most concrete way: Lyonka stabbed him in the hip. And even though the knife was a small one and the wound was shallow and didn't take very long to heal, Eddie-baby was goddamned if he would ever let anybody go again.

"I'll run into you sometime, you' little scum!" the sergeant whispers. His loglike arms instinctively tense, as if an electric current were passing through his nerves. "I'll tear your throat out in one bite!" he goes on with hatred.

Eddie-baby kicks the sergeant in the ribs several times more, with almost automatic abandon. So the bastard will stop threatening him!

The returning Cat, Lyova, and several militia officers catch Eddie-baby in the middle of this activity.

"Hey, hey!" shouts one of the trashes. "Lad, lad, stop! That's enough, you'll kick him to pieces, and we still have to turn him over to the military authorities."

"There's no way you'll kick goddamn scum like that to pieces!" Sanya says, standing up for Eddie. "Look at him, he's made out of cobblestones or something."

The militia officers, along with Sanya, Cat, Lyova, and Stepan, who has once again returned to the scene of the action, lift the sergeant up from the ground and set him on his feet. Only now does Eddie-baby really appreciate just how unusually large the sergeant is. Sanya and Cat take the sergeant by his arms, which are still tied behind his back, and pull him toward one of the militia cars. Stepan obviously has another plan, however, since he stops the kids, leads them a short distance away from the other militia officers, and says in a half-whisper,

"Listen, Sanya, don't be a fool! If it hadn't been for you boys, there's no fucking way we would have caught the sergeant. After all, these people" – he nods in the direction of the other militia officers – "arrived after the fact. We need to take the sergeant to the station ourselves and hand him over directly to Major Aleshinsky. He's already at the station; they called him at home for a big thing like this." Then, changing his businesslike tone to a more confidential one, he continues,

"Major Aleshinsky has it in for you, Sanya. But if we turn up with these goods" – Stepan nods in the direction of the sergeant – "he'll change his mind and maybe even arrange some official reward for you: 'For assisting the forces of the militia in preserving law and order,' or something like that. What do you say?"

"Stepan's right, Sanya," Cat says. "And it wouldn't be such a bad idea for Lyova and me to show ourselves at the station either. We still have suspended three-year sentences."

"All right, let's go to the station," Sanya agrees, although reluctantly.

Stepan informs his own and the other militia officers that they first have to take the arrested sergeant to be identified by the raped girl at the Stakhanovite Club, where there's an official Fifteenth Militia Precinct substation, and only then to the main station.

The trashes have no objection, so Stepan takes one of the arrested soldiers (as if also for identification, but in fact so that everything will look more businesslike) and quickly forms a small procession. Stepan and Cat go in front, each holding on to an arm of the arrested Uzbek soldier. His tunic is torn at the shoulder and soaked in blood. He looks scared. The effect of the hashish is obviously beginning to wear off, and he now realizes that something not very pleasant is taking place. After the Uzbek come Sanya and Lyova, leading the still snarling sergeant, who from time to time tries to stop. The curious Eddie-baby goes with them, first running a little ahead and then dropping behind…

This main group is accompanied by a dozen or so civilian bystanders, mostly thrill-seeking drunks from the two trolleys.