Memoir of a Russian Punk

18

Eddie wants to leave, but according to the petit bourgeois rules of proletarian Saltovka, he has to stay at Vovka's for at least another half-hour "for the sake of decency." So Vovka won't be offended.

It seems to Eddie that Vovka wouldn't be offended, that it's a matter of complete indifference to him. But maybe Eddie's wrong about that. At least Vovka's face looks languidly indifferent. And gray. His soft, thin auburn hair falls from either side of his useless part. Not the kind of part that Eddie-baby has, but a careless one that has formed of its own accord. Vovka's lips are pinkish and chapped – unpleasant lips. It's no coincidence that Borka Churilov can't stand him. Borka says Vovka is a bad influence on the kids, that he's a sluggard and a shit and will someday find himself in prison for sleeping with underaged girls and being a lecher. According to Borka, Vovka gets the girls drunk and then rapes them, and if they don't submit to him, he punches them in the liver so they lose their strength for a few minutes, during which Vovka manages to take his victims' pants off and start fucking them.

Once Borka even threatened to punch Zolotarev's face in if he didn't stop corrupting Vitka Golovashov, who could become a very good wrestler if he didn't drink. Vitka often drops in on Vovka and gets drunk with him.

Vovka, for his part, hates Borka and calls him a jerkoff, and he means it literally: he suspects Borka of onanism. He calls him a sectarian too. Obviously, he doesn't call him that to his face, since Borka's iron physique leaves no doubt about his ability to make Zolotarev a cripple for the rest of his life, even though Borka Churilov's basically a peaceful individual.

The doorbell announces the arrival of a guest or guests.

"Who's there?" Vovka asks into the phone after flopping down on his bed.

"It's Olga!" the phone crackles. "And Mushka's with me."

Vovka doesn't ask Olga and Mushka about a bottle. "Press the button," he says. A few moments later the two girls tumble in through the door. Eddie has seen Mushka more than once and has heard about her even more, although they've never actually met. And who hasn't heard about her! Mushka's the whore of the Saltovkan chronicles. All the Ivanovka kids, including fat Vitka Fomenko – yes, even Vitka – have gang-fucked her several times, that is, fucked her by turns after waiting in line. All you have to do to achieve that right, the kids say, is pour a half-liter of vodka into Mushka, and then she'll happily take her clothes off and spread her legs all by herself. Her companion, Olga, is a big girl, taller than Eddie, and from his school, although she's a year ahead of him. Olga has a sad white face, and the kids think she's beautiful, but Eddie doesn't.

Mushka's wearing a man's cap, and her hair, bleached with peroxide to a sandy yellow color, sticks out from underneath it. She's also wearing a woolen overcoat that nearly reaches the floor, probably a man's too. On her feet are "spikes" with metal heels. Mushka's high heels are worn over white socks that cover her ankles. Otherwise her legs are bare, in spite of the fact that it's November. Mushka has a rather sweet little mug, in Eddie's view, although sweet as it is, it's still the face of a whore. Under her coat, Mushka has on a strapless black velvet dress. The dress is girded at the waist with a white plastic belt, and around her neck Mushka is wearing white beads. "She obviously dressed in the black-and-white style on purpose," Eddie thinks, "only it looks ridiculous."

"Hey, old buddies!" exclaims the free and easy Mushka.

The gallant Grishka has long since risen to his feet and is hovering around the girls.

"You know perfectly well, Mushka, that I've been an admirer of yours for a long time!" says the gallant Grishka in the hoarse voice of a degenerate, using the formal pronoun. Probably the same way his uncle, the ex-prime minister of Saburka, addresses women. It's clear that Grishka is taken with Mushka.

Eddie suddenly realizes that he has been giving all his attention to the whore Mushka and has hardly noticed the sullen and beautiful Olga, who is draped in a dark green woolen dress. "Probably because Mushka's cheerful," Eddie thinks.

Mushka finally takes off her man's cap, and her bleach-blond bangs fall down over her forehead. Vovka, who has disappeared into the kitchen, reappears with a fresh bottle of vodka, and instead of a plate, a whole plastic tray covered with snacks.

"It's pretty certain Vovka ripped that tray off from the militia cafeteria," Eddie notes in passing. He also manages to observe that Vovka has changed his footwear, replacing his slippers with heeled black shoes.

"I just mobilized my mother; she'll make us some hot snacks. In the meantime we'll start out with what's on hand," announces the visibly more animated Vovka. Very much more animated. What's happened to his drowsiness and lethargy? Vovka once again fills up the glasses with vodka, this time not with his previous shocking indifference but with the smile of a generous host taking pleasure in his guests.

Grishka jumps up from his chair, assumes the posture of a hussar lieutenant, even to the point of clicking his heels, and opens his mouth:

"Permit me to toast our beautiful ladies!" he exclaims in an astonishingly resonant voice.

Mushka's lilac mouth smiles coquettishly. "They say she takes it in the mouth," Eddie thinks as he gazes at Mushka. She takes your cock in her mouth and sucks it. It's called minette. Eddie knows all about it; Slavka the Gypsy told him about minette. Slavka has a great fondness for minette. Eddie knows from Slavka that the best minette is done by girls from the Baltic countries, because they are very Western and not so backward as our Russian and Ukrainian girls. Baltic girls wear different panties too, Slavka told Eddie. "They wear briefs and not those big, ugly, heavy, smelly lilac or light blue drawers full of every kind of nasty stuff from the body that they wear in Kharkov," Slavka said with a grimace.

Eddie examines Mushka, trying to understand how such an apparently delicate creature could gang-fuck a dozen Ivanovka hoodlums and suck the cocks of all twelve, including fat Vitka Fomenko. Mushka does have an insolent look about her, it's true, but she's pretty skinny, and she's not even fifteen. Eddie heard about one of Mushka's more recent escapades: she crawled through the window of a men's dormitory and spent several days inside, going from room to room and fucking with four men in one room, then with four more in another, since there were four to a room in the dormitory. They say that Mushka did it on a bet and in order to annoy Vitka Kryukov, who's in love with her. Vitka has gold teeth, and all the kids except Mushka consider him a terrible loner and are afraid of him. She, however, twists him around her little finger.

Mushka notices that Eddie is looking at her a bit too intently.

"Are you interested in making a purchase?" she asks, smiling and coyly pressing her cheek to her shoulder. "I don't come cheap," she continues, proudly exhibiting her profile to Eddie.

Eddie-baby has in fact heard that she does come cheap, but he doesn't say anything to Mushka about that; he only smiles. He doesn't know what to say. He's shy with girls. Not with Asya – Asya's a friend – but with girls like Mushka.

"He doesn't have any money," Vovka suddenly interjects. "He came to borrow some."

"You son of a bitch!" Eddie thinks in amazement. According to an unwritten Saltovka law, you just don't say such things. You can get punched in the mouth for saying things like that, and seriously too. For a moment Eddie doesn't know what to do, but catching the pleading glance of Grishka, who is on his guard, he decides to ignore the remark. You shouldn't disgrace a guy in front of girls by saying he doesn't have any money. It's an insult.

"I know your Svetka," Mushka says all of a sudden. "She and I both went to School No.136. We were even friends."

Eddie is genuinely astonished. Svetka never told him she knew Mushka. It somehow hadn't even occurred to him that Mushka ever went to school, that she ever wore a school uniform and an apron…

"You did?" is all that Eddie can force out of himself. If he could, he would probably blush.

"And you're cute!" Mushka suddenly says across the table. "Only your hair should be longer," she adds with a giggle. "How come you have an army haircut?"

Eddie is even more embarrassed. "It's not an army haircut," he says. "I have a part, after all. It's a Polish cut. Waclaw cuts my hair, and he's a very good barber," Eddie says, justifying himself.

"Well, it looks like a bailiffs haircut. Bailiffs before the revolution wore parts in their hair. You would look good in a pompadour," Mushka goes on, tipping her head to the side and unabashedly examining Eddie. "Like Elvis's. You have the same kind of face." Mushka falls silent and looks at Eddie, smiling ambiguously. And rubs her cheek against her shoulder.

"Does she really like me?" Eddie thinks, now scared. "What a whore!" he thinks. He's ashamed to admit that he himself likes Mushka very much right now with her bangs and her slender little bare shoulders in her black grown-up's dress…

"Let's have another drink!" Eddie turns to Grishka, who is talking about something with Olga. Olga lives not very far away in a barrack by the creek. She's poor and has only her mother and two younger sisters. She lives in the same barrack as Slavka Panov and his grandfather. Eddie knows that Olga plans to get married as soon as possible in order to get away from the torment of living in a barrack. She already has a grown-up suitor who's much older than she is. Who's bald, in fact.

"Let's!" Grishka readily answers. They pour out half a glass each and drink without waiting for Vovka, who's started to dance with Mushka. Eddie sees Mushka's narrow back coquettishly arching in Vovka's hands. The back of Mushka's dress is cut low, and Eddie can see two reddish, lightly powdered pimples on her back. For some reason, looking at those pimples, Eddie realizes that Mushka could gang-fuck after all, and even suck Vitka Fomenko's cock with a smack of her lips. For some reason Eddie finds it unpleasant to look at Mushka and Vovka, who from time to time kisses Mushka lightly on the neck with his pink, crusty, chapped lips.

"Well, I'm off!" Eddie announces. "I'll try my luck somewhere else." Wishing to slip away without saying goodbye to Mushka, he begins to take his leave hurriedly, but as soon as she notices that he has stood up and is putting on his jacket, she pulls Vovka over to him.

"Are we leaving, soldier?" she asks in a cute little voice.

"We are," Eddie confirms. "See you!"

Mushka, insolent Mushka, holds out her hand to Eddie, letting it droop at the wrist as if for kissing.

"I won't do it!" Eddie objects in his thoughts, but he kisses her hand anyway. Her hand actually smells very nice, with a fragrance of floral perfume.

"See you," Vovka adds. "Sorry."

Grishka slaps Eddie on the shoulder. "See you, old man! Drop by tomorrow."

Olga waves to Eddie from the table. Obviously she is even now thinking of the moment when she'll marry the bald guy and leave her barrack behind. Her face is preoccupied.