The Altian Story

Irena Anatolyevna Kovalskaya had difficulty climbing the stairs to her sixth floor, cursing the—let’s say—unpleasant owner of the house, the Montenegrin Dragich, for stinginess and greed. This “bad” fellow, the “radish” from thrift, turned the elevator on only in the season when almost all the apartments in his building were occupied by cheerful vacationers from Russia, Ukraine, and even Belarus. Lately, the seaside Budva had become a kind of Mecca for middle-class holidaymakers. Almost Italy, the same sea, no visas required; our faith is Orthodox, and the language problem is completely absent. Besides, the signs, though written in Latin letters, are understandable enough to a person with a higher Soviet education—no big trouble.