Anecdote

“When the red-haired, big-nosed doctor, touching Yegor Bykov’s body with icy fingers, said in a confident, low voice that the illness had gone far and become dangerous—Bykov felt the same resentment as in his youth: back then, as a recruit, in the Turkish war near Eni-Zagrya, he lay among thorny bushes with a broken leg; a black night rain soaked him through, and the pain slowly, without hurry, as if it were tearing flesh from bones…”