The Combination

“The children were terribly noisy—how children can be noisy only in large families where no one pays them any attention. There were representatives of all sorts of ages and both sexes, starting with an infant who could barely move from one chair to another and ending with grown-up gymnasium students. In the mornings, half of them were busy: the older ones went to school, the teenagers studied in the classroom, and the little kids were gathered in the nursery by the nanny. But in the evenings, hell would begin—especially when Katенька was visited by ‘the fiancé’… Innocent childhood was inventive and skilled at poisoning Katенька at every step…”