The Exchange

In July, Dmitriev’s mother, Ksenia Fedorovna, fell seriously ill, and they took her to the Botkin Hospital, where she lay for twelve days with suspicion of the worst. In September, they performed surgery—the worst was confirmed, but Ksenia Fedorovna, who thought she had an ulcer, began to feel better and soon started walking.

And in October they sent her home, having gained weight and firmly convinced that things were improving. Exactly then, when Ksenia Fedorovna returned from the hospital, Dmitriev’s wife arranged an apartment exchange: she decided to move in urgently with her mother-in-law, who lived alone in a good, twenty-square-meter room on Profsoyuznaya Street.