In Spring

“When it got dark and they lit fires in the rooms, he took thick waterproof boots from under the bed and started putting them on. When the water struck, the skin shriveled and hardened; the boot barely went onto his leg, and with a grimace of anger and disgust Pavel stamped his foot. Then, as if weakened by the effort he’d made or remembering something important that you can’t forget for even a minute, he helplessly threw his arms onto the bed, hunched over so that his head sank into his shoulders like that of a sick person or an old man, and he fell into thought…”