C4 antho - Chamber Four

Semolinian Equinox
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by Svetlana Lavochkina
from Eclectica Magazine
At Donetsk University, talking about money reveals bad
manners―there has been no sight of salary for six months.
Students and professors go to the marketplace after classes.
They stand at the stalls side by side, their ankles equally
soaked in April sleet. They sell groceries, poultry,
hosiery―whatever the dealers supply them with.
“French socks latest cut, sexy stockings for your butt!”
student Andrey recites into the drizzle, helping Professor
Nikolai Vassilievich arrange listless bunches of carrots for
display on the stone counter. Nikolai Vassilievich guards Andrey’s
wallet while Andrey heads for an inconspicuous place
at the market fringes to relieve himself. Drinking moonshine
to get warm, they count their gain in inflated millions,
munch the carrots, shoo mongrels from under the stalls, and
never talk about the university.
At summer solstice, however, the learner and the learned
meet in a short circuit at the State Examination. Andrey
feigns due awe of Nikolai Vassilievich of course, but, mumbling
unintelligibly as he does, Andrey still knows for sure
that his mark will not quite exactly mirror the fact that he
has neither opened any book on the course programme nor
seen the professor doing his main job at the pulpit, his silver
tongue pouring out undiluted Middle English to the drowsing
audience, too recently weaned from Mother Goose to be
able to partake of swiche licour.
Sighing, Nikolai Vassilievich scribbles ‘satisfactory’ into
Andrey’s record book. After all, in the domain of cutting edge