C4 antho - Chamber Four
C4 antho - Chamber Four C4 antho - Chamber Four
~84~ The Chamber Four Fiction Anthology generously larded rye bread. Tanya is at home. Yawning, she puts on a flowered nightgown which has no idea of its mistress’ night life in foreign quarters. She takes up a deadly boring textbook she has never progressed beyond page 14 when the phone in the hallway rings. She hastens barefoot to be the first to pick up the receiver and make her nosy mother retreat into the kitchen. “Hellooo,” Tatyana says in the deepest of her bosom tones. “Oh, Andrey, it’s you,” she switches into standby mode, knowing why he usually calls. “I would like you to help me, Tanya.” “I know you want my lecture notes again. Listen, can’t you try and do your homework yourself, for a change?” “Tanya, it’s not your notes I want.” “Be quick, I’m falling asleep.” “Tanya... I would like you to give me a gift.” “Your birthday was two months ago, dear, and you got a whole pack of Marlboro from me!” “Tatyana, it’s a different gift I am asking you for. I would like you to give me a baby.” “Have you lost your wits? Have Semolina give you a baby.” Deeply, though, Tanya is flattered by the request. Even Andrey the market champion... She is half-wondering if she could secretly refit her duet score for his bass. “Let me think,” she says. “Call me tomorrow.” In the morning before classes Tanya runs into Dmitri the baritone at the cigarette kiosk. He leaves his entourage of two blondes and takes her by the hand to the side. “May I ask you a question?”
Semolinian Equinox ~85~ “I didn’t sleep with anyone yesterday. This is why it was so quiet in the hostel at night,” Tatyana snaps. “It would never occur to me to doubt your innocence, dear. It is a different question I have.” Tanya understands that she has been betrayed. A deafmute janitor publicly inserts a note into Tanya’s curvaceous décolleté. A joint choir of male students chants on her entering the lecture hall, “We want a baby by Tanya!!” Tonight the diva is not up to singing. Neither is she up to it the next day or the day after. At college she bears a stern face and moves like an ice-breaker. She refuses to visit Alyosha in the hostel. She is not on speaking terms with me. I miss her cigarettes, and even more, her detailed lecture notes. * * * * In Donetsk, the air temperature at summer solstice does not differ much from that of a furnace. The weather enhances the Great Account feeling for the examinees. Fifty heads in a single long row, sweat in rivulets streaming down their foreheads, recline, yielding to the fate and the heat against the hallway wall, waiting for their names to be called to enter the purgatory. Every quarter of an hour a victim is thrown out of the examination room, squeezed, bedraggled, sucked dry: the examination board is presided over by Lubov Gavrilovna, a spinster sans merci, an expert in torture. Lubov Gavrilovna is sometimes known to favour assiduous, simple, healthy-looking girls of peasant descent but pale decadent species with long noses stand no chance with Lubov Gavrilovna, this is well-known. Tanya has just been resurrected from the dead. Her hair is combed into a tight ponytail, her blouse buttoned to the
- Page 33 and 34: Eupcaccia ~33~ or else he wasn’t
- Page 35 and 36: Eupcaccia ~35~ “This here video c
- Page 37 and 38: Eupcaccia ~37~ tantalizing view up
- Page 39 and 40: Watchers ________ by Scott Cheshire
- Page 41 and 42: Watchers ~41~ and told my mother ab
- Page 43 and 44: Watchers ~43~ husband and teenage c
- Page 45 and 46: Watchers ~45~ Lorraine waits, she s
- Page 47 and 48: Watchers ~47~ students for who know
- Page 49 and 50: Watchers ~49~ toy-men crouching sma
- Page 51 and 52: How to Assemble a Portal to Another
- Page 53 and 54: How to Assemble a Portal to Another
- Page 55 and 56: Seven Little Stories About Sex ____
- Page 57 and 58: Seven Little Stories About Sex ~57~
- Page 59 and 60: Seven Little Stories About Sex ~59~
- Page 61 and 62: Seven Little Stories About Sex ~61~
- Page 63 and 64: Seven Little Stories About Sex ~63~
- Page 65 and 66: Seven Little Stories About Sex ~65~
- Page 67 and 68: Seven Little Stories About Sex ~67~
- Page 69 and 70: Men Alone _________ by Steve Almond
- Page 71 and 72: For the Sake of the Children ~71~ y
- Page 73 and 74: For the Sake of the Children ~73~ P
- Page 75 and 76: For the Sake of the Children ~75~ *
- Page 77 and 78: Semolinian Equinox ________________
- Page 79 and 80: Semolinian Equinox ~79~ with matter
- Page 81 and 82: Semolinian Equinox ~81~ she is esca
- Page 83: Semolinian Equinox ~83~ “A Bag of
- Page 87 and 88: Semolinian Equinox ~87~ ‘tether o
- Page 89 and 90: Semolinian Equinox ~89~ in five day
- Page 91 and 92: The Girl In The Glass ~91~ changed
- Page 93 and 94: Peacocks ~93~ of what, growing up,
- Page 95 and 96: Peacocks ~95~ “Instant friends,
- Page 97 and 98: Peacocks ~97~ Rebecca stood up. “
- Page 99 and 100: Peacocks ~99~ then I saw Eric kneel
- Page 101 and 102: Peacocks ~101~ I had little sympath
- Page 103 and 104: Peacocks ~103~ in my discussion of
- Page 105 and 106: Peacocks ~105~ no matter what she s
- Page 107 and 108: Peacocks ~107~ “Is it really poss
- Page 109 and 110: Peacocks ~109~ rent circumstances,
- Page 111 and 112: Peacocks ~111~ “Let’s move this
- Page 113 and 114: Peacocks ~113~ not-knowing would ne
- Page 115 and 116: The Naturalists _____________ by B.
- Page 117 and 118: The Naturalists ~117~ sights were n
- Page 119 and 120: The Naturalists ~119~ With each pie
- Page 121 and 122: The Naturalists ~121~ “Aww, come
- Page 123 and 124: The Naturalists ~123~ Nature’s Bo
- Page 125 and 126: The Naturalists ~125~ cranny. And I
- Page 127 and 128: The Naturalists ~127~ “Pardon?”
- Page 129 and 130: The Naturalists ~129~ She turned to
- Page 131 and 132: The Naturalists ~131~ As dusk appro
- Page 133 and 134: The Affliction ___________ by C. Da
Semolinian Equinox ~85~<br />
“I didn’t sleep with anyone yesterday. This is why it was<br />
so quiet in the hostel at night,” Tatyana snaps.<br />
“It would never occur to me to doubt your innocence,<br />
dear. It is a different question I have.”<br />
Tanya understands that she has been betrayed. A deafmute<br />
janitor publicly inserts a note into Tanya’s curvaceous<br />
décolleté. A joint choir of male students chants on her entering<br />
the lecture hall, “We want a baby by Tanya!!”<br />
Tonight the diva is not up to singing. Neither is she up to<br />
it the next day or the day after. At college she bears a stern<br />
face and moves like an ice-breaker. She refuses to visit<br />
Alyosha in the hostel. She is not on speaking terms with me. I<br />
miss her cigarettes, and even more, her detailed lecture notes.<br />
* * * *<br />
In Donetsk, the air temperature at summer solstice does<br />
not differ much from that of a furnace. The weather enhances<br />
the Great Account feeling for the examinees. Fifty<br />
heads in a single long row, sweat in rivulets streaming down<br />
their foreheads, recline, yielding to the fate and the heat<br />
against the hallway wall, waiting for their names to be called<br />
to enter the purgatory. Every quarter of an hour a victim is<br />
thrown out of the examination room, squeezed, bedraggled,<br />
sucked dry: the examination board is presided over by Lubov<br />
Gavrilovna, a spinster sans merci, an expert in torture.<br />
Lubov Gavrilovna is sometimes known to favour assiduous,<br />
simple, healthy-looking girls of peasant descent but pale<br />
decadent species with long noses stand no chance with<br />
Lubov Gavrilovna, this is well-known.<br />
Tanya has just been resurrected from the dead. Her hair<br />
is combed into a tight ponytail, her blouse buttoned to the
Change language