17. Russian Dolls матрешки
‘We are closing — 20 minutes,’ said a shop worker whose name tag read Ludmila. I’d describe Ludmila’s physicality to a forensic sketch artist as ‘unenthusiastic.’ She wore a dress shirt, some slacks, and a felt коко́шник - kokoshnik cap that recast her expressionless head as the flamboyant, sainted dome of a Russian Orthodox cathedral.
Anadyr Art and Souvenir was a large emporium on Brighton Beach Avenue with mannequins in the shop windows dressed as Cossacks and Russian princesses wearing kokoshniks like Ludmila’s. Ludmila took Tony’s messenger bag at the entrance and put it in a small cubby. In exchange, she gave him a little laminated number with which he could retrieve his belongings. Ludmila and her bosses would not abide the petty theft of their Russian c
