CHAPTER TEN
Death was comprised of basic elements, all of them unnecessary, starting with getting up in the morning, washing oneself with cold water, et cetera. The streets looked as if they were a partitioned other world, where he had lived at some earlier point. There were only two places left in the town that hinted at the existence of another life, namely, railway stations. In order to leave, one needed a reason and a modicum of determination. One could use as a reason his mother’s reminders to the effect that anybody more or less orderly, once they gained their certificate of maturity, left home to start college. However, nowadays not only the faraway orderly people but also nearby disorderly passers-by caused Sidelnikov’s bewilderment: where were they going with such a purposeful ai
