Zift Page #3

the doctors forgot to cut off.

The sister took a pair of scissors

and finished the job herself.

That's an old story. I've heard it

told about other people before.

You watch out they don't tell it

about you.

I'll be watching, Moth.

I'll be watching.

The day before the heist, Ada took

an imprint of the backstairs key.

On his way out,

Lolushkin had to take an urgent dump

and rushed to the toilet,

forgetting the keys in the door lock.

That same Friday

we waited for Ada to signal

that Bijou had gone out.

Aside from the statuette, we had

to turn the house upside down,

so it would look like a random

burglary

and Ada wouldn't be a suspect.

You sing and you live.

Or you float in the jar.

I don't know that song.

- You're lying, Moth.

The police found the negro's

penis rolling loose on the floor.

Empty. I didn't see a penis there.

You found it. There's nobody else.

There's just me and you.

There was no diamond.

- Don't fool with me, Moth.

I can make your life a living hell.

Don't push me. Don't.

There was no diamond, Slug.

Dinner.

You're hungry?

You finish it, insect.

I lost my appetite.

Why didn't you rat me out?

Generosity?

I don't give a sh*t about you, Slug.

I had to protect her and the child.

Where did you hide it, Moth?

You're finished.

You'll be out soon. What's the plan.

Simple.

- Tell me.

I don't want to.

So what's your goal?.

Not to leave this time.

What do you mean?

Don't ask, you won't get it.

Moth, I want to give you something.

He gave me a postcard

with a savage-looking female,

devouring a male.

Someone wrote on its back:

""Murder is the secret hope of women.

For them fornication is a travesty

of manslaughter."

You wrote that?.

- No.

I copied it down from an old book,

""The Witch Hammer".

You look at the sky and it looks

back at you with its barred eye.

Those were his last words.

He hanged himself on the bed-frame

the night before

he was to be released.

The same night, I was digging

the foundation pit of the mausoleum,

where the mummified leader and

teacher of the Bulgarian people,

Georgi Dimitrov,

had to be put on display.

I found the glass eye the next day.

Van Wurst had left it in my mattress

before he hanged himself.

I still remember his words:

""Moth, for the soul the eyes are

Iike peas under a princess's

mattress.

They don't let her rest.

Van Wurst-The Eye was and remains

my closest friend.

His real name was

lliya Alexandrov Kazandjiev.

After he took his life

in the summer of 1949,

there was no one left for me to leave

and no one left to go back to.

You drank enough poison

to finish you off by the morning.

You drank enough poison

to finish you off by the morning.

Slowly but surely.

So why did you have to poison me?.

Listen carefully, Moth.

This poison has an antidote.

And guess who has it?.

I do.

Did you think that up with your ass,

comrade major?.

Instead of thinking with your ass,

why don't you play

a partisan song with it?

Mockery of the people's anthems?.

Listen, Moth.

You tell me where you hid the stone,

and you leave this shithole alive.

Otherwise you stay

until you start cramping

and frothing.

Leonid, or Leo, as she called him

in her letters,

died of lockjaw.

Sounds terrible.

Moth?.

Raycho?

Raycho-The Skin - that's

what we called him in the hood.

We were great friends.

You're in deep sh*t, buddy,

very deep.

They told me to rub you sore

and throw you in that barrel

with vinegar.

His dream was to become

a Turkish bath masseur.

When he got Snow-White and the Seven

Dwarves tattooed on his back,

he won the respect of all the kids

in the hood.

One day Raycho disappeared.

He was banging a gypsy girl

under the bridges of the Canal

and rumor had it, her relatives

had kidnapped him to marry him off.

It turned out,

he did it on his own will.

I was his best man at the wedding.

Get out of here, man.

beat it before it gets real bad.

Where?.

- I don't know.

Run. Get lost.

Hit me with this bench,

so we can trick the guards.

Moth.

Enough.

Enjoy you bath, you filthy Moth!

The sergeant major's bosom

reeks of tallow soap.

Nineteen o'clock.

Well, comrades,

it's time for me to get off.

Welcome to the hood.

Whoops, the chewing gum.

Give me some pretzel, comrade.

I need to deliver milk

for this sucker, Tseko Tsekov.

Twenty o'clock.

Tobacco-stained female voices

drift out of the office.

Doctor's Office

A heady smell of cheap tobacco,

ammonia, and nail polish remover.

Comrade, are you drunk?

No.

I'm from the amateur theater group.

We're rehearsing "Under the Yoke""

at the community center.

I'm playing Ognyanov,

the revolutionary, and they wound me.

Ognyanov?.

I was just about to believe you.

Look, that's the approach.

Realistic.

Stop shitting me.

Jolly as an old tart.

I mean it. We were rehearsing

and they wounded me.

Now I feel nauseous.

Ognyanov...

Her gaze scratches

like manicured nails.

That's one lame story.

We'll need to test you for alcohol.

Nicotine phlegm

is ripping her throat.

Nurse, drain out Ognyanov.

Take his blood sample.

And urine sample.

Let's see

what's wrong with the star actor.

The nurse ogles me,

her sour whiff hits me in the nose.

Follow me into the manipulation room.

You got a medical record?.

- I don't think so.

You don't think?

I recently moved into this

neighborhood. I used to be a tinker

and now I work in the packaging

department of the chocolate factory.

""Malchika"?

- Yes, this is my first visit.

You've got a large vein, comrade.

We urinate in the glass.

I'll do my best.

You're lucky the lab guy will process

your samples tonight.

He's an awfully sweet person.

And frankly, it wouldn't hurt at all

if you buy him a box of chocolates.

Did you hear

what happened to Stomna Galabova?.

Who's that?

- Stomna.

The one with the big boobies?

Yes.

The one from the National Theater,

who plays

the agronomist in "The Natives".

In February she goes skiing.

She climbs the trail

sideways with her skis on,

but all of a sudden she needs to pee.

She slips into the bushes,

takes down her pants, and squats,

with the skis still on.

She loses her balance. The skis start

sliding down the slippery slope,

and Stomna goes flying down

the trail with her pants off.

She falls and breaks her ankle.

but manages to pull up her pants

before the arrival of the ski patrol,

and keeps her dignity. Otherwise -

imagine the disgrace.

A national actress

skiing with no pants on.

Yeah, right. As if I believed you.

A national actress

with no pants on. My ass.

The Grey Horse

""You are my mermaid,

I'm your drowning sailor.

You are my mermaid,

I'm your drowning sailor.

Weep, heart, oh weep,

weep for your alma

that nowhere else in the world

there are blue eyes

and blond hair like hers. "

Waiter, rum for the young fellow here.

Chug!

They smell of mastic and earwax.

Sh*t.

Who are you?

- And who are you?.

Grater

Listen up, buddy, I'll tell you

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