Chapter 4
My memories of this morning were interrupted by the conductor’s shout:
“Stanislaviv Station!”
Everyone was rushing about, compartment doors started banging. The platform was greeting arrivals with loud music and puddles. Cleaners were sweeping the water onto the tracks. The downpour had long since subsided, but its traces were everywhere. The clouds parted, and the sun was lapping up puddles, and the earth steamed. Leaving the main hall of the station, I asked a passerby, a respectable gentleman with a small, waxed mustache:
“Pardon me, how do I get to Vovchynetska Street?”
“Oh, it’s here, if you please, right behind the bridge. Go past the train station, then turn right under the bridge and – then go straight. And that’s Vovchynetska.”
The street turned out to be long, wit
