Peter had looked at photos of his new home back at his old home. England. During the ’70s of the previous millennium. Filthy children in dark alleyways, garbage in the streets, alcoholics in the streets, and what he saw now resembled the pictures. Just a hint of color and some advertisements; otherwise, nothing had changed. The dream of worldwide prosperity for all hadn’t been fulfilled. Yeah, well. Still better than in the Middle Ages. Almost everywhere was better than Poland. The Polish men worked at construction sites in ten-hour shifts, they traipsed in groups through the dead city center in the evening just to land in the sleeping hall, where Polish was the only language spoken, where there was Polish food and a comfy mattress. The women worked ten-hour shifts on farms, cleaning streets, working in tailor shops, shoe repair stores, bakeries, supermarkets—they commuted up to three hours every day, to London, Edinburgh, and whatever all the various holes were called, in order to sell their limited abilities at market. All hail the markets.

It was the time when the majority of the biologically British population sat paralyzed, awaiting the downfall, too tired to think. They had devices, they were busy, and Peter could watch them undisturbed. It made no sense to him why millions from his old home had come here—back there after a workless day they’d sit down on a sofa, here after a ten-hour shift they’d sit down on an inner sofa, which is to say on a mattress, WTF. Could the end goal of a life really be to take out a mortgage on a drafty little house in an area that looked like Poland and subsist on the fantasy that somewhere a few hours away the queen lived, yes, that you might meet her on the street with her cute dogs, that you might breathe royal air, so to speak? While Peter walked and thought, his mother was driven to fields where she harvested asparagus stalks and strawberries and then finished her day working at a bar in Manchester.

After some time has elapsed

While his mother was working the night shift, an event took place that had to do with a Pole. The Pole was named

SERGEJ

INTELLIGENCE: average

POTENTIAL FOR AGGRESSION: high

ETHNICITY: white

CREDITWORTHINESS: not available

SEXUALITY: hyperactive

POLITICAL ORIENTATION: inclined to right-wing extremism

FAMILY: somewhere