She didn’t resist, only saying quietly: “I don’t understand, I don’t understand.”

“Come on, come on, you’ll be fine,” Andrei whispered, crushing her small body with his weight.

She was helpless. He came right away. He flopped back on the pillow and pulled on his pants. He straightened her underwear and went to the toilet.

When he returned, he found Maria sitting up in bed. Covering herself with the blanket up to her chin and crumpling the hem, she looked at him, her eyes wide with horror. It was dawn and the fog had turned into precipitation. The rain drummed at the window. The cat lay in an armchair, indifferently observing the scene.

As if plunged into ice water, she started. Breathing was hard. Andrei stood in the doorway. He loomed over the bed and stared at her. No, he was lying next to her. He touched her. She tried not to move, imagining her body becoming part of the bed, her skin melting, merging with the sheet and her heavy head dissolving into the pillow. One more movement and her body would be gone. Pain pierced her stomach. She stood up and rushed to the bathroom. Andrei watched her silently. She locked the door behind her, turned on the hot water and sat down in the tub. She tugged at the underwear clinging to her body. The water turned pink.

Andrei appeared in the doorway.

“I locked the door,” she wanted to say, but the words wouldn’t come out. Her teeth chattered. The door was wide open. The windows too. She stood on the windowsill. It smelled like smoke.

“Come out, you’ve been sitting there for half an hour,” said Andrei. She heard him as if through mist. “Come out,” he repeated.

“Where? Down?” she said, looking at him.

“Something’s burning,” she said, looking into the pink water.

He walked over, paying no heed to the colour of the water. “What the hell? Why are you sitting in this cold water? Why are you trying to make me the bad guy here? Get up!”

Still she sat. It smelled like smoke. Andrei had the severe face of a granite soldier statue.

“Stop playing the victim. I know all about him,” he shouted.

The shivering grew stronger. He’d lost the will to contain his temper. Seized by rage, Andrei abruptly pulled her out of the bath and carried her toward the room. He kicked open the door but it swung right back hitting Maria in the head. She struggled, scratching his hands and face. Andrei threw her onto the bed. Her body bounced on the mattress.

She howled.

“Shut up!” he yelled. “Just shut up!”

She couldn’t hear him. She was screaming through her tears, burying herself in the mattress, howling, howling, saying the same words over and over again, covering her ears with her hands. Andrei tried to turn her body to face him.

“What? What? Just fucking turn around, will you?”