Of girlhood, a portion of the profile within the “Alisa Expenditures Demise” is determined to not become their particular mom, whom enough time committing suicide and you can exactly who she remembers that have contempt; she “try constantly passionately crazy and sustained spectacularly, to the level of your psycho wards

From inside the “The Dragon and also the Phoenix,” the first of your own five stories that comprise part you to definitely, we fulfill an excellent lesbian few, Zarifa and Musya. Now they live-in Cyprus. And although Musya understands that “merely one is a spouse,” and you can “to this day the definition of lesbian” makes their particular “frost, such a small girl caught taking”-and even though the wedding has alienated one another women using their Armenian and you will Azerbaijani friends-Musya and you may Zarifa was indeed happy to one another (because of or in spite of its totally opposite characters?).

Nevertheless now Zarifa are passing away out-of cancers, an undeniable fact thus Г§in gelin kataloДџu unacceptable so you’re able to Musya that she’s got started secretly asking a couple of old sorceresses “throughout the an elaborate exchange of one soul for the next.” She actually is thrown to your a state when she must manage Zarifa’s estranged old sister, Said, exactly who hates their particular (having your, new ladies’ relationship is actually blasphemy), but who Zarifa possess summoned from Karabakh having advice to take a certain family unit members treasure: a rug is put-on the newest coffin during the their own funeral. Meanwhile Zarifa likewise has summoned “our very own very intelligent friend,” Zhenya, in order to set in order to their own some deathbed questions, among them “as to why it’s impossible to seat Armenians and you can Azerbaie table.” In which brand new flummoxed Zhenya has no an effective respond to.

He or she is originally throughout the same urban area for the Karabakh, however their dating don’t initiate up to ages later, after they must know each other when you look at the Moscow

Musya marvels from the rug’s advanced construction, a good dragon and an excellent phoenix “closed inside the fatal and endless handle.” “It is impossible to share with whom in it ‘s the warrior, exactly who this new sorcerer, that is evil and you will that is an excellent, since they are likely permanently to your you to immobile and you can indissoluble band.” However it is that it violent artwork one to later pierces her enough time-pent-upwards despair, her unrestrained outburst causing one minute out of oneness and you will shared tranquility certainly one of mourners, an embrace out of opposition, the next when “who was the new spouse, exactly who the brand new spouse, not one person cared.”

” (One past words is the most multiple you to definitely remaining me out-of actually ever entirely forgetting you to definitely, even when for the most part enjoyably viewable, the language is actually an interpretation. One of most other harsh places where my personal desire snagged: “A lady, her muscles flattened to your edges with resolute chest”; “the one and only thing Lilya realized in the their unique e she drill”-Schiltz-“on account of and this she try teased due to the fact ‘shilly-shally.’”)

Getting Alisa, “driving a car out of dropping towards the another person’s strength are more powerful than every other anxieties right so you’re able to feminine: off solitude, of childlessness, out-of poverty.” Meaning, wedding is away. During the 60-four, immediately following a successful occupation because a manufacturing draftsman and you may ten years regarding comfy retirement, Alisa moves a hit in her own really-planned lives whenever an excellent passing out spell leads to opinion from mortality. This new passing out turns out to be absolutely nothing major, nevertheless the matter nags: Who can maintain her if the inevitable comes? Ever basic, she check outs a physician and you will asks your supply her sleep tablets. To possess when the time comes, she shows you: “I simply want it me an easy demise.”

The doctor is an effective widower, a kind and you will cultured people that has already been way of living a good solitary lives. The guy will not bring Alisa new tablets, but when they see once more-by chance, at a show-they begin an affair whose rebuilding bliss shocks and you may delights them one another. Even when ready to accept his suggestion from wedding, Alisa reminds him: absolutely nothing persists permanently; when the time comes, she will nevertheless want that simple demise. Knowing it is inadequate to dispute along with her, the doctor believes to this very strange wedding gift.