Chapter IV: 'Showdown'
December 1, 2023 at 10:22 AM
Sleep after lunch. All people in the entire seventh house was lying in their sleeping bags and peacefully sleeping. Emil was the only one who couldn’t sleep. He wanted to deal with Schreiber as soon as possible, so to speak, to find out the relationship. So Emil went outside and went looking for him. He knew that Schreiber always kept to himself and liked to get into a corner away, because of his arrogant and selfish nature, no one normally communicated with him. Of course, molesting girls was normal thing for Schreiber. And they complained about him more than once, but the administration couldn’t exclude him, because he was the son of the internationally well-known philharmonic and choreographer Albert Schreiber from Vienna, who was known as a pipe organ master. This is despite the fact that his son played the viola, and he was completely out of tune in choral singing. Oh, these discounts for foreign philistines, entailing the loss of identity and authenticity…
Emil found him near the kitchen. Schreiber stood and brazenly fumed, although smoking was strictly forbidden on the territory of the camp.
'What are you nuts?! Why are you standing here?! Are you waiting for her?! I won’t let you harass the poor girl, Schreiber! After all, she is a person with her own emotions and feelings, not a piece of meat! And you’re also smoking here!' Emil shouted.
'What the hell do you care, Kurbatoff?' he asked cheeky and careless.
'I’d take you, scoundrel, to the clerical office…'
Before he could finish, Schreiber’s fist hit him painfully in his belly. Emil got angry and hit him back in his mug.
'Are you completely brazen, you viennese waffle?!'
'I hear it from half-educated harmonica player!'
'Stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it!'
Rumyantseva, who was appointed head of seventh house, and her newly minted secretary Levchenko ran up to them.
'Take me to the head of the house number six Artemiev! I need to complain about this bully who beat me up!' Schreiber stammered.
'But first of all you can take us directly to the clerical office!' Emil said.
After the medical examination, ten minutes later, Schreiber and Emil were sitting on chairs in front of the senior counselor Teryokhin in the clerical office, which was located in a side house from the main building. Rumyantseva and Levchenko were standing behind them as witnesses, as well as the head of building No. 6 Artemiev also.
'Your version of what happened, comrade Kurbatov?' Teryokhin asked Emil.
'Walking around the complex, I noticed smoking Schreiber near the kitchen building. I made a remark to him, but he stabbed me in the stomach. And I hit him back', he answered respectfully.
'Now your version, comrade Schreiber?'
Lowering his cunning beastly eyes, he grinned:
'I was walking near the kitchen building, and Kurbatoff attacked me! It was completely shameless assault on his part!'
'Brilliantly, but why did you smoke? After all, you knew that smoking is prohibited on the territory?' Teryokhin asked the question that put Schreiber in a mess.
Schreiber said nothing.
'Well, Schreiber, you are sentenced to house arrest, and you will not leave the house No. 6 for the next day! Anton Andreich, escort him!' Teryokhin gave a strict verdict.
'Roger, Ivan Sergeyevich!'
Taking Schreiber away, Artemiev, who was better known by the nickname 'A.A.A.' or just '3-A' for short, left the clerical office.
'And you, Kurbatov, will be deprived of the evening compote at supper due to the use of brute physical force against Schreiber!'
'Actually, Emil, what are you both did like street urchins grappling with? Couldn’t the dispute be resolved peacefully?' Rumyantseva shamed him by echoing Teryokhin.
As readers can see, the verdict didn’t bypass Emil either.
After leaving the clerical office, in front of the entrance to the dormitory building, he noticed how the entrance gate opened and the old beige 'Niva' drove into the territory of 'Lipki' camp, which roared mechanically down the driveway towards the kitchen. When it drove by, Emil managed to make out those who were in the cabin. Behind the wheel in the driver’s seat the complete old man of a collective farm type in the straw hat and black glasses sat, and the same waitress girl was perched on the passenger seat!
