Dmitry Kalugin
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June 15, 2016

Touching

An elderly woman, quite rural in appearance, dressed in a headscarf and long skirt, was standing in the queue to the book return window at the Public Library on Moskovsky Prospect. She was returning books entitled “Fifth Form Mathematics,” “Help for the High School Pupil,” and something else in the same vein.

She caught my gaze.

“Yes,” she said, “my grandson is doing very badly at school. He got a D in maths. His parents could care less: both of them drink. His teacher said he had to pick up the slack or down the line it would only get worse. But who is going to help him? So I sit trying to figure things out. I will come again tomorrow. Basically, he is a kind, clever boy. He is good at drawing.”

Translation and photo by the Russian Reader