Thirst by Andrei Gelasimov translated by Marian Schwartz

This is another translation of a foreign piece; this one from Russian. Another very short one, but not quite as short as the German one I told you not to waste your time on. The translation is excellent, although I suspect it diverges from the original text in places. The divergences insert English word play and slang usage for things which are probably very different in Russian - and probably would be incomprehensible to the American reader.

The voice is that of a young man who was badly burned when the APC in which he was a passenger is hit by a rocket-launched grenade in action against the Chechyn rebels. In the opening scene his next door neighbor calls on him to frighten her young son when he refuses to obey her. It is a little mystifying because at that point the reader is not yet aware of his injuries.

The events of the day his life was changed are fed out slowly mixed with stories of his school days and what is going on in his present. His only friends are the other young men who had enlisted with him and were with him in the APC. The usual occasion for their getting together is the periodic disappearance of one of their number. The guy who disappears is the one that pulled the others out of the burning APC and nearly left Kostya behind because he thought he was dead.

It is unclear which is the most damaged of the group. Physically, it is clearly Kostya, but he is functional and self-supporting. Seryoga is not.

By the way, the thirst, which they share, is for vodka which one assumes is their escape.