Status Updates From La pregària de Txernòbil

I looked him in the eye and I said: “Why are you chasing one another? Why are you killing?” And he looked like he felt ashamed. “All right, ma’am, not so loud.” But when they’re together, they’re different. If there’d been three of them, or even two, they’d have put me up against the wall. When you’re one-on-one you can still talk to a person.

There’s only one government there—the man with the gun. In the morning I put the kids on the train to Astrakhan, I told the conductors to transport them like they do watermelons, to not open the door. [Silent. Then cries for a long time.] Is there anything more frightening than people?

“Chernóbil hizo que me explotara la sesera. Y empecé a pensar”.