One page from ULYSSES after lunch.
Near six pm a shell explosion scared Sahtik, she was about to rush to the Underground. I talked her into staying. We began to mold candles together then played the usual pencil game when using the letters from one word you compose as many other words as possible. The player who produced more words in five minutes wins.
No time for my yoga.
We had supper together.
As for the water-bringing, I decided to introduce certain amendments to my mode of life. From tonight on I'll try to establish and follow the habit of going after water at 3 am. The project implementation can be secured by the use of our alarm clock.
It's 9 pm. The mother-in-law has gone home. Ahshaut is sleeping. Roozahna stubbornly insists on taking her over to the Underground. I've tried to persuade them to stay home.
Sahtik is not sure what to do. I don't wait for her final decision and just go to bed.
Wishes of the most good night to all.
December 18
At three in the morning there was a queue (still or, perhaps, already) by the Three Taps. I went to another water spring. There also was a queue but shorter – about ten to fifteen men. I brought home four pails.
After lunch I whetted our kitchen knives with the hand-mill borrowed from Sashic. Sahtik was helping me.
Reading from Montaigne proved that there is nothing new under the moon of this loony world. Here's a literal quotation:
"The war was raging around. Going to bed at night we didn't know if we were to wake up alive next morning."
The passage was written four and a half centuries ago and up till now hasn't lost a single grain of its actual applicability.
Supper.
We had no pencil game to punish Roozahna for her unruliness. I played backgammon with Sahtik.
It's half past eight pm. The kids are sent to their cots.
Good night to babes and adults alike.
December 19
'The moon is so big,' said Sahtik yesterday night standing against the dull-glassed panes in our immensely wide communicational window. Her hint was more than clear: when a woman looks up don't let her down. I was in the bed already–ready and willing.
She went out into the kitchen-aka-hall. And listening to the sounds of the preliminary splashing I was appalled at the extravagance with which she used the water.
(…I do have to get up at the unnatural hour of 3 in the morning to fetch this bloody water, do I?…)
However, the overwhelming readiness quenched the shallow thoughts of the kind… The alarm clock had been alerted but I knew all too well that Sahtik would defuse it. Did she know that I knew it? During the night I awoke repeatedly because of the frustrating thought: what if she had forgotten to stop the shrill sound of the alarm clock?.
