Page 92 of Pioneer Summer

“As if you know anything about it!”

Yurka was surprised to see this bring Masha up short. She turned red and stared down at the ground.

“You’ve gone and fallen in love with him!” he said maliciously.

Masha stood motionless, staring at Yurka. Pioneers were walking along the path past them. Yurka took Masha’s hand and led her off to the side, away from the path, so the others wouldn’t hear.

“Don’t touch me!” Masha exclaimed, once they were off the path.

“Don’t stick your nose into what’s not your business, and then I won’t need to even look at you.”

“Stay away from Volodya, or everyone’ll find out!”

“You fell in love with him, didn’t you? Answer me! Yes or no? One word!”

“I don’t answer to you!”

“Yes or no?!”

“Yes! Yes! Are you happy now? Yes!”

“And so you think, what, that if you follow him around and blackmail him, he’ll love you back? You think that’s how that works?” Yurka laughed cruelly.

“I’m not asking your advice. For the last time, I’m telling you: Stay away from him or I’ll tell!”

“And what will that do for you? Can you even get it through your thick skull what’ll happen to him if they find out about all this? Do you realize this will destroy his life? He’ll be kicked out of his institute, and the Komsomol, and his home. Everything he ever wanted to do will be taken away from him, and all because of you! To hell with the institute or the Komsomol, though: What if it’s worse? What if it’s the loony bin? Or prison? Did you even think of that?!”

Yurka couldn’t stop. His fury was no longer boiling inside him, it was gushing out uncontrollably. He was on the verge of hysterics. He was shaking. He had lost control of his body. Without realizing what he was doing, he grabbed Masha’s shoulders and shook her, hard. He bellowed, “Did you think about how he’ll remember you after that? How much he’ll hate you? Is that what you want? Isthathow you love him?!”

Masha was screaming now, too, but from fear. This was what pushed Yurka over the edge. He was about to throw her to the ground, but suddenly someone grabbed his arm and roughly shoved him away. Volodya.

Yurka and Masha had been yelling way too loud, so it was no surprise Volodya had heard them while he was finishing his breakfast in the mess hall. Finding them wasn’t hard, either: half the kids from the athletic fields had come running to watch when they saw the altercation. At least there weren’t any of the senior management among the spectators, just Lena and Ira Petrovna.

Volodya dragged the kicking and bucking Yurka aside while Ira stood protectively in front of Masha.

“What’s the matter with you, Konev? Are you crazy?” barked Yurka’s troop leader.

“Volodya, tell her! Tell her everything!” begged Yurka when he saw Ira.

“Calm down!” ordered Volodya.

“Ira, this piece of trash fell in love with him. She’s been running around after him for half the session, and now she’s totally lost her mind. She’sfollowing him and threatening to say all kinds of crazy stuff about him if I don’t back off.”

“Konev, what is wrong with you? Have you lost your mind yourself?!”

“Volodya, nobody’s going to believe me! You tell them—tell them everything: how she followed us to the river and how she went into your room late at night. Come on!”

Volodya pulled him aside and spoke to him very softly: “You are hysterical. Let’s breathe in and out ... and in ... and out ...” Apparently trying to calm himself as well, Volodya took a deep breath in and let it out slowly.

But Yurka was physically unable to breathe evenly. His eyes were teary and he was shaking with rage. “But it’s true. Tell them, please,” he whispered hotly.

“You’ve left me no choice. But you go to the first aid station and take some tincture of motherwort or whatever Larisa Sergeyevna gives you for this.”

“I’m not going anywhere!”

“Yura, Leonidovna’s going to call all of us onto the carpet anyway. Please, go to the doctor, let her confirm that you are overworked and had a nervous breakdown. We’ll tell everyone the show drove you to hysterics and you took it out on Masha because she was following you.”

“But I’m not tired! I miss you! We’re going together! Please. You also need to go see Larisa, right? Because what was that you were doing in the kitchen? Why were you doing that?”

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