Moscow.’ She said it just like that, and then added: ‘You’llntake me as your wife with you to Moscow.’ Can younimagine? And, you see,. that’s exacdy what happened.”nWunderkind became silent for a while and then continued,n”I stayed with her in that Bityugovo village till the end of mynvacation, and when I was about to leave, I realized that Incouldn’t live without her …”nWhile he said that, the door of the next room opened andnSasha appeared. Her flaxen hair now fell free over hernshoulders. Looking past me as if I weren’t in the room, shentiptoed to the chicken cage. The brown rooster, seeing her,nfluttered, hopped off his perch, and fanning his tail, walkednto the bars of the cage. She stuck her hand through the bars.n”Yiieh!” she exclaimed suddenly, turning to me andnthrusting a big white egg almost under my nose. I flinched.n”Don’t scare people, honey,” Wunderkind said.n”Just joking,” she smirked, showing her widely spacednteeth. “Did you buy millet for Vasily?” She went up tonWunderkind and put her palm on his crown.n”Yes, I did. Honey, do you think you might tell hisnfortune now?”n”I might, I might,” with her colorless eyes she lookednstraight into mine. “You spread the millet,” she said to hernhusband. He got up, took a small paper bag from the shelfnand began strewing the grains on the floor of the cage. Thenrooster flicked his comb, looked askance at the millet andnthen began methodically hammering the floor, picking it up.nThe hens crawled from their corner, nodded, and joinednhim.nSasha, meanwhile, took an old newspaper from somewherenbehind the loveseat and laid it out on the floor nearnmy feet.n”How do you tell fortunes, with cards?” I asked.n”With grass,” she said solemnly.nShe walked onto the balcony and took from the ropenseveral clumps of dry grass.n”Put your feet on the paper,” she said to me. “No, no,ntake off your shoes and socks. I need bare feet.” I obeyed.n”Roll your pants up higher.” She squatted near my legs.n”Umbala, bumbala, umbala, bumbala,” she mumbled quietly,nthen faster, and faster, and louder. “BUMBALA!” shenshouted and flung a clump of grass onto the newspaper.n”BUMBALA-BEY!!” a few more clumps lay next to thenfirst.nDoctor Wunderkind was back on the loveseat now,nwatching her with rapt attention.n”You’re 22 years and four months old,” she said, her eyesnflashing at me.n”Is it right?” Wunderkind asked eagerly.n”Correct,” I said.n”Your father abandoned you when you were three,” shencontinued tossing more grass. “And after that you lived justnwith your mother.”n”Absolutely accurate,” I said, astonished.n”Recenfly you got some luck,” she said raising herself up,n”and because of that you’re working now like a mule, butnit’ll be a waste of time.”n”Why?” I asked.n”Shh, don’t interrupt her,” Wunderkind whispered.n”I’ll tell you,” she walked around me and then, her facensweating, and breathing heavily, she began jumping aroundn18/CHRONICLESnnnme in a wild dance. “Because you should beware of falsenexpectations!” she howled and threw dry grass on my head.nMy novel was doomed! flashed through my head. Inwanted to ask her more, but I didn’t have a chance to. Thendoor of the next room burst open, and the black goat,nlowering her horns and stamping her hooves, charged at me.n”Baba, stop!” Wunderkind shouted.nI leapt from the chair just in time as it, knocked over bynthe horns, tumbled onto the floor. Wunderkind fell flat onnthe goat, trying to grab her horns. Sasha stopped dancingnand watched them. Finally, he managed to get hold of thenhorns, and dragged the goat back to her room. Sashanfollowed them.n”Gosh,” Wunderkind said, returning and shutting thendoor behind him, “she really hates it when Sasha goes into antrance, I’ve noticed that.” From the next room a muffledngrumble and Sasha’s babbling could be heard.n”She definitely does,” I said, picking up the chair andsettlingnback into it. “I’d like your wife to tell me more … Incan comprehend her reading my past, since my past,npresumably, exists somewhere in my head. But the future?nIt doesn’t exist yet. And it’s just beyond me how one cannread something which does not exist, which is yet to be! Orndoes it mean that the future is existing now?”n”Maybe it is, you see, maybe it is!” Doctor Wunderkindnexclaimed, pacing back and forth about the room andntugging at his beard. “Maybe the present, and the past andnthe future exist simultaneously, maybe it’s just one thing,none tangle, and we all are like blind men groping in the fognunable to see it! …” He stopped before me, the small,npuny man, his thick glasses glistening. “But there are somenpeople among us, exceptional people, who are linked tonNature’s primordial force, who can penetrate this tangle!nAnd Sasha is one of them!”n”Samsoon!” Sasha’s voice came from behind the closedndoor. Wunderkind rushed there. In a second he came back.n”I don’t know what happened,” he said, looking at menembarrassedly, “but it’s absolutely impossible to calm Babandown while you’re here. Sasha’ll tell your fortune tomorrow.nI’ll get back to you. Is it okay?”n”Yes, of course, of course,” I said, slipping my bare feetninto my shoes and picking up my socks from the floor.nI went back to my apartment, tried to do something, but Incouldn’t. Again and again I returned to Wunderkind’snwords . . . the oneness of the present, the past and thenfuture. But then, what connects them all? Death … Is itnpossible to foretell when and how it will happen to us? Is itnpossible to foresee what is there beyond that boundary? Ornshould we just wait till each of us learns it for himself?nIdesperately wanted Sasha to continue telling my fortune,nbut for the next few days I didn’t hear from thenWunderkinds. Finally, by the end of the week, unable tonwait any longer, I went to thern myselfn”Oh, I’m terribly sorry for not getting back to you,”nDoctor Wunderkind said, opening the door. jn”That’s okay. How’s Baba?” I said, not really knowingnwhat to say. /n”Well, she’s strange, to say the least. In a kind of apathy,nvery unusual for her. And what’s more, Sasha is the samenway. Doesn’t talk. Totally noncommunicative. So I couldn’tn