But that hadn’t stopped him from sending his son to study at Edinburgh University.Īnd Victor, who spent ten months of the year away from his homeland, stubbornly repeated his father’s rhetoric. Not a very important one, but very patriotic, always taking every chance to demonstrate the shortcomings of Western civilization. “Would any grown girl in Russia be frightened by a ‘house of horror’? European life is too calm and peaceful, it makes them afraid of all sorts of nonsense….” “There you have the other side of European prosperity,” Victor said didactically. Several ushers surfaced out of the darkness and quickly led the entire family away. She turned around and was surprised to discover that it was a grown girl, about sixteen years old, standing there with her mother and little brother. Lera heard someone crying quietly behind her.

“Sure you haven’t changed your minds?” the actor in the black cloak asked the audience. And then they had found somewhere to take shelter from the midday sun…. They had a bite to eat and drank a pint of beer in one of the countless number of pubs. Victor and Lera had spent the morning in the royal castle, a center of tourist pilgrimage. September in Edinburgh had turned out hot. Victor nodded guiltily and said, “But at least it’s cool in here.” And all they have here is one big ‘house of horror.’” “They have real old dungeons there…it’s very interesting. “I like the dungeons in Budapest,” she whispered to Victor. Even Lera, who didn’t know much English, could understand every word. He spoke with the precise articulation that only college drama students have. “Aagh! A-a-a-agh! Even I feel afraid at the thought of what you are going to see!” “Now you are going to learn what real horror is like!” the young man drawled menacingly at the spectators. He was lit from below by a few crimson footlights. On a stage decorated with mystical symbols a young man wearing white makeup and a long, flowing cloak was making frightening faces. Jostling all around them were excited children and adults with embarrassed smiles.

They were sitting in a room that would have seemed dirty if it wasn’t so dark. “Dungeons,” she whispered into Victor’s ear.

Lera was prepared to insist on that with all the conviction of a nineteen-year-old woman in love. Victor was twenty years old and, of course, he was grown up. I NSIDE EVERY MAN, NO MATTER how grown up, there was still a little boy.

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