by Peter Mladinic
No, you’re not bothering me at all.
Waiter, another coffee. It’s open-ended.
All I say, all my narrator says is Anna
and Gurov went on meeting in hotels
in various cities. They can’t be together
as a married couple, but they can be
together. Alive and willing to rendezvous
at times, in places of mutual convenience.
I don’t say it’s bad or good or tragic,
certainly not that, or what a shame. She
with her husband in S_____, Gurov with his
wife and daughter in Moscow. Remember
when his daughter asked him about the sky
and he knew no more than she? Anna
and Gurov’ s being together is open.
When you finish the story and close
the book they’re still together, they’re
together still, as we sit at this table in this
sidewalk cafe. Do you live in St. Petersburg?
I’m here for a few days, not on business.
Why is the dog in the title of the story?
No, it’s a good question. It’s one thing
about Anna in Yalta that singles her out.
When Gurov goes to S_____, he knows it’s her
house because he sees the little dog.
Think, if he hadn’t gone into that theater
in S_____ …he spots Anna and her husband
and everyone looks as if wearing badges,
and she goes to him in the lobby, “My God,
what in heaven and hell are you doing!”
If not for that undeniably unsettling scene,
there’d be no more Anna and Gurov.
What as ass he was at the beginning, in
Yalta, in his room. I don’t say he’s an ass
but I show it. He slices a melon as she’s
“having her little cry.” “What have I done?
I’ve shamed myself.” Do I have a favorite
part in my story? That’s like asking
a mother which of her children she loves
most. I’ll tell you, since you’re my reader,
not a journalist or a student writing a paper,
I am haunted, I think that’s right word,
by revelation, by what goes on in Gurov.
He’s at his club, in Moscow, where he lives
with his wife. He says what he’s thinking.
“I met the most remarkable young woman.”
The member of the club, sitting across
the table, as we are now, comes back with,
“Don’t you think the sturgeon was a bit
over-cooked?” That scene says a lot.
Where did I write it? On planet earth.
Will you have another coffee? As I said,
I’m haunted by revelation, what goes on
in Gurov, how gradually his job at the bank,
the weather in Moscow, his wife
and daughter, how all things and people
in his day-to-day life diminish
and Anna takes prominence, her face,
her figure, the rope of her long brown hair
as he remembers her in Yalta.