The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-05-01
DING REVOLUTIONARY FICTION WRITER'S TODAY

will and remembrance was lost in rapture
"We, then, you're alive and WE'LL my little dove? Have
been waiting for have been leading the life of
gay widow? All, my dear!
She could not tear herself him and stammered in the
grooming voice of child, "Oh, Gleb How was it $50. =?
didn't know Oh Glebw
UT this sprang from her heart for second only and in
this second Dasha felt the old power of Geb again
upon her.
All once three years ago. when she young housewife
and the young bride boomed did the geranums in the
windowboN-ths power of her sweet and welcome
and good to feel herself deprived of her own will and
secure with him.
But Geb was not able to take her into his arms as child
and carry her into the in the first days of their
red life. Firmly but tenderly Dasha lifted his from
about her and gazed at him distanty with surprised smile
whats wrong with you Comrade Geb? Don't be so
wild Calm yourself.
She trod step lower, and began to laugh.
"You soder You are altogether too exctabe for this
peaceful neghborhood The key is in the door. You
boil yourself water the ostove But there's
and sugar and bread You'd better the Factory Com
mttee and register for your ration"
She yet another step lower And her face
showed anxety-a strange anxiety, not for herself
This than nsulttwas blow! He had sought
a human being and his head against wall He felt
shamed and hurt His still extended and uncon
troledly his smile still flickered.
'What the hell do you mean? Comrade!-whats that?
Do you think I'm damned foo?"
DAsHA had already gone the steps and had reached
~ the gate There she stood, gazing at him, smiling.
Is it Dasha, or is it not?
81 take nv dinner in town in the communal restaurant
of the Food and get my bread ration from the
Party Committee Geb you'd better call in at the Factory
Committee register there for bread card shall be
for two days. They've ordered me to go to the country Take
good rest after your journey"
"Here Wait bit! l can't understand this. Since when
did you become Comrade' to me? What have wandered
into, anyway?
"Im in the Women's Section. Can't you understand"
"And Nurka? Where's Nurka%
Gin the Childrens Home Go and rest YOURSELF haven't
time talk afterwards,
rest
She walked quickly away with long decided steps, without
looking back the red kerchef her head teasing him.
reckoning him and laughing at him.
When she reached the breach in the wall Dasha turned and
waved to him.
Gleb stood on the steps, bewildered, watching Dashas
vanishing figure he could not understand what had happened
LIE had returned home and had met his wife Dasha 1t had
been three he had her last Three years.
passed the tempests of Dasha also had been through
these three years. And what path had she followed? He did
not know And their paths again crossed strangely
Before their marriage their went side by side and then
fused into path Then tore them apart and
they ourneyed each following separate road knowing
nothing the other Had Dasha travelled farther than he
Had they become strangers to each other unable to meet
again in their former love?
Three years. What had happened in these three to
this wife without husband Those three years. which for
Gleb had been whirlpool of rghtfu evenwhat had they
been for Dasha?
No he was back in the home which he had left to
go out the empty night Here the factory where
Now the nest empty and his wife Dasha who had chung
to him desperately at the time of their parting had not
welcomed him should wife, but had passed by him. like
cold and hostile gboss in dream.
CLEB sat down step and suddenly realized that he
very tired 1t was not the four miles he had walked from
the station but the last three and then this ncompre
hensibe encounter with Dasha the unexpected anguish of
which had profoundly wounded him.
Why this heavy sence Why does the air vbrate and the
hens creep screening through Pleasant Colony?
These not buildings but sow-melting cebocks; and
smoke-stacks light blue like glass cylinders There
SCOT the tops of Them mountain winds have brushed it
away From of them the lightning conductor has been
torn-by the storm? by rust? or human hands?
Previously could smell manure here but
the shapsmeng dung of cattle found in the which
spreads down from the mountain
THAT building just under the mountain slope is the work
shop the mechanics In the old days. at this hour it's
gigantic windows with its countless panes bazed in the suns
Now could the black emptiness of the interior
through the broken panes.
And the town the hill the other side of the bay-t
also has changed 1t has become grey is covered with
mdew and dust that it merges into the mountain slope
No longer town, would say, but abandoned quarry