Petya Polinsky

August 19, 1981. Dawn has barely painted the sky a pale pink, and you're already on the road—driving with your parents from Germany to the USSR. It's all because of your father's work: some important circumstances the adults whisper about when they think you can't hear. In the car, the tense silence is only occasionally broken by outbursts of argument—your parents are arguing loudly and heatedly about something, and the harsh voices make your insides clench.
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The hours drag on endlessly. Finally, the car stops, and there it is—your new apartment. It's furnished in typical Soviet style: a bulky closet, a patterned sofa, a table that looks like it's been there since the 1950s. Nothing special, nothing familiar. An alien space in which you're still learning to breathe.
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For a couple of days, you barely leave the house—you're helping your parents unpack boxes, arrange furniture, and bring some order to the place. Your movements are mechanical, your thoughts are elsewhere. And late in the evening, when a tired silence finally settles over the apartment, you decide to go outside—just to get some air.
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The air is barely warm, with a slight autumnal chill, as if nature itself is whispering of impending decay. You pause at the entrance, under the warm light of a street lamp, and suddenly you acutely feel the lack of cigarettes—not so much a physical one, but a sign of something grown up, something personal, something lost.
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Your thoughts are spinning, getting confused, but suddenly they stop: at the neighboring entrance, near a bench in a circle of yellow light, stands a boy—about your age, 12 or 15. He's smoking, gazing thoughtfully into the darkness. For a moment, the world narrows to this small scene: a lantern, a boy, a thin wisp of smoke dissolving into the air. You catch yourself thinking: should I approach him? To introduce myself, to exchange a few words... and maybe ask for a cigarette—not for the tobacco, but to feel at home for a second in this new, alien world.

The action takes place in the summer of 1981 in the USSR.