Most likely Eddie-baby was in those days a practical romantic. Having only just learned to read, he quickly devoured a vast quantity of the usual books – like the ones about the children of Captain Grant or about fifteen-year-old captains who get involved with treasure islands – in the process going through the whole contents of his parents' bookshelf, a rather large one that included several odd volumes of Maupassant and Stendhal, although the latter left him pretty indifferent at the time.
As a practical romantic, Eddie-baby was obviously not satisfied with the unsystematic delights of Jules Verne, Stevenson, and the other authors, and he decided to proceed further, to prepare himself firmly and solidly for the life of a romantic traveler. And so for the next several years, twisting his backbone and writhing studiously at his parents' round table that stood in the center of the room (they later bought him a small desk of his own when they saw how studious he was), or kneeling in front of a stool on which he had placed his book and notebook, he copied out the Latin terms for different plants and animals, patiently studied methods for obtaining water in the Sahara, or listed the names of cactuses you could eat if you ever found yourself without food in the Sonoran desert.
His passion for systemization extended so far that Eddie-baby even established a special catalog for himself in which he divided up the plants and animals by family and genus on separate sheets of paper and added meticulously transcribed information about each variety. Included for each plant were its dimensions, what kind of leaves it had, the size of its fruit, its method of cultivation, what parts of it could be used as food, where Eddie-baby might expect to encounter it on his subsequent wanderings, and a picture of it. In a normal country Eddie Baby would have spent most of his time in front of a copy machine. In the city of Kharkov, he used tracing paper to transfer the drawings of the plants and animals, and then pasted the drawings onto the appropriate pages. Strict order prevailed in the world of the future traveler and explorer. It is an interesting fact, however, that Eddie-baby gave pride of place to the exotic plants and animals, and that among the exotic kinds he clearly preferred the species and genera of the tropical regions. Maybe because the cold part of the year in Kharkov lasts much longer than the warm one does?
It is not difficult to guess that in the realm of seafaring, Eddies preference as a true romantic was for sailing ships. If there had been anyone to talk to (Grishka Gurevich's parents soon took him away to another apartment), he could have talked for hours about Bermuda and Roman sailing rigs, about rigging in standing and running configurations, about the different kinds of anchors, about tacking and knots, and about how to make a turn to the south-southwest if the winds are unfavorable.
The librarian Victoria Samoilovna at first did not believe that Eddie-baby had read all those books with complicated titles like The Fauna of Patagonia or The Annals of the Russian Geographic Society, or the works of Darwin on the Galapagos Islands, or books about the endless world travels of biologists and zoologists – all those Zagoskins and Zenkeviches unknown to everybody except Eddie-baby. Yet once she started talking to the pale lad who had just brushed the snow from his felt boots with his cap, she suddenly realized that this still green creature knew everything, and if that wasn't enough, that this creature, who as a general matter had no great liking for the library reading room, had from time to time even been compelled during his investigations to seek the help of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, and as a result had spent hours nearsightedly digging (the creature was embarrassed about wearing glasses) in its immense volumes in order to supplement his knowledge.
This small creature was the only one of its kind in the whole district, and although Russian children did traditionally read a good deal in those years and there was always a line at the library, Eddie-baby soon acquired the exceptional privilege of going behind the checkout desk where Victoria Samoilovna was ensconced in order to root around in the books as much as he liked, even all day long. Eddie-baby was very happy to root there, and soon afterward, with the tacit consent of those who shared his apartment, he added a geological catalog to the other extensive catalogs that he kept in the nonfunctioning bathroom (or effectively nonfunctioning, since it didn't have any hot water). Research was research!
The fanatical pedantry of their child in the accumulation of knowledge must have seemed quite strange to those outside his world – to his parents, Veniamin Ivanovich and Raisa Fyodorovna – since Eddie-baby never boasted to anybody about his knowledge and never revealed it at school, which hardly made any sense.
But when, to augment the schists, sandstones, limestones, and basalts of the world, Eddie-baby suddenly made an abrupt turn and began to study and classify the French and English kings, the Roman emperors, and even the emperors of the utterly worthless Austro-Hungarian Empire, his parents became seriously alarmed.
"Edinka, why don't you go outside and play?" Mama Raya would say to him. "Why stay locked up inside all the time? Look how pale you are. Genna is always outside; that's why he has rosy cheeks and a healthy appearance. Go on outside and ski or something." (Eddie-baby's first-lieutenant father had just bought his son some skis, which the latter ignored.)
Eddie-baby couldn't stand Genna from the apartment unit next door, a boy who was always being held up to him as a model, since he knew that Genna was in fact a complete idiot. Even if Eddie-baby held himself aloof at school until he was eleven, he was still respected (although it wasn't at all clear why – maybe precisely because he did hold himself aloof), and respected to the point of being elected chairman of the Pioneer council by unanimous vote three years running, although that wasn't something Eddie-baby was particularly interested in. After sitting through the great torment of six hours of classes every day, Eddie-baby would run off to the library at the other end of the trolley line, going there directly after school, and then home to his notebooks and catalogs. Genna, however, was respected by no one; the kids made fun of him and frequently beat him up. Eddie-baby was beaten up only once, and that one time was inscribed in his psyche forever and even formed his character. But about that later. For now, Eddie-baby and Kadik have set off to the grocery store.
4
Kadik and Eddie-baby have met in order to get drunk. A holiday is a holiday, however much you may shun the goat herd, and Kadik will be busy tonight, since he's going to the center to see Eugene, his hero and the object of his adoration and emulation. Eugene plays the saxophone at the communication workers' recreation center. Kadik is "doing" the October Revolution holiday with Eugene and his bandmen. A week ago Kadik suggested somewhat tentatively to Eddie-baby that they spend the holiday together at Eugene's on Sumsky Street, but in the first place, the invitation was rather vague, as Kadik himself said, he isn't the "boss" – the adult bandmen are merely taking him along with them – and the proud Eddie-baby has no interest in being just another minor. And in the second place, even though Eddie-baby knows Eugene – he's really Zhenya Zaborov – he doesn't like him very much. Maybe he's as amazing a saxophone player as Kadik thinks he is, but neither Eddie nor Red Sanya, whose opinion matters to Eddie (Sanya's seven years older than he is and a sort of big brother to him, and Eddie trusts his judgment) – neither Eddie nor Sanya likes Eugene.
But there's another reason why Eddie doesn't want to spend the October holiday with Eugene, one that he doesn't tell Kadik. It's because of Svetka. Eddie is a bit afraid of taking Svetka into the company of grown-up guys. Svetka's beautiful, and all the kids envy Eddie because he and Svetka are "going together," as they say in the district. It is really Svetka who is taking Eddie-baby to Sashka Plotnikov's – a boy who doesn't go to their school, Secondary School No.8, but to a different one. Eddie-baby knows all the boys and girls who will be there. They're all a little affected, especially Garik, who goes by the nickname "Morphine Addict," and his Ritka, but Eddie-baby at least knows what to expect of them. Eddie-baby started going with Svetka during the May Day celebrations, and he has already gotten into several fights because of her. Svetka's a flirt. Eddie-baby doesn't like anybody to get his Svetka drunk, but she always manages to do it by herself, and one of the grown-up guys might try to fuck her. Even if she is a little shit, Eddie-baby still loves Svetka, and he's heard about that kind of thing happening before.