Rejoicing, the morning trolleybus comes tearing along directly at me, but I don’t budge, I just howl louder still. The trolleybus even screeches in its jubilation and flies towards me. The sullen guy at the wheel, with puffy bags under his eyes, has brightened up; he even leaned forward — he was one of those drivers who invariably speed up when they have a chance to crush a cat or a dog.
I calmly think that not a single person had the strength to do this. Neither Martynas, nor Teodoras, nor even Vytautas Vargalys. None of them committed suicide. I think calmly that perhaps I’ll manage to carry out the most human of acts, an act that is impossible for any ordinary dog, in exactly this way.
Maybe this is exactly the way I’ll manage to break all the rules.
Earthly life didn’t satisfy me, but the afterlife is even less satisfying. There has to be, there must be something more.
It’d be better, even if it takes a hundred other transmigrations, to be born a human again. With all those foolish hopes and weaknesses. Most importantly of all — with foolish hopes. It’d be better. .
Thank God, the trolleybus doesn’t let me think for long.
First, my howl is gone, then my body, but then for a long, long time my last thought, the most important insight into Vilnius Poker, remains. This thought broke out of my howling brain as a black luminary, as an explanation and an answer, even though I don’t know what it means, and now I’ll never find out:
DOGS DON’T DISTINGUISH DREAMS FROM REALITY.
Vilnius
1979–1987
AUTHOR BIO
Ričardas Gavelis was a prose writer, playwright, and publicist. He published his first book — a collection of short stories entitled The Celebration That Has Not Begun—in 1976 and went on to write six novels, three collections of stories, and several plays before passing away in 2002. His other novels include Seven Ways to Commit Suicide, The Last Generation of People on Earth, and The Life of Sun-Tzu in the Sacred City of Vilnius. This is his first novel to be published in English.
TRANSLATOR BIO
Elizabeth Novickas graduated from the University of Illinois-Chicago with an M.A. in Lithuanian Language and Literature. She has worked previously as a bookbinder, newspaper designer, cartographer, and computer system administrator. Vilnius Poker is her first full-length literary translation.