—— Red Army Sniper ——98‘Are you ready, bridegroom?’ asked the sister, viewing me
critically from all angles, and added: ‘And now let’s be off.’
‘Where to, sister?’ I asked in a timid, unpleasantly ingratiating,
voice in the hope of finally clarifying what all this meant.
‘We’re going to see the head of the hospital.’
‘Why him? Is it to be discharged?’
‘The more you know, the more you age!’ she snapped back.
The sister opened a door bearing a plate reading: ‘Hospital
Director’ and, letting me through first, reported:
‘Comrade Director, patient Nikolaev delivered as per your order.
Do I have permission to go?’ and, having received permission, she
went out again.
I stood there, stealthily looking around. In the office were the
hospital director and two strangers – tall men in white smocks, but
slung over their shoulders.
‘Come over here, Nikolaev, and take a seat!’ I heard the hospital
director’s voice. ‘Tell your comrades here how you are feeling.’
‘Very well, Comrade Director. I’m healthy, I can almost move
freely and I urge you to send me back without delay to my regiment
in the 21st Division.’
‘Hey, you’re out of order there! You can’t walk properly yet,
and you’re still weak, and the stitches haven’t knitted. Comrade
Colonel,’ the hospital director turned to one of the two officers
who were not familiar to me, ‘today he’s not fit to travel, but in a
couple of weeks he’ll be fine.’
‘Well, glad to make your acquaintance, Comrade Senior
Sergeant. Get well soon! We’ll call on you again,’ said the mysterious
colonel. ‘But in the meantime you are free. Relax, Senior Sergeant!’
Ten days went by. And once again the senior sister brought me
the uniform, only now she gave me an overcoat as well, a hat with
earflaps and some fur gloves. I was beginning to feel nervous.
I fussed around for a long time, sewing a fresh collar onto the
tunic and fitting the red triangles of a senior sergeant onto the
collar tabs of the overcoat as well as the infantry emblem – a white
enamel target with a pair of crossed rifles on it. Then I polished