(no subject)
Harrison recounts one story that suggests a basis for the rumors of
cannibalistic gangs. Dmitri, a young man, accompanies his girlfriend
Tamara to the Haymarket to try to buy a pair of woman's boots called
"valenki" in exchange for loaf of bread. Women's boots were
particularly hard to find, but they find one man offering a pair for
sale. However, the man only has one boot on display and claims to have
the matching boot back in his apartment. The three of them haggle over
the price and finally settle on a pound of the bread for the boots. As
Dmitri and the man proceed to walk over to the apartment to fetch the
other boot, Tamara warns Dmitri half-jokingly, "better to be without
valenki than without your head." After they climb several flights of
stairs to reach the apartment, the man tells Dmitri to wait. Dmitri
hears a voice behind the door say "who is it?" The man replies: "it's
me. With a live one." As the door opens, Dmitri smells something
sickeningly sweet and warm. He catches a glimpse of "several hunks of
white meat, swinging from hooks on the ceiling. From one hook he saw
dangling a human hand with long fingers and blue veins." Dmitri lunges
and manages to escape out the front door just as a military truck is
passing. He yells out, "cannibals!" A detachment of soldiers rush into
building, and Dmitri hears shots ring out.