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The Ivan Aufulich Papers
21. Tolya Tso
Muscovites were relieved today at the reappearance, after a month's absence, of the half-Mongol, half-Russian street fortune-teller Tolya Tso ("Tolya" is a diminutive for "Anatoly"). Tolya explained that he had been "communing with the spirits." Indeed, all Russians are familiar with those spirits, and with the aid of other street venders commune with them daily, sometimes communing right down in the gutters. Tolya's absence, to thoughtful observers, offers proof that the Interior Ministry's efforts to crack down on bootleg vodka has not priced it out of reach, while his return offers reassurance that the real rotgut, distilled from wood alcohol in lead-soldered tubing, is still suppressed. And this, in turn, shows (to the discerning, who follow such hints to surprising conclusions) that Mitya N. Sentluey, though still out of sight, is yet able to extend his protection to the potato collectives in Kirghizistan.
©1997 Grant Schampel