UNDERGROUND

179

For four days the dog had not bothered Boris, although once in a dream, he still heard a hoarse and annoyingly ringing bark, but he did not see the dog itself. He returned home and told his wife that the business trip was over, after which he went to the shower, but did not reach the bathroom - he sat down on the sofa and passed out for twenty hours. I woke up in absolute cosmic silence, which happens only early in the morning, had breakfast, watching the adventures of a plasticine man on TV in the kitchen.

Then he got up, looked out the window and realized that his former life was over: he would never see the general again, nor Makarov, nor Yakov, and the saddest thing - he would not see Dasha Afanasyev either. He only hoped that the dog would not torment him about this.

The next day, the old boss, Lieutenant Colonel Kolmogorov, called and said that on Wednesday he should come to work. The business trip was really over, the captain's rank was returned to him.

Boris went with his fami