strange encounter

I had to calm them down, I thought. And just as I started approaching him, he throws a straight kick. I dodged, stepping to the left, and he missed. At that moment I needed to act faster, start working him over on the kidneys from behind — the opportunity was good. But for some reason I gave him a second, and he used it — grabbed a stool and swung it around, hitting me with it. It happened fast, but I instinctively blocked with a parry, the blow glanced off. After that I landed a clean one-two to his head, busting his nose. And I pulled him into a clinch, starting to work his body with knees and elbows. I hit hard, and he held up pretty tough. The guys from the other rooms came over by then and pulled us apart. The neighbor seemed to calm down; the man who broke us up spoke to him gently, and everything settled. I noticed my shorts were bloody. Where's the blood from? Looked at my finger, saw a big gash. Where could that have come from? Probably from the stool. Blood was streaming — he cut me good. We went to Vera's room, she treated the wound with hydrogen peroxide. I washed my shorts and went to my room. Had some tea and got to work on the runes…

A STRANGE ENCOUNTER = Day 31 =

In the morning I decided to leave the house where I'd had to fight the night before. Because of that drunk idiot, I'll have to walk around with a bandaged finger for a week now. The last straw was the broken shower. In the afternoon I went to the park at Arts Square and started carving runes. A middle-aged man about sixty, named Valery, came up to me. He seemed shady right away. He kept steering the conversation toward people of nontraditional orientation. That topic came up abnormally often in the conversation. He asked where I'd be sleeping, offered to take me to his place. I made it clear I'm not part of the gay brotherhood, he understood and left, making a call to someone on the way. Spent the night at Lera's again, I'll stay with her for a couple of nights. My leg is getting better.