The Dacha and The Doctor

Six months ago, a mysterious professor got in touch because I had been plagiarized. Last Saturday, we met for the first time in Anatoly Tarasov’s garden.

“I’ll tell you what is convenient,” he said after a moment. “To sleep until noon and have someone bring you your breakfast on a tray. To cancel an appointment at the very last minute. To keep a carriage waiting at the door of one party, so that on a moment’s notice it can whisk you away to another. To sidestep marriage in your youth…

These are the greate…