38
TALES FROMTHE FUTURE
CITY ON THE NEVA
From the book by Vladimir Megre "Who Are We?"
(translated by Marian Schwartz)
At the corner of the Fontanka River’s embankment and Nevsky Prospect,
builders were digging a trench, and an eleven-year-old boy accidently fell
into it and hurt his leg. For a long time, while he was unable to walk, he sat
by the window in his apartment at no. 25, which is on the Fontanka River
embankment. The apartment’s windows looked out on the courtyard, not the
river. Opposite the window was a shabby brick wall, and built onto it was a
building with rust spots on the roof.
One day the boy asked his father,
“Papa, is our city considered the best in the country?”
“Of course,” the father answered his son, “and one of the best in the
world, too.”
“But why is it the best?”
“What do you mean why? It has all kinds of monuments and museums,
and the architecture in the city’s center delights everyone.”
“But we live in the center, too, and all we see out the window is a shabby
wall and a rusty roof.”
“The wall. . . . Well yes, we’re a little out of luck with the view from our
window.”
“Are we the only ones?”
“There may be someone else, but for the most part. . . .”
The boy photographed the view from the window of his apartment, and
