One by one my coworkers have degenerated into uncompanionable shades. The air in our office has always been so broad and generous – the wooden furnishings, the big windows, the tenth-storey view through birdflight across shadow-dappled ground to transdniestria: but lately it feels close, clotted, the clerks all mooning around gogolianly, my old friends, Alyosha, Cătălin, Mioritza! I try childhood games, folkdances, guest-appearances by my brother & his tisanes. Nothing yet succeeds in brightening the scene.