Table for Two: Fictions

Pushkin and his wife, Irina, work on a farm in 1916 Russia. Pushkin has the soul of a poet, appreciating the weather, landscape, and hard work. Irina is enraptured by communist ideals, urging Pushkin to move to Moscow in 1918, after the Bolshevik Revolution. Irina is amazed by the city, while Pushkin is disgusted. They get jobs at a biscuit factory, where Irina becomes an engineer, while Pushkin is fired from a sweeping job. Pushkin waits in ration lines. Though he does not always get everything in a single day, Irina forgives him out of respect for the communist project.

Pushkin befriends people in the lines, talking with them about the weather, architecture, and their families. One day, Pushkin holds a woman’s place in line while she visits the pharmacy, but no one complains because Pushkin is a fun companion. Pushkin starts waiting on behalf of other people in various ration lines, and they give him portions of their rations in exchange. When young orphan boy, Petya, notices Pushkin’s arrangement, he asks Pushkin about his hustle. When a man asks Pushkin to wait in an electronics line, and Pushkin declines due to a conflict, Petya becomes his assistant. Petya starts waiting in lines on behalf of others, sharing half of his rewards with Pushkin. Noticing elites in Moscow waiting in line for bigger and better rewards, Petya recruits more boys, so Pushkin ends up running a line-waiting business of 10 boys by 1925. Irina is confused by Pushkin’s acquisition of treats and money for his services, but she concludes that communism is about helping others. In 1926, after helping a high-ranking official wait in line for champagne, Pushkin and Irina are moved to a larger apartment, which pleases Irina.

In 1929 Pushkin finds a magazine with an image of a woman in a white dress in New York City and becomes obsessed with image. Pushkin meets Litvinov, a former painter, who explains that his portraits of aristocrats led the Politburo—the main legislative body in the Soviet Union—to revoke his license to paint, so Litvinov now sweeps the halls of an elementary school. When Litvinov decides to leave Russia, the process involves waiting in a long line, filling out a delicate form, and passing the inspections of the Agency of Expatriate Affairs.

As Pushkin waits in line for Litvinov, he fills out a form of his own to pass the time. His responses are poetic, romanticizing his life as a farmer, and he writes on the form that he does not want to leave. When Litvinov does not show up in time to hand in his form, Pushkin hands over his own. The agents of the Agency for Expatriate Affairs are charmed by Pushkin’s application; Pushkin says he wants to go to New York City, and his visa is approved. When he nervously presents the visa to Irina, she decides she can spread the word of communism in New York City and agrees to travel, packing a suitcase of clothes and suitcase of cash. However, Pushkin gives all the cash to porters during the trip, leaving the couple without any money when they arrive in New York City just after the stock market collapse of 1929. Irina abandons Pushkin at the station, finding a biscuit company and befriending other Russian immigrants. As Pushkin waits for Irina, someone steals his suitcase.

A man in tattered clothes leads Pushkin to an alley behind a church, where many men similarly dressed are standing in line to receive food. Pushkin calls over another man, and he feels that his life in the US is beginning.