After a while even getting up at six a.m. wasn't hard becausethere was no life in this town at night so she might as well go to bed assoon as it turned dark and then dawn was a logical time to get up. There was no TV in the room Rainie took over the garage of a short-tempered man who told her "No visitors" in a tone of voice that made itclear he assumed that she was a whore by nature and only by sheerforce of will could he keep her respectable. Well, she was used toletting the voice of authority make proclamations about what she couldand couldn't do. Almost made her feel at home. And, of course, she'ddo whatever she wanted. This was 1990 and she was forty-two yearsold and there was freedom in Russia now so her landlord, whatever hisname was, could take his no-visitors rule and apply it to his own self. She saw how he sized up her body and decided she was nice-looking. A man who sees a nice-looking woman and assumes that she's wickedto the core is confessing his own desires.
After work Rainie didn't have anywhere much to go. She ateenough for breakfast and lunch at the cafe that dinner didn't play muchof a part in her plans. Besides, the hotel restaurant was too crowdedand noisy and full of people's children running around dripping thickglobs of gravy off their plates. The chatter of people and clatter ofsilverware, with Montovani and Kastelanetz (?) playing in thebackground -- it was not a sound Rainie could enjoy for long. Andwhen she passed the piano in the hotel lobby the one time she wentthere, she felt no attraction toward it at all, so she knew she wasn't