"Her mouth was warm and clinging and shaken when he kissed her. Her arms encompassed him indesperation and her lips moved against his and her words were moaning sounds. 'I don't know, I don't know, hold me, please hold me….' He picked her up in his arms. Here eyes closed. Her long hair brushed across his face, silken and perfumed. He carried her into the bedroom, kicked the door shut, and put her on the bed. She did not want to take her arms from around his shoulders. 'Everybody needs someone' she whispered. 'I've been so alone all my life! When I first saw you, at the dacha of Mikhail's uncle, I thought -- I cannot say what I thought. I have not stopped thinking of you from that first moment...' There was a sudden sharp snapping sound from outside the house."

1956.