Chapter 1: The Lament

A week before, Iona Potapov had lost his son. He wanted to express his emotions, suffering and worry at the loss of his son. The people who passed by were not keen to listen to him. The people were busy or in a hurry or tired. So no one took notice of his words when he started every time. At last, he told his story to his horse.

An old cab driver named Iona had lost his young son. Due to his loneliness, he was reduced to an apparition figure. He badly wanted to talk to someone and share all his sentiments. He was so broken that he tried to talk to everybody. While he mourned his loss, hopelessness and sorrow surrounded him. The thoughts of his son bothered him so badly that he was even unaware of the snow in his surroundings. He brandished his horse more than usual and drove his sledge rashly. He became emotionally weak and kept explaining his loss even to the people who would be uninterested in knowing. He tried talking to the policemen, his passengers and the three drunkards. He was scared as he was old and had lost his young son. He understood that it would be not easy for him to earn his living. He even confessed to his horse that if he had his son alive, they would not have suffered and would have had lots of food for their living. His position was that of an old man who lost his young son and felt helpless.

When Iona understood that there was no one to listen to his grievance at the loss of his son, he turned to his horse. He attempted to talk to the officers, his passengers, the young cab driver and the drunkards about his son and what he said before his death. This occurred about a week earlier, and the cab driver had no one to talk to so far. Eventually, he decided to look after his horse. It was very painful for him to think about his son when he was alone. So he chose to keep himself busy. As he had no corn, he fed the little horse with hay as that was all he could do, as his earnings was not sufficient as he had lost his young son. He described this to the horse. The driver explained the entire story of his young son to the horse while the horse calmly listened and breathed over his master’s hand like a true companion.