The Caucasian Chalk Circle

For seven days, Grusha hikes through the mountains, eagerly seeking shelter in her brother’s home. The thought of being with family keeps her going, but barely. She finally reaches her destination, but “When the sister came to the brother she was ill from her wanderings” (72). She can barely stand as she tells her brother, Lavrenti, and her Sister-in-Law that she left her job when the Governor was killed. When the Sister-in-Law exits, Lavrenti asks Grusha if the baby has a father and Grusha shakes her head. When the Sister-in-Law returns and asks about the baby, Lavrenti invents a story, saying “She got married on the other side of the mountain” (73). Grusha goes along with it, adding that he’s a soldier, and Lavrenti adds that the husband will inherit a small farm. The Sister-in-Law is still unsatisfied and continues to prod until Grusha, weak from scarlet fever, collapses.

Lavrenti takes Grusha to a bed but tells her she can’t stay too long. Grusha, weak from her illness, tells Michael “If we make ourselves really small, like cockroaches, our sister-in-law will forget we’re in the house. […] And don’t cry because of the cold.