the rewards of collectivization

The Varga family (kulaks) owned the land she and János had been working when the accident happened. Tamás, the youngest of the four Varga boys, six years older than Julia's 14, had placed the body onto Laci the mule, who had been given quite a start when the charge exploded. Julia had never given Tamás much notice except as required by the rules of village life and social position. He was neither handsome nor kind, and, unbeknownst to Julia, had a developing reputation as a letch.

Yet that day in the field Tamás showed tenderness - or rather, Julia perceived tenderness - as he lifted (not hoisted, not jerked) her brother's mutilated body from the bloody mud and gently balanced the load on Laci's back. He had even left the sacks of onions behind, returning for them later only after cleaning the blood from Laci's coat. The silent walk back to the village seemed longer than it ever had, and longer than it would ever be. Julia interpreted silence as chivalry.

Eight years later she finally caught Tamas with that damn whore Erzsi, having his way with her from behind like the animal he is, right in the coop banquet hall under the reproduction of Sokolov's "Lenin's Arrival at Finland Station," with Erzsi's whore-belly sprawled over the table like János on Laci, only her legs were both intact and spread wide to make room for the squash of a dick that she should have cut off then and there in the field with her dead brothers jackknife had she only known.