Summary

In Chapter 3, the story of how Slava’s grandmother and grandfather met is told. His grandmother, Sofia, had gone to dance at the Spartak Dance Club. She danced with Captain Tereshkin whom she was afraid would want to walk her home. She didn’t trust him so she approached Zhenya Gelman who was a childhood acquaintance. Zhenya arranged to discourage the captain and escort Sofia home. Several years later as they were walking home from another dance Zhenya had cut up a guy for calling him a "kike," a derogatory name for Jews. He had to serve a year in jail. She waited for him and they were married.

Slava had bought a notebook intending to write down details about his grandmother’s life. When he was in school Slava had invented an assignment hoping his grandmother would tell him about her past if...