Summary

In Chapter 17, Slava awoke from another nightmare. He was in his grandfather’s bed. Everyone who had not yet mailed their applications were at his grandfather’s house having their packets checked before sending them out. Slava wondered to himself who had called Otto Barber and alerted him about the fraud. Slava looked for Israel but he did not come. As he listened to his grandfather talk, Slava wondered what his grandfather would say to Otto if he were in Slava’s position. He wondered again how his grandmother would have responded if her husband was in Slava’s position. It suddenly occurred to him that his grandfather might not have had friends in his life because of the way he got out of serving in the war. Slava wondered if his grandfather was still lying to his friends about his age and why...