Chapter 4, Part 2 Summary

The police take Yakov to the home of Zhenia. His mother, Marfa, identifies Yakov as the man who chased her son with a long knife. The police carefully note this hasty identification. They force Yakov to examine Zhenia's bedroom. Yakov is afraid and upset to enter the room, and the guards interpret this as guilty apprehension.

Marfa tells them all how desperately her son wanted to be a priest, when he grew up. Yakov stops paying attention and notices how colorful the city is outside the prison. He smells the lilacs blooming and is lost in thought, when the colonel commands him to pay attention. Marfa tells how she came home late from work to discover her son missing. She assumed he was with his grandmother and then grew very ill. When she finally got out of bed to report him...