Bye-Bye Natalia

Trapped in the dingy, airless Internet cafe, Natalia picks at the frayed black lace of her dress while the photograph of her American penpal loads into the computer. He's sent it at an unwieldy file size, and it's taking ages to come through. A horizontal sliver is slowly, slowly, slowly expanding downwards, giving her a glimpse of the top of Bob's head and nothing more. He's bald, it seems. Or almost bald. She's not usually attracted to bald men. Although Alexander Melnik, the lead singer of her favourite Ukrainian group Inward Path (now defunct, like just about everything else in her life) used to wear a woolly hat onstage, suggesting that he probably didn't have much hair on top, either. She should be more tolerant. There is a lot at stake.