A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

One afternoon in 2001, rebels march through the doors of the hospital and declare it liberated. The rebel group numbers 36 men, all with different wounds and injuries. Sonja, Deshi, Maali, and Natasha begin treating the men. Natasha tends to a man whose legs have been injured by shrapnel. Natasha calls to Sonja for pain relief, but Sonja says Natasha will have to get it herself. The hospital uses smuggled heroin as pain relief, and Natasha has never administered it before, afraid that it will trigger her addiction. Natasha successfully administers the heroin and treats her patient. The last man to be treated is the field commander, who has a huge cut across his chest, but “the last packets of surgical thread had already disappeared into the libs of their subordinates” (306). One officer produces a kit containing dental supplies. Sonja uses the dental floss to sew up the field commander’s chest. The next day, Sonja asks the field commander for a letter of passage so they can travel through rebel land if necessary. When the rebels leave, one man with an amputated arm stays behind and to guard the hospital. Six days later, Feds bomb the hospital for sheltering rebels. Maali is hit and dies before the others can administer pain relief. Natasha picks up the needle and takes the heroin herself. 

When Akhmed arrives at the hospital on the fourth day, he realizes he forgot to bring Khassan’s letters to Havaa but he remembered to bring Tolstoy’s Hadji Murád for Sonja. However, Sonja immediately flips through the last page, and when she sees that the main character is decapitated, she refuses to read it. Akhmed, Deshi, and Havaa travel to the distribution point. An army contractor is brought into the hospital, but Sonja can see that he is already dead. Akhmed returns to see Sonja talking to the corpse and insists that she rest in her office. In her office, Sonja pulls a dictionary from the shelf and sees, for the first time, an entry circled in red, which reads, “Life: a constellation of vital phenomena—organization, irritability, movement, growth, reproduction, adaptation” (317). She knows Natasha must have circled it years ago. Sonja, exhausted, falls asleep. When Sonja wakes up, she runs into Akhmed in the hallway. They tease each other and then kiss. Sonja tells Akhmed to meet her on the fourth floor in the abandoned maternity ward, where they have sex.

Ramzan is waiting for Akhmed when Akhmed returns to the village that evening. Ramzan tells Akhmed that the Feds knew a colonel had been shot with the Makarov pistol that Ramzan stole for Dokka, and Ramzan had to give them a name. Ramzan tells Akhmed about the first time he was taken to the Landfill in 1995. Ramzan had bicycled to the city of Gudermes the same day rebels attacked the Feds, and the Feds had arrested all Chechen men. Ramzan was tortured but refused to give up any names. Ramzan recounts the second time he was taken to the Landfill, saying:

“When I agreed to inform on anyone, I wished I had done it in ninety-five, in the first war, that is my biggest regret. If I had said yes from the beginning, I would still be a man. I’m not asking for your friendship or forgiveness, Akhmed, just tell me you understand.” (326)

Akhmed pushes Ramzan to the ground and refuses to forgive him, then stands “disgusted with himself, with the man at his feet, with the war that had reduced them to this” (327).

At home, Akhmed gives Ula a bath, and they go to bed. Later that night Akhmed hears trucks approaching. Akhmed injects Ula with a stolen syringe of heroin, “enough heroin to stop the heart of a healthy man” (329), hoping to grant her a peaceful death. Akhmed hides Khassan’s letters to Havaa under Ula’s body, along with a manila envelope addressed to Khassan, hoping the Feds won’t disturb a corpse. The Feds break down Akhmed’s door and capture him.