Framing the Dialogue

“Ivan is thrilled.  Mikhail is devastated.  All their lives, they have been equal, the way good Soviet Men should be.  They had nothing, and nothing is what they shared equally.  You could not have asked for a purer expression of true communism.  As Mikhail watches Ivan’s lot improve, he seethes.  He complains to the local soviet, but there’s nothing they can do, because even in the U.S.S.R., it’s not against the law to have a cow.  Mikhail briefly considers reporting his friend to the Cheka, but finally decides against it; after all, he’s not a bad man, just a poor man…he does something he’d almost forgotten how to do.  He prays…’All my life I have striven to be a good atheist and not believe in you.  But now, I humbly come to you directly.  Please, God, please hear my prayer.  Please make us equal again.’  For a moment all is silent.  Then, to his utter amazement, a voice emerges out of the clouds, a voice that only he can hear, ‘Mikhail,’ says God, ‘your prayers have been answered.  You shall be made equal again.’  Mikhail leaps to his feet in disbelief.  A look of transfigured radience plays across his noble Slavic peasant features.  He cannot believe his good fortune. ‘Oh good!’ he exclaims. ‘You’re going to kill Ivan’s cow!”