The Solomon Effect by C. S. Graham

string of dilapidated cottages with a few shops, a power line, and a half-renovated church. A horse pulled a cart loaded with apples and driven by an old woman in a shawl.
    The banging of a door drew his attention to the back porchof a frame cottage on the outskirts of the village. A woman wearing a thick gray sweater and a nondescript skirt, a basket balanced on one hip, strode across the hard-packed yard to where clothes hung up to dry flapped in the frigid air. As Stefan watched, she started to unpin a dress, then paused to run her hand down the cloth to the waistband. Frowning, she reached out to feel the cuffs of a nearby shirt. With a shake of her head, she stomped back toward the house. Stefan, watching her, let out his breath in a small sigh.
    If he could, he would gladly pay the woman for the blue work shirt and trousers he could see hanging at the end of the line, near a weathered old shed. But he only had ten rubles in his pocket. If he wanted a change of clothes, he was going to need to steal them.
    He felt his stomach roil with shame and despair at the thought. Five years ago, Stefan’s father had been faced with a choice: cooperate with a corrupt scheme to skim electrical components from the shipments his small trucking company ferried to the port, or die. Uncle Jasha always called his brother a fool, a martyr to an outmoded system of honor. But Stefan had been proud of his father, proud of his choice. Now, Stefan realized he had more in common with his uncle than he’d ever wanted to admit.
    He crept painfully down the hill, his gaze on the cottage’s back door. His breath bunching up in his throat, he darted across the muddy road. Ducking behind the shed, he stood for a moment, hands splayed against the rough boards of the outbuilding, heart pounding. Swallowing hard, he threw one last, quick glance at the light that now flickered in the cottage window, and sprinted toward the clothesline.
    He snatched the trousers and a clean shirt on the fly. With every step, he kept expecting to hear a shout, a cry of Stop! Thief! Trousers and shirt clutched to his chest, he ducked back behind the shed. He waited, trembling and listening.But all he could hear was the breeze rustling the autumn-shriveled leaves of a nearby birch and the lowing of a cow somewhere in the distance.
    Hunkering down, he shucked off his sweater, stiff trousers, and shirt. The cold air bit his bare skin. He shivered and quickly scrambled into the purloined clothes. The trousers were a little damp around the cuffs, but blessedly soft. He pulled his own sweater back over his head, turned up the too-long trouser legs, and carefully transferred the contents of his pockets to his new clothes. He didn’t have much—the ten rubles, a piece of amber shaped like a horse’s head he’d picked up on the beach and kept for good luck, and the penknife his father had given him for his tenth birthday.
    His heart was still hammering so hard his chest hurt, but he forced himself to roll up his own clothes and dash back into the farmyard to leave them as a kind of trade on the back stoop. He was just tucking the clothes roll under the step’s unpainted railing when the door jerked open and the woman in the gray sweater took a step out onto the porch.
    She drew up abruptly, her eyes going wide, her jaw slack. She looked to be somewhere in her thirties, rail thin and bony, her straw-colored hair fading toward gray. Her gaze locked with Stefan’s. She swallowed convulsively and let out a shriek.
    “Victor!” she screeched, whirling back into the house. “Victor. Come quick. Someone’s stolen my washing!”
    Dropping his clothes bundle, Stefan bolted across the yard and down the rutted drive. It wasn’t until he reached the muddy road and threw a quick glance over his shoulder that he noticed the blue militia van parked out front.
    Idiot! he thought, arms pumping and legs stretching out as he dashed up the street. What kind of imbecile steals clothes from a