19

The No Person

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Ever since his childhood, Rick had loved to play hockey. And though he no longer played on ice, he managed to pull together a group of regulars for floor hockey at a local gym, including a few recent immigrants from Russia. The first day they played, he had a run-in with one of them, a guy named Vladimir. Rick soon learned that Vladimir was the official No Person of the group. He would always tell the other players what they did wrong, not what they did right.

“Vat? You half brro-ken leg? Can you run?”

“Vat language am I to speak to get a pass vrom you?”

Each game degenerated into an argument sparked by Vladimir’s negative comments. ...

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