The kitchen stood ready but was not in operation, since necessary food supplies were still late in arriving. The trucks brought swill more wretched by the day. The quarter loaf of bread shrank to a fifth. The cost of tobacco shot up sky-high. There was nothing to smoke anymore. The Greeks, those swindling magicians, wrung out an entire daily ration of food for a single makhorka cigarette that sputtered out in seconds. Extra pay—supplemental rations—ceased, and with it the main source of currency with which to acquire other goods.
