There was a new family in the village, something almost unheard of. The newcomers had moved from Moscow and they had a teenage boy several years older than Vlad. The boy’s name was Philip and he was unlike any other boy Vlad had seen in his life: soft-skinned, doe-eyed, and pretty useless at farming; or at anything, for that matter. And yet, Vlad couldn’t quite bring himself to despise him. The boy was nice. He had a nice smile and a lot of funny stories to tell. Vlad liked watching him. That was how one day he caught Philip kissing Sergei, another boy from their village. Vlad was utterly
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