All night the elderly librarian was tormented by nightmares. Then he dreamed that he had turned into a shaggy little dog that lived next door and that the janitor was chasing him with a broom; then he dreamed that his, Alexei Ignatievich's son-in-law, someone well-known in business circles - a spendthrift and the darling of fate, completely sold his business, and completely killed Alexei Ignatievich's wife with a hammer. In the morning, the exhausted librarian dreamed of a green blowfly that landed right on him on the nose and crawled and crawled, rustling with transparent wings. Tiny whitish fluffs were falling out from under her paws, which Alexey Ignatievich recognized as medium-sized maggots. During this nasty episode, Alexey Ignatievich woke up.