A fantastic story about how “perestroika” took place in the fictional city of Krivograd. The main character gets a job in the Precise Time Service - to look after the hydrogen clock instead of the master watchmaker Khaim Zalmanych Gershenzon, who is leaving abroad. "- How so? - I was confused. “You’re leaving now, when there are such changes... When life has become so interesting...” “Eh, young man,” the watchmaker waved his hand, “I’ve lived all my life interestingly, even too much, and now, in my old age, I finally want to live in peace.” “Mark my words,” he added, groping along the wall for the switch. - Someday, one day, all this will drown, excuse the rude word, in the most natural shit. And I’m afraid that it’s not just this basement that will flood. One day you will remember the words of the old Jew, but it will be too late.” [Published in the magazine “Daugava”, No. 11-12, 1990]