Following an industrial injury, Seryoga's index finger and thumb on his right hand wouldn't bend; moreover, the index finger pointed about 130 degrees to the left. In the ten years since the accident, he had grown accustomed to this quirk, and it didn't cause much trouble in his daily life. However, he could no longer work as a fitter. With a perpetually dissatisfied and grumpy wife and three children to feed, and a lifelong fear of angle grinders (the sound of the cutting disc hitting his bones was permanently etched in his mind, and he still felt almost physical pain when remembering it), he had to retrain as a slinger. This job didn't require much manual dexterity, and during smoke breaks, he often told his colleagues about those terrifying seconds.
But our story is not about that long-ago incident. It happened during the construction of a military facility on one of the islands of the Franz Josef Land archipelago. In those parts, due to the swirling of the Gulf Stream colliding with the cold waters of the Arctic Ocean, the weather is extremely volatile and changes rapidly — in the time it takes to finish a cup of tea: during the first sip, the sky is clear, and by the time the cup is empty, there is already a blinding blizzard. After unloading construction materials from an icebreaker, they were moved to a temporary storage area and from there, as needed, to the construction site. After another blizzard, some beams needed to be picked up. Since the road hadn't been cleared yet and the driver had changed — and the new one didn't know the way — our hero was sent as an escort.
Out of habit, while they were driving, Sergey managed to tell his new acquaintance about his hand mangled by the angle grinder. As they approached the necessary turn, Sergey pointed to the right with his finger. Но the driver, of course, saw the finger pointing left and calmly turned the steering wheel in the direction the finger was pointing.
After climbing out of the cab through the shattered windshield, the partners, swearing at each other, made their way out of the ditch and onto the road.
— Can't you see where I'm pointing?!
— Can't see? Can't see?! Where the hell were you aiming with that "pistol" of yours?!