He laughed, laughed and laughed. His mouth was missing front teeth, a single metal tooth glittered in the evening sun. Beauty was gone. In  his his hideousness I could see the suffering he had to endure in a post-communist world. This was his world now, sheer poverty, flies, stray cats. Even the cats were  ugly.  A I watched him from distance, I felt  nothing,  hope had long left this town. And the wedding was only four days away.