Articles

Nobody pulled Masha's pigtails much when she was a child. And not only because she rarely wore them — more because everybody knew what it would lead to. Masha could hit back. She was often hurt, of course, wondering why the boys chased all the other girls and pulled their pigtails and left her alone, but she soon explained to herself that idiots whose only trick is pulling a pigtail were the last thing she needed. And from then on the "idiots" gave her a wide berth.

An extravert is a person who comes to know himself through the response of the world around him. Hence the talkativeness (telling a story in order to work out one's own thoughts), the sociability (in order to get feedback) and, quite often, the theatricality (in order to draw other people's attention).

Marianna was the first and the last member I dragged into the club by the scruff of the neck. I actually have few "frustration" friends, and those I do have are usually seeing somebody successfully. So when I had finished Sasha's profiling, I first had a brief bout of despair — where on earth was I going to conjure up a suitable woman for him? — and then a moment of illumination: I knew the suitable woman personally. The only trouble was that the suitable woman considered herself too good for dating clubs of that sort.

Tamara and Roman first met back at school. She noticed an angular, shy and timid boy, and he noticed a thoughtful, dreamy girl who behaved as if she were older than her years. Somehow it just happened that they kept ending up together at break time, or riding home on the same bus.