The Hungarian/Ukranian border, where Dr J realizes that all is not well

The icy wind blasted through the cracked windowpanes of the soulless concrete corporate condominium. Dr J could hear the dogs barking down below as they rummaged through the bins looking for scraps in the snow. He was very conscious that the Lada he had hired and parked next to the braying dogs, was by far the best car in the town and, despite the fact that today was his 40th birthday, perhaps staying indoors with the disgusting bottle of Unicum was a safer bet than seeing what entertainment the town could offer. He’d already be warned to steer clear of the one hotel. It was known to be a haunt for the Ukrainian mafia who trafficked stolen cars across the border with Hungary at exactly this point. At least tomorrow he would be back in the beautiful city of Budapest.

Half the bottle had gone leaving Dr J in a melancholy mood. He’d been brought to this place to try to devise a turnaround strategy for the large factory that dominated the town. He’d already realised that the factory was massively overstaffed and followed archaic and inefficient manufacturing practices, but it was practically the only employment for miles around. In any other country the solution would be simple – sack half the workforce and modernise, but given the time and the place, he knew he would not recommend that option.

He was also thinking of his family back home. Things hadn’t been going well for sometime. His wife, a product of a very strict single sex public school education, was of the opinion that sex was for procreation only and that actually to “enjoy” the act was practically a sin. Try as he might he had been unable to convince her to spend at least one night away with him alone – minus children – since they’d been married. His greatest, and indeed only, sadness was that his marriage was now celibate.

The following evening Dr J was alone in the bar of the 4 star hotel in Budapest. It was 11pm and the bar was full of hookers – he was probably their only prospective client. He’d never strayed before, but by God they were beautiful.

That night he slept alone as usual, but with a hard-on that would not go away.