GROUND ZERO

| Mindy Belz

Dr. Sergei Chumihovskii reads his statistics right off the corner of his desk. They spill from a handwritten ledger in a well-thumbed folder, kept in his own precise lettering.

Kossiakov, Anatoly, he reads. Born February 1987 in Mogilev District, a contaminated area. Died June 1994 after two relapses in his fight with leukemia. (A twin brother died of leukemia at age 2.)

Chernenkov, Peter. Born May 1988. Died 1995 from hepatitis, contracted from a blood transfusion following bone marrow surgery. He, too, had leukemia.

Zyben, Genia. Two years old, now a patient beginning her first treatment series for leukemia. Born to a mother who was in the midst of puberty at the time of the nuclear accident, Genia represents a new generation of Chernobyl victims whose potential health risks are only now being plotted. Later Genia is spotted in the playroom, her face puffy with prednisone and wrapped in gauze to ward off the flu viruses.