# Sapphire fairy (англ)

Н В Патрацкая

Natalia Patratskaya


Sapphire fairy


Chapter 1

Before the start of classes remained about ten minutes. Two girls could afford to stand on the street for a few minutes. At first glance, the young people were struck by their complete opposite. They were united only by ten minutes, which both were ready to spend on idle talk.

'If a girl goes in high heels, then she is on full alert,' said Katerina, an unusually beautiful fairy with sapphire eyes, with hair to the waist, who covered her as well as a mink coat, and glittered so skillfully that it was clear that the master stylist worked on them. She looked at the girls passing by her and probably, therefore, made her statement.

- Katerina, you better say what you wash your hair? They shine and sparkle! - Tamara asked her question, a fairy with gray eyes, white, dyed hair that did not flow anywhere, but simply stuck out from any wind in all directions. She was standing in old sneakers, and her heels didn't bother her at all.

'Tamara, I'm talking to you about heels, and you ask me questions about your hair,' Katerina complained, who wasted her time, time and gold coins on complex hair coloring and used shampoos from the best companies in the human world, but considered it to be unnecessary. Katerina towered ten centimeters above Tamara at the expense of heels on shoes worthy of a podium, and not a tile in front of the school.

Opposite them there were two pumped up guys, they talked about it is not known about what, but they measured the eyes up and down the girls. Judging by the frequency of views, the guys in their sympathies for the girls safely divided.

- Cyril, why don't you keep your eyes on Katerina's heels? Do you like shoes? And you look at her tomorrow! Our first pair will be physical education, so both of them will come in sneakers! There will be no difference between girlfriends at all! - Feofan remarked.

'I know Katerina will hide her hair in a ponytail and become modest, but today she looks great. I would have approached her, 'said Kirill dreamily, and tore off a leaf from a hydrangea,' otherwise we stand here with you, like two palm trees in the desert. '

- You like heels and drawn to the lyrics. Kirill, you come to Katerina, tell me that you did your homework ahead of time, she will immediately be interested in you, 'said Feofan.

A group of students passed by two couples, who immediately went into the building. Following the band, the guys are gone. Katerina, seeing that Kirill had disappeared with the crowd, wanted to go after him, but could not move. She wanted to complain about the situation to Tamara, but she disappeared after the others.

Katerina lifted one leg above the ground, but the second leg did not follow the first. Gorgeous shoe stuck tightly to the asphalt. A cascade of hair sank to the ground with her. She stood on one leg on a huge heel without an additional point of support, portraying a heron, trying to pull her shoe off the ground with her hands.

Suddenly, she felt that an unknown force lifts her from the ground. She thought that Kirill had returned. But it was not him. It was a robot, which ended the ladder, hanging from a flying saucer, where she was a minute later with one shoe.

Inside the flying saucer was a semicircular control panel and three chairs, tightly bolted to the bottom or floor. Behind the backs of the chairs was a semicircular wall, behind which was another semicircular cabin. In one chair sat an imposing young man with long ears-antennas. In the second chair sat a gray-haired old man with a beard and with laughing eyes. It was Afanasy Afanasyevich himself.

Looking closely at him, Katerina calmed down.

The voice of the announcer came from above:

- Katerina, take the third chair, it is yours at the moment. Calm down! With you everything will be fine! You are on board a flying saucer 08. Wear golden boots on your feet, they stand next to your seat. Put on a golden jacket and the same pants, they lie on the chair. Your mini dress will go down for a T-shirt. Everything. Yes, get acquainted, Prince Afanasy Afanasyevich, the owner of the Copper Triangle, is sitting next to you. My name is Theophanes. Cyril sits in the cockpit. In front of you is the control panel. Changed clothes? Sit in a chair.

Katerina complied with all orders and sat next to the prince. Before the old man was a control panel with a smaller number of touch buttons than before Theophan. The girl looked at the inscriptions on the buttons. And she felt sad because of her own awkwardness. She had a feeling that she was not at ease. She looked around at her golden outfit hiding the figure, and stood waiting. She felt the flying object pick up speed.

Afanasy Afanasyevich spoke in a raspy voice, he told Feofan how he understood the purpose of the flight. Catherine shuddered at the raspy voice. She was scared. She realized that they fly away into the past of people. My head flashed the thought that it was not dressed in the fashion of past centuries, and in general could be prepared in advance for the flight, at least morally and financially.

'Katerina,' said Theophan, 'we could not warn you about the flight for many reasons. The motive of the flight you would perceive pathetically. We decided to check out one fairy tale. Smile We fly to the area of the Copper Mountains. Your task is to become a lady of the Earth. Remember the movie of people, where the mistress of Copper Mountain portrayed a great actress? You have a triangle eyebrow, and that is what bribed us. Your appearance and asks for a big screen.

- I understand, you send me five hundred years into the past. Then I will plait the braid, otherwise I have a suit unfit for the Lady of the Bottom. What time of year will we get?

- The most painful question. For a hundred years I can guess, but I cannot predict the time of year. I know you can sew and knit. Do it yourself. My father, Afanasy Afanasyevich and I, will definitely find you. The three of us will go into the past, but we still know from experience that we can end up in different places. You will be served by lizards. Afanasy Afanasyevich with lizards will find a common language.

- And you could not just make the scenery and make a film in our bright world?

- We need historical accuracy. Katerina, the girl you are hardened. Nothing, get out of the situation. Are you ready to fly? Attention: minute readiness. We fly over the Copper Mountains. Katerina and Cyril catapult. I will leave the ship in a secret place. See you in the past!

Everything is nothing, but something did not work out in Theophan's calculations. Katerina felt that the time around her had changed dramatically. She ejected and regained consciousness in the snow. The people of the Brown-eyed Khan drove past her and took her like golden prey. The girl was tied up and laid on a horse. She did not moan, but only tightly clenched her lips and teeth so that she could not be heard. Katerina thought that it would be necessary to fall off her horse on the next ascent. She found it difficult to escape with her legs tied. She wanted to be found, which means that the best way to escape is to take place on the outskirts of the village.

With tied arms and legs, Katerina woke up on the outskirts of the village. The girl looked up and saw a strange village in front of her. Smoke billowed over the pipes of the houses. A man was riding a sleigh pulled by one horse through the village. Suddenly he perked up when he saw a golden log on the snow.

Having approached closer, the man saw a strange girl. The guy jumped off a wooden sled and walked over to Catherine. He looks, and in the snow lies a beautiful girl with golden hair in golden clothes, but with her arms and legs tied. A man put it in a sleigh and brought it home.

The peasant's wife ran for the healer. Katerina woke up in a house where, instead of glasses, bullish bubbles were strung on the windows. The girl slowly came to life in the hut of the local healer, smelling of dried herbs. She was physically healed, but could not answer at all the questions about who she was and where she came from.

What did people live at the time? What fed? There is a fish in the river - they will catch it. There is a beast in the forest - they will be trapped or killed with a spear, an arrow. There is a glade - sow rye. Here are fed. And whoever had a cow or a goat were those rich people. Who knew how to be friends with the bees, those who led the honey. To live in the village, you had to work in the field or keep animals.

Katerina quickly realized that she had to work in the village to live.

She remembered the lessons of home economics at school, the most simple lessons of cutting and sewing. She sewed herself a long dress made of white canvas like a nightgown, expanded it with patterns. But this dress wanted to take the wife of the village rich man. She sold the dress for groceries. She took the bag and went through the mountains, down the valleys, and in the evening she returned home. So she began to walk on the Copper Mountains.

When Katerina's food ended, she sewed a dress, gave it away for groceries, and again went to the mountains. They dragged her mountains indescribably. She found a large cave in the mountains. And as if the light in the cave was. But in the place where the light went, it could rain. She went to the dungeon, mica found. She fixed mica in places where the light penetrated into the cave. And the rain to her in the cave is no longer falling. The temperature in the cave was more constant than on the ground, which attracted the girl.

Katerina decorated the cave. She made herself a bed of a bag of straw, and the heat began to lie in her cave. The girl in the dungeon found sapphires, exchanged them for the bear's skin from the hunters. So she began to live in a cave. He will find what is inside the mountains - he will exchange in the village for the necessary thing in her household. And Katerina herself was called the Lady of the Subsoil.

The girl increasingly learned the secrets of the mountains. She possessed vision like in cats and saw everything well in the dark. The mountains are used to her and she to them.

People in the villages that were located near the mountains were accustomed to the fact that the Lady of the Minerals lives in the mountains, who began to understand what the mountains are rich with, and kept people in touch with clever people about this.

She knew where the copper ore was, where the iron was, where the coal for the furnace could be found. She no longer wore firewood from the ground to the cave, but coal also burned hotter, and it was needed less than firewood. People themselves products she carried in exchange for copper or coal. Once a girl found shiny streaks in the rock, she found gems.

She began to sew beautiful clothes, to sheathe stones. People from the villages began to respect the lady of the Subsoil even more, they bowed to her in the belt, when they went with a request, or she was carried as a gift. Katerina tamed lizards to serve themselves, many of them at that time in the mountains ran around, she fed them. And then the lizards began to bring to her what she asked. People came to visit her, they all understood.

The cave Katerina adorned the palace, everything glistened and shone in her, shined with light through mica. The Lady of the Subsoil has reached the well-being of her labor and has become bored in a cave. She wanted people to appreciate the beauty of her and her home, or maybe she wanted human love.

The girl was growing up. Once a guy came, he seemed familiar to Catherine. She called herself Katerina. In his head like a lightning bolt passed and went out. And Katerina tried to remember how she knew a guy named Cyril, but she could not. At the desire of her as if by fairy-tale decree, this beautiful guy appeared in the cave opening.

Their eyes met with astonishment, love was born and lit up in gems on the clothes of the ladies of the Subsoil. The guy in sandals, in a long shirt, embroidered in the throat, and could not move from the spot. Cyril, and this was his own person, he stood and looked at Katerina, dressed in a dress dazzling with gems. He noticed the beauty of the cave palace. The guy turned out to be by nature the same as the Lady of the Hinterlands: he did not want to feed the cows, did not want to sow rye, did not want to catch fish and go hunting.

He stayed with the ladies bowels. They began to work together inside the mountains. Cyril got accustomed in the cave, as if he got home. Lizards recognized him. Revived the dungeon. Kirill improved the life of the Lady of the Subsurface by the fact that he himself made her household utensils and decorated them with gems. The presence of the young man did not irritate the Lady of the Subsoil for the time being, but one day she was bored with the bustle of Cyril, and she began to leave the underground palace more and more often.

For a long time, semi-precious, precious stones, dark blue sapphires were valued among women. At the time of the Brown-eyed Khan, many of those stones were found in the Copper Mountains. And those mountains from north to south stretched. Many people from his troops left in the mountains, became the indigenous people, tried to find all the gems for the Khan and their women.

People with gray eyes and brown-eyed people from the Khan's army gradually intertwined. Over the five or six centuries, many black-faced people were born. In many families, the mother's eyes are brown and his father's gray.

And why did all this happen?

Gray-eyed people were brown-haired, but for three hundred years a brown-eyed yoke did not pass for nothing. There are few families left in the country in which there would be fair-haired, gray-eyed people in several generations. The Khan's troops did not reach the city of ancient Novgorod, maybe gray-eyed and brown-haired people live in those places?

In the mountains, people from the Khan's army excavated for a long time. In the mountains they searched for copper ore and docile ore, they almost believed it was gold, copper arrows were made of it, coins were minted and gem stones were found in the mountains.

Were in the army of Khan connoisseurs of semiprecious stones. Khan left his people in the mountains so that they looked for pebbles that please their eyes and protect their health. For a long time the people of the Khan worked in the mountains, with the best local craftsmen they kept the council.

They mined stones on two chests of all colors of the rainbow.

The pebbles are heavy, the pebbles are good, even on their cap, even on women's jewelry. Those pebbles agreed with the good, and parted with malice.

The stones are all tricky, though inanimate, but there is an incomprehensible power in them. I found out about the brown-eyed khan chests, was delighted. And the stones learned about that and did not want to go to the khan.

People with chests in the mountains got lost. They dragged chests, they were tired, their legs were knocked down, their hands were covered with calluses from the handles, they began to fall from hunger, and they could not find a way out of the mountains, so their bones were twisted around the chests. Lizards ran alongside the chests, they saw the bones of the servants of the khan. They lifted the lid of the chest with gems, they were overjoyed, in the other chest they looked in and danced for joy, and well, they ran to the Lady of the Subsoil.

The lizards were those servants, to please the lady of the Subsoil - they were happy, but she loved them, and did not offend them, and did not confuse them with the roads in the mountains. The chests came to see the lady of Nedra herself, the lizards ran after her like a train. The lizards, headed by Katerina, everyone knew what was being done in the mountains, and Cyril reported everything to Kirill. The lady of the Minerals rejoiced when she saw a set of semi-precious stones, she felt an unprecedented power in them, she realized that they picked up stones with great intelligence, and their dark value was to ensure the health of the person whom they recognize as their master or mistress.

If we are really telling the truth, then these lizards on the orders of Prince Athanasius Afanasyevich were led astray by the servants of the khan. He knew about the work of finding the gems, but decided to give them the opportunity to create a complete collection of stones, and now the Lady of Minerals was the mistress of two chests, giving health and well-being to their master.

The greedy lady of the Subsoil was not, and she understood: to take too much is bad. So those who collected these gems died, their radiance was stronger than what was permitted. You can not collect more than one collection of stones. One collection helps, and from two collections die.

The lady of the subsoil ordered the lizards to hide one chest where it stands, and each lizard to throw one regular stone on the chest. She knew how the khan considered his troops. Hid the chest under a mountain of stones. With the help of Cyril, the lizards placed the second chest on the bear's skin, grabbed it from all sides and dragged it to the rooms of the Lady of the Subsoil.

This chest was always with her, she did not tell anyone about it. The lizards regularly served the Lady of the Subsurface, food was brought from the ground too. She looked at the gems from the chest, but for a long time the chest could not be opened, the soul did not allow. The lizards did not advise her to keep the chest open.

After some time, a peasant wandered into the mountains to the lady of Nedra, who found her in the snow and took him to his house in the snow. I liked the peasant Lady Nedr. She clouded his thoughts and let go with God. At parting, she put a yellow stone in the peasant's hand, a gem of unprecedented beauty, unheard of.

A peasant rose to the ground, lay down on a grass-ants, lay for a long time, could not remember anything, but he felt that the heroes came to him. A man jumped to his feet and, well, he ran towards the village. Where he was, where he found the stone - the man did not remember.

He remembered that he was wandering in the mountain caves, saw the light, went to him, and then everything seemed to disappear - and woke up with a stone in his hand. The stone is beautiful and shining, the sun is bright. The man decided about the fact that he does not remember, people do not speak, they say, he found a semi-precious stone, that's all.

The Brown-eyed Khan could not calm down, that two chests with gems in the mountains remained, he sent his people after them, but the people returned without chests. People did not find Khan's chests, did not allow them to find their way. The Lady of Nedur kept her chest with stones well. Finding her or her chest was impossible. The chest under the stones was the same, but something in it was superfluous.

Strange things were going on in that dungeon. The beasts that lived nearby died early and a strange death. From the trunk of the ladies of the Subsoil, goodness and health went, but from the buried trunk, the power was evil and people at that time were incomprehensible. None of the people knew and did not know about that chest. But people felt that the place where the chest was buried was not dug there, but they found different bodies of beasts. The people themselves in this damned place tried not to happen, but rumors were coming.

When Khan's servants collected gems, one little man threw a pebble into that chest not semiprecious, but strange, which he wore in his clothes. The little man was a healthy man until he found this pebble.

He could not throw a pebble just on the ground, he wore it with him for a long time, and found it far from the mountains, when with the army of the Khan he walked along a strange steppe, in the Steppe country, where the locals sang songs and cumbersome.

In those steppes there was one enchanted place, the locals were afraid to go there.

One inhabitant of the steppes dug the land there and died soon, and no one understood why. Strong man was. The birds, the animals died there, their corpses decayed, and the crows did not touch their meat.

'Very bad place,' the residents said about him.

Unexpectedly for Catherine, her journey came to an end. Next to her was the owner of the Copper Triangle - Afanasy Afanasyevich. They came out of the cave of the Lady of Nedra, where a flying saucer and Theophan were waiting for them.

- Katerina, so why did one chest bring a lot of grief, and the other brought a lot of health? You now know the answer to this question.

She strained her convolutions and replied:

- In the second chest lay a radioactive stone.

- Right. You will follow his fate in the next flight, and now jump to your heel shoe.

Katerina came down the rope ladder from the flying saucer to the tiled courtyard. Her foot went into a forgotten shoe. She raised her leg. The foot rose with the shoe. Everything was OK. Students left the building. They surrounded Katerina. They looked at her admiringly.

- What's the matter? - Catherine was surprised.

- Katerina, you are our hero. The country is proud of your sapphire flight.

And here a miracle happened.

Katerina was pushed into the past, which was with her ancestors in the house of the woman Tanya. Katerina could not move quickly from the past to the present, she was slowly sliding along virtual time.

Katerina was invited to the Marble Palace as the Queen's maid of honor for a completely different reason. For her time, she was perfectly educated, had amazing beauty, pleasant in all respects - all of these factors became components of the reasons why she appeared in the Marble Palace. Queen maids of honor were most often girls from ancient Slavic clans.

At the responsible royal receptions, all the maid of honor should have been present and depict the crowd, through which the royal couple passed. Against the backdrop of beautiful maid of honor, the importance of the queen increased dramatically. Ambassadors stare at the maid of honor, and this played a positive role in business negotiations - they became more generous and accommodating.

Katerina came satin shoe on the edge of the dress.

- Oh, I almost spoiled the dress, and today is the reception in the palace! - she exclaimed.

Another reception in the Marble Palace was prepared fascinating: the ambassadors were entertained by an auction at which they sold new jewelry. The queen played with the ambassadors in the giveaway, and the ambassadors received gifts for nothing.

An ambassador liked so much the maid of honor of Queen Katerina, a gray-eyed, stately beauty that he gave her a yellow sapphire. Sapphire was fixed in a gold openwork disk, and the rim in its contour was in contact with a round straw box and held tightly in the box, as if someone had hidden the sun in the box.

'Sapphire" The Straw Widow, "said Ambassador Catherine. For security reasons, he decided not to accept the gift of the queen, or his premonition of danger was well developed.

Katerina put the casket with sapphire in the table secretary and locked it.

There was a knock at the door:

- Katerina, Katerina, open the door!

- Mr. Ambassador, I'm already sleeping.

- Sleep with me!

- Not! Not!

- Katerina, I will tell the queen that you are against peace between our countries!

- The Lord is with you, Mr. Ambassador!

The ambassador is gone. Soon came with the queen.

- Katerina, my mother, why do not you listen to Mr. Ambassador? - shouted through the queen's door.

'Mother Queen, he demands love.'

- Katerina, open the door! Take peace between our countries for your soul!

The queen is gone. Katerina opened the door. Ambassador rushed into the room.

- Katerina, you are lovely! I am yours, my soul!

The ambassador, a thin man, somewhat thinner than the beautiful Katerina, was already dropping ball gowns. Katerina slowly took off her dress. The room was a wide and strong bed. Only now she realized all her mission in the palace. She was taken care of for a long time. But the ambassador was important. The maid of honor screamed, jumped up and ran out of the room.

Sometimes it seemed to Catherine that the moonlight was coming from the secretary. Especially he was clearly visible on winter nights. The light of a sapphire did not frighten her, there was some mystery in it. She lit candles in the candelabra and wrote poems under the glow of sapphire. At such moments, she opened the box and enjoyed the beauty of the stone - and fell asleep with strange fatigue.

Svetlitsa windows facing the embankment of the river. The view from the window was wonderful: the waves were splashing on the granite of the embankment and were lulled at night. If the wind was blowing from the river, it was getting a little cool in the room.

The marble palace was so large and beautiful that Katerina had no need to leave it. Yes, the maid of honor and not allowed to leave the palace. The summer garden was the summer joy of the maid of honor; sometimes they were allowed to go there for a walk. Walks were rare, but the joy of the maid of honor was great.

Parents rarely visited their daughter, such a condition put the queen. But no matter how well the maid of honor fenced off from the outside world, life itself came to the palace. Katerina once saw a magnificent officer in the form of a lancer.

Oh, this form of Ulan with a high headdress and white ribbon over his shoulder made the officer even higher and more attractive for a young girl. Ulan's gray eyes began to pursue her dreams day and night.

Nobleman Cyril served in light cavalry. The meetings of Catherine and Cyril were unusually short, or so it seemed to them, and therefore completely memorable. Both were in the service of the king and fatherland.

A great joy brought them to the meeting at the ball, where the lancer got for military merits. Katerina bloomed at the sight of the gray eyes of her hero heart. How beautiful to slide on the magnificent parquet of the palace with your favorite lancer!

Life at such moments seemed great.

She knew that life in the palace was full of hidden dangers, it was impossible to say too much here, it was impossible to condemn the actions of the queen.

In order to survive in the palace, it was necessary to cheat, flatter the queen through any ears, whose tongues immediately all reported to the queen's ears.


Chapter 2

The vicissitudes of fate in the palace could be fully understood. Katerina accepted the fate and decided to wait for a free life after serving in the Marble Palace.

The fact that it can substitute any person on the orders of the queen, she has already learned well. It could have been worse if the king himself or the queen's favorite paid attention to her. Katerina from the maid cleaning in her room, knew that in such cases the maid of honor did not survive. They are stretched with a smile to a glass of drink, and after that no one sees them.

The queen is jealous for her own good and for the good of the whole country. The grandmother, who was with the queen of another country shortly before a terrible night, taught her to cook poisons.

Grandma Queen came to the wedding of the Prince of Navarre, and learned from the experience of the Queen herself. Cunning and poison - these are two components of her reign, and her sons were sick. The blood came from their pores, and the mother ruled behind them. The tsarina absorbed these stories from her grandmother and did not yield to power in the palace, even though her husband, the king, was sitting on the throne.

The maids of honor met all her requirements. The ambassadors knew who was in charge of the palace, and they gave the Queen all the necessary honors. And yet Katerina did not escape the plight of a beautiful woman. The ambassador told the tsar himself about the failed love with the maid of honor Katerina. The king was very interested in his story. He wanted to be the first, until the queen to the maid of honor Catherine someone slipped.

The king himself came to the maid of honor.

Katerina unwittingly opened the door for the king. She felt a chill of horror at her fate. Fear bound her, but she could not let the king in. The king was tipsy, the sea was knee-deep. He spoke merrily to the maid of honor. She slowly became involved in the conversation. She did not dare to repel the gentle movements of the king. The king was a master of love without love. The tenderness of his hands replaced any love.

He insinuatingly brought Katerina to an absolute understanding of the importance of the moment when she herself was ready to rush into the arms of the king. She took off her dress and helped the king undress. Love with the king so swallowed maid of honor that she simply forgot about everything. The king left, and the maid of honor waited for the Queen's revenge.


Soon Katerina realized that she was getting harder from the king day by day. The maid of honor decided to marry Ulan Cyril, but he was sent to the army on the orders of the king and fatherland. For many years the maid of honor did not serve the tsarina, therefore their composition was constantly changing. Catherine had to leave the prestigious service at the court of Her Majesty.

For the service she received the title of princess and the village of Bronze dipper. By this time, Katerina's parents had moved to the northern capital, living in a three-story stone house near Nevsky Prospect. The young princess in an interesting position moved to her parents and moved from the Marble Palace.

Katerina's soul breathed freedom of movement, freedom of choice of dress. Now she could change her dress! The maid of honor walked, resembling each other with their palace outfits, like uhlans in uniform. Katerina and Mama went to the Gostiny Dvor shop to choose fabrics and ribbons.

She bought everything that she modestly requested.

Katerina began to write poetry, which did not please her parents very much, but they were so happy about her daughter's return that they forgave her everything! She began to attend evenings of poets, read her poems in the evenings, but women were rarely indulged in praise, and she became bored with injustice. She went deep into domestic affairs and wrote on the table if she really wanted to write poetry.

Sometimes Katerina attended balls, but rather modest and not in the Marble Palace. She went to the theater with mamma. Life was calm and streamlined. Katerina read newspapers and books. Her parents tried to find her a fiancé, but she rejected everyone, which did not prevent her from continuing to be a beautiful, flourishing girl.

Pregnancy gradually increased. Hidden deadlines quickly passed. Katherine was noticed by the master Yakov Timofeevich, who lived next door. He had an estate, and not one. Due to the income of the village, he quietly lived in the capital, without bad habits. The pair they are good. Parents began to smile to their neighbor, they already dreamed of their future grandchildren ...

Ulan Kirill did not arrive in the Northern Capital by the time. Barin Yakov Timofeevich came to a state of despair. Cyril came from the war, nervous and wounded, dissatisfied with everything on this earth. Catherine's parents for anxiety did not know what to do.

But Cyril accidentally met a woman on the avenue and often came to her house, very strange for decent people. Katerina nervously experienced the changes that had happened to Cyril. Between them it was as if a ray of yellow sapphire light had passed, so it seemed to her. Their relationship became cool. She understood by her feminine sense that now she had better get married. Parents constantly hinted at Katerina about Yakov Timofeyevich.

Barin Yakov Timofeevich sighed freely when he realized that the girl began to treat him well and suggested that Katerina get married. She agreed. The wedding went well, with good taste. Soon, by mutual agreement, new relatives in the same wall hacked the door and two apartments connected.

The autumn gray sky was replaced by a frosty clear sky. Rare cirrus clouds did not prevent the sun from illuminating the first ice on the reservoirs of the city. The people and gentlemen with pleasure changed coats with capes on fur coats and casings, if they were. Long skirts swayed under fur jackets. Furs spread the smell of snuff, which poured clothes against moths. Snuff was kept in snuffboxes, it was considered supremely chic to sniff tobacco and sneeze for health. Smoke streamed from the chimneys of the houses. On the avenue rolled carriages and horses.

On a frosty morning Katerina gave birth to a boy Ilya. Jacob Timofeevich was overwhelmingly pleased with the heir. The son of the king did not know who his real father was. For the child prepared a children's room, in which hung a crib attached to the ceiling. The boy's parents brought him up according to all the rules and started learning to read early. Five years later, God sent them a girl, Masha.

Katerina walked with the children herself. She liked to raise children. At home, her parents and servants from the village helped her, but she did not trust anyone to raise her children while they were small. Yakov Timofeevich dreamed that Ilya would become a lawyer. And the boy met his hopes. He studied well and entered the law faculty of the university. Yakov Timofeevich and Katerina were a quiet couple, without great needs and costs. Everything went well with them. Their villages flourished.

And the yields were good. Their parents lived long and were tactful enough not to disturb them, but only to help. Ilya and Masha grew up under the supervision of parents, grandparents and servants. Everything good sometimes changes dramatically. The parents of Jacob and Katerina died one by one.

Their homesteads were left unattended. And immediately incomes from villages became less, and expenses in the Northern capital increased very quickly, and children grew rapidly. Barin Yakov Timofeevich had to go through the villages and bring relative order to them. He fell ill from an unusual job and died in one of the villages called the Copper Bucket, before reaching the northern capital.

Katerina tried to connect with the villages. The villages brought less and less means to its existence. She did not dare to leave the children to the servants for a long time, but she had to. Arriving in the village Copper Bucket, she realized that in the city they no longer live, will have to lead a rural lifestyle. She decided to take her daughter Masha to her and send money to her son to study. So she did. The door between the apartments in the house was walled up. One apartment rented. The houses required repairs and were not very expensive.

For some time, Katerina has adjusted the village life. One day she looked at the yellow sapphire, and it seemed to her that he was not satisfied with her life. Or sapphire did not like life in the village. Sometimes she perceived the radiance of a stone as a lively response to her troubles. How could a queen of honor, a lady from the royal retinue, live in the village? Could not. And she remembered Ulana Cyril. She thought that if ulan is alive, he still loves her.

Katerina appointed a new manager of all the villages and went to the Northern capital, taking with her the means of subsistence in the city.

First of all, she started repairing her house, then updated her wardrobe, then found Kirill. Forget the first love he could not yet. By this time he had become a beautiful and docile man. Life has taught him a lot. Katerina and Kirill got married and restored the second apartment.

Catherine's daughter Masha grew up, but did not look like her mother. She was not distinguished by her mother's beauty and stateliness, so there was no hope that she would become the Queen's maid of honor. Masha looked like her father, Yakov Timofeevich, in everything. She had no bad habits, but there were few good ones. Masha was married to an equally calm guy who had no particular desires. Previously, his desire was dictated by his mother, now Masha, if she herself was not lazy to desire anything.

Both were melancholic.

The kids have grown up. Katerina could calmly read books again. She read the book The History of the Clans of the Russian Nobility with great interest. Katerina took herself to the nobles, but she really wanted to find ancestors in the book! One was a pity that all the nobles were counted in the male line from the rulers of the ancient clan.

And if you trace all the boyars and princes to the nineteenth century, in which Katherine lived, it turned out that the princes destroyed themselves from generation to generation.

How? With great chic they married and married almost relatives in different generations. Of course, there were newcomers from other clans, but people tried to keep their clan along the line of the ancient clan.

The women who married people from another kind disappeared from the lists of princely families. It turned out that the more and more I looked through Katerina's book, the more I met stories about barren men, sons of great clans.

Some of the princely family survived, but it was very clear that the story now and then turned back to find the ancestors of the omnipotent at other times. The surnames were constantly changing in a somewhat strange way: the name of the whole clan was obtained from the nickname. Katerina came to the conclusion that she definitely did not have direct ancestors from the ancient race, but she did not exclude lateral branches.

Cyril did not condemn Katerina's addiction to books; he knew one thing: if the wife reads, it means that the house is quiet. And he was at peace with her. They lived quite well. Cyril had no children of his own.

Daughter Masha surprised her relatives by going to live in the village, to the estate of her mother. Her husband Anton Ivanovich left with Masha. In parting, Katerina presented Masha the Sapphire Straw Widow.

The son of Katerina Ilya graduated from the university. He became a handsome and intelligent man. Outwardly, he looked like Katerina. Ilya took the personal lawyer Prince Voronov, who often visited the court. The prince's daughter, Lizonka, fell in love with the handsome gray-eyed Ilya. The prince himself was not against the marriage of his daughter.

He perfectly understood that such an Ilya, a hardworking and decent person, can save and replenish the wealth accumulated by the ancestors. And Ilya looked like a king ...

The love of the young princess was hot-tempered. All her houses were called Lizonkoy. She was a flying moth. Her knobs hovered over the piano keys. Her skirts flew over the grand palace of the prince. Thin and light, graceful and beautiful girl enveloped with their fluids noble Ilya. Next to her, he seemed to be an even taller and stronger man. Lysonka had a pronounced temperament. Live and agile girl. For a long time she was not angry. Not a lot worried. In life, she had everything, in terms of income and wealth.

Wedding Lizonka asked to make a magnificent, but without a lot of people. They collected an entire sleigh train and drove around the central streets of the Northern capital with bells. Sable fur coat with an ermine collar perfectly kept Lizonka warm during the trip. To live young remained in the palace of the prince.

Ilya calmly endured his wife's quirks and fit well into his father-in-law's palace. The love of the young was dictated by Lizonkoy herself. Her irrepressible temperament. But they had no children for a long time. Smart wife, as a noble noblewoman, to protect against pregnancy used a gold ring. Ilya mentally experienced the absence of children, not knowing about the golden ring.

But they were young. He had a lot of work, as the prince, Lizonka's father, had his own factories in the city. The workers were not always submissive. Yes, and suppliers had relative decency. Masha did not visit her brother. Home to his mother, Ilya almost did not go. Masha and Ilya did not find a common language. Brother was further separated from his sister.

A child appeared in Ilya's family. This Lisa finally decided to become a mother and gave birth to a girl. Ilya was very happy with her daughter, and she most of all loved to climb her big dad. Her mom was constantly in business and very often absent from home. With the child sat nurse-nanny. Little girl again fluttered in search of adventure in the northern capital. She often spent time with her friends than with a child.

The granddaughter of the king lived not far from the palace, on the channel with golden sphinxes. But the king did not know about his granddaughter and about his son, who lived practically next to him, even by the standards of the nineteenth century.

Elapsed time, two or three hundred years. One day, people came to mine copper in carts, and even stumbled upon a chest, which the gnomes pelted with earth, and next to the skeletons lay the servants of the khan-eyed khan. People took the chest and carried it to freedom, the Queen was immediately informed to the northern capital.

The queen ordered to deliver a chest to her, but some of the stones along the road disappeared along with the people. Not without it. She did not know, she did not know that it was impossible to distribute these gems, it was impossible to look at them for a long time.

The queen died from the radiance of stones. In place of the queen, the king came. He knew about the misfortune with the queen, so he kept the chest closed in his chambers. The king called the fortuneteller to himself and asked him what the power of the stones was. She was a great inventor, but she foresaw a lot.

The fortune teller said that the stones have tremendous energy, incomprehensible to her, and it is better to remove them from the king's chambers. I obeyed the king fortuneteller. Removed gems from the king. He ordered one of them to make jewelry, so that all of them were beautiful and different in taste.

The king decided to give away all the gems for the benefit of himself and his fatherland. Jewelers, who made the jewelry, died more often than other jewelers. And they made jewels for ambassadors out of those stones, decided to give them away at holidays, assemblies. One jewelery made of yellow sapphire, the king himself called the "Straw widow."

Katerina's granddaughter, Varvara, grew up as a beautiful, stately gray-eyed girl with a large light brown braid, and a satin bow was adorned at the top of the braid. From the age of 14, they sent matchmakers to her. To her grandmother, the girl only once went to the banks of the Neva. Grandma was pleased with her granddaughter and was very sorry that she lived in the village, but Varvara's mother, Marya Yakovlevna, refused to go to the city.

Varvara's father, Anton Ivanovich, was transformed in the village. Here, no one considered him as lullaby, as in a city. Here he was revered as a smart and strong man. In the village he was in his place. Most often, Anton Ivanovich could be seen in the forge. He liked to work with a heavy hammer. Blacksmith he was excellent. In the village with him, the people began to build stout houses.

They built a good mill for everyone. Anton Ivanovich was the father of his family for all villagers. Marya Yakovlevna, in moments of sadness, took out a gift from her mother - the Sapphire 'Straw Widow'. Sapphire was not very fond of life in the village, but he approved of the actions of Anton Ivanovich and meekly endured the sad glances of Marya Yakovlevna. Sapphire lay in his golden frame and sad with his mistress.

In the village a tragic event occurred. One rebellious horse kicked Anton Ivanovich so hard when she was shod, that he fell down and soon died. Marya Yakovlevna was numb from grief and practically did not move herself. Barbara bothered around her mother. Mother solemnly, as far as was possible in her situation, gave the sapphire "The Straw Widow" to Barbara and died.

The girl was 15 years old. In memory of her mother, she had a sapphire, but her daughter considered him mom's trinket and put it behind the stove. Without sapphire, she felt better, he mysteriously acted on her badly, he interfered with her yellow eye. In a word, sapphire and Varvara did not like. She was left alone. She endured the sad state of losing her father and mother with great difficulty.

Near the village grew forest. She was unknown to shyness, she was born near the forest. Barbara began to walk in the woods for strawberries, for raspberries, for mushrooms. Her friends took little interest; she preferred solitude in the forest. Instead of a gun, she took with her a light bow and arrows.

A neighbor, at her request, made arrowheads. Bow for her bent master, who knew the properties of the tree, but more often for people he wove baskets. Barbara shot well at a small target. She did not hope to kill the archery bear, and she needed her for complacency. From the bow Varvara could shoot a duck on the fly.

A friend of the girl showed up the most unexpected - an elk. This marvelous animal with branchy horns always went on the path when Barbara went into the forest. The first time the girl was frightened by an elk and turned back to the house. The elk stopped and began to beat his hoof on the ground, as if he asked: come back, do not go.

Barbara stopped, turned to the moose, and approached him, as if he were a simple horse. Barbara knew how to handle horses, but preferred to walk, not ride a horse. And elk? Barbara did not know what to expect from an elk. In the bag she had a piece of bread. She broke off half and stretched the elk. Elk with huge soft lips took the bread from the palm of Barbara.

Barbara began to talk to him, and then said a simple phrase:

- Elk, come with me.

And the elk went with her. Varvara patted his withers. Elk shook his head. Barbara did not collect anything that day, but she was calm in her heart. She walked a little with the elk, with this slim and proud animal from the forest world. And again she said:

- Elk, let's go home.

The elk turned and went to accompany her home. When the hut began to shine through the trees, the elk stopped. Barbara understood him and said:

- Elk, go to the forest. We'll meet Again.

Elk obediently went to the forest. Elk met Barbarian several times in the forest. The meetings of Varvara with the elk were noticed by Andrew, the son of the manager, who was once appointed by Maria Yakovlevna. Andrei asked:

- Barbara, what kind of friendship do you have with a wild moose?

'I don't know, but the elk is waiting for me constantly on the path when I go into the forest.'

'Did you feed him bread?'

- Yes.

- Barbara, friendship with a moose is interesting, are you not afraid? Why do you carry a bow?

- I like to hit the mark.

- Barbara, marry me! I understand it's hard for you to live alone.

- Let's get married, but in a year.

Barbara married handsome Andrew, but he was soon called to the army. He returned as a completely sick person, and yet they had a daughter, Masha, when Varvara turned 25 years old.

Six months after the death of Andrei Varvara Antonovna married a second time, for the widowed man Artem Ivanovich, his son Mitya left his wife. The life of Barbara became poorer and more difficult. Artem Ivanovich and Barbara decided to go to Siberia, to look for happiness. They stopped in a village, put a house with a roof over his head.

Artem Ivanovich met with a political exile, helped him. The exile was literate, he began to teach literacy Mitya, and mother was not allowed to teach Masha. The girl's neighbors fed rye bread with milk, and it was very tasty, went for a treat. In Siberia, the sticks did not grow on trees, happiness did not smile, but the cold was harsh.

Masha's parents decided to return to their homeland, to their native village, where their relatives helped them, and they stayed in the village. Artem Ivanovich worked as a tailor, went with his wife to the villages. Together they sewed clothes to the one who invited, they received mostly products for the work. So they kept and fed the family.

They had a sewing machine.

Varvara Antonovna helped her husband to sew clothes, but manually. She knew how to sew with her hands, like a sewing machine - such smooth stitches were obtained. During the raid of strange people in uniform, the family was confiscated from the family. Varvara began working as a cook and feeding combiners. Artem Ivanovich died.

Varvara was left alone with the children from Artem Ivanovich, - Volodya and Misha, they were helped by Masha, who at that time was already working along the party line. Mitya was already an adult, he studied, got married, but unsuccessfully, worked in the city finance department as an accountant, later as a teacher, died at the front.

A group of gamblers played cards; the group was headed by a woman Varya, Varvara Antonovna. The players behaved very excitedly, considering their age: Katerina was 5-6 years old, Sergey was 3, Tolya was 7. Baba Vary had a task: to sit on that day with the children of her two younger sons, who went out with their wives .

Cards tired, took the lotto. The grandmother called the numbers, and the children locked them on their cards with pennies or round metal plates, very much like pennies. The year was 1956-1957 ... The house in which the children and grandmother played was a small, wooden one. In this house lived Tolya with his mother and stepfather. Yes, the son of Baba Vari was a boy's stepfather, but a favorite, and the boy calmly called him dad.

Katerina with Baba Varya and her parents lived in a large brick house. This is probably where their parents were, while the children with their grandmother were in a wooden house. Did not relatively young parents celebrate New Year? For a very long time, the children played cards and then lotto. But the next New Year, Lena met in a large leather chair in Uncle Vasya's house. The receiver twisted two songs. Everything around was festive, and for the first time Katerina and Tolia danced something like a waltz 'On the hills ...' to the joyful cries of an adult generation.

Katerina was not loved by her mother when Baba Varya visited Tolya's mother.

Years passed quickly. She and her mother now lived in a brick house, next to the school where Katerina studied. Not only that, her teacher of Russian language was their neighbor.

The teacher was extremely beautiful and slim, with hair laid in the form of a cockscomb. In those days, they wrote feathers and dipped the pens of pens in the inkpots, which spilled ink well. Katerina, when she was on duty, went for a tray with inkpoints to the teacher, but there were no chance meetings with her half-cousin Tolya either.

Katerina's parents were taken to another country, probably because they were trying to make a clothes demonstrator out of her in a fashion house. The fashion house was across the street from the Toli house.

During the winter holidays, Katerina returned to her hometown. She went to her friend Tanya, and then to Tole and his mother. Tolya grew up, became a handsome guy and looked like an actor playing in a famous film. At that time, he was in high school. Katerina Tolya liked, but they just sat at the table, and she went home.

Lived woman Varya 90 years. She has never been to a doctor. All the teeth themselves fell out. All children were born outside the hospital. In 80 years, she had a single operation. After discharge, she herself ran out onto the porch of the hospital. Medicines did not drink. With coffee is not met. Read not learned. She was able to speak boils. She knew how not to clash with others. She went through many wars and hunger strikes, one of her favorite dishes was: boiling water, crackers, onions, salt ...

Theophanes continued to develop the theme of the two chests of the ladies of the Subsoil. He knew perfectly well that one chest with gems, collected by the Khan's people and containing a radioactive element, was distributed as souvenirs. This chest carried negatively charged elements.

The fate of the yellow sapphire "The Straw Widow," he represented and knew that the gem justified its name. Now he wanted to find a chest with a positive set of gems.

For further experiments, Feofan needed to wait for the birth of another heroine for Katerina. He traced the lives of people embedded in the computer system of the office of movement. Katerina had to be sent at the right time to a certain place on Earth.

The soul of Katerina and the soul of her heroine among the people would have to be combined without much discomfort. The difficulty was that the heroine changed the place of life, but he found a way to overcome this obstacle.

This time, Katerina was not abducted from the tile courtyard. She was already a recognized lady, capable of accepting assignments without youthful maximalism, and still young enough to enter the soul of a young girl.

The transfer of Katerina and her company in time was made, as usual, from a flying saucer, the dimensions of which for people were so small that it could be taken for a balloon, but not for an aircraft. The flying saucer hovered over the desired object, the landing force descended to the ground to meet in the image of ordinary people.

Katerina was studying in the sixth grade by this time. Not far from two-storey houses, a new microdistrict was built from five-storey houses. Happy people lived in them, but the children studied in the same school located in this new neighborhood. The neighborhood adjoined the red barracks.

The house was a two-story, of eight apartments. In the room of Katerina there was a stove, so big that it was rather part of the wall, but with its own corner, which came into the room, as if this corner was a stove. The stove was heated in the hallway, so the wall on the side of the room was just warm. A tortoise was constantly warming on the floor near the stove, which was attracted by the heat of the stove. She warmed herself at the stove, crawling around the room.

Turtle liked to eat cool cabbage leaves. She sat at the stove and gnawed cabbage leaves. If food delivery was delayed, the turtle crawled onto the bedside mat. So she said she wants to eat. Katerina woke up, lowered her legs ... and quickly lifted them in order not to step on her little girlfriend.

She took the turtle in her hands, twirled her in her hands, looked at the amazing eyes of the animal and the shell. Katerina brought food for the turtle. It was a turtle turtle. The furniture in the room was with high legs. The turtle was visible anywhere in the room, and the closet was so close to the floor that the turtle didn't crawl under it. Katerina found the turtle quickly.

Katerina waved her magic wand, but it did not hit at that time. The girl woke up in a train at the age of seven, she sat by the window and looked at her house, which they were driving slowly. Outside the window flashed her playground. She saw her woman Varia, who was sitting on her favorite stool. The girl wanted to cry, but her mother sat next to her, and on the table lay a newspaper for 1958.

Katerina was born in the maternity hospital, standing on a city street, parallel to which the river flowed. Those years are shrouded in time. The street of those times was very decent. On it stood vigorous houses of three-four floors of yellowish color. In the courtyard of the long brick house Katerina had the nickname Beauty. She did not know who gave her this nickname, but sometimes she was called that, at that time she was five or six years old. She was a big girl and was taller than her peers.

By the age of seven, Katerina had two long braids, but at four she still had a haircut with a four-sided bang. Her friend Tanechka also went with this hairdo. The girls were friends under the views of their grandmothers. The playground was quite large, it was located along the length of the house. On the one hand, it was bounded by a house, and on the other hand, by a picket fence, followed by the railway.

Here is a place and raised Katerina to eight years. Tanya's father was a designer. They lived decently for those times. They had a two-room apartment in the next doorway. Tanya's grandmother was very intelligent and constantly made comments to Katerina because of her pimples or because of her nose. She Katerina fed several times with Tanya. Katerina, with her constant appetite, increased Tanya's ability to absorb food.

The girls played hide and seek in the designer's room several times and hid behind the closet, so that there was a free corner behind it. Most of all, Katerina liked yellow, sharply sharpened pencils and white sheets of paper on the table. The Tanechka family was soon given a three-room apartment in a brick house located on the same street, and they moved. Tanya was born with a sister. The ways of the girls diverged forever ...


Chapter 3

The train went north along the ridge of the ancient mountains, where Katerina was a lady of Nedra in her previous life, and the train turned towards the Northern capital. They arrived in the big city of Leningrad. At the station, Katerina saw yellow cars with checkered side doors, they were called "Victory". But they rode the subway to her mother's aunt, who was a couple of years older than her mother. They stopped at Aunt Ani. In the northern capital there were still houses destroyed by the war, but this did not prevent them from walking around the Hermitage and Petrodvorets, where not all the rooms had been restored.

Not far from the golden figures on the bridge, there lived the cousin of Baba Vari, Baba Tanya, with her brother Sergey Kirillovich, they lived on the bank of the canal, near Nevsky Prospect.

Aunt Ani's husband, Aunt's husband, introduced Katerina and her mother to the city. Aunt Anya didn't go on trips with them, she cooked food and drained pots to mirror cleanliness. Katerina forever remembered a tall, thin man who tirelessly showed the Northern capital and its environs. They then lived in the same room, in an apartment with their neighbors, in a very old area of the city.

The fairy tale has a long effect, and quickly people grow up and age. So Katerina returned her soul to the world of people, as if she had returned from a long business trip. Katerina is seven years old again. Katerina and her mother returned home from Leningrad, they had a penny in their pocket.

Children's joy at that time cost 4 kopecks. She was sold by Frosya the gazirovschitsa. She stood behind a metal stand under a striped fabric roof. On a metal counter two glass cylinders with syrup towered, sparkling water without syrup cost 1 kopeck. You could buy a box of matches for a penny, but the girl added three more and bought water with syrup.

Glasses were washed on a turntable with a fountain and turned upside down on trays. The second joy cost 9 or 11 kopecks, naturally, it was ice cream: a popsicle on a stick for 11 kopecks and milk ice cream for 9 kopecks. The country has changed money. Ten-year-old Katerina realized that 90 kopecks with old coins is 9 kopecks new or three 3 kopecks old. The girls regretted one thing: that they had not accumulated yellow coins, otherwise they would have been richer ten times. Katerina had another treat for 8 kopecks - a bag of pressed cocoa with sugar.

Katerina was given a two-room apartment in a two-story house without central heating batteries. In the square they won, in comfort they lost.

The house was wooden, plastered. This is where the first TV appeared. Neighbors came to Katerina's apartment and looked at the small screen together.

Katerina well remembers her second apartment without prompts. They had an apartment with stove heating. In the big room there was a sofa, on a shelf of a sofa there were seven elephant ivory. There was a painting on the wall where bears walked along a broken tree. Standing on a bedside table made of oak was one of the first TVs. All the neighbors went to them to watch TV.

Katerina had her first working day when the Fashion House opened. Needed a model. The school from the fashion house was across the road. Two women came to school and began to examine girls of twelve and older. Chose Katerina. She came to the Fashion House, where she was taught to walk on the catwalk. She began to sew trousers, skirts, jackets. She stood, and she was wrapped with cloth and cut off with needles. By nature, she is not a mannequin. For a long time it could not continue. The time has come to pay her money, but she could not take it. Catherine could not take the money and everything !!! And she left the fashion house. Came to her house, brought the money. She bought flippers, a mask, a tube for money. For a long time the flippers served her, and she never fell in love with diving.

Once a red-haired boy approached Katerina in school and said:

- Katerina, do you want to be a radio announcer?

Why not. Let's go to the audition. She read the text. Everyone came running to her: very much.

They say:

- Read again.

I read it. All fled. Everything is like with fashion - duplicates are not its elements.

Sometime in May, Katerina in twenty minutes decided to complete a control work in mathematics. She was released from class to the street. Spring fluttered fresh leaves. The school was one-storeyed, several classes were temporarily transferred here. But most of all in this school, she remembered the flight of the first cosmonaut.

There was a lesson in Russian, which was interrupted by a call. From all the classes, the schoolchildren ran out into the corridor with exclamations: "Man in space!"

Katerina invented newspapers on one sheet of a school notebook. With a classmate, they drew the first newspaper on the drawing paper. Katerina wrote the first lines of poetry under each picture.

The first trees were planted around the school in the spring, the school is new. Next to the school was a deli in a five-story building. The queue for soy bars was included in the list of receiving children's joy.

Katerina lived in a two-story house. On the ground floor, there was a friend at home, Valya. In her house they loved to make one potato dish: boiled potatoes were put on a large frying pan and fried. In the kitchen they cooked on the stove with cast-iron circles. They stoked coal in the apartment and in the kitchen where they cooked food. Next to the stove there was always a broom and a poker.

In the next two-story house lived the remaining girlfriends. Favorite game in the yard - 'Gardener', it was held on a bench against a neighboring house. Behind the bench was a table for table tennis, which was rarely empty. Volleyball is a game common to the whole yard. The yard limited the third house. The fourth house was demolished and built a brick, two-story. It settled family from the capital. In the summer they went in slaps. These shoes are called Muscovites.

The first enemies appeared simply: Katerina drew all the friends, and they didn't speak to her for half a year after the drawings. And she painted them beautifully! In lush skirts in the fashion of the early sixties.

Getting to know fiction was simple. In the apartment of Nadya's classmate there was a shelf, while rare books were then on the shelf - J. Verne. In this apartment, Katerina first saw and remembered the eggs.

Bath was a holy place once a week for Katerina and her mother. There was no shampoo at that time, but there was laundry soap and long hair. In the bath were long lines. At the end of the washing process, the mother poured Katerina on the head with a basin of cool water, with the words: "Water from the goose, thinness from Caterina." Perhaps that is why Katerina was never thin.

At home in the corner of the kitchen hung an icon. Through the yellow copper was visible face painted in colors on the tree. Icon when moving disappeared.

The school held the firework - An hour of fun competitions, such as KVN.

Ira once suggested:

- Katerina, let's go to the dance club at DK. I will say that you already danced.

I came. Danced. Has reached performances at concerts, has acted in two and all. The school had a set in the volleyball section. She played Katerina, trained, reached the competition between schools. Got the nickname "evil captain."

Went to a summer camp. She played table tennis. The best tennis player of the camp was not indifferent to her. Pretty quickly, she mastered the wisdom of the game. Together they all won and played the most. This is not all. With girls Katerina played musketeers. At the end she tied her long hair with a ribbon and tucked it up, this was how the musketeer's hair did and no less.

She was sent to the Olympiad, but she solved them well, that is, the first places she did not smile. In the courtyard of his house on the street, the children played 'The Gardener', tennis, volleyball, and theater. In the new school they wrote with pens with steel feathers and dipped them into inkpots.

Katerina was tall, slim and played volleyball, danced in the friendly team of the house of culture, but the dances did not detain her for a long time. She had long, luxurious hair that she braided and twisted so that it seemed shorter.

Katerina's father bought clothes and shoes several times. He chose beautiful things and shoes. She was involved in sports, so the food could not for the time being spoil her figure. She was bought skates-knives in honor of the countrywoman, Olympic champion. Winter evenings Katerina spent on the rink. My father had a garden in which, apart from apple trees, pears, plums, currants, and stretchers, tiger lilies always grew.

We went to the garden by train to the cottage. The memory of unusual taste and slate apple trees remained in my memory. Cottage sold and went to the sea. Cherries, stones on the beach, portraits of pioneers-heroes. Concerts of Lilliputians. Divine evening view of the sea. Pancakes on the beach. Bagels. Closed museum of paintings by Aivazovsky. It was wonderful!

Katerina has no offense for the wonderful time of her childhood, for the wonderful time of her youth. Everything was as it was, and her parents did everything so that she had what she had.

Katerina felt that her magical energy dried up, ordinary life began. So she remembered the summer, spent not in the village, but on the lakeside.

Residents of the village, located in the spurs of the mountains, believed that the village of Medny bucket has its own spirit, which protects it from ancient times. According to local legends and eyewitnesses, on one side of the village there is an exit to the space portal. The appearance of the village has changed over seven centuries. In recent years, the village seemed younger, new houses appeared, and old ones began to be tiled.

Katerina arrived in the village Copper bucket for the holidays to Aunt Dasha, who lived in an ordinary wooden house. And the house of the prince ... The house with the towers stood on the edge of the village, on the bank of a small river. The copper roof gleamed in the sun. The vertical protrusions on the house smoothly passed into the turrets. The first floor of the perimeter was lined with greenish marble. All the tracks on the site were lined with greenish ceramics, a slender young man ran along them. Soon he got tired of this occupation, and he shouted towards the windows:

- Father, everything! I'm leaving, I'm sick of such holidays!

'Go, Feofan, wherever you want,' the gray-haired, important, purebred man said quietly. He appeared out of the ground behind Theophanes.

- Again you scare me, Afanasy Afanasyevich! I am brave, but your appearances from nowhere infuriate me!

- And you do not be angry. Live in peace, although it is not given to you. You need to live not one life, but several: you will recognize the past as an archeologist, learn the present as a coach, and move from the present to the future as a designer.

- You're visionary, father! I will be who I will be according to the situation. By the way, Katerina's niece came to Aunt Dasha. Girl what you need. Am I by any chance a relative of hers?

- I know that she came. Our kinship with her is of ancient roots, you will not marry her, but if you meet her, help. Now you can leave, and I will call Catherine to me.

Katerina walked slowly along the village street. She came to Aunt Dasha for the summer holidays. An elderly handsome man was walking towards the girl. He stopped, staring at her, and asked her to go near him. He was handsome in the twilight of his days and divinely good.

Further more: he invited the girl to his home. Katerina was not scared, she knew that the man's name was Afanasy Afanasyevich. She saw him last year, he lived in a posh house by local standards. His prim mansion was served by a butler, a cook and a chauffeur. One woman cleaned and put the house in order in the mornings, when the owner was still asleep.

Katerina examined the pompous house, and she felt uneasy. Something terrible through the stucco and huge paintings. She shivered involuntarily. She wanted to leave another's secret without recognizing her. But the owner offered the girl a deal or contract. He offered her to live in his house without special duties, but with one condition: she should not leave his house during the summer holidays - it was supposedly that much time the doctors left for him to live.

She will receive so much money for her service that she can buy a new home of the same size as his old palace. As for his house, he is not subject to sale. The girl, knowing that the money goes to hard work, agreed to the conditions of Afanasy Afanasyevich. The owner promised that he would warn aunt Dasha of her whereabouts.

The butler lived on the ground floor and practically never left the mansion. The cook and the driver went to sleep at home. The chauffeur was engaged in shopping for the house, sometimes he would take a cook with him if he went to buy groceries. Katerina quickly realized that she could leave the house with the driver. And traveling around the house was her day enjoyable.

Another condition of the contract had a negative effect: she could not have cash, but she could choose the necessary things and products, and the driver paid for her requests from the owner's wallet.

Two weeks flew like a vacation.

Then it became more difficult, and Catherine wanted to leave the house of Afanasy Afanasyevich, but she could not do that. She was ready to break the contract, but she had no way back for the next two months. The owner did not require her presence next to her in the room, she could move around the palace and the small lawn around the house at any time.

The woman who came in the morning to clean the mansion did not speak with Catherine. She collected clothes in the laundry and brought back clean and ironed. Men serving the owner, were obscenely laconic.

The owner of Catherine did not say much. More than two phrases a day it was impossible to wait. The girl was ready to talk to herself. She always communicated easily with people and often got tired of their confessions, and now she was in a verbal vacuum. In the house she counted five televisions of different times and not a single computer. There were no phones that surprised her unpleasantly. But there was a worldwide library.

Books were in the cabinets, closed by glass doors. Surprisingly, the books were without signs of aging paper. Katerina was struck by this fact so much that she was involved in reading. All the books were as if they had just been brought from the store. But looking at the year of publication, she was even more surprised.

The library contained books older than a hundred years or more! Soon Katerina noticed that the bookcases are tight enough that the doors close tightly and effortlessly on her part. A few days later she felt a strange smell in the book storage, he drove her away from the books. Books seemed to ask her not to touch them!

Katherine had no choice but to watch TV. One TV was with a lens filled with water. The second TV was black and white with a tricolor filter. The third TV was decorated with indoor horn antenna. The fourth TV was with a large screen, color and thick. The fifth flat-screen TV was in the bedroom of Prince Athanasius Afanasyevich.

The girl looked at the screens of five televisions, working according to their time of manufacture, and groaned with pity for her beloved. And not a single phone! This for her turned out to be beyond understanding. Information from the outside gradually disappeared from the life of the girl.

Driving with a driver has been reduced due to her constant expenses. Katerina wanted to look at the moon, which could still shine through the window without the permission of Afanasy Afanasyevich. She decided to go to the moon, to nature.

The girl found garden tools and zealously set about improving the land lying around the mansion.

But nothing came of her idea. Katerina quickly realized that the bayonet was constantly bumping into something hard. She squatted down and excavated the ground with her hands. Under the ground everywhere were reinforced concrete slabs! That is, around the house grew only grass on a small layer of soil!

Katerina sat down on the grass from impotence and felt a glance from the window, but she didn't even turn her head towards the old man.

The girl's gaze turned into the fence, she didn't notice the barbed wire and dogs, but that didn't make her feel any better. With nothing to do, Katerina began to do all the gymnastic exercises that had occurred to her. For several days the girl spent all her strength on various exercises.

Katerina managed to take a newspaper from Afanasy Afanasyevich's post office and read the following lines: 'Under the influence of the atmosphere, copper is covered with a durable, non-toxic oxide layer - patina, which gives the copper roof a beautiful shade. It is especially convenient to use such material for a copper roof, low temperatures do not affect the ductility of copper ".

It was after reading these lines that Katerina wanted herself a house covered with a copper roof, so that she could more easily endure the trap of Afanasy Afanasyevich.

In the courtyard, Katerina saw a sparrow swarming in a flowerpot filled with earth, but without a flower. The girl sang a song:

'A sparrow bathed in a flower pot without a flower.' His work is so easy that the sparrow is cheerful. He sketched the earth around, he scattered the grains. And happy little my friend, he sowed smeshinki.

The owner, having heard Katerina's song, allowed her to go out of the manor's gate for a couple of hours in search of local adventures.

The girl went into her room, opened the closet with clothes, chose a yellow trouser suit. She went to the mirror and saw in him a girl with disheveled hair. She was ashamed of her appearance. Katerina went to the shower, washed herself, brushed her teeth, and laughed with a white-toothed smile.

She wrung out her hair with a towel, dried them with a hair dryer, combed it with a comb and jumped on one leg with joy. She put on a yellow light suit, white-yellow sandals and, dancing, went down to the first floor of the house.

The butler let the girl out through the gates of the mansion.

Katerina walked around the village hoping to meet someone to hear a normal human voice. She saw near one house a wide bench, the boards of which were pulled together by copper strips. The bench was not far from a modest wooden house under a magnificent birch tree.

The golden branches of a birch tree moved so beautifully from the light wind that the girl decided to sit on a bench and look around. She remembered how she first came to visit Aunt Dasha last year.

The sun shone through the curtains just like a copper ladle into which it fell by its rays. But the sun and the copper ladle by common efforts did not make stars out of Catherine. Now all the stars are singers, thin, small in stature and weighing up to 50 kilograms. "Probably, so that the scene under them does not fail," - thought the girl. Yes, to be a star is not for her, but for singing birds, and she has a different weight category.

There are racing horses, and there are heavyweights that are heavy, but slow. They are closer to Katerina, and even closer to her Sisyphean labor. So, last summer she drove from the train station to the village in a real cart with wooden wheels. The cart was carried by an ordinary horse.

The next morning, Katerina went to the river in the same swimming trunks.

Neighbor Semenovna jumped out from behind the fence and screamed:

- Girl, you completely lost conscience! The chest has already appeared, and you are not covering it! You're a big girl, you can not walk around the village like that!

Katerina stopped, eyes on the neighbor dragged out and could not understand at all, why such disfavor was for her. She was 10-11 years old at that moment, and she just had 50 kilograms of weight. Aunt Dasha weighed her on the scales for vegetables. Catherine's mind is girlish, and her appearance is large. No, she was not fat, she was just a big girl. On it all the reliefs of the figured terrain immediately became visible.

A girl in swimming trunks reached the river, and there was a feather lying on the shore, geese swimming. She goggled her eyes again and could not understand in any way where in this river you can swim! The girl looked at the river and was afraid to go into the water, and around her swallows flew and hid in the bank, in the pits of the nest.

Katerina climbed on a slope with swallows nests and vegetable gardens passed into the house.

Aunt Dasha worked as a vegetable gardener in the village. She had a vein and was tanned in the arms to the elbow and legs to the knees. Katerina was all white, unburnt. And she was fastidious to hell. She looked at the pot on the stove and the nose of the wheel.

Why bring up the nose? There has never been any other food here. Aunt Dasha coarsely cut the potatoes, then she fried them in lard and put them on the table. Near onions put the whole arrows. Katerina choked, wanted to eat, but could not, put off the fat in the direction.

Yes, still. Aunt Dasha gave her daughter Tamara from a gypsy. Gypsy camp passed by the village, the daughter was born. Of course, by the time Tamara grew up, Aunt Dasha presented her legal father. She married married retired Ivan Kuzmich, he was very handsome, with a mustache.

Here Ivan Kuzmich and became the official father of Aunt Dasha's daughter. Oh, and Tamara and Ivan Kuzmich loved each other. They are not relatives, and relatives were better. Oh, life sometimes - foot wrapper! Ivan Kuzmich very much footcloths after the army he loved, everyone in his boots went.

Katerina, sitting on a copper bench, noticed a rooster who ran out from Aunt Dasha's chicken coop.

The girl sang a song:

- Rain, rain and sunshine, it is not wet at all. He is like a grain, golden and kind.

The sun blinded the rain. The rain in the sun seemed not wet drops, but sunshine. The cockerel was jumping through the puddles in the sunny rain.

The rooster came out of the chicken coop to meet and stopped under a canopy.

- Cockerel, you, why run through the puddles, so it is impossible! - cackle pestle.

- Pest, do not worry, look, what a golden rain! He is warm!

- Tell me too! Rain is damp, and kind and warm is dust on the road!

- Pestrushka, quickly turn to the chicken coop! Look what happened to him!

'Cockerel, you're making up again,' said the nestling and slowly turned to the chicken coop. - Oh, that with our chicken coop has become! - the hen cackled.

- I do not know, our chicken coop has become a sunny palace! - the cockerel crowed.

From the song sung by Katerina, the coop black from the rains turned into a golden house and shone with its new walls in the rays of the sun under a thin sunny rain.

Five more chickens ran out of the coop. They stopped under a golden canopy. Chickens trampled on one place, they could not cluck with excitement.

- Pestros, why are you silent? - zakukarekat cock.

'Oh, Petya, look at what happened to our chicken coop inside,' said the elder pestle, barely audible.

The cockerel and his six chickens entered the chicken coop and stopped at the entrance. They could not take a step or take a flight from surprise. Instead of seven poles in a dirty hen house from the litter, they saw a golden room, made of wood, but covered with lilac varnish. Along the perimeter of the chicken coop are shelves of thin perches. On the floor were golden baskets for layers. The water shone clean in a wooden trough. In the second trough lay golden grain.

- Pestrus! Great! I like! Choose your place! Three on the left, three on the right, I'm in the center. In places!

Pestros, without saying a word, took off each in its place and happily cackled. Soon they sat in their baskets and laid down six golden eggs. The cock appreciated his work and happily zakkakrekal! And in vain. Hearing the cock crow, Aunt Dasha came running. She threw up her hands and sat down at the entrance to the chicken coop on a stool golden from lacquer.

- Chickens, what is it? Asked tired Aunt Dasha.

In the chicken coop, everyone was silent.

- Miracle! And the eggs are golden!

And suddenly, before the eyes of the rooster and the chickens, who were sitting on the new and comfortable perch, Aunt Dasha changed dramatically. From a tired woman in a calico long skirt, tucked from the sides of her incomprehensible figure, she turned into a pleasant slender woman in jeans and a white T-shirt. Her gorgeous wavy hair lay on her shoulders.

Sang a loud and joyful cockerel.


Sleepy Ivan Kuzmich jumped out of the house in old blue sweatpants, swollen on his knees, and shouted:

- Well, cock, you got me! You do not give sleep after dinner! I can say, I am following an ancient custom: I sleep after dinner, and you wake up! I'll take my head off!

Ivan Kuzmich suddenly stopped himself, he saw a beautiful woman at the entrance to a magnificent chicken coop.

- So I still sleep? He asked himself and touched the wall of the hen house.

After Ivan Kuzmich touched the golden wood, he began to change dramatically in front of his wife and the whole chicken coop. The man's face became smooth and pleasant. In fact, Ivan Kuzmich appeared sports suit, which made him slim. His hairstyle has become a man's haircut, and not a felted haircut.

From behind the corner of the house came a neighbor Semenovna. She went to the numb surprise people and birds.

- What happened here? Everyone is so cool! What a beautiful chicken coop! Neighbors, when did you manage to build a new chicken coop?

- Semenovna, do not worry and do not touch anything! - shouted Aunt Dasha.

'What else, they don't sit down on the new porch,' the elderly woman was indignant and sat down on the porch of the hen house.

Naturally, the old woman immediately turned into a decent woman of uncertain age.

'Oh,' groaned Ivan Kuzmich, astonished.

At this time, the sun hid behind the clouds, and the rain stopped. Gloomy sky surrounded the chicken coop and the whole company. Aunt Dasha got up, went into the chicken coop, took six golden eggs and went out onto the porch.

'Good people, look what eggs our hens laid today,' she said.

Everyone looked and were silent. Tamara, a girl of eight, jumped out of the house and shouted:

- Mama! Dad! I am waiting for you!

She stopped in surprise when she saw beautiful people, somewhat similar to her parents, standing on the threshold of a golden chicken coop.

- Oh! And who are you? - asked Tamara.

- Tamara, do not worry! I am your mom, and he is your dad. And here is our neighbor, Semyonovna, - and she pointed to a youthful pretty woman.

- Are you telling me a fairy tale? - Tamara asked incredulously. - My mom never wore jeans.

And then the girl saw the golden eggs in the basket in the hands of the mother.

'Good,' she said. - Are the eggs real?

Then the girl just grabbed one egg, but it burst out of her hands and rolled. Tamara ran after the egg and disappeared around the corner of the house. At this time, her father woke up and ran for her daughter.


Chapter 4

Around the corner of the house stood an old old woman with a stick, holding in her hand gold fragments from the shell, in which stood a little yellowish chicken.

A boy rode nearby on a bicycle at high speed. He snatched the chicken out of the hands of the old woman and disappeared. A minute later the boy on a bicycle stopped at a hen house.

- Your chicken? Take it, - said the boy and threw a little chicken.

The chicken, while flying through the air, grew up in a big rooster and nearly bruised her neighbor Semenovna. The cyclist cheered:

- Great here with you, I'll call the guys now.

Five minutes later, seven young cyclists stopped at a hen house. They immediately noticed the golden eggs in the basket at Aunt Dashi, who did not know what to do with them. Ecstatic shouts from a distance of the boys on bicycles.

Ivan Kuzmich came up and said that Tamara did not catch up, but an old woman with a crook dragged behind him.

On the porch a neighbor woke up Semenovna.

- Hello! Where are you going to be in our area? - She turned to the old woman with a stick.

- Grandma, I'm your neighbor, Tamara, I'm eight years old!

- I myself am old, but not so much that I do not know my neighbors older than myself.

And then the cock, which grew up in two seconds of flight, pecked the old woman's stick. And the old woman in front of everyone turned into a girl Tamara. Then the rooster flew up to the basket and pecked all the eggs one by one, and chickens hatched from the eggs, which instantly turned into big chickens.

Cyclists happily laughed at such a spectacle.

At this time, a rooster and six chickens ran out of the coop; they saw a young rooster and five chickens. Two rooster started a fight. Cyclists hooted and cheered cocks-fighters. Suddenly, the bikes grew wings, and they flew away from the battlefield with angry cries.

The rooster won from the hen house, and immediately the sun came out, and sunny rain began.

Katerina softly sang her little song:

- Rain, rain and sunshine, it is not wet at all. He is like a grain, golden and kind.

The sun stretched its rays and said:

- Thank you, Katerina!

It was not hail that fell from heaven to earth, but golden grain. The grain fell into the ground, and soon a whole field of wheat grew. The cyclists returned from the sky and stared in surprise at the wheat field, which was not there. The hen house owners came to their senses. They slowly walked to their old wooden house. As soon as they entered the porch, in the blink of an eye, their house turned into a new house.

The sun waved at them and hid behind a cloud.

The cock after the victory decided that he now had eleven chickens, and was very happy. But five chickens, hatched from golden eggs, could not cross the threshold of the chicken coop and turned into a sculpture of five chickens. Next to them was the sculpture of the defeated cockerel of the golden egg.

The cockerel and pestles sat down on their perches and dozed off.

At this time, seven young cyclists roared and left the place of the former miracles, which became uninteresting. On perches in the golden henhouse, the hens started and dozed off. Gold shells remained to lie around the hen house. The crows flew in, began to peck at the golden shell, and turned into a crow sculpture of crows.

A field of wheat has been tipped with golden grain. Golden pies were baked from it and a rooster and hens were treated to them. Seeing that they were carrying cakes from the house on the tray, the cycling boys arrived and grabbed the cake, but they did not dare to eat the cakes. But, seeing that Tamara and Aunt Dasha eat pies, they also ate a couple of pies, and nothing happened to the cyclists.

The sun appeared and lit up two brand new bikes at the hen house. Katerina and Tamara rode bicycles and joined the rest of the cyclists, and they had long learned to ride. Dusty country roads are good for both chickens and cyclists, when it does not rain, even if it is golden.

Aunt Dasha and Ivan Kuzmich looked after the children and decided that they themselves would buy a motorcycle with a sidecar. A neighbor, Semenovna, will be put into the pram and will travel to the nearest villages without waiting for passing cars. Local they are all.

A rooster issued a victory cry. A rooster and hens came out of the coop - to walk, to look at people, to show themselves. The cock gained weight and became a solid rooster, and now he was rosy too lazy to take off. Pestlets flew up, and he lazily sat in a cozy low basket. Became a cockerel to remind the master cat.

The sun lit up, the rain came, and he looked, looked at the sun, but Katerina did not sing a little song. The sun was offended and said nothing. Among the new eggs, one egg was silver. A new cockerel hatched out of a silvery egg, it grew quickly and joyfully, and took off easily to roost.

Once he decided to replace the old and lazy cock. Two rooster staged a cockfight. Watch the battle of two roosters came all the cyclists. The guys were rooting for the new silver cock. The fight was good. One rooster, overfed and sluggish, took with its mass, the second, thin and smart, won with speed. Cyclists watched cockfighting. Chickens clucked and did not know for whom to root. After the battle, they demolished eggs, and chickens hatched from them.

The old chickens were silenced. Aunt Dasha went into the chicken coop and said that the new change of hens is growing up. The whole village came to the second rooster fight. Bicycles stood by. The winner became the best rooster of the village. Won the young silver cock. The old hens refused to serve him, they remained with the old rooster. The coop was divided into two parts: for young and old. The sun because of the clouds was not shown.

Katerina once again sang a little song:

- Rain, rain and sunshine, it is not wet at all. He is like a grain, golden and kind.

Katerina looked at her watch and hurried to the mansion. The girl walked and saw her dream: the copper roof gleams in the sun. The house shines, decorated with vertical copper stripes. The first floor of the perimeter is lined with greenish marble, located between the sheets of copper. All the tracks on the site are lined with greenish ceramics. She painfully wanted to return to the mansion of Prince Athanasius Afanasyevich.

Afanasy Afanasyevich didn't lead by ear in honor of the return of Catherine. She was even offended by his blatant indifference.

He asked:

- Katerina, did you bring stories from the village?

- I myself took part in all the stories.

- That is what she herself is! But you could not get a story if they happened to you, 'Afanasy Afanasyevich was indignant.

- We got more like that! Especially cocks and hens.

- Well! Now you will get the company of a copper bench.

- I will live the life of those who sit on a copper bench ?! - outraged Katerina.

- And where do you go? You skipped part time.

- And you will not punish me for my absence?

- I will surely punish you. I will punish you, Katerina. You have not been five o'clock. Five days you spend in the dungeon. You probably noticed that only grass grows on my plot?

'I did,' Katerina replied sullenly, wondering what the five days of the dungeon was.

Afanasy Afanasyevich, without getting up from his chair, pressed the marble inkwell on the table. The floor under Katerina moved in one direction, and she sank into the dungeon in front of a tin soldier. Paul became her roof and took the same position.


Katerina did not have time to be frightened when she fell into the dungeon and now looked around not so much with fear, but with surprise. She was in a room with copper walls, with an insulated ceiling. She left the room, which fell at the will of the owner, and began to bypass the entire dungeon. She did not feel anxious feelings from the industrial order.

There was a feeling that the time in the dungeon is somewhat different. She was interested in the kitchen, yet she had to live here for five days! She saw the sink, faucet. Opened the faucet, from it went cold water bubbles. Next on the table was an electric tile with a spiral incandescent. In the table in the three-liter jars were cereals. Katerina found salt, but there was no sugar. Found a jar of tea. Noticed the pot, kettle. Five days it was possible to live. She showed no signs of a refrigerator.

TV, the receiver she did not notice.

Katerina counted five strange rooms and a kitchen. The light was the same everywhere - matte. There were no switches anywhere. That's all at first glance. She looked around for a stool or chair. They were not there. She walked around the room, but did not find a single rookery. She decided to lean on the copper wall, but she was warm. Katerina increasingly wanted to sit down or lie down.

Glance fell to the floor. Paul turned out to be a complete mystery, but did not want to solve it. Katerina sank to the floor, he was covered in signs. She noticed a protrusion on the floor and hit him with a heel. The projection shifted with part of the floor. The staircase led down somewhere. Without thinking, she began to descend into the present dungeon.

A small room in the rock had a way out! Katerina bent and went toward the light: twenty meters - and she is free! That's imprisonment! She looked around: there was a forest around. It was getting dark. Forest rustles instilled fear in the soul. She was taken by the shoulders! Katerina shuddered with her whole body and involuntarily looked around. She was in the hands of a certain Theophanes, a native of the village Copper dipper! 'Where is he from here?' A thought flashed through Catherine's head. 'He's not at all.'

- Katerina, glad to meet you! Said Theophanes.

- Who are you?

- Sama said who I am.

- Wait. I read in the newspaper that you were flying on an airplane, the pilot was still alive, and you were gone!

- Funny girl! So I found. Look at me - it's me, Feofan, son of Afanasy Afanasyevich.

- But this can not be! I even invented a fairy tale, as if you turned into a bat! - outraged Katerina.

'Have you been under a house in a copper basement?'

- It was.

- So exactly at this place our plane behaved strangely. This is not a copper room, it is a generator of anomalous phenomena. Good thing you got out of it.

- I have a punishment: to sit in the generator for five days.

'Good punishment, but it's even better that you run away from him.' The pilot managed to land the plane on the field, but he could not take off and came up with the idea that there was no aircraft. And he himself, in his plan, catapulted, and I, in his invention, disappeared. Here he again went away from these places. And now I will save you on the plane. I can fly a plane and have cleared the landing area. And I lived in the barn with a certain Aunt Dasha. She bakes such pancakes - you will begin to rock!

'I know their smells.'

And at that moment the boron rustled, I heard the barking of dogs.

A shot sounded in the air. Hunters with dogs jumped out into the clearing. The dogs rushed together to Theophanes and Katerina. The hunters stopped them with command voices. Theophan on the sly disappeared. Katerina was left alone, she even had a thought - was there Theophanes here?

The hunters led the girl to the manor. They bowed to Afanasy Afanasyevich. The owner stood by the window and looked at Katerina with a piercing gaze. She shuddered at the thought that punishment was inevitable, and she did not want to go into the generator of anomalous phenomena. Katerina stood between the gate and the house and did not know what to do. She hesitantly went to the owner.

- Feofan seen? - asked Prince Athanasius Afanasyevich. 'Good, you'll never see again.' Do not be afraid, you will no longer go into the underground, you got out of it - and well done, consider that five days have passed.

- Afanasy Afanasyevich, and suddenly you are ill, because you live on the generator of anomalous phenomena?

- Yes, I therefore live, that I live on this generator. It was built for me. And you, look, for you worry, it is valuable. Tomorrow you will begin to walk for a walk to the copper bench. I have not canceled your task.

- Again, listen to the nonsense of the inhabitants of the house of Aunt Dasha?

The rebellious Katerina reached the copper bench the next day, but got into a passing car and drove into the city.

Vacations quickly passed.

Once upon a time, Katerina's own father, worse than bitter radish, was tired of heating the stove in an apartment located on the second floor of a wooden house. He went to the Steppe city. Before that, the family lived in a large industrial city, and next to their furnace houses, the first housing estate had already grown, with houses that had all the amenities, and among these houses was a new school. Katerina liked everything here, but there was a secret dream - a new house with all the amenities.

But in life it happens that the dream is twisted in the opposite direction. Katerina and her family continued to receive cereals and white bread on the list. Mom did not find a place for herself without a father, so she handed out some things, and put the rest into a container. And Katerina went with her mother and brother to the city where her father lived.

The girl had a long beautiful braid of blond hair, with which she left her city forever. Father rented two rooms in a small wooden house on the last street from the boundless steppe. The wind, the sun and the absence of rain sharply distinguished the steppe climate from the mountain climate. Katerina grew up a little more and looked like an adult girl.

In small shops one could freely buy white bread, jam and cheese, that is, everything that was not sold where Katerina conquered the catwalk of beauty. Now she understands that everything was correct and the bread for the figure is harmful, but mothers and grandmothers who passed through military hunger did not understand this. They wanted white bread and chops.

The whole family was waiting for a container with their belongings. It was the seventh of November. A festive parade of workers passed through the center of the city. From the procession through the city and began the acquaintance of the girl with a new habitat. In the arrived container was a broken mirror and things.

A broken pierum against the background of ficus has long been the main decoration of a large room. In a small room, bed mattresses - this was the bed.

Her new school consisted of three cardboard barracks. At the site at one of the three barracks flooded rink. Katerina skated on a knife with a stick in her hands, rolling on the ice and trying to throw the puck into the goal. Three guys classmates played up to her, they were happy to play with a new girl.

She appeared in a new school in the seventh grade in the second quarter. The class included a tall, slim girl in a brown uniform and a black apron with a white stand-up collar. The long braid quietly hesitated along the back. The guys carefully examined her from head to toe. The teacher introduced a new one:

- Katerina.

It turns out, in addition to growth, for mutual hobbies, the same level of knowledge is necessary. Classmates soon realized that the new girl was not only beautiful, but also an able student. Only one girl from the class exceeded her sometimes in assessments, and then in one subject. Among the boys stood out with his mind a full, handsome guy with good-looking blond hair. It was a blond-haired guy by nature.

Unintentionally, but always and everywhere the boy was next to a new girl with a bright braid on the back. And now he was spinning on skates next to her. The full and warm palm of the gray-eyed youth tried to touch the palm of the girl at any opportunity. The first tender love took possession of him, but natural tact and mind did not make him annoying. The boy changed his route to school or waited for Katerina on the way home, and if he managed to go next to her and talk, he was happy and calm.

At work, Katerina's father was given housing in a cardboard hut next to the school.

There appeared purchased metal beds, a simple table and a wardrobe, which my father made. Although the barrack was made of cardboard, there were central heating batteries in it. Only in the kitchen was a stove-stove, which was heated with coal or wood to cook food.

The neighbor in the barrack was another blond. In addition to a classmate, a neighbor became a bright candidate for a part of her heart. Next to the outer door of Katerina's apartment was a neighbor's door. It was a slim guy a year older than her. They were brought together by conversations on a common porch of a one-story house, in which two apartments looked out onto one porch. In the winter, their meetings were often difficult to name, they came across on the porch, looked at each other and sometimes went together to school.

Summer has changed everything! In the summer there was more opportunity to be close to home. The windows of Katerina's kitchen opened onto a plot of land belonging to her family. The plot of the family of the neighbor was fenced with a denser fence and was located across the path about four meters from the house.

A girl's dress with a bright green strip on a white background constantly flashed before the eyes of a young man of a neighbor. And he, cutting the road, jumped over her fence and passed under all the windows.

But their hands never touched! Strange they had love: visual! They liked each other in appearance. Perhaps the neighbor felt that he was not a Catherine couple, and therefore took in a couple another girl from her class.

A blond classmate felt lightheaded when he saw Katerina's neighbor with another girl, and decided to visit her at home under the pretext of studying. A hut-type house was made of material similar to cardboard sheets. During the development of virgin lands, it was easier to build. The amenities were in the courtyard, so at the entrance to the house the first thing that could be found was a basin standing on a stool, over which a washstand hung, acting when you pressed the pin on the bottom. The pin rose, and water flowed from the sink.

Next to the sink was a motorcycle neighbor. The walls, painted with gray paint, were far from the first freshness, and the presence of gasoline and a motorcycle did not make them better. If you turn left down the corridor after a motorcycle, you could get to the kitchen belonging to two families. The neighbors had three children, two of them were twins, who were less than a year old.

From civilization in this house was central heating, electricity and television. A classmate looked into the kitchen and walked into Katerina's room, which had two beds, a desk, a wardrobe. This is where the newcomer lived! He took her picture. Katerina reached into her briefcase, her hair was slightly disheveled in a braid. She is in school uniform, three-quarter sleeves slightly bare arms.

Such a picture was the decoration of her photo collection.

Accidentally or not, Katerina appeared only once in the house where a classmate lived. Brick cottage, designed for two families, located on the land. Unbelievable cleanliness reigned in his apartment. The huge difference in living conditions somewhat dampened their ardor.

A classmate's love for Katerina assumed an abstract character. They were still walking together in the steppe, they were still playing volleyball together, but it was already better if his friend and neighbor in the cottage were with him.

On the shore of a clear lake, located among low mountains, there was a camp for children and teenagers. Katerina sat on the sand with a volleyball under the bright sun, she was about thirteen. A slender and tall girl with a sumptuous light braid to the waist from the second squad attracted the gaze of one of the guys from the first squad.

Someone clever of the camp leaders made the first squad of some guys, and the second squad of girls, the younger squads were mixed. None of the girls wanted to play beach volleyball with Katerina, but she could not live without volleyball, she was getting bored. And she, bored without favorite movements, looked at the lazy waves of the clean lake.

A young man separated from the first detachment and approached Katerina:

- Let's play together, - suggested the guy with almost white eyelashes and blond hair.

- Let's play, - the girl was delighted and jumped to her feet. - Together, if given.

They stood against each other and began to throw each other a well-inflated ball with their fingertips. Sometimes they folded their hands with a boat to beat off the lower pitch, and occasionally, taking the lower balls, fell on the sand.

What kind of people!

As soon as the girls saw the blond guy on their territory, they immediately began to rise from the sand and stretch their hands to the ball. The guys, noticing the revival among the girls, slowly began to approach them. The circle of those who want to touch the flying ball turned out to be big.

When the circle became so big that none of the girls, except for Katerina, could throw the ball with the fingers to the player opposite, it diminished involuntarily. The girls came out of the circle, there were guys and Katerina. She was happy until the ball flew into the lake.

Katerina did not cry, but looked at the blond, and in an instant he was in the water. The girl sighed: the boy was all good, but she and her very eyebrow were bright. And with her in the class studied bright guys. Shadowed girlish dream: she wanted a guy who looked like a Mayan. What with the girls make movies and books about Indians! No one knows.

Blond safely took the ball and brought it to Catherine. She liked him at first sight, but at second sight she understood that she needed another guy, even if not now, someday later. No, she loved bright people, but she wanted her chosen one to have darker eyes and not blond hair. She never told anyone that, but dreaming is not bad. After all, she herself was blond.

Behind the fence of the camp began the mountains, on which a strange flat-shaped mountain onion grew. A song sounded deafening above the camp: "By the sea, by the blue sea ..." But it was far from the sea. Katerina liked the coast of the lake and small hikes around it. She bathed too much in a rather warm lake and one day she felt her teeth get very sick. In addition, she lost her voice, began to speak in some falsetto.

Upon returning from the camp, two practically healthy molars were removed so that they would not get sick. Fantastic, when viewed from the top of modern dentistry, and stupidity without limits.

At school, Katerina was read to the entire class, so she remembered her well. In the description were the words: "We recommend to enter a technical institute." My God! Who would have explained to her what an institute is! Her parents graduated from seven classes of schools and colleges in the field. They were ordinary workers.

The housemate was older than Katerina. He enrolled in a technical institute, but flunked a single subject, chemistry. She listened about his college experience, opening her eyes and ears. She unbearably wanted to enter a technical institute! Once the school said that it is recommended to the technical institute, then you must go to the technical institute! And she will not fill up with chemistry, she will simply go to another department. The city was still a pedagogical institute, but he did not care about her at all, she did not like to teach others and did not like when she was written off.

Gone are the last school holidays Katerina. She passed the school final examinations, came to the institute, and there turned out to be several buildings. She went around all the buildings, found where they take the documents. A girl in a protective-colored skirt at a huge table sat down and began to fill in papers. I read in the admissions committee that the institute has four faculties. Long struggled with the choice between the two faculties.

Then a voice like God's voice rang out above her head:

- Girl, fill in the paper on the mechanical faculty!

The person who said this disappeared into space. And Katerina sat and thought: what is this faculty? She obediently filled out papers on the mechanical faculty. In the admissions office she was told what exams will have to pass. They advised two weeks to attend preparatory courses before passing the exams. Math, physics, native language were to be handed over.

Katerina's horse is mathematics. She picked up a collection of math problems and went to the house where a table with benches stood under maples. At this table, she solved all the tasks in a row in mathematics. Then she solved problems in physics and taught formulas. Neighbor, as an experienced mentor, said that if she missed some task, she would end up on her exam. Solved everything. She solved physics with less pleasure, but did not perceive her native language properly.

She really liked the preparatory courses. She enjoyed listening to lectures on familiar and unfamiliar topics at the same time. Lectures were held in the old building, and exams were taken in a new, beautiful building. On top of it was written: "Faculty of Mechanics."

Huge assembly hall. Day of admission to the students. For the first time, Catherine's heart said where she is.

After some time, the newly minted students were taken by cars to the state farm. We drove long in the steppe, brought to the farm "Merry Grove". In the steppe were the same houses of recent construction. Behind the outskirts there was a flock of birches.

Seven girls on the first night were placed in a residential building. Inside is clean. At the entrance to the floor was a kettle. In the center of the room lay a tabletop. In the second room was a canopy. Young people slept under the canopy. The girls laid on the felt board. They remember the night. All night they were bitten and bitten by someone. Young under the canopy moved and moved.

The next morning, the girls were asked to change their habitat. Scratching the back of his head, a certain man freed the state farm for them. Place zlachnoe. A small house in which a huge number of empty bottles was hidden behind the stove. They put the students seven beds. All amenities in the yard.

Katerina chose a tall blond woman, a boxer who could protect her, but he had another boxer who beat her off, older and stronger. What did the girl with the second boxer do? She broke records for walks in the steppe after working on current.

Yes! All students worked on current. Grain raked. Once Katerina was sent to work in the kitchen. The kitchen fed students and tractor drivers. In the dining room fed those who were next to her. Food for those who were in the field was placed in a metal container that looked like a can. The containers were put on the car and taken away to the tractor drivers.

She was lucky: she saw a total solar eclipse in the state farm. With a new girlfriend, she went to the near railway station for candy. I had to go far. The road is country. No cars. Returned before dark, but suddenly it became dark dark.

The girls came up to the state farm and saw that all the students with smoked glasses were looking at the sun. Lucky everyone. They saw the halo of the solar corona. Students worked at the farm, and went home. Katerina then went to watch the championship of the city in boxing. On this, her boxing passion ended.

Once the institute group gathered in a private house of a fellow student who had a graceful figure, a fluffy mane of hair and long painted nails. First grade. Still little familiar with each other. Dancing brought together the young. At the evening, Katerina met a young man who promised her a wedding ring.


Chapter 5

Mathematics in the first courses was quite complicated. For unknown reasons, for the first year of study at the institute, Katerina was shown on TV seven times. She was shown in sports form and in an ordinary dress. They showed at the training session and at home, where a whole team of TV people came. She was interviewed. She was shown silent. She was twice made a marriage proposal with a rowan tree covered with red berries.

Katerina looked out of the window, as if she felt that they were waiting for her: she saw Grisha's classmate. He was handsome and looked like an agent from a movie. Cloak. Belt. Usually, young people rarely use belts.

Now Grisha stood and dutifully waited for Katerina. She put on her shoes on a layered sole, a dark blue coat, shook a shock of hair that was scattered over her shoulders, and went out to meet fate. A tall, slender young man was standing by a rowan tree on which there were not yet leaves. It was April. He waited, pulling the belt buckle, emphasizing his thin waist.

His gray eyes were carefully looking at the fourth floor windows behind which Katerina lived. He was in love with a wayward and sensual girl. In my head flashed a walk with her through the snowy streets. Normal people sat in such a winter at home, and she walked with him through a light frost, laughed and talked. The winter ended abruptly, and now it was almost warm. Spring reigned over the land when there was no snow, and the leaves had not yet dismissed.

Together they went to the institute where they studied. The road went past the house under construction. The young man pulled the girl towards the construction site, above which the crane stood. From the future house, only the first floor made its way into the world like a snowdrop.

Gregory attracted Katerina. He hugged her, frantically pressed his lips to hers. He drank the nectar of love gently and passionately. She accidentally responded to a kiss, and then clung to his belt on a raincoat, as if she pulled a bit on a horse, and pushed her away.

She did not think that it was impossible to just walk to the institute with a guy. For her, it was a lesson or a call that guys grew up and walks are not for them.

When they came to the institute, fellow students were already in the audience, and their joint appearance was not left unnoticed. Most of all such an appearance Katerina did not like fellow student Vitaly. He was shocked, noticing the excitement of the couple, the girl's disheveled hair. And lips? They were larger than normal sizes. A red vision flashed through his head as he went to a concert with her. On Katerina then scarlet dress shone. His memory was interrupted by the appearance of a teacher.

Stands with the kinematics of machine tools appeared out of the ground next to the black board. Students forgot about love and entered the world of machine tools entirely. Chic world of mechanics, if you understand it. The following two pairs were held at these machines: milling, turning, boring.

This is where the priority of the guys was undeniable. The girls only recorded the results of laboratory work, but there were few of them, in the sense that the girls on the course were significantly less than the boys.

A surprise on the last couple was a book about love in poses, which traveled from a desk to a couple. Someone brought it, hid it in a book with a machine on the cover and let it go by the students. Trapped cheers here and there were heard in the audience. Life went on or was just beginning.


At night, the machines bristled with tools and crowded around Katerina. They danced the dance of metal monsters. The milling cutter on the milling machine twitched like a shoulder during a dance. The girl woke up and thought that the day before she had retrained the kinematics of the milling machine.

Makhina coordinate boring machine stood in a separate room. A large bed hid smart stuffing in its depths, which monitored the accuracy of moving the instrument through the program. Katerina went to the workshop and collected drawings of parts that could be machined. She had to transfer the machine to numerical control software. She received such a task from her supervisor, doctor of technical sciences. Grisha and Vitaly refused to participate in this project.

Katerina worked alone, there was nothing much to ask. Having collected all the details that could be machined, she wrote programs under the guidance of the project manager, developed the tools that had to be drawn and put into production.

Over time, it turned out that she only needed to write a program and draw something that was not in the machine, and other people could be involved in the introduction. This wonderful work determined the purpose of Katerina herself in her production life. At the last stage of her studies at the institute, she had to choose whether she would be a technologist or a designer.

Grisha worked in the next shop, so he could accompany Katerina on a pre-diploma practice. Their love has become a road character, since they did not have the time to communicate with others. Walks and kisses under the rustle of the foliage of the poplars were almost traditional.

Katerina's graduation project was progressing, and her relationship with Grisha was somewhat stalled. Vitaly noticed that Katerina had lost interest in Grisha, approached her with a suggestion:

- Katerina, become my wife after graduation. It is possible to get a star on the epaulettes and become a guard at the factory. I don't like to be a designer, I don't want to be a technologist, I decided to become a security officer, because their salaries are currently higher than those of young engineers and engineers. I will give you real gold and natural turquoise, similar to your beautiful eyes!

- Vitali, do you and Grisha live in the same room in the hostel? Who have you heard enough?

- A photojournalist came to us, shot us and told tales.

- Now I understand why you started talking about one topic.

In winter, Katerina went to the region championship in cross-country skiing to a village near the lake. Air temperature - minus forty. Training and competition canceled for three days. Skiers went to the only coffee to eat coupons. The same song sounded in the cafe: "A pair of hounds, pulled by a dawn, forever tired ..."

To keep fit, two days in the lobby of the room where the sportsmen were located, music sounded: all the fast dances danced for many hours. There was no sports hall in the village. On the third day, the coach bought a ram. The guys tied a ram to the radiator, then the animal was slaughtered, and in the next house they cooked food for all skiers. On the fourth day, the air temperature was minus thirty-five degrees. Competitions have decided not to postpone.

Ointment rubbed on the coldest weather. Dressed skiers for the race quite easily. At a distance of ten kilometers, the first five kilometers of the foot shrank from the cold and stiffened, then they began to depart and burn. When Katerina came to the finish line, there was a commotion there: a large male skier, at a distance of fifteen kilometers, froze her fingers, a cornfly plane was called for him to send to the city.

At the first session, Katerina arrived late, she passed the exams, but the teachers said: 'Athlete' - and lowered her grades by one point. As an athlete, she was released from sports at the institute, she was automatically credited. She was asked to speak at the championship course flow. We had to run three laps of one kilometer. She outperformed the runner-up for one round. And later in her life were studying and training. Classmates and athletes skiers.


Katerina decided to go to a youth sports school after reading an advertisement in a newspaper. One autumn, she came to the youth sports school, where she wanted to choose a volleyball sports section. The school administration was in a blackened little wooden house. She opened the old door and saw a very handsome man who turned out to be a ski coach. The blue-eyed trainer with light brown hair persuaded her to become a skier, it was Theophan.

Katerina persuaded classmate Lyudmila, the backbone of the ski section was formed. Familiar guys appeared - Anton and Kirill. Training up to five times a week tied all the same goal. What did Katerina look like? Height 169. Waist 63. Hair, braided in a braid, she tucked with a tape, it turned out a pretzel.

The trainings were fabulous. At the boat station, they took boats and swam the river on them, then walked along the channels. Hands in bloody blisters. Strength training: they took decent cobblestones and threw them backwards. Swam in the river next to the boat station. We ran for speed on the steep bank of the river. On the beach in the offseason chasing football. They played rugby on the sports field.

And skis? In winter, skiing. Frost. No snow. Scrape the snow. They did ski runs and ran. The snow fell, and then the ski track became normal. Interestingly, skiers did not fall in love with their skiers ...

Katerina with 15 years spent a lot of time on the river. The first day on the boat to swim across the river was difficult psychologically. Once skiers came to the training. On a warm day, rowing. In each boat sat two people. Katerina trained in a pair with Lyudmila. They rowed in turn. The closer to the fairway of the river, the stronger felt the huge mass of water under the boat. From the fairway to the other shore was much closer, and the feeling of fear from the suspense passed.

The opposite shore is covered with low shrubs, and sand and sand are everywhere. It was good to sail another five hundred meters on the boat and to see a very flat beach with small bald areas of water. The water in such places on a warm summer day was hot, it was always nice to rest here. Skiers went ashore and drove a football on the beach. There are a lot of people here on Sundays, and there were practically no people on summer evenings and on weekdays.

From the main channel of the river went in boats to the sleeve of the river, covered with grass, and rowed to the exit into the river itself. The banks in the channel are almost the same height, about half a meter, overgrown with grass and small, rare bushes. Once, it was in such a duct that Katerina broke her ditch on a boat. Skiers did not take food and water for training. She did not panic from the fact that the oarlock on the oar broke. The rest of the boats spread along the channel and did not wait for each other and did not catch up.

The girls had to return to the base across the big river, and the paddle was one. They are young, beautiful, in bathing suits and with a broken oar key in the boat. Fortunately for them, a man of indeterminate age sailed past in a motorboat. He hitched the boat to the motor boat, the boat's nose was slightly raised, the water flooded a little across the side, but they swam to the boat station.

On Navy Day, skiers swam across the river in a narrow but deep part to participate in a parade of river modes of transport. Four people were sitting in the kayak: Katerina and three guys, one of them was completely new. The waves in this part of the river are always decent. The new guy was frightened, began to beat the oar on the water. Kayak rocked. The waves flooded her. And the kayak, like a submarine, plunged into the abyss of the river with the rowers-skiers.

Everything emerged from the water, and to the coast to sail far and towards the city even further than to the island. Experienced skiers took: one - a kayak, two oars collected, pushed next to him and float. The girl just had to swim to the shore. Narrow river in this place, but everything is relative.

This place is not for swimming, a deep place with constant waves. Katerina floated, and one thought pounded in her head: "That's how people drown." The girl didn't want to sink, and she swam to the shore at the same time with the guys. Life-saving equipment was not taken in a kayak, they passed trainings without insurance.

Skiers swam even along the river channels in eight kayaks. This is already a speed regatta. Such training left a magical sense of speed. These kayaks are harder to lift from the water and carry to the hangar. The hangar was located on an island near the hills. On the shore was a small pier for boats. From this pier got up on the water ski. To be honest, there were craftsmen who were good at water skiing, and as for Katerina, she crashed into the river three times and no longer tried to get up on the water ski.

Another type of water vehicle used by skiers in training - yaly. Eight people sat and rowed, each with one huge oar. The team consisted of guys and girls. Tanned backs looked extraordinarily beautiful when the muscles moved on them from rowing. Once yaly used as intended. Skiers set sail on two yala, took backpacks with supplies for ten days and went up the river to hike. Hands knocked in solid blisters.

Sail remained only in the photo. A barge sailed nearby, clinging to it. We stopped on the shore, from which the pipes of a small town were visible. Here we lived for eight or ten days. An elderly man lived on the same bank of the river, he had a house, a cow, goats. Skiers mowed the grass, the man gave for this to yogurt. There was no rain, the tents did not save. One night they slept in the house of this man on the floor.

We swam in the river, but not from the fairway, but in the channel. The duct was treacherous, with funnels. The water in them was spinning at a decent speed. When swimming, the main thing was not to get into the funnels, but it dragged in them very much. We looked at each other and helped to swim. The journey back was simple: they hooked up two yala to a passing barge and sailed to the city.

Once again Katerina glanced at the TV screen and put sneakers in her gym bag. She had to go to the gym. She hung a blue bag with the inscription "Aeroflot" on her shoulder and left the cardboard hut. Passing by a low picket fence, I turned into the street. The road lay past the one-story buildings to the bus stop.

Half an hour the roads pass sometimes quickly, sometimes very slowly. Soon she got off the bus, walked between wooden houses and found herself on a steep bank of the river. She rolled off a steep clay bank and stopped at an upturned boat. Coach Feofan Afanasyevich walked beside the boat and pitch it on its sides. He was preparing the boat for the new season. In a row with a small wooden house lay another five overturned boats.

In the cottage, skis in cross-pieces stood by one wall, but the main place was occupied by boats, which they carried out to be tar for prevention, and the skis again stood in struts until the next winter. Spring changed sports in one breath of warm wind, leaving the smell of tar.

Kirill came with shaggy light eyebrows, from nothing to do suggested that Katerina study the main methods of fighting - sweeps. They had a little fight in front of the coach, who pitched the boat and did not trust anyone with such an important matter. Lyudmila, descending from a smooth slope, caught Cyril's interest. Her figure is excellent, and in itself she is a beautiful girl, what can we say ...

Katerina went to the coach. Coach Feofan Afanasyevich looked at her and said:

- Katerina, where is the hair doing? You were alone with long braids, and the girls are short and without you full!

The girl shook her head with two tails in reply and was silent - how to explain to the coach that she wanted to be beautiful, as leading on the TV screen? A group of skiers gradually gathered for training. Training was coming power.

Young people climbed onto a lying iron structure designed to transmit electricity to the left bank of the river. They hooked the legs to the metal crossbar, took the cobblestones in their hands and began to swing the press. From such workouts, the press remained with Catherine for the rest of her life. Why precisely cobblestones used skiers, and not dumbbells and barbells? Feofan Afanasyevich believed that natural stone has additional strength in the training process of the city's cross-country skiing team.

The coach forced the athletes to squat on one leg, then on the other. He believed that the earth gives energy to his hands. The legs and arms were filled with muscles.

One day a group of skiers in full composition went to the opening of the football season. A zealous crowd of football fans strongly pressed Katerina to the iron gates before the opening of the stadium. After such a crowd press, she no longer went to football.

The skiers themselves played football on a rammed ground without a fence, located next to the old wooden church. I must say that we trained where it was possible, where Feofan Afanasyevich found a place. The site among the old trees, located by the church of blackened wood, was very beautiful. But even more beautiful were the young and young football players and football players.

A black-haired, curly Tamara appeared in the team. It was a girl of short stature, possessing good speed, resourcefulness, agility. The soccer ball obeyed her better than Katerina. Is it difficult to play football from the point of view of a girl? It is difficult, even though Katerina played him in those unforgettable years when she could play football, and not just decorate a football field with herself. She never allowed herself to speak badly about football players, no matter how they play. Football - Copper and difficult male sport.

In addition to football, skiers played rugby at a stadium located about five hundred meters from the church. And Tamara played rugby well. Ludmila has always been a leader in the team, but now her obvious rival has come. Tamara quickly joined the team, but Lyudmila remained an unsurpassed leader. Katerina bypassed Lyudmila in cross-country skiing once, and then at the expense of a ski ointment - silverfish. Skis glided perfectly over the granular snow.

The feeling of speed, ease of movement, great weather, beautiful ski track created a great mood that did not overshadow Ludmila's anger!

Yes, ski cream - the great mystery of victory, which created Feofan Afanasyevich. When he drove a blowtorch over the surface of the ski, Katerina removed the old ointment with a rag from the surface of the ski.

The coach did not let out the blowtorch, he was warming up the ointment, and she crawled off the skis like snow in spring from the slopes of the hills. Sometimes skis warmed over dry alcohol or over a hot plate with a spiral. Be sure to put the resin on the new wooden skis. The best skis were always adorned on Ludmila's feet, the best ointment was applied by the trainer on her skis, the best sports suits decorated her figure.

The speed training took place near the boat station on the high bank. Skiers ran in sneakers on the asphalt at speed several times in a row. Katerina was at a worse pace than other girls, but on the whole her diligence was successful and she ran hard. After running on the asphalt, the periosteum fell ill on her legs so that she could not walk. She came to a sports doctor. The doctor checked her lungs, they could hold three liters of air. And about the legs the doctor said:

- Lie down in the bath or sit in warm water.

Katerina replied:

- I do not have a bath at home.

The doctor looked at the beautiful girl in surprise and shrugged her shoulders:

'I can't help you anymore, then don't run a lot.'

Katerina lived at that time in the barrack with the convenience of a courtyard. In the morning, instead of jogging, she did exercises - was pulled up at the gate next to the house. The old picket fence fenced a small plot of land under the windows of the house where she lived with her parents. Where the gate was located in the fence, she made a right angle with her legs and pulled herself up on her arms.

She had one trick about her waist: a stern soldier's belt remained in her house, so she walked at home, tightening the soldier's wide belt with a buckle. The waist from the belt was remarkably preserved.

In the mountains were the next competition of skiers. "Here you are not plain, here the climate is different ..." How beautiful it is in the mountains! Pines. The mountains. Lake. With great pleasure, skiers conquered hilly terrain. Competitions in the mountains with snow-covered trees are beautiful!

'Katerina's nose glitters after a bath,' Feofan Afanasyevich told everyone on the bus.

All skiers, not spoiled by home baths, went to the bath-house. In a wooden one-story hotel there was a strange convenience: from the first floor skis were served on the street and a ski cream was applied to them under the windows before the ski race. In the bus skiers sang songs. They sang with inspiration in all their young throats! Skiers have never sung anywhere else. Katerina and Lyudmila sang well, their voices sounded beautifully in the choir of skiers through the smell of tar ...

Katerina had a ski friend, a friend on the same trip, she went to the store with him, bought stockings with a very beautiful pattern (there were no pantyhose then), then they went to the movies. The film came with a short title, such as "Yes and no." Openwork stockings and the name of the film remained in memory.

On the hills, where skiers skated, a tiny buffet fit in a wooden house, he worked on major holidays. Usually skiers did without hot drinks and buns. But at the end of the ski season, the buffet was working properly, the competitions were large, the people on the fells were crowding.

After the ski race, the girls took hot coffee in paper cups, went outside from a wooden building. The guys found a camera, and a moment after the coffee stopped. The skiers in the photo are visible white knitted headphones, covered with ski hats on top. Feofan Afanasyevich bought hats for everyone when he went on a business trip. He also gave out suits and skis, even ski boots. All their jackets, their mittens, their cheeks, red from the cold, their own, but the photos are not colored, they did not invent color photographs then. Katerina, Lyudmila, Tamara, Feofan Afanasyevich and Kirill froze in the photo.

Institutional dormitories began to enter Katerina's life - no, she did not live in them. Long corridors, very long, surprised and alarmed. The same hostel was in the city where Katerina participated in student competitions. Student races. She studied at a technical institute and advocated for her institute and city. Skiers lived in competitions in a dormitory while local students rested on vacation. Places unusually beautiful and picturesque.

Mountains, snow and frost. The ski race was not canceled in the frost at thirty degrees, all competitions were held as it should. The ski trail passed through the beautiful mountains. Tears from the eyes flew during descents and turns, dark glasses were not worn at that time. All the hostels are the same, but the cities are different. Oh, how scary sometimes to go in the winter! Weather. Road.

Better not to risk it.

Once flew to one city, and then went by bus to the place where the competitions were held. All on the switchboard, and returned home, but by train with a transfer. The train came home at night. With skis from the station to her street Katerina walked. Fearfully? Not even cold. Night. Frost. Skis in a case. Sports bag. Coat with a red fox. The youth easily transfers much.

Still from one trip there were photos. On them, next to the sculptures were Katerina and Lyudmila. Katerina in a coat, in stockings, in suede boots, tight tight calf legs. The girls were shooting Kirill on the photo. He is also in one photo. Kirill studied at the same institute with Katerina. Snow on the track then lay coarse-grained, slid very well in March.

The sun was almost out the window. The window was reflected in big glasses. Katerina twisted the sapphire in her hand and continued to write. When she took sapphire in her hands, she always felt a desire to write, or to remember, or to invent new stories or constructions. Blue Sapphire personified a fragment of her inspiration.

Once Katerina sat on a steep bank and looked across the river, where the floodplain was located. Either from the sun's rays, or from what else the Ghost City began to appear before her eyes. The girl wanted to shout:

- You can not build a city on the other side! There is a floodplain!

But no one heard Katerina, and the city continued to be built. Round houses with concave roofs appeared one after another.

- Who grows there at home like mushrooms? - Katerina asked aloud in the next parish to the river bank.

'These are the guys from the building faculty frolicking,' Cyril replied.

- Cyril, this is not a dream?

- Katerina, people work around the clock. I myself help them. Students of the Faculty of Civil Engineering finish, and this city is their collective graduation project.

- Interesting. But diplomas - paper! And these are real houses!

- Katerina, famous architects from the Northern capital are helping us, a joint project has been developed with them. They have designed many houses in the city. And I offered them round houses, by the way, after one conversation with you. You said it was scary to walk on the roofs. I came up with concave, round roofs, from which, if you roll, it is inside the roof. In the center of the house passes the water flow with a filter. Filter graduates do your faculty.

- I did not know.

- And who do you see besides yourself? You are always on your own. And now I approached you with caution: what if you run out ?!

- Listen, Cyril, flood your city in the spring!

- Do not flood. We connected another department, the guys are developing a project for a dam that serves as an embankment. Do you love the other side of the river that I do not know?

- You're right. On the other side of the river, there is no need to move over the clay from the shore, and it is not necessary to work for the ascent rate, and the water is warmer there, and the shore is smaller. Where did you get the money?

- You will not believe!

- Speak!

- Remember, went to the competition in the mountains? You are not the best at skiing, but one spectator fell in love with you. By the way, do you even know that the races were next to the government sanatorium?

- Someone mentioned something.

- The audience we had what is necessary! You filmed. A man approached me alone. He asked about you and told me to play along with you in your dreams.

'I recall that you and other of me were drawing ideas.' Did they build rings at home?

- Yes, as you said. Why did you not go to the Faculty of Civil Engineering?

- Better tell me how to get from one bank to another? On a ferryboat?

'Everything is under our control.' Soon will begin to put a new bridge in this place, where we are now sitting.

- I can not sit down, as soon as the bridge in my place put! Why so? Kirill, what's the point in building a city on the other side?

- There winds less blowing.

- I take everything for a joke, but the city is really growing fast! And the city is beautiful!

Respectable men came out on a steep bank of a steep car. Katerina jumped up from her observation point. Kirill also rose. They were not allowed to leave. The men from the car stopped them.

- Hi, Kirill! - Said a tight man with gray hair. - Introduce me to the girl.

- Chef, girl name is Katerina.

- Great, I even lost my speechlessness by surprise! The city will be named Catherine in honor of this girl! Congratulations! Said the man majestically and extended his hand to Catherine.

- You break etiquette! - suddenly said Katerina.

- Here are the times! My hand refuse to embrace such a cute palm!

- I need you here? - Katerina asked sharply and, not waiting for an answer, rolled down from the steep bank to the water, where a group of skiers gathered for another training session.

Katerina approached Tamara:

- Tamara, do you see the city on the other side?

- She still asks! I see!

Cyril approached them:

- Beauties, you are invited today in a cafe for a conversation ...

- Cyril, you sold us to someone? - asked Katerina.

- Katerina, I try for you.

- I do not believe, I will not come.

- Katerina, you will definitely come! The chef is asking for it.

- The meaning is, Mr., close to the financiers?

- Insult!

Katerina and Tamara came for dinner. They modestly sat down at the edge of the table.

- The new capital of the region is scheduled. I consider the start of work successful! - the chief said loudly, and noticing two girlfriends, said: - Attention, you see young people whose faces will soon be on all screens of the region! They are the faces of the new city.

The audience at the table actively raised their glasses, smiling sweetly at the chef. His hand with a glass became the center of the universe, each trying to get his glass for his glass. The girls continued to sit modestly and do not lean out.


Chapter 6

Kirill appeared accompanied by several completely unfamiliar guys. They were presented to the rest. Katerina realized that the designers of the new bridge over the river had come. A television appeared at the bar, and a round city with concave roofs appeared on its screen. People were delighted and began to congratulate each other. Lyudmila entered the hall. The trainer Feofan Afanasyevich walked with her. They sat next to her friends.

- Katerina, do you like the stone? - asked the coach, revealing the palm on which the stone was unfamiliar to her.

'I don't know, I don't care about stones,' Katerina answered reluctantly.

- These stones are supposed to decorate buildings in the capital of the region.

'The buildings are round; you won't stick such cobblestones to them,' said Katerina.

- But glue the vertical strips, their different height will decorate the facades forever.

At this time, the wind rustled over the table.


Two people dipped faces in salads. There was no sound of shots. There was silence, which ceased shouting. Shouted all. Katerina noticed the trunk, disappeared in the sleeve of a stranger.

She also noticed that they killed two bridge designers, who had recently been presented to her. Two waiters disappeared and appeared with the protection of the institution. Everything became uninteresting and painful. At the table was a survey of witnesses. Katerina was sitting at the table, but her thoughts were somewhere far away.

- Katerina, are you sleeping? - asked Cyril.

- No, I do not sleep.

- They ask you what you saw.

- The trunks in the sleeve.

- Are you clairvoyant? - Cyril smiled. - You see through the fabric?

- I do not know, but I saw those who shot, but did not hear the sound.

- Katerina, can you describe those who shot? The unknown detective asked her.

- No, just sleeves.

- And what were the sleeves? The detective asked.

- Black.

- Everyone has almost black sleeves.

- On the sleeves were cufflinks.

- what are the cufflinks?

- Beautiful, triangular, blue sapphires, they were called 'yaponts' in ancient times.

'You just said you didn't understand the stones,' said the detective.

'And you had a triangular sapphire in your hand,' Katerina answered melancholically.

'You'd rather sleep,' said Cyril.

Katerina obediently closed her eyes.

'Mr. Detective, she sleeps, that to listen to her,' said Cyril.

'I believe her, and you go with me,' said the detective.

Both left the feast, surrounded by people in a spotted uniform.

"You will not decorate houses with sapphires, if only with artificial ones," thought Katerina. And she remembered the words about sapphire: sapphire is a stone of soul, constancy, loyalty and love. It helps to distinguish truth from false data. It treats eyesight and heart. Sapphires are not sapphires, but new houses are really decorated with transparent stones, under the tender colors of sapphires.

Katerina sat down on her favorite place by the river. New designers of the bridge, which should connect the old city and the cylindrical city, have not yet been appointed. Her favorite place on the shore was not yet done by the construction site, but Katerina had a new idea in her head: to make one normal hill in the city and its surroundings, that is, to make the bridge as a slope, and not as a horizontal bridge.

Get a strange bridge. The design of the bridge was drawn quite simple: a hill above the river. Katerina sat and painted the general view of her bridge in a notebook. Behind the chef quietly approached. Accompanying persons remained at a distance.

- Katerina, the bridge is good in your drawing! It is you who will lead the construction of this bridge.

- Agree.

- You will give the idea, it will be executed by other designers and builders of bridges. There is still work for you. The capital of a huge region should have a large road junction: airplanes, trains, cars. You went around the local area on skis or run, you know the area firsthand. Prepare a road project.

- Good.

- You only outline the idea, the road builders will cope without you.

- And I?

- And you, my dear, will outline the ideas of building the House of Government.

- Cool, but boring.

- So you can do it. You will have security.

- Do not.

- I said it would be!

- God will give. I don't even need a car, but I need an office in the House of Artists, on the top floor, overlooking that shore.

- The artists all the rooms are occupied.

'And this is already in your unit,' Katerina said, and slid down the hill right across the clay soil.

On the sloping bank of the river there were five boats, one of them boarded Katerina and Tamara. The sun was shining all over the sky, the clouds were completely absent.

- Katerina, why do you care for such interesting men? - asked Tamara.

- They want me instead of killed comrades to attach to the development of the bridge.

- Not afraid?

- I have no choice. My project of the bridge they like.

The girls swam across the river in a boat, went ashore and went to new homes. Wonderful white cylinders stood in groups, forming courtyards.

- Tamara, and how do you look at the round rooms?

'Katerina, but not all the walls are round, everything is straight inside - as usual you say,' well, straight. '

- Do you want to live here?

- Who will let me live in an elite complex?

- I.

- And who are you?

- The very same you say that the city will be called Catherine in honor of me.

- Are you moved on her own person?

- No, they told me so. I am humble.

'It can be seen,' said Tamara sensitively.

Four boats moored to the shore. The girls were called to play football on the beach, quite empty at this time of the year. Training in the sand is common.

On the high bank of the river, Kirill and the chief sat in the car. They looked at the other side of the river.

'Kirill, marry Katerina, you won't regret it,' suggested the chief in a serious voice.

- I know. But you try to approach it - it will not work. She from you from a hill will move out on the two.

- One more thing: it is necessary to remove from her men who have earned her location.

- How do you order to clean - to kill? - surprised Cyril.

- Themselves clean.

- What is it like?

- Cyril, take a pair of binoculars, see how these geeks are chasing football on the beach. Look who is sticking to Katerina. See? So you, Cyril, are a skier, and everything is at your service. You will submit ideas to the ski group.

- And what ideas?

- Primitive ideas. Tell them to go hiking in their boats. We will give tents, axes and canned meat.

- These are all positive handouts, and where are the negative ones?

- And here we have to work! It is necessary to embroil her two adorers and force them to fight with axes.

- Cool. Got it.

- So, Cyril, keep it up!


At the next training session, a week-long trip in boats was discussed. Anxiety did not leave Catherine. She listened to Cyril and felt a dirty trick, but could not immediately reveal it. The skiers were given food and tents for a hike, but she was accustomed to the gifts and considered them natural, because they said that the sports school of young people provided gifts from her own money.

Cyril and Anton quarreled from the very beginning of the campaign. They were bred in different boats. When they went ashore, the roosters flew to each other. Friends were in a state of quarrel.

Katerina was indifferent to them, even though they said to her: "And you are beautiful!" - but these bullies were the backbone of the ski group and cost much. Skiers as a sports family. Valery was collected in the parking lot. Cut down old trees. Cyril swung his ax at Anton, he answered jokingly. A fight broke out on hatchets.

Strong guys, and they have strong blows. The rest smelled something monstrous in a fight. Athletes fled to the clearing. Separating friends with axes seemed impossible. Katerina took a bucket of water brought for compote, tore it off the fire and poured the bucket on friends with all its might. The water was still warm, and dried fruit hung on the head and ears of the guys. The fighters stopped in surprise. Axes taken from them.

Katerina went over the brushwood herself, did not look at the guys. She passed about fifty meters, stopped: in front of her stood a normal live elk.

Katerina saw the moose for the first time, and even so close. Big eyes looked at the girl calmly. Wool is shiny, she wanted to stroke. Katerina said elk: "Hi!" - and quickly went to the fire.

The guys listened to the story of Katerina about the elk and offered to look at the monument to Timofeyevich. They were in the battlefields of Yermak Timofeevich. It was possible to reach the monument by boat along the river, which they did. This is where a group of skiers swam in boats and where they were going to build the capital of the region! The places are wonderful. Cyril and Anton shook hands at the monument to the great Timofeevich. Skiers returned to the tents.

Cyril sapper shovel dug the ground. He decided to dig a hole for the meat. The days were hot. The blade hit a hard object. The guy cleared the ground and saw an old chest. Remembering the recent fight, he did not call the guys to find. Skiers at this time bathed in the river. Cyril himself dug the earth around the chest and began to pull it out.

At this time, someone's iron hand clutched at his shoulder:

- Stop, Cyril!

Cyril learned Anton.

- Anton, do not bother me!

- I run and fall. Together we will pull out the forged chest. He is heavy.

The guys caved in under the chest and lifted him out of the ground. There was no lock on the chest. The chest was tied with a rope, like a washcloth. Cyril cut the rope and opened the chest. In the chest lay an ancient ax, wrapped in old skin. Next to the ax in the old rags were sapphires. One sapphire was 3 centimeters in diameter. Three rays shone from a large dark blue stone.

- Cyril, why is the chest so heavy? - Anton asked in a conciliatory voice.

- The chest is wrapped in a copper sheet.

- And what is this transparent glass? Look: pinkish, yellow, bluish ...

- Gems, since they are colored.

- Clever you, Cyril, not for years.

The rest of the skiers, wet after swimming, came to the chest, looking inside.

- Katerina, look, sapphires! You remembered them the other day, 'said Tamara.

- I had to meet them.

- So, it is sapphires? - asked Cyril.

- Yes, sapphires. And you could not live to such happiness, - said Katerina.

- I will be grateful to you for the compote on your ears, - answered Cyril.

Feofan Afanasyevich went to the chest. Surprisingly calm, he took the find.

- To whom will we give the gifts of nature? - asked the coach of the skiers.

'Take it for yourself,' answered Anton.

- I found the chest! - Cyril shouted.

'Take a pie for him on the shelf,' Tamara answered him.

'Let's pass the chest to the local history museum, it's not far from the river's embankment,' said Feofan Afanasyevich.

Skiers mentally hid, they wanted that - I do not know what, but I really wanted to.

In the museum of local lore, the chest of the times of Yermak Timofeevich was delighted. Visitors to the museum reached out to the trunk and its fillings. There were people who said that Timofeevich himself coffers, Tsar Ivan himself gave him to him. And the stories about Timofeevich began to be told.

... Ermak Timofeevich fell in love with a rich man's sister. The rich owner was against the poor strong man, he arrogantly did not take into account the power of the mighty Timofeevich. The rich man saw his sister with Timofeevich and decided to measure his strength with him. Timofeevich killed the rich man with a saber and fled to the Volga. At that moment people were sailing in boats - boats. A strong man asked for their companions instead of a man who had died.

Soon they had to fight with the robbers, they all ran away, only Timofeyevich was left. He killed someone, crippled someone. For his boldness, he liked the chieftain of the robbers, who left him at home. Time passed, and became Timofeevich ataman of robbers. And so he became famous that Tsar Ivan himself heard about him.

Tsar Ivan ordered to deal with the robbers. The robbers, led by Timofeevich, heard about it, and they rushed from the wide Volga river to the Copper Mountains. They found a refuge for the owner of the plant. For some time they protected the plant Demidov. Timofeevich noticed that the local population suffers from the raids of the Khan people. He decided to rid the population of the Copper Mountains from the people of Khan. The owner of the factories helped Timofeevich with provisions, gave him people.

From the first approach, Timofeevich and his people didn't go far. And from the second call, the ataman of the robbers Timofeevich went to conquer Siberia and, if possible, beat the Khan's people beyond the Copper Mountains. Several winters weakened Timofeevich's army. The help that Tsar Ivan sent him in the form of archers with supplies destroyed itself. Sagittarius stocks eaten, but did not survive the winter.

Forces Timofeevich thawed not in vain. He brought fear to the Khan people. They felt resistance! Timofeevich was not afraid to go to uncharted lands to liberate people from the long Khan yoke. The people of Khan killed Timofeevich, they took him with cunning, and not in open battle ...

Cyril elbows bit, that did not hide the chest from Anton. The local newspaper painted his feat. Anton was interested in sapphire - such a stone would be in a safe! Television has arrived. Photo correspondents from all over the world began to arrive in a city that had gained popularity. The ghost city was shot from all angles and glorified with the trunk around the world.

Chief read newspapers. He was advertising on hand. He knew what to build. So it was with the bridge. Who needs a horizontal bridge? Who will show it on all television channels in the news? And the bridge-hill will show. Such a Katerina is a person, such are her thoughts, it is necessary to pick them up in time.

The team of bridge builders was indignant with all the fibers of their soul. They shouted against the project Catherine. Nobody wanted to obey her! People reproached her for the death of two designers, as if she wanted to take their place. Catherine did not seem enough. She was ready to fall through the earth to the two designers of the bridge who had gone to the next world. But she smiled, laughed and went to the gym.

The chef was waiting for Katerina in the car next to the ski base:

- Hi, Katerina! Don't you cry from the cordial welcome of the bridge designers?

- I'm going to cry.

- Draw! Damn it! Sketch the main idea of the bridge and dimensions with an accuracy of up to 10 meters, or rather measure it without you.

- Already done.

- Where are your drawings?

- In a sports bag.

- Get it.

Katerina unzipped the bag, but there was no tablet in it.

- Where are your sketches? - Chef asked chef.

'They were lying here,' Katerina replied perplexedly, turning over the contents of her gym bag.

- And the drawings - were they?

- have been.

'Is there a copy left at home?'

- I had only drawings, and in the bag was the last version of the bridge.

- Nicely. Who do you think?

- I would have known - I would not have taken the drawings with me!

'I told you about the guards, and you're all rolling down the hill.' I have your drawings, 'said the chief and showed the latest version of the bridge.

- Well you! I have no words! - sincerely indignant girl.

- If there were thoughts, we'll find words. I like your bridge.

- CB does not recognize me.

- Let's make. Your salary will depend on you.

'You don't have to do this!' I do not pay money! I come up with designs!

- Good, you will be goals! Respect for the people will come to you, along the way.

Katerina was lying and spinning around a nail in her heart, because of acute pain she was not allowed to move and did not allow her to get up. She tried to remember whether there were heart medications in the house, and with horror she realized that there were no pills in the house, no drops. It was all over long ago, and there were so many problems that no one remembered about the medicine. The designed bridge, somewhat similar to the drawings, broke off and hung above the river.

Tamara called and asked:

- Katerina, why are you not in training?

'I am lying on a nail in my heart,' Katerina replied.

The horror of the disaster did not pass. She was well aware that the bridge was broken because of the greed of the chief. He is a greedy man, he was sorry for the money to strengthen the design! How many Katerina argued with him! She showed him options for a strong bridge. But the sponsor gave money for one thing, but he did not give money to some elements of the structure.

Mom brought new pills. Katerina drank them, but the pain still held. Tamara arrived, ran her hand over her heart - and the pain disappeared. Katerina noticed a blue glow coming from the palm of her hand, but she was silent.

The chief called and asked:

- Katerina, why did you lie down and never show up anywhere? Could look at a torn bridge.

From Katerina he did not hear the reproach. What suffer to waste? She took the book, the little novel at home could always be found. The day she read the novel. Suddenly, Katerina stopped reading, she began to think that round houses were not at home at all, but cartons for filming. She sat down, looked out the window. What if it's a joke? And the city, and the bridge, and the roads that she draws in her spare time from other thoughts? What are they up to?

Where did the chest come from next to the tent? What other sapphire ?! Suddenly, people are preparing everything for a science fiction film, and she helps them with her extraordinary thinking? The pain that penetrates the heart of the nail is gone. Katerina calmed down. Why is her design bad? Yes, she is wonderful! She was deliberately weakened; it was necessary to film a bridge break on a film! It is bad that her favorite descent from the mountain was spoiled.

The descent fell asleep, cemented. Yes, this is bad, you have to go down the stairs. Katerina sat down. I got up. I looked in the mirror. Smiled. But there was no strength. She took the next novel and lived for another day in the fictional world of another writer. On the evening of the second day, Katerina phoned Cyril. It is not clear why, but Katerina suddenly felt an interest in him:

- Cyril, it's me, Katerina. I was not at the institute yesterday, my heart was bad.

- My heart hurt too, and today it tingles, it hurts with you and me.

Katerina realized that Kirill did not explain the true cause of her condition. Does he know everything, even the fact that she is involved in the construction of a bridge for filming, or is it all real? Katerina called the boss.

- Excuse me, what film are you filming with us?

- Katerina, I'm not a director, what are you talking about?

- Why did the bridge break?

- So do not draw stupidity, and the bridge will not break.

- But Cyril did not completely miss the entire structure, some simply did not give it to the manufacturer, there is solid greed there.

- Dear, and this is not your business.

- But stupid ...

- Shut up, dear ... - the pipe was silent.

Katerina turned over, walked around the room, weakness made itself felt. Heart pricked a second time. The girl put the tablet under the tongue. A wave of trouble passed through the brain. She rose. That skier, and bent just like that. No, you have to get up and act.

Two cakes of extraordinary beauty were brought into the house.

- Katerina, my girl, look what they brought you - cakes, and immediately two.

- Thanks, Mom, I will try one with coffee.

- What kind of coffee if your heart hurts?

'I don't want a cake without coffee.'

'That's a stubborn girl, do what you want.'

Katerina laughed, the pain in her heart disappeared, as did the bridge that was needed to shoot the film.

Cyril sat with Theophanes and told him that his relationship with Katerina was improving, but she complained of heartache.

- Cyril, and without pain you can not do! I am bewitching Katerina for you, I am disturbing her heart. And how do you want to?

Cyril in response:

- Forgive me, Feofan Afanasyevich, you know better.

Katerina picked up the phone and heard the familiar voice of Tamara:

- Katerina, hello!

- Hello, your voice has not changed, familiar intonation.

- Katerina, once you told me about sapphires, I thought you were telling a fairy tale. You still remember about the chest, which we found on the river bank next to the monument to Timofeyevich!

- Why do you remind about the chest? He is in a museum.

- In the chest was a blue sapphire?

- was. Cyril dug up the chest and fought because of him with Anton, that's the story.

- And you have not forgotten that you poured them with compote? - persistently asked Tamara.

- That's for sure, they were at enmity for some reason. But this is not the case, the famous sorcerer Theophan arrived at the museum, having seen the blue sapphire, he said that this stone radiates the energy of good, and wanted to buy it, but the sapphire museum refused to sell the sorcerer. The sorcerer became angry and said that this stone could make a lot of money. The servants of the museum responded that people already began to go to them much more than before the sapphire yacht. The sorcerer came out on Cyril, who told me where he found the chest. Cyril then worked in a local newspaper, he had been drawing cartoons for newspapers since high school. And, she remembered, Kirill and Anton quarreled because of the caricature! After all, Kirill drew caricatures on Anton's friend and put them in a newspaper.

- With Cyril understandably suffers because of his talent. Katerina, so what happened with sapphire? Notice, a certain sorcerer Feofan appeared - and our coach Feofan Afanasyevich, what unites them? This name does not suggest you?

- Wait, Tamara. It turns out that there was an extraordinary power in this sapphire, in it three beams played in a strange way. The sorcerer bewitched the servants of the museum, put out a blue sapphire, got into the car ...

- Katerina, why are you silent?

- Kirill was driving the car!

- Is he a taxi driver?

- Guess, he accidentally witnessed the theft.

- Katerina, if the sorcerer stole a mystical sapphire, then why is he free?

- This is another mystery sorcerer. This sorcerer Theophanes was at the trial, he hypnotized everyone there, the thoughts of the judges were messed up, and he was released for lack of evidence.

- Cool all. They that, and sat in the hall - enchanted?

- No, they are normal, but about Theophanes they have a hole in their brains from a donut.

- Why did the sorcerer Feofan love Cyril so much?

- Theophanes said that the stone loves Cyril.

- A nightmare, but we'll talk a lot today ... Katerina, what else did you want to tell me?

- I wanted to say that it was a chest not Cyril, and the ladies of the Subsoil.

- Koll, where such news?

- Come, I will tell.

Tamara came to Katerina to listen to her story about the Lady of the Nedra, but they did not reach the story.

- Katerina, why did you bury this chest, which Kirill then dug out? - quietly asked Tamara.

'It happened so,' Katerina answered without emotion.

- Listen, Katerina, and Cyril is accidentally not a relative of yours?

- What makes you think?

- I don't know yet. Bye ... - said Tamara and left the room Catherine.

Katerina pulled the curtains.

At this time, Tamara returned:

- Katerina, you know, in the city all transport costs!

- What's so surprising? Did you see traffic jams?

- No, they say, a blue ball was driven around the city - and all the cars got up.

- Blue ball, you say?

- Katerina, what are you talking about?

- About sapphire.

- The one that lay in our museum?

- Yes, it was stolen, but why it is shown to the whole city is not clear. It was the sapphire blue star. The sorcerer was running around with him.


Chapter 7

Soon the entire population of the city spoke only about the sorcerer Theophanes and the Blue Star sapphire. Hungry for health for money and without pain stood in line with him. Katerina approached the crowd, which the waves went near his place of residence.

She climbed through the crowd with shouts:

- People, miss! I am the wife of the sorcerer Theophanes!

People looked at Catherine in surprise, but missed. In the last room, before entering the abode of the sorcerer, sat Cyril.

- Cyril, hello! Skip to Theophanes!

- Katerina, hello! Did she come or did Tamara send it?

- Itself, of course, you know, I have always been engaged in astrology and psychoanalysis.

'If you're so smart, tell me what's going on here?'

-The psychosis of love and worship of the sorcerer Theophanes.

- That's right, I'll let you through one lady, very much she paid well for the visit to the almighty sorcerer.

- I will not wait and I will not cry! The lady will wait! Do not worry, Cyril, I will calm her down.

Katerina approached the lady and recognized Tamara in her.

- Tamara, quietly, I remember very well that we participated in the find of sapphire. Sit, and now I will enter the sorcerer as soon as the visitor comes out.

However, Tamara quickly Catherine entered the sorcerer, but soon she flew out the door. Her hair was ruffled:

- Katerina! You are a good psychologist, so go and dissolve the whole crowd in two words!

Katerina went out on the porch and said:

- Gentlemen, comrades, citizens, all are free for today! Mr. Theophanes fell asleep from fatigue. He is waiting for you tomorrow!

The crowd, as if under hypnosis, turned around and dissolved in streams around the city. Katerina returned to the room.

'Tamara,' she said, and stopped.

The trainer Feofan Afanasyevich was sitting in front of her, nobody else was in the room.

- Katerina, I greet you! - said the coach.

She looked at him closely:

- ABOUT! Feofan Afanasyevich!

'Though you found out,' said the former coach.

- You have long disappeared! - Catherine was surprised.

- Both disappeared and rose again!

- Feofan Afanasyevich, you are the sorcerer Feofan?

- I wanted to live - I became a sorcerer.

- Why did you steal sapphire in a museum? People will wake up from hypnosis and come to you!

- Katerina, this sapphire is worth a lot. You could live on it comfortably, portraying a magician, a hereditary magician!

- Feofan Afanasyevich, I told the whole crowd that I am your wife! But I did not know that Theophan was you!

- In you, the magician spoke! I dedicate you to magicians! And I give you a blue sapphire, "Blue Star".

- Thanks, but...

Katerina saw in the hands of the coach a blue glow! Soon the light was in her hands - it was a ball with a lot of flat edges, it was really blue ...

- This sapphire is not from a museum?

- No, my joy! Sapphire is a real, and very valuable copy.

- Where did you get it?

- Not in a museum.

- Am I not ashamed to use such a sapphire?

- Not. This sapphire is from the chest of the Ladies of the Subsoil. All you need to know. The questions are over, take the blue sapphire and fly home, but don't look for me, 'said Feofan and disappeared through the door.

Katerina showed Tamara blue sapphire.

- Tamara, the sorcerer Theophan gave me a blue sapphire. Are you surprised?

'No,' she said.

Katerina went to the kitchen, where she was stopped by a phone call. She picked up the phone.

- Katerina, there is an urgent job.

- Let's talk tomorrow, at work.

- Not now! I am standing under your windows. Katerina, look out the window. My car is waiting for you.

In the hands of the chief lay a yellow sapphire, or, as it was called, the "Straw widow."

'And you gave in to the magicians,' said Katerina, sitting down next to the chief.

'Katerina,' said the chief, and he fell dead, a trickle of blood running from his temple.

Katerina involuntarily recoiled from him. A gun stuck through the window.

- Katerina, return the yellow sapphire, he fell to the floor.

She shook her head.

- Feofan, why did you kill the chief?

- He took a sapphire from me, and this is a lot.

- We have one job with him.

- So I believed, raise the sapphire.

Katerina stooped behind the yellow sapphire. Feofan hit her on the back of the head and pushed aside. He took the yellow sapphire and quickly went to the car, standing nearby. Tamara looked out the window and saw Catherine lying on the ground. She called Cyril, who quickly arrived. They both took her home.

For some time Katerina, like everyone, attended classes that took place in the classrooms. Nothing unusual happened until she and Cyril went out onto the balcony. Students are strictly forbidden to go out on the balcony, performing the function of a take-off area.

Katerina and Kirill wanted to talk without unnecessary ears, but were instantly lifted by the robot aboard a flying saucer. The two of them intended to find out the fate of the chest with gems containing, among other things, a radioactive element.

Five hundred years have passed since the chests with gems were collected. Autumn was blazing in the last phase of golden plumage. Katerina was sitting by the window. Thoughts girls flew over the autumn nature. In life there are clean and sunny days, and then sad things happen, like a rainy day, or the health will pick up an autumn virus somewhere.

Probably, in such a stellar autumn, the Lady of the Subsoil met the hero in love with gems. Creating beautiful gemstones was the work of a gemstone craftsman. Now any decoration would be created with the help of a special tool that would circle over a stone with decent speed and buzz more strongly than a fly. What are the thoughts in the girl's head?

"Oh, what a strange woman appeared from the golden forest world?" - thought Katerina again, looking once again out the window at the elusive autumn. As if someone made her look out the window at that time.

A slender woman of no age in a dark green cape walked from the forest to the house. Tell someone - do not believe it, but Katerina was sure that the stranger went to her.

- Hello, dear Katerina! Said the old lady. - Don't be surprised that I know your name. You saw me in semi-precious stones. They told me everything about you. Don't be surprised, honey, I am your great-grandmother. And not just a great-grandmother I - Lady Nedra.

- Hello, Grandma! I recognized you. My heart told me!

- Well, fine!

- Grandma, can you stay with us?

'Honey, but you have absolutely no gemstones, and I cannot live without them!'

- Yes, I only have colorful leaves in the forest, and then only in the fall!

- Dear, do not worry, you will have everything.

The Lady of the Subsoil went to the window and made an imperious hand sign. From the forest two short people in green jackets immediately appeared. They carried the chest by the handles.

- Katerina, this is your inheritance! I am glad that I can give you semi-precious stones!

Two opened the chest and disappeared behind the door, and then in the forest. Semi-precious stones played with all the colors of the rainbow, the radiance emanating from them was magical! Oh, that was wonderful!

Lady Nedra was glad to offer her granddaughter to stay in the house. But she had enough of a trip in a green car with people in green jackets. Another type of transport would be difficult to bring a chest with gems of the Copper Mountains to Katerina. The old lady knew how to mist views and thoughts, and those who met her on the way lost their memory and sense of time and reality for a while. She was happy that she handed over a jewel box to her great-granddaughter.

Tourists and geologists constantly appeared in the Copper Mountains. They dragged into the light of day all that can be mined in the depths of the mountains. A sense of duty kept the lady of the Subsoil for good work. She was not satisfied with one thing - that Katerina would not be able to be a new lady of the Subsoil and live where they lived for so long, replacing each other, Ladies of the Subsoil.

She decided to live a little in the house of the great-granddaughter, because she did not like to change her lifestyle and was ready to leave for the lost kingdom in the old Copper Mountains. The car, more precisely, the minibus was waiting for her in the forest on the hay road. The forest was losing more and more leaves, and she was increasingly drawn to her native places. In the afternoon she sat at home, watched TV and was sad. In the evening, Katerina appeared. It became more fun.

Katerina took the azure with twelve rays from the trunk of the chest and went to the bookstore. The day was warm and sunny. She didn't want to get on the bus. She was walking fast. The road was well known to her. She walked and turned an azure stone in her hands and dreamed of a beautiful guy. And he appeared next.

Oh! And if not a gem stone he put to her? The guy stopped. Stopped and the girl. They looked into each other's eyes. And they went on together. The path is not remembered. They talked and looked at each other. Rain is coming. The foliage flew from the trees. They had to go home.

'Grandma, I met a wonderful guy,' the girl screamed from the doorway. - I turned the stone semiprecious, azure yacht. And he was next to me!

- That's right, granddaughter! There is an extraordinary power in the yahonte, it fulfills the desires of those who possess this precious stone.

- Grandma, and when you came, I thought about you. But I did not have a yacht in my hands.

- Eh, Katerina, the yakhont was always at your house.

- Grandma, tell me, where is the azure azure in my house?

- Yahont lies in this room. He was hidden in a box made under a book, but you didn't take a book-box in your hands.

- Grandma, you can't read all the books.

- And you look in the bookcase and see a book-box.

Katerina carefully looked into the closet. Yes, she did not re-read the books at home, she read new books from the store, and she hadn't yet looked at the old books at home and read. Attention stopped at a very old binding. She took the book - it turned out to be a box.

Katerina opened the book, and there was another casket in it. She opened the box, and in her yacht azure beauty unprecedented!

- Grandma, I found a yacht!

- Yes, granddaughter, this is my stone. Do not lose it. Now you have a lot of stones, but in front of people do not brag by stones. Take care of them. There is a master - give three stones to work, but no more.

The Lady of the Subsoil, accompanied by two men in green jackets, disappeared into the doorway, and then into the forest with sparse foliage.

Soon Feofan appeared with Catherine along with Cyril. They entered the room.

- Katerina, I do not ask for forgiveness. He did not know that we would have to go through five hundred years, but that's not all. We are in a flying saucer forty years behind our time. I did not immediately realize that the time resistor was not completed at the control panel.

- Feofan, but how do you explain the fact that we galloped in time in search of stones from the chest?

- Here, my dear, you understood correctly. We will now search for the second chest. Chest one was radioactive, if you understood it, the sapphire "Straw widow" was taken from it. We need to find a normal chest.

- And what to look for him? He is in my house, his lady Nedra brought.

- Katerina, are you sure that the chest in your home?

- Absolutely! I opened the chest and took the blue sapphire.

- Open now.

Katerina went to the niche in which she left the trunk of the Lady of the Subsoil, covered with a small rug. But under the rug was a bench with low legs.

- Girl, are you out of your mind? What kind of lady Subsoil could come here if five hundred years have passed?

- Why not? Over these centuries, we and you are very much akin.

- Without a personal relationship! We are at work! What happened a long time is not true! No chest! In short, we are now fifty years past. You, as always, are about sixteen - eighteen, act.

- And Cyril?

The question of Katerina hung in the air of another century ...

In the village of Medny bucket the women married young men at one time. Happiness car and small truck. Everything as it is, an example was taken from the main singer. Peasant women themselves young men found. And as a singer and singer divorced - tears went through the village. Young husbands rebelled with the elderly, one might say, the spouses divorced. So who framed whom? How many couples lost their happiness - and not to retell.

Ivan Kuzmich, meanwhile, moved the Kopeyka car, hooked the cart to it. She and Aunt Dasha healed so well! Ivan Kuzmich vegetables that Aunt Dasha grew vegetables drove to the market on a cart. Oh! Good in their family has become. So no, after the divorce of a great pair of singers, and he and Aunt Dasha decided to divorce, he remembered that he was younger than her for a couple of years. And who erased his footcloths to him? Now, science fiction has appeared, but what it is - plainly Aunt Dasha does not understand, knows that it was instead of writing tales.

So Aunt Dasha herself tells the tale, but she never used the word "fiction". That's how it is! And Aunt Dasha is still unknown, because she told the tales orally. She is by nature a village radio, everyone can hear it without a mouthpiece.

Last year, the women on her bench were biting their lips on seeds. They all knew as they were, what was, what would be, what would calm the heart. So nobody called them the newspaper 'Vzglyad'. Oh, and how many times they remembered an actress with a waist of 45 centimeters - and not to remember! She, tea, the same age as a neighbor Semenovna. So she is a woman for a long time, her cheeks from behind are always visible, and no one has changed her face, she is so cheeky.

Katerina gave her mother's hat from a mink with large edges to Semyonovna, so from the hat, Semyonovna's cheeks looked out all the same when she was in her carriage on the cart. Poured boyarina. And this year, the bench without seeds remained. Katerina arrived, brought two piles of books: some are red, others are colorful. So Aunt Dasha is now no one to talk to. Women read by turns female detectives.

Yesterday, Aunt Dasha saw physics on TV, it means. He walked all over the mountains, conquered the seven thousand meters, wanted to turn from a man into a snow leopard. Here is how. What's so surprising about that? He climbed all the way up to be above the ground, and Aunt Dasha would say so: 'You can go out into the open field - and you will immediately be above rye, and rye - it grows above the ground'.

But it was like that, according to Aunt Dasha.

'Oh, women,' said Aunt Dasha to the women, 'Tamara has become quite an adult.' Admit it, if you know - who spoiled it?

- Dasha, why are you? Is it true? - the women started talking, snapping seeds.

- And the fact that Tamara is getting fat the wrong way!

The women fell silent and went to the courtyards of the village of Medny bucket to collect the second part of this story. In the summer, archaeologists and young people arrived in the village. The women decided to find among them a bad man by their standards. Tamara suffered and did not confess to who he was. She became dull and grumbled all the time that she did not want to go to school. Houses could not understand anything and remained in complete obscurity.

The village knew everything.

In the fall, Tamara went to school. But she went to her strangely, her mother accompanied her to school and went to work. And they started calling from school that Tamara is missing lessons. Smells on her appeared strangers. One day a mother went about her business past the school, watching her daughter go out of school. And her boyfriend is waiting. They talked and parted, and the smell of the mother's boyfriend was already familiar. He walked past her.

Mother returned home, and the house was full of roses. Across the room in all the vessels were large cherry roses. Tamara said that her boyfriend gave her flowers. The first pregnancy, the daughter from the mother tried to hide. And Aunt Dasha was silent for the time being.

There are new problems. She studied Tamara, but did not finish her studies, but became a future mother. Her figure swam. Here Tamara's nerves could not stand it, and she confessed her natural sin to her mother. What to do? They left the child, and Tamara was immediately transferred to the evening school.

A versatile person, student archeologist Feofan by this time graduated from the institute. And they got married. Aunt Dasha thought that Tamara would be married, she would live with her husband and forget about the way to her. No, I came with my husband. Aunt Dasha did not give a breath, because of her, she worked more and more at home, trying to please her daughter.

And Tamara became such a fair woman that all the women in the village were amazed. A good wife turned out of it. With her husband, an archaeologist, like doves, cooed. Aunt Dasha could not stop looking at them. And Tamara's husband continued to dig the earth alone. Other archaeologists no longer came, they did not find anything here.

Tamara's man turned out to be stubborn little. Dug up such ditches, which is nice to see. Children in his caves began to play. And he took a vacation and dug some holes. Tamara wore him food right in the field, and the very child in the hem. The women laugh at him tired.

And the archaeologist unearthed Theophan smithy. I found an anvil in it, a hammer, household utensils. The people of the scientist came to the village and people with cameras. Soon the findings on the TV showed. They were honored. And why surprising? What they did not find horseshoes? Vaughn, at Dasha's aunt, at the entrance to the house, always has a horseshoe hanging for good luck.

So what are they thinking? Tamara and her husband decided to put a hut and stay to live in the village. The women laughed, and they seriously began to put the house. They bought a strange stove, such as an old round washing machine, it began to heat the whole house with it.

The house was built with urban amenities. So the whole village came to them on an excursion, to see how the water from the tap runs. And they have a clean stove. And the gas in their tank and firewood is not visible. All the way through. Tamara economic turned out to be. House cleanliness such as the one in Dasha's aunt never had.

The house was placed so that the found blacksmith shop was in the garden. Tamara's husband, on the site of an ancient smithy, erected his, modern. The blacksmith began to work at school as a physical education teacher. Copper so everything turned out. In the village of Bronze Ladle, the land was never appreciated, and then it began to be measured, sold. Houses built on an empty field. River cleaned. So much for Tamara, how everything turned!

And Aunt Dasha, both grown vegetables and grows. Tamara mother built a greenhouse. And Aunt Dasha became a brigadier, and the patronymic began to call her-name women - Daria Artemovna. And she dreamed a dream, as if in her house there was water under the roof and everything floated in it. She woke up, and on the street a heavy downpour was coming, then the lightning flashed, thunder thundered once, another - and everything calmed down.

In the morning the sun shone. If it were not for the puddles, no one would have believed that the night was terrible. The phone rang. Tamara mother called to her. Aunt Dasha ran through the puddles, thinking that it was in a hurry, that she had been raised early in the morning. And people stood at the forge and looked into one of the pits. The pits are full of water, and in one place the earth seems to glow. What can I say!

The archaeologist found copper, right under his house. So he was all surprised that everything they found in the smithy was from copper, not from the iron itself. So that. And the mountains are nearby, so copper has been washed from the excavations. Okay, Aunt Dasha will not lie, and she was not told.

What they found, she really did not know, took out of the ground that which was shining. And it turned out to be an ordinary old copper ladle for boiling. There was laughter, then the whole village laughed.

On Aunt Dasha instead of laughing boredom fell. She lived all her life in this village - and suddenly it became boring, even though a wolf howl. Well, nothing pleases her. Such sadness - to the edge of edge. So she wanted to go wherever she looked, so that would sit on the cart and leave. She left a greenhouse on the godfather, dressed up and went on a cart to the station. The wooden wheel at the cart and rolled away to the side.

In the bus, Aunt Dasha met the eyes of a young man looking at her; only her brother Catherine had such eyes. When the young man got off the bus, he once again fixed his aunt Dasha in the eyes! Yes, no doubt, he has the look and eyes of her brother! The guy could play her brother's movie without stress. Glance sunk into her soul! But it was not customary to start a novel with the brothers, and Aunt Dasha pulled out the penetrating gaze of the young man. He can not be the hero of her novel.

Catherine's father fought in the war! He was handsome and noble by nature! He could have liked any girl, and Aunt Dasha liked the young man very much like her brother. The young man could well be the son of her brother. Where he got off the bus, she did not remember, because she saw a local history museum through the window.

Aunt Dasha went to the local history museum and knew the history of her region. Does she need to look for this guy from the bus? Here I found a headache! But he has the rare beauty of his brother's eyes! One to one! What does she know about the brother of that period? He was wounded, lying in a field hospital. He was not then married, he has one official marriage. Well this is how they look like!

Aunt Dasha arrived in the city, walking down the street - and suddenly a huge car came off the wheel and rolled. She suffered a lot of fear, the wheel of the cart would be much less. The city is the city. City resident Arina walked down the street, like in her apartment. And suddenly, towards her, the wheel rolled away from the huge machine. How she managed to bounce is unknown. A wheel about the size of it rolled past. The girl's heart sank with fear.

A strange grandmother, whom she had not seen for a long time, approached Arina and began to console her. Word by word - and they met in a state of general stress. Later it turned out that they walked into one house, entered one entrance, climbed one floor. Apartments were close. "The fate of the wheel, not otherwise," - thought Arina and went to her home.

Strange aunt Dasha rang the doorbell of Katerina's apartment, which was not at home. Then she rang the doorbell to Arina. Aunt Dasha is standing in front of the door and is holding a brown suitcase with metal corners. Arina missed her to her apartment. Although she never let strangers into the house, but then she missed and treated me to tea. Two ladies are sitting, talking and drinking tea.

Arina's mother, Aunt Lyuba, came and said that Katerina's mother had not seen for three days, because they are friends, they walk along the streets in the summer evenings.

Aunt Dasha's heart went up:

'What about what happened to Catherine's niece?'

The three women looked at each other and rushed to the door. Knock. Scream.

The neighbor jumped out of the third door and said:

- What are the buzz? Need to call the police. I heard a noise in the apartment, and then for three days I did not see anyone.

Aunt Dasha leaned against the wall, then walked to the door:

'Smell,' she said, and sat on the floor.

The others sniffed and moved away from the door. Neighbor Lyuba was the first to wake up, brought spare keys from her neighbors' apartment. Neighbors came to the apartment. At the entrance lay a dog, killed by a bullet. In the kitchen lay a woman, covered by a newspaper, with a bullet hole in the temple area. The newspaper was brightly circled one article that in the village of Copper bucket found a golden bucket.

Aunt Dasha read and asked:

- Is my sister for the copper ladle sewn? A copper bucket was found in our village, and here it is written that the archeologist Feofan Komkov, my son-in-law, found a golden bucket in his yard. What is this done ?!

'We read this article,' said Arina, 'Mom also said that they found a copper dipper, sparkling like gold. I know Katerina since my childhood, did someone read the article and rushed to her mother? Stupidity!

When everything was quiet, the neighbor picked up a newspaper from the corpse.

Aunt Dasha gasped:

- This is not my sister!

- Who? The neighbor asked.

'I don't know,' answered grandma Dasha.

Soon Katerina came and said that it was the corpse of her mother's friend. Aunt Dasha began to go around the apartment, which she rarely visited. The apartment of the two rooms was small and average in all. The furniture was not new, the repair did not suggest itself, but it didn't shine with the fact that it was recently made. In general, it was possible to live here and not change anything at first, which she did.

So Aunt Dasha stayed in the apartment of her niece Katerina, because it was necessary to somehow solve all the issues. She alone did not cease to wonder - why did she so uncontrollably wanted to leave the village? It turns out that it was necessary.

She began to go out with her neighbor to walk in the yard, her neighbors got used to her. And when she almost got used to her life, Tamara came to her with a child and without her husband Feofan. She lost weight, leaned over and asked the mother to stay with her, otherwise it is difficult for her to cope with the child.

Aunt Dasha looked at her clumsy fingers at the knots from working with the earth and stayed in the city because no one knew where Catherine's mother had gone. It is clear that they wanted to kill her, and killed the dog and her friend, but where is she herself ?!

Feofan did not call, Tamara did not keep in touch with him. Aunt Dasha did not ask her anything. Everything says: "Baby, baby." And Tamara's child is the son of Vova. But with him Aunt Dasha and began to walk in the yard, everything seems to be in business. Tamara worked. Housework fell on her grandmother with her grandson, she coped with them. She has been accustomed to work since childhood.


Aunt Dasha cleaned the apartment and found Theophan's things, and something seemed strange to her. Tamara said that they lived very little together in this apartment. The archaeologist did not get along with Catherine's mother. Aunt Dasha felt weird and scary. Here, remember her stupidity, but it seemed to her that there were no strangers in this apartment! While Vova was asleep, she began to examine everything, even though here and without her, the police examined everything, but the copper ladle soon covered this case. Everyone understood the chorus of the murder, or rather the motive of the murder - a copper ladle, which the killer seemed golden.

After Dasha's aunt in the village had been reading a lot of detectives that Katerina brought to her, she was simply carried towards the investigation of the murder. She knew that the brass dipper had been taken out of lumps of dirt. Theophanes said it was a copper ladle.

Aunt Dasha this ladle of soap itself, on it were letters and carving. And then, she knows what a copper ladle is, she always cooked jam for the winter in it.

She told a relative archeologist that this bucket is not copper. And he began to rotate his eyes, showing her to be silent. Theophanes took the bucket to the city for examination, it is clear that he was in this house. He didn't have a pistol, but he had a bucket.

The baby twisted in bed. Grandma Dasha covered Vova with a blanket and sat in a chair, continuing to inspect the apartment. When she first came into the apartment, there was order. Tamara came home from work ahead of time and said, with dull eyes, that Theophanes had disappeared.

She called him on his mobile phone, and someone else told her that he did not know Theophanes, but he found the phone and disconnected. Tamara went to the shower, got out of it calm and spoke for the first time:

- Mom, Theophan carried the bucket for examination. Experts said that the bucket of gold. He is about 200-300 years old. Most likely, this is the royal ladle. Theophan's bucket was seized and promised to pay 25%. And who knows how much it really costs? And I do not know. He told me all this on the phone, and now he has no phone either.

Aunt Dasha looked at Tamara, her eyes were full of tears. And it became clear to her that Theophan did not want to kill anyone, but that the bucket was to blame for the death of her sister's friend, it became completely clear without a newspaper. Tamara fell asleep after drinking soothing pills.

Vova woke up, and her grandmother spun with him. They played a ball that rolled under the couch. The floor of the grandmother of the soap was wound with a mop and did not bend, and then she got on her knees and began to look for the ball. She saw ... That's right, she saw the edge of the golden bucket in the sofa. How had she not noticed him before? She got up from her knees, handed the ball to the baby, went into the room to Tamara - she was asleep.


Chapter 8

What to do? And where did the golden bucket come from? There was a search here, but there was no bucket then! How many years my aunt Dasha lived in the village of Medny bucket, and everything, thank God, was good. And went to the city - and the wheel of the cart fell off. In the village in a copper ladle jam is cooked, and here he is a criminal object.

Aunt Dasha could not stand it, got up, raised the sofa, looks and does not believe her eyes: there is a quarter from the golden bucket in the sofa! And next to there are scissors for metal. She lowered the sofa, so abruptly that Vova began to cry. Who is this, so clever, cut the historical value?

She looked under the sofa: the piece from the bucket no longer glowed, apparently, the whole fell into the plywood bottom of the sofa. She fed the baby, and they went for a walk. Nice thing for the attendants - to find out who came to the entrance.

Aunt Dasha's neighbor, Luba, told her everything, even about a quarter bucket.

And Aunt Lyuba laughs like:

- Baba Dasha, so 25% of the treasure is already with you. The case can be closed. Killed woman only pity.

- Luba, I saw a bucket in the ground, the rain whipped on it. I then washed it, cleaned it. And Theophanes dug up that pit of his son-in-law, before that he dug up the forge, and now he is gone.

- Baba Dasha, I will honestly tell you that your Theofan liked Arina my much.

- And from what side to me such a nuisance? Did she hide her? He, tea, at your place is not sitting?

And then they saw that the archaeologist Feofan himself was going to the entrance! Grandma Dasha jumped up.

And Lyuba held her:

- Sit, Baba Dasha, baby with you, and they themselves will understand.

Theophanes did not look at the neighbors, he immediately went to the entrance. Grandmas are silent, looking for the baby, who was sitting in the sandbox. Two minutes later, a black object flew out of the window of some apartment and fell into a flower bed. Aunt Lyuba quickly appeared and took out a pistol from flowers, then she herself became frightened and dropped it into flowers.

- Baba Dasha, what's this?

'I saw it myself, a gun.'

- So I became scared!

'I've been scared a long time ago since archaeologists first came to the village.' I'm afraid of Theophanes this.

They fell silent, Vova burst into tears, and there was no time for them. While they were comforting him, Feofan ran out of the porch with a plastic bag, but they did not notice him.

Half an hour later, grandma Dasha and Vova returned home. Lyuba waited until she opened the apartment door. Grandma Dasha went into the apartment, looked at Tamara: she was asleep! She slept in the same position in which she left her! Grandma Dasha tiptoed over to her: her daughter was breathing evenly and just slept, turning to the wall. So she did not see Theophanes! Yes, and they no longer saw him.

Aunt Lyuba, seeing that her neighbors are relatively well, went to her room.

The gun re-found the neighbor's dog and led to Luba, because she was holding him in her hands in a flower bed! The detectives again became interested in this business, and the neighbor's shepherd became the hero of the day in the yard.

It turned out to be cooler that the pistol was taken away for examination, and Grandma Dasha thought - it was necessary to cut the barrel from him with scissors for the metal that lay under the sofa. She raised the sofa, but there was no quarter of the bucket and scissors for cutting metal.

At that moment Tamara woke up, grandma Dasha did not begin to say anything new to her. It was dark outside, and Tamara sat down next to the bed of her sleeping son.

Grandma Dasha went to the kitchen with full confidence that there was no more crime in this apartment. She kept trying to remember from which window the pistol flew, but she didn't see it, she noticed him when the pistol flew up to the flowerbed. Theophanes was here, but where was the gun?

If he threw it out the window, so it is stupid. And if not him, then who? Tamara slept on pills. Grandma Dasha and Tamara sat down to drink tea. At the door they rang one bell, sharp and long.

Grandma Dasha went to open. On the threshold stood Lyuba with the eighth of the golden bucket. Grandma Dasha burst out laughing. Neighbor broke into the apartment:

- Baba Dasha, why are you laughing? I came home, and on the table next to the crystal vase lies this piece of gold! This is 12.5% of your bucket!

Tamara came out of the kitchen:

- Oh, our bucket is shrinking! Why do you need 12.5%? Aunt Lyuba, and I know this is a share.

"There was a golden bucket, there were scraps left," Feofan tried not to think about this, he was driving to the village of Copper Bucket. I wanted to do a good deed, but it turned into evil. It would be better to give out a gold ladle for a copper ladle, and no one would come to check if there are few copper ladles for cooking jam!

And he called himself the last words. After all, he did not kill a woman, he killed a dog, and not at all because of gold. A woman saw him with Arina, she would have passed quietly, so she would have remained alive. He took the bucket for examination, before that he decided to drop in and go home and take his things. I met Arina at the entrance, and so she clung to him - not to tear off, and reached the kiss.

Then this woman appeared in a wig, who shouted:

-People are good, what is it being done! Feofan kisses with Arina!

Here Arina and penetrated. She does not give descent to anyone. She pushed away the affectionate Theophan, ran home, grabbed a pistol with a silencer (he was with her friend) and jumped onto the stairs, thrust the weapon into Theophanes. All decided seconds of a strange mood: Theophanes killed the dog, and Arina killed the woman in a wig. And they both did not understand who they killed.

The fact is that the real owner of the apartment was on a business trip and instead of herself left her friend at home, who knew everything about everyone. She brought little things with herself and went to the hostess's clothes and wig. Feofan came to his senses, it was too late, it all seemed to him that an error had occurred, that it was a strange dream, and nothing more. So Arina took care of Baba Dasha, when she came to her niece, she was dragging her time.

Theophan took the bucket after the examination for filming, he was taken to the photographer's room to take it off from all angles and gave to the state. The photographer had scissors not only for photographic paper, but also usual for metal. He grabbed scissors for metal, cut off a quarter of a bucket, hid it in his bosom, and grabbed a pair of scissors.

That's the whole story.

Now Theophanes went to the village and was afraid of everything in the world. He had with him the eighth part of the bucket, as much he gave to Arina for the pistol. They had a little argument, and he threw the gun out the window from her apartment, and now he didn't know what would happen to him. Radio in the train said that there is an assumption that the murder ...


Grandma Dasha lives with her daughter, sits with her grandson and feels that it is becoming harder to live every day. Theophanes went to the village and kept quiet. Arina doesn't come to them. Tamara gets such a salary that there is a lot for the village and very little for the city.

They three of her money lived with great difficulty. Their three people - even roar, and they are all inextricably linked. Tamara refuses to go to the village, but to Grandma Dasha in the city only to work in a vegetable shop, and even then wash the floor or pack the vegetables. Her life - tin!

While Vova was asleep, Grandma Dasha walked around the apartment in terms of clarifying the murder for the golden bucket. I researched the kitchen by centimeter, by speck.

And she found! The woman was killed in the temple, but she died a minute after the shot and wrote 'Arina' on the red table with blood on the red blood, her hand fell. The inscription was not noticed, red - on red, at the bottom of the table - thumbs. Exactly, that woman Arina has hit a bullet!

Theophanes did not kill the woman, but the dog could. Grandma Dasha got up from her knees and went to the hallway, where shepherd always lay. The dog never wrote who nailed her. Grandma crawled, looked, but no trace, she wiped everything herself. Although they were told that the dog and the woman were killed with a single pistol. No, Grandma Dasha wants to grow vegetables in the village.

And so she wanted to eat! She opened the fridge, then the freezer, it looks - the frozen berries are lying, none of them cooks jam. He thinks - let me make a compote. She began to get the berries, barely tore off the wall, so they froze. While tearing off the berries, tore off another package. I looked into the bag, and in it, do not believe, spoons lie, either copper, or gold, will not lie. Oh, shine! Six pieces.

Grandma Dasha asked her daughter:

'What spoons are in the freezer?'

She was surprised for decency, and then says:

'It was Lyuba who brought the golden bucket instead of the eighth.'

'Or did she want us to be silent?'

- And what do we know to be silent?

Grandma Dasha realized that Tamara did not know who killed the woman in the wig, and Aunt Lyuba was helping out her Arina.

- Tamara, sell these spoons for life, for bread.

- No, I will not sell spoons, but we have enough for bread.

- I have a thought, I was walking with Vova and I saw an ad, they were recruiting people to a spoon factory. Let me go to the factory, I will give Vova to the garden.

- Mom, will they take you to work?

- Do not worry, they will take me and Vova will be taken to kindergarten at this factory.

Grandma Dasha came to the plant, and in the personnel department Aunt Lyuba was sitting, she put her on the job, as if she had tied her tongue so that she wouldn't talk about Arina. So Grandma Dasha became a city dweller, twice needed by Tamara.

Tamara herself went to the village. She noticed Theophanes with a shovel at the next pit; a woman was digging the ground next to him. Tamara recognized Arina and wanted to turn around and leave, but she changed her mind and approached them. They wanted to drive her away, but changed their mind and closed a large dirty object.

'Tamara, you are an absolutely free person, I am not holding you,' Feofan met with unfriendly words.

- Why are you dug up it? - asked Tamara, curiously examining a square block of dirt, not paying attention to the words of Theophanes.

- We did not find anything, you asked - I answered.

- I already can not know?

'You know less - you will be the targets,' Arina said through her teeth.

Offended Tamara wanted to turn around and leave, but a third shovel fell on a dirty lump, everyone looked at her, then at the owner of the shovel. It was Cyril.

'I think you don't mind joining you,' he rumbled. - Feofan, say which of the two is yours, and the second girl will be mine.

- Cyril, what the hell are you here?

- Do not be angry, the ground is full of rumors, I decided to help you dig, so who among them is mine? And I found out about your excavations myself, you write everything on the net, and I read you.

- Kirill, yours - Tamara, she got complete freedom from me.

- And who is Tamara here? - Cyril asked theatrically.

'I,' answered Tamara. - You and I are still clean, and they are already dirty.

- It's good, but now let's see what is in this dirty coma of dirt.

- Did you get someone out of the ground? Did you dig it out ?! Shouted Feofan, heart-rending, ready to go with his fists at Cyril.

- What are you shouting? If found, so clean the monster from the mud! - Feofan instructed on the path of the true Cyril.

Theophan became a shovel dirt dumped from an incomprehensible object. And then flashed lightning. Poured rain. Loud thunder. People had a natural desire to hide under a shed, but no one moved from their seats. The rain quickly poured the water on the dirty object and left the strip to another place where lightning flashed and thunder sounded.

- The box! I'll open it myself! - Kirill rumbled complacently, shaking water from his hair. And then he opened the wooden creation of the past centuries, edged with rusty iron with a spade.

All four involuntarily stretched their necks in the direction of a miracle. It turned out to be an ordinary little chest with old clothes, the smell of mahr and mold appeared. Fur, cloth, as if caked by time. Arina worked in gloves, she began to pull out a coat, pantaloons and a top cloak, trimmed with fur, buckled shoes from a chest with clean hands.

- Well, there is a complete set ... - Feofan didn't finish and got up.

Tension and stiffness passed, laughter and utter disappointment appeared. Tamara looked at Feofan, Arina, the trunk with a farewell glance and went back to the station.

Cyril caught up with Tamara and went near. "There is no man, there is no dog, and everyone is bogged down in circular responsibility," Cyril thought so, walking alongside a beautiful woman. At some point in his life, he had to study with Theophanes and engage in archaeological excavations. And now he had to find the killer of a woman in a wig and part of a priceless golden bucket.

Tamara walked and was silent. She thought: "If you are put in a state of blind alley, saying with all the fibers of your soul that the person who put you in a bad position is smarter than you, it means that you have to make sure that he himself enjoys this deadlock, and leave this situation himself and another thing more pleasant and understandable. "

Cyril also left the excavation and went with Tamara to the station. He realized that the excavation was not his business, but that Feofan would unearth everything, he would discover in an easier way than with a shovel. He walked and chatted about life. But in general, this situation was boring for him, and he was not attracted by the case of a cut gold bucket. He also did not want to disturb Tamara with questions about the murder.

After the rain came the sun. The dirt from the recent rain was chomping beneath her feet. Tamara slipped and flew through the mud, like a clockwork, into a ditch with water. The water in the cuvette was unexpectedly cold, pierced with a chill. She shouted, but the tongue began to sink from the cold, the sound was weak. She tried to get out of the ditch, but her feet slid.

Cyril continued to go, not noticing the loss of fellow traveler. He rather felt the absence of Tamara than he heard her quiet voice. The man stopped, looked toward the woman, then looked around, but did not notice her. Then he went back and began shouting her name.

And only then did he hear a low cry. He himself almost fell into a pit located along the road to save the road from excess dirt and water.

Tamara was standing in the dirty water, holding onto the grass and trying to get out of the water captivity. Cyril gave her his mighty hand and pulled out of the ditch. It did not make sense to continue the journey in such a way; nothing passed by on the wheels. Wilderness He showed nobility by taking a towel and a bottle of water from a backpack.

Soon a woman in his plaid shirt, with bare legs, shod in sneakers, was walking next to him. Now she radiated vibes, very pleasant for Cyril, and boredom began to leave his male nature. Cyril unscrewed Tamara's jeans and walked, waving them in the hope that they would dry to the thread.

Tamara spoke, so fabulously, retelling the story of the mother about her ancestors. Cyril listened to her and did not interrupt, so they approached the station, and then he asked:

- Tamara, I correctly understood that the found things belong to your great-grandfather?

- Yes, most likely, to him. In the village of Medny bucket live their legends.

- Let's go back, look at things in the chest.

She looked at her appearance, thought of near urban happiness with asphalt, and resolutely replied:

- No, I will not go back, Feofan and Arina are there. That they killed a dog and a woman in a wig.

- Do you all think so?

- This is all they know, just do not know where. Oh, let it slip! Cyril, you will not tell anyone?

- To me to speak, if I am an investigator in this case.

- Yes, I flew into the dirt, now into the investigator, then into my husband.

- Don't worry, I already knew that. We found a pistol in the flowerbed, which flew out of Arina's window, and two shots were fired from it.

- So she did it!

'Not yet ordered to arrest them.' They are being watched because of too successful excavations.

- Who observes if you are with me?

- Tell you everything! There are people near them.

Tamara had nothing to say, she pulled on wet jeans, and they approached the train.

"To whom the woman has prevented"? - this is the question over which Kirill was thinking.

Grandma Dasha bought beautiful, round slices of pineapples - candied fruit - from a saleswoman with gold teeth. The wheels. No one in their house began to eat them. And she thought that they are made where people live for a long time, suddenly her longevity will fall to her! In the candied pineapple, she left part of the tooth. Then she bought little colorful candied fruits. In them she left a quarter of the same tooth.

I had to think about his recovery. She called the dentist's private clinic, there were people who were delicate and placed their ads on the front pages of newspapers, as a result they had a record for three days ahead. And she felt that the last piece of her native tooth would be left in a color candied fruit, if she waited two days without dental treatment.

Grandma Dasha had to buy a telephone directory, in her she found the telephone number of a private clinic, where they promised a dentist's reception four hours later. She did not chew candied fruit for four hours and boiled frozen dumplings out of the pack. In the dumplings, she did not leave the last fragment of the tooth, but gained strength. What to do? Grandma went to the doctor.

The dentist turned out to be a very handsome man, although he soon hid his face under the mask, and she had to close her eyes.

His nurse looked into his mouth with him and suddenly she would cry out:

- Are you going to do the rest of your teeth? I am writing that you have one tooth skew!

After all the procedures and five X-rays, the grandmother went out into the street with two renewed, white teeth. Naturally, she went to the store for groceries that would not tear her teeth apart.

Feofan came to grandmother Dasha, looked at her carefully and asked:

- Baba Dasha, you better tell me who was your mother's grandmother?

Oh, she was scared!

And again he says:

'We found a chest with men's clothes, very old.' Who was the owner of the clothes, we can not guess. Say what you heard from your mother.

- Theophanes, these are the clothes of my mother's dear grandfather. I heard the story of his arrival from her.

At this time they called. On the threshold stood Cyril and a few more people.

Theophanes tried to run, but there was nowhere to go.

- Theophan, you are suspected of murder. All the blame for the murder lies with you. Arina says that you can confirm her alibi, allegedly she was with you and could not commit a crime.

- Where we were? At the excavation site, you saw us there.

- No, it's not like that.

Cyril and his people quickly turned around and left, as if he remembered.

Grandma Dasha asked Theophan:

- What was it?

- Wrong door.

The doorbell rang, on the threshold stood a woman with familiar features. Grandma Dasha recognized her niece Katerina. Behind her stood Cyril.

- Baba Dasha, take a guest! Katerina has a lie tester, works through a cell phone. The device separates the whole truth.

Indeed, soon the whole apartment was full of people. Katerina sat in a chair, holding a small device in her hands, and a cell phone was connected to it with a wire. Everyone took turns answering questions on this phone. The electronic prosecutor pointed in the direction of Arina. Arina screamed, screamed, burst into tears and confessed everything. Theophanes sighed wearily. The device showed his complete innocence. The results of the examination came, which showed that the woman died not from a bullet, but from a heart attack.

Arina's imprisonment was short.

Theophanes looked at the sky with bluish streaks between the cirrus clouds and came up with a new idea, which was far from noble. He needed fame for material security.

Only word of mouth could bring him a name and fame. Fame and fame, although how do these two concepts differ from each other?

Almost nothing. He could only get a name for himself after he was shown on all television screens. The second option - he needs to make a video and unleash a successfully disagreeable case, which he will reveal better than detectives.

From the complex task Feofan felt dull in his temples; not finding a solution, he went outside and walked towards the central part of the city.

He saw wedding cars that stopped almost in front of him. He looked at the beautiful bride with curiosity. She struck him so much with her flawless lines of a figure that he lost the sense of time.

The bride rotated at the monument, next to which they were. She was taken on a photo and video camera. Theophanes also managed to click his phone and get a good shot of a girl in a white dress and her mother, whom he mentally called "Madame Fifa", and this turned out to be Aunt Lyuba during the parade.

The groom next to the bride was not, from this Theophanes concluded that the bride was going to register the marriage. The thought clicked in his head that this was exactly what he needed and wrote down the numbers of the cars. Theophanes found out the address of the bride named Arina and in a couple of days already talked to her mother in the yard of their house. He started a conversation about psychics, and Madame supported this topic.

They discussed television programs, from which Theophanes concluded that Madame Lyuba was not averse to lighten up on the screen. At home he scored the required station on the monitor, looked at the train schedule, bought two tickets through a virtual ticket office. No one could trace his further actions.

Madame Lyuba, that is, the mother of the bride, sat at home all alone and watched TV. Her rest was interrupted by the call of her son-in-law, he complained about the absence of a young wife and asked her mother-in-law if she had a daughter?

Madame Lyuba became agitated, knowing that her daughter Arina was a punctual girl, honest and she couldn't just leave her young husband like that. They discussed this burning question, found out who and what knew of them on this topic, and came to nothing.

An image of a man with whom she talked about psychics arose in Madame Lyuba's head. She remembered his business card, on which the psychic Theophanes was written. The son-in-law submitted an application to the citizens search office, where they looked at him suspiciously, as if accusing him of what he had not done.

He did not like their suspicions, and he supported the idea of the mother-in-law to turn to Mr. Theophanes, but the psychic's phone was out of reach.

A journalist came to the citizens search offices. They told him that a certain bride Arina had disappeared, who had not had time to become a wife.

The journalist suggested that the department employees work with a psychic to search for a girl and gave them Feofan's business card. Mr. Theophanes, having changed his appearance, met the bride Arina before this stir. He introduced herself to her as the director of the program about abnormal phenomena and offered to take part in the filming just a few minutes and for a lot of money. Out of curiosity, she agreed, since she was by nature an inquisitive person. She took with her a beach set of clothes, as he demanded.

After some time, a program was shown on TV, in which Mr. Theophan helped the employees of the citizens search department to look for the missing bride. He confidently showed on the map of the neighboring area the place where it is located.

Madame Lyuba watched the program on TV with eyes wet from tears and could not understand what her daughter could do in the neighboring region. The doorbell rang - it came indignant son-in-law, who also watched this program. He was deprived of the right to leave the city, and he could not go where the psychic Feofan sent everyone.

But the transfer went further. Mother-in-law and son-in-law fell silent in their chairs, gazing at the screen. To the place indicated by the psychic Theophanes on the map, two employees left the department for the search for missing people, the journalist and Theophan himself. Viewers had to watch the program. Volunteers were involved in the search for the bride. A whole crowd of people scattered across the forest in search.

Theophanes first found a mound and began to dig it. People gathered around him. The camera took off, as they tear up the earth, find something wrapped in cellophane.

Son-in-law screamed:

- This is not Arina!

Madame Lyuba was crying. The doorbell rang. In-law opened the door. He was arrested on suspicion of brutal murder of a bride. Madame Lyuba was numb. Transmission on TV is over. She did not move. She fell into a stupor, disbelieving what had happened.

This program looked and Katerina. In spite of everything, she felt a terrible and unfair deception. She thought that the bride Arina - alive. And her young husband did not commit a crime. The psychic Theophanes' face popped into her brain. His view did not inspire confidence. There was something predatory and smug about him.

She stroked the dog, pressed against her leg.

- Let's go, Chip!

The dog barked softly in response.

Katerina went to Arina's mother, took Arina's handkerchief from her and went to the station. I bought two tickets for myself and a dog.

The cashier exclaimed:

- All went there! You know, this psychic Feofan, who was shown on TV, also went there, and already two times!

Katerina was not surprised, but stroked the dog's head. They drove to the village, which was spoken on TV. The village was noisy from the news and guests who came here after the transfer. There were people who brought Katerina to the pit from which they dug something wrapped in polyethylene.

Chipa was silent, he frowned in disgust and shook his head. Katerina realized that there was nothing terrible for them. Suddenly, the dog shook his head and ran toward the forest. She rushed after him. Katerina and a dog walked about two hundred meters through the forest and stopped in front of a fence of poles, followed by elk. One moose ate, tearing food out from under the beach shawl of Arina's bride.

Katerina, from the sight she saw, was all agitated, her heart sank with pain. The dog barked at the moose. They bristled at him with horns. Katerina climbed up to the elk, squeezing between the poles in the fence - there was so much aggression in her that the moose involuntarily gave way to her trough.

She touched Arina's handkerchief with her hand, then tried to remove it from the straw that he wrapped, but she didn't succeed. She looked at the dog, but he was already running into the forest. She followed him. From afar Katerina saw the silhouette of a girl tied to a tree. Dog barked near. Katerina was not even surprised that it was a mannequin in a bride's swimsuit.

Chipa continued to bark and look up at the tree. Katerina looked up and saw a beach bag that was clearly empty. The dog again waited for Katerina to remove the bag from the branch, and rushed to run further into the forest. He stopped at a hut located in the branches of two oaks. The dog no longer barked, he whined.

Katerina climbed the stairs to the entrance to the hut and looked inside. She did not see anything terrible. The bride Arina slept on her side in a wedding dress, covered with a veil. Katerina gently stirred the girl, but she did not respond to Katerina's hands. Her body was warm under a dirty veil. Fatigue appeared on the face of a sleeping girl.

Suddenly she sat down:

- Oh! She exclaimed with such despair in her voice that the dog barked.

- Arina! - breathed out Katerina. - What happened to you?

- I am an ordinary sucker. I thought that I would be paid for the shootings promised by a certain Mr. Theophan. Yes, that's nothing left.

'It's good to be alive,' said Katerina, she did not have the strength to tell what story Arina was in.

The girls went down to the ground.

For herself, Katerina from this story understood that psychic Theophan is a normal adventurer who can be two-faced and will not help her find the black ball of life.

Immediately to take home the dirty bride, which the whole country knows now, she did not dare. Therefore, I rented a room in a road hotel. The bride in a huge beach bag was light sandals and a thin dress of stripes of fabric. She put on this uncomplicated set.

Katerina was tormented by doubts about how at work the chief explained her absence. The decision came unexpected: it is necessary to turn the trip into a business trip, that is, to do something useful for the company. And she decided to look at new types of lamps, to which her company had an indirect relationship. She went to the store, leaving the bride with the dog. Soon they returned home.

"The world looks kinder through dark glasses, the gray sky acquires a cheerful shade, and life rolls despite the state of health, mood and other factors of individual existence. The white page does not seem white and does not eat its bright truth, and any truth should be seen through sunglasses.

And it is better to look into the beloved past through the dark glasses of existence, embellishing something, but also exposing something beyond the prescription of years. But the first half of the twentieth century is difficult to see even through very dark points of time: no matter how you describe this period, you seem to slander everything, even if you embellish the events of those years, 'Katerina thought, as usual walking along a familiar asphalt path through the forest ...


Chapter 9

For some time businessman Afanasy Afanasyevich had a huge capital, and was one of the first in the ranking of the rich people of the country. But by his nature he was a poor man who loved to live at someone else's expense. His average male age demanded prestige at the government level. He really wanted to become the mayor of the capital, but this place was reliably occupied by another person, then he was haunted by the modest thought of building a new city.

The chief architect of the city drew circles on paper with a pencil.

He spent half a day in a traffic jam and, having reached the favorite office, began to turn pencil circles. Circle after circle, he was approaching the solution of urban planning. It would seem that everyone knows how and where to build cities, but there are so many interchanges and improvements are so expensive that he has a dream - to create the right city from scratch.

"The capital was created for centuries, and a modern city can be created faster, really, who needs it?" - he thought. But this problem can be solved if we translate key objects, organizations, industrial enterprises into new buildings.

And to leave the labor capital as a museum exhibit of nine centuries, because every now and then the ground under your feet, under houses and under vehicles fell through. The tired land could not bear the underground mines and the care of houses in the dungeons.

The builders dug the land until solid ground appeared for the construction of the next multi-storey building of the city. The architect drew another circle, drew radial lines, joyfully shouted: "Hurray!" His face lit up with the winner's smile, he was ready to talk with a businessman to resolve financial issues regarding the construction of a new city.

The architect and businessman were sitting at the same table, in front of them was a model of the future city. Both loving eyes looked at the joint work. Money and thought were combined in one layout. A businessman saw a sign in his dreams: "Afanasy Afanasyevich is the mayor of the city."

The head of the region was in his office. Today he had no departures scheduled. He was blissful all alone. Laziness slowly approached from all sides, fatigue from frequent flights and trips pierced through him. He was happy in the office. The calm was broken by the blinking of the LED on the telephone control panel - this was the secretary who asked to take the emergency call. The head of the region took the telephone receiver in his hand.

'Sorry, but Afanasy Afanasyevich is asking for an audience,' the secretary said, without naming the chapter by name and wondering what kind of car she would buy for this service.

- Let him enter ...

Afanasy Afanasyevich entered the office, sat on an antique chair for visitors and put on the table photos of the layout of the new capital.

- Afanasy Afanasyevich, do you want to be the mayor of the new capital or immediately the president of the country? - slowly spoke every word the head of the edge.

- I want to be the mayor of the city, the sketches of the new city are in the work of the chief architect.

- And the capital does not suit you? Nine centuries were reflected in the appearance of the city. According to rumors, Adam lived nine centuries, probably because there were few people at that time, but now everything is being done faster. Place for building chosen?

- About that and speech. The Opera River would perfectly suit me, it will pass through the center of the city. Now there are several villages. On the bridges we place gilded bears sculptures.

- Afanasy Afanasyevich, you chose a good place for a new city. But who will go to your city? Or do you think that if you build a city, then people will pull after you? To save any life requires solid ground under their feet. Your offer is wise enough. I also do not want to fall under the land of the old city. I will sign an order to build a city on the land you specified. My car is very heavy for the current capital.

In a pretty place of the Copper Mountains, Afanasy Afanasyevich decided to build a small airfield for private flying vehicles flying by. Several powerful helicopters converted into flying machines. A propeller was spinning from above, and an emery wheel was spinning at the same axis on the same axis.

Over five hills, five helicopters began work. The rotating circles merrily cut the tops of the trees, cut the trunks of the trees, twisting their roots out of the rock along with the soil. Five whirlpools formed in the air. The roar of engines was incredible. Grinding pilots worked in helmets protected from external sounds.

It became harder to work when it was necessary to cut the rocks, but the beauty of the surfaces formed was worth the cost. In the slices fell semiprecious stones and green streaks of the Copper Mountains. The work was carried out within reasonable limits, and at the stage when the cavities between the five hills remained small, they were poured with concrete and crumb of rocks. After this, the emery circles again started working and leveled the area to a museum brilliance.

Afanasy Afanasyevich was pleased with the appearance of the site for helicopters, but he also needed to build houses, supermarkets and a hotel complex. Helicopters arrived with drill bits of particularly hard tool alloys. Each helicopter worked as a drilling machine.

Pits were formed in the rocky rock, steel pillars were placed on them at the cement-moment - these pillars served as a support for the buildings. The ground floor itself served as a floor on the ground floor. A green hotel complex with shops was ready among the lost mountains. Buyers and vacationers flew on small aircraft that landed on the flight runway.

This whole beautiful complex did not perform over the environment, it fit into it very naturally. What a complex without water? A granite walkway led to the nearest lake in the rocks. Rocky shores were only slightly polished for an overall gorgeous view. It remained to carry out the fight against the guards of the taiga places - mosquitoes. Mosquitoes in the taiga - asps! They can bite to death, the person swells from their bites, then shrinks, and they no longer bite him. But who wants to blur from bites? In the polished surfaces staged aerosol fountains, mosquitoes died from the smells, and people breathed in the pleasant aromas of perfume.

In impassable places, the main mode of transport between settlements was small helicopters. After the urban expanses, Katerina seemed crowded on a small artificial plateau in the forest, she flew here out of curiosity, and remained in the new shopping complex.

Katerina met Afanasy Afanasyevich when he was walking along the mall with a whole company of people. She held her eyes with bated breath, then asked the seller who he was, and when he heard that he was the owner of the city, she decided to stay, but only to see this extraordinary man sometimes.

Afanasy Afanasyevich noticed attentive eyes. There was something attractive about them. Soon he himself appointed Katerina as his deputy for administrative work with the population. The mini-town attracted buyers with its extraordinary beauty. From the endless northern and forest spaces they flew here with furs, with precious stones, and no one was left unsatisfied with their purchases.

The forest fairytale has always been filled with people and small helicopters. Big planes did not land here. The marble base of the town shone with pristine cleanliness because the houses were located in such a way that the water-jet washing facilities in the mornings washed the city. Dirt rolled out of the marble square.

People living in the harsh conditions of the north, with reverence, walked on the marble of the shopping complex. They liked everything here. The lake was interested in Afanasy Afanasyevich, he wanted to make him a huge pool that could work all year round. The lake itself was in granite, fed by underwater cold springs - it remained to build a dome over it and install heating installations.

The bad thing is that due to the huge difference in temperature, water vapor on the ceiling would turn into frozen ice. Afanasy Afanasyevich with thoughts of the lake stopped next to Katerina, he wanted to hear her opinion on the next dream. She said that there are adsorbents that absorb excess moisture, they just need to be dried. Thus, an increasingly useful complex was created for the population within a radius of three hundred kilometers.

Katerina, a girl with gray-green eyes, became the mistress. Her relations with the owner of the city were so official that no one discussed or condemned them. Afanasy Afanasyevich, when he was in a good mood, sang a couple of songs a week to a local restaurant for the public.

Katerina sat beside her and played the guitar. A restaurant brought a good income to its organizers. Visitors diverted the soul in it and carried out whims, satisfying the hunger of their unpretentious northern life. Gradually the population density of all houses and hotels has increased dramatically. People wanted to rent space for different purposes. Rental prices became fabulous.

A House of Culture, a computer center, and a bank appeared. Houses began to build up. Afanasy Afanasyevich expected and did not expect such popularity of his undertaking. People were attracted to an island of civilization, located on the cold old hills, washed by rains and winds.

Feofan flew in from the capital. He wanted to rest here and continue to fly.

But the town was so interested in him that he added all the accumulated funds in the form of a beauty salon. Feofan Afanasyevich was a very elegant man, his salon quickly gained popularity. He didn't have enough business partners; he didn't find a couple among his workers.

Soon after the adventure Arina arrived. It was enough for the girl to lower her green boots on a heel on the airfield, as she got into the field of vision of Theophanes, who was walking to his helicopter, but did not reach. The girl in a green raincoat and green boots interested him. They met at the airport and both headed to the day restaurant. At this time, Afanasy Afanasyevich sang there, and Katerina played the guitar. Arina threw them a green piece of paper. Afanasy Afanasyevich squinted at her, noticed and finished the song.

Father Athanasius was a geologist, a son he had taught from childhood to the idea that it was he who would build the city. The boy grew up, learning all that is necessary to know for the construction of a modern complex. He sang for his own soul, and perceived money as donations for construction. What is most important for any success? Originality. His father walked so many paths along the paths that he always dreamed of a paradise for legs, of unrealizable happiness in the center of impassable roads.

Afanasy Afanasyevich traveled a little with his father, but he remembered forever the smoke of fires and eternal tents. The bathhouse was in great demand among visiting people, they wanted to wash, cut their hair, to make themselves look divine even for a day. Here everything was built for visitors and passing people.

Lux service amidst the chaos of eternal silence attracted not only those who flew in, but also those who traveled to the town on foot through forest windbreaks. Geologists came here, but they only entered the city through the baths.

Their clothes remained in the closets, and they walked around the complex in clean new clothes. Both money, furs, and unprocessed jewels were taken as payment.

Arina liked the aristocracy of the complex, all faces were so clean and so different in their structure that she really wanted to stay and live here, but they didn't leave to live here, all the places were only for visiting people, the price of each subsequent day was twice as high the previous one. Why? Money from the visitors could be removed quickly, but without money they were not kept here. She decided to get a job to Feofan, but his entire few staff was filled.

However, he really liked the girl. He thought, and then asked if she could start creating an ethnic museum and coordinate it with Afanasy Afanasyevich himself. The founder of the city approved the idea of Arina and allocated a small room for museum exhibits. So she became a local resident. The people gave her exhibits themselves, and people drove here and passed simply unique ones.

Katerina looked to Arina at the museum for two reasons: she wanted to find something ancient and wooden in her museum. The poverty of the museum was on the verge of insolvency, but Katerina persistently examined all the exhibits, among them lay the shaman's tambourine, samples of processing of reindeer hides. This is where she stopped.

The exhibits were unique, but she was interested in furniture since childhood, and she thought: Is it possible to make upholstered furniture with fur? Then Katerina thought: "Why not? You can make upholstered furniture with natural furs," - this idea sat in her head. Katerina wanted to take the best fur samples from the museum. She was always interested in furniture in all its manifestations and decoration for new buildings.

The interior is her weakness. Arina, noticing Katerina's attention, said she could introduce her to those who brought it all. Katerina realized that she had solved the task of creating exotic furniture with a mystical slant and that she could now leave this city on Malachite in general, her administrative work did not attract much.

The geologist knew the shores of the recalcitrant river well, he deftly walked along the bluffs, mountains and coastal sand and pebbles. Afanasy Afanasyevich and Katerina followed him, they were a little tired of the constant movement over rough terrain.

Suddenly the old geologist stopped and stopped them with a flick of the wrist. He heard voices and through the branches of trees he saw people on the bank of the river. The travelers slowed down and began to walk slowly and quietly. On the banks of the river, Katerina noticed the second shift of guards who were washing the gold.

- Your people tracked me, Afanasy Afanasyevich! The guys wash the little gold, 'the geologist said in a whisper,' but it's almost absent here, grains of gold can fall.

'When did they have time to track you down?'

'This is not the first time I went to town.' At first, I gave the security guards gold, they let me go to your blessings of civilization, and the last time I said that I don't have gold, they didn't let me go until I, Afanasy Afanasyevich, asked you.

- Mikhailovich, why did you decide to show me where the gold lies?

- So you tea is not a stranger to me! I used to treat your father a lot, and now, I feel, my end is coming. Death in the thighs taps. The last thing, when one leg refuses to walk.

'And you walk well, and you don't see that your leg hurts.'

- So rubbed his foot with snake venom before you go. I thought that I would show the heir his inheritance, and also for peace, and then the guards dug in.

- What shall we do, Mikhailovich? - asked Afanasy Afanasyevich.

- I do not know. My strength is running out, but to gold is closer here than to my lair. Another time I will not rise.

- Dear you are our man, and with your hand you can show where the gold is? Or signs of the area called?

- Oh, Afanasy Afanasyevich, a little gold - it is treacherous, you can't reach it with your finger in the sky, if you could show it to you - you would have slept well.

- Why is this river called Opera? In honor of the operational staff of the criminal investigation?

- What are you doing? We are scientists, tea, the name of this river sounds like the name of one opera, so the people long ago began to call it simply Opera.

- Sorry, if you are a former geologist, do you receive a pension?

- Not. And what pension is off the beaten path?

- There are old villages, could issue!

- All this is difficult. We are accustomed, moneyless.

- Well, show me, Mikhailovich, where gold is, and I pledge to pay you a personal pension. There is a job for you.

- Afanasy Afanasyevich, do not sin, I will not go to the campaigners, I do not like to submit. Look, your little people are leaving the river. Let's wait, let alone today and show you little gold, and for the night I will bury you in one tent in the morning and go to the town.

Katerina was silent while the men were talking, and thought that it was dangerous to know where the gold lay, and also in nuggets. She really wanted to escape without knowing the purpose of this campaign.

The last guard disappeared over the hill, as did the last hope of the unknown. The men rose, and Katerina, in spite of herself, followed them. The river was crossed by a fallen tree, holding rare branches. We walked through the place where the guard of gold was protected, and plunged into the thicket, then suddenly found ourselves on the bank of the river, probably the river made a loop here.

It was getting dark.

- Afanasy Afanasyevich, your father laughed here, that we found clay with him, we will do the dishes, they say, and then we will sell, since we cannot find anything worthwhile. In this place we made a halt, a fire was kindled, a hut was made - it stands there, it can be adjusted and lived.

- Clay and we need it.

- Do not rush. So, here is the golden clay.

- What are you, Mikhailovich? Is gold in clay?

- Gold pots can be made from it.

'Why didn't you tell my father about this?'

- To say something we said on our heads, it was your father who was killed here, he defended the gold. I can show you his grave. He was buried in clay, I dug his grave, so I found the gold, a little, but I did. Come - show. Not far from here. Remember father, Afanasy Afanasyevich, and then I will show the gold vein.

It was getting dark. Katerina lit a fire. The men were talking. She stopped listening to them, she was scared. She was accustomed to forest trips with her father, she was not afraid of night stands, but it was scary here. The owl has boomed or the tree has cracked - many new rustles, alien places. The men at the grave stood and approached Katerina.

She, knowing the taiga, picked up all the most necessary things for a day trip. A modest supper satisfied the general hunger. The hut was very old, lay down by the fire. At night, woke voices. The fire was barely smoldering. The old geologist quickly put out the remnants of the fire, so that they were not immediately found, but the smell of smoke remained.

'There was a fire somewhere recently,' they heard the guard's voice. - Major, did you correctly lead us? Did you follow the owner well?

- Their geologist led to gold, that's for sure. Today, our banks washed gold pennies on the shallows, and these went for big rubles. You understand, the owner for a penny does not move.

Afanasy Afanasyevich in the dark grinned and moved closer to the tree, merging with him. The moon hid behind the clouds, the darkness was around. Katerina stuck to Afanasy Afanasyevich.

- Feofan, what are you doing? I have passed these places before. Today I knew where the master and the geologist went and where they would cut off the road. They are nearby. I smell the smell of smoke, but no fire is extinguished.

Mikhailovich recognized the voice of Major, that he had fought with his friend. Yes, it seems, Feofan did not know everything, but here he was again in these parts.

- Major, we cannot be without gold! He must be found! Let's move away from this place, and in the morning we will return.

Major with Theophanes went the way back, but apparently they stumbled, shouted, fell. There was a roar of a bear. Shot sounded. The bear's roar intensified.

- Feofan, why did you shoot? You did not kill the bear! What is your Browning to him!

A bear roar rang out beside Katerina.

- Toga, Toga, do not cry. It's me.

The bear shook his head. An old geologist stood beside a bear and stroked his neck.

'I learned, Toga, I learned, well done,' he said. 'Were you not hurt?' No, alive!

The bear collapsed next to the geologist. Mikhailovich felt the bear's wound, felt the sticky blood and wept.

- Theophanes, the bear is dead! There he and the road! Shouted Major. - Will you watch?

'No, still scratch, better go where we were going.'

The bear twitched and fell silent.

The geologist also fell silent, then said quietly:

'Athanasius found a toga, a little bear, he went with us, then he grew up and went to the forest, but he recognized me, he loved to live in these places. The old bear was, did not cope with the Major. How did I not recognize the Major among the guards? Hurt a good became, sleek, here and did not recognize.


Chapter 10

Afanasy Afanasyevich and Katerina slept under the night talk of an old man. An hour later, the geologist got up, covered the campfire site with branches and old foliage, woke the others:

- Get up and follow me! I'll show you the exit of the gold mine. But I will not allow you to stop, we will go beyond the desired place. Let's go to the other side of the river, make a circle, and I will return you.

- Mikhailovich, and you will not get tired? - asked Athanasius.

- That you keep up with me! Chasing is a dangerous business. We must go. They have Browning, and we only have my shotgun.

In a chain, with quick steps, a small group passed by the exit of a gold vein, covered with a piled tree. Afanasy Afanasyevich on the go inspected signs of the area. And Katerina twisted her head, as if remembering where and what is.

The geologist, having shown the place of the exit of the gold mine, began to limp badly, as if his forces had left forever. He dragged his leg, massaged it on the move, gritted his teeth, but walked on and on until he reached the crossing. He couldn't go over a dumped tree.

Afanasy Afanasyevich also did not know how to transfer it. An old man of his last strength climbed a tree, crawled to the middle of a mountain river, and fell into the water.

The bubbles quickly disappeared, and the geologist disappeared.

Katerina, sobbing, crossed the tree to the other side, then grabbed Afanasy Afanasyevich's hand:

- Come quickly to the city. We will rise from the airport, we are not expected there. We can't save the old man, - she pointed at his dead body, hooked on a snag. It was evident that the body without breathing.

They decided to come after the body of the old geologist later and bury him in honor - and they were forced to return to the town, passing by the guards with their heads held high. I must say, this trip they became friends.

But even more gold found befriended Theophanes and Arin. Feofan, to whom a gold mine suddenly fell from life, so joyfully, Arina embraced him, that further touches lasted half the night. They just loved each other, then fell fast asleep.

In the afternoon they woke up. The sun was shining.

Theophanes happily shouted:

- Arina! We are rich with you!

Arina liked the male exclamation, and she prepared breakfast. Coming out of the house, they found no people in the city. The streets were deserted, the steps sounded hollow in the void.

Afanasy Afanasyevich put Katerina in his personal helicopter, which was closed in the hangar, and there were no more aircraft on the airfield. They climbed over the taiga. People walked in chains to a gold mine! How did they know about it? There was no machine gun on the helicopter. Afanasy Afanasyevich flew over a long chain of people walking towards a gold vein.

He hovered over the people, opened the door of the helicopter and shouted into a megaphone:

- People! Calm This gold mine is mine! My father found her! Come back to town! Gold will go to a good cause!

From below shots were heard directed to the bottom of the helicopter.

Athanasius closed the door and flew to the empty town. He realized that he did not receive the gift of gold, he had nothing to call for the army. By evening, people began to return to the city.

First came Arina:

- Afanasy Afanasyevich, forgive me, I went against you, I so wanted free gold that I had no strength to sit in a museum without visitors! Give me a nightclub, and I will make you gold from the night air!

- Arina, I will give you a room!

The city of entertainment grew into a normal town, where everything had to be for a normal life. The people returned to the town, not finding the gold mine, which the guards told about.

Afanasy Afanasyevich sighed freely, but he did not dare to go and see the gold mine again - he was afraid that gold would turn out to be a myth, and the geologist was no longer an assistant in this. His body was caught, they found a bullet wound in it. They buried a geologist next to a friend Athanasius.

No, it was not for nothing that Katerina twirled her head, it was she who discovered the exit to the surface of the gold vein.

Through the golden foliage, Katerina returned to the temperate climate of the village of Medny bucket. A luxurious birch stood by an empty bench. The air smelled pleasantly from the wooden gates of the house of Dasha's aunt. But Katerina decided to immediately go and repent to Afanasy Afanasyevich. She was not here for a long time, and she thoroughly violated the terms of the contract. He did not let her go to Malachite.


It was late autumn when Aunty Xenia called Catherine to her house. Now she went to her apartment, not knowing what to do here at all. Everything seemed alien, especially the smell of stale drugs. While the girl was driving, her aunt died. Moreover, they buried her in a strange way: they placed the coffin next to the clumps of clay, and did not lower it into the grave. Only a few old women blew their noses in handkerchiefs. Of the younger generation, only Katerina was at the funeral.

The old women organized a commemoration at a neighbor and did not even enter the apartment of Aunt Xenia. Katerina did not go to them either, because it was hard for her to be in the midst of poverty and mustiness. She could hardly find herself in Aunt Xenia's house, her throat was compressed from spasms of disgust, a nasty, at first glance, feeling saved her from what was unknown. In general, she was strangely arranged: she did not like restaurants and did not like canteens. In restaurants, too much frills and dishes, and in tablespoons and forks too primitive. Katerina loved white porcelain and stainless forks.

So, Katerina was in the apartment of the deceased aunt Xenia, who did not disdain to collect bottles in the park. Katerina lived far away from her and was not considered rich. Aunt Ksenia actually had a more beloved granddaughter, Tamara. But she was not at the funeral.

Ksenia's aunt had a sister, Dasha, Tamara's mother, and Volodya's brother, Katerina's father. Tamara's mother always lived in the village, and Aunt Xenia sometimes raised Tamara instead of her mother. Naturally the main heir was considered Tamara and a little Katerina.

An interesting picture turned out, why did Katerina get called to the funeral? She spent the same funeral part of the inheritance transferred to her by her aunt Xenia in cash. The girl arrived with nothing before her death, and remained with nothing. She was actually called by a neighbor, saying that a single woman was dying.

Katerina arrived when Aunt Xenia was still breathing and was lying in this room on an iron bed with a feather bed. The smell in the one-room apartment was terrible. Aunt Xenia took out a wad of money from under the pillow and died, and only managed to smile with dry lips.

The door to the apartment was open, that is, the doors were not locked. Soon the old woman came a neighbor and howled loudly, having learned that Aunt Xenia died. When she stopped howling, then she asked Catherine about the money for the funeral. Katerina showed the money transferred to her aunt before her death. The neighbor smiled and helped organize the funeral.

Aunt Xenia was a man of socialist hardening and did not go to church, so she was not buried. However, the coffin with its body was not allowed to put into the grave two men of a very strange appearance who approached the grave. They showed documents from which Katerina did not understand anything, but obediently with the old women walked away from the grave.

Two old men approached two men, they talked. Old men confidently led the old women to the exit. Katerina was forced to go with them. Soon, she was caught up by two strong men with shovels, because they were paid for the work. They said that they would do everything as soon as they were allowed to bury the deceased, especially since during her lifetime she had bought herself a marble slab for the grave.

At heart, Katerina had an unpleasant aftertaste from an incomprehensible funeral, and now she was wandering around the apartment, like a restless one. She tried to open the window in the room, but it was firmly closed on the latch, covered with several layers of old paint. Dusty cotton wool lay between the window frames. The apartment was located on the first floor of a four-story brick house, perhaps this may explain the hostess's dislike for clean air in the apartment. Or was she afraid of something? But what could an elderly woman be afraid of?

Katerina carefully examined the wretched dwelling with very primitive furniture: a plywood cabinet, a metal bed, a round table and one chair with a back made of bent twigs. She stood on a chair and looked at what lay on the plywood cupboard: there were about a dozen savings books. She thought that my aunt kept the old books. She could not have imagined that the savings books with money!

Disdainfully, Katerina took one book, opened it, and her eyes went up: there was a lot of money in the savings book of a poor aunt! She opened six more books: all had deposits of impressive size. Seven savings books were issued to the bearer.

Katerina knew that Tamara would get the apartment, all the papers on her were decorated by her grandmother Ksenia, but the savings books were not discussed anywhere. And if Katerina found savings books in the family area, then they belong to her and are not subject to state tax.

The girl collected all the savings books, sneezing from dust. A dusty cloud rose above the cabinet lid, and she saw a flat browning covered in steep dust. The aunt was a sick woman, so she did not wipe the dust on the cabinet and on the side behind the top bar of the cabinet was folding her passbooks. When did she get Browning in there?

Light leather gloves lay in Katerina's bag, and she took the Browning in her hands. He turned out to be nominal! The name of Aunt Xenia was engraved on it! Katerina removed a silk black scarf from her head, put savings books and Browning in it. She put the black package in her big bag section.

At this time, the doorbell rang. On the threshold stood two peasants from the cemetery who did not allow Aunt Xenia to be buried immediately.

- Do not worry, girl, your aunt was buried. You can check tomorrow, but today you will have to answer our questions, 'said the first of the men and sat in the only chair.

- You do not explain to us who was your aunt? - asked the second man.

Katerina looked at the strange men and pursed her lips as a sign of ignorance.

'So it won't work, we are serious people, we need official answers,' said the first man.

'I'm her niece on my father's side.' Aunt with my mother almost did not communicate. My mother did not say anything about her. I rarely saw my aunt. I have nothing more to say. Yes, you look at her poverty! This is some kind of horror! - exclaimed Katerina to confirm her words.

- It's a shame to forget relatives! - exclaimed the second man, bypassing the wretched room.

Katerina looked at the vain attempts of the man to open the window, but now her closed window was not surprising.

- Major, what to talk to her! - exclaimed the first man, - She does not know anything about her grandmother and came before her death to call a neighbor.

- Chest, oh, this Tamara! It was she who scared the fear that in the coffin of her aunt lies the treasure! Shouted Major in the hearts. 'You and I believed her, they checked the coffin, they didn't find any money and jewels in it.'

- What are you shouting at strangers? - evil asked Chest.

'This girl is not a stranger, she is Tamara's cousin, whom you have closed at home.'

- So you also hide my cousin from the funeral ?! - Katerina was indignant and asked: - Why did the aunt in the coffin have to have money?

- Here, and this is not up to date! So, Tamara thought of everything, 'Major muttered, moving away from the closed window.

- Girl, it is likely that your aunt had a lot of money and a gun! The fact is that this coffin was ordered by her in life, which means that she could carry her wealth with her to the grave, said Chest.

- You are right, the coffin was ordered. But I did not have time to be surprised, moreover, the granite slab was in her apartment during her lifetime! We all brought it to the cemetery, but you were not allowed to put it in the grave, to which everything was already bought by your aunt during your lifetime. She gave me the money before she died, so that I could put it all together and do what was appropriate in such cases.

- It looks like the truth. But where is the money ?! - Chest exclaimed.

'What money?' - on the machine asked Katerina.

'Those that you took from the cabinet,' said Chest, surprisingly deftly leaping into the chair on which he sat, stroking the disturbed dusty composition on the cabinet.

'In the bag,' Katerina answered mechanically.

'It is not good to deceive your elders,' Major said, pulling a black bundle out of a bag. - Look, Chest, yes, everything is there: money and a gun! - He took the bundle and disappeared behind the door.

Katerina sat down on a chair and cried bitterly. At that moment the door opened and a compassionate neighbor came in, she began to calm the girl down. Then her old ladies came running. Two old men came. The smell of censer. There was a melodious voice of a man in a black cassock: apparently, the old women decided to sing to the neighbor.

When everyone left Aunt Xenia's apartment, Tamara appeared. She sat on the bed, picked up the pillow and burst into tears. Black mascara tears flowed down her cheeks. She lay on her side and fell asleep.

Painfully, Katerina also wanted to sleep, but the room had one bed, Katerina sat on a chair, put her hands on the table, bowed her head in her hands, and dozed off.

An hour later, Katerina talked to Tamara, who explained the situation:

- Sister, everything was stitched, and Aunt Xenia lived in poverty. She collected bottles for greater persuasiveness and ruled a certain estate monopoly. Do not be surprised, you did not know anything, she guarded you and your true mother from the troubles associated with a lot of money. And you were tormented by the conscience that you are not helping the pensioner.

Katerina was in complete agreement with this.

- So, sister, titmouse, aunt Xenia was what we needed! Have you seen her Browning since the time of the King of Peas? She was a big party man and had the right to receive free apartments for people. She received them. I have a great apartment. She has a wonderful apartment, and this wretchedness is her official refuge for inspectors who have been lacking at all times. Moreover, she owned houses. Yes, now remember! - in the hearts exclaimed Tamara.

Katerina was silent from unexpected information.

- Katerina, these men have been leading our aunt for a long time, they have calculated and spud it from all sides, until they buried it. I think they took the money from the wardrobe and calmed down. Do not be surprised, I knew about these seven savings books, they were necessary for averting the eyes. You do not know the main thing: you have an apartment, it is decorated for you. Do not build surprised eyes, not this apartment, but another one in which Aunt Xenia lived. And I already have an apartment, but plus this apartment - I will rent it.

At that moment the windowpanes fell down, a shot was heard. Tamara fell on the bed on which she sat. The white bed was covered in blood. Katerina went to Tamara, she kept her right hand on her left hand, the wound was easy, but bloody. The bullet broke through the skin, went through the soft tissues and flew on without touching the bones. Katerina did not find the bandage and tore off the old pillowcase. Next to the wound, she applied iodine and bandaged her hand.

Cold air streamed into the room from a broken window. Tamara, gritting her teeth, swayed on the bed, holding a bandaged hand. The doctor did not want to call the cousins.


The entrance door opened: on the threshold stood Aunt Ksenia herself in the clothes in which she was lying in a coffin:

- Hello, girls, did not wait?

Tamara fell on the bed and covered her head with a pillow.

Katerina looked at her aunt Xenia with horror, and her teeth ached from excess of feelings.

'Okay, nothing surprising happened, I had to throw off the tail of those two men who took the money from the cabinet. What is silent?

- Aunt Xenia, I doubted your death, but they put you in a coffin in the morgue, but they did not give me the burial. And later, the two said they had buried you, 'Katerina responded first.

- Katerina, everything is fine. I paid for everything, and from here I will go out at night in your clothes. However, if the apartment stays for a while without tenants, it will be natural.

- Auntie, you could not warn us? - Tamara screamed, throwing a pillow from her head.

'Girls, let me lie down, I'm tired of my own funeral,' said the aunt, lying down on the bed next to Tamara.

Tamara jumped out of bed and jumped out of the apartment, grabbing her things along the way. Katerina stayed in a strange apartment with a former deceased and a broken window.

- Katerina, I am a good man, but not so much that I should like to live for Tamara and two peasants with all my hard work to leave Tamara and two men. Your presence would suit me.

- Aunt Xenia, everything is so strange, but how can we close the window? - Katerina asked, leading the conversation towards reality.

- Do not give a rest. Although you're right: it's cold here, not warmer than in a coffin. Get a bag in the closet, there are two mink coats in it - I am long, you are short. There are also new boots and two black scarves. We will put it on, and on the street we are waiting for my car with the driver. Baby, you go into the apartment across the street, give your neighbor the money and keys, she will look after the apartment and put in the glass.

Katerina did not even have time to be surprised and just carried out the order of Aunt Xenia.

They both left the apartment. Katerina gave her neighbor keys and money. The neighbor looked with indifferent look at the stuck aunt, covered with expensive fur, and said nothing. She did not recognize the dead neighbor in furs.

On the street was a huge dark jeep. A very decent man was driving. He didn't say a word and just waited for the women to get into the car, and drove wherever he knew.

Katerina thought that it was he who shot Tamara, but she did not dare to speak about her guess. Aunt Xenia sat jovially next to the chauffeur. Katerina was sitting alone in the back seat and dozing with the general fatigue of the last days and especially hours, so she did not look out the window. The abyss of being enveloped her mind almost tangibly, again this strange feeling of hopelessness flooded her. The girl plunged into sleepy oblivion. She awoke from sudden braking.

The car stopped at a magnificent house, located behind a high brick fence. Nearby were similar two-story houses, consisting of three sections. Apparently, it was a prestigious holiday village not for the poorest of this world. Aunt Xenia owned one part of the house, consisting of two floors and several rooms. The chauffeur had his own room on the first floor, next to Aunt Ksenia's bedroom.

Catherine's bedroom was on the second floor. From the window was a brick fence, tree branches and a piece of sky. Katerina walked around the room and soon heard a knock at the door. She thought that Aunt Ksenia was coming, but a short woman came in, carrying a tray of food in her hands. Katerina could not refuse to eat, hunger had long been felt.

The room had everything it needed: there was a computer on the table and a flat-screen TV hung. Katerina turned on the computer, wrote a letter to her mother, briefly explaining her absence for the next week. She did not have time to send the letter, when another knock sounded behind the door. She walked to the door, opened it. The driver's eyes looked at her, spinning with hate.

- Do you want something? - Katerina asked in an indifferent voice.

- No, I wanted to warn you that you did not write to anyone about where you are. Everything else can be written, - a man of indeterminate use said through his teeth. - And yet, do not look for Aunt Xenia, she is not here! You will have to live here for a week.

Katerina said nothing, realizing that the events of this day went beyond her understanding.

- Yes, there is an electronic protection here, click on the button - and no one will enter you, even me.

And, showing where the button is, the driver left.

Katerina pressed the button, then tried to open the door. The door did not open, now she was thinking about how to get out of the room. She walked around her place of imprisonment, while finding doors to the bathroom, toilet, kitchenette and groceries for a week. She had everything, but for what all this was needed, she was unknown.

She spent a week in prison, no matter how hard she sting a button, the door did not open and did not squeak. The windows did not open either, but the ventilation was working properly. Katerina did not tell anyone anything, realizing that this was superfluous in her position. The cell phone was silent, the power in it was over, and the power supply had disappeared somewhere.

Struck by the silence of the village. Sounds almost did not reach. Katerina cooked, ate, washed dishes and washed the floors a couple of times. There was practically no dust anywhere; she washed everything because of her disgust, so that her microbes lived around her, and not strangers. A week later, there was a noise outside the door. In the button lit LED.

Katerina pressed the button and the door opened. Aunt Ksenia stood in front of the girl, but she looked just amazing.

- Katerina, I hope you rested and thought about life. You behaved pretty well, you were filmed from several cameras, and at that time I changed my appearance a bit. So now we can talk to you. We go to the first floor.

They went down to the first floor, where a table was set for three. They were joined by a chauffeur. Katerina continued to be silent either from fear or from internal disturbance.

- Katerina, may you say a word! - cried Aunt Xenia.

'Aunt Ksenia,' Katerina began to speak.

- So, my name is Ksenia Artemovna.

'All right, Ksenia Artyomovna,' Katerina murmured in a quiet voice.

- And it is right. Your image will undergo changes, you will get a cool hairstyle, and you will be what you need. And the hair color will become a little darker.

Katerina sighed, but nobody cared.

- Katerina, do not flinch, but get used to it! Soon your fiance will arrive. You get married. You will change your name, and you will have new documents.

- And who is he? - asked Katerina.

- Meet at the meeting! Do not try to escape, everything is under control. Live peacefully, live longer.

Katerina fell silent again, realizing that Tamara was obviously in her house before her injury. She got up and went upstairs, no one called her, did not stop. When Katerina was left alone, closing the door to electronic protection, she thought that Aunt Xenia did not look like herself at all, and did she know her before? More likely no than yes. Now she understood why her mother did not communicate with her. A thought flashed through her that with her help Aunt Ksenia was conducting another scam.

Next week was Catherine's week. She was brought into the desired form, after which they and her aunt began to resemble each other more. I must say that before the appearance of Katerina in this house, she studied, so now she is completely stuck, not having contact with the outside world. And here comes the aunt and says that she can study again, it's not about work yet. Aunt Ksenia handed Katerina a student card and record book.

Katerina did not have time to be surprised how Aunt Xenia once again surprised:

- Katerina, you will study at the university on a full-time basis, you were accepted according to your documents. The driver will carry you to study. Clear? And no amateur! You have a good figure, your clothes will be in the right quantity and quality.

- Ksenia Artyomovna, how should I treat you?

- Right, call me Ksenia, this is quite enough.

- But we have a huge age difference!

- Baby, who cares in our time? Your mom and I look good, and that gives you plenty of imagination.

Surprisingly, Katerina became better at university. Previously, she lay down with a corpse, taught and taught everything, but she was still put on "Udat", or even "Unsatisfied", and as the highest score they put on a "choir." And then she saw the light and "excellent" in the record book. She could not explain such a miracle. She did not change, and the university was larger than before, although the profile of the curriculum was preserved.

Katerina became so much better dressed that she didn't recognize herself in the mirror and sometimes started in surprise, peering into her delicate features and brand clothes. Fellow students treated her normally, without excesses, didn't particularly flirt, but didn't ignore. They looked at the jeep with a driver with understanding, and they themselves drove around in cars, and many simply sat behind the wheel of their cars. Her name was pronounced with a certain surprise, then smiled, but surprisingly quickly memorized.

Katherine was most worried about the upcoming marriage. Aunt Xenia did not speak about him anymore, but the girl understood perfectly well that she did not say anything in vain.

On a frosty sunny morning, the housekeeper came to Katerina's room and brought a short silver fox fur coat and long boots. The girl was already in makeup, she had to put on the proposed things. She spun around a large mirror and went out into the hall.

On the ground floor, Aunt Ksenia sat in a giant leather chair, she calmly looked at Katerina's outfit and waved a pen to her. The driver was waiting at the door. Words in this house were not always pronounced, everything was going along the rolled-up tracks of certain rules.

The car stopped at the old house of my aunt. Katerina automatically looked at the window: she was new. The driver handed her the keys to the apartment. In an elegant coat, Katerina entered a seedy porch. She opened the door with a key and stopped, the lower jaw slowly began to fall down, she closed it with an effort of will.

The apartment was so good! A month passed, and here everything was just gorgeous! Renovation and new furniture have done their job. White leather upholstered furniture and mahogany furniture amazed with their unexpected combination.

Katerina hung the fur coat in the closet where the new clothes were already hanging for her. In high boots above the knees, she sat in a chair and stretched her legs, inspecting the new interior. But they did not let her rest, she already knew that the aunt was saving her time, both her own and that of others. Ten minutes later the doorbell rang. She looked at the monitor screen, located at the door, and saw a bouquet.


Chapter 11

A bouquet of white and cherry roses and a man's face matched each other. She opened the door. A young man in a black coat with a white scarf entered the apartment.

"Himalayan bear," thought Katerina and said:

- Good day!

- Good afternoon, Katerina! My name is Kirill.

She smiled.

'I'm not laughing, but a bouquet for you,' said a serious young man with a slightly tanned skin with a strange accent.

Katerina took the bouquet, looked around and saw a curved vase of white-cherry glass, exactly designed for this bouquet. She poured water into a flower vase, put flowers in it. When she returned to the room, she saw a man sitting in an armchair without a coat, but wearing shiny black boots.

"What should we talk about?" - with anguish thought Katerina.

And he said:

'Sit down,' and gestured to the chair opposite him. - Katerina, I am your bridegroom, and you can say with confidence that I will be your husband!

'Everyday is like that ...' Katerina whispered.

- You will continue to study, but nobody will give you work until the end of the university. Experience has shown that you are smart, the teachers are happy with you.

Further praises interrupted by a doorbell.

Katerina looked at the monitor screen: Tamara stood behind the door in person. She opened the door, not thinking about how cousin fit into the new game of Xenia's aunt.

- Hello! - exclaimed Tamara and sat on the white sofa, taking off her old fur coat and throwing it on the edge of the sofa.

'Introduce me to your guest, Katerina,' said Cyril majestically.

Katerina did not know how to present Tamara.

'My name is Tamara,' the cousin introduced herself.

- you three sisters? - surprised Cyril. - The Cherry Orchard.

'Yes, we are three sisters: Ksenia, Tamara and I,' Katerina said with a sneer in her voice and looked closely at Tamara.

Tamara picked up the game, apparently, for the life with her aunt she learned something.

- Katerina, and who is he? - Tamara asked with surprise.

'My potential husband,' Katerina replied with a bit of discontent.

- You will manage, it is too much for you. Perhaps I'll take this apartment and Kirill myself, 'Tamara said confidently.

'Ask Aunt Xenia if she agrees, then I will not object,' Katerina put in her thought and carefully looked at Tamara's dark hair.

'Girls, I am Katerina's fiancé ...' Cyril said timidly.

- What problems? You are her fiance, but you will be my husband, 'Tamara insisted, going to the closet and opening the cherry door. - Bah! What a fur coat! And this is my fur coat!

The insolence of Tamara began to warp Catherine. She took everything from her. Why would she only bandage her hand in this room? There were trills of cell phone. Katerina spread her cell phone, pressed the green button and heard the voice of her aunt:

- Katerina, Tamara took three things from you: an apartment, a groom and a fur coat?

- Yes, Xenia.

- Well! Put on her old coat and leave the apartment. Jeep is waiting for you.

Katerina took an old fur coat from a white sofa. Waving a new pair of hands, she went out, putting the keys to the apartment on the shelf, located next to the monitor.

In the jeep in the back seat sat Ksenia Artemovna. Auntie, her Katerina even mentally stopped calling.

- Katerina, you announced the main thing, that we are three sisters. Nothing else matters.

'Then who is my mother?' - asked Katerina, not expecting to hear the answer.

- Your mother remains your mother, but for her you are abroad, and why - do not try to find out. You don't have to go to her. The house where you lived lately, your mother does not know. They will not look for you there.

'But Kirill knows how I study,' Katerina objected.

'I do not comment on Cyril,' Aunt Xenia said sadly.

Katerina thought that her aunt was used to being in childhood with her sister Dasha, and this situation suited her, and now she has arranged a trio with nieces for the youth of the soul.

- You're right, Katerina, next to you, I'm younger. It is more interesting for me to live with you.

- But you promised me a husband!

- Baby, why do you need a husband, you did not think?

- But you - thought.

- Your job is to learn. And Tamara took what belongs to her, not yours. If I immediately said that Cyril was meant for her, she would not look at him. And from you she took it away with arms and legs in shiny boots.

- We are going to the country fortress?

- No, we will stop at the exhibition of cars, which is held in the new exhibition complex. Choose your car and do not ask about the money.


Still, Katerina would ask tactless questions in the presence of a chauffeur! Outside the window flickered trees, wide lanes, high houses. Soon the flow of cars became denser. They drove to the exhibition complex. The old fur coat had to be handed over to the cloakroom, then filled out a questionnaire and walked into the halls with a slow audience.

Katerina repeatedly reflected in the screens of monitors, but she knew a specific goal, that she must choose a new car. The girl walked an hour among the cars before choosing a car. She took from the representatives of the company a selection of catalogs and went to the exit.

A driver was waiting for her at the exit. Who would doubt it! In the jeep of Aunt Xenia was not, apparently, she is not one of those who are waiting in the car near the exhibition complex. The driver took Katerina home, from the exhibition to him at hand. It is good that the exhibition complex was made on the outskirts, and not in the center of the capital.

Katerina's soul sang, but she felt a state of lightness: the fear of marriage disappeared, and her dacha no longer frightened her. She ran to the second floor, opened the door to her room and found that the room was empty! Here is an empty! Joy escaped along Katerina and fell to the floor. She was touched by the shoulder.

Katerina looked around: the driver was standing nearby.

'Katerina, you ran so quickly to the second floor,' the driver said. - You need to go down.

The girl slowly went down behind the driver and sat down at the table. The doorbell rang. The driver pressed a button on the corner of the table. Door opened. A man stood on the threshold and held a huge pizza box in his hands. The driver settled with a man and put the box on the table.

Katerina opened the box, the pleasant smell stupefied her empty stomach. She went to the toilet room, and when she returned, she saw that the driver, Ksenia Artyomovna, was driving the table in a wheelchair.

- Katerina, the fact that I'm sitting in a chair is so temporary.

Yes, Katerina now did not know what to expect from a mobile aunt in a wheelchair. After the meal, Aunt Xenia announced that she would be going for therapy sessions and would soon be on her feet. Katerina believed her and went to a new room, where everything was as before. She closed the room, thought, opened the mail, but there was nothing interesting in it.

"And why is the aunt so restless?" - flashed the question in her head, she was already rather tired of changing the interior before my eyes.

When Katerina came out of the room the next day to go to the university, her aunt handed her the keys to the car, which was at the front door. The car was what was needed, Katerina yesterday chose her at the exhibition.

Aunt Xenia moved in her chair, but she was greatly cheered up by the presence of Katerina and hoped that she would soon be walking.

It looks like my aunt had problems with her legs, so she decided to die, but then she changed her mind and replayed everything. Or she who suggested that you can still live and walk always, and not sometimes through force.

Katerina drove slowly in a new car, traffic jams were rarely in their area and according to the schedule of working people. She felt relative freedom, and this delighted her as much as the new cherry-colored jeep. She was again on top.

Jeep noticed a fellow student and whistled. Katerina liked it from the first day. But what to say, it was the Himalayan bear in person. In class, she managed to distinguish herself. In general, she herself was amazed at how with her new image everything started to go better.

Previously, Katerina studied diligently, but this was never evaluated, and now she was dragged from her successes. Even the hairstyle of long hair did not irritate her, since with her she was a winner over herself the same. For the sake of this victory, she was ready to forgive Xenia's aunt all the movements and nervousness of the last time.

Cyril was waiting for Katerina next to her jeep, since his Ford was standing nearby. He smiled at her with gorgeous teeth and dimpled cheeks.

She thought, "I wonder, can I invite him home?"

He said:

- Katerina, invite me to your place. I'm burning up with curiosity, I want to see you in your interior.

'Not today,' and she got behind the wheel of a beautiful car.

At home, Katerina told Aunt Xenia about the fan. The aunt asked his name, the data she was very familiar with. She knew almost all the official data about fellow student Kirill. They arranged it, or she pretended to be arranged.

- Ksenia Artemovna, why did you show up at Tamara's eyes?

- So she hid under the pillow and thought it was a vision. Well, she knows that I am alive and knows my new place of residence. We invented it with her and bought it before the staging of the funeral, and then you were called.

- And who hurt her? Where are the savings books? And why the whole performance?

- For you.

Katerina didn't want to invite Cyril to her place. She did not know what else Aunt Xenia would come up with for the next entertainment.

- And where did you get the bad money?

- Do they smell? Don't you like new life?

- To be honest - I do not know. You explain to me: why do you need me?

- I love you from birth, like my daughter.

- I want to go home to my mother. I want my appearance.

- Naive. The father at your birth wanted to give you his middle name, but your mother disagreed with him. They argued for a long time, your mother shouted to him. What else, your father (you are not familiar with him) is the dean of your new faculty.

- An interesting movie turns out, you all know, but I do not. But it's a shame, now I know why the teachers suddenly fell in love with me! You did not let me be happy with your success.

- Sorry, but this number will not work now. You will have to be a princess. The owner of this holiday village is your father. Worse, Cyril is the son of his mother, and she is an assistant professor at the same institute. So his mother always liked your father. Tastes and in the second generation are the same. You learn the rest later. Your car is from your father.

'And I thought you were so rich.'

'He gave me money to you all the time until you were eighteen years old, and then he wanted to give you more money.'

'The whole story has disappeared,' Katerina said sadly.

- Not all. We are shareholders with him, part of his capital belongs to me. Together we created real estate, and he is a part-time dean of the faculty.

- Aunt Xenia, then I am Princess Katerina, the mistress of an elite village and faculty?

- No, your father still has a brick factory, where they make bricks for a holiday village.

'I am a rich bride,' Katerina sang wildly.

- Your meeting with your father is scheduled for today. He will come to us. You will meet.

- And before it was impossible to introduce me to my father?

'I would have asked my mother earlier,' said Ksenia Artemovna more than calmly. 'You weren't told about this.'

- Do I cry or laugh? - asked Katerina in full trance.

- Your mother gave birth to you and did not tell from whom. Your father found me and helped you as much as he could, he was not always rich. And I was at a responsible post for some time, and I had several apartments. With them we began to create an empire for you. His head and thoughts, and my first contribution.

- But when I went to you from home, my birth father was alive! - cried exclaimed Katerina: - He's your brother, - she added without much confidence.

- You see: I can not walk. My legs refused, and your father had a blood clot in the skull. He died instantly while you were traveling to me. When you came to me, I already knew that my brother was dead.

Katerina burst into tears like a beluga. She sobbed, screamed, and suddenly fell silent. At that moment her new father came in. He looked at his daughter's tear-stained eyes, stroked her head:

- I hope that now you know everything?

'The brick princess doesn't sound at all,' Katerina commented on the situation.

'We had to confuse the road for misfortunes,' said the imaginary father, a man with a very intelligent face of the dean of the faculty.

- A browning engraved? - she issued unexpectedly for all. - Did he make a blood clot in his father's head?

Aunt Xenia and the new father exchanged glances, but in their eyes Katerina realized that they did not shoot at her father's head.

'Katerina, he has a blood clot and no wounds in the head,' the imaginary father said quietly.

- Let's open the grave! - cried Katerina.

'There is no sense, he was burned,' said the aunt.

'Forget this topic, everything is honest there, and the body was burned,' the imaginary father said.

- Aunt Xenia, why did you do this to me? - asked Katerina.

'It so happened that there were numerous overlays,' she replied.

- Katerina, I'm afraid for you! - genuinely exclaimed the imaginary father.

After the imaginary father left, Katerina was left alone. You can move on from the news of Aunt Xenia, if you still interpret them. Katerina went to the grave, next to which they once left the coffin with the alleged body of Aunt Xenia, but later her father was buried here.

Above the grave was a new stove. Similarly, Katerina's father was buried here, she was completely convinced of this. Katerina really wanted to return to her apartment, but she understood that it was impossible. Cyril stood on the side, as always in a white shirt under a black cloak. He watched Katerina in an extreme situation, but did not approach her ...

At the cottage Ksenia Artemovna calm was absent. The aunt was worried about Katerina's disappearance, they were looking for her everywhere, but they could not find her.

Soon Tamara appeared, who came with the only request: to give her money. Two men who accompanied Tamara, having shot in the air, disappeared.

- Tamara, why did you make all this noise? Couldn't one come? - asked Ksenia Artemovna, sitting in an armchair at the tea table in the hall.

- Well, Ksenia Artemovna, these two men got me. I was left alone, and these two spent money from one of your savings books and started asking me for more. They did not know that you are alive. I accidentally broke out that you were alive and closed the rest of the deposits, 'Tamara rattled, taking a beer in a can from the refrigerator.

- Clear. Where are we going to search for Katerina? - asked Ksenia Artemovna, pouring water from the kettle into a cup with a bag of green tea.

- Do not worry. Katerina hid somewhere, - said Tamara, opening the cabinet, where bags of chips, nuts, gingerbread, candy, waffles lay.

- Katerina will find. And now I have a suggestion: you can live in this house, but you will work, 'said Ksenia Artyomovna, pointing to the package.

- Kind aunty! I - and work! You better think up how to pay off men! Yesterday they were expelled by the protection of the holiday village. And next time what will happen? - Tamara filed a package of gingerbread aunt, took a package of salted nuts.

'Tamara, what can I think of, I have already depicted death, and you said that I was alive,' Ksenia Artyomovna said displeasure, opening the bag of gingerbread.

- And why the driver? Let him protect you, 'Tamara retorted, opening the can.

- Then let's go the other way: call them here while Catherine is not here. Let's try to arrange negotiations at the highest level, we will conclude an agreement on non-aggression with them, 'said Ksenia Artyomovna with a cup of coffee in one hand and a cake in the other.

'These two men don't accept contracts,' Tamara objected, snapping the salted nuts out of the bag and washing them down with beer from the can.

A chauffeur in a tracksuit approached them.

- Sit down, Cyril. Tea. Coffee. We have a light breakfast, - said Ksenia Artemovna, taking out the next gingerbread.

- And I have no beer left? - Cyril asked, but when he saw the rocking of Ksenia Artyomovna's head, he added: - They persuaded me to drink coffee. I have a suggestion about yesterday's boobies.

- Cyril, and before where were you? Where was your suggestion? - with irritation asked Ksenia Artemovna, rising to her feet, who were almost deprived of stress and could walk.

'If you don't want to - I won't say,' Cyril was offended by putting a couple of spoons of instant coffee in a cup and pouring hot water from the kettle.

- Cyril, you have a great figure! Let's get married! - exclaimed Tamara in one breath, so as not to have time to interrupt her. 'This is my idea, not yours!' If we get married, then those two will be separated from us, they will not pursue a married couple. I overheard their conversation. Ksenia Artyomovna, settle for our wedding, immediately get additional heirs, and the pursuers will go from you to others!

'Tamara, if everything is as you say, then I agree,' Xenia Artyomovna was encouraged by the idea of freedom from persecutors.

- I got married! - with pathos Kirill exclaimed. 'And I agree, I will be a man, not your employees,' and in one gulp he drank coffee from a mug, as if it were beer.

- By the way, my luggage is with your neighbors, I was waiting for the result of the negotiations. I'll go after him, and you, Kirill, depict a happy husband when we take my bags.

And she jumped into the door in jeans and a thin sweater.

Five minutes later, Tamara appeared with a bag, and behind it was Kirill, laden with large bags.

Ksenia Artemovna majestically showed on the second floor:

- Tamara, the whole second floor is yours, and if Katerina returns, then we will come up with a way out.

Tamara clapped her hands and ran up the stairs to the second floor, Kirill followed her. Soon he returned, took the bags and carried them to the second floor. The housekeeper came up to the table, looked at the cups and began to draw them up on the tray and somehow wiped the table imperceptibly. Ksenia Artemovna was left alone at the table. She thought that it was easier for her to live with Tamara than with Katerina.


Cyril had his own family. In his district, houses were of various sizes, their height depended on the time of construction. Closer to the central roads of the house were moderately dirty. The farther they were from the roads, the cleaner they were.

Katerina did not live near the road, her house was located in two houses from the road, that is, not far from the highway. She was a city resident and was able to move in space on all types of urban transport.

Cyril had a mother, father and grandmother of indefinite age. They had a three-room apartment in a ten-story building of large white bricks. They lived on the top floor, a superstructure was located above the house. It was not clear why, apparently, this was the architect's idea.

Cyril's father, better known as Colonel Fen, was a great worker. He made the stairs from his apartment to the attic. In the huge attic pipes for various purposes were visible. Passing the pipes, he erected the walls, painted them outside in white and built up three more rooms. Of course, at the first check they could be canceled, but up to this point it was possible to live in a normal situation, without troubling the family with their frequent presence. Now the family has got six rooms. This is much better, plus a kitchen.

In short, five bedrooms plus one common room, from which the stairs went to the attic floor. In the common room they put a sofa for three, two armchairs and a long low table. On the wall hung a long plasma screen TV. In the wall between the kitchen and the room a small window was drilled, along which the served table went here and there, which made it possible to eat in the common room and not complicate the presence in the kitchen. My mother and grandmother Cyril were cooking in the kitchen.

Kirill is a young man. He is about 180 cm tall. His shoulders are wide, his legs are long, his eyes are gray, his hair is brown. The nature of the Nordic. The younger members of the family at all times believed that they were smarter than the older generation, so the older ones shuddered at Cyril's caustic remarks. But all in order. Cyril studied at the university.

The father of the family is Colonel Fen, he is 178 cm tall, his shoulders are wider than his lower body, his arms are tense, his fingers are large. Hair is combed back, hair length is no more than 6 cm. Mother of the family is Zinaida Zinovievna, her height is 167 cm, age 40 years. Grandmother was 155cm tall.

Zinaida Zinovievna ate melancholy, her son grew up and had fun on her own or at the expense of her nerves. He listened to such obscene music with his outward intelligence, that not only his ears sank, but also his brains dried out. Cyril's music sounded at full capacity, he listened to the same song several times and sang along. Recitative songs spun under homemade clips and caused nervous spasms.

Zinaida Zinovievna thought: is music to blame for this? Fashion rhythms with a strange rhyme irritated her to madness. She sent a curse on the screen with such hatred that Cyril shouted:

- Do not dare curse my friends!

- Turn off! - Zinaida Zinovievna squeezed out of herself.

Nearby two dogs ran, creating vanity. The dog was two years old, his future partner is only two months old. This beautiful dog bullied an adult dog, and he could not stand it - he hit his paw on the dog's attractive face.

Zinaida took out the remains of solid sausage, cut into two unequal parts and gave them to dogs for a home circus. They calmed down, lay down on both sides of her, and fell asleep.

Colonel Fen has been constantly living in the country house lately and Zinaida Zinovievna did not bother, he did not notice her at all. Colonel's mother herded him at the cottage with the goat and gave him goat's milk. Kirill stayed at home, but he was so carried away by the girl Katerina that her mother did not see her point-blank and would not let her into her room.

There was a temporary silence in the house. Zinaida Zinovievna turned on the TV in the common room and began to watch the series, but she could not watch the entire series. She wanted to go to a shoe store and buy new shoes. For what she needs them, she did not know, but wanted to update her shoes. She switched the program in which her hair was dyed, she wanted to go and buy a new hair dye. She took and turned off the flat screen. It was the worst state, accompanied by complete hopelessness.

Her gaze fell on the withered bouquets of flowers, she had no desire to throw them away. She was empty, without positive emotions. She began to look at the situation around her, but she did not want to do anything. Suddenly she felt the call of the poor man. He called her from the other world. There was a feeling that his soul was in this room. It was terrible! There was no one at home! There was only the calling soul of a deceased loved one. Yes, she loved him! With all its advantages and disadvantages. She knew the secret of happiness: between successful dates there must have been a neutral zone of alienation. And now she only had this band, but she did not promise a pleasant meeting.

Zinaida Zinovievna's hands vibrated finely. She looked at her hands, outwardly they were calm, and they were shaking from inside. The condition of a nervous tension accrued. Psychosis was ready to break out, she wanted to scream. And she howled, protractedly and passionately, and abruptly stopped the howl.

Zinaida Zinovievna went out on the balcony, summer was wrapped in her warmth. Flying dove. Poured water from the top floor. She sat down in a chair, took the postponed book, began to read.

The doorbell rang.

Katerina came with drops of tears in her eyes.

- What happened? - asked Zinaida Zinovievna.

'I don't know, I'm tired of being nobody and nowhere,' Katerina murmured softly.

- Go to the balcony. Let's talk, - suggested Zinaida.

They sat in two chairs surrounded by flowering geraniums.

- Zinaida Zinovievna, and what to say? I live with you by anyone. Aunt Ksenia tore me off my apartment, and your Cyril does not allow me to return to it. I can't live with my aunt, my cousin lives with her with her new husband. I do not need anyone - and Katerina roared in full voice, sobbed.

- Katerina, what day is it today?

'Are you talking about his raincoat?' So this is Kirill's joke. A strong invented lie. I made it all up. And I do not know how to constantly invent feats that he was interested with me! I can not! - and Katerina nervously sobbed. - No, his vanity has no limits! - cried Katerina.

- I believe you. His father also wants from me that which is not in me and cannot be.

- But you have a son! You are used to each other!

- If you noticed, Colonel Fen lives constantly in the country, there he has fun. He is retired by age, has not played enough yet and has not breathed freedom.

- What should I do? I want to be myself. I have to leave you. I will go to my apartment, I haven't been there for a long time, my aunt paid for an apartment, I haven't been at home for almost a year.

- What should I say to Cyril?

'That I flew to an island in the ocean is our last joke.' Aunt Ksenia actually has an oil platform a hundred kilometers from the coast. By the way, Kirill is now there, I flew away from him by helicopter alone.

- Catherine, mind you, your life is full of wonders and without fantasy. Do not mind me. If you want to go home, leave.

Katerina went upstairs, collected her things, waved her fingers and left the apartment. Zinaida Zinovievna unexpectedly felt light. The dogs woke up and started running past her back and forth. She smiled to her beloved and set about cleaning the apartment.

In the holiday village life was at a local speed. Colonel Fen came into the house of the former inventor. The room, entangled by wires, did not cause the feeling of a residential building. The owner was buried, his death was officially framed. Colonel Fen joked with him, but he joked even more at Zinaida Zinovievna. She was in shock, in limbo and from mutual jealousy at the funeral of the poor inventor did not come.


Chapter 12

Colonel Fen was angry with his wife. She pissed him off with a love for the poor inventor. He decided to remove the poor man from the road. He rarely lived at home while serving in the army, returning to the house, could not find a place for himself. And his place was just taken. He gave the usual firefight at the pond, where gardeners did not particularly go. To the women, he said that the inventor had accidentally died. He did not like such a lie, but it happened.

Although the inventor, in principle, could not be poor because of the rich spiritual world. A monstrous lie cost Colonel Pheno money, and now he wandered among the wires in the house of the inventor and was looking for yesterday. He wanted to go far and for a long time. There was neither love nor jealousy in his soul.

Kirill suffered in his room in a dacha village, he was eaten away by loneliness, and he was both bored and sad. He looked outside. The sweet face of Katerina came to mind. That's what he wanted to see! And if she wants to see him? Katerina at that moment turned involuntarily her head to the window, in her memory the appearance of Cyril appeared, she intuitively wanted to see him.

Outside the door, shouts and rare shots were heard, she shrank from involuntary fear, then looked around her with the thought of hiding, but heard approaching footsteps, men's voices. Someone was shaking her door. Catherine thought that these voices she had already heard.

'Katerina, open the door, they will break it anyway,' Tamara said loudly.

Katerina took one last look at the room, looked up and saw something like a hatch. Previously, she thought it was a frame for lamps located in different places of the ceiling.

- Tamara, wait a second, I'll throw a robe! - Catherine shouted and pressed the switch strange lamp.

Instantly a hatch opened in the ceiling, a staircase fell out of it. Katerina climbed the stairs to the attic and closed the hatch behind her, already hearing that the door had been broken. She was in a very decent attic, but now she was concerned about the issue of personal safety. She involuntarily remembered where she heard these voices: in the apartment of her aunt, but this became easier.

I had to leave the attic. She looked out into the street, opening the doors from the attic to the roof. As soon as she seemed in the open window, she fell into the hands of men. Strong male hands picked it up and moved it across the attic balcony to another room. Katerina looked at Cyril.

- Thank you, Cyril, that saved. I need to run away from this cottage.

- Do not worry, break through, hold on to me and trust me! Katerina, my car is not far worth it. I arrived by car to the country, and then decided to look at your windows from the attic balcony, but noticed your frightened face on the roof.

- A great solution for my salvation! - Katerina said, approaching a friend Ford. - You see, Cyril, the magic cloak is valid only on Thursdays, tomorrow you would not be able to help me.

- Who do you say that to? You have a magic cloak! It uses incomprehensible energy! You see, I tried to understand what and how it works in a raincoat, but it, like a cocoon, closes at night from Thursday to Friday. Give me the raincoat back on occasion.

- Do not explain, probably you own one of the wonders of the world. Why not! - Katerina cheered up, but suddenly frowned. - Cyril, I am afraid of the absurdity that has been happening to me lately. I'm afraid to return to the cottage to my aunt!

- Normal reaction, let's go to my house, to the attic. I live there alone. By the way, the cloak had a sapphire brooch, she ruled the cloak. Her tracks are lost.

'Before they started knocking me into the room, I heard shots, and before them I thought about you.' As for the brooch, I heard about it from my mother.

- Oh, Katerina, and I thought about you. But in order not to get into the soup of the hijackers, I suggest you live with me. My father thought out the rooms in the attic well, they mocked him, and he did. I do not think that your mom has the sapphire brooch I need, although with such an aunt as yours, anything is possible.

- Did Colonel Fen do it himself? Dark, Cyril. The rooms were laid brick by brick by the soldiers, Zinaida Zinovievna spoke to me.

- Keep it at home, all sell, - muttered Cyril. 'Well, that's how it was, my father is Colonel Fen, so he used the soldier for peaceful purposes, for the benefit of himself and for society.'

- And my second father is the dean of the faculty, and he dragged me to his university, and it was easy and pleasant to study under his wing. And I have higher grades than before.

- To be honest, the soldiers built a summer cottage for us and all the extensions. If you want, let's go to the extension, see how the soldiers know how to work. And the dacha is not worse than your aunt, and the stone fence.

- All is well and without fiction. But what about my pursuers? - Katerina asked, taking off her usual coat, which they accidentally gave fabulous properties.

- So, we go to the extension, - said Cyril affirmatively.

They sat and listened to the news.

- Cyril, you know what worries me? Here you are wearing a cloak, Spiderman - with a spider web, a lot of flying heroes got divorced and monsters, and then people jump from windows. Listen to what the news says. Students from the windows during the fire jumped. And from the fire they run to where there is no smoke and fire. In this place the firefighters did not agree with the criminal structures. Conventional metal stairs from the ground to the attic. Fire escape. But they are often misused. And about the flying spiders and birds - so you have to distinguish a fairy tale from life.

Tamara stood on the threshold and smiled, swinging her belt.

In the evening, Cyril entered the room of Catherine with a set of gorgeous bed linen. She fought with the desire to send him to hell, then she had the idea that they are equal! Cyril and Katerina got into a beautiful bed, covered themselves with a blanket. He quickly realized that they both went to bed, but even more quickly realized that she was not in bed.

He threw back the blanket in the duvet cover: a blue robe lay on the bed, but without Catherine.

Katerina flew out of bed, leaving her robe in her, flying for some time invisible, she was flying in a mortar like a rocket. She was lying in a strange cabin, upholstered in green silk from the inside, she could not see any instruments, but she was perfectly aware of the flight. Katerina flew in an unknown direction, but now her speed was a hundred times more than in a stupa. She did not fly for long, but quickly she did not understand what she was flying in, but there was no feeling of fear.

Stupa rocket landed on the beach. Katerina did not have time to understand how the flaps of the rocket opened. She went to the sand in overalls. Katerina saw a strange swimming vessel. People were not around. Red boat with a closed deck rocked on the waves. The boat reversed, the doors opened in it. Katerina went inside the red boat. The doors shut behind her. She sat in the only chair.

The boat flew through the waves. Katerina saw the ship, but the boat flew on with a red arrow. In the cold waves of the sea two male heads were visible, they were holding hands each by their own ball. The platform moved out of the boat, the sailors lay on it and, together with the platform, raised the waves and moved inside the boat.

Katerina caught that her boat saved two people, but how it happened, she did not realize. The boat flew to the shore. Two people were taken to the beach in dry clothes. She was given a look at them to make sure that everything was fine with people.

With a strong airflow, Katerina was sucked into a mortar with a small cabin. Now she was flying sitting, the red curtains were shifted from the windows, she was watching through the window flying through the clouds and flying out of the clouds in a clear sky. Along the contours of the land, Katerina guessed that she was in the Pacific, and now she was returning home, the rocket hovered above the roof of the house. She herself went out into the open hatch of the rocket.

On the roof, fenced along the contour, there was a table. Ksenia Artemovna with Tamara and Zinaida Zinovievna were sitting at the table. One place was empty. The ladies smiled, welcoming Katerina. Kirill left the attic with a lazy gait:

- Hi, Katerina! Starting you!

Katerina looked at everyone and realized that this was not her place. Her native father reappeared in her memory.


She quickly ran off the roof of the stairs, but returned to another century.

In the garden there were two straw effigies, which Feofan himself stuffed with straw and decorated with old clothes. When he was angry with someone, he approached the stuffed animals and beat them with knives. Grandfather, seeing another torn outfit scarecrow, scolded the boy, but to no avail, his constant entertainment remained stuffed in the garden.

When Theophanes mastered the attack on one scarecrow and could strike at a point surrounded by coal, he wanted more. He put two stuffed animals on strong stakes, as if two people were standing and talking. Now his task became more complicated: he did not attack the dummy, he approached them as if he wanted to talk to them. He stood against straw idols for a while, then abruptly struck two blows with two knives at the circled points.

Grandfather was frightened by the protracted amusement of the boy, he tried to teach him useful skills. If it was in the fall, then the grandfather invited his grandson to help chop the cabbage. On the table, shredded forks of cabbage and carrots, then plentifully salted this vegetable mixture with coarse salt and crushed them with hands until the cabbage gave juice. A lump of salted cabbage with carrots was thrown into the tub, and this happened until the tub was filled with cabbage. But Theophanes invariably stabbed two knives with a double blow into the whole cabbage forks at the intended point, which infuriated his grandfather.

The sun was breaking through the clouds. Maple leaves were filled with paint. On one maple there were up to three bright colors: green, yellow, cherry. Birches turned yellow through a leaf: one green, the second yellow. Beauty in leafy spaces grew. And in the personal life of Theophanes was autumn. Oh, so what's there! And that's what happened there. He has changed. Knives he was sick of worse than bitter radish.

He approached the fence of the neighboring house and said:

- Katerina, I can not live without you! On the street, God's grace, but you are not! If you came to comfort the young man, we would walk with you near the mill.

She answers him:

- My favorite, so missed you? Or are you stuffed in the garden tired? Do not hesitate, I will come, as soon as the sun approaches the oak, beside it and I will wait. And I won't go to the mill, it's scary there.

Katerina with happiness spun on one leg. Yes, I was honored! So, she has a girlish autumn now. Theophanes she loved painfully. And he her? Doesn't he love her? The girl rushed to the chest, opened the lid and fell silent over the clothes. Zipun took out a new handkerchief, pulled out a new scarf. What else Theophan had not seen her? Tiatenka did not go to the market for a long time.

The girl took a satin ribbon from the chest, twisted the braid, tightened it at the end tightly with ribbon, tied the bow. Then Katerina spun, causing her calico skirt to spin around the legs. She again approached the chest to look at her new skirt, as if she did not know the contents of the chest. Katerina sewed her skirt herself. Grandmother taught her a stitch. She skirt she taped at the hem.

My father went to the room, looked at the girlish troubles and laughed gently:

- Daughter, where are you going? Is it possible to go down to the altar and did not ask me?

- Father, love me Theophanes.

- Yes, is it true? Let the matchmakers send! Enough of acorns from the oaks ramble.

Theophanes and Katerina met under a spreading oak. He came in a new shirt, belted with gold, and himself in sandals. Boyar gave him a strap, he wore it all the time. Very Feofan boyarne attracted. The boyars in the capital of the white-stone winter lived, and in the summer she came to the village.

Only Theophanes wanted to kiss the girl, as if from no time did the boyar in the carriage ride up. She got out of the carriage, snatched the whip from the driver, and skipped Katerina's skirt. The girl's leg hurt. She pulled away from the guy. And the boyarie laughed and went on.

Feofan was frightened for Katerina, he was frightened by the anger of the boyar. The guy stood in complete confusion under the oak, from which the first yellow leaves were slowly falling. The boy's fear of the boyars was stronger than his love for the girl. From that day, Theophan distanced himself from Catherine and looked away at the meeting.

Katerina felt chilly and offended for herself and for Feofan's helplessness. She understood that he depended on the boyar more than on her. And she decided that she would certainly be stronger than the boyar! She will be stronger than him! She - Katerina, and that's it!

In the green grass were yellow leaves, like golden icons. Katerina in the upper room in the front corner hung an icon, drawn from an ancient icon. The stove occupied the fourth part of the dwelling, it was possible to wash and warm in it after they baked bread. The floor was lined with wide floorboards, a little blackish from time to time.


The girl was sitting on the porch and waiting for a young neighbor, she was still hoping for his return. The father left the house and sat down next to Katerina. They began to consider a new stone cathedral with a golden dome. Sunday he was crowded with a pile of parishioners.

The ringing of the bells pleased the silence with its soulful sound. Scarves and sundresses were worn on women. A rare woman went to a kokoshnik. The peasants were wearing high sandals and long shirts, belted with a rope or a belt. And on Feofan there was already a golden strap, like a golden comb of a rooster.

'Father, Theophanes serves the boyaryn,' the girl broke the silence, never taking her eyes off the neighboring house in the hope that Feofan would appear on the next porch.

'It's good that you found out for yourself,' said my father, and he sighed heavily. - Eh, daughter, I knew our boyar, served her faithfully, yes he grew old.

- Father, and you are not old at all! Your peers are gray-haired men, and you are still young, fair-haired. And today the boyar whip retreated to me. I will keep silent, but I will have my revenge! And I will marry a boyar! - Catherine could not resist the insult to the boyar.

- Revenge is not necessary. You will be even worse, they will beat you with rods. Eh, where was enough: to marry a boyar! Wake up, daughter! - scared father for his daughter.

- Then I will go to the maidservant boyars house! I will ask Theophanes, so he will put in a word for me and put in a good word, 'the excited girl did not let up.

- Servants they always love. If Feofan put in a word, maybe that will work out, the father thoughtfully said, groaned and rose from the porch.

Katerina began to think how to please the boyar and what to wear. Clothes such as the boyar, she never had. She got up from the porch, took a wooden bucket, put it on her head and began to walk around the yard.

Mother, seeing her daughter with a bucket on her head, shouted:

- Katerina, you will split the bucket, it will become leaking!

'Mother, I want to become a stately Boyar,' an important girl replied, continuing to proudly walk around the yard with a bucket on her head.

'You are not the last bride anyway, you have a dowry.' Wake up - shouted mother and went to the cow, which drove the shepherd.

Katerina approached the cow and stroked the family's breadwinner at the withers.

Father served as a coachman for the boyars. Earlier, he drove the boyars, but now she no longer took him with her. Former coachman more and more manure from the stables endured and looked after horses.

And Katerina was accustomed to needlework, she could sew a shirt and sew it. She embroidered the first shirt to her father, and so embroidered it with her patterns, that the lady again took Catherine's father to the carriage of her carriage. Katerina expanded the shirt and for the boyar, and she brought it to the boyar.

The noblewoman whipped Katerina in gratitude and laughed loudly:

- Katerina, you want to take away my husband?

"How did she guess?" - thought Katerina and walked away among the flying fall foliage towards the city, on the outskirts of which she lived with her parents.

In the city there were large cathedrals, white-stone. Just below the ranks of stone trading. Katerina came to the monastery to the abbess and saw stone vaults and a monastic cell. She did not even think about staying in the monastery, it was not her holy life. Several houses in the city stood - stone, beautiful houses, durable.

And Katerina has a log house, spacious, she also had a large master yard under a shed. Her grandfather began to build her house, and her father paved the yard with a stone. Grandmother still lived with them. She spun the yarn, twisting the spindle in her hands, sitting on a wide bench. And Katerina's mother loved to strip the rugs on a small wooden loom. Every family in the craft is trained.

Feofan - the son of a blacksmith, his father made horseshoes for horses. They had their own mill. They also ground the flour. Katerina's family has their grain ground for flour. Theophanes and his father sometimes stood at the forge and helped his father. Than Theophanes not the bridegroom Catherine? True, he forges all the knives for himself, and then sticks them into a stuffed animal. So no, the noblewoman is still heading for Katerina! She has her own land, her own villages, and everything here belongs to the boyar.

Rumors go as if the noblewoman is a witch and can spell, as if she has bewitched her husband with a love potion. And if she and Feofan bewitched to her? He is a fair guy. The noblewoman, having examined the shirt sewed by Katerina for her husband, the boyar, ordered five more shirts and caps for sleeping. The lady lady Catherine was hired to work. The girl became a dressmaker, not a maid. Boyar ordered patterns of complex, now they have to embroider the whole winter!

That's how it turned out! And the boyar Katerina never saw, he rarely came to them. People used to say that he served the king himself! Katerina would have done the shirt for the king himself, so there are many things to do without royal clothes. But in between cases she made herself a kokoshnik and widened it with beads. And she also expanded her shirt for a sundress.

The girl quickly got the hang of embroidering.

Spring came. Katerina gave the order to the boyar. And then the snow melted. The girl has put on herself the renewed ones: morocco boots, a sundress painted on the hem and in front of the strip are all embroidered. I put a kokoshnik on my head and went out into the yard. The father saw his daughter as he was shaken by surprise.

- Katerina, you are our beauty! Oh, what have you become! - Father exclaimed in surprise, not believing his eyes.

He walked slowly over to his daughter and touched the kokoshnik.

- Will the noble lady from me work out? - Catherine asked her father, pawd walking along the stone courtyard.

- Scary for you, daughter! - the father waved his hands, and then suddenly asked: - Do you want your daughter to learn reading and writing from our deacon?

'I want to,' Katerina answered with a challenge, 'I need a letter.'

He became a clerk to come home to them and teach a girl to read and write. Mother gave him a rug for his studies right away, and then she gave the milk in the pot when he came. Little sexton was so smart. He knew a lot, he said it was interesting that what is happening behind the mountains, beyond the valleys.

In the summer, Katerina was recognized as the first beauty among girls. Theophanes at the festival of the sun depicted a rider on a horse. Katerina expanded herself and him white clothes. Theophanes, with bare feet, sat on a horse, rode down the street with a bundle of wheat, people came out to meet him and bowed in a belt, as if he were the very good sun. Boyarne he liked more than before.


Katerina in a white embroidered dress was tied to a tree in a sunny meadow, and a wreath of flowers was put on her head. Around her, boys and girls began to dance and sing songs. Feofan untied Katerina from the tree, so they began to tease: "The bride and groom."

In the evening, burned straw stuffed. Torches flamed. Beauty. And suddenly a carriage with the boyars burst into the circle of the holiday, the horses sniffed and whinnied. The girls and the boys ran away, and the mother's lady in the face of everyone turned into a witch, and the carriage into a stupa. She grabbed Theophanes the witch, put her in a mortar and flew away over the woods, across the sea.

Katerina and sat by the fire, in her still little heads crackled. The father approached the girl, he brought it to the lady in the carriage. The horses stood and wheezed. Katerina approached the horses, stroked their withers, and they calmed down. And the father said that the lady of the air flies and will return, not all the time she has to sit in a stupa, and even with a young guy.

Fear Katerina suffered - and not pass. She sits by the fire, looks, and in her hand a gold strap remains. The girl showed a golden strap to her father. He took the strap and crossed them to the fire. The strap turned into a snake, and there were always a lot of snakes in their locality. Katerina pulled away from her father.

And father laughed:

- Do not you go, daughter, the altar, not a pair of Theophanes to you, oh, not a pair.

The guys around Katerina danced and sang songs, that she was their bride, and not Theophanes. They asked the guys to choose for themselves the songs of the groom among them. And Katerina all the guys seemed to be the same person, she could not forget Theophanes right away. Oh, could not.

And Theophanes - what is Theophanes? He found himself in the service of the boyar and, while serving, learned a lot, learned many crafts. He learned the composition of the broth - a drug, because of which the boyaron turned into a witch, then again into the boyar. He missed Katerina, he liked him, but he could not return to her, the lady witch would not let go.

And so he wanted to be free, that he swung the knife at the boyar herself! The witch, like a peasant, turned him by the hand over herself, and slammed the ground. Theophane drank potions before attacking a lady witch witch. He woke up at home with a book in his hands, as if centuries had flashed and stopped.


Emerald rays of light slowly glided over the silver balls, creating a festive twinkle of cold marble countertops. Katerina turned off the searchlight and smiled sadly, she did everything for the next holiday, it remained to lay the tables and wait for the guests. It was her mother who offered her to arrange a cafe hall for the New Year holidays, which she did.

The girl bought Christmas balls and glued them to the trays, and then she hung trays with balls along the walls of a small hall. She went to the tree, decorated with the same balls, and stroked her with an excess of feelings, then sighed and, like a true Cinderella in an apron and worn out shoes, sat on a chair to once again look around the room.

Katerina went to the mirror on the wall, twirled in front of him - she was pleased with what she saw in the mirror, but thought for a second, turning over her clothes in her head. She thought that she was missing an elegant dress with a neckline. Her eyes fell on her shoes, she twisted one leg and gritted her teeth in anger: she also needed shoes.

Three days remained before the holiday, money was not foreseen during that time, she would receive them only after the holiday from her mother, who worked at this cafe. For some time Katerina thought about it, she remembered how she came to this town with her mother from the village, selling the house and all the furniture there. At the moment, she and her mother had nothing in this big city. They quickly spent the money for the sold house.

Mom lived with the owner of the cafe, Afanasy Afanasyevich, in his apartment, Katerina also lived with her. No, mom didn't marry him. It's just that the owner solved three tasks: he got an employee for a cafe, provided her with housing, and a housekeeper appeared at his home - all in the same person as Katerina's mother. But the money from this in their family did not increase much, they were constantly in debt to the owner.

Katerina sighed again and twisted her toe shoes, which did not please her. She was still in school and constantly felt her poverty, so deep that it was not possible to get rid of her. Of course, my mother did something stupid about selling a house in the village of Bronze Ladle, otherwise they would have fled to the village long ago. Mom met the owner last summer when he came to their village for business. It was then that Afanasy Afanasyevich offered work and a room in his apartment.

The girl rose from her chair and went around the hall: everything was in order, you could go home. At home she was waiting for the news: a new cook, son Feofan, a former soldier, a member of military operations, came to the owner. Especially well he owned two knives at the same time, just masterly, for which he was sent to work in the kitchen. Later he became an assistant cook in the soldiers' canteen, and got used to the kitchen. When he left the military service, he definitely decided to become a cook.

"The male cook sounds good!" - so thought Theophanes. He graduated from a culinary school and now came to his father to work in his cafe, but the place of the chef was taken, and the place of the cook too.

This is all that Katerina knew about Theophane. And she also knew that a new shift maid of her mother was wedging her master. Katerina was still a very young girl, slim and slender, but in her soul such needs flourished! She was afraid to think about it. And she knew that the decade before the New Year in the cafe was all painted, and from the next day there would be an influx of holiday companies in the cafe.

The girl looked into the hall again and turned off the light. She went into the locker room, threw the old jacket over, looked into the owner's office and left the cafe. She herself locked the door and took it home.

On school New Year's Eve, Katerina shone in a fairytale dress of a real fairy, magic shoes sparkled on her feet, sapphire necklace glittered around her neck, sapphire earrings rocked in her ears. She became the center of gravity of all the boys, they swirled around her a whole bunch.

The girls were hurt by the emerald Christmas tree, discussing the outfit of a new fairy. They already disliked Katerina, and here they moved away from her altogether. The girls could not understand: where did the poor girl get a gorgeous dress ?! No, it didn't fit in the heads of beauties!

After the school holiday, Katerina went to sleep with her classmate.

For Arina, nothing surprising was this. Arina gave Katerina her home clothes, spread the sofa, asking permission from her mother. So Katerina stayed for three days at her friend's house, she did not even call home. There were school holidays.

In the evening, on TV, Katerina learned from the news that a double attack had taken place in the city, and the person who had committed the attack had disappeared. It was assumed that Theophan had wounded two female employees with two knife strokes.

That evening, Detective Musin came to Katerina and said that her mother was wounded along with her assistant. Katerina went to the hospital, but was not allowed to see her mother, and she went home. The next day, on the pretext that it was hard for her, she returned to Arina's house and stayed with her for a week.

Katerina was pitied by all and condemned Theophan. Katerina was sad for one day, then went shopping with Arina and bought new clothes and shoes. Arina gave her father money for clothes.

The chef knew perfectly well that Afanasy Afanasyevich had brought Katerina and her mother to the house. She took root in the credibility of Catherine's mother, calling herself a cook. But on holidays they had to work a lot, and both ladies overworked. They quarreled and angered the third assistant, Theophanes.

The chef always felt that Theophan was a dangerous person. The knife slightly wounded her, his anger accumulated long ago. Catherine's mother stood up for her partner. And Theophanes in a fit of anger at the cook accidentally wounded Katerina's mother, showing them the technique of using two knives at the same time.

In the case of a double knife wound, everyone was of the same opinion: Feofan was to blame.

Katerina thought that Theophanes wounded her mother by accident, it seemed natural to her that the man who had gone through a real war had a weakened nervous system and skills to handle cold steel.

Feofan and Afanasy Afanasyevich could not be found.

Another man could not understand why Feofan needed to attack two women. Maybe he demonstrated the technique of possession of knives? Yes, they drank for three while working, but it was not the first time for them to do this, and then also the New Year holidays. But how to immediately hurt two women? In what two women could be guilty before the young man? There was no obvious answer to this question.


Chapter 13

Arina's father did not stop thinking about this topic. Katerina was constantly in their house, and he was growing irritated against her. Everyone regretted her, but he hated her every day more and more. Is it really male solidarity? Or something different? He tried to speak out at home against Katerina, but his family fell upon him with angry words that he was unjust to the poor girl.

It would seem that the problem has no solution: why does Katherine annoy him? Why does he not condemn the cafe owner's son inside himself, and if he condemns, then only for incontinence?

New Year holidays were coming to an end. What happened in the cafe from the point of view of Detective Musin? Visitors sat at festive tables in a cafe and talked peacefully. All the tables on this New Year's Eve were occupied. Christmas balls glittered on the Christmas tree and on all the walls in the rays of color music. The music sounded like a set for conversations at tables that were full of food and drinks. It was an hour of saturation and toast.

Musin, who was sitting in the hall, always knew that after champagne and wine, appetite would flare up for a whole hour. At this hour, even those who were engaged in entertaining society, and they ate, as if before this meal had never been seen. At some point, the forks decreased their speed, the movements of the arms and jaws stopped. The most festive table in the year gradually acquired an untidy look. The voices sounded louder, trying to drown out the music.

- Actually, everyone has a different relationship. You met me, gave me gifts, but it is not a fact that everything will be fine with us! What are you hitting me again with your questions about "why we do not live in the village"? The detective asked his partner, Zoya.

'We're joining each other with you,' Musin replied evasively. - We have a period of questions.

A red beam of light passed through Zoe's red blouse and walked on. Mussin shuddered into inner horror; he did not understand anything, but it seemed to him that blood was streaming down the girl's chest. At that moment there was a cry, followed by another. A scream came from the kitchen, drowning out the music.

Zoe looked at Detective Musin, who jumped up and ran towards the kitchen. What he saw there exceeded all his expectations. The scene is not for the holiday. Two cooks lay at the table in strange positions and bled to death. Mussin saw a man jump out of an open window, he had a knife in each hand, and he had a white cap on his head. At this moment several people broke into the kitchen and shouted at various voices. Someone already called an ambulance. Women were injured in soft tissue, but they were both alive.

The next day, white snow clung to the trees. Almost white sky was not reflected in the river, powdered with snow. Detective Musin walked along the bank of the pond, past snowy trees and untouched snow. He enjoyed the purity of nature and felt first among the snowy silence. His soul was still suffering, but already filled with lyrical mood. His chest inhaled clean air. He was both good and bad. His legs bravely left marks on the white canvas of the road.

Soon the water appeared at the shore, he stopped and looked along the shore. Judging by the pristine snow, no one here has passed in the last 24 hours. He liked loneliness, as if he had entered another world. He involuntarily looked through the trunks of trees toward the road: cars drove along it evenly, that is, the world of people was near, only a hundred meters away, if you walk through a line of silver trees.

Unexpectedly, he felt uncomfortable. From under the ice flooded palm, it swayed in icy water from a weak current.

- Ow! - shouted Mussin and paused, looking around him, although he knew perfectly well that there were no human tracks near.

A man appeared from under the ice and looked in the direction of Detective Musin, who did not understand, but noticed that the man was still alive, but very cold, though not naked, but not in the diver's clothing. The thought flashed through my mind how to save a walrus, considering that he had never considered himself a walrus.

Musin's gaze fell on a thin tree in the snow, then he looked at the older trees. Found a decent bitch, climbed on it with the agility of a monkey. Dry bitch broke and fell along with a young man. Musin rose, grabbed the branch and walked toward the shore. He examined the wormwood, but did not find anyone in it.

- Ay, drowned! He shouted. - I came to save you!

- Why did you shout? - Almost in his ear he said a man in wet clothes, blue from the cold.

- And how did you swim to the shore? - surprised Musin.

- Time is precious. I'm cold. I was hiding under the ice, 'the man said with blue lips. - Give clothes to warm up - and the blue man began to strip off his jacket.

Musin got angry, turned around and, with a bitch, dropped a zealous walrus to the ground. A guy in wet clothes was in the snow. Alarmed snowflakes rained down from a passing tree. Pity for a walrus briefly disappeared. Musin looked at the stiff man and ran to the road through the forest belt for help. The walrus saw that the man was running away with a bitch, tried to get up, but his clothes managed to become similar to the snow of the road.

Owners of cars, having seen a man with a sticky stick on the edge of the road, tried to overtake him. Then Musin began to swing the bough in different directions. The van stopped, a very strong man came out of it. Yes, the owner of the cafe in person stood in front of Musin. He had a strange feeling that if Afanasy Afanasyevich is the one who injured them, then at the moment it is still more important to save a person from the pond.

- Help, there is a man freezes! Shouted Mussin, lowering the bough into the ground and ramming him along the ground.

Afanasy Afanasyevich, without hesitation, went next to a man with a blunt stick of decent size. They approached the place where the freezing walrus remained, but he was not there. Mussin examined the wormwood. Of course, the walrus was in the water, blue near the shore.

Walrus, seeing the men, voluntarily plunged into the icy water. On the water went lazy circles. Musin went to the shore and stretched out a walrus bitch, trying to get him out of the water. At this time, Athanasius Afanasyevich accidentally or deliberately pushed Musin toward the water.

Musin and his bitches fell into the water. A chill pierced his body. He looked at the shore, looking through the eyes of a strong man, but only saw his back going to the car.

A walrus came up next to him and hissed his tight blue lips:

- Why did you bring your father? I wanted to freeze.

'We'll freeze together,' Musin murmured, trying to get ashore along a bitch.

Athanasius Afanasyevich appeared over Musin's head and yanked him to the shore. Then he handed the bitch to the walrus, who was so cold with his fear that he grabbed the bitch with his last strength and at the moment was on the shore.

Afanasy Afanasyevich, like a magician, took out a bottle of strong drink from his inner pocket and poured it into two walrus in his mouth. Pleasant warmth passed by the wave of Musin. And the walrus was so cold that for him this drink was not a salvation. Afanasy Afanasyevich put the walrus on his shoulder, like a log, and went to the side of the road. Musin wandered around.

The car was a small van, inside it was a narrow bed. They put a walrus on it. Musin himself began to rub himself with a towel to the red on the skin. At this time, the owner of the van wrapped the walrus in a blanket and tried to water it again. The walrus sipped his drink and turned off. Musin wrapped himself in the second blanket, still chattering his teeth against the cold.

The van twitched and drove away from the winter pond and the disturbed snow cover of the trees. He stopped at the village first-aid post, from which a slim girl came out. She examined two walruses and offered to put the first walrus in the infirmary, and she let the second walrus go home under his responsibility.

Walrus called his name: Theophanes. The girl recorded it in the journal of the medical center. His last name didn't tell her anything.

Detective Musin was sitting in the car next to Afanasy Afanasyevich and told him about the loud attack of the unknown on two cooks, hoping to make him admit that he had wounded them. But Afanasy Afanasyevich did not even know about this attack, and at the same time they thought that the walrus from the pond is a potential killer! Then they voiced their thoughts out loud. Mussin said he saw a man with two knives run through the window after the murder.

Afanasy Afanasyevich after these words, turned the car around and drove back to the medical center, where they left the walrus. On the way, the owner of the cafe said that he had not been in the city for several days, he went for groceries and did not know anything about the matter.

Walrus Feofan was treated with the help of a nurse. He was so frozen that the girl did not leave him and warmed him by all means known to her. She watered and wiped it with alcohol, then wrapped it up. At this moment, two men entered the chamber. They tried to interrogate the walrus, but he fell asleep and did not answer the questions.


Theophanes woke up and saw a small room with one window, one bed, one bedside table and one chair. He was alone in the white silence of the chamber. There were no sounds.

He began to recall what had happened to him, but could not remember anything special, as if his memory and conscience had been frozen out. Slowly, he remembered that he worked in a cafe, and he had no money. Ahead loomed the New Year holidays. In the absence of the owner, Feofan told the cooks that he had discovered the theft of money that the teams had made for the New Year celebrations.

Some products were purchased, drinks were purchased. Feofan quietly asked the cook, which of them took the money. Women took his question seriously and broke out into abuse. He got angry. In the hall was a festive banquet, and he ran out of nerves and money. He told the cooks that he did not intend to conceal the theft, which he himself did not commit.

Women began to deny the theft of money from the master's desk, which he allegedly did not manage to put into the safe. What happened next, Feofan vaguely remembered: how the kitchen knives under his arm turned up, how he picked them up ...

Feofan keenly felt that the cook was no longer there, that he had killed two women with a double blow almost instantly, as if they were straw figs. He squeezed his head. Groaned. There were wheezing in my chest. He realized that he had cool himself and his conscience. Losing him was absolutely nothing, the cafe still burned out of theft and blood. He had nowhere to go. He coughed.

A nurse looked into the ward.

- Feofan, you woke up? - Asked the nurse, coming to the patient.

'Do not come,' Feofan hissed, and again plunged into a barking cough.

Musin entered the ward in a medical mask and said:

- Girl, immediately put a mask on your face, get sick - see how he coughs! - and handed her a bluish mask.

The nurse obediently pulled the masks on her ears and went to the closet to get a disposable syringe for the injection. Feofan threateningly coughed. At that moment, a woman with a bandaged arm entered or entered the medical center. Feofan was surprised to recognize in her the chef from the cafe.

The woman, seeing Theophanes in the frozen form, began to nervously say everything that came to mind:

- Happiness is an illusion of a certain state to which one can strive, but it is impossible to exist in it for a long time. What was my happiness a couple of years ago? I had a husband, daughter, apartment, work. I have always been athletic due to previous sports activities. To endure physical exertion of family life, when my relatives and relatives of my husband were very far from us, I was helped by sport. That is, sports training has helped me to maintain the happiness of family life. After reading the book about happiness three times, I did not safely remember a single line from it. Probably, therefore, it is impossible to hold the bird of happiness in your hand. Although I was not at all used to holding something alive in the hands of a number of birds and animals. In times of letters in envelopes, letters of happiness were distributed, the authors of which demanded to rewrite the letter a large number of times. Apparently, because it is impossible to understand what happiness is, the first time. So, not so.

We drove. When I learned about Theophanes disappearance, I roared for an hour with sobs from the pain in my wounded arm. Fool, hurt my hand!

The nurse, after hearing the lady, said:

- It's good that you were crying, your tear ducts were flushed, it became easier for your eyes. Your happiness for the eyes turned out to be next to grief or self-pity for your beloved. You never know where you will find, where you will lose. There is still happiness in the form of writing poems, but at the moment there are no love illusions in my head, no fiction, although how to say it. My feelings flashed instantly, as soon as I saw the eye of Detective Musin. It was he who found Theophanes in the pond. It seemed to me that Musin was looking at me. With such a wonderful feeling, I lived all day. I managed everything until I looked into his eyes again. Then I spoke to him and realized that I was an accident on his horizon. However, thanks to him and for this short luck. But I came to life, having passed the next threshold of the inferiority complex.

- What is inferiority? - Asked the chef, recovering and gaining the same strength.

'God knows,' the nurse replied with a sigh. - I feel myself as it should, and men, from my slightest attention to them, start with a half turn. This is good, but it takes some energy, which not every individual will receive in return. A successful pair is obtained when there is no feeling of inferiority in it! Here, piled up. But I managed to imagine what would happen to me if I had a male doctor in the second half. With this thought I could not exist for a long time for many reasons. Every doctor has people close to him: doctors and nurses, the sick and admirers of his work. In my youth I had once passed by a doctor, so do I now choose such a dangerous object? Of course not! Yes, and he immediately realized that it was better to get around me. Thank you Musin for the look. He healed me, and now I will live without him. But Musin is not a doctor, what if we succeed with him ?!

- The first years I often cried from a family happy life, - whispered the chef, not listening to the nurse. - If we now analyze my family life, then it would definitely be called happy. But then I could not understand this because of constant overloads. Thank you so much for Feofan, I take him with me.

The woman looked at her hand: the wound was completely healed, as if it had never existed. Then she looked at Theophanes and decided to punish him. She gathered all her strength, turned her hands with spread fingers towards Theophanes, then sharply clenched them into fists and straightened.

- Feofan, for the fact that you hurt me, I will set your rival on you! He will take Katerina from you! It is impossible to kill him! Let it be so! - with cheer said chef.

The nurse woke up in the morning and thought that there are no guilty in love, if there is no love, and if there is love, then what could be the fault? Yes, no. Though howl and did not want to howl. Upon meeting the detective's gaze pierced through her, he still wanted to say something, but did not dare. He spoke with his eyes, but he could not go on for so long, he could have said a word.

Afanasy Afanasyevich was arrested as soon as he returned home. He did not have time to see anyone, and there was no one to see. He hoped that Theophan would survive, and did not say anything about him. Afanasy Afanasyevich told the investigator that he went to the cooperative for meat and stayed for a while, but when he returned, he did not find anyone in the cafe.

The investigator, checking the cafe's alibi, let him go home. Afanasy Afanasyevich immediately went to the medical center, where he found the nurse in complete confusion. It turned out that the walrus had a chef, as she found Theophanes - is unknown, but from the medical center she took him in very poor condition. Musina at that time in the medical center was not there, but the nurse could not cope with such a woman.

Katerina and Afanasy Afanasyevich were left alone, while her mother and Theophanes were in the hospital. He asked the girl who was injured by her mother:

- Katerina, did you take money from my desk?

'No,' the girl said sharply.

- Take your time, girl. Lost a large amount of money. Theophanes did not take the money. He always stabbed straw effigies with knives and he struck a series of blows at live targets. Sorry to say that. I am truly sorry for your mother! It is good that she is already recovering. But I would like to know what is your fault in this bloody story? And where is my money? I saw your New Year's dress and shoes, they are worth a lot of money! Where did you get them ?! - Afanasy Afanasyevich shouted, shaking Katerina by the breasts.

'I made the dress myself from old tulle and expanded it with silver threads!' And the shoes? Yes, they are old! I pasted them with silver foil! - Catherine cried nervously. - And money? But who needs them? They lie where they were lying, 'she said in a low voice.

Afanasy Afanasyevich carefully looked at the girl and led her to the van. They went to the side of the cafe, went into it. He went to the table, opened a drawer - there was no money.

Then Katerina came to the table, she opened the bottom drawer of the table: in its far corner lay a pile of money.

- You hid the money? The owner exclaimed indignantly in his voice.

- Not. You have the same table at your home, I did my homework. Plywood bottom box is constantly shifting, and the contents from one drawer of the table smoothly into another. And the whole mystery of the two wounds, - the girl sobbed and burst into tears in her voice.

And Afanasy Afanasyevich thought that he left the money in the table according to how people carry big money - in plastic bags so that no one would guess about them ...

Theophanes awoke from oblivion. Next to him sat a chef.

- I slept for a long time?

- Read, three days. Dreams good dream?

- I had a whole fairy tale.

'You remember all of it.'

Theophanes thought that the chef is not real, but from his fairy tale.


In the summer, Cyril and Katerina went together to a connoisseur of the Copper Triangle. A connoisseur with hatred looked at those who had come, but then he waved his hand and said such nonsense that there is an exit of the axis of the Earth in this triangle! And, being on the territory of the zone, it is possible to shift the axis of the Earth by a fraction of a degree, and this may well cause some changes in the earth's crust.

Who was moved here is unknown! He also said that they often meet UFOs there. It was Katerina herself who knew and read about the spots in the sky. Summing up, Katerina came to an elementary conclusion - in the Copper Triangle, you can move the axis of the Earth and you can observe a UFO.

Not bad, of course, she can not move the axis of the Earth, but can see a UFO. Why not? The young people decided to go in the summer to the Copper Triangle. They had to buy a tent, backpacks, clothes, dishes and stuff. They went shopping for sporting goods and looked for the necessary items of particular lightness.

The expert said that he would have to make a forced march to the right place, that is, to walk. On the day of departure, the weather was sunny - twenty degrees of heat. Katerina and Cyril got on the train, drove to the small station. From her narrow-gauge railway reached where we were going. Snow fell in June only there!

Zero degrees. That's the whole anomaly, but this is Katerina's personal opinion. The Opera River - it is the river. In the mountains, in the hilly terrain, the river carries its cool waters. And travelers had to swim across it on the way to the anomalous zone!

Water is cold! They went along the trail, carrying their own belongings, yes, then every extra gram was felt! They came to a large clearing with a large number of felled trees. Felled trees were lined up in rows, as if in a forest theater. A small platform was built in the center of the clearing. Tents stood around the perimeter of the glade, slightly hidden in the foliage covered with fresh, melting snow.

Kirill set up a tent where he was advised by his senior comrades in the anomalous zone. Here everyone lived in tents of company tailoring, and only one gray-haired man lived in a dark-gray tent made by his own hands. The tent was actually light, the thinnest silvery foil covered it from above, from which its tent seemed a little miracle.

The owner of the tent was a gray-haired man with thin features, with thin bones and broad shoulders. He was not of this world. Seeing this handsome old man, Katerina forgot about Cyril! The old man was good. She understood that it was Afanasy Afanasyevich himself, but she did not show it. Cyril faded into the background and went around the perimeter of the meadow to get acquainted with its neighbors.

And Katerina saw only this old man in front of her! She tried to talk to him, but he did not pay attention to her words. Then she decided to watch him from the side, to talk about him with other people. She was told that his speech was coming soon, then she would know everything. People came to the anomalous zone for one or two weeks, and the old man practically lived here.

The sun peeped out. The snow has disappeared. Green grass has become sapphire. The leaves shone with snow dew drops. The old man quickly climbed onto the platform and with feeling began to tell extraordinary stories about the anomalous zone. And he also asked those people who agree to move the axis of the Earth together with him. He needed people who believed that the axis of the earth could be moved by the power of suggestion!

In the old Katerina fell in love in the third minute. His thin skin on his chest was peeking out of his unbuttoned plaid shirt. His shoulder-length hair was silver like foil on his tent.

Sensual fingers of hands moved in space, explaining something from his story. Jeans are not the first youth obtyagi straight legs, emphasizing the torso, wearing a plaid shirt. Miracle! Katerina approached the old man among those who were ready to move the Earth's axis past the centuries. Yes, at that moment she was ready for anything, even to get the moon from the sky!

But she took some of the products out of her backpack and gave them to the old man, and in response, she saw his variegated eyes with a cheerful squint. One eye was slightly larger than the other, and the eyes themselves were of a very strange shape, nonetheless attractive. Katerina realized what it can take - the fact that the trees in the forest is not growing.

The old man selected three men and Katerina and led them into the forest. Literally a hundred meters from the parking lot, there was a hole under the ground. Katerina realized that this was the road to the axis of the Earth. She looked around, but found no signs of the earth-moving machinery.

The earth lay damp and wet. She did not want to climb into the hole. The entrance was a meter and a half in diameter. Bending over, she went after the men.

About ten meters later a cave appeared. This is the Copper Mountains! There turned out to be several caves connected by artificial labyrinths pierced in the rock.

The light went through a network of holes above the head, which, if necessary, could be closed. In one cave lay a piece of silver film. Here they sat down on sawn stumps around a table of battered boards.

In the same cave there was a workbench with a plane. This is where the owner of the Copper Triangle lived! Katerina thought that she, Cyril and the old man were already a triangle, if not real, then from the near future.

An interesting thing, considering that people are skeptical about the axis exit, the old man began to talk about the new northern craters, which he saw personally. He traveled to those places. And the people listened to him, and he said:

'Investigating the origin of the northern craters is a matter of experts who can say with confidence that huge accumulations of gas escaped through the permafrost, which has melted.

The simple solution of a complex question easily dulls the interest in the origin of the northern craters. But the smooth edges of the craters do not give rest to some individuals who can more easily agree that the crater was descended from a meteorite. So, something stuck into the Earth! Stuck! Or maybe the crater was before, it was just filled with ice, an ice pillar?

Global warming drowns global ices, filling cavities in the ground. As a result, the roads fail or the ground goes out from under the feet and cars. So, round holes have occurred at all for a long time or recently. Okay. The situation is insidious, if not more.

The crater is a favorite cosmic landscape. Do not believe? Fly to the moon or mercury - everywhere you will find craters, the more you can find them on Earth. If you find a huge number of green circles in the desert, then these are oases, not craters, so now the sands are enlivened to the level of gardens, gardens, fields. You can find the water circles, but it will be a nursery for growing shrimp. People are smart, they have long subdued the processes of food production. And the crater? Things are more important.

Katerina could not stand even the first session of suggestion to the Earth of thoughts, so that she shifted her axis, and left the Copper Triangle with Cyril, to which he was incredibly pleased. He already knew that the owner of the Copper Triangle knows how to be two-faced.

For the summer practice, Katerina and her classmate Kira got into one factory, one workshop, one shift. Who would know how much noise was in the press shop! On the first day, they passed the workshop and flew out of it with the whole group, stunned by the blows of the presses, by rotating the drums with sand, in which metal burrs were removed from the cast parts for the tractors.

It was these burrs that were not shot in the drums that they were shooting in practice on the third shift. Once Katerina took off a part of a finger on her hand with rotating emery, and when the work was done, in the morning she managed to fall asleep in this workshop, in this noise, with good ventilation. What people do not get used to? But the benefits of working in the shop was tangible. Katerina and Kira received the money. They got money for practicing in a factory.

The girls bought train tickets, put on light dressing gowns, which were above the knees on the palm, and drove off. So Katerina did not accidentally come to visit classmate Kira. The door was opened to them by Cyra's brother, Cyril. The girl mentally decided that he did not suit her as a young man, and quietly followed her friend to an apartment from the mid-twentieth century. On the round table with square legs stood a full vase of plums: huge, dark blue.

The bones were taken out of the plums, they ate the plum's flesh with great pleasure. Hands washed in the bathroom, Katerina noticed that it is spacious, but with limited flow of water.

The next day, Cyril invited the girls to drive out of town on local roads on sports bikes. And what happens? Kira refused to drive, and Katerina agreed to ride a sports bike with Kirill. Bicycles stood in the hallway. Cyril dressed in cycling shorts. Katerina put on sports pants - and forward ...

Knees quickly flashed near the frames of bicycles. Having driven across the city, they drove into the vastness of an amazing warm country. There were few trees here. There were gardens and fields. Having worked well, they drove into a giant stack of straw. What happened?


Chapter 14


Cyril, an energetic man with high legs, turned out to be also with long and very nimble hands. Katerina, a girl with full knees, began to fight back from him, turning everything into a joke. The joke dragged on, fighting in the straw lasted about ten minutes.

Fought Katerina like a tigress. Kirill, feeling her resistance, began to embrace her even more. She successfully wrenched from his hands and jumped out of the stack on the road. It remains to shake off. Kirill crawled out of the stack and began to pull the straw out of his dark hair with a hint of ripe cherry, as he called them.

They rode their bikes again and drove on. Ten minutes later flashed water in the reeds. They stopped for a rest. The water in the pond was warm. Full knees got out of the pants, and Katerina remained in a bathing suit. Sports pants fell down from Cyril, under them was a strip of swimming trunks.

Water swept a couple of its cool bliss. Hot body splashing in the water. Cyril lifted Katerina in his arms. Full knees sparkled above the water. The passion of a man gripped an unearthly, but the girl stopped him. She fought with arms and legs, and it turned out that she had slammed him in the eye with a swing. The bruise under the eye began to bloom with a ripe plum. Full knees covered with small bruises from male fingers, like sweet cherries ...

They sat on the bank of a small river and began to simply talk. It turned out that Cyril had already traveled a thousand kilometers on a sports bike. His legs were unusually slender, with beautiful muscles. His whole figure was similar to the figure of the leader of the Indians from the new film about the Indians. Katerina loved books and films about Indians, and now such a man was sitting next to her!

Gorgeous man, with unfolded shoulders, with a thin waist, with dark hair lying in a purely male hairstyle. The dream of every woman.

One evening they went for a walk to a local cemetery, abandoned and overgrown with grass. Behind the cemetery was an apple orchard. It was somewhat frightening to walk among the rickety stone slabs and the columns of bricks that had collapsed from time, indicating the border of the cemetery. From the cemetery, Cyril led Katerina to the territory of the kindergarten.

In the evening, the children did not attend kindergarten, but the benches remained, and were quite large in size. Naturally, they sat down tired of one of them. Cyril's hands invariably reached for the full knees, but before the fight it did not reach. Kindergarten was viewed from all sides, and Cyril kept himself in hand. Katerina stopped her modest kisses with her hand. We sat down. We talked.

And they went to the house in which both temporarily lived.

With a bruise under Cyril's eye and bruises on her knees, not covered with a short dress, they went to see Katerina in places where she lived in this Warm City to visit her friends and girlfriends. But his favorite childhood friend left the institute far away, to a small town with a big factory.

Mom of a friend, looking at the bruise under Cyril's eye, asked:

- Cyril, will you marry?

Cyril asked in surprise:

- Why do you think so?

- And who, besides the future wife, can put such a bruise under the eye?


The next event was a trip to the cinema in the next quarter. On a warm evening from the cinema, they returned on foot. Kirill tried to raise Katerina in her arms and carry how much strength she had. And I had enough strength to hold a girl in my arms and not let her out of my hands. If he put her on her feet, he would declare her love in three languages. So they returned home from the cinema.

Cyril was a great inventor of entertainment, and came up with a trip. We went to the reservoir for three: Cyril, Kira and Katerina. They took backpacks, one tent, some food. They boarded a suburban bus and arrived on the coast of a huge reservoir. On the reservoir, the corpses of huge catfish floated, which, like logs, swayed on small waves.

Young people stopped on the high bank of the reservoir. The wind nailed the mud and mud exactly to this shore, so there was practically no place to swim. Kirill set up a tent next to an empty hut, which was already standing on the shore. For the hut grew bushes of tomatoes. Ripe tomatoes adorn dried out bushes. Ten meters from the tent there was a field with sunflower. Huge hats with seeds slightly drooped, they were almost ripe seeds. There was distant music from a nearby camp.

For the fire, Cyril cut down a dried tree. When he cut boughs, he looked at Catherine. A man thrust an ax into his own leg. I had to treat my leg. The following amusements due to Kirill's sore leg occurred in the same glade. Kirill made Katerina put a sheet on herself, wrap her body tightly and lie down on the ground. He himself climbed a single tree and shot him from all angles, including with an ax in his hands.

In the tent slept three. Kira fell asleep, turning to the wall of the tent. Cyril could not fall asleep, Katerina strongly interfered with him, his hands scouring her body in search of cherished places and found what they were looking for, or invaded the restricted area of the body. One day he broke down and exclaimed:

- Katerina, you can make an excellent woman!

And Katerina thought that the connection between them was becoming copper, the current between us went well! Yes, and Cyrus on Catherine did not squint, and behaved quite friendly. They returned home through a sunflower field, again boarded a bus and arrived at a common apartment.

On the kitchen table was a four-liter milk can. Lying huge donuts with poppy seeds - the best food after the trip. The mother of the family was the only way to feed her "guard". She also perfectly fried fish in a large number of onions, with a golden, crispy crust. The fish was river and very tasty.

Even Katerina was surprised by the little blue ones, who were just a specialty dish of Kirill's mother; she had never tasted eggplants before this trip. Ten days passed like a wonderful dream, and it was time to say goodbye.


The next time, Katerina and Kirill saw each other on their winter holidays in Katerina's hometown. Cyril wore a camera in a hat with earflaps, and his head with a luxurious hairstyle of dark hair with gray hair at the temples was left to frost.

In the city of relatives lived aunt Xenia, the father's sister, they stopped at her place. They received a separate sleeping place, and Aunt Ksenia went to sleep in the pantry, where she had a bed. Aunt Xenia was pleased to see the young couple coming, and Katerina very much reminded her of the days of her youth.

And they, young and unmarried, brought skis with them. With a frost of twenty to thirty degrees, they were leaving by train to ride to the lake, located in the vicinity of their native city. So were the winter holidays.

It seemed to them that one city was not enough, and they went to the childhood friend of Cyril, to the north of the Copper Mountains, to the city where the lynx roam near the city and there are some unusual huge plants of strange and expensive metals. They spent several days there skiing and skating.

Cyril's friend was married and already had two children. Here Katerina was called the bride. Everything would be fine, but the man's attempts to make a woman out of her have become stronger every day. Cyril was ready to love Katerina, as befits a man. She was not given. She fought off him without a sound, and his friends slept in the next room. She defended herself with all the fibers of her soul.

From friends they came to her home. Home Catherine completely lost. Kirill liked her parents so much that they all forgave her. By the way, just forgive the trip. Cyril photographed Katerina, she - him, then he went to his institute in the capital. Before leaving, Cyril offered Catherine to get married.

Katerina's father drank a glass of vodka about it. Oh, how he did not want to give Catherine to marry Cyril!

The reason is simple:

- Daughter, he will take you away from us!

Father was completely right.

Cyril sent his photo in which Katerina photographed him. The photo froze his look with which he was looking at her. This look began to penetrate her cold heart. Then there were letters, letters and letters.

They met on May Day holidays in the Steppe city. She met him in a jersey coat, and in her hands Katerina had a wicker bag of twigs such as straw and ribbons that looked like braided wires, with leather handles and a leather cover. Beautiful bag, she gave her aunt Anya from the northern capital. From this bag, Katerina took out two scholarships, lifting the cover of the bag in the bus.

Kira began to come to the house, Catherine's mother got used to her. Kira and her mother became friends and were similar to each other, more than Katerina and her mother.

Strange stories began to happen to Cyril: women ceased to interest him, Katerina attracted - a girl with full knees. In the train, I shuddered when I saw similar legs, I didn't want to love with other women, and she didn't work. Cyril beckoned full knees. The guy's head began to think how to get hold of those legs ...


Katerina passed the period of kisses. A man is tired of being close to a girl who does not use his male nature for his intended purpose. Love began to pass into a state of crisis: will they remain together or will they disperse? Cyril agreed to wait for true love for a year, up to a year left three months. She felt that it was time to change something in a relationship. The situation was such that they were left alone in one room for the night, two doors guarded the peace.

The man was lying on the bed and rotated around his axis. The girl was lying on the cot. Between them there was half a meter of air, and this air became conductive emotional charges! She could not stand it, got up from the folding bed and moved to her own soft bed. Everything was familiar, but a muscular man was lying next to him, and the first thing she did was lay on Cyril's shoulder.

The feeling of a man's shoulder brought an extraordinary bliss. The man wrapped his arms around the girl. Farther?! What's next?! All the cells of her body came to life and set in motion, all the emotions, which were ten months long, met each other. All touches brought genuine joy, unusually pleasant and unexpected.

One thought disturbed her: did he not know where that is in the female body?

Kirill at that time did not tell Katherine anything about his adventures. He had her first man, and Catherine was nineteen years old! It is difficult to part with her girlhood. She was still trying to resist.

However, the persistence of Cyril was not to hold. But he did not appreciate, he simply could not believe that he was her first man! And the whole feat disappeared from one unsuccessful phrase. She was numb from surprise and ridiculous humiliation!

She was hurt to tears, but there were no tears. They both went to the love, serious attack! Further nights were entrancing. Relationships were sealed with paper, they went to the registry office, and soon the filled out statement lay on the books in the bookcase and waited for their turn. He went to study. Katerina was left alone.


It's been a month and a half. Cyril appeared. Katerina and Kirill took their passports, beach bag and went to the beach. The clouds were gathering, the storm was approaching. They went to the registry office. Cyril talked to someone and soon called Catherine. The passports were already on the table, the book of the record of the acts was opened. The bride was offered to sign a paper. All - they are official sexual partners, that is, husband and wife. They signed.

At the wedding, Katerina put on a dress that was left from the prom at school. Straight dress was sewn from expensive imported white brocade, compressed by narrow stripes. The collar tight-fitting throat, and under it gaped neckline to the chest. Cyril put on a dark gray suit with a tint, white shirt and tie. There were as many people at the wedding as the large room of the new apartment of Katerina contained. The table was decorated with the best chefs of the city, that is, her mother and aunt.

Relatives and friends came to the wedding, Cyrus, Cyril's sister came. Feast organized mother Katerina. The beauty on the table was extraordinary and did not immediately succumb to deterioration with forks. Knives are not used here. A filler sterlet decorated the table for a long time. A wedding has the ability to end quickly. There was a lull. The guests fell silent. Young were in the room behind the two doors of society.

In the evening, the husband told all about his adventures to his wife ...

In the village, located in the east of the steppe country, there lived a superbly folded guy named Cyril, Scorpio by birthday. The figure of a tanned local Indian attracted the attention of an adult woman, and she made a man out of him. In this village, his father built a house of one hundred square meters. Cyril sunbathed on pillars, working as an electrician.

The matured young man was needed by a large country, so a slim and athletic resident of the village was called into the army, where Cyril lived with a family of parents, sisters and brothers. And then his toe was badly sick, so much so that until the finger was taken, Cyril was not taken into the army, and a year passed.

The army of weak guys breaks, and the strong guys in the army like a fish in water. What did the great Cyril in the army? Oh! You have no idea how civil his military life turned out to be! Cyril in the army, went to the tenth grade again, then studied for ten years. Received a second excellent certificate. He was lucky again: Cyril became the head of a military warehouse, where he poured lead from batteries into dumbbells, which he used for his intended purpose.

The figure of Cyril to the end of the army was irresistible for women. Yes that civilian life, directly in his military unit was found the wife of the commander named Ira, who lived with him in love and harmony for a couple of years. They met in the warehouse where Cyril served, and made love there. The army has a limit: Cyril was demobilized after three years of service.

With dumbbells, Cyril arrived in the Warm City, which during his absence moved his large family. Where to go to a civilian soldier without shoulder straps? In the mine. In a black iron-filled dungeon.

And how long was our magnificent representative of young men? Six months, a year, not more. The scientific wave triumphed, and Kirill began studying physics with the same ferocity with which he mined iron ore. He studied theory, resolved entire collections of problems in physics. He began to write letters to the professor in the Capital, and argue with him about solving problems.

In the summer he went to college, where physics was the main subject. Sometimes people asked him where he came from among physicists like him. And now you know it. And the women? Where are women from physicists? They are not there. And that's not the case. There are hairdressers, and some teachers of foreign languages came across to someone; one of his future chiefs was lucky: he married a French teacher there.

Kirill once picked up a bezrybe and a priestess of love, she went through the practice of love. Where to put young forces, except for studying? Everything is very simple: a bicycle is a load, and with good results at competitions, coupons in a cafe were given.

Without women, it's still boring, so the whole winter Cyril corresponded with women from cities who were on the way from the Capital to the seashore. Women answered him enthusiastically. In the summer, after passing the third-year exams, Kirill prepared his sports bike, bought condensed milk and canned meat, took a flask of water, a film from the rain and drove from the Capital towards the sea.

He overcame a mountain pass with a bicycle on his shoulders, walking along the ice in sandals. I didn't come to any postman on the way, but in the city of Magnolia Kirill visited the postman Nadia, she met him as a groom. Cyril was given a free room and bought sandals, which he had cut on the ice on the pass. Nadia liked him so much that he barely escaped from her, however, in the rank of the groom.

Kirill did not risk any more, and didn't stop by to postmen anymore. Came home to the Warm City with iron ore in the depths. It was then that Katerina and Kirill met.

The meeting of Cyril and Katerina on the shore of the pond was more than accidental. Between them began to establish a love, emotional bridge of relationships. Cyril always stood out from the crowd, like zinnia among flowers, it seems that the color is the same, and there is more nobleness.

And suddenly Kirill comes up to Katerina and offers to marry him. All anything, but the difference in everything. He is older than her by 9 years. Although there are no other options, although she had two friends from school and institute.

And Katerina agrees to marry. Now, I wonder if all her acquaintances and strangers will discuss her, but they don't help her to live, so what is the right to discuss her actions? For life you need a new love.

Life with her husband began normally. They walked by the pond. Studs of green graceful sandals fell through the sand when Katerina walked along the beach. She was a pretty pretty creature with a decent mop of blond hair, sparkling in the rays of the setting sun falling on her shoulders.

She was dressed not obviously for the beach, but for work on a hard surface, somewhere in the office under the light of neon lamps. A forced smile played on her face, ready to distort with a grimace at any moment. She walked as if she expected to catch up with her. No, it was impossible to call her a quick step, he was rather wary.

The beach was urban, urban, well maintained. On the one hand, the sand strip touched and disappeared in the pond, on the other hand, modern buildings approached the beach, which were built in the first line of the pond, and were intended for the offices of successful companies.

A divine man walked a few steps away from the woman, graceful and flexible in his every movement. He was dressed simply and at the same time somewhat solemnly: black trousers and a cream shirt that subtly harmonized with the woman's hair.

But his words did not suit his appearance at all:

- Katerina, when will you learn to walk on heels ?! Once again, your heels will sink in the sand, then I will leave you forever! - Cyril shouted to a young woman.

The woman shuddered with all her frail body, tears spilled from her eyes and rolled down her even young cheeks.

- That damn woman, he does not know how to walk on heels at all! Can you understand that when walking in heels, they step on their toes, but they cannot step on their heels! Heels should not touch the sand!

The young husband quickened his pace, catching up with his wife.

Katerina walked on, swallowing tears, but moved on, and her thin hairpins slowly rose from the sand and stuck in the air. She walked on her toes, afraid to touch the sand with her heels. The tears in her eyes dried up, but bitterness remained in her soul.

They went on an asphalt road.

- How much can you learn to walk in heels! Show the heel! You ruined the green stud with the sand! Just you do not take care of shoes!

'Kirill, stop yelling at me,' said Katerina. - In the sand, heels always fall through. Why did you take me to the beach? If we went to the beach, I would put on sandals without heels.

They walked past tall houses in silence. She learned to be silent next to him. She had a thought that he absolutely did not like her after the wedding. Why he needed her, she did not understand, but she was not young, and the young man was flattering her attention. Was he needed for physical love? Yes.

But for her the main thing is not this. No beach was more beautiful than his men. Legs are slender and long, thin waist, smoothly turning into a powerful torso and broad shoulders. Thin wrists, beautiful palms, fingers, well-groomed nails. Handsome, not a man.

Fear arose in the wife in the presence of her husband, and such a feeling was rare for her. She always hid kitchen knives in the table. She was afraid to say a word to her husband. She fulfilled all his whims and endured his never-ending love.

Katerina was a good girl, she did not change the guys, she was diligently doing her own business and did not suffer from love and related problems. She married when she was not even twenty years old. Rather, it was he who married her. He stuck to her like a bath sheet. He began to mock her or teach her immediately after the wedding. She didn't learn how to pronounce the word, husband ', and he constantly made comments to her.

- What is your hairstyle today? What is this horse tail behind you hanging out ?! - shouted her husband, barely lifting his head from the pillow. - Do not you understand that the tail of the hair - this is not a hairstyle for a woman? I want you to be a real woman, not a girl with tails! Lord, what did I marry ?! - a man spoke with pain in his voice, going to the bathroom to do his hair, and did it with feeling, sensibly, so that his hair stood at attention.

My wife twisted the ends of her hair, and then sat for an hour by the mirror and made bird nests out of the hair on her head. She tried to be beautiful and made ceremonial hairstyles on her head if there was an opportunity for it.

- Pretty haircut! - the husband cried and threw his wife on the bed.

Hairstyle from bird nests turned into a nest.

My wife is tired of making hairstyles from big hair. Yes, even her husband gave her a magazine about hairstyles and all praised one hairstyle. It was a hairstyle of short hair, well-laid on the head, clearly not without the help of large curlers. My wife went to the hairdresser, cut her hair, did chemistry and wrung it on large curlers.

With a new hairdo wife came home. The husband, seeing that his wife opened the door for him with a new hairstyle, rushed down the stairs. She ran down the steps after him. They stopped at the landing near the garbage disposal.

'What did you do with your hair?' Who have you done this hairstyle for? Everything! I'm leaving you!

- I wanted to please you!

- True?! Let's go home.

At home, her husband, after dinner, lay down with his wife on the bed, stroked her hair, and they easily fell into place. My husband liked to play with his wife's hair, then with her body, then with her legs. And the man forgot that he was offended by the woman's hair.

Love is pleasant and nasty in the performance of the same person. During their life together, a cascade of fear and humiliation changed. The love of a husband was perceived by the wife as hellish punishment. In such cases, her greatest desire was to end love. And the greatest desire is to be alone.

The next morning, my husband changed the subject. My wife went to the balcony. From the third floor the trees seemed quite close. A husband appeared on the balcony.

- Katerina, what are you doing ?! Look at your bathrobe!

The young woman knew very well that she was wearing a brand-new robe with frills of the same fabric, located along an elongated neckline.

- Where are you looking? Look at the length of the robe! Knee is not visible! Shorten the robe immediately! Make two palms above the knees!

She went into the apartment. Her teeth almost creaked. She cut off the hem of the dressing gown by fifteen centimeters and filed it as the man demanded.

The man saw on the woman a dressing gown of new length: all the legs of the woman were visible. The man grabbed the woman and carried her to bed. Bathrobe, he threw off her first.

My wife had a new cherry-colored dress with a collar under her throat. The young couple were going to go to the cinema for the premiere of the film. The husband looked contemptuously at the collar of the woman's dress.

- What it is! What a collar on your dress! Cut out!

- Is it possible after going to the cinema?

- Okay! And this is my woman ?! What got married!

After the film, the wife made a low-cut dress. Put on the dress. The man looked at the woman in a dress with a neck, exposing her young breasts, and carried her to bed. The dress was on the floor.

Remember the words from the song: "It is difficult for a woman from the high society to avoid loneliness"? There are rare married couples whose life is harmonious and does not contain sadism. But in such pairs there is someone's wise cunning, which keeps everything within the bounds of decency.

In the period of the revolution and after it there was a joke: whites will come - rob, red ones will come - rob. In a woman, when she is in her prime, something like this happens: one will come - she loves, the second will come - she loves. Do not fight off from everyone physically? And the men climb. In such cases, Liza had a fear of being filled up: who was more afraid of?

About the social stage. What it is? The social level is not determined by the structure of the state. This does not mean that if a husband is a king, then a woman stands on the highest social level. And if the husband is a sadist in love, arrogant in relationships, subservient to another woman? Very subtle moment. Then princesses and other ladies can exist in a hounded state.

Where is the high society? Not exactly where the big money. Where a lot of money - there is a big passion, and crime is inevitable. Jealousy is a terrible thing in such places. Where is the step on the social ladder for a woman on whom she faces nothing? To be the hundredth in line for love in a harem? Old age? No, and it does not save either from love, or from social problems, or from violence.

Where is women's paradise? In heaven? This is not worth talking about. Katerina was interested in a safe life on Earth. Oh how hard it is to be a woman! Tell a secret when good? Men are offended. Well after a divorce, like after a thunderstorm, but there is a feeling of lurking resentment.

The state of shock from the story of her husband about his women before her, did not pass immediately. The shock was caused by the fact that Cyril before Katerina had several women. The next day, Cyril began to find fault with Catherine: everything in her is not the way he needs. A man has achieved joy in life and everything. Then began the routine of human and bed relations.

Having understood, that she at the husband is far not the first. What could she do? Say what was wrong in choosing a husband? She couldn't say that because of her pride, and they moved into family life. They had no stake or yard. She had a room in the apartment of her parents, Kirill had a bed in a dormitory of the institute. Two students.

Katerina instantly felt the difference between life at home and life with Cyril and was ready to bite her elbows that married him. From home princess she turned into Cinderella. Tears flowed from the eyes for no reason. She did not feel wealth. As time went on, she began to get used to the new life, youth wins tears, she put the apartment in order to her taste, it became a bit more fun.

But sex is not a hindrance, and while Kirill was in Katerina's room, this was the main occupation. Sex occupied all free and unfree time. Summer vacations are long and warm. They set personal records for matrimonial communication. The results were not long in coming. In the setting of the body there was a pause, they did not use any fuses. At such a pause, a young couple went to the Warm City, to his parents, where they once again celebrated the wedding with his relatives.

Cyril went to the Capital, Katerina to the Steppe city. There were letters for communication, ordinary paper letters. The first difference in married life: love is not a violation of discipline, not bad behavior, but an event permitted by society and necessary for the preservation of the family.

And what does it look like in nature? Sex to exhaustion around the clock. That's who enough for that. The notorious soft and mobile armor-clad mesh is quite capable of withstanding a pair of eccentric lovers. Warm summer nights and partially hot days tenderly embraced the nude, moving in a constant rhythm of nature.


Chapter 15

It can be said that sexual exercise is a great sport. You need good breathing, healthy lungs, strong athletic bodies with good pressure. You can not whimper with fatigue, you can not say that everything is tired, you can not stop, you can not say: I do not want. You have no right, Mrs. wife! You want, you can, it is necessary!

What is a bed? This building, talking about their riders, and therefore less creaky floor, more sporting arena for two steep, engaged in regular sex spouses, of course, with "mats". And you can also use ... the table. After a while, a solid sofa bed appeared, it is lower and more resistant to spousal activities. And what exactly happens?

Hands burrow into gorgeous hair, hug the neck. Fascinating and intriguing kisses cover all parts of the body, sometimes leaving behind dark significant spots. Hands fall lower and lower through the body, travel along slender and hairy legs, hug the torso to exhaustion, merge into all the fibers and cells of the body.

The movements are ingratiating, light and infinitely strong replace each other. And now you reach the forbidden and divine places, put your hands in the rings of steep hair, feel incomparable pleasure from touching the human, masculine essence ...

In your hands, He instantly becomes even stronger and more powerful. After a short pleasure, together you change the position of the bodies for a more comfortable ... merging. That's really really spouses become one!

Then everything is decided by mutual understanding without words. What words! Some all-consuming movement, moving from one to another. It's right that the spouses are both athletes ... Sensuality helps one to swim in a sea of mutual love until exhaustion, but it passes quickly, and the forces are restored again for the necessary actions.

The child, born after a wedding in a month, began to grow, and he didn't care where his parents were for the time being.

The climate in the Steppe city was sharply continental: plus or minus thirty-five degrees. Katerina and cars - two incompatible units.

She waited for the usual bus to go to the institute, chilled - the air temperature minus thirty degrees of frost with the wind - and fell ill. Yes, so ill that the temperature of the body forty - forty-one degrees kept a week. Who needs a pregnant student who is taking a session?

Katerina passed the exam, knocking down the temperature to thirty-eight degrees. She began to give ends, the pain in the back was very strong, two ambulances arrived: one for pregnancy, the other for therapy. They took her to the hospital for preservation, but put her in the corridor due to the high temperature under the drip. The needle got off, and all the medicine naked on the bed.

Miracle: corridor and medicinal puddle!

She began to get out of the disease, and here and the March holidays! Kirill flew in, brought roses, gave him to the hospital, took his wife for the holidays, but never returned. There were first fights. Katerina was taken to the old hospital. A day later, doctors realized that it was better not to get involved with her and transferred to a new hospital.

For four days, Katerina drank a lot of packages of quinine that lay on the bedside table, and you had to drink it according to the time prescribed on each package. She drank half a cup of castor tea and washed down with tomato juice, after which she did not look at tomato juice for five years.

In short, going over a couple of weeks, Katerina gave birth to a boy in a shirt for four days.

Cyril under the mattress in the location of the head of the child put the textbooks of physics. By the way, his son later in physics and at the institute handed over physics to excellent. At three months, the father took his son in his arms and said: "How does he look like me? Shoulders."

Their eyes were the same too. The name for the child came up with Ilya. The boy was tempered from the first days. While his father was studying with the son of a physicist - a Nobel laureate, the son of an ordinary physicist grew up with his father, now without him.

Physics, physics, and everything about life. At the Kirill Institute, physics was well placed. Professors, academicians, their research institutes, and educational universities were involved in teaching students.

What did the young father do - a student? At that time, the main thing was to study the processes occurring in organic matter after the penetration of a laser beam.

In particular, Kirill collected a laser at the Academy of Technical Sciences, and pierced organic matter with laser beams, produced disks inside a prism, this was his graduation project. In addition to physics and languages, the military department of the institute, and its leaders, one of those who flew with the first conqueror of the pole, was preserved in the stories of Cyril.

The benefits of civilization collapsed at the same time. The young family was given a hostel - a room of thirteen meters. The son was taken to the nursery. Katerina went to work.

In the room where Katerina and Kirill lived, a metal crib with a net appeared, then a green sofa book, a polished table, a refrigerator, which the two of them brought from the department store to the house. They survived for two or three months of extraordinary meager financial life. Rejoiced that they were together.

My son ate at a small table with a spoon from a plate. Vermicelli scattered at the speed of a spoon, but the baby ate itself.

Katerina and her son went out for a walk on the street, and the women told them:

- Yes, this is not a metropolitan upbringing: the child is not even one and a half years old, but he eats himself, dresses himself.

The hostel met with the neighbors, who had a little daughter, she stood in a crib and looked at the world from the height of her position.

A little boy ran around the apartment and, of course, noticed a pretty girl who had not walked on her own.

In the third room of the hostel there lived a lady over thirty-five with a twelve-year-old girl. The lady recently divorced a long-distance sailor. According to her, it is good to be married to a sailor: swimming for half a year, half a year can be taken out at home, but when he left the fleet, when their coexistence exceeded half a year, she left the former sailor.

The lady was the daughter of the deputy minister. Products supplied to her from her father's table, which was important in the early seventies of the twentieth century. The lady left her county town moved for the first time to the hostel of a small town.

Before this company, a family of former nobles lived in the hostel, who asked for a cleaner at the company, and she cleaned the common areas. The nobles were given an apartment, and they moved, and, due to the inertia of the management, the cleaning lady still cleaned the following tenants.

The kitchen was no more than eight meters. Cooked on one stove, each family got one burner. In the evening there were gatherings in the kitchen, they were going to talk here on general topics. For women's conversations retired in the room of the ladies, there were no men.


The New Year was celebrated in the room of young neighbors, they had the largest room, since they had previously moved into this apartment - a hostel. Their prim friends from the university came to visit them. Calm New Year.

After the meeting of the New Year, Katerina left for the institute for a winter session in the Steppe city, where it was very cold, but her parents still lived there. Twenty-three men and two women from different cities and republics studied in the group.

Son Ilya stayed at home with his father Cyril.

Katerina's life was also saturated with the results of Kirill's love, she still 'flew', but she couldn't leave the child, and during her studies and work she had to stop the development of another children a couple of times. They enjoyed the protection of the rubber industry, but it did not help much. Health has deteriorated, and yet, having drawn fifteen sheets of the graduation project, Katerina graduated from the institute.

Here is life! Husband, son, work! Youth was strong. The apartment of the two small rooms they already had. Just lived. Two engineers had a son. Katerina learned to knit. She knitted and tied up all things with her hands, like an automaton, to at least somehow dress the family. So, when there was a little son, she tied him one of the first jackets, to which the kindergarten teacher said:

- Two engineers can not wear one child.

Katerina studied hard: she passed everything, and did not fall behind the group, it was the fifth year of correspondence courses, she came to them after three full-time courses, and she also passed all of them during the fourth year of correspondence courses, in the summer.

After the summer session, flying on an airplane, three thousand kilometers in the air, Katerina landed at her new place of residence.

She was lucky. And in the summer, after the surrender of the summer session, she returned to a brand new two-room apartment. In the large room along the entire length of the board lay.


Fifteen sheets of Katerina's graduation project barely fit on the stand. The huge work of the student, who defended one of the first, caused a healthy interest among fellow students. The stand for spectators was filled with fans.

Katerina put on a white blouse with bluish peas, a dark blue skirt and a vest. Hair curled curls and so, in curls, left her hair in a big tail. Nobody gave her 'excellent'; for some reason, all members of the commission gave 'good'.

Fellow students were worried about Katerina, but none of the fans wanted her to be the best. Her general efforts were to besiege, as a hollow part under pressure ...

Neighbors got an apartment in the next doorway. The lady and her daughter received an apartment in another district. Kirill made built-in furniture from the boards: in the kitchen, in the hallway, in a small room. Then Kirill and his neighbor went to distant lands, to the furniture dump and brought rolls of narrow strips of film. The stores did not sell the film. Boards of new furniture were covered with strips of film, and the view was not very nasty.

The rest of the young couples was uncomplicated: they took clamshells and placed them against the wall of an electrical substation from the side of the forest. The place was warmed by the sun, and with the general not very high temperature of the air it was possible to sunbathe, and the children ran around. If the air temperature was warm, the whole company went to the pond, where they calmly swam and sunbathed.

Another type of holiday was common in this area: a hike in the woods behind raspberries. The forest was full of summer fumes, the midges pestered, the children were tired, and the adults followed the raspberries.

Joint rest the first years and to the New Year's meeting spread. Wonderful was the second New Year in the apartment of the neighbors. Pleasant friends came to them, and the dances were until morning. Cyril almost fell in love with a neighbor. When she left the apartment after the holiday, he clutched her hand so much when no one saw that her hand was burning for a week.

Katerina remembered again. Cyril and prepared to meet her and her sister from the hospital. Washed the whole apartment from all sides. Katerina's parents not only bought caviar, but also a couch for Spartak and left.

But poverty cannot be covered with all this. Therefore, the old wadded mattress and, Cyril and stitched and all the cotton wool was dispersed, and again they made an even mattress for the little girl Katerina. A husband and a son came to meet the mother and daughter with a bouquet. Katerina went to them with her daughter in her arms, but there was no car!

- There is no need for the child to breathe in other microbes! - said Cyril.

Kirill took the daughter Masha in her arms. Katerina walked with her son on foot to the house, through forests and roads.

But God himself came out to meet the poor engineers: the weather at the beginning of September was twenty-five degrees Celsius, the day was sunny. On the outstretched hands, the child Kirill carried to the house. And when his son was sick, Cyril sat next to him, and, like a magician-wizard, tried to take over his illness.

Of course, Katerina watched her appearance, she completely allowed some splendor of her form, natural from good food. Thin ladies would never be able to do what she managed to do.

"In a healthy body is a healthy spirit" is its motto of existence. She firmly knew from the experience of the previous generation, in which they preached skinny girls, that in the love plan their youth was fleeting, and their old age was premature. Do not believe? Experience has shown that the thin ladies from the diet is bad and end. Sponges pump up here and there, while health is pumped out.

Katerina loved to cook, she loved to feed, she loved to love and be loved. She was active in kind. Yes, it could be rude, and who did not swear? But if the pressure in the pan has risen, the steam must be dropped.

So it was not at all beneficial for Cyril, Catherine's spouse, to dress his wife beautifully, he wanted to dress her in a rabbit, and then men would not have approached her like flying garbage to a black coat.

From year to year, Cyril, Katerina's husband, every summer went farther from home on weekends. He walked through the forests and drew maps of the area, collecting mushrooms and berries.

Once he brought a hedgehog from the forest. Hedgehog sat in a basket with honey mushrooms like a king. There was little experience, and the hedgehog moved freely inside the basket. Top basket was tightened with gauze.

The hedgehog had strange spines, there were many of them, and they were dense-dense, and the length of each spike changed color somewhat. The hedgehog was dark gray. He differed little in his behavior from the turtles who constantly lived in the house. The hedgehog is small with dense spines, and the turtle is small, but with shell. Hedgehog ran on the floor, climbed under the sofas, then ran out to the kitchen to eat. By this he resembled turtles. They had one difference: during the day the hedgehog behaved quietly and slept in a corner, and at night he woke up.

At night, the hedgehog had a main day, when everyone was asleep, he did not sleep, but snorted and ran around the apartment. Hedgehog woke everyone. And Katerina was constantly in danger of stepping on the prickles of a hedgehog in the dark. The hedgehog was not hid in cages and boxes; he was a free home rogue.

Katerina did not take a hedgehog in her hands, but looked at him and at how he quickly ran on his small paws under a huge mass of needles. She wanted, like in the book in the picture, to sketch on the hedgehog needles yellow maple leaves. But she was afraid to carry the hedgehog out, so she simply brought maple leaves home and threw them on the hedgehog. But the yellow leaves of the hedgehog slipped. The leaves just did not hold on the hedgehog.

Little Katerina in her childhood favorite book was a big picture book. On the first pages of the book was drawn funny hedgehog. The hedgehog was not alone; there were other animals with him, but the hedgehog in the leaves on the thorns was the most charming. Her brother read a book about a hedgehog. She herself turned to the holes in the pictures in the book. Hedgehog was her book idol.

Therefore, when Cyril went to the forest to pick up mushrooms where hedgehogs and snakes were found, he remembered Katerina's love for the hedgehog in the picture. He walked about ten kilometers through the forest and the swamp with cranberries.

'Where there are snakes, there you can meet hedgehogs,' he said. - Mushrooms, especially mushrooms, are not close to the road. Near the roads, mushrooms are collected by those who live in this forest area.

Cyril found little mushrooms on a tree that lay in a clearing. Near the tree ran a hedgehog in the grass. He forgot about the mushrooms and began to run after a hedgehog. So the hedgehog won again and arrived in the basket of children, because they loved the hedgehog in the pictures in the book.

Hedgehog lived at home a couple of weeks. Cyril saw that the children understood who the hedgehog was and that it was time to return him to his habitat. On his next day off, he planted a hedgehog in an empty basket, closed it with gauze, took the train with mushroom pickers, and drove off to a distant forest. He returned the hedgehog to the place where he had taken, the mushrooms were no longer in the tree. Hedgehog did not want to run away immediately, he was accustomed to a warm life. Cyril, too, was sorry to let go of the cute hedgehog, but he understood that it was difficult to live in a hedgehog apartment, and it was difficult for the family to get used to the hedgehog nightlife. He and the hedgehog looked at each other and parted. Hedgehog ran into the yellow grass.

The daughter met her father with the words:

- Dad, where's the hedgehog?

He replied:

- It was a royal hedgehog. He was the king of hedgehogs and snakes in a clearing near the swamp.

The girl calmed down and returned to the book with a hedgehog, but the book did not please her anymore. Hedgehog in the book was not a king. She began to look at the pictures in another book.

One day, Cyril was driving to a neighbor, but got into the elevator with his wife. He kissed her lips with his lips - his teeth, that blood spurted from her lips. Katerina and her neighbor just went to the movies. In short, everything went far, it's time to stop everyone. Katerina at night in the dark crossed the door to her house with a sapphire amulet so that the neighbors would forget the road to them. They actually went their separate ways and went to different places of the city.


In mid-December, the ground spun on the asphalt along a very long glass building of the company. The building stood with its butt one hundred meters from the monolithic monument on the highway, on which government cavalcade often drove in Olympic times, because of this the cars accumulated under the windows of the building. People stuck their curious noses through the windows to see how black and big cars would pass. Three firms lived in this long, long building.

Katerina walked on the ground in a demi-dark navy blue coat. Her head was decorated with a gray knitted hat with eyelets in the fashion of those times. The wind circled around the young woman and slightly pushed her forward, to the middle firm's entrance. She went into the checkpoint, looked at the signs. The desired firm was located on the right.

In the personnel department in the stack of papers found all her documents. She was checked in all respects, now she could go to work. KB was in a dead end of the second floor. She entered a huge room in which three laboratories lived without visible partitions. Upon entering the room, a woman sat and pounded on a huge typewriter. The rest of the space was occupied by kulmans, tables, chairs and people on the chairs.

Katerina wore a dress of gray-bluish color. She got the third drawing board from the door. The head of the laboratory, Stepan Stepanovich, approached, gave Katherine the first job - to draw a pedal for an automatic machine in four versions. And so began the design life of Katerina with variants of designs.

It is pleasant to stand at the coleworm, but it is more comfortable to draw while sitting. Looking around her, she gradually began to distinguish between people sitting nearby. Leadership to her happiness changed the drawers and furniture a month after her release to work.

Because of the new furniture, everyone moved in space, and pretty Victor often stopped next to her. His curly hair was cut short, such general fashion for other men would come only thirty years later. He came to work in a very beautiful jumper, took it off and put it neatly on the nightstand, put on a white robe, and after that it was possible to talk with him about work.

Victor concurrently served as the first "information bureau". If someone didn't understand anything, then they asked him, and if he didn't know, then others knew. Gradually, Katerina realized which of the employees and what questions she could answer.

Katerina liked boss Stepan Stepanovich, but he loved a completely different woman, at that time he was fascinated by the economist of the department Anna Andreevna. A small jealousy flashed in Katerina's soul, but she quickly forgot about her. Anna Andreevna did not interfere with communication at work, this was enough for Katerina. She had her own problems above the roof of life with a young and strong man, then he worked in the same company, but the floor above.

The men understood this quickly and often laughed at the cost of talking to Catherine, as a young man flew in from the third floor. He did one big nonsense - except for his direct responsibilities for work, someone pulled him into public work, and this could not be done categorically. He began punctually to carry out his public instructions, that is, to check the firm for harmful working conditions.

There were a lot of equipment, and many installations radiated rays and high-frequency currents that were completely unnecessary to man, so he measured all the parameters and coordinated them with the SES. The management of the research company Catherine's men did not like it, the litigation began. He had a hard time at work, even though he was right and the court confirmed that he was right. It was in this company that he filed his numerous applications for inventions for work, but public work caused irreparable damage to his main job.

Not far from the Katerina Culina was Rodion's table. He was the second "help desk" on incomprehensible questions, but she did not abuse his knowledge. In addition to the design board, the designer had other tools for work: compasses, a pencil, drawing paper, a slide rule, a protractor, a square.

An economist Anna Andreevna, an amazing woman with white hair, sat at the entrance to the room, she dictated the behavior in the room of designers, she solved all economic issues. She had a fan - Stepan Stepanovich. Their well-known love pleasantly brightened up working days. At home they had their own families, but at work, they were family.

Probably, Katerina copied her further behavior from the economist Anna Andreevny, except for one thing - Katerina did not know how to sell in order to live better than not the designer's salary. At one time, Anna Andreevna and her husband earned money for a cooperative apartment in a very strange way.

She worked as a seamstress at home because she was a dressmaker from God, and at work she was an economist. One day, her husband, working as a machinist, brought a whole bag of shreds to her, the waste of one garment production, which he had to throw away or, more precisely, take to a landfill. The husband did not throw away the waste, and brought his wife. At that time, the swimwear in the city was bad, and the summer was hot.

Anna Andreevna carved out swimsuits from shreds, sewed and sold. Swimwear its production bought very well. And so it happened: the husband brought home bags of garment production, his wife sewed swimsuits in the evenings, and on Sunday went to the market and sold.

At the very least, they saved up for a cooperative apartment, and then bought good furniture, purchased a set of natural oak in the kitchen, or it was made of oak veneer, which, in general, did not matter. Soon the crimplin went out of fashion, it was no longer produced, and the train driver began bringing fur trimments home.

Fate sent Katerina a romantic meeting in nature. The leaves were still yellow, there was no snow. The sun was shining. It was necessary for the design department to prepare a summer recreation center for the winter. They were well prepared for the work: the table was full of food and strong alcoholic drinks. This time Katerina came in a red jacket, with Victor sitting in a dark blue jacket sitting next to her at the table. Autumn cold warmed Russian vodka. The bonfire blazed with fire. It sounded like tango. "You hesitated dark blue ..."

Opposite the eyes of Katerina, Rodion's gray eyes again gleamed. She quickly fell into his arms, in his huge and strong hands under the pretext of an ordinary dance. The red and blue couple, leaving the dance floor by the fire, went towards the river. The river bank in the embrace of yellow foliage of trees, the red jacket is in gray surroundings ... Kisses lifted them to gray skies. The world was orange.

Victor returned Katerina to the ground, he approached her, they sat down by the fire. What is the main difference between Victor in dark blue clothes and Rodion, a developer in light gray clothes? Victor is an intellectual, he was well versed in constructions, in poetry, in painting.

He was needed by Katerina as a university of numerous knowledge. Kisses on the bank of the river were not quickly forgotten, and there was a need to write poetry. It had male power. It was a large, beautiful blue-eyed engineer. It was he who became for Katerina for many, many years, an object for physical attraction.

And what about Rodion? He invited Katerina on the golden days of Indian summer to go to the nearest village for a picnic. She was in red, and he was in light gray clothes. Platonic love continued with them. Sometimes he went to the KB to Catherine to show who is the boss here.

On New Year's Day, employees gathered at the apartment of the chief, Stepan Stepanovich, in the new tower. The apartment is big, the people have accumulated decently. Katerina did not refuse the invitation. She came in a long black skirt to the floor, in a white blouse and with a red openwork shawl on her shoulders, and in the apartment there were no familiar admirers for whom she dressed up.

All faces are new, although at work and familiar. All over again? Yes, in the process of celebration, one large man, Stepan Stepanovich, her boss, clearly stood out from the crowd. Dances, they are both New Year's dances, and tango connected their souls. From the apartment in the new tower Stepan Stepanovich and Katerina left together.

They lived in the neighboring quarters, the car in such cases is not needed. How they got on the bridge, which was located away from the houses is not at all clear! Stepan Stepanovich stood next to Katerina, looked at the trains passing by and kept trying to peck her on the cheek.

Champagne, a true drink of fleeting love, began to erode from the head, thoughts came back to normal, and she insisted on the way home. Is this the end of the story? I think no. There are married, civil marriages. Katerina had a marriage friendly. What does it mean? Who knows?!


In the summer, the company was allocated land for gardens and orchards. The land was divided by Stepan Stepanovich, and from his bounty Katerina turned out to be much more than others, but at the end of the season she returned the land to the company. Accidentally or on purpose, the chef after the New Year's holiday came under the voltage of a thousand volts. He was pumped out, rescued. Ambulance appeared on time.

The bright July sun warmed the backs of people walking with hoes along the beds of small beet shoots. Next to Katerina was Anna Andreevna, who was older than Katerina. On the other hand, Victor, a tall man with lush head of hair and big eyes, walked along his bed. These eyes then turned to their neighbor in the garden on the other side of themselves, then constantly looked in the direction of Katerina. The fate of them constantly drove. Probably, Anna Andreevna's favorite curse began to operate: "So that you, Katerina, fall in love!"

The yellow swimsuit worn by Katerina attracted Victor's attention very much, or the body in this swimsuit did not give him peace. Anna Andreevna, the beetroot next to Katerina, began to introduce her to the course of women's affairs of the design department; she was not a talkative person and just decided to warn the girl from her neighbor on the other side of the garden bed. July was warming with his warmth, and the man with his gaze. Anna Andreevna - cooled.

The beds are over. The crowd from all sides rushed to dress and go home. Victor offered to take Katerina by car to her house. In his car from all sides got the people he knew. Anna Andreevna looked with dismay at the young woman who got into the car of a handsome man.

The car drove along a country road, then drove onto the famous highway, the car carried all the employees around the city. The owner of the car did not even think to let the lady out of the car. For the last man the door closed. The car at a decent speed went in the direction of the river.


Chapter 16

Victor was in his element: speed, speed again. We passed the car inspection post rather slowly. We turned from one road to another and found ourselves on the bank of a river, which in recent years had become shallow so hard that it was hard to imagine where it was.

Life by that time Katerina taught to survive and not to enter the fight with big men, and Victor was tall. They got out of their clothes to swimsuits and entered the water. The cooling was not long. Soon he sat on the beach and talked about his cottage and cherries in the garden. Then they got into the car and drove the other way. The car suddenly turned sharply into the woods.

Being a relatively calm woman, Katerina did not expect such a sudden love attack from a tall and beautiful man whom she had met for a long time, and there was no particular love between them. Between them there was a cascade of love actions of heated bodies, and hands, and lips ...

The onslaught was swift. Desire arose instantly. Absolute relaxation. Apparently, Victor had seen enough of Katerina in the garden, he was ready for love and for a love game. And that's all. Describe in detail the actions of each meaning does not have, it will not be enough to play events. The feeling was huge and quickly passed. Everything left to go home, where he quickly drove her ...

So the girl had a lover. What's next? They are engaged with the senses. Women at work struggled to talk about the danger that Victor's Katerina was not in the top ten.


Civilization has penetrated into the country gradually, capturing the roads with cars, hands with phones of all systems. The snow fell and nothing was surprised. He saw a lot in his lifetime, moving from water to snow, from earth to sky. He saw good deeds and bad ones.

Snow fell on the roofs of expensive cars, and on the roofs of economy class cars, making them slightly similar. The snow was a hobby: the world is even in color. He loved white light and white color - he snowed, and that says it all.

Katerina loved snow and understood it. In the snow she could determine the temperature of the air. The snow is always different, it is wet and shining, and between these states you can see the snow half tones.

And she loves the March snow, which always strives for grains before melting and becoming water. Today the snow was light, pleasant. The wind blew south, weak. You could stop for five minutes and watch the winter landscapes.

Once, a neighbor next door knocked on Katerina's door and offered a hat of white nutria in the form of a pot with cuffs and a well-worked skin of white nutria on the collar. Katerina immediately decided that the nutria should be taken. The cap had a rigid frame and exactly fit her size. But where to get a coat on which you can sew the nutria skin in the form of a collar?

She had a light green overcoat with a long belt and a large collar. Katerina cut the nutria skin with a razor, sewed it in the center with a hand stitch and made a symmetrical collar, then sewed it on a light overcoat. The outfit turned out to be unusually bright and cheerful: white fur against the background of the fabric, but it's unusually difficult to walk in such a bright update for a long time.

After a bright dress, Katerina bought herself a black coat with a long belt and a hood, on which a modest dark brown mink fit on the edge. This outfit did not irritate the brightness, but the black drape required constant care, as it collected all the flying garbage.

Gradually, the coat was accustomed to being constantly turned inside out, when Katerina handed it over to the wardrobe or hung it at home, so it less collected the surrounding garbage.

It was in this black coat on the slim figure she had the maximum number of fans in the form of male colleagues of all stripes.

Or she was so old that she wanted to hang a sign on herself: "Do not fall in love!"

Katerina's mother from abroad brought the first hundred dollars in her life and gave it to her daughter. Katerina went to the shop "Birch" and bought light gray suede boots. She already had a fox hat of this color. A light gray suit stalked over light gray boots, if you remove the black coat. In a light gray dress, she appeared in a cafe, where she dined an extraordinarily handsome man, she determined where he was in his car.

Next to the man she did not sit down, but sat down so that he could not help but appreciate her gray outfit. And the man himself found her in a couple of days. It was the developer of digital equipment Victor.

Silvery crowns of trees. Dark winter morning. Linden alley. Alley of the city. Miracle, how good she is! Silver from the frost branches of limes. Bluish spruce covered with lush snow cover. Snow creaks under your feet. The sky is of a completely indefinite color - dark and everything, but how beautiful it is to walk along the alley, when the laces of silvery crowns of trees are visible above the horizon! The heart beats calmly.

Instead of painful thoughts about work, songs arise in your head.

And Katerina sings:

- Hanging on the fence, swaying the wind ...

And everything is fine. The world is bright and clear. Miracles. And she wants to spin in a waltz and happily sing. Why heart drops? It is only necessary to go on foot to work, and the world is painted in the wonderful colors of a winter morning. Lace silver crowns satisfy the need for beauty on the working day. And here it is, work!

But no, thoughts of trouble are gradually creeping out of the back streets of the brain. Nerve thoughts once again flourish in a magnificent bouquet. Katerina even decides to quit! But the visions of a winter morning save her! Unbeknownst to herself, she is drawn into work and already reads with pleasure the local technical translation from German. Thoughts her work. It's okay

Thanks to the great actor Raikin, thanks to his performance, the company has a Greek room in the dining room. What is the hall remarkable? Any queue quickly and quietly absorbed - it's like a miracle. No need to think about food, 60 kopecks to the cashier and the local chef pondered everything for everyone. Catherine had to take lunch and sit down at a beautiful table, worthy to decorate any cafe, and the chairs here were so heavy and sturdy that she agreed to have them at home.

And the public? Oh, what a public here! These are the healthiest people from enterprises. These are the most impatient people. These are the ones that need everything quickly now. What beautiful men and independent women are here! How many familiar and completely strangers here! And the eyes? They are shining, and they are looking for an object for attention! And here is the one that makes this Greek hall seem like the best restaurant in the world! The light of the eyes, in which the world is refracted.

Katerina does not see the people around, they do not interfere at all. She has lunch! And it does not matter that soup is poured on the tray, and meatballs with an interesting sauce! All the little things! Shining eyes will pay off everything. And if there are no eyes that shine for her? Have to search. There are so many waiting and inquiring! And lunch will be a miracle!

It was in the halls of the public catering that the dates for lunch occurred. Katerina had already left two firms, of which people dined in this huge room, in which there were many hands. Several stove-ovens cooked different foods for different canteens. Men remained in former firms, but here they could be seen if necessary.

Vysotsky spoke a couple of years ago, two kilometers from this dining room. Katerina did not go to the concerts of Vysotsky. He came to perform with his concerts, and was next to a long-long building. Who was not lazy - they heard him alive. Stepan Stepanovich listened to him personally.

At the firm, the discipline was iron, there was a lot of work, the road from the design bureau to the workshops at the plant was not close. Katerina sat in the second row of kulmans for some time, then she moved to the first row by the window. But here it was not without public works. Part of the design department was somehow sent from work to the collective farm beds for weeding beets. In the good old days, the collective farm beds were taken out to air and work for people of any organizations and ranks.

After some time, Katerina felt free to communicate with people. From the windows of the firm was well viewed the famous highway, but once this happiness ended. A new director appeared in the company, he bought computers, then they were huge, and evicted the design department from a long, long building. In their rooms, computers were installed that required good space and care, but they quickly became morally old.

But the designers by this time were evicted into the building on the outskirts, to which they had to walk along a muddy road. In compensation for the inconvenience, the director put the air conditioner in the windows of the designers, blowing straight into someone's ear and for this reason being a terrible stimulus to society.

Now, in order to go to the workshop or the canteen, one had to dress and go along a bad road, all this was not very pleasant and distracting from work.

The head of the design bureau made them put the tables in such a way that people looked at each other, and only turning to the drawing board received solitude in the team.

Anna Andreevna, a wise woman, in her hands held the spread of tourist trips at work. She noticed Victor's attention to Katerina, and their conversations did not hide from her gaze.

The woman decided that it was necessary to consolidate their official relations so that her beloved Stepan Stepanovich would not be carried away by Katerina either. Anna Andreevna offered Katerina and Viktor two trips to the Ancient City. They agreed...


Sticky rags of snow fell on the yellow-orange foliage. People left the stopped sightseeing bus, which was traveling along the federal highway. They looked at the autumn weather, nature and each other. Nature resembled the Moscow region in its purest form.

Next to Katerina, wearing a red jacket, on which hung the tails of a long dark blue scarf, a tall man in a dark blue jacket, Victor, quickly turned out to be. Katerina looked Victor in the eyes and looked at the socks of her shiny black boots.

The young man was saying something, as if sleet was pouring on the soul of a young woman who had escaped from her daily home life, and immediately found herself in the thrall of other people's desires. Their superficial acquaintance is not binding. The tastes and affections of Katerina and Victor almost coincided, their mutual sympathy was noticed by others. Three days they had to spend together. In a long bus with curtains on the windows, they sat side by side. The song sounded: "Dad, give me a doll ..." How out of simple sympathy is love born? It turns out that we need an excursion to new places among strangers. They go on a trip to relax, unwind and learn about the country and about themselves.

The bus stop in Valdai turned out to be purely historical. This is where Ancient Russia originates! It was here that Katerina had a huge and strange sense of history! Low stone buildings caused a storm of genuine emotions.

The air of the historical past infiltrated visitors and squeezed them in friendly embraces. Monasteries and churches conquered their naturalness along with the environment. The lake struck with its transparent surface and large pebbles. Katerina felt that she was not in the Moscow region, penetrated by modernity, His Majesty Valdai stretched before her!

The power of the historical past was admirable. An old small museum could demonstrate antiques and utensils. The dark distinctive feature of the museum and its pride has always been considered and are considered to be lake bells. In a restaurant located in a stone house, small but delicious burgers were served on the table.

Small bells could be seen both in the museum and on sale. They called loudly, and the voices during the conversation became louder, the warmth in communication appeared, along with warm meatballs. Next stop by the lake, big and clean.

On the boat the entire excursion group was forwarded to the monastery. Two go in the crowd, and it is nice, they are told the story of these places, and they are near, and this story becomes magical. Good! The sky is clear. Snow melts on the dry grass around the monastery wall.

The two feel calmer with each other. Just near. The next stop was honey. The people rushed to the market near ancient Novgorod, where the people of Khan did not reach at the time. In the hands of many bus passengers was honey in the comb. Katerina first saw the honey miracle. She went to the market alone and bought such honey.

Talking after conversation and the bus drove people to the place of the night. The hotel was located near the walls of the monastery. Katerina and Victor went for a walk along the shore of the lake, edged with white walls of the monastery. Falling into the cold sand, the dark blue scarf was moving closer and closer to the dark blue jacket.

Hands met. Lips met. Eyes - thawed. Victor is by nature a cautious man, he could not afford himself too much for Catherine. She began to write poetry from that moment on. The night passed in different rooms. The whole next day was filled with excursions. It is quite true that Valdai was visited before Veliky Novgorod! Novgorod - the very historical perfection!

The monument to the Millennium of Russia fascinates and lets go to view the historical attractions of the city and its surroundings. Cathedrals, churches, bells do not crush their significance, but elevate tourists. Forged gates, church utensils do not enslave, but inspire new achievements. Excavations of the settlement, birch bark letters are closer to books on history, as if you become their co-author, and not a student of life. Impressions of meeting with Ancient Rus against the background of yellow foliage are the most positive!

Home Katerina and Victor returned to the measure of lovers, with a feeling of a kiss on the lips. Victor expressed his feelings unusually beautifully, he wrote poems on leaflets, you can't say a lot about it, there were other pockets around and a designer.

Katerina did not know her love poems and answered with her verse lines, which surprisingly quickly appeared in her head in response to Victor's messages. Poetic correspondence did not interfere with work, but thoughts that were unnecessary for work did not accumulate in my head, but immediately realized, took minutes, and the long hours were left to the drawing board.

In KB where Victor and Katerina worked, they developed equipment for the production of solid material. The drawings were quite large and complex. Anna Andreevna constantly watched a pair of lovers and was quietly glad that she was not in the place of Katerina.

Katerina and Anna Andreevna once had a fight, and as a woman's jealousy, Anna Andreevna threw a curse:

- That you, Katerina, fell in love!

From that moment on, everything in Katerina's life was covered with new feelings.

The cloudless blue of the sky sang about the first day of the calendar spring, this kind of weather that day was once on a day off. Katerina put on her ski boots, still issued by a coach during her youth, picked up the skis of the same time, her wands were new, and went on skis for the railroad, on a roller coaster ride. Frosty snow, blinded by the sun, remained in the shower, a ray of skiing.

It was not just pleasant to go through the snowy forest to the hills, Katerina felt a real pleasure from the sight of the surrounding winter atmosphere itself. Skis rolled normally, skiers of all ages met on the way. The farther from the residential areas, the more fallen trees, but the bears do not run over them, on fallen trees lies a layer of snow all winter.

Gorki. Rolled off them a couple of times and enough, it's time to go home, buses don't go in the woods, you have to find the strength to walk home on skis. That's the whole sport years after the sport of youth. Great socialism, along with skis, went into the distant past.

Why Great? Firms were big, people worked, canteens worked, sick-lists worked. After the collapse of socialism, came the realism of private firms. The sick-lists still exist, but if you take them a couple of times, then you are simply fired for any small reason grown to the size of an elephant.

In private firms do not like sick leave, do not like the sick, do not like passes in work. Gaps in the work are inevitable, a person lives in the fight against disease. And if you get sick, even for one day, then reduced wages and penalties are inevitable. So does Katerina. For the calculation of pensions, the years were chosen when firms fell off their coils due to the country's constant financial collapses.

Katerina worked, but where to find those firms that ceased to exist through no fault of hers? So, that life is beautiful and amazing, like a sunny day on the first day of the calendar spring.

The money fell on Anna Andreevna. She is a slim, slender woman by nature, slightly towered above the other women with unusually beautiful shoes on her heels, on her shoulders beautiful fur was always adorned in the shape of a regular fur coat. With her luxurious clothing, she gained the upper hand for her height. Anna Andreevna had no relation to the Aztecs, she was divorced, but not abandoned, the wife of her ex-husband. People are so divorced to be richer by one apartment. They have a common son (his name is as old as the earth itself), who often accompanied his mother, dressed in another new fur coat made from rare and expensive fur, to another girlfriend.

So, from his son he grew up a good guard of his mother and himself, he was taken from the first class to fashionable struggle, and in four or five years he had a belt of a very honorable color. To live in anticipation of a new apartment to cool people is incredibly boring, and, arriving, but not in everything, the family built a mansion of three floors.

Anna Andreevna in furniture stores bought bedroom sets in a new home, the most expensive and beautiful, everything else corresponded to these sets. But during the construction of the house they chose the most fashionable pipes for plumbing, and that's when the headsets took their place and turned on the heating in the house, the fashion pipes burst. The water spun with enviable ease at the feet of various berths. I had to turn off the heating and change the fashionable pipes to ordinary pipes, but time-tested and numerous houses.

But there is also a second side to success; at home, mansions stand out and away from public transport; this forces women, wealthy men, to drive their own cars. A man with great ease buys his wife a car so that she uncouples him, at least for a while. Anna Andreevna was forced to go and learn from the law. Naturally, she got her rights, but very soon she ran into her husband's new car into her husband's car when she tried to put her car next to his car.

Cars sent in for repair. After car repairs, the husband himself got behind the wheel and drove away, and Anna Andreevna walked in circles around the car, did not dare to get behind the wheel. Then she called a taxi, and thus solved the problem of movement in space.

A big house, a big room cleaning, for her, it is beyond her strength. I had to hire a visiting housekeeper. So Anna Andreevna lives in a luxurious atmosphere with thoughts, as if to throw off the next worries, which, because of luxury, grow well.

Switching all the gears, her soul stopped at the World Championships. Say what you like, and major sporting events are filled with healthy energy. All athletes are unique, the winners are generally representatives of the earth, their physical form and content deserve the title of Gods of Earth.

Anna Andreevna always loved to watch athletics competitions, for some reason she was most impressed with the triple jumps. The last time she ran unsuccessfully along the avenue at the relay, she suffocated herself, and has since passed to the rank of an ordinary audience.

Most recently, she had heard about competitions for any age, but she can't withstand more than three laps in the stadium. Therefore, live broadcast from the treadmill - that's all. Just goes the relay men. Handsome! Athletes - the highest class! Torso. Muscles Healthy people are athletes. It's nice that there are such great men in the World Cup. And the audience is great, they are saturated with the energy of healthy power of athletes from athletics.

The brain, inflamed with hatred, invented fairy tales, the calm brain forgot them, and life began first in the reflections of the sun or in drops of rain. Anna Andreevna is tired of hatred, bitter grievances and memories.

On the catcher and the beast runs. Got on the net her man of uncertain appearance, of uncertain age. He had a hobby: he was saving green papers with portraits of someone else's president. Several thousand of them had accumulated these pieces of paper, but all of them were closed by his natural greed.

Anna Andreevna his green papers and not smiled. Several meetings at her expense were slightly distracted, but they did not promise a joint future. They broke up and everything. And yet she had some self-confidence, and not the dejection of an abandoned woman.

The next man of Anna Andreevna was poor and went by a big car, and other huge cars with a driver. He had two three-story houses and apartments in different places. You understand that the money for a little son and his luxurious mother fell from the sky very limited. He had a private boarding house with lakes, but there was little money for a woman. The room was littered with things in bags, but the shipment had been lasting for a month.

Anna Andreevna lost patience, it was transferred to others. Several years ago, the supreme forces allocated an apartment to a luxurious woman. Brick apartment building with a garage and shops. The house appeared on the covers of magazines. Near the house there are garages, playgrounds, shop windows are lit.

The house is not prescribed. Residents were allowed to make repairs to your liking, to pay for the light. The house is frozen. Rumors are different, including saying that they killed the owner of the house and all his close relatives. Smart people began to sell apartments in which they did not live, and buy in houses of simpler ones. A beautiful woman, Anna Andreevna, cannot enter the apartment of a brick house, although the money has long been invested in her. The house is worth. Shops work.

The wooden table was covered with green cloth, a middle-aged man in a dark blue suit sat at the table and sometimes looked at the designers sitting in front of him. It was the head of the KB, a member of the CP. His control power was based on twenty rubles per quarter, which at the general meeting solemnly gave to the best drummer of communist labor.

There were more methods of payment, but they came from the chief engineer of the scientific research institute, and consisted in creating brigades for especially important works with payment in two salaries. But such brigades were created according to especially important tasks, for example, when creating an orbital station, necessary for fuel accumulation, during flights to the Moon.

People worked six days a week. The work was hard and responsible. Those who were in the brigade came up with entertainment: they collected more money for birthdays and gave each other crystal. Vibes of mutual love did not bypass Anna Andreyevna.

In the fall, everyone came out to pick potatoes from the beds on the collective farm field. And the policy of the head of the design bureau was changing dramatically, he forgot about work, he had one thought in his head, which in different ways expressed one meaning: Anna, be my woman. The conversations were more insistent, his guardianship surrounded her from all sides. Water wears away a stone.

Once in the summer, when the head of the design bureau, that is, Stepan Stepanovich, was not at home, and his car was standing at the house, in the apartment of Anna Andreevna the bell rang:

- Anna, come to me! 'And he gave her his address.'

Her household affairs were turned aside. At the entrance to his apartment she was struck by an antique mirror, everything else in the apartment was simple, clean and no frills. Oh, oh, oh ... People turn out to be not only robots-designers, sometimes human feelings appear in them.

What did she think when she came here? Unknown.

She worked together with the head of the design bureau, and did not hold thoughts about foreign relations in her head. And then he somehow quickly turned from a mature man into a reckless young man. It's bad to change partners, and the woman has already been burned by this, but as the butterfly has flown into a new story.

In short, love happened quickly, coolly, unusually. In the sexual life there is always a place for feat and rotozieyu. From the transience of unexpected love, Anna Andreevna lay down and could not move for about ten minutes.

The woman was left alone, without men. Payback was the most expensive: the woman got into an interesting position in full from the first call, with her husband she had her own means of protection, but here she didn't think about love.

The nervous condition in such cases is the worst. We had to get rid of it. The body, young and strong, did not want to give anything, it did not make sense to go to the doctors.

Everything was clear, Anna Andreevna was silent and did not say anything to anyone. Saw grass after grass, pill for pills and frustrated pregnancy. The condition was terrible, the temperature is high. Called the doctor. The doctor, a young man, examined her and called the disease - angina. I stayed at home for several days. I went to work and was silent again.

It took more than a year, and the KB again sent to collect potatoes.

The head of the design bureau was collecting potatoes near Anna Andreevna. Word for word, and she told him the end of a summer love story. He became quiet, became ill, went to the doctors during working hours, the wooden table with green cloth became empty.

One day, from the strain of the internal and large amount of work, her left side of her body cracked. She sat and rubbed the left side of her body with her right hand. She drank nitroglycerin, a little recovered.


Anna Andreevna's husband did not know all this, but it is not clear why he clearly showed his hostility towards the head of the design bureau. He gave him a leg, or something, but the head of the design bureau was long limping over this land. Several times Anna Andreevna met with Stepan Stepanovich. Interestingly, in her soul she had neither love nor hate for him. So, the cornerstone of fate.

On the door someone beat his fist and legs, the noise was desperate.

Two - Anna Andreevna and Stepan Stepanovich - lay in a cozy bed, and they clearly did not want to go out to knock on the door. Someone hit the door for about ten minutes and left. The windows in the apartment are so located that the window does not show who left the entrance. The woman got up and went to the kitchen, a folding knife of a decent size caught the eye of a washing machine.

Life for Anna Andreevna took an interesting turn, it is quite possible that her legitimate husband beat her on the door. She somehow gradually, but more and more often began to leave the house and not somewhere, but to this apartment of a long time familiar person. There was no special joy here, but at home with her husband she was much worse.


The husband traced where his wife had gone in the dark of winter evening. Life went on as usual in Anna's apartment. And in the personal apartment of Stepan Stepanovich everything was clean, beautiful, and a bit deserted. Anne was a little cool here, due to the fact that he smoked and opened the window for ventilation. Not everything she liked about him, but he was her salvation during this period of life.

Anna Andreyevna was accustomed to Stepan Stepanovich, but their hearts were free from love, and only small loves darkened or warmed their souls.

They had a wine romance. He loved a bunch of grape wines. She loved him. She bought wine, and, drowning her conscience, flew to him. Love depended on the quality of the wine; the better the wine, the better the love.

Why did she need Stepan?

Anna had such a period in her life, when around her there was a void from dissatisfaction with life. The world was full of colors, and in her soul lived the grayness of his clothes.

Wine killed germs in the mouth, and kisses became safe, sore throats after wine kisses did not show their activity, and she needed his kisses to get a state of life satisfaction.


Chapter 17

Anna loved a huge armchair that stood in Stepan's room, covered with artificial tiger fur.

The chair stood in the center of the room, and it was quite possible to sit and pull grape wine on the sly from a crystal glass.

The wine was playing in the glass, the glass could be twisted in the hand in the rays of a rock crystal chandelier.

Stepan did not like to close the curtains, on the windows hung a transparent light fabric with sparkles. The number of sparkles to the bottom of the fabric increased sharply, and they peacefully coexisted in a beautiful pattern, like dancing drops of wine at the bottom of a crystal glass.

He could talk a lot and for a long time, he waited for her, he needed her ability to listen, to poddakivat and not to interrupt the course of his thoughts.

Anna dutifully listened and played with a glass of wine. He did not play with wine, he drank wine like a gourmet. He felt the wine in the glass and felt the true delight of his taste.

He always had wine in the house.

Her task was to buy wine not only from the desired grape variety, not only know the country of origin of the wine, but still not be lazy and read where this wine is bottled. Oh, how Stepan watched all this! Having studied all the inscriptions on the label of the bottle, he looked at it from the light, he even noticed how the label was glued and what was written on it from the side of wine. If something was wrong, he began to grumble, and it did not come to love.

Stepan Stepanovich still had a strange feature, Anna liked him more in his trousers than in a skirt. He needed her painted eyes and hair styled, he liked to look at her well-groomed face and drink wine. He liked the look of a successful woman through a glass of wine.

Everything suited her, she waited for the finish of the wine ceremony - love. The wine idyll was disturbed by its duration, it began to tire of it. And there was a variety in their relationship, a third necessary person appeared. He found a friend, now they were drinking wine three together.

Friend Stephen Anna really liked. Stepan was very pleased with this circumstance. He mocked them. Anna went into the bathroom, got into the shower, and herself became like a glass of wine with droplets of wine on the walls. She appeared radiant from the bathroom in an amethyst necklace.

Stepan went with Anna to another room, leaving a third person with a glass of grape wine. Oh, how he liked to salt the third, so that he envied their love! He loved to love with the listeners of his love, his success, his masculine ability.

ABOUT! Sense of victory.

Young people noted their chance meeting with full-fledged love. After love, Stepan disappeared in the snowy shroud of life. Attempts by Anna to return Stepan, who became a close person in one day, were unsuccessful. We can not say that she did not know him before. They have been familiar for more than a year. They met for work in a formal setting. But she knew him badly.

Stepan was born in the center of the capital. His father worked as a chauffeur and carpenter in a newspaper publishing house. The boy was not poor, not rich. Mom, dad, brother, sister gave him a full-fledged childhood. They lived on the first floor of a multistory building where the sun rarely dropped in. In winter, snowdrifts approached windows decorated with frosty patterns. He had nothing to complain about.

He grew up as a thin, handsome boy, so he didn't go into hockey, where his faces were covered with masks, but to ballroom dancing. At the dance, Stepan met a thin little girl of small stature. They looked good on stage, but in life she looked worse. He is tall. She is very small without heels. Life and dancing are two big differences.

Little girls are more likely than men to need help. For example, to hang the curtains, or bring products, or move the furniture from place. They danced, danced and got married. After a while, his parents died. They got one room for three.

The brothers and sister behaved well with their living parents, and after their death the apartment became communal. Stepan could not stand the family disorder first. Possessing good memory and abilities, he graduated from a technical institute and went to work in a new district of the capital for an apartment. His day was busy with his work, and at home he was only in the evening and at night.

His petite wife dealt with his brother and sister herself, meeting them in the common kitchen. Stepan in the train read books, taught poetry or English. His face bore the intellectual imprint of the literature he read. Surprisingly, over the years, he became more beautiful, more refined and, of course, smarter.

Slimness, but not thinness attracted female views. He did not drink, did not smoke, spoke beautifully. Communication with him for any woman was a joy. Thin features, huge eyes, light flight of hair - a magic man.

The first at a new job in love with him was a bright blonde with exactly cut hair. She had a daughter and a sick husband. It was a thin woman, just below Stepan's height. They worked in neighboring laboratories and their meetings had a purely working character.

But gradually the women began to say that they were found outside of work. Interspersing blew in between. Therefore, for all women of the department, Stepan ceased to exist. If a man has a wife and lover, what else can you take from him?

Stepan loved and appreciated his family. He sacredly gave his wife the wages of a leading engineer, for the sake of his family he was practically not at home. So what if he met with another woman? He did not bother anyone at home at this time.

So, he could already change, extolling betrayal to the rank of his dignity, or sacrifices for his family, so as not to embarrass them with his presence. So a couple of years passed.

Katerina came to work in the laboratory where Stepan Stepanovich worked. What can I say? In fact, she did not immediately notice him. A woman always notices who occupies the highest step in the team. That's right, she noticed the head of the laboratory - the chief. It was very easy to communicate with him at work.

The chief, Stepan Stepanovich, was a little taller than her, a bit fuller, smarter and at the same time a very clever person in his field. He had a rule: up to three in the afternoon no personal conversations and negotiations. At three o'clock tea and jokes were allowed, and again work. Very comfortable working environment.

To encourage employees, there was a board of honor. Catherine's face began to appear on her constantly. And everything was fine for the time being, until she was carried away by Victor on the day of all lovers. And he disappeared. Snow. Cold. Dark. And it is not anywhere. Not home. Not at work. Silence.

Valentine's Day was celebrated at Katerina's home by the entire laboratory. We sat well, danced, went home, but one person from the company disappeared.

When everyone went home, Victor returned to Catherine to continue the banquet. But it was not he who returned, the chief who had forgotten the keys in the chair also returned.

Katerina was in a ticklish situation. But the chef calmly took his keys and left. And Victor stayed, explaining the situation with the schedule of trains. On Valentine's Day, they didn't manage without love, so Victor hurried to the last train.

And how was he in a hurry on the train?

Of his relatives and close people, he annoyed him with another betrayal: his wife, blonde mistress and boss, who liked both blonde and Katerina. Their tastes were the same.

The question remains: where did Victor go?

Victor went to the train, but did not reach. On the way he was met by Stepan Stepanovich. They talked. Their conversation was seen by the jealous blonde Arina, who was waiting for Victor to return from Katerina. She knew about the holiday, but nobody invited her to it. The blonde had a connection with the chef before Victor.

Why? Her father had a lying patient, and she was looking for feelings on the side.

Maybe the whole thing in a blonde? If not for her, then there would be no change in decent men? That was, that was. Moreover, Katerina was dragged into this game, and they lost one player.

The following days at work usually proceeded, except for the absence of one leading engineer. His development hung alone on the board. The attendant remembered him, she decided that Victor was sick. Everyone decided that the man was sick. The collective on the whole is very tactful. Everything is sew-covered, no one had any doubts until the phone rang.

Called blonde Arina. She asked to call Victor to the phone. She was told that he was sick. She did not understand the response of the timekeeper. They began to clarify the essence of the matter and got confused. The chef picked up the phone and said that he saw Victor as he was leaving in the direction of the station.

After a couple of days in the laboratory, they felt the absence of one smart head. Katerina had to do the work for Victor. Then her boss sent for a week on a business trip to another city.

In the absence of Katerina at work was the investigator. He was looking for traces of Victor at the request of his civil wife Arina. But he did not understand and closed the case. Outwardly, things were going well in the department, all people were intelligent and family. Find treason in a friendly team is almost impossible. Victor had no enemies, in principle, he was too clever and tactful.

But there was no man.


Katerina returned from a business trip, and no one told her anything about the investigator. Blonde Arina, it turns out, worked in another department; she began to show her bubonic interest in her. After three o'clock in the afternoon, two young women began to talk about women's affairs. So they took away the soul and their longing for Victor.

Any person is gradually forgotten, even very beloved. Suppose with a pain in the heart, with nerves, but forgotten. Only the sheet with the last work of Victor continued to hang on his board. And it was a serious order, and he took away all the mental abilities of Catherine and the chief.

What they were doing?

Something very serious. It is not customary to think about spies in such matters.

The blonde was the most depressed; her job was such that she left her thoughts in free flight. And yet, the blonde had a cottage, where she met with Victor. Notice, nobody attributed Victor to Katerina, he only lingered with her once, and then his chief waited on the street. That is, Katerina managed to fall in love, but she did not reach the big love.

So blonde.

For the weekend, blonde Arina went to the country, her heart called her there. No, she did not see Victor. It just seemed to her that someone was at the dacha. She carefully destroyed all traces of Victor's stay, which they left alone. Missing a secret developer.

The blonde roared at the cottage for quite a long time, no one comforted her. She calmed down. In the evening I went out on the porch and saw the light in the neighboring windows. At the weekend, someone came to rest, she thought, and returned to her home.

Arina was born in the family of a military designer, at one time they traveled a lot, lived abroad. She had a lot of gold from a serious trial. She was unlucky with her father, became ill and lay at home. When mother came home, Arina left for the country.

Arina didn't have enough stars from the sky, she graduated from the technical school and worked as a support for the developers, doing her job well. In the morning she discovered that the light from her neighbors continued to burn. She went to the house of neighbors, the door was covered. She entered the house and saw Victor.

Two weeks have passed since his disappearance. He was pale, if not blue, but alive. He lay on the bed and looked at Arina, but said nothing. She talked a lot and to no avail, trying to raise him. But the strength was not enough. He was heavy, albeit thin. And she suddenly realized that he had the same disease as his father! Victor turned into a bed patient!

Victor told Arina that he went from Katerina towards the station, met the chief. They talked. The chef, like Victor, after the holiday was tipsy, but by themselves they were sad. The chef in the eyes sparkled a spark, he did not want to give Catherine Victor.

They talked a lot about morality and human relations. In Victor's head, the switch turned off his bright thoughts. He, feeling that he could be dismissed and remain without a new apartment because of his relationship with Arina and the outlined relationship with Katerina, clouded his mind or drunk wine in his brain.

Victor took the train, but confused the direction and was forced to get off at the bus stop, where Arina's cottage was located. Victor could not open the house, but he accidentally saw where the neighbors were hiding the keys, and went to the neighbors. In the morning he felt that his legs were not listening. Further more. He was getting worse for general remorse.

Arina knew that such a disease was practically not curable. No, she did not want to infect anyone, it was only now that she understood that she was the cause of Victor's illness. Her father was checked completely, but no infectious disease was found. Tuberculosis is contagious, but my father had pneumonia. Although people are still not aware of the degree of transmission of disease. Or Arina in vain ranked the poor state of Victor at his own expense.

Arina found Victor, but did not say anything about him at work. She transferred him to her dacha and treated her father with medicines. For heat turned on a pair of heaters and went to him every other day. At work, he was practically not remembered.

Katerina recalled Viktor, but she did not say out loud about this topic. The fact that Arina often began to go to the country, said the chef. He knew her habits and noticed constant fatigue, nervousness, irritability. If a beautiful woman stops looking at men and fades, it becomes noticeable to them.

The chief followed Arina after work, he drove the same train, got off at her stop. She did not notice him, so she was immersed in her thoughts, carrying in her hands two weighty bags. Deliberately you can not think of, Victor, this time in the house was not. Arina dropped her bags on the snow and howled.

Then the chief approached her and asked:

- Arina, why do you howl on the moon? This is a wolf case.

- Victor has disappeared! - through tears she said.

'Victor disappeared a long time ago, a month has passed,' the chef said.

- He lived in this house the last two weeks.

- I noticed your trips, but also could not imagine that you are hiding Victor!

- I did not hide it! He was sick, he could not walk because of weakness!

- Was it a little call a doctor?

- This is a village, here doctors are not particularly driving around.

'Could you tell me?' Why such a burden held in itself?

- I found him two weeks after his disappearance at the neighbors in the country. He himself climbed into the house.

The chief did not hear her, he looked at the other side, where the tracks from the house were stretched. It was getting dark quickly. Traces melted in the dark.

'A dog with a guide should be invited,' said the chef.

From his words, Arina burst into tears even more.

'He is weak, he will freeze in a snowdrift,' she murmured through tears.

- Here are women! Victor was not given aisle, and now they ache in the corners.

- Arina let's shout: "Victor" - in one voice.

They shouted, shouted, but in response heard dacha silence.

Today, the chef drove for Arina, and two days earlier Katerina drove her, she knew about the blonde's trips to the cottage and helped her buy food and medicines. Since Arina did not say anything to the end, Katerina decided to follow her. But she followed only to the train, the way to the country she knew.

Katerina knew that Arina was going to the country every other day. Therefore, the day before the chief's arrival, she was the one who took Victor out of the dacha and took him to the hospital, and the doctors from the hospital told Arina where he was lying. Katerina did not consider it necessary to talk about this to Arina and the chief. Arina was very offended at them and said nothing to the chief that Victor was in the hospital.

Last week, the second. On the third week, Victor began to climb, then began to walk, he was discharged home. At home he was so crowded that he wanted to work, where he had not been for almost two months. Situation! His hospital did not close all the time of his absence. But this question was decided by another way, and Victor returned to work.

What happened to him? Sick man.

The chief loaded the work of a leading engineer. The ladies have quieted down. Victor tried not to talk to anyone, he sat quietly and worked.


Katerina knew Anna Andreyevna well, this woman could be poor and rich at the same time. She could make money out of thin air, draw trouble out of relationships with men. She worked strangely, but she was never fired.

A terrible feeling arose when Anna experienced fear in the presence of her husband, Anton Sidorovich, and such a feeling was not uncommon for her. She hid knives, she was afraid to tell him a word across, she fulfilled all his whims, suffered his love. And love is pleasant and sadistic in the performance of the same person. During their life together, a cascade of fear and humiliation changed.

Love was perceived as a hellish punishment; in such cases, her greatest desire was to end sadistic love. And the greatest desire is to be alone.

Remember the holy words from the song: "It is difficult for a woman from high society to avoid loneliness"? The higher a woman stands on the social level, the more freedom she has. There are rare married couples in which life is harmonious and does not contain sadism. But in such couples there is someone's wise cunning, which keeps everything within the bounds of decency. During the period of the revolution and after it, there was a joke: "'Whites will come - they will rob, the Reds will come - they will rob"'.

In a woman, when she is in her prime, something like this happens: one will come - she loves, the second will come - she loves. Do not fight off from everyone physically? And the men climb. Anna Andreevny in such cases appeared fear of contagion: who is more afraid? About the social stage. What it is? It is not determined by the structure of the state. This does not mean if Anna Andreevna is married, then she stands on the highest social level. And if the husband is a sadist in love, arrogant in relationships and simply subservient to another woman? Very subtle moment. Then the princesses and other ladies existed in a persecuted state.

So then the high society? This is definitely not where the big money. Where there is a lot of money, there is big passion and crime is inevitable. Jealousy is a terrible thing in such places. Where is the step for a woman on whom she faces nothing? To be the hundredth in line for love in a harem? Old age? No, and it does not save either from love, or from social problems, or from violence. Where is women's paradise? In heaven? This is not worth talking about.

Anna Andreevna began to argue what is famous for Bond. He always won, he is always a positive hero who commits negative deeds. And her husband - Bond inside out. He leaves the chase, he punishes those who hinder him. Why does he get into rework? He has no patience, and his prudence is relative.

Anna Andreyevna was interested in life on earth, but safe for a woman. Oh, oh, how difficult it is to be a woman! Tell a secret where is good? Men are offended. Well after a divorce, like after a thunderstorm, but there is a feeling of lurking resentment. And this is not a panacea.

The sun was shining. Golden autumn outside the window. Weather plus two degrees. In a long building on the sixth floor there was a design office. It occupied a long room in which ordinary wooden kulmans stood in three rows. The windows of the building are huge, moreover, they could open, which certainly produced many enemies by asking: who and where the wind is blowing. In this room there were three laboratories and the office of the head of the department.

A young and smart deputy chief engineer of a large plant came to this office. His name was Nikolay, height 180, slim, hair thin, dark, head small, but smart. He was wearing a suit and a black shirt.

The question was about the connectors, or rather rectangular connectors. Nikolay constantly mined gold for contacts, but he was not given. Katerina and Nikolai participated in one development, developed some products, the third were engineers from the republic, where there is an unusual radio of humor.

The overall work connected three countries, analogs of rectangular connectors walked around the world, but it was always not easy to make your product, even if someone in some country spent decades on it.

The connectors plotted, manufactured and tested three organizations. And the people accompanying these processes traveled the world and sometimes drove into the company along the way. It so happened that everyone tried to flirt with Katerina, although few people could do it, but Nikolai surpassed everyone, he was worried by one thought: why does Katerina like all men? He decided to get around everyone.

His first request was simple for many, but not for her:

- Katerina, let's go to the restaurant "Dark Forest". And they went, but not to the restaurant, but for a walk in the forest. Behind the restaurant walked among the snowy fir trees, talked.

Nicholas's next visit was announced by calls to the entire department: he asked her to come to the capital, to a magnificent hotel with a chic room, where he was waiting for her, since he had arrived at the congress of great people.

Summer was outside the window. She dressed in full parade: a skirt, elegant shoes with high heels. The figure is normal. Katerina drives along a neutral road to a fork in the road: one way to work, another way to the hotel to Nikolay. Near as Victor appeared from under the ground, he was already sang about the calls of Nikolai.

It is clear that Katerina and Viktor went to their company, although they had different departments by this time, but this saved her this time. Calls were rattling around the department from telephone to telephone, and she sat behind her drawing board and drew her perpetual drawings, Katerina worked as a design engineer of the first category of non-standard equipment.

The next day, Nikolai was again in the department, but he did not move Katerina toward the hotel; the conversations were about work. The overall work was slowly coming to an end. All participants in the development of rectangular connectors were supposed to meet in the winter in a small town where Nikolai was not a small person. A commission was created for acceptance of products.

Katerina was appointed chairman of the selection committee for products, and there were quite a lot of them.

Participants in the development of connectors gathered in a small town. The first task of Katerina was to get out of the presidency, she transferred the reins of government to the second representative of her city.

Katerina bypassed Nikolai's plant and was amazed at the combination of automated workshops with workshops without a hint of automation, one hundred percent manual labor. There were tables, around them were women, who threw metal contacts into the connectors by hand. For members of the commission they made an excursion to the partisan dugouts. "Noisy sternly ... forest."

The dugout was of enormous size, slightly smaller than the design bureau, and the forest here was twice as large as the Moscow region's forests in height and girth. Naturally, the connectors were approved and launched into the series. What happened to her?


Clever Nicholas entered Katerina in two hotels, and when in the evening she came to her room, her things were not there, he transferred them to another room. Suspecting nothing, she closed the door and went to bed.

Suddenly, in full winter darkness, the key turned in the keyhole, Nikolai entered the room and said his favorite phrase:

- I wanted to know why all men like you.

He never turned on the light, but said:

- If you scream, tomorrow everyone will know about it, I have all my people here.

Katerina appeared on the floor in her combination, dark blue, with huge laces. Fights and on the floor are different.

His words:

- Katerina, what is your figure! It is clear why men are not indifferent to you.

In short, the violation of all moral norms was evident. The next day, the participants of the event left for their lands. The violence was not immediately cured, for a long time there was physical and moral trauma for Katerina. Did she cheat? She survived in difficult situations.

Rodion ... What Rodion was - he stayed close, but he didn't find out about this story, and she didn't turn out to say in her language what happened to her in a faraway city. Katerina came under an excess of champagne. Restaurant in a small town, in the hall one company on the acceptance of the topic.

On the table, brandy and champagne and a lot of all meat. The company is purely masculine, and at that moment Katerina did not have a stop-tap called a glass - an evening. She poured champagne, she drank it, and the glass was filled with each new toast. Men drank brandy and ate five varieties of meat dishes.

Now imagine that all of them with Katerina wanted to dance! Okay, they would dance, so they began to take away from each other.

One could not stand it and said:

- Well, now I know why men love women!

And ran away from the restaurant, since Katerina got him just one dance. Oh, for the first time she understood how a woman passes from hand to hand according to the posts of men! Naturally, in dance, but everything is so transparent in the middle of January!

- There is a serious task: to create a secret weapon called "Astra". The device shoots magnetic rays at metal objects on a person. With such a device, it is easy to neutralize any person with a weapon in his hands, 'Stepan Stepanovich said.

- Why "Astra"?

- At the tip of the device is a ball with holes from which the rays can come out, that is, an aster flower or chrysanthemum flower is obtained.

- What is the difference between aster and chrysanthemum? - mockingly asked Rodion.

- The principal difference is that the chrysanthemum is a descendant of asters. Chrysanthemum is the most domesticated culture for cut bouquets, and aster is a street flower that blooms late when autumn comes.

A common feature is the set of petals of a very similar shape. Love not love. So why can not the chrysanthemum Astra be called? Astra blooms on the street, chrysanthemum in an apartment in a vase is up to three weeks. They can look at each other in the window, they can give the name to the devices, - the head of the design bureau expressed his opinions.


Nikolai stood under the windows of his beloved woman with a bouquet of white chrysanthemums. Katerina left the building with Rodion and walked past the white bouquet. Nikolai looked after her and put the bouquet in a snowdrift. Katerina turned around, looked at the flowers in the snowdrift.

- Nikolay, why are you standing at the entrance? Here the darkness of people passes, many people know me.

- Katerina, I love you! I fell in love, you know? I follow you, and you pass me by with different men.

- I'm coming from work! At work, I mostly work with men, because the work is technical in nature. Sometimes I leave the building with them.

- Why did you pass me?

- We talked, it was necessary to finish the phrase. Take a bouquet of snowdrift. Come with me. I have half an hour of time.

- In the restaurant, let's go for an hour?

'Nikolay, I don't go to restaurants,' Katerina said irritably.

- Well, just go down the street.

The snow gleamed in the evening rays of street lamps. Nikolai tried to take Katerina by the arm or under the arm, but she pulled her hand out of his captivity.

- People here, uncomfortable to go by the hand.

'Do you even take the flowers,' Nikolai said in a displeased voice.


Chapter 18


Katerina took a bouquet of flowers from Nikolay's hands and carried them down with flowers. She knew all the trails and paths leading to the side of the house. She had no choice, as part of the road to go through the crowded quarter. Together with the satellite, she turned towards the forest park.

Nikolai stopped, walking ten meters among the pines and firs.

- Katerina, wait a bit! - He begged.

The young woman stopped at the behest of a man. He grabbed her arm, then hugged. From her hands, chrysanthemums sank gently into another snowdrift, followed by a bouquet into a snowdrift and a woman's handbag sank. Nikolai kissed Katerina's lips, if they were made of metal, he would be frozen to them, but after a brief and unexpected kiss, the woman's warm lips twitched and turned away.

- Oh, Nikolay! Do not! You wanted to talk, say so!

- And what to talk to you! You keep silence and say no to all the offers!

'Let's walk a little bit along the path,' said Katerina, taking out flowers and a bag from a snowdrift.

Nikolai walked beside Katerina, but not for long. He stopped and again tried to get closer to the woman, but the woman separated herself from him with a bouquet and a bag.

- Katerina, you're like a dog, but not in the hay, but in the snow. No one here sees us!

After his words, a guy with a girl appeared at the end of the forest avenue. The girl threw the bag into a snowdrift, and they embraced.

- Look, you say that no one sees us, but we are already being copied! In place of my bag in the snowdrift is the girl's bag, and they kiss!

- Let's go, Katerina, to the restaurant!

- I will not go, what did you want from me?

- Give your home phone number and address.

- Nikolai, that's enough for you and my work phone.

- Katerina, then you come to me on a business trip. We close the topic, the product will go into a series.

Aluminum profiles were a novelty worthy of the attention of the company management. A group of designers developed aluminum profiles using the great experience of wise countries.

Interestingly, in one eastern country they made such durable aluminum that they couldn't cut their instruments, and with all their paid desire, chemists could not fully understand the chemical composition of the aluminum alloy.

The chief was sitting at his workplace, he had an amazing broad beard, and he liked to repeat how he was met in the city of Gorny, where they launched aluminum profiles into the series:

- Katerina, I arrived in the city, and a man goes to meet me and says: "Oh, Karl Marx is coming!"

She went on a business trip to the city of Gorny Katerina in the summer, didn't come rather, and flew with the east wind on a plane to the capital of the Copper Mountains, and then took a bus to Gorny. Night in a strange city. At one o'clock in the morning Katerina found herself in a hotel at the railway station of the city, where she was taken with a travel certificate. Nikolay did not know about Katerina's arrival in the city.

In the morning Katerina went to the factory with technical documentation. The city was surrounded by large factories in a semicircle. In one of them had to get Catherine. She got on the bus close to the driver's cabin.

Her profile was reflected in the dark glass of the cabin. The bus collided with a car that braked sharply in front of the bus. Dent in the bus was on the side where she was sitting. The driver only managed to open the door, as Katerina ran out of the bus one of the first. Then she went to the nearest stop and got on the bus again.

The task of Katerina included a meeting with the chief engineer of the plant. Plant management was located in the old two-story building. On the second floor was the office of the director and chief engineer. The director was there, and from his office sometimes the words came when someone opened the door.

Apparently, the dark task of the director at that time was ... breeding pigs for factory canteen. The chief engineer, a handsome tall old man, calmly met Katerina, they signed the necessary papers. The plant assumed the production of aluminum profiles, but not all. The remaining orders were later placed on other plants. Katerina left the plant.

With a bouquet of asters, Nikolai met her. He was also on a business trip.

- With the arrival, Katerina!

Katerina took asters, she loved these late summer flowers, but did not know how to react to Nicholas's attention.

- Hello! I'm leaving today.

- It is good that I was informed about your arrival, otherwise I would not have seen it at all.

- We have time to walk.

- I do not offer a restaurant, I'm at work. Let's go through the territory of the plant.

Nikolai, deputy chief engineer, behaved quite officially on foreign territory. Katerina quickly turned out to be alone and went to the hotel to take her things, then got on the electric train, which took her to the capital of the mountains.

In the town of Gorny, people struck her, they were mostly of short stature, and only when they began to drive up to the capital of the mountains did the tall guys start to get on the train.

On the positive results of the trip, Katerina reported to the deputy chief engineer of the company, who supervised the development, manufacturing and implementation of aluminum profiles.

The profile of Katerina hung on the plant's honor roll - the entire design team was removed - for the latest advances in the design and use of aluminum profiles made in the mountains.

Victor came to the design bureau, got up next to the kulman and looked at Katerina. He was a branch of lilac on the pavement. The hard work of Katerina was always accompanied by loving male eyes.

Within one month, one hundred cabinets for instrumentation equipment were made of aluminum profiles. The assembly area worked extremely quickly. Cabinets are not welded, as it was with steel cabinets, they just screwed.

In a month Katerina had to develop the supporting structures of seven blocks for one of these hundred cabinets. Seven blocks per month is a lot. Similar tasks have received two more male designers. When three cabinets with instrumentation were assembled at the assembly site, an unusually large number of people came running over. Someone said that when assembling the cabinet of Katerina, mistakes were made, to which the workers assemblers answered that she had fewer errors than other designers.

Victor always appeared silently, and he also knew how to wait. If Nikolai was a traveling man, then Victor was his, from the same department of the scientific research institute where Katerina worked. It can be compared with a branch of lilac.

Next to Katerina, to her left, was Arina, a young woman with wavy hair who changed several companies and returned to Katerina's design bureau.

Arina came to work in the morning, sat at the table, took off the rings, smeared her hands with cream, put on rings and turned to the drawing board, as if disappearing from Katherine's sight. She was obviously not indifferent to Rodion.

And Katerina sometimes could not understand who he was looking at more: at her or at Arina. Arina was more elegant than Katerina, she walked rapidly in high heels, enjoyed good perfume. Arina showed the perfume Caterina in the store, which she uses. Katerina bought these perfumes.

And Rodion lost orientation completely between them. Probably from that moment on he began to look at Katerina, or did he come inhale the familiar scent? Spring flew through the windows, and someone put a branch of lilac on Katerina's curtain. She saw the passing silhouette of Nicholas.

Rodion suggested that Katerina develop a catalog of aluminum profiles, but said that she herself should complete this work. He was entrusted to the management of the company. He himself often did not approach Katerina, but additionally paid work did not come to her without her participation.

Lightning is not asleep and over umbrellas. A woman was walking past a building under an umbrella. Lightning struck the umbrella. The woman died. Nicholas and Rodion were talking about thunderstorm tragedies when Katerina passed by.

Nikolay, as always, arrived on a business trip, but this time to Rodion, they had a common job, but they could not let Catherine pass by themselves. Nikolay changed the cities where he lived and worked, but did not change the place of his permanent business trip.

Kolya wore a black shirt; Rodion wore a strip of bright autumn colors. Katerina looked at the shirts in surprise, she heard their conversation, but walked past them without another word. One to one.

Arina approached Katerina and began to tell her that her cousin was killed by lightning through an outlet, but this happened in another country. Katerina looked at Arina in surprise, what is all this talking about lightning today?

And what could Katerina add to this topic? That one of her relatives was killed by a fireball that flew into the open window. Nikolai went up to Katerina, he was interested in catalogs about frames. The catalog was almost ready.

The catalog manufacturing technique was at this level: typewriter, glue, tracing paper and mascara. Katerina wrote the text, made the drawings, copiers copied the drawings, typists typed the text, proofreading - supervised the work.

The catalog was released in the amount of 500 pieces and was sold by firms. After some time, the same number of directories were released, which Nikolai took with him during one of his visits. Nicholas's black shirt stood before Katerina's eyes, but they only spoke about work.

The time was amazing: the leadership of a country or a city was constantly changing, each company manager was given a gift in the form of another technical novelty. The bearing structure of any gift was performed by the design bureau. The work was considered an honor, for it a little extra pay. Maybe that's why the country's leadership changed so quickly in those years so that Katerina would have an extra gold coin?

The biggest entertainment for employees of the company was the collection of potatoes or sugar beets. All branch went to the field. The weather is good. If you work in a building, then the rain is not a hindrance, if you collect potatoes in the pouring rain, putting bags on your head to collect potatoes, then this is not entertainment for people with weak health.

Bags get wet quickly, they do not save jackets from rain for a long time, you will not open an umbrella. But autumn is not necessary for autumn, and sometimes it is dazzling gold and warm autumn. Indian summer.

Victor, after they had harvested potatoes from their beds, went up to Katerina, and they left the field through a green-golden forest. The leaves rustled weakly under their feet, the grass was still green, they walked along a country road and talked. Victor spoke and spoke. Katerina listened to his unusually beautiful voice timbre.

How beautiful he was! Huge, just huge eyes! Thin nose. Big lips. Clean forehead. The shape of the face is such that there is no such actor who could play it, well, except perhaps one American actor who played with Madonna. They still had love at the upturned sofa.

Viktor and Katerina did not have a joint couch, even upside down. There was a forest in the first stage of autumn. Magical forest. They came to a small clearing. He threw off his raincoat, which he took in case of rain, but the day was cloudless and warm.

And why did Victor love Katerina? But he loved her in a mad rush of pleasure. Love in nature they were generally good at. It would seem that they were tired of picking potatoes from kolkhoz beds, but they were not tired. There was the joy of owning each other among the primeval forest.

The boundless sky shone through the still almost fallen leaves. Catherine's gray eyes only occasionally looked into Victor's bottomless eyes. They were kissing! Oh, how could he kiss! It seemed that the whole mouth to the last cell was involved in this great pleasure! Tongue, his tongue performed miracles in the small mouth of a woman.

Good lord So no one could kiss! Two mouths united in a sexy dance of cheeks, lips, tongues. Penetrating into each other with the help of an erotic kiss, a strong feeling! Under the cover of a kiss, the hands performed a rite of exposure.

It's not cold yet, it's Indian summer! Katerina liked his body! It was pleasant to touch him, I wanted to cling to him, dig into all parts of my body. And she squirmed in the dance lying down. They lay on a cape among the golden ones -

Victor knew how to love, and he could love! With him, Katerina experienced the bliss to the full, all her insides were eager for him. They loved each other, with every cell of their organisms ...

Victor received so much money for doing secret work that he had enough for a new domestic car. The rarity of such good luck for those times is not commented.

Arina and Victor lived in the same brick tower, but on different floors. They had tiny studio apartments. Arina in her apartment looked naturally, she was a thin woman. Katerina was in Arina's apartment several times, but she never went to Victor's house, she was only worried about the question: how does he sleep in such a small room, if his human height is almost equal to the length of the room? Victor began to bring Arina to work in his car.

Relations between Katerina and Arina were somewhat strained. Arina got used to Victor's car and in the morning she specially waited for him to leave the house to go with him. Loving Victor could not let Arina pass by himself if she was constantly at his side: either he lived or he was sitting in the car.

Katerina in the workplace writhing in great pain. She was getting worse every minute. It was not accepted at that time to leave work during the working day, it was necessary to sign more than one piece of paper on different floors of a huge building.

The pain in Katerina became unbearably acute. You can't leave your job, but if the pain is beyond human patience?

She wrote a statement out of her last strength, signed it on the floor of the management and, bending over in three deaths, gave it away, only after that went home. At home, the pain exceeded all expectations. Terrible condition - to keep in your palm a creature that did not survive in the struggle for production success. The feeling of a terrible moment later haunted over the years. Interestingly, everything is aging.

The firm in its last years began to reduce discipline, it was possible to come to work a little earlier or later, but also to leave work with a shift in time. Naturally, Arina was the first to know that Katerina had a miscarriage, rather late in her pregnancy. She sympathized at the first minute, and at the second asked what interested her most of all:

- Katerina, and whose was it a child?

- Whose? Forest leshem in a cloak.

'But only Victor has a cape.' Is he the father of the child?

- Yes! Arina, and you also had a miscarriage, but you didn't admit it. We guessed it.

- Since he is the father of your child, so he is the father and my child, what is there to tell?

- It is clear that both fell in love, but the children did not work out. Do you not know, does Victor have any children at all or some miscarriages?

The women were silent and dispersed to their drawing boards. The same perfume dispersed in places of work. The work absorbed them completely until the next break.

Katerina did not say a word to the doctors about the miscarriage, and she did not say anything to her husband. This is only the omnipresent Arina found out, and if she found out, she learned Victor, but not Victor. Victor was very upset, but not because of Katerina, but because of himself, it turns out that this happens to all his women: they don't wear his children. So much for love. -

Several developments of Katerina came to the exhibition ENEA, so then called the best exhibition complex. Katerina went to the exhibition with Kolya. They looked at their products and went to look, and what interesting things are there in other halls.

It's nice to walk around the exhibition with a nice person: here you look, you eat there, take a walk, or you will travel by local transport. The exhibition is such a place: all the same, acquaintances will dissolve in the general crowd and nobody needs you there. But the world is small.

On the way back, Katerina and Nikolai walked past the pavilion with their wares and ran into Victor and Arina. The shootout of the four eyes ended with everyone getting into Victor's car and driving home, and Nikolay, as always, to the hotel.

The company in its heyday was huge. To manage a large number of very smart people working on top of science and technology, severe discipline was introduced. The working day on all floors began simultaneously at eight in the morning. A heart attack at the entrance was the norm, not the exception to the rule.

The hard work associated with the development of test instrumentation required for the control of products was not in vain.

Quite by chance, Katerina found out that Victor won such a big prize. His unit developed a secret weapon: a magnetic beam hit a metal part on a person's clothing and pierced through it, a person died instantly before the shooting ...

Katerina thought: so, then, and that means that Victor himself killed his first wife from her secret weapon, because she died in front of his windows, this is where his unit is located! And he did it during a thunderstorm. Smart man.

So, but could he not be the same lightning that got the son of Nicholas? No, everything is more serious here. Catherine's thought was cut short. Fear pierced through her: did she love him? I loved.

The next day, Katerina heard about the death of another person. People said that he had a heart attack next to the checkpoint. Katerina knew right away who shot at the long umbrella that the dead man had. He always carried an umbrella with him, even if it did not rain. Victor's windows near the entrance, they are just two floors above. Katerina looked at herself in search of metal parts, saw earrings ...

But not in the earrings because he will shoot? Terribly. Just a terrible girlfriend. She brought the magnet to the earrings, but they were not magnetised, and she calmed down.

The guards never crossed the checkpoint, their laws and their guards reigned in the building. Deaths at the entrance were so natural that the relatives of criminal cases did not initiate and no one conducted investigations.

The death from a magnetic beam most of all reminded a heart attack.

Victor called Katerina in a cafe, he had to tell her that he would soon have a good foreign car. She immediately thought that Victor had invented something again. All love in her for him died, she no longer strove with him for intimacy, her task was one: to survive, not to tell him what was unpleasant to him: it was dangerous! Katerina was again uploaded with new work, she developed a whole series of blocks, then unified them, there were many cases.

Katerina faded into the background of Victor. Arina noticed that Victor no longer carries her in his car.

Once Victor was waiting for Katerina in a car with the door open. When she passed by, he stretched his leg so that she could easily stumble. The woman got into the car as a trap. The trap is a passenger car ... The car immediately moved off and took Katerina to the new apartment of Victor. Now he had a two-room apartment.

In the apartment sat the eternal traveler - Nikolai. Katerina greeted him, and she was immediately offered to cook dinner. She went to the kitchen. The men talked.

At the table, they revealed to her a terrible secret, which she partially knew already. Katerina was offered to design a new weapon. It practically worked, but his appearance was unsightly.

Nikolai acted as a supplier of metal for weapons. As an analogue, she was given a pistol that could lie in her workplace, for everyone it's just a toy, but a new weapon should not resemble a gun externally.

The bullet didn't fly out of a new weapon; a magnetic beam was emanating from it causing a person's heart attack. The beam stopped the work of the heart. He worked like a blood clot. External damage to the person was not.

Katerina agreed to work on a new weapon. This time the men did not touch her with a finger: her mind was more important to them than her body.

Once, Katerina forgot herself at work, picked up a pistol and went to Victor, to show new drawings. People gave her a way. She did not immediately realize that others see a pistol in a pistol, and not a sample, which is necessary and should not be followed.

Nobody dedicated Arina to the details of Katerina's work. Katerina left the design room for water. The water was in titanium, it is such a stainless construction instead of a samovar. Arina took the pistol from Katerina's table and aimed at the drawing board, then turned and fired.

Shot rang out.

Shot Arina broke the kettle, which carried Katerina. Boiling water spilled. In the hands of Katerina left handle from the kettle.

- Katerina, I thought it was a toy on your table!

- Arina, this is an analogue of the design of the new device.

On the shot, because of all the kulmans, the faces of the people stuck out, looked that everyone was alive, and put their noses into their work.

New weapons called "Astra". Why was this name necessary? In order for the name of a flower to sound in conversations, it was impossible to speak about the device in an explicit form. Externally, the device resembled a camera with a lens pushed forward; it was necessary to protect the authorities from demonstrators.

The crisis was growing in the country; the shooting of demonstrators was an inhuman business, but sometimes necessary. The camera removed the most ardent champions of democracy and slogans. The camera was aimed at a screaming person or carrying the wrong slogan; a person died immediately or every other day, everything depended on his health.

"Astra in action", - people in civilian clothes passed information to each other.

Katerina after the assignment was immediately loaded with other work. She was not allowed to the demonstrations, she was given little days off. She worked. She didn't tell anyone anything.

Victor bought a foreign car that he wanted. Katerina was not paid such money, she was paid more than others, but fewer elected. Men kept away from her.

Three days after the demonstration, Victor burst into the design room in anger and shouted so that all the designers started and looked at him:

- Katerina, are you kidding me ?! You slipped cameras instead of "Astra"!

- Calm down, Victor! I really gave a couple of cameras.

- And I, a fool, did not check. I believed you! Where is "Astra"?

- Listen, Arina's father participated in this demonstration. He wrote a terrible slogan, he would have been one of the first to shoot "Astra"!

- What are you telling me about Arina's father! I need "Astra"!

- Sit down, everything is ready! The first sample of "Astra" today can be tested. Do you have a mouse at home?

- No, only two flies flew out the window, and no one else. You have shown me so many variants of "Astra" that I can not even imagine what my development looks like now!

- And rightly, there are options, but I liked more the option, made in the form of a device with an antenna. The target is visible on the small LCD screen. The antenna serves as a barrel, it is hollow inside, the beam passes through it and hits the target. If you make an "Astra" in the form of a pistol, then everyone will immediately understand that you have a weapon in your hands, and so the device looks more like a portable receiver. The device with a magnetic beam is ready.

- We are not being petted for cheating on the head!

- Winners are not judged! And we will win! On the floors of the cat running, take one.

- I will not take it.

- Let's go to the dungeon, while civil defense is resting, use the shooting range. We must take with us representatives of the customer.

Catherine sewed a summer dress on her order. The hem of the dress was made with waves trimmed with braid. A slender woman with new weapons in her hands and in a new dress went down to the dungeon.

Victor followed in the company of stern men in suits. At the sight of a fitted dress with a unique hem, the men closed their mouths and did not say anything to Catherine about her deception with cameras, they themselves are to blame. Men in civilian clothes brought a cage with mice. Various metal objects stuck on the mice: collar, antenna, coin.

At first glance it might seem that the beam from a metal object would push off and return to the one who shoots, that is, the beam will be a boomerang, but this was all the humor of an inventive Victor.

A metal object, even if it is not magnetic, attracted a strange beam, a strange field appeared in the area affected by the beam, which affected the human vessels, and they overlap instantaneously. The first shot was made by Victor to show and prove that the weapon is not dangerous for him.

The mouse ran, tail twisted. The antenna on it swung. The mouse twitched and fell. The people in the costumes smiled and got in line to shoot. The mice ran, but all fell. The sound of the shot was not heard, the tests were silent.

Catherine and Victor were congratulated with great success and were told not to even utter the word "Astra" once again. In the series, the product will be launched elsewhere.

Quite often unpleasant events occur in the mines of all countries, human lives due to the pollution of dungeons hang in the balance from being.

Katerina came to see the mine, where tragic events occurred: the output of methane killed the miners.

Brave woman did not go down into the mine. She looked with horror at the mine, at the black elevator, or else he was called a cage, at all the equipment of the miner. She decided that it was better to develop a device convenient for each miner, and place it next to the flashlight on the helmet, let it shrill if there is the smallest dose of methane. It is important that the device is not expensive, otherwise it will not give every miner.

The developer for such a device was found, he became Katerina's best friend at the time of development. Methane detection sensors were developed, there were different types of tweeters.

It was necessary to combine electronics, a sensor, a squeaker and place it in an explosion-proof case, which would weigh little and be on the miner's head, that is, on his helmet. The woman talked with a nice miner, it turned out that he needed fish in an aquarium to rest after the mine. At home, he kept huge aquariums with various tricks and a large number of fish, he loved to look at the algae.


Chapter 19

The new device, designed to protect aquarium lovers, called "Chrysanthemum". The first sample of the device came to the western exhibition. The customers were satisfied with the device, but Katerina had to prepare a series of these devices, which she did, having managed to fall in love with the Chrysanthemum developer.

A slender man with a small gray hair pleasantly acted on an impressionable woman. It was well worked with it, the product turned out the highest class! That is the trouble of Katerina: she developed products together with men, and these products became her brainchild!

The developed devices had one problem, no matter how well they worked out, no one gave them to each miner.

Devices are classified. The word "Chrysanthemum" banned. Before the love with the developer it did not come. Katerina urgently transferred to work in another place.

At the new place, Katerina was offered to develop a very serious device, before it was already developed, but the main developer died and the device froze. The device was seven times harder than the Chrysanthemum. Catherine's task: to do what others could not do. A group of developers started the work.

One man often approached Katerina not only at work, but also on the street. Somehow he walked and smiled, Caterina was about five meters away, but the man strangely collapsed in front of a woman.

She noticed a quickly leaving man in a suit, who deftly got into the car and drove away. Astra, she thought, and walked past the corpse of a man in love with her. She could not stop next to him, only glanced at the yellowed face.

The absence of a number of obvious opponents breathed adrenaline into Arina. The work of the designer brought her a relative income, one of her friends took up in addition to her main job selling jewelry made of glass and stone, Arina started working with her.

On the new image of money, it scraped. And they decided with Victor nothing less than to go down the aisle, since the church is closer to them than the registry office. By telephone, Arina told Catherine that she is now Victor's married wife, that now their union is for the rest of her life. Katerina did not really believe the news of Arina.

A couple of months later, Katerina reported that Victor had left her in her two-room apartment, but did not take her with her. It turns out that Victor also worked these two months: he rented out his apartment to Kolya.

Katerina finished secret and urgent work, but she didn't become richer because of that, further work was more familiar and was not accompanied by raids of inspection commissions.

Arina's parents grew old before her eyes, and she was not younger. Nicholas heard the call of her heart and came to her home in defiance of everyone and everything. She, knowing that Victor, her crowned spouse, is not indifferent to Katerina, accepted Kohl properly, without looking at the words of her parents.

Arina's father was once the main developer of domestic backgrounds, and it so happened that they had a four-room apartment at the moment.

Her brother and sister grew up, became overgrown with families and left the apartment. About the large apartment of Arina, Nikolay heard from Katerina, she visited her house. Nikolay decided that such an apartment should not disappear, he did not just rent an apartment from Victor, he tied up Arina with nets, into which she fell.

This is Nikolai who advised Victor to go down the aisle with Arina and merge his apartments.

The goal has been achieved! Victor lost interest in her. Nikolai was in Arina's apartment! Her parents lived in the same room. There were still three rooms left! Nikolay sincerely sang love roulades to Arina, supported by living conditions. The woman could not resist, and that to stand - the years are running.

One room Arina was a winter garden. In the center of the room was a wide-open sofa, there was nothing more, except for lamps and numerous flowers that grew around the perimeter of the room and hung from the ceiling. A woman was brought into this room by a man.

Love among the home forest is something! And yet, the situation resembled love with Victor on a cape in a real forest.

Nikolay appreciated the love conditions, the desired rooms surrounded him, and their price was near - love for Katerina and preferably to the registrar's office. As a lover, he showed three properties: boastful, fussy, nimble. The kisses of Nicholas were overripe, the sensuality in them was clearly lost. Arina wanted to get up and get away from him, and she went to the bathroom. The jets of water calmed down, and the woman returned to her place.

The offer of a hand and heart was followed immediately. Funny, but Arina agreed. She understood one thing that such a husband would not have sex with her, and as a husband without any claims, he was suitable for her. Nikolai turned out to be a divorced man, he had all the documents with him. The path to legal relationships has been opened. Parents did not mind.

Legal matrimonial life began with the words of Nikolai, that he was allergic to blooming house flowers. Arina loved flowers with all the fibers of her soul, and they went to sleep in different rooms.

So they would have died out, but my father had an anniversary, all his children and grandchildren gathered in Arina's apartment. Nikolay was forced to become a spouse again: one room was occupied by relatives of the brother, the second - relatives of the sister, and as a result Arina and Nikolay were together in a room without home vegetation.

Their friends came to the celebration of the anniversary: Victor and Katerina. Journalists appeared in the house, they remembered about the first serial domestic backgrounds, Arina's father did not bear the popularity, a day after the anniversary he was gone. The public did not even have time to part, and the jubilee went to the funeral, the newspaper posthumously published an article about it about the backgrounds.

The mother of Arina on the basis of such problems there was a breakdown in the brain. She survived, but her intelligence was severely limited.

The brother and sister families wanted to get their inheritance, but the mother did not understand this, but Nikolay understood the whole situation. He talked on the phone with his regular wife, explained what was happening in the family of Arina. His wife divorced him formally because of this apartment, and now a piece of the inheritance was becoming so small that there was nothing to fight for.

The man also had a daughter, he decided to return to his home, since Arina had a temporary residence permit, he had a temporary residence permit, but her parents did not give their permanent residence permit while they were in full memory.

Nikolay collected his belongings and left, leaving Arina among her relatives and heirs. It was decided to divide the apartment into four financial parts; two parts were given to the one who took care of the sick mother. As out of the ground in the most difficult moment before Arina appeared Victor.

- Arina, I know everything about your situation, there is a suggestion: take care of your mother.

- She and so remains with me.

- Let's join forces, I know that Nikolai has fled from you, my apartment will go to pay off the inheritance to your relatives, and I remain in your apartment as husband.

- And Nikolai?

- Divorce.

- And Katerina?

- She doesn't need me.

- And I?

- You ask? Yes I love you!

- Are you sure? And if you only dream of repeating what is long gone?

- And we will repeat!

Relatives left. Victor moved to the house of Arina. He was not allergic to home vegetation. Housing and divorces for the year in some way, but were resolved. Victor lived with Arina on a round bed in the midst of home blooming flowers. Her mother came out of the crisis and thought quite adequately.

Arina somehow took at one time the pistol from the table of Catherine, when they were still developing the Astra, they searched for the pistol, did not find it and forgot it. And Arina took into the habit of traveling alone on a weekend in the forest and shooting at the painted targets that she brought with her. In her, she lashed out in anger against Catherine and Rodion, but she did not serve her appearance.

The happy smiles of the couple, which she accidentally noticed, sharply narrowed her jaws.

At the entrance big bags were often viewed to the bottom, small bags were not checked. Arina began to walk with a small leather bag, she carried a pistol in her bag. Rodion carried the Astra with him in the inside pocket of his jacket. One sample, under the pretext of improvement, left the 'magnetic beam' to the developer of a new weapon.

Arina knew the habits of Rodion and decided to scare him with a pistol. In the morning, when he first came to the workplace, she could not forgive him a smile addressed to Katerina. She called him on the internal phone, which is definitely not recorded anywhere, and went to his office space.

Rodion, as if he sensed Arina's voice and pulled out the Astra, putting the device next to him. Although Arina worked alongside Katerina, the design and purpose of the Astra did not know. Katerina knew how to talk to people, keeping her work secret. I must say that she returned to her workplace after performing an urgent and secret assignment at another company.

Arina walked into Rodion's room, sat down against his chair, slightly moved away from the table, looked at him carefully, pulled a pistol from her white robe pocket.

At this time, Rodion picked up the "Astra".

- Arina! Hide the gun or give it back to me! I gave it to Catherine! He's gone from her!

- Katerina again! Pray, I shoot at the count of three!

Rodion, seeing the enraged face of an abandoned and beloved woman, did not know what to do! He had time to kill her, but he did not want to kill. Here Arina once again raised a pistol at him. Rodion, without raising the Astra, pressed a button on it, the beam flew out onto Arina's gun.

The woman's hand was on the trigger, but she didn't manage to press it, so with her gun her hand dropped. She went limp and crashed to the floor like a sack of potatoes on a field while harvesting in the rain.

Rodion put Astra in his pocket. At this time, two of its employees came into the office. They saw Arina lying with a pistol in her hand, looked at Rodion's pale face.

- Rodion, what happened?

- She wanted to shoot at me, raised a gun at me, yes, apparently, my heart could not stand it, she had just fallen.

One of the women approached Arina.

- She is dead. What do we do?

- You know better, I have to breathe.

- Go, of course, go, call whom you need.

The next day, a mourning portrait of Arina appeared in the entrance hall with the inscription that she had died from a heart attack. On the table in front of the portrait were asters in a vase.

Katerina understood almost everything when Rodion came to her in the evening, then she took the device out of his pocket while he was in the bathroom, looked at the ray counter at Astra. The counter showed that the device was used, it was time to kill Arina. Katerina did not say anything to Rodion, she was more often silent.

Rodion noticed everything and said:

'I know you got into my pocket and looked at the counter of the magnetic rays, don't make excuses, I know you know about the murder of Arina.'

- Farther...

- Come to work with me!

- Again the gun in the "Astra" or "Chrysanthemum"?

- Good girl! It is necessary to modify the "Astra". The sight must be on the screen. Without you, things are going badly.


If a country has a constitution stipulating the rights and obligations of people, then there is not a single piece of paper in the family that lists the rights and obligations of family members. Katerina Ivanovna's family had the right to be silent in the presence of her husband. It was the main condition of the husband for coexistence in one apartment.

Everything else was a responsibility: to love her husband, to cook and buy food, to clean the apartment, to wash and iron, to work at work as an engineer for 8 hours a day, to take her son to the garden.

The second type of family lasted twenty-five years. Gradually, the husband became increasingly absent from home, shifting all rights and duties onto his wife's shoulders, taking only love with him, he left her home in a difficult year.

Cyril and Katerina with their two children now spent their days of rest in this composition: themselves. The places of rest were the same. They also traveled to the Warm Country to the parents of Cyril or to the Steppe City to the parents of Katerina.

After retirement, Kirill's father moved with his new wife to a small peninsula. Cyril came to him with the whole family with a bunch of flippers. On one plot of land there were two houses: one small without amenities, it was bought with land, and a new house with conveniences, built according to a beautiful project. In the new house lived Cyril's father and his new wife.

Old house given at the disposal of a young family, where all the amenities in the yard. The sea from these two houses was five hundred meters from three sides, and on each side it was somewhat different. Quince surrounded the entire area from the outside. On the way to the main beach, they always passed by a steed goby tied to a pole.

The first noisy altercation between Katerina and her husband, Cyril, occurred over the preparation of pilau. They quarreled from the heart. He insisted on the complete fulfillment of the recipe for preparing pilaf from a tasty and healthy food book of the year 1961. The altercation occurred in 1972, when they lived in an apartment in a four-story house, this house was recently demolished, and a luxurious brick house was built in its place.

From the windows of the third floor, that is, from the kitchen table one could see the courtyard, the area for cars, cars then was not enough. My husband stood nearby and shouted that Katerina did not cut carrots, little onions, and little mutton fat. On the table lay pieces of lamb, washed rice lay in a cup. The meaning of pilaf prescription was simple at first glance.

Mutton lard is placed in the pan - drown. Melt lamb fat is put in pieces of lamb. Carrots and onions are added to the roasted lamb pieces. From above it is filled up with an even layer of rice. Water is poured taking into account that rice absorbs three volumes of water. Salt, pepper to taste, can not be mixed!

Now she would make this pilaf quite simply. In a pan, pour vegetable oil. Put grated carrots and onions into butter. Put washed rice on top. Water, salt.

The second altercation with Cyril was due to borscht, oddly enough, but by the age of 21, Katerina had no idea that there were beets in the world. She cooked soup at home. Husband demanded borsch. His documents contained the recipe for his grandmother's borscht. Recipe for borscht on the book, he did not recognize. Katerina did not have her recipe.

The whole recipe.

Beef is cooked for two hours. In a pan stewed finely chopped beets. In the second pan stew carrots. On the third pan - onions. On the wooden board, finely chop the lard, garlic, then chop it all together many times with a knife to get the mass. Diced potatoes. Striped cabbage. Cooked beans.

In a saucepan with broth are dipped: boiled beans, cabbage, potatoes, beet stew, carrots and onions, lard, garlic. After a while they add: bay leaf, a teaspoon of flour, a spoon of tomato paste or tomatoes, and finally red bitter pepper is dipped in a borsch.

Now Katerina cooks this borsch as follows: she drops the ready beans into the water. In a frying pan with vegetable oil cooks onions, carrots and beets, adds a spoonful of tomato paste.

In the broth puts cabbage, potatoes, adds everything from the pan, that is, beets, carrots, onions. A bit of salt.

Fish quarrel and recipe.

On the shore of the lake in a picturesque place of land without rain and dust storms stood a tent on the side of a mountain entering the lake. Clear water washed the stones. The husband sang: "This ship, omul barrel ..." He rode around the lake on an inflatable mattress and sang at full throat, but somehow he caught some fish.

The husband tried to force his young wife to clean the live fish! She climbed a rock, sat on its edge and looked at the lake under her feet. My husband shouted downstairs to go cooking fish. The fish section is himself. She herself only roasted her in a frying pan standing on stones, between which coals were smoldering.

Over the years, terribly tired of looking at the fish, standing over the stove and trying to fry it. Now she cooks fish like this: she pours vegetable oil, water, mayonnaise, a teaspoon of flour into the pan. Ice cream fillet cuts into pieces and put in a frying pan in a cold cooked mash. Adds a handful of frozen vegetables from the pack. Cooks for about twenty minutes on a quiet fire after boiling.


After many years, Cyril went to a cold city. He lived in the summer in a clearing that belonged to the postman of the nearest village. Tourists fed him. He lectured them. Mice ate his supplies. Cyril led the main struggle with meticulous mice. Cyril knew that his army love lives in the Cold City. The wife of the commander, because he lived with her for two years. He wanted to see her. Really like. But they didn't wash and iron his clothes in a glade, and in this form he didn't want to go to her.

Mr. case. A group of tourists came to the clearing, among them was one young man, very much like Cyril. We talked Cyril and this young man. The man turned out to be the son of a soldier, his father served where Kirill served.

Mother is still alive, father is dead. After his father died, his mother, so that he would not suffer much, said that his father was a completely different man and that she had not seen his father since the days of the army, he remembers the name of the soldier - Cyril.

Cyril understood and was almost certain that his son was sitting next to him. To confess to him: "I am your father" - he could not, was not ready. Under the pretext of common interests, Cyril took the address of a young man. It turned out that he was named after an astronaut who flew in space when he was born.

It all came together to one - in front of him his son! Kirill after leaving the group, fell into such a trance that he lost his sight for a couple of days. The snow fell unexpectedly, a little seeming from the sudden cold, Cyril gathered his things and went to his home. At home, he did not leave the house for half a year, but was going on a trip to the Cold City. Summer has come.

Cyril dressed formally, took a new harness: a backpack, a tent, a bag, things, food, not very much. The idea was: to find the mother of his eldest son. Cyril came by train to the city where his first sexual love and the result of this love lived. Everything turned out to be extremely simple. Cyril rang the doorbell. The door was opened by a woman, poorly familiar. The woman looked at him with a glassy look, their glances crossed.

Their son appeared in the doorway.

Son said:

- I realized last summer that you are my father.

Kirill never returned home to Catherine.

He disappeared for his family in the apartment of his soldiers' love and their common son. In love, the guilty are not, if there is no love, and if there is love, what could be the fault?

The country moved to the new rails of the economy, and her husband as if someone called to the distant past. He went on a separate diet, but he did not get any better. His unprecedented power pulled into the Cold City.

The first time he left for a month. He came all smelling of smoke and with his toes, with gangrene. In the pharmacy, Katerina bought all the newest medicines, conducted a course of treatment, and put it on healthy legs.

The husband could not stand the love with Caterina's right hand and left her.

He dreamed all about gold, he wanted to find a treasure. Husband has always been a sexy man. But over the years, as if he had exhausted the limit of love and prudence, which at one time brought him to the city of smart people. A surge of technical knowledge was strongly shaken by events in the country in the early nineties of the twentieth century.

At home, Katerina Ivanovna had her own problems with her daughter Masha's youth.

The elongated leather jackets covered slender and slim figures. Hair in light waves lay on the shoulders. Beautiful legs, covered with boots, were partially visible, somewhere between the boots and the jacket. The girls threw their expensive black bags with laughter and began to coat the leathers. Exclamations of joy and indignation succeeded each other.

Katerina Ivanovna had no choice but to leave the hallway and go to her room. She knew that now girls would drink black strong coffee and discuss the next events in their lives. Once they decided to change their hair color. Black-haired Masha brightened her hair to white, and blond Nadezhda dyed her hair black and huddled in a corner of the room, she did not look at herself in the mirror, at first she roared, then calmed down and did not move. Masha quickly understood everything, she had to go to the store, buy expensive paint and paint Hope in white. All at once in the house fell into place, the mood at all instantly improved.

It was different with Masha. In the blond version, she looked very impressive, but her black hair from frequent tinting began to break and fall out almost from the very roots, moreover, she had a new fan in the image of the store manager. At one time, Masha and Nadezhda worked in the same store. In the store, the birthday of the employee was qualitatively celebrated. The director volunteered to take Alice home; she worked as an administrator in the store.

May night outside the window constantly attracted the eye of Katerina Ivanovna, she was waiting for the return of Masha. A car drove up to the entrance, Masha and a man got out of it. The car went to make a U-turn, and the man directly on the roadway fell on Alice, then threw her on the asphalt and sat down on top.

Masha began to shout:

- Mom, call the police!

The man shouted:

- Do not call!

Katerina Ivanovna called the police squad, explaining that at the entrance a man had attacked a woman. The director got into his car and drove away. Masha with broken feelings went past the house. The police arrived. The police detained her and took her to the police. Here it is the stupidity of life! Masha came in the morning from the police, they took a fine from her that the director paid.

Phone call. Hope has another news.

- Masha, do you know that I went to English courses?

- No, what happened?

- You see, I already work as a waitress in a restaurant for foreigners! Waitress! This is a hotel ...

- Hope, why are you so worried?

- I brought my uniform to wash, starch, iron! The form consists of white trousers and an incredible sweater! During the week I received more tips than my salary for the month! Here! And people have been working at a state-owned company for thirty years and get nothing. It's a shame. And you say I'm worried ?!

- What to do. Do you continue to study?

- Yes, only students with knowledge of a foreign language are taken to the restaurant. I work a shift in two, I miss school a little, but I really want to have my money! And a mother can give so much for pocket money!


Katerina Ivanovna quickly became a grandmother, at the age of 42. This daughter Masha gave birth to a girl Alice, but she did not live with her daughter's father. At this time, Masha's father, Kirill Petrovich, became increasingly absent from home, he constantly left to travel on his vacation. But his last vacation began to drag on for two or three months.

Masha herself calmed down a bit. She went to paid courses on securities, because you can't earn much in the store. Study lasted no more than a month, two weeks of very active study, then passing exams. As a diploma, she had a new friend from the courses, a metropolitan young man, a tall and handsome Bogdan.

Bogdan came sometimes with Masha to retire in her room. His car loomed under the window of his van, this car was very different from others. He brought good champagne, toys for Masha's son. Bogdan Katerina Ivanovna was not seen. Masha closed the door and let Bogdan into the room.

Masha after the course on securities settled on a completely different profile. She traded in a stall. Went strange years. Her work is absolutely not satisfied. Her hands could not bear the money. The skin on the hands came in complete disrepair. Alice had to quit and rebuild her skin in the hands. She again began to meet with a handsome guy Bogdan. His parents occupied good positions at the food factory.

Masha began to bring chicken meat in packages and vegetables to the apartment. The house was filled up with stew. Masha and Bogdan settled in a large room. We made repairs, pasted over the room with black wallpaper, turned out to be a branch of a coal mine.

A year later, Masha's hands again fell into disrepair. She could no longer bear the stew, she had a steady allergy to this young man and his good products. Three months after his departure, food disappeared from the house, but clothing was torn to shreds.

Elementary money was needed for existence. After a while, Masha's hands once again became gorgeous, beautiful nails with various patterns attracted the eye ...

Hope has news:

- Masha, I bought a car. I got the rights! Working as a waitress in a hotel restaurant for foreign tourists, I earned myself money for a car!

The news the next day at Hope were more modest. For the third time she bought paint with blondes on the package, and did not become blonde. She took up another purchase and began to unpack it. All right and the paint is expensive. She put on gloves, took a comb for dyeing and went into the bath, put a towel over her shoulders for such experiments.

Just put paint on her head, the bell ... She runs to the phone, dropped gloves on the way ...

Masha asks:

- Hope, did I tear you away from food?

- Not!

- And why are you chewing?

- Chewing gum.

- Do you have time to talk?

- I have, I just dyed my hair.

- So you already washed off the paint?

- No, I just put it on the hair.

- How did you go on New Year's holidays?

- Fine. Yesterday I came from the country of the Sphinx and you know what I will say? I fell in love with a surfing instructor! You see, I'm in love!

- Instructor - it's always dangerous!

- And I'm talking about it! I told my boyfriend that I no longer love him and stayed with my parents at home. I met him a couple of years! And today he calls me on a cell phone and tells me to return to him.

- Hope, and you paid money for your new apartment?

- paid! We have an apartment for two, 50 to 50. If we have a fight, we will sell an apartment and divide the money! I think that he has ceased to respect me, he used to me and does not appreciate me. And he says the opposite to me! I could not use the instructor as a trial perfume? Maybe he still does not suit me? Katerina, you do not understand! Not a guy in love with me! I fell in love!

It feels Hope that the hair on the head has dried with paint together.

- Hope, you never know what you fell in love! I sympathize with you, maybe it will still cost you !?

- I hope so too.

- Well, everything, bye!

- Until...

Hope runs in the bath to look in the mirror result. Hair dried red skin. The color of the peel on the hair is reddish. I doused a paint crust with water, smeared it on my head, put the bag on and went on the TV, to watch ... After twenty minutes, I washed off the paint: I did not find the blonde in the mirror. Wheat hair adorned her head.


Chapter 20

Spring invaded the window. The life of a new coat hung in the closet. Hope did not tease Alice with another new coat. In the hallway fun leather coat, which did not cause wild envy. Two steps from civilization always lead to windbreaks.

The fact is that the new man, Masha, Bogdan, is scared of her mother. He is so afraid of her that she is unlikely to wait for his grandchildren. They are both adherents of lazy purity, their homes are all in their places from the moment they move.

The question is: "Why, then, does she need him?" Masha does not know this, but there is no other. She tried to find a replacement for him through the network, went to the dating page, left her coordinates and photos. Men amazed her with offers of normal bedding. They did not intend to go into a windbreak. The area of the sheets more than suited them, but not for the offspring.

Such relations did not suit her. She sought advice from an old woman. Alice always thought that before people were wiser! An old woman saw a war in her childhood, the Second World War went through her house. And then, like many: two children from two fathers and the darkness of lovers, the most important thing is not for money. Look at her - flint, and the men stuck to her. She still works as a nurse on the front line, where people die every day. He works in a hospital in the most difficult ward. A great woman in something, but this fate is not for Masha. She is not flint.


Masha sat in a taxi ride. The taxi driver stopped the car and offered to engage in normal love relationships in nature, saying that he had a pregnant wife and could not touch her. And Alice, then you can? And around the forest windbreak. Could bring to the city. Masha went to the south, flew home and flew at someone else's compassionate husband.

And in the south? She went to the beach. The sun. Sea. She swam, forgetting about the shore. Forces over, turned to the shore. And the shore is far, around the waves.

Masha prayed:

- God, if you are, help!

Believe it or not, believe it or not, but it threw something over the wave. She took a breath and swam further. While swimming, her kind of power tossed up. She swam to the first stones, and a scuba diver sits on them and smiles. It was he who helped her swim to shore. And payment? Guess it.

Cost money.

Bogdan decided to divide his mother's apartment into two parts. Masha did not expect this from him. He found an abandoned apartment in which it was necessary only to make repairs. His mother found the money and bought her apartment from her son. In general, Masha had an apartment for personal relationships. She should be happy: such a love sacrifice on a sheet without windbreaks!

But from such a sacrifice of happiness did not increase. She lost the last degree of freedom. To the south, he now did not let her, drove her himself in his car. She began to live under the supervision of her own man! Looking to the left, step to the right - jealousy!


What she wanted and got. Something in this situation is wrong. Why? If you live on the territory of a man, he becomes twice the lord and the subordination of a woman is more than natural. And if you live on the territory of a woman? They also checked this situation while the apartment was being renovated. Relations between us were tolerable, but not completely satisfied with Catherine. They broke up.

Masha could not be a slave of a man and returned to Katerina Ivanovna.

'I'll pour a can of paint on your head!' I'll tear off the wallpaper! I need a new car! I need a warm country, not a frosty one. I want to go to the secular evenings of the royal persons! Screamed the young woman Masha, sitting on a stool in the kitchen.

The words belonged to Katerina Ivanovna and were accompanied by a choice mate that flew over the torn linoleum and torn wallpaper. Human fantasies are sometimes heard by the supreme forces, and these sovereign forces begin to redistribute finances on earth. What else could the supreme forces see in this apartment?

Masha lost her patience, it was transmitted to others. Several years ago, the supreme forces allocated an apartment to a luxurious woman. Brick apartment building with garage and shops. But for a start, miraculously, the money that appeared appeared in an apartment in a suburb of the capital. Time and years went by. The house appeared on the covers of magazines. Near the house there are garages, playgrounds, shop windows are lit.

The house is not prescribed. Residents were allowed to make repairs to your liking, to pay for the light. The house is frozen. Rumors are different, including: they killed the owner of the house and all close relatives. Smart people began to sell apartments in which they did not live, and buy in houses of simpler ones. And a beautiful woman Masha was never able to enter the apartment of a brick house, although the money had been invested in her long ago. The house is worth. Shops work. Years go by ...

The severity of someone else's unsettled life weighs down day by day because of someone else's disorder, and the disorder becomes more painful every day. The apartment is dilapidated and not because all the complete loafers, no. Wallpapers and paints are waiting on the floor of their hour, just not this hour. There is no moment when those who will not make repairs will leave the apartment.

There are people who do not help themselves and do not give to others: the paint smells, the wallpaper rustles. The result is a nightmare in the apartment. While the brick house was not settled, the family grew by one person and the apartment was already small. And the result is fifteen meters for three.

Despair overwhelmed and poured into words that did not contribute to friendship. And yet the supreme power heard her and offered Alice another option: to go to the Warm Country, where she would have an apartment, a car. The woman lived waiting for a heavenly miracle. How do the cool ones live? They work, cook up, raise children, shoot at the shooting range, change cars, change cities. They can not argue, quarrel, make comments - everything is very dangerous.

Here it is necessary to clarify. While Katerina Ivanovna traveled in the direction of the Untouched Island, her daughter Masha managed to grow up and have a son.

More precisely, the father of her son promised that Masha's family would move to a new home. The brick house stood in the rain and the sun and did not let its tenants in any way. The old poor apartment could not wait to be repaired. Young people - new, old - old. That came to the cans of paint, which is closed.

Travel with small children to the family written. The supreme forces heard the murmur of a gorgeous woman. It is not known from where and quite by chance thousands of dollars fell on her on clothes and shoes. She bought several pairs of shoes, jackets, a large amount of clothing. Now she could go to the reception of the royal persons. Some tall pitches brought two cars to the house, loaded the things collected long ago and sent them to the Warm Country with two cars. Some strange things happened in the atmosphere.

The weather in the south was not very hot, rainy, as if the supreme forces averaged the weather for a luxurious woman and her children. By some miracle in a warm country, a woman had a foreign car and a two-storey mansion of six rooms overlooking the sea, on the embankment of which royal persons of all countries and times walked.

And the woman stopped cursing. She sat in the kitchen of the mansion and drank coffee, she did not want to swear. And a can of paint? She has long dried up, Katerina Ivanovna painted her in an old apartment. She was very sorry that she allowed her daughter and children to change their home country to another country. Let a warm country, but with a different language and a different system of government.


The fact is that in the history of the first half of the 20th century there is little humor. And the wars of this time have not yet been turned into an old Russian fairy tale. Two big wars, in which there is no single hero, around which you can spin the fairy tale about the heroes, but you can write epics about heroes.

World War I was based on the principle of words: all countries are fighting! It was terrible. They fought on four seas, in all countries of Europe. Steel helmets. The first tanks. Gas attacks. The first aircraft - whatnot. What happened! Horror. What ended? The men of Europe and the countries close to it fought. Women served as sisters of mercy. Horses and food climbed from distant places. Countries were impoverished.

Against the background of the war and the plight of the population, the Bolshevik Party began to develop. The war became the breeding ground on which the Communist Party grew. The war grew into a civil war within the country. It was bad everything: white and red. And who started it all? Almost forgot. In the memory of people will remain the birth of new technology: reconnaissance aircraft, the first tanks. It is easier to talk about technology than human casualties.

The memory of Katerina's family is that the first husband of her grandmother Vari was a member of the First World War and he came home wounded and sick, but Xenia, or Aunt Xenia, was born from him.

Alternative to the First World War. Instead of the First World War, they would declare a sports Olympiad, which was then forgotten. All countries that have military equipment could participate in the competition. Sports were supposed to be purely military. For example, races on tanks over rough terrain. Flights on the first aircraft. Racing warships on speed, on the accuracy of hitting ...

Oh, it would just be military exercises in which civilized countries could participate. Yes!

And the revolution?

Revolutions in well-fed societies do not happen. And if there were no revolution, there would be no cohesive Bolshevik party. Who would work Party aunt Xenia? An engineer at the plant, of course at a military factory or a plant of radio components. The civil war gave birth to the national hero of the civil war, the hero of anecdotes and a book - the great and unforgettable Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev. And he lived only 32 years, and according to anecdotes, he is an old man and Petka helped him with all the women.

What Vasily Ivanovich close to Catherine?

Her grandfather was a Bolshevik and was elected chairman of a collective farm, for which he was beaten with rifle butts in front of people. The White Cossacks opposed the Bolsheviks. It turned out that Vasily Ivanovich fought against the White Cossacks in the Copper Mountains! Biographies came together.

And in what alternative can stories help? Katerina's grandfather would not have been beaten, and he would not have died in 1936. And Vasily Ivanovich? Let him not be wounded on September 5, 1919 on the river, then he would head the division, in the name of his name, or he would not be a national hero.

The Second World War. The history of the Second World War, many know by heart. What was missing the great Efreitor? Victory over all the people of the continent. Yes, Napoleon eventually became a fabulous person in history. What unites them? Napoleonic capture plans, blitzkrieg, march across Europe, attack on Great Russia, almost at the same time of year. Approaching the capital of Moscow.

Alternative history of the Second World War. There was no second world war! Atomic bombs would be banned during their development. A country located on the eastern islands would not suffer from atomic bombing. Everyone would be alive, everyone would be busy with the creative process and processing of fields and gardens.

Gray-eyed Ksenia Artemovna was born in September 1907. She grew up in difficult years for the country. She was an energetic and capable girl who always wanted to go to school. Mother did not allow her to study, but Xenia went to school, studied well, the teacher loved her. She graduated 4 classes. From the age of 13 she worked on the railway together with other teenagers. They weeded the railroad tracks and cleaned the rails around, she gave the money to her mother. She later worked at the mill.

At 16, Ksenia went to an industrial city, where she got a job through the Komsomol district committee. From the first payday she bought a dress and chrome boots, and was so happy to buy, which is beyond words.

Ksenia joined the Komsomol in 1920, and in 1928 the Komsomol cell transferred her to the party. She was a member of the Komsomol bureau, and a female organizer. Komsomol members staged performances and showed them in the villages. After the performances, Komsomol members organized youth evenings with the participation of village youth.

On one of the evenings, Ksenia met with teacher Sergey Gavrilovich. They fell in love with each other. After a while, Sergey Gavrilovich arrived and made Ksenia Artyomovna an offer. The girl did not refuse, she loved him very much. He was a kind man, cultured and with a good soul. My daughter didn't say anything about Sergei Gavrilovich's proposal to her mother. Ksenia was a member of the Komsomol, she performed a lot of public work, - all this her mother did not like.

Mother considered her a naughty daughter. She wanted to marry her to another person. Matchmakers came and married Ksenia. There was no happiness. Born a daughter. The husband began to lead a tactless lifestyle. Ksenia decided to leave him. Thus began her life as a single mother, her mother helped her.

Sergei Gavrilovich did not marry for two years after her marriage, waited for her to meet, but the meeting did not take place. He married without love, was not happy.

Ksenia joined the Bolshevik Party.

And where else to enter a beautiful and interesting girl? Brothers Xenia entire WWII were in this war. She saw the destroyed houses of Leningrad, trenches near Moscow and dugouts of partisans in the Bryansk forests. She was wounded in Kronstadt, where she was a commissioner ...

Ksenia Artyomovna was promoted to work in the district party committee. The years for the country were hard: the restoration of the national economy, collectivization. During her life she worked in the district committee, in the party committee, in the political department of the MTS and at the state farm. She graduated from the party school. She worked where her party sent. Was executive and careful.

Ksenia watched the study of the younger brothers Misha and Ivan, and their first steps at work. At work, they spoke well. Ksenia worked and studied in Leningrad before the war, but did not lose sight of her brothers, sent them packages and money for life and clothing.

In peacetime, Xenia loved to go to a sanatorium located on the seashore, probably because she was a navy commissioner during the war. Imagine on the ship a woman commissioner. Ksenia was 165 centimeters tall, with good party training, as far as personal ties with the sailors were concerned, they were excluded. She knew how to shoot a pistol, which was always with her.

In the city - the island of sailors, she lived and worked two years before the war. She had to be present at the first submersion of the submarine. The designer of the submarine, Sergey Sergeevich, often asked her to help get something necessary for the submarine. The captain of the submarine was appointed captain with her cruiser, where she was a commissioner - it invisibly connected them all three. The woman was not commissioned to the submarine. The captain was the secret love of the commissar.

Xenia was a little over thirty years. A woman with a party experience and a career, with an unsuccessful family life, appreciated the captain's good attitude towards her. She simply liked designer Sergey Sergeevich, and she helped him as a party worker. The submarine met the war in navigation, she had to return to the port of the city-island, and she returned. The crew had to participate in ground warfare while the boat was repaired after sailing. Ksenia met with the captain once, but as a nurse. She had to become a nurse and take military training courses.

Commissioner Xenia was on the front line, there was no time left for love, there was time for military operations of the ship, and military operations for seamen in coastal areas. As a result of the strong battles of seamen against the enemy, she was seriously wounded, and she was sent to besieged Leningrad. Later, Xenia was transported along the road of life to the Copper Mountains. She was sent to be treated in the rear.

The family history of Katerina is the story of Ivan Artyomovich, son of Varvara Antonovna and Artem Ivanovich.

First date with a girl ...

- Vanya, and you love me?

- Dunya, very.

- Do we get married with you?

- Wait, Dunya, let me think, you know, I do not know where we will live with you ...

- Does it really matter? It is important that we love each other.

Ivan and Dunya were standing on the bank of a clear lake, while a fern in the shade of trees was slowly swaying cobwebs on the foliage. The city park of the city, located in the mountains, received in its leafy canopy the lovers of all ages. On Sunday, a young couple was walking in the park, swaying and rolling on all the swings and merry-go-rounds, firing a rifle at the shooting range. They were good, they were young and happy with their first love.

Ivan worked at the factory, where he was valued for hard work, he had confidence in his abilities and his future, and he quietly paid for Sunday fun in the park. Dunya, a young girl, held Ivan's hand and did not let go even for a second. Everything was fine, they dreamed, they figured out where to live after the wedding. Everything changed after a week.

The war of 1941 has come to the blue, transparent lakes. Ivan continued to work, he was at that time 19-20 years old, Dunya, about 18. No, they did not get married. Ivan worked at the tractor factory, which produced conventional tanks in some of its workshops. The workshops were scattered around the city, and not everyone knew where and what they were doing at the factory. Ivan is a machine operator from God, he immediately received a respite from the call to the front. His brother Michael was the first to be taken to the front.

The friendship between Vanya and Misha constantly evoked interest and ridicule in the family.

If Ivan's mother asked:

- Ivan, are you going to eat now?

- I like Misha, he will eat, and I will.

Misha was older than Ivan by a year. Once they decided to enroll in one technical school, but by this time Misha had already completed eight classes, and Ivan was only seven. Naturally, Misha did, and Ivan wrote an example, looked at him and passed the job clean, although in his class he excelled in mathematics, this gave him the audacity to go with his brother to take exams, and Misha took everything seriously and did not go without Ivan to study. Both went to FZO. But in the FZO, Ivan's success was better than Misha's, and at Ivan's factory, the details on the machine were better and faster.

Ivan without Misha felt uncomfortable, his conscience told him that he should go to the front. Ivan was not a subject to a call to the army, and in his free time he met with Dunya. Dunya, like the plant, did not want to let him go to the front.

Ivan's gray eyes glittered with steel. He said to Duna:

- I will go to the front as a volunteer.

- Ivan, what about me? Will you leave me alone?

- Dunya, I can't sit in the rear, my conscience eats me, can you understand me?

'I can, but I don't want to, I can't wait for you, I can feel it.'

Ivan passed a medical examination and a volunteer at the age of 20 in the autumn of 1941 was sent to the front. He was not a newcomer to mastering weapons; on Sundays in peacetime, Ivan walked into the city park on blue rocky lakes and shot a dash. He shot accurately. It was such a peaceful title "Voroshilovsky shooter", he honestly earned it.

Gorgeous eyesight allowed the young guy to sharpen details without marriage and shoot right on target. Ivan endured military hardship calmly. In peacetime, during a thunderstorm, he invariably went out into the street and did not leave until the storm was over. He loved the wind, he loved the snow, and he got all this in full at the front.

A hundred kilometers from the capital, he was wounded for the first time in the arm. The injury was not serious, in his opinion, and Ivan remained in his company. The wound healed. The fights under the capital became more serious every day. The frost was growing stronger, and the thunderstorm from the discharges of guns almost did not pass. Ivana was sent on reconnaissance for his extraordinary stamina in the cold winter of 1941. Once, while in intelligence, he saw a terrible picture near the village of K., located on the outskirts of the capital. A large number of frozen corpses of Russian soldiers were collected in stacks. A terrible sight hit Ivan in memory forever.

In the battles on the outskirts of the capital, he was wounded in the thigh, a bullet in his leg was stuck forever, they could not get it, a wandering bullet. The hole in the leg was healed, the bullet was walking in the soft tissues above the knee. In the field hospital, Ivan began to write poetry. The wound on the left arm is higher than the elbow, the wound on the leg is higher than the knee, and verses in the head about war and love for Dun. Letters written in verse, Ivan sent Duna. One letter in verse he sent to his mother and sister. Ivan after treatment in the camp hospital again went to the front. The war changed the direction of the main attack.

Ivan was a sniper, served as a scout in a company, and until the end of the war not a single bullet hit him anymore, but he escaped one deadly bullet. They sent him into reconnaissance across the front line; he was not in company for a day or two. The situation on the front line during this time has changed. He crossed the border when returning from intelligence in the area of a neighboring company. At night, as he crossed the front line, he slid into a large funnel and fell asleep. Ivan was arrested by soldiers from a neighboring company during sleep and accused of desertion. The company performed punitive functions. They lined up their own to the wall for execution and all were accused of desertion. Shot one by one.

Suddenly there was a heart-rending cry:

'Vanka is this, he is our scout!'

This was Ivan's friend shouting from his company. The bitterness in the soul of the scout remained, like a wandering bullet in the leg, until his natural death.

Ivan with his company reached the city, which stands like an island in a foreign country. Someone decided that Ivan was not enough for four years of war, and sent him to a country located on the eastern border of the country. We drove 30 days across the country. After military operations in the East, he was released to his factory in his hometown.


After returning home from the front, Ivan discovered that Dunya, the girl he loved before the war and carried the war in his heart, did not wait for him and married the rear man, but he, the war veteran, was lucky again, he met Valia, a cook from working mess and they got married. Katya had a sister, Anya. His sister, Ksenia Artemovna, worked at the party committee at the same party. After being wounded, she no longer left her city, if only to the resort.

Once a submarine designer arrived at the factory with an order for another submarine. Ivan Artyomovich went to Ksenia Artyomovna with the party committee and said that they were going to get married. At the same time, the designer also looked in there. They met. The designer at the wedding met his sister Vali, Anya, and took her to Leningrad. Anya worked as a copyist at her plant, and later worked as a copyist in Leningrad. Very carefully, she copied the drawings to the new submarine. Anya was the second wife of the designer. He has a son from his first wife, his first wife did not survive the blockade.

The first son of Vali and Ivan died early, he was not even a year old. Ivan was very worried about the death of his son. At the factory, working in the third shift, he fell asleep in the shop on a bench, he was blown away badly, and the result was tuberculosis. The injured soldier was sent to the hospital. Ivan was in a hospital in the Crimea near the Swallow's Nest. He had a very difficult operation, the surgery was done by the surgeon Vishnevsky. Ivan was cut six ribs, replaced with fluoroplastic ribs and healed a lung, that was the end of it.

Ivan returned from the hospital on time. He had a daughter with a high and intelligent forehead and gray speckled eyes, Katerina. Ivan's eyes were gray-blue flecked. Two years later, a son was born Sergei with congenital heart disease.

Ivan was given a disability - an invalid of the first group of the Great Patriotic War, over the years he reached the invalid of the third group of the Great Patriotic War. Immediately after the war, Ivan Artyomovich worked at the factory, later he worked in the artels of people with disabilities, where they made frames and boxes from plastic plastic. The products were multi-colored and resembled gems, but the gems were plastic!

Ivan is 170 years old, his hair is brown, straight, his eyes are clear and gray, his body is all scarred and wounded. There are no two fingers on one hand. He was a deputy in his hometown. His hobby is Rose Garden. He was an excellent gardener, the apple trees grew the most unique, and slate apple trees were the best. Strawberries gave great harvests from spring to autumn. Ivan's favorite newspapers: "Soviet Sport" and "Izvestia". Favorite team - 'Spartak'. Favorite song: "Both snow and wind" ... Favorite weather is a thunderstorm. Favorite cigarettes - "White Sea."

Ivan Artyomovich loved children to read Pushkin's fairy tales, the poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila" recited from memory, rarely looking into a book. The book of Pushkin's fairy tales - big and yellow with an imprinted pattern on the cover and color pictures between the tales, was constantly read to children.

Ivan had an extraordinarily beautiful and clear underline, with this underscore he signed in the first classes of the children's writing-book when they themselves had read, but still wrote little. Interestingly, he bought clothes and shoes. Ivan Artyomovich worked as a machinist, but in the last years of his life he worked as a carpenter and carpenter at a woodworking factory.

The life of Katerina's father, Ivan Artyomovich, ended in the late seventies of the 20th century. There was a queue for dairy products. Shop "Friendship". Ivan rarely used the fact that he was an invalid of the Second World War, but suddenly it took urgent ... sour cream. He took a glass jar and went down to the store, he lived in this house on the fourth floor about eight years and said queues:

- Skip disabled war veteran ...

They shouted at him:

- What a disabled person, you and 30 are not !!!

What does the gray-haired gray-eyed man mean! He is 57 years old, wounded far and wide, and he was given 30 years! Brown hair, gray eyes, gray hair - a little. He went up to the fourth floor of the house, on the first floor of which was the Druzhba store, and came down. His throat was very sore. Sarcoma - told the family. We were looking for what it was for a long time ... Cancer went down below and occupied the lung under the fluoroplastic fins.

Ivan was given an injection by a doctor from an ambulance, and he died a year before the Olympics in the Capital. Hot summer day. Ivan, according to the bill, as it was said at that time, his sister worked in the hospital, they put him in the freezer after death and autopsy.

Katerina traveled by train for three days from the capital to the Steppe city, when her father Ivan died. The train stopped at the station, she got out of the car, and a group of relatives in black bandages was already running towards her.

From the station, Katerina was taken to the railway hospital, where her father was in the freezer, the hospital was near the station. Father Ivan lay like a king, calm and important. All the wrinkles pulled off the ice, and he looked nice and calm. On the day of the funeral, the coffin was placed in the shade of the trees near the Druzhba house. A lot of people came, some large wreaths were about ten, they were leaning against the trees.

Valentina Alekseevna, sat next to the coffin and constantly wiped her face on the body of Ivan Artyomovich, he melted. The day was hot, 27 degrees in the shade. Ivan Artyomovich was buried in the cemetery, but in the same way that kings are not buried. The guys from his brigade DOCK forced to dig a grave more. A wooden pedestal was installed in the grave. The coffin was not lowered into the ground, but onto wooden underground chambers. Do not forget, Ivan worked with carpenters and carpenters! The guys and the coffin themselves did! And through the cemetery to the big one, it was carried by the carpenters and carpenters!

Mother claimed that at six o'clock in the morning, one day before the arrival of her daughter, Ivan became very ill. He had had a stomach for several days already, cancer from the sarcoma of the throat had passed into lung cancer and had already descended into the stomach. After the injection of the doctor in Ivan's body, a relaxation took place, which he did not allow himself with his mind. Slag from the body came out of it from all sides, and Ivan said the last sentence:

- Well, Valya, everything seems to be.

And he died.

Katerina:

- Mom, my father was diagnosed with stomach cancer, he was ill for two years, and before that he had a stomach ulcer. Why was his injection sent to that light?

- Katerina, it is necessary to find a team of doctors, which gave him the last injection in his life, because when you call a doctor for a cancer patient, when you call the doctor you call the disease code, the doctor knew who she was traveling to. The doctor was brown-eyed, black-haired, with almond-shaped eyes.

'Mom, we can't find a doctor.'


Chapter 21

Katerina regularly got acquainted with the ambulance crews, but could not find a woman similar to the description of her mother. Perhaps she replaced someone or worked freelance in an ambulance, then she thought about the coincidence of the injection with her arrival. Could this be the cause of Ivan's death, could someone hastened his death so that her daughter did not see the cancer patient in the last stage? The ambulance doctor first heard this information from Valentina Alekseevny.

Could the doctor replace the injection of additional information? What happened to Ivan from the injection? He relaxed and died. He did not want the sick and weak to remain in the memory of his daughter. And if his desire coincided with the action of the injection? Ivana had nothing to hold in this life, so his inner resistance to the injection was not there.

- Mom, in this case there are no guilty ones, I was already in an oncologic hospital, I can say that my father was treated better than many, everyone treated him well in the hospital, he already lived for a long time with all the bouquet of cancer diseases - two years moment of illness. The hospital believes that the emergency doctor is innocent.

Valentina Alekseevna, Katerina's mother, was born in the outback of the Ural Mountains. During the Great Patriotic War, her father took her and her brothers from the village to the city on a three-ton trip. In the courtyard of a garment factory located on Chkalov Street, the Vali family lived in a small house. Vali, before she fell ill with typhus and had her hair naked, had a huge dark blond braid. During the Second World War, Ira decided to go to study as a nurse.

During the student recruitment, the school principal invited her to bring him lunch to the office. Valya brought - semolina with herring! The director was so shocked by the combination of products that he said:

- Valya, you need to go to the cook to study, and not to the nurse.

So in the Malachite Mountains one cook has become more. Valya worked both in the factory canteens and in the South Malachite restaurant. In the factory canteen, Ira met Ivan. Growth at Vali 152 cm. A tiny girl with a big dark blond oblique.

Ten years after the development of the virgin lands, Ivan Ivan took Valia to the town of Steppe, where she worked in factory canteens and in a restaurant. The river has two banks - one is steep, the other is flat. Valya was a good wife, there were no shouts and quarrels between Ivan and Valya. And this is all very difficult. Ivan is a front-line soldier, an invalid, those nerves are still. The bullet from his leg wasn't pulled out until his death.

Valya was always one:

- Ivan. Ivan ...

Valya always worked in public catering, but in public catering, what is the main thing? To avoid shortages. Working as a brigadier chef, she gathered her girls, as she called cooks, and told them:

- Girls, your girlfriend dragged a loaf of sausage, if you want to work, then this can not be done.

Once Valya changed her job, and the new brigade set it up. Kate hung a major shortage. The commission came home with a check. In the house of Vali, luxury was not close, everything is very simple, but the husband paid his shortage - Ivan. He worked as a carpenter and at that time received a lot of -300 rubles., While Katerina in the Capital received 120 rubles. So changing work in the catering is a serious matter.

Valya always lived with Ivan's mother, Baba Varya. Baba Varya with Valea lived up to 90 years! This is a great property of Valentina Alekseevna - to treat members of her family well, even if it is a mother-in-law. She washed her, cut off her nails, fed her when she already could not eat. We must pay tribute to Baba Vare, she did not ask for much, and six months before her death she washed the dishes and collected garbage from the floor, it was clearly visible on the cherry palace. Ivan had cancer for two years. Valya endured all his problems until his death.

After the death of Ivan, the neighbors decided to marry Valentina for a good person - Ivan Ivanovich, who recently lost his wife and lived alone, the children do not count, they were all adults. Katya's three-room apartment was in one entrance, Ivan Ivanovich's three-room apartment in another entrance. The apartments were located on the same floor through the wall. It seemed to cut the door - and the rich! Not here it was! The children cast their vote against the unification of the apartments. Ivan Ivanovich was a big railway chief and before retirement he decided to earn some money in an Eastern country.

Here it is the link of time! Valya brown-eyed, dark-haired, from the very Copper Mountains, obviously the people of the Brown-eyed Khan did not ignore her ancestors with their attention, after six centuries they pulled her into the Eastern country. Valya and Ivan Ivanovich lived in that country for two years, and the climate did not interfere with it, she tolerated it well.

Valya was younger. It was easy for her to live with Ivan Ivanovich, he was dragging financial burdens, he changed Valya from head to toe, and her children also got it! She was given gold for the first time in her life!

Valentina Alekseevna divorced Ivan Ivanovich after returning from the country on the Eastern border. She lived still one fifteen years. Before her death, when she got sick with brain cancer, Ivan Ivanovich returned to her and cared for her for a whole year, and Katerina was told that her mother had a cataract, so Valentina Alekseevna sees poorly. Under this pretext, she was in the capital, they say, the cataract is well treated there.

Katerina's mother lived a month, every day she was getting worse.

Katerina asked her mother:

- Mom, why did you divorce Ivan Ivanovich?

And the mother answered her:

- I was ashamed to live well. And who are you?

Mother no longer recognized her.

It was not easy to arrange a resident of a neighboring state in a metropolitan hospital; Valentina Alekseevna received official permission for medical care six months after her death. Four days before her death, she was admitted to the city hospital. Each step had to be covered in cash. The day before Valentina Alekseevna's death, the doctors said that she had double cancer and that she was not subject to surgery. Ira lay quietly and snuffle. Katerina saw her so calm for the last time. Ira, Valentina Alekseevna, died at the age of 72, without regaining consciousness, she was constantly connected to a drip.

Who would know how upset Ivan Ivanovich! He began to call Katerina constantly! He did not believe in the death of Valentina Alekseevny! Each movement of her and after death was covered with certificates and money. She was buried normally in a cemetery without a crematorium. Ivan Ivanovich called and worried that they would burn Valya. No, she was buried in a coffin. All commemoration of her for the most part took place where she lived. People sobbed into the phone on a long-distance telephone.

Mikhail Artyomovich, the brother of Ivan Artyomovich, came home from the front sick and married a woman Lyuba with the child Anatoly. He adopted Tolya, and the boy became Anatoly Mikhailovich and always considered his stepfather for his father.


Katerina's father loved flowers alone - tiger lilies. At the summer cottage of his father, Ivan Artyomovich, from year to year in one place in one straight line tiger lilies grew. The rest of the flowers on their background portrayed the crowd. Tiger lilies on high stable legs spread their yellow-orange petals with dark dots, but the main thing - stamens, pistils inside the flower. On the legs inside the flower were located dark brown, 15-millimeter strips with the property - smear noses.

Katerina's mother, Valentina Alekseevna, after her husband's death, left tiger lilies in the same holy place for them. Once Katerina arrived at the dacha, and there everything was not in place: the door was torn from its hinges, things were taken out of the house and in the form of a knot lay in currant bushes.

Valentina Alekseevna came to the conclusion that it was better not to close the door at the dacha, she made a wire hook and simply closed the door from the wind, and it was better for people not to close the dacha door. Nobody slept at the dacha, they came here on a light water day. Water was given three times a week, three times a week at the dachas there were a lot of people, on the other days unknown people hosted here.

Neighbors from the neighboring plot constantly asked Valentina Alekseevna to sell them a plot for breeding flowers. After the death of Ivan Artyomovich, the requests became more insistent, and the neighbors from good neighbors began to turn into neighbors-enemies. At the site, a meter away from the neighbor's site, an artesian well was made, pumping up the pump, it was possible to get cold and pleasant water from a great depth. Neighbors used water from a well.

The years went by, and the mistress of the dacha was already one mother of Katerina, there were no more relatives near her, and Katerina lived in a completely different area. An elderly unprotected woman every day more and more apprehensively came to her dacha. Cottage her fed. It grew bushes of raspberry, gooseberry, currant. There were two pear trees, eight apple trees, plums. Peas and beans always grew along the fence, strawberries sang constantly in sunny places. A fruitful oasis with a magnificent land, which appeared on the site of sand over the long years of work of Ivan Artyomovich, it was difficult to sell voluntarily.

Neighbors have already counted many times how much income you can get from selling flowers from the Valentina Alekseevna plot; these calculations did not allow them to sleep. The neighbors had a less well-kept plot, they didn't have those hands, and they didn't have enough skills for big harvests, but there was more than enough envy. Valentina Alekseevna was frightened at the dacha and pretended that someone was on her without her. They decided to force her to sell the land along with the house and the trees.

Katerina remembered how her father, a big fan of tiger lilies, drank. In the kitchen of five square meters the table for meals combined the functions of a bedside table, there were bulk products in plastic cans. To the right of the table on the floor there was almost always a bottle of red wine. Ivan Artyomovich after his labor exploits at the dacha came home and took a hundred grams of red wine from his place, after that he had a favorite phrase: "I'll go ..." The red wine muffled the pain in the muscles after physical work at the dacha.

Valentina Alekseevna struggled differently with pain in her head: she drank the pills, they always and everywhere with her. Sometimes, in order not to drink pills, she would tighten her head with a small woolen scarf. It was her disease number one, disease number two was pain in strained legs, there is only one treatment for this pain - to lie down and fall asleep.

It was possible to get to the cottage with tiger lilies by bus, which went to the airport. From the bus to the cottage, one had to go about a kilometer or a bit less. You can take a taxi, but this luxury is possible if several people go to the country. Ivan Artyomovich and Valentina Alekseevna saved up money for a car for his son while he was in the army, but he could hardly have brought them to the dacha more than five times, it would be better if they took a taxi rather than collect money for his son Sergey.

Valentina Alekseevna worked from 14 to 70 years with breaks for holidays, and her son Sergey found a wife who, having married him, did not go to work anymore. They needed the car in order to carry Mila to entertainment events for which she was preparing while Sergei was at work.

Parents for the wedding of their son gave a beautiful bedroom set. Here is Mila and lay on the new bed. Leave the apartment to the words: "The machine is filed for entertainment" - she was not going to. Ivan Artyomovich could not understand this behavior of the daughter-in-law. Children were not going to start young or could not. Sometimes Sergei drove Mila to the dacha, but even there she managed to lead a lazy lifestyle, even sunbathing on the beach she was lazy. She kept a beautiful figure, and her very interesting face enjoyed particular care. After five years, the young fled. Mila ran away, taking the new furniture from the apartment. Everyone was at work, she brought a truck to the house, and the loaders at her command carried the furniture out of the apartment.

When in the evening people returned from work, the house was empty of new furniture. Mila said that this is Sergei's fee for her life with him. Mila transported everything to her mother, who had not given to her.

Katerina was told this story when she came to her parents on a regular vacation. Katerina and Mila were visiting her sister on their previous visit. Imagine the main street of an ordinary city with pedestrian crossings, on which there are no traffic lights. When Katerina and Mila approached the crosswalk, all the cars on the two oncoming roads immediately stopped and waited with pleasure when the two young ladies would cross the road. Women up to thirty, with good legs, high-heeled shoes, narrow and short skirts on slender figures act as a brake on drivers, they freeze and just look ... It is clear that such a rule of motion.

Mila's sister was married to the pilot. While the pilot was flying, his wife was not working, she was sitting with the child at home, after the pilot was killed on the assignment, the young wife was given a pension, but there were few of her for two. She began to work. Mila went partially on her way, while she was married to Sergey, she did not work, when she left him, she went to work.

Sergey, Katerina's brother, after leaving Mila, began to drink more; the car did not bring him any benefit. On the streets at one time everywhere and in all cities there were kiosks with wine and vodka products. After work, Seryoga bought himself a bottle of vodka at such a kiosk, sat in a chair at home, drank Valentina Alekseevna as a snack and died.

But before his death in two years, he met his second wife, civil. They were introduced by mutual friends. She buried him. After that, Valentina Alekseevna was left completely alone in a large apartment, which the brothers of the common-law wife of her son liked very much, but it is better not to remember this.

Katerina went to her mom in the cemetery, apparently, her mother was offended by her. Katerina lies at home and suffers from pain. Easter is in full swing, and she feels bad. Then, quite suddenly, the thought flashed through my head: I had to go to my mom to the cemetery. She jumped up, began to dress, said to her family that she had gone to the cemetery, refused to eat dinner. A bus arrived and she reached the cemetery. I must say that the buses went in a circle, and all were people. New cemetery not far from the village. Opposite the monument to the soldiers you sit on the bus and drive.

A portrait of a 48-year-old woman was knocked out on a granite monument, and a birch branch was knocked out under it, she herself wanted so much that not a carnation, but a birch tree. Katerina wiped the monument, collected old wreaths, put a new wreath, looked up: there are no faces on the monument! Dark spot. At the second moment, she realized that the portrait was still wet, but the instant horror had already passed through the body. She looked at the ground and realized that she needed to add good earth. Near the church bought a package of land. Mom smiled. In the portrait.

There was a time to think about giving Valentina Alekseevny with tiger lilies. She sold the cottage to her dacha neighbors, their plot was behind her house, from the artesian well at the cottage. Naturally, there was little money from the neighbors, and they paid part of the amount and forgot about its existence, if Valentina Alekseevna reminded of herself and the debt of her neighbors, then she was in trouble or an accident. The most significant incident occurred when she crossed the tramway, opposite her apartment windows, she was pushed onto the tramway rails, she fell on them with her head, so her neighbors in the cottage with tiger lilies paid her debt.

After falling on the rails, Valentina Alekseevna's eyesight began to fall sharply. She still has a large apartment in a house of large white bricks. Sometimes the civil wife of her son Sergei, who by then was no longer alive, came to see her.

Valentina Alekseevna herself is the last. Brothers of the common-law wife Sergey pressed all the keys in order to hasten the death of his mother. Katerina from her youth from her mother lived far away and did not know all the events for the time being. Under the will, the apartment should have gone to Katerina, but she felt that it was better not to touch this apartment.

There were relatives who offered to pay part of the money for an apartment while Valentina Alekseevna was still alive, so that she would transfer to them gradually, but Sergey's civil wife was closer to the owner of the apartment and stopped her at the time.

Once, Katerina rang a long-distance call. Called Valentina Alekseevna, said that she should urgently come to her. The ticket was bought by her common-law wife, Sergey, she was traveling in the car with her brothers, one of them was working as a conductor. She arrived in the capital a day before the appointed arrival time, when Valentina Alekseevna was leaving the car, someone pushed her, and she fell back again with her head, but now about the lower rung of the stairs from the car.

Katerina received a call from the station doctor, she was told that her mother was at the station and she was sent to the hospital, they would not wait for the relatives to arrive, the situation is very complicated. Soon there was a phone call from the hospital, Catherine listed the illness of her mother, and that she was in very serious condition.

The flying saucer with a cone-shaped bottom rotated slowly over the forest. It is interesting that they were looking out of the windows on a cone in the forest in late autumn? The foliage with black openwork lay along the malachite paths, the roads themselves were clean, the foliage on them practically did not fall. Small squirrels, full and well-fed, sometimes ran across clean paths.

The video camera was installed at the bottom of the cone, as a porthole.

It would be inconvenient for the operator to look down, therefore a flat LCD monitor of time, which was observed, was installed inside a flying saucer with all the conveniences.

There were three people in the team. All phenomena occurring in the field of view of a video camera appeared on the monitor, were recorded on computer memory disks, they could be easily demonstrated and installed new ones.

In the flying saucer team was Cyril, he knew everything about Katherine.

The focus of the screen was a road of ten meters. Katerina has just passed in the present tense. Memory sensors from a flying saucer clung to her brain. And they were in time ...

With a flying gait, a girl came up to a guy dressed in bast shoes, striped pants and a shirt, girded with a rope. He held his breath. The dragonfly girl struck him with her grace, she barely touched the earth, there was a slight mystery of the universe in her.

And this beautiful, extraordinarily majestic girl with a red cap on her head was so close to him that he forgot about everything in the world!

She emerged from a carriage resembling an earthly dragonfly. He saw a carriage landing like a bird, but without flapping its wings.

There was something to think about, but no one gave him any thought, because the second girl with a yellow cap on her head came out and went out of the flying carriage! Oh, how good she was on the background of bluish transparent wings! The thoughts of the guy became confused. The girl touched his fingernails. And he was forgotten in the fog of unreality.

The next man from the flying carriage appeared a young man in a green cap, he approached the guy in sandals, ran his hand over his head and showed his upper wing so that the girls would return to the flying carriage.

The guy opened his eyes: two girls approached a flying carriage, their upper wings were from the waist to the hands, the lower wings - from the feet to the waist. He wanted to shout, but he did not hear his voice, he wanted to run after them, but he could not lift a finger either. From powerlessness, he lay down on the grass and with delight watched the winged carriage rise into the air.

The flying coach easily took off and instantly disappeared over the horizon, and only after that the guy was able to get up and talk, but there was no one to say!

He returned home, drew a flying carriage with coal. But who will believe his drawing! His gaze fell on the nails of the hands, on them was one word of five letters - "Earth". Oh, that's the name of his planet! And he again plunged into oblivion.

The guy woke up in the woods.

People in coats came up to him, they spoke in a strange language, but they could be understood, and he led them somewhere, thinking that it turned out to be the day: either the coaches fly, or the strangers ask to be taken to the king.

Five star autumn prevailed on earth. Maples six floors high were covered with clean light yellow leaves, the same amazingly beautiful leaves circled in the air and fell on the wet and cool ground. For several days the beauty was unearthly, and golden and on the earth, and on maples. But today the fog has fallen, autumn rain has passed, not quite a light wind has blown, and beauty gradually began to leave the divine maple glade. Maple leaves, like open palms lay on the ground and gradually lost their original, delicate yellowness. Maples began to take a disheveled look.

In life there are such clean and sunny days, and then events happen that are not quite pleasing, or an autumn virus will pick up somewhere in the health, or a computer will randomly freeze. Probably, in such a stellar autumn the mistress of the copper mountain met Danila the master in love with malachite. Malachite colors disappear from nature in the fall, the shrub remains green for a long time, and malachite is an evergreen stone with divorces. To create a green malachite stone flower was a matter of honor for master Danila. Now this flower would be created with the help of a special tool that would circle over malachite at a decent speed and buzz stronger than a fly. And there is no romance of the copper mountain, and there is no need to hide Danila in the possession of the mistress of the copper mountain.

At the height of the ninth floor there is an office and workshops of the company, where the masters of their craft sit, and the owner and the hostess manage the production. Somewhere far below, on the ground, visible waves of red, yellow and green foliage. The sky is covered with fog. The ninth floor is quite a decent mountain filled with people and equipment. What connects the company with the copper mountain? Copper wires are a permanent affiliation of numerous firms and industries. For a long time in the country, nepotism was not encouraged in leadership, and this entailed the sad problems of infidelity.

After all, the Mistress of Copper Mountain also destroyed a pair of Danila and his girlfriend on the ground. And only after the emergence of private firms, the pair leadership appeared. The owner of the company, the son of a military commander, was amazingly raised. Fifteen years ago, when he was younger, and his whole soul perceived the vibes of the surrounding women, even then he did not perceive them as sexual partners, only as partners in work.

Autumn fifteen years ago was in the last phase of golden plumage, when Cyril and Katerina walked through the Capital to the exhibition. The day was warm for this time of year and they didn't want to get on the bus, which transported from the subway to the exhibition. They walked quickly, the road to the exhibition was familiar to them. Once a year they came here necessarily. Exhibitions have changed, tasks at work have changed. Cyril walked beside Katerina, but not close and told about his father, that his father was from the Copper Mountains. This can not be said if one looks more closely at Cyril: a large young man, a fair-haired, blue-eyed.

And Katerina? And Katerina was born from the Copper Mountains, but from its more southern part. This is how in the center of the Capital two people walked and met, coming from the Copper Mountains. And Katerina was a fair-haired, blue-eyed and tall young woman. In her memory there were only beautiful cars from the exhibition, then there were not so many of them on the streets of the Capital.

The helicopter, rotating the blades, sometimes flew over the forest. What were you looking out of the windows in the forest in late autumn? The foliage lay with black openwork along the asphalt paths, the roads themselves were clean, the foliage on them practically did not fall. Small squirrels, full and well-fed, sometimes ran across the paths.

Observers from a helicopter viewed through the dark prism of time, the life of designer Katerina. For the simplicity of the experiment, a road was chosen in the forest, along which it periodically passed. The road ran from the Space Institute to the residential complex where it lived. They knew her in the helicopter, they knew her whole life, and therefore it was from her that they decided to spend the experience of time.

The camcorder was installed at the bottom of the helicopter as a porthole. It would be inconvenient for the operator to look down, so a flat time monitor, over which people were watched, was installed inside the cabin with all amenities.

The team consisted of three people. All phenomena occurring in the field of view of a video camera appeared on the monitor, were recorded on computer memory disks, they could be easily demonstrated and installed new ones. The crew of the helicopter was a detective, his task was to monitor famous people of his time. He no longer ran after the people on the tracks, he was part of the helicopter crew and helped the ship's commander with his smart advice. The focus of the screen was a road at a distance of ten meters.

Katerina has just passed in the present tense. The memory sensors from the helicopter clung to her brain.

Conversation inside the plate:

- Does Katerina know about the experiment? - asked the commander of the ship.

- Naturally, no!

- Does she see a helicopter?

- See. Doesn't see us! The helicopter is surrounded by a protective field that makes the object itself invisible. For people looking from the ground, the helicopter seems to be a small flying object, and when you consider that the forest is high enough, the outline of the flying helicopter can not worry people much.

- Why did you choose her?

- Oh, she travels in time. Copper Lady

'I haven't been following the brass ladies yet,' said the detective, echoing.

Katerina walked along the forest road. The track has become almost empty. The asphalt disappeared, a path appeared, trodden by people. On the way, Katerina goes to the Space Institute.

Spring. The roads run across the streams. Birds are singing. Katerina goes with the employee of the Space Institute from work to home. Monitor charged. Minor episodes of time with her participation quickly ran through it. Katerina's life no-no, yes, she walked along this road in the snow, in the heat, and in the rain, and the people who walked with her always changed, but there was not a single frame where she went alone.

The commander of the helicopter was not waiting for these shots, everything was started to check one unique case in her life, but maybe everything happened earlier than two years ago. Katerina looks unusually young, and after all she has been for many years now, it means that you need to watch the events of 25 years ago! And they were lucky, they saw how a strange lady passed Catherine's chest.

- All the guys stop! 'We need to set up instruments and monitors 25 years ago, but on the next arrival,' said the commander.

- What are we looking for in her biography? The detective asked.

'Bitches and whirls,' answered the commander.

Fog has descended, autumn rain has passed, not quite a light wind has blown, and beauty gradually began to leave the divine path in the forest. Maple leaves, like open palms, lay on the ground and gradually lost their original, delicate yellowness. Maples began to take a disheveled appearance, but still remained with copper splashes of foliage. The helicopter spun one last time over it and disappeared forever in the fog of life.

2003-2018

(C) Natalia Vladimirovna PATRATSKAYA