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Vladimir felt as if the ground itself were springing beneath his feet from happiness. Not from drink—no—from that very pure, bright feeling that had been overflowing him since morning. Today was his day. The day he had waited for two long years, swallowing the dust of army training grounds and rereading to tatters the envelopes … Read more

— And dinner? The question was tossed into the quiet of the room as casually as Kirill tossed his jacket onto the back of the chair. He wasn’t expecting an answer; he was stating a need. The sound of his steps across the parquet was heavy, assured—the steps of a man who had returned to … Read more

— Egor, don’t forget—my mom’s birthday is tomorrow. He waved her off without taking his eyes from the laptop screen, where graphs and tables flickered. The gesture wasn’t so much rude as automatic, like someone swatting away a pesky fly. — Nastya, I remember everything. Don’t start. I told you—I remember. She kept quiet, pretending … Read more

While tidying up the entryway, Milana heard her mother-in-law’s voice and looked out the window. Her husband was sitting on the front steps, talking to his mother over a video call. Milana went back to sorting the shoes, deciding not to eavesdrop, but Nina Yevgenyevna was speaking loudly enough that it was impossible not to … Read more

— “My grandma’s coming to stay with us… for a couple of weeks,” Kostya managed, and Rita realized that pregnancy and the upcoming birth were nothing compared to the nightmare rolling their way. Svetlana Ivanovna, her husband’s grandmother, looked lively and energetic at sixty-five. It seemed she had more energy than all the young people … Read more

Lyudmila Sergeyevna checked the hotel reservation for the third time that morning. Everything matched: rooms for seven days, breakfast included, a pool, the beach two hundred meters away. Perfect! “Petya, have you packed?” she called to her husband from the kitchen. “Relax, Luda! We’ve got three days before we leave,” came the reply from the … Read more

I remember that day down to the smallest details: the way a ray of sunlight fell on the white walls of the doctor’s office, the creak of the chair when I tried to stand on trembling legs. The way Dr. Petrova looked at me with concern but without pity—exactly what I needed at that moment. … Read more

“Drinking plain tea, Ksyusha? Nervous?” Tamara Pavlovna’s voice was sweet like an overripe fruit whose skin already hides rot. She sat at the table in her daughter-in-law’s impeccably clean kitchen and methodically stirred the spoon in her porcelain cup, though the sugar had long since dissolved. That monotonous, scraping sound—scritch, scritch, scritch across the bottom—frayed … Read more

— “What do you mean ‘Elena Vladimirovna’? You’re only twenty-nine!” her friends would remark, chuckling. — “It stuck,” Lena would wave it off. “For clients I’m Elena Vladimirovna; for suppliers—especially. And for colleagues.” Lena was building her business and meant it seriously. So at work the tone was businesslike, with no chumminess. — “Come on, … Read more

The autumn air in the settlement of Lesnaya Sloboda was thick, sweet, and searingly cold. It smelled of rotting leaves, smoke from stove pipes, and that special, timeless silence that wraps the soul like a good old blanket. Olga had come here, to the nest she’d left long ago, to visit her parents—or rather, their … Read more