Imprint of Heart. Illumination with love

“Who would have thought that I would be so eager for the plant,” she told Irena on the phone. “I need money, and I do not want to borrow from my father, so that he does not think that during the holiday I completely lost his head.

“I decided on Monday to go to production, postpone and pull on there is nowhere else to wait.”

At the weekend it was cloudy. It was felt the approach of autumn. Autumn in the middle zone of Russia came quickly and imperceptibly. It seems that yesterday there was an unbearable heat, but today it was drizzling and the cool wind was blowing. Autumn no one expected, it came itself. Slowly, day by day it became cooler, and here the first frosts appeared…

On Monday, Lucy got up early in the morning and went to the plant for the production of electrical and office equipment: kettles, air conditioners, microwave ovens, irons, heaters, electricity meters and other household items.

At the entrance Lucy stopped and dialed Alexey’s number.

“Hi! Perhaps today they will tell me in which shop I will work.”

“Good luck,” he said approvingly.

5. Acquaintance with Plant

The administrative building of glass and concrete, the electronic clock on top of it showed 8.45. At the entrance there was an announcement: “They are looking for a permanent job”. The list was long. On the other side of the turntable and the glass booths with the guards there were the modern corps of the workshops.

Lyudmila went inside. On the left there was the inscription: “Human Resources Department”. She opened her purse, took out a compact powder with a mirror, looked critically at herself again, boldly opened the door and went up to the second floor. In the corridor to the head of the reception there were three more people: a young guy and a woman with a young girl. The guy quickly walked in and left with sheets of paper.

“Probably a sample application and questionnaire,” thought Uvarova. The woman brought her daughter to the factory after a school. The girl was very cute and cleanly dressed. She was worried, and she had a blush on her cheeks. They went into the chief’s office together. The woman was about forty. From the conversation, Lucy realized that one of them has been working in this manufacturing plant for a long time. In the office, the two women stayed long enough. Soon it was Lucy’s turn.

The head of the personnel department – a large middle-aged man was sitting at a massive table at the computer. On the table he had several files with printed characteristics. Lucy said hello.

“On what issue?” he nodded to Uvarova to sit down.

“I got a referral for consultation, review, or further action at your factory.”

She showed the boss the direction given to her at the university, the diploma and the passport. The head carefully studied the direction, opened the passport, looked at whether there was a local residence permit, and then again studied the direction. Here he looked at Lucy for the second time and said:

“So, it means your specialty is electronics. We need specialists in this field. You can contact with people or prefer to deal with calculations and drawings?”

“I’m more interested in working with people.”

“Well, then I can offer the work of a replacement foreman in the sixth shop, the salary is at first twenty thousand rubles plus a premium. The work is serious and interesting. You need to immediately find a common language with the team, otherwise you will break the plan, and if there is a breakdown of the plan, then there can not even be any speech about a prize. How satisfied?

“It is difficult to answer at once, but I think I can manage my work.”

“Good. Here is a sample application and questionnaire. Take a physical examination. When you prepare all the documents and take a picture, we will issue a pass and you can start working. And remember the main thing – you will work with people, everyone has his own character, but we have one plan, so everything depends on you, how you can get the job done.”

She listened attentively to the chief, took the questionnaire and a copy of the statement, said: “Thank you, good-bye,” and left the room in full confidence that the work of the replacement master is exactly what she needed, and her salary suited. A week went by for the medical commission. A week later, with all the documents, she again appeared in the office of the head of the personnel department. Now he met her already not so formal and cold. It was evident that she liked him. And Lucy was already less afraid. She was smiling.

“Here, please, my documents.”

“Very well. Your immediate chief of the workshop, Alexander Dmitrievich Torobov,” the personnel officer dialed the phone number, but it was busy, replaced the receiver, took another minute and invited his colleague to his office. “Now he’s busy with college graduates, wait. Torobov will talk about the main points of work and conduct safety briefings.”

A handsome man of about thirty-six appeared on the threshold.

“Meet – Lyudmila Nikolaevna Uvarova – a replacement master. Please love and respect.”

“Very nice. Now I will tell you about the need to observe safety procedures and specifically in your work.”

Lucy followed him into the shop. He instructed, and then added:

“You’ll work in the sixth shop. First you’ll have to learn. Six months later, you’ll understand everything yourself. Our workshop is very clean. We are fighting for the cleanliness of the workplace. By your specialty – electronics – there will be a wide field of activity. If you get down to business thoroughly, you can achieve success. We have all the conditions for trouble-free work in the shop.”

Lucy listened attentively to the instructions of the commander. He immediately liked her, spoke calmly and clearly, it was hard not to get confidence in him. “It will be easy to work under the guidance of this person,” she thought.

By lunchtime the conversation with Torobov was ended. Uvarova was a little tired. It was necessary once again to go to the head of the personnel department for a pass, but at lunch time all the rooms were empty. Lucy did not want to go home and also decided to have dinner at the nearest cafe. When she walked from the checkpoint with the employees, she felt herself a full member of the production team.

It was an August day. Hot. The weather was dry and sunny. At her heart it was easy and peaceful. Singing a fashionable tune, somewhere accidentally heard, Lucy drew attention to the age of the staff. There were mostly young people.

Lucy ran across the street and walked two blocks in the hope of seeing a cafe. She paid attention to the peasant’s house “Hut” in the Russian style and went inside.

A spacious room with walls painted with bright colors, wooden tables and chairs, where on the windows hung embroidered curtains with cockerels, carved saltcellars in the form of barrels. All the staff was in national clothes. The people were few.

Lucy ordered Russian borscht, cutlets and compote. After substantial lunch, she turned on the music in the phone, inserted a small button-transmitter in her ears, and a melody sounded that resonated with the mood. She turned off the melody and pressed Alexey’s number. He hurriedly responded to hear his beloved voice:

“What if I study a foreign language and then try to enter graduate school,” she sang in a thin voice, waiting for an answer.

“You will begin professional growth; eventually become the chief of the shop, and possibly the chief of production. Dare…”

“If my mother were alive, she certainly approved my plans. You know, I did not meet a more caring and sympathetic person, my dear.”

Lucy sat for a while in the cafe and, it seems, completely relaxed and forgot that she should go to the factory. Then she got up and went to the door.

She received the pass the same day, and from the next day she was to attend the workshop. She wanted to call Alex, but decided to ring Olga:

“How are you? Do you work with Alexey?” asked an eternally busy friend.

“That’s when everything will go back to normal at work, and then I’ll call him,” Lucy categorically answered, “if he himself does not think of calling me.”

“I’m beginning to get used to the fact that your relationship has become cool, as before,” Olga lazily sympathized. “Come in, we’ll chat…”

Suddenly Alexey called, but his voice was sad and tired.

“Tanya started a private investigation and hopes to find the killer of my aunt, oddly enough, next week for a thousand bucks,” he explained.

“That’s great!” Lucy approved and wanted to ask what was on his soul, knowing that Alex would be pleased. “I hope the mood has improved?”

“A wood grouse is a winter bird… See you, for now,” he turned off the iPhone.

The next day Lucy went to work. The first thing Torobov conducted in the shop and showed where the workplace was – a table with a computer in the room with a view from the window to the factory yard.

“The room is clean and bright. There are flowers on the windowsills, a shelf with books at the wall,” Lucy praised the chief. “Very cozy!”

“Do not think that you’ll be sitting here. Now you go everywhere with me first, until you know all the work, and then I trust you to lead the shop on your own. You’ll only turn to me for some insoluble questions,” Torobov said smiling.

She liked this state of affairs. “There will be time for professional growth,” she thought.