Quarantine. A book of stories and poems

Where is modern?! Where is the know-how?! Where is the Chinese style?! Complete devastation, the wallpaper came off and snot hang from all the walls, showing through its nakedness, the new plaster fell down so that even a brick is visible, the plumbing does not work! There is no water (oh God!)! There is dirt, dust, cigarette butts, linoleum on the floor, the floorboards are torn out and holes are gaping here and there, that God forbid to fall through and break your neck, construction debris is everywhere, even in the toilet and in the sink, in the bathroom and in the refrigerator. New furniture was taken out, and instead of it there was a perforated sofa with springs sticking out of its core. Instead of the new digital, the old Soviet one doesn’t work!

Alik grabbed the phone and frantically dialed the familiar number to Sake.

– You … – What are you doing, huh?! – He yelled in fury into the phone.

“Oh, haven’t you come yet?” They asked calmly in the receiver. – Now, they will drive up. – beeps were heard in the receiver.

and indeed, an expensive foreign car drove into the courtyard of the five-story building, a fat lady rolled out of it, in an equally expensive black fur coat, although it was only autumn on the street and there would be no snow for a long time. Adjusting her dark glasses, she looked up to the top and, in spite of the old women always sitting at the entrance, went up to the fourth floor.

– Are you selling the apartment? she asked.

Alik didn’t know what to say. To say that no, because, for sure, it will start its “fu!” or..

– Dddd-yes.. – stuttering, squeezed out of Alik. – How much will you give? At least a quarter or so … “” he asked bashfully, he felt as if the drunk was asking for a drink, realizing that nothing could shine for him at all for such devastation.

– what a repair! What a style! – her eyes shone with light – Wow! It’s modern! Exotic! Know-how!

Alik stretched out in a smile, still hiding his eyes, staring at the floor.

– You know, I went around everything, but your apartment hooked me! I will give 13 million for it! Immediately!

Alik’s eyes widened in surprise. Not believing, he even pinched himself and when she left, having laid out all the bucks on his table, he jumped for joy to the ceiling!

Well her, this fashion! Simple mortals do not understand her! The main thing is to sell!

A week later, he was sitting in his cozy country mansion and drinking his coffee with milk in his shady apple orchard. His house was the most ordinary, albeit without any modernist and know-how, but dear. cozy and even sincere. And this is the main thing.

    © Copyright: Raisa Karimbaeva, 2019
    Certificate of publication No. 219090400933

***

I sit dreaming. I look at houses, mansions for sale. I really liked one mansion. Such a beautiful picture, but the price is also very beautiful – under 1 billion tenge. I wondered what kind of house it was under one billion, what was inside. Probably, there should also be a pool for a football field the size and rooms of gold and marble.. I am opening… a bare piece of land, overgrown with weeds in 12 acres of land and nothing more… Nothing at all!. Only the sign under the photo reads: “Here may be your dream home and it may look like this picture” and next to it, on the right, is a beautiful picture of that same mansion. The curtain.

    © Copyright: Raisa Karimbaeva, 2019
    Certificate of publication No. 219090400514

At the hairdresser

Today, Monday, getting up early, my mother suggested that I go with her to the hairdresser.

– Just take a walk. On the face, how good! Why sit at home all day?

There was really nothing to do. Everything that could have already been redistributed yesterday: erased. dried, ventilated, floors washed to a shine.

Only the lessons are not done. The internet is a good thing! What lessons do you want to find! There would be a desire! So I sit at the computer all day. Dad takes the computer in the morning. He gets up especially for this at eight, as if to work. When his sister leaves, he locks the door behind her and immediately at the computer, for his favorite game of chess, cards, then migrates to another site and there is a fan of the whole country and neighboring republics. Waiting impatiently for Aydar to wake up and, after waiting, puts it right over a cup of tea. Later, both go out for daily, two-hour walks.

Mom does not particularly approve of this political news, concerts are better. Once again, at a thousandth, listen to your favorite singer or singer, scroll through the video, which is already boring to many, but very much loved by her. The fight for the TV in the house was long ago decided in favor of my mother, and when her favorite series about the unfortunate Simar and her sister Raleigh begins, my father’s series about the “Brigade” and about cops immediately turns off. Dad silently takes a hundred square meters and, going deep into the next room, in silence, calmly inspects his beloved “Brigade”.

This winter in Chu, however, like all our winters, is warm. The whole year can be easily divided like this: spring, summer, autumn and… spring again. Little snow falls, the sun is generous at any time of the year.

While my mother was getting ready, I was waiting for her on the street. It’s good with us! The snow is melting, the air is clean and fresh, there is no dust or stifling summer heat. If you look closely, you can see swollen buds on the branches. Near one private house on Lenin Street, a tall, branched tree with huge red-crimson buds flaunts with might and main. Each is the size of a fist. There are no dried, yellowish-brown leaves that did not have time to fly off in the fall, as on other trees. An unusual, pale yellow tree stands out strongly against the background of black, crooked elms, of which there is a whole darkness! Elm grows well on clayey sandy floor. Thin birches and poplars are very rare. Cherries and peaches compete with elm. Soon everything will bloom and our city will drown in the delicate scent of blossoming, fragrant flowers. Beauty!

The road to the hairdresser took only half an hour. There were no people in the beauty salon itself. Nearly. A couple of girls were sitting in a manicure and a fat lady with small legs. She had a very small shoe size for her height that caught my attention. This is rare. It’s time to put them in the Red Book as a rare specimen. Seeing her tiny legs, you involuntarily look at your “skis”. Well, yes.. You don’t need skis here, you can safely fly from the mountain without special equipment. With my height one hundred and sixty with a penny, I wear all the forties with a hook! Fashionable, pointed shoes were out of the question. What are there, spiky, there is nowhere to hide theirs. And here is beauty! Miniature, like Japanese women! Remember their kimono suit and their shoes? Here, this is the same! While I was admiring her legs, my mother went into the hairdresser’s and, having learned that the master was busy, went out and sat down next to the red sofa. All the furniture in the hall was red: two sofas, two broken red armchairs, a broken chair, also red, red in crimson, small flowered blinds on the windows, a red coffee table, polished under glass in the corner, and… black out of place, an idle TV and green butterflies to it. On the ceiling, around a red chandelier, hung tattered and re-tied colored rains left over from the New Year. Opposite me hung a huge mirror, all over the wall. A curious face with huge blue “lanterns” under each eye looked out from there. These “lights” cannot be hidden or smeared under any paint. Tired of annoying questions about my health, I just don’t pay attention to them, pretending to be deaf and dumb. It is surprising that neither mom, nor dad, and even grandparents and great-grandfather had these “lanterns” and do not! Just me! Probably, it was Allah who painted me, so that I would not paint, so I would not waste time and money. Cosmetics are expensive! And here you don’t need to paint, it makes no sense, anyway, they shine through the multi-layered tone of powder and cream and are visible even at a great distance. I saw the same “lanterns” at my neighbor’s. Maybe she and I were sisters in a past life? Her husband is calm, he did not dismiss his fists, it was just that she was born. Looking up from the mirror, I noticed an awkward, dark-skinned to black, thin, bony guy. He spun around the “Japanese woman” and told her something with interest, gesturing with his hands. She was reluctant to answer him, all the time looking at the study, where everyone is given thick, solid, black, Uzbek eyebrows over the entire forehead. This fashion is in Chu for the second year and all and sundry go to make thick eyebrows. They say that if you have money, you can go to Taraz itself, make the eyebrows of “Brezhnev”, so shaggy, thick, solid, with hanging light hairs, lighter than the eyebrows. Mom also wants to make herself such, she says that she is tired of painting, and you can’t stock up on black pencils (eyebrows). I propose to her to do it immediately at Brezhnev’s. With her stern look, which is about to kill anyone right on the spot, they are just the way. For her tongue, she immediately received this stern, killing look and turned away. Mom was waiting, or rather, we were waiting together for the second hour. Finally, this aunt, who was sitting in the hairdresser’s chair, came out with wet beet-dyed hair and an old shawl covered with paint smeared over her shoulders, but she immediately came back. I only managed to notice that her hair is rather thick compared to my thin one. They say that girls have thick hair, they must be cut on the bald head. But this trick didn’t work with mine.

No matter how many of them you cut, the hair, as it was thin, remained. I remember the bewildered, unhappy face of the master, who was trying to build at least something on my head. Poor master! She fought for half an hour, but she could not build anything except a pot called “square”. So I walked all my life, on any day, even a significant one, with this pot on my head. I understand, “square” – a beautiful haircut, but on my head and with my hairs, for some reason it reminds me of a pot! Yes, that one for children! True, now I hide it under a scarf, letting the ends of a long scarf fall onto my back, presenting luxurious braids like in a movie.

…That lady went out and came in again, and my mother and I remained sitting and waiting, curiously examining the other visitors. Our attention was attracted by a very beautiful girl with thin eyebrows. Not eyebrows – lovely sight.! Neat, thin, black, real!!! She flew past like a bird here and there. Now in the manicure room, where she painted her claws in a red, bloody, saturated color, to match the color of her lipstick, then in the hairdresser’s, “ask something”, then she again sat down next to me, on the next chair.

I understand that she is going to the wedding. Otherwise, why paint the long claws red? In Chu, on the occasion of toys, it is imperative to paint the claws in a red, saturated color and make Uzbek, solid, preferably shaggy like Brezhnev’s, eyebrows, one thick line, over the entire forehead! To be seen! True, take off to go to the bathhouse and you can’t bathe. I do not know why…

…The black guy kept sticking to the “Japanese woman”. Finally, unable to withstand the pressure of her boyfriend, she jumped up and disappeared into the office, where they make the same Uzbek eyebrows for everyone.

Left alone, he completely relaxed, lay down on the sofa, occupying it all and fell asleep, just not snoring. Here came two more young prettier slender women who mowed like actresses from Korean TV series: long, black loose, straight, slicked hair and a short, slightly covering underwear, a skirt in a large gray cage, plus white knee-highs at any time of the year, be it winter or summer. One of the girls had a backpack on her back, which made me understand that she went to school, in high school, and the other, apparently, had graduated from her long ago, but she could not leave her favorite school skirt in a gray, large cage to the mercy of fate. And he walks in it to this day.

In addition to the famous, shaggy, Brezhnev and Uzbek eyebrows, thick, solid, in one line across the entire forehead, in our town, thin, tight-fitting trousers of different colors of the rainbow are in great demand. They are worn by everyone, regardless of the size of the fifth point and age. On the little ones, these trousers, which look more like tights, look nothing at all, but on an adult lady, the owner of magnificent forms… One such beauty flew into the salon today. She had a beautiful high chest, a thin, narrow waist, and from below… these leggings are black on a curvy heel with curves. short legs. There was a feeling that she was in a great hurry, being late somewhere, and simply forgot to put on a skirt, and went out into the street in her underwear. I wanted to get up and tell her that she had forgotten something, but my mother’s stern look just riveted me to the place, making it clear without words that I wouldn’t even think about it. Pants-pantyhose for another half hour were spinning for some reason in front of me, sparkling with their fifth point now and then. The swarthy guy did not give a damn about everything that happened. He snored so hard that the roof shook every time he snored.

.. Two more hours passed. During this time, a girl flew out of the hairdresser with a baby in her arms, but that lady was not yet visible. This made me understand that our lady had not only dyed her hair and did a khimka, but also gave birth to a beautiful girl, and if a couple more hours passed, she would be able to see her second child. The thought that flew like lightning scared me. I thought that we were in the maternity ward, and not in the hairdresser, and, getting up from my place, I once again looked at the sign on the door. “Hairdresser”. Slightly below – “wagon hall.”

“Everything is clear … – I thought. – They not only cut their hair…”

Two hours later, when I already imagined that perhaps this very aunt just ran through the window with the foreman and urged my mother to go and look just in case, our turn finally came. The lady we had been looking forward to for so long and who had already given birth to a tiny girl left the salon. On her head was the same hair. I never noticed anything similar to Khimka. The hair is the same straight and the same color.

“I wonder what she was doing there…” the thought puzzled me. “Khimka, then painting, and then… straightening already curled hair?” Judging by her head, it was. I didn’t think any further, I just waited for my mother. Mom came out ten minutes later, with a neat boy-like haircut. However, it suits her.

    © Copyright: Raisa Karimbaeva, 2019
    Certificate of publication No. 219011500891

New Year’s Eve

a few days before the new year, anticipating the long-awaited event, looking forward to it, a young man, about thirty years old, and his father were sitting at the dinner table in the kitchen, drinking tea, sweetly talking about this and that. Or, more precisely, how they will spend the New Year with a full dastarkhan, which will include manty, so lush and with meat, and mouth-watering baursaks and chak-chak and… Holy, without which, well, no matter how impossible, “Olivier”. " What can a New Year’s table be without Olivier? No. Olivier is Holy!

After yesterday’s game at the computer, Marat’s head was still cracking, buzzing like a steamer: “Gu-gu-gu!” Ears were completely blocked from the endless, incessant hum. “I should have gone to bed early.. – he thought. – Quit this game and that’s it!” But only when you play, you forget about everything. You sit down at the computer and seem to have gone into the thirtieth kingdom. You are not in this gray, boring, disastrous world. The plant in the town has long been closed. Work only at the bazaar. Everyone is sitting and trading. And who is being sold to if there is no work? But now a change has begun. With the new akim it immediately became somehow more fun. He also repaired the roads, along which even the cart could not pass before, not to mention the Inmarks. I don’t understand why foreign cars are made with a low landing? Are you literally a few centimeters from the ground? You can’t drive through potholes like this, can you? You will consider all the bumps as your fifth point, jumping up to the ceiling. Not…

It is necessary to make such that the wheels are like those of a tractor, huge, powerful. All-terrain vehicle! Everywhere will pass! The akim repaired the main roads. Well, those that lead to the akimat and the bazaar and from the station, in case they come with a check. This is already good! And then you come to our town and immediately your eyes on your forehead “Where am I?” And so neat and beautiful!. Just left the station there is a fountain and a monument to the hero! And the clinic! Well, the taxi drivers will take you to the market right away. They don’t even need to tell them where to go. They only take to the bazaar, ripping off three skins from the client! On buses, a ticket costs only a penny! And the taxi driver has all two hundred! For one hundred tenge, it is better not to sit down! Who knows what mood the taxi driver will have. Buses are a real salvation for everyone. Here, just, we have to wait for him… Last year, my mother had a fight with the car fleet, asked where the buses were and why it was impossible to wait for them. Then things got better and buses began to travel more often. I understand they are people too. They need to eat or buy something to the bazaar, and they need to go about their business… So they drive badly, getting stuck somewhere along the way. No, it is better to take a taxi, if you are in a hurry, if you are running out of time and do not want to sniff other people’s armpits, then it is better to take a taxi. Expensive and with amenities. And if you have a lot of time and like to chat, then you can save money by riding the bus and swaying as if in a cradle. Good! Here’s another piece of news. They say we will now have as many as four chemical plants! Our town is small, only a few streets, but there are four chemical plants! here not far, in a neighboring aul, a deposit was discovered, and so, they drowned the whole aul and the city in addition. The sky was drowned… There was nothing to breathe, the water in the river became dirty, it was impossible to drink water from the tap. Then something calmed down… And life went on its own course, as before. And now, if these factories are opened, then all the smoke, smog, will cover the town with its head. It’s good if, like abroad, where the chemical plant is right in the city center, but! It does not drown the sky, does not dump its waste into the water, does not pollute the environment. And, in general, it is painted in bright colors of the rainbow so that you will not immediately understand that this is a chemical plant, everyone will think that a children’s amusement park has been built. Everyone loves to take pictures near him and post their photos in the instagram! Here, I understand that, the plant! And we have one boiler room for the whole city, and the sky is so good! As soon as you leave the house, you immediately understand what is working! Boiler room! Dear! The smoke from the chimney is black with a black column against the sky!

Come on, what is all about the sad… New Year after all!

So they sit and talk nicely at the table, drink tea and dream of how we will meet the New Year at a full dastarkhan with a bucket of Olivier! Yes! Not life, but raspberries! The bazaar is already selling Christmas trees, colorful toys and fireworks. There, in the bazaar, there is real New Year’s bustle and excitement. And the buyer is not scared off even at times the price has risen on this occasion! Everything is being swept off the shelves! I love to walk there and watch. Here is everything that your heart desires! I don’t want to take it! This smell of Christmas trees already tickles your nose! You immediately remember your childhood! The happiest time! These salutes, fireworks! They are bought in packages at once, several at a time! Therefore, a non-public competition in the whole city will begin! What courtyard has the best and most colorful and lasting fireworks! Look and be amazed at how the night sky is flashing with colorful lights and a joyful children’s squeal and delight is heard here and there. With such a mood Marat and his father were sitting at the table and nothing could shatter this mood! As here…

From the ceiling it was poured directly on their heads, on dastarkhan, on bread, then more and more, in several places at once throughout the kitchen. Marat froze straight with his mouth open and wide-eyed, not really understanding what was happening! The father immediately jumped up as if stung, because the water poured right on his head!

– Fu! How dirty she is! – burst out from his father with disgust. – Why are you standing, carry a basin as soon as possible!

Marat, who broke his leg at the beginning of the year, limping, somehow limped to the closet in the corridor and..

Father heard a pile of pots and pans falling to the floor.