Quarantine. A book of stories and poems

– What’s there? Are you whole? he asked, worried about his son.

– Yes.. – Marat said raising the pan.

– You, give her here, while I’m going to my neighbor, maybe something happened…

He ran out of the apartment, slamming the door behind him.

Marat, ridiculously spreading his legs shoulder-width apart, somehow bending over, tried to collect all the water in the basin he brought him. The basin quickly filled with dirty, stinking goo! A damp, musty smell of dampness and mold spread throughout the apartment, which had nothing to do with the New Year tree that they were going to dress up today. Water was already running from all corners of the kitchen and in the center, right from three cracks and along the window sill on the ceiling, destroying the expensive repairs, which were done this summer, removing all the plaster “with meat!” To the brick itself. The wallpaper, fresh yesterday, was covered with rusty stains, the expensive ceiling cracked at the seams, unable to withstand the pressure of water, and fell right on his head. Broken leg began to ache. Barely enduring pain, gritting his teeth, twisted a rag and collected all the water with it, wiping the floor dry.

Tired, he dropped everything and shouted “Why are you sitting! Come on help me!” rushed to his sister, who was sitting at the computer, as usual at such a time.

– I’ll break this computer now! Come on help me! Tired of your useless rhymes!

The sister, without saying anything, ran out of the hall where she was sitting and began to collect water with a rag. The flood did not stop for a minute, gradually taking over other rooms. Soon they realized that one basin was not enough and pulled out two more, then empty pots, pans, glasses and any container in which they could substitute under a stream of water, under a man-made waterfall went into the entrance. With a basin in hand, they ran all over the apartment, but the water managed to pour directly onto their heads. She was more cunning than them!

Marat was already all wet from head to toe when his breathless father came running. Running here and there, then up to the fifth floor, then going down to the first and so on ad infinitum, he sweated so much that his wet T-shirt dried right on him.

– Well, out of breath! he gasped. – I knocked to the neighbor, while she was opening, I went down to the first, to the other, to take a basin, and I also think where this tap, the common one, to close it! Otherwise, all four floors will flood! The third has already been flooded! The hostess does not know; she is away, the tenants live there.. She will come and find out… Surprise. As the saying goes “Happy New Year to you, dear!”

– Yes… We were also congratulated on the New Year…

– Where is mom? Haven’t come back from the bath yet?

– No… More… It should come soon … – Sunday… There are a lot of people, as always…

– Well, then I went to the first one, I’ll see if I came, a neighbor.. It seems she has this crane. Let’s close it for now … “” Having said, the father immediately rushed to the first floor, down from the fourth floor where they lived. With his loose and thick belly and at his age, it is not so easy.

And the waterfall did not stop. Venice! Who wanted to Venice! Here’s to you, completely free! The same rivers, the same puddles, the same stains on the walls, the same sewage smell! Beauty!! Only there are no boats yet.. But is this really a problem?

A neighbor’s son, scared in earnest, came running from the fifth floor and, saying something indistinct, ran away. Marat did not even hear him.

When his sister got down to business, he sat down on the only dry chair to rest a little and recover. Taking the phone, he began to call the master:

_ Hello.. When will you be? Can you come now? Yeah… okay..

The foreman asked for 60 thousand for his work and promised to come tomorrow, because today he had a job for one client and he could not quit it.

Ariston, who was standing in the kitchen (already the second in a row, the first burned down because it was dripping on him from the ceiling, last year) was shut down. The light too… the lamps were off… But the current in the bathroom was beating so that it jumped right up to the ceiling, as if stung. The bathroom of the ball is right behind the wall, near the kitchen. So I don’t want to fill it underneath it right away. Shock even from the switched off taps and the battery. Impossible to wash your hands. nor just stand at all. so as not to be stung by this cybernetic snake from science fiction films. Remember how there a robotic snake, twisting itself out, stings ordinary mortals and sucks their blood? Here it is, the same thing. Now it is clear where these films come from! Not otherwise as a screenwriter, too, flooded under I do not want, and even on brand new wallpapers and ceilings!

In such a state, coming from the bathhouse, steamed and contented, the unsuspecting mother of the family found her cozy, lovingly made nest. Plus, all this plus the fact that a piece of a collapsed ceiling fell right on her head. Barely managing to wriggle out of the unexpected blow, she stepped on something and almost flew across the apartment at her butt.

Angry, despicable, leaving everything, she ran to the fifth floor, but the neighbor was not at home. There was only her already frightened teenage son. Gritting her teeth like a beaten dog, she went downstairs with a firm decision that tomorrow she would remember everything and make her pay for the renovation of the apartment.

The next day, Marat met with the master. The master demanded money in advance. Such a large sum of sixty thousand was not lying on the road, no matter how father and son wanted it. In the bank, such amounts at once, right now, are unlikely to give, because Marat did not have work, and besides, he was limping on one leg. Local traders give at interest, but the percentage is high, and even then not to everyone, their own, verified. Somehow collecting money, begging from friends, taking something at a frantic interest and withdrawing from the account that was saved for the wedding, he somehow, with grief across the floor, scraped up these long-suffering sixty thousand and took it to the master, glad that tomorrow everything will be as before and a master of gold will correct everything.

Tomorrow he didn’t want to step on, turning from side to side, he had already changed his mind about everything, counted all the fat sheep jumping over the wolf, reviewed all the films for that hour, but still could not sleep. Barely waiting for morning, he dressed and went out into the yard to meet the master. He was waiting for him like children are waiting for Santa Claus! Smiling, anticipating a miracle.

But…

The master with the face of a know-it-all walked throughout the apartment, looked into all corners and affirmingly stated that he would certainly come on Thursday, left without doing anything. Nothing at all. Just when he was leaving he threw Marat’s mother that their kitchen did not smell at all of tangerines, but of dampness.

– I wonder what should smell like if there is such a flood in the house? – a thought slipped through Marat’s head, as he felt a cold, scalding wind on his back. It was my mother who opened all the windows and doors, fearing to disobey the great master. A joyful, free, victorious wind with a roar rushed to blow all the secret corners of the apartment, covering everything with snow. It became cold, like outside, like in a refrigerator. During the whole day and the following days, neither the doors nor the windows of this apartment were closed. Marat felt. that his mother is a big polar bear from Antarctica. He had suspected it before, but now there was no doubt. Precisely, my mother is Polar Bear! He even posted a photo of a polar bear on his website with love, only to sign that it was his mother who did not. They will not understand yet…

It was three whole days until Thursday! How long, long days and endless nights! The whole family hasn’t washed since Monday, the dishes were piled up in the corridor, almost near the toilet, because in the apartments of the Soviet era, the rooms are tiny, and the corridors are even smaller and there is nowhere to turn around, but it is convenient: woke up – and you were already in the toilet, turned – in the bathroom, another step and in the kitchen, you don’t have to go anywhere, everything is close by!

All these days they ate exclusively on horns, because they had neither the mood to cook something, nor the time, nor the place where to cook they had.

Those who still worked tried to stay up late in order to come and go to bed right away and not behold the peeling walls, torn, soaked wallpaper, the ceiling that fell to the floor, not to see these basins with water pouring on them, but immediately go into the world of dreams, where everything is still clean and bright as before.

“Probably, the New Year will never come…” – a thought lurked deep in my heart and did not climb out in any way, how do you not persuade her to do this, no matter what arguments in favor of “everything will be fine and like people” do not feed. Nobody slept. The nights were too long. And mom too. She spent the whole night scrolling in her head with the idea that she would finally find the culprit of the flood at home and how she would put everything in her eyes and demand payment for repairs. I had to wait all day, because as soon as at night, she was able to still find her at home and lay out everything right from the doorway!

– So that tomorrow brought sixty thousand! – she added her last argument and thereby finished off the hero of the occasion.

But she… collapsed right in front of her mother on her knees and howled like a dog beaten by the owner, whined:

– Excuse me. I did it by accident! Where will I get these sixty thousand? I have nothing to eat myself… I left that job, the owner sold the office to another. And the new one has no clients yet. Forgive me, already, eh? – Tears flowed like a stream from her eyes, she sat there, afraid to raise her eyes, guiltily dropping them to the floor. With her trembling hand, she hugged Azheki’s legs, almost kissing them.

Shuddering from this, Azheka moved a little to the side. Her heart beat, fluttered with pity for her. She had already forgotten about the ruined expensive repairs and the fact that it was impossible to enter the bathroom and not be stung by the electric current and about the eternal, indestructible smell of dampness in the apartment and even about the ruined New Year.

– Get up. Don’t do that.. So be it… Bring it later, when you can … – she said, forgiving her everything, and went to her place, in “Venice”.

On Thursday, that very long-awaited day, our saving one refused to come, referring to the fact that there was no partner, and he could not work alone, but he promised that he would definitely come tomorrow and fix everything.

– Well, yes, and there is the New Year! And if we succeed, even in this goal we will be able to live humanly and, most importantly, alive! “Azheki’s daughter suddenly dropped.

– Don’t… Suddenly he’ll kill himself again … – Azheka was frightened for her neighbor who flooded them.

– And you don’t need to write anything.. Throw it all away, throw it away! – picked up the father and, tearing out the paper that had just been written, threw it into the urn.

They forgave the neighbor everything and did not talk about the flood and about money anymore, although they knew that she would not pay any money tomorrow or later. when she finds clients and her times go better. They simply could not, that through their fault someone would have problems. Who knows… It’s scary to even think about it..

Right before the New Year, repairs were done. Straight, one day. As in the movie “The Irony of Fate…” Just not laughing…

– And what happened to them? – asked the brother’s sister.

– The old pipe rusted long ago and, it turns out, was simply bandaged with electrical tape… So it could not stand it … – Marat said quietly. – Come on. What was, what was. You better decorate the tree. Look, still completely bald, – he smiled.

The sweet aroma of Baursaks and Olivier was heard throughout the apartment. The new year was saved!

    © Copyright: Raisa Karimbaeva, 2018
    Certificate of publication No. 218122700674

Bird hunting

We were six or seven years old when Sashka invited us to climb into the garden. The garden was large and surrounded by a large fence. All overgrown with wormwood and nettles. The trees were very tall. Especially birch trees. They propped up the sky itself and it seemed that they were floating in the clouds! The pears and peaches planted earlier by someone did not start, and remained dry, thin, bare twigs without leaves. Here, in the north, in the wilderness, where the winds blow with might and main and there are frequent showers, peaches do not grow. Our village was far from civilization and was surrounded by steppe. Wherever you look, the steppe is everywhere!. People with their families were gradually leaving the village, and their houses were emptied. So this garden is empty and overgrown. We got over the fence easily. First, the boys jumped, and then Gulka and I. The fence was high and at first it was a little scary, but I didn’t want to admit it and we climbed over it all the same, overcoming the fear. All the way Sashka kept repeating that he wanted to show us something. And now, intrigued, we found ourselves there in the garden. Large bushes and trees grew along the alley.. Suddenly, one bird sat down on the alley and slightly bent on its side, limping slightly, went, trying to take off, but did not take off. The broken wing prevented her from doing it. The boys shouted, hooted, trying to catch up with her, but she didn’t work. As soon as they got closer, she flew up, and then returned to the ground again and, as it were, limping ridiculously moved, leading somewhere to the side.…