“Mom! Come here! Someone’s living in our apartment!” Nina was carrying two bags and a bucket of apples, while Yurka stood by the bedroom door with his back to her. Just from the way he was standing, she could tell he wasn’t joking. “Yurka, take your shoes off!” “Mom, just come here!” image Their […]
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The bus moved smoothly, without any jolts, and that alone felt like a small celebration. Polina stood by the handrail, holding onto a bag in which a few hinges quietly rolled around inside a canvas pouch. The evening promised to be peaceful, and Saturday looked like it would be absolutely wonderful. Her phone vibrated, and […]
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Part One. The Housewarming A tire swing hung from a rope beneath the old apple tree, and Polina squealed with delight as she soared almost as high as the lowest branches. Larisa stood on the porch and counted: a year and a half’s worth of weekends, more than seventy trips, three buckets of filler, and […]
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The lamp above the worktable cast a steady white light, and beneath it a tiny sunflower slowly bloomed on Rita’s fingernail—three brushstrokes, a fine line, a dot. Darya worked with a brush as thin as a single hair, barely breathing, and smiled. In the next room, five-year-old Sonya was putting her stuffed fox, Tosha, to […]
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The string lights blinked as though they were celebrating a holiday of their own. Balloons swayed beneath the ceiling—gold ones, pink ones, and a single blue one that Mila had chosen herself and declared “the most important.” The large room smelled of frosting and oranges, and a mountain of presents wrapped in shiny paper covered […]
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“Say those words again, and I’ll pack my things. No amount of money could ever replace having you healthy and here beside me.” Eva emptied her piggy bank straight onto the floor and sat down right in the middle of the pile of coins, like a sparrow splashing in a puddle. She stacked the five-ruble […]
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The shopping bags were pulling so heavily on her arms that it felt as though her hands had stretched a couple of inches. Dasha walked toward the house with a spring in her step because the evening promised to be simple: put away the groceries, turn on some TV series, and not think about anything […]
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— You’re on your own. Give the house to your sister—she has it hard with the children, — Mother said. — Things are easier for you. Try to understand that already. The balloons were blue and pink, along with one ridiculous green one that had stuck to the ceiling and refused to come down. Styosha […]
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Nika was laughing so hard that she kept toppling sideways onto the carpet, and Yulia had to catch her by her round little belly. Yulia snapped the fastener on the snowsuit, caught one leg, then the other, then a third—no, there was no third leg; the child was simply wriggling around like a wind-up toy. […]
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The new department greeted Olya with a steady hum of voices and a bewildering maze of desks. There were so many of them that her eyes kept wandering without finding anything to settle on. Olya stopped in the doorway, clutching a folder to her chest, and felt like someone who had walked through the wrong […]
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