Lyudmila Lvovna, did you see the notice on the store door?»
The saleswoman, Zoyka, was laying out products on the counter for an elderly woman who had come shopping, and was packing them into the customer’s backpack.
«Be careful out there in the outskirts, you can expect anything from those scoundrels,» Zoyka warned.
«Which scoundrels?» Lyudmila Lvovna didn’t understand, noticing the notice because she tripped on the porch.
«Some convicts escaped from the colony,» replied Zoyka, processing the check. «Two of them, such beastly faces.»
«Wow! Zoy, then you be careful here. What will you take from me? You have the cash register, full store of products. And you’re quite a looker yourself. If only someone would send you a guard,» the customer shook her head.
«Oh, right! I hadn’t even thought of that,» Zoyka exclaimed, throwing up her hands and widening her eyes. «Although, this is the center of the village, maybe they’d be afraid to come here. But I’ll call Kolya. Let him walk by sometimes.»
«That’s different,» agreed the woman. «Zoyka, I’d also like a good cast iron skillet, been wanting one for a while.»
«And how are you going to carry all this?» Zoyka suddenly remembered, placing a skillet on the counter. «It’s heavy.»
«Ah, one’s own burden doesn’t weigh one down, you know,» laughed Lyudmila Lvovna, deciding to carry it by hand. «Well, thank you, dear. Goodbye.»
Zoyka shook her head, watching the retreating backpack. On the porch, Lyudmila Lvovna stopped to examine the wanted poster. Indeed, the faces of the fugitives in the photo were unpleasant: two convicts convicted of robbery had escaped two days ago. The flyer urged everyone to be vigilant and call the number listed in the announcement if they saw anything.
«Indeed, they can’t sit still,» the elderly woman shook her head and headed home, to the cottage on the edge of the village.
Before moving here, Lyudmila Lvovna Vorobyova lived in the city, working as a teacher. She still remembered all her students, despite her age. After retiring, she decided to trade her three-room apartment for peace, to get away from the hustle and bustle and people.
But her daughter Dasha did not approve of her mother’s choice.
«Why couldn’t you live in the city? You could’ve bought a one-bedroom here, nearby. It’s such a long way for me to come to you,» she scolded.
«What long way? Half an hour by bus, once a month you can take a ride, get away from the city hustle and bustle. You hurt my feelings,» she added.
«Especially since my husband doesn’t want to go there,» her daughter persisted.
«And no one is inviting him,» the mother shrugged her shoulders. «You can’t force love.»
She didn’t like her son-in-law; he hadn’t impressed her from their first meeting. Arrogant, haughty Anatoly treated Dasha like a foolish child.
«What were you looking at?» Lyudmila Lvovna tried to open her daughter’s eyes. «He’s suppressing you, treating you like you’re senseless…»
«Mom, please,» she smirked. «Don’t say I didn’t warn you.»
So they lived: the daughter with her husband in the city, the mother in the village.
Returning from the store, Lyudmila Lvovna heard some noise in her yard.
«Who has the devil brought here?» she thought and cautiously peered from behind a stack of firewood.
On the porch stood an unfamiliar young man, looking like a vagabond, and in front of him two men in black jackets.
«Take off your pants and top,» one of the convicts, flipping a knife from hand to hand, demanded the man undress.
«Why are you even fussing with him,» the second spat. «Finish him off, and that’s that.»
Without expecting such agility from herself, the elderly woman dropped her backpack, grabbed the handle of the skillet with both hands, and quietly emerged from her hiding, sneaking up on the criminals.
Something crunched under her foot when she had already approached within arm’s length. The fugitives turned around, none of them expected anyone to appear here—the house was on the outskirts. The skillet with a heavy thud landed on the head of the convict with the knife, who groaned prolongedly and began to slump to the ground. At that moment, the vagabond knocked the second one off his feet with a punch.
«Grab him!» Lyudmila Lvovna shouted and rushed into the house for a rope. «Tie them up quickly!» she emerged with a coil of clothesline and handed it to the man.
He was sitting astride one of the convicts. The second one was already coming to his senses and started to stir. The man tied the wrists of one, then started on the other. Lyudmila Lvovna hurried into the house for the phone.
«Kolya, it’s… I have your fugitives near my house. They’re already tied up. Please come, I beg you by Christ, take these scoundrels away,» she shouted into the receiver.
Emotionally, Kolya, the local police officer, was at the former teacher’s house in his UAZ within five minutes.
«Lucky you, Lyudmila Lvovna,» he stared in surprise and admiration at two cursing bodies lying on the ground. Nearby lay a skillet with a broken handle. Lyudmila Lvovna modestly lowered her eyes.
«And the young man did a good job too.» She nodded at the vagabond, sitting on the porch and not taking his eyes off the criminals.
They loaded the convicts into the car, and Kolya drove them away.
«Thank you,» finally spoke the stranger. «If it weren’t for you, I would’ve been done for. Some real thugs.»
«Ah, don’t thank me. I didn’t think it would turn out this way. It all happened spontaneously. Just a pity about the skillet,» sighed the woman. «Just bought it today and already broke the handle on his thick head.»
«I’ll fix it, if you don’t mind, Lyudmila Lvovna,» offered the man. «That is your name, right?»
«Absolutely correct, that’s my name,» she smiled. «If you can fix it, I don’t mind. And what should I call you?»
The stranger hesitated, embarrassed.
«I don’t remember.»
«What do you mean?» the hostess was surprised.
He shrugged.
«I woke up in a ditch near the highway not far from here. No documents, no money, nothing. My head is splitting. I touched it—there’s blood, apparently, I was hit with something. Wasn’t it your skillet?» he joked, smiling.
«You’re quite the comedian,» Lyudmila Lvovna also smiled. «Let me look at your head.»
He bent down, his hair was caked with blood, showing that the injury was recent.
«Do you remember anything at all?» Lyudmila Lvovna inquired.
The vagabond shook his head.
«Well… let’s go inside, I’ll call you Vanya for now.»
«We’ll treat the wound now, then heat up the sauna. I don’t have men’s clothing, but I can offer a warm robe, my daughter gave it to me, and I never wore it,» Lyudmila Lvovna said, preparing peroxide and a bandage.
She seated the guest on a chair and treated the wound.
«How do you feel?» the man asked.
«Like in a fairy tale.»
«Exactly, there was Ivan who didn’t remember his kin,» smiled the hostess, putting away the medicines. Then she fed the guest and led him to a room.
«The guy’s not from a poor background,» she thought, «nice haircut, fashionable, though it has grown out. Hands definitely not of a laborer, well-kept nails. Clothes are of good quality, not cheap. Maybe they robbed him on the road? Well, nothing, maybe the memory will return, he’ll tell everything himself.»
Daria was 33 when she met her future husband. Tolya was five years her senior. Before him, Dasha had several unsuccessful attempts to create a family, and therefore, when he paid attention to her, she decided at all costs to keep him. She literally hung on his every word, fulfilling any of his whims and orders.
Her mother tried multiple times to reason with her daughter, but she just brushed it off.
«Mom, I definitely don’t want to live alone. There are no more men like my father in the whole world,» the daughter justified herself. «Don’t judge by yourself.»
Lyudmila Lvovna pined for her late husband and never looked at another man as a potential life partner.
She failed to convince her daughter, and she married Anatoly. Lyudmila Lvovna had just retired and moved to the village, while Dasha and her husband stayed in a two-bedroom apartment. And today, five years later, Daria was walking from the city court after a tough divorce.
«I married you, thinking you’d give me an heir. And what in the end?» her ex-husband raised his voice. «Five years of life down the drain. You’ll never have children.»
«Tolya, I’m perfectly healthy,» Dasha defended herself. «I’ve seen all the doctors, everything’s fine with me. Why didn’t you do the same?» she nearly cried from the unfair accusations and complaints.
«How dare you even suspect me?» Tolya exploded. «Unlike you, Raya bore me a son.»
He didn’t expect to slip up and immediately bit his tongue, but it was too late. Dasha was dumbfounded by such a statement, then locked herself in one of the rooms and cried all night. She didn’t hear the front door slam, and in the morning, her husband was gone. She took leave from work and went to file for divorce. Tolya split everything they had accumulated over the years, right down to the smallest details.
Unable to be in the apartment alone, Darya went to her mother’s in the village, already imagining what she would say. The house lights were on, silhouettes of a man and a woman visible in the windows.
«Interesting,» Darya thought aloud as she approached the house. «Well, mom, you sly fox.»
Dasha even forgot her sorrow at such news. Now the question was, would she be in the way? Surprisingly, the door was open.
«Did I really travel all this way for nothing?» she thought, entering the house.
With a snort, she walked in. Mom was bustling at the stove, and at the table, with his back to the door, sat a man, tinkering with something. He turned at the sound of the opening door.
«Zhenya?» Dasha exclaimed in surprise. «What are you doing here?»
Before her sat Zhenka Zharov, the dream of all the girls from the institute, a year senior to Dasha. She too had secretly been in love with him, but he chose her classmate Sveta, bright and unrestrained.
The expression on Evgeny’s face showed an intense attempt to recognize and remember the newcomer.
«Don’t strain yourself,» Dasha smiled. «You hardly noticed me at the institute, so my name won’t mean anything to you.»
«You studied at the same institute?» the mother rejoiced. «And what else do you know about him?»
«What, mom? He couldn’t tell you himself?» Dasha’s questions seemed strange to her.
«They hit him on the head, knocked his memory out,» she informed her.
«Wow, I thought that only happens in movies,» Dasha was amazed. «This is Zhenka Zharov, the object of all the girls’ sighs at the institute. I remember he chose Sveta, she always had huge earrings hanging from her ears. It seemed to me they would fall off at any moment.»
«We didn’t date long,» Evgeny suddenly remembered. «She found herself a wealthy ‘daddy.'»
«Really? I didn’t know. I thought she was expelled from the institute. We thought she got married to you and you already had kids,» Dasha was surprised.
«Married, but not to me.» Zhenya’s memory began to return before the eyes of those present. «She married her ‘daddy.’ I wasn’t good enough for her, but it really spurred me on.»
«What, didn’t waste your time at university?» Dasha joked.
«Started something, it crashed, but then I learned from all the mistakes and tried again. Business took off, I became just as good as Sveta’s ‘daddy.’ Met her once, and she looked all dimmed, her gaze haunted. Didn’t ask. I think she wouldn’t have said anything anyway, pride wouldn’t allow it…»
«And do you remember who hit you on the head?» Dasha listened to Zhenya, unobtrusively examining him. He had matured, become serious.
«Driving down the highway, I see, a little red car parked on the side, and a girl crying next to it. Well, I got out to help, idiot. The highway was empty, no one around. Bent over the hood and that’s all. Saw sparks, woke up in a ditch. They took the car, and the documents and money, even took off my leather jacket. Sat there, my head empty, didn’t know who I was, where I was. Randomly walked, saw a village, a house on the outskirts. Wanted to knock, but from behind these two decided to undress me: one wanted pants, the other the jacket. Good thing Lyudmila Lvovna with her weapon was timely.»
«Mom?» Dasha looked at her in surprise. «And what kind of weapon do you have, and who were those two?»
«Some convicts escaped from the colony. And your mom neutralized them with her skillet. I’m fixing the handle, it died a brave death in an uneven fight,» Zhenya joked.
«You jokester,» Lyudmila Lvovna laughed.
«What a drama you have here!»
Dasha even forgot about her divorce and her husband’s infidelity for a moment.
«And why did you show up in the middle of the week?» The mother only now realized that her daughter had come not on a weekend.
How could she complain about life in front of Zhenya?
«Consider us all family now,» he smiled. «I’ve almost told you my whole life. You’ve even seen me without memory, so now you’re obliged to marry me. Your turn.»
«I divorced Tolya,» Dasha blurted out in one breath and turned to her mother. «And I know what you’re going to tell me now.»
«Not a word will I say,» she shrugged. «Divorced and divorced. Life doesn’t end there. You’re still young, everything is ahead of you, and you’re already being proposed to.»
«Look at you, getting along,» Dasha muttered, but her heart warmed from her mother not scolding and that Zhenya, even jokingly, proposed marriage.
«Oh, alright, it’s late already,» Lyudmila Lvovna realized. «Time to sleep. Vanya… oh, Zhenya, I’ll make your bed in the kitchen. You, Dash, will sleep on the stove, where you usually do.»
«Can I sleep on the stove?» Zhenya suddenly peeked out from the kitchen where the hostess had dragged a folding bed. «I’ve always dreamed of sleeping on a stove.»
«By all means,» Dasha agreed.
In the morning, Zhenya and Darya were awakened by the stunning aroma of fresh pastries. On the table was a large plate, resembling a basin, full of pies.
«When did you learn to bake such delicacies?» the daughter wondered, biting into a pie on the go.
«Been learning ever since they installed the internet,» the mother replied. «Let’s have breakfast.»
Breakfast was fun, all three joked, laughed, and from the outside, one might think they were one family. When everyone had eaten, they thanked the hostess.
«I have to go.» Zhenya kissed Lyudmila Lvovna’s hand, causing her embarrassment. «Thank you again for both saving and sheltering me.»
«From the bottom of my heart,» she replied. «Come back anytime. The stove is usually always free.»
«Thank you, I definitely will.»
He was about to leave when Dasha noticed:
«And how are you going to travel without any money? You were robbed.»
«Oh, right!» the man slapped his forehead. «I’m so used to not worrying about money. Yes… they hit me good, knocked all memory out.»
«Alright, I’ll go with you,» Dasha sighed. «Do you at least remember your address?»
«I think I do,» Zhenya scratched his head.
«Well, go with God,» Lyudmila Lvovna crossed them.
They reached the city by regular bus.
«Do you have anyone at home?» Dasha asked as they stepped onto the street.
«No, nowhere. I live alone.» Zhenya didn’t understand where she was leading.
«And where will you go without keys? Sit under the door? Come with me,» Dasha offered. «Stay until you find a locksmith and change the lock.»
«Yes, you’re right,» Zhenya agreed. He became interested in how she lived.
«Just don’t be scared,» Dasha warned. «The ex-husband filed for property division. I was afraid he’d start sawing everything in half, but it didn’t come to that.»
At Dasha’s home, Zhenya toured the apartment, amazed that the husband had taken half the kitchen furniture—the upper cabinets along with the table. And much more.
«Is he normal at all?» the guest doubted.
Dasha shrugged. Then the doorbell rang, and they exchanged glances. Darya went to open it, Zhenya stayed in the kitchen and became an involuntary witness to the conversation.
«What are you doing here?» Dasha’s voice was angry. «Haven’t taken everything yet?»
«You know… It turns out Raya cheated on me, it’s not my son,» Anatoly unexpectedly declared. «And I decided to come back.»
«And who was waiting for you here?»
Dasha was starting to boil. Zhenya heard it in her tone. It seemed time to save the situation.
«Darling, who is this scum?» Zhenya emerged from the kitchen in an apron, with rolled-up sweater sleeves and a large knife in his hand.
«Uh… who is this?» Tolya even began to stutter.
«Grandpa Pihota. Who are you and what are you doing here?» Zhenya approached Dasha and hugged her.
«Didn’t even let the marital bed cool down before you brought home a lover!» Tolya squealed, backing towards the door.
«What bed? You took the bed and the bedding with you,» Dasha was furious. «He’s going to talk to me about the bed now.»
«Anyway, scram, don’t push it, I don’t want to go to jail again because of such a sheep!»
He stepped towards Tolya. The latter backed away and slipped out the door, mumbling in the hallway.
«What did you even see in him?» Zhenya stared at Dasha.
She just sighed.
«Alright, let’s talk about it later. Let’s find you a locksmith for now.»
Several days passed since Dasha returned to the city with Zhenya. The locks in his apartment had already been replaced, and he had filed a police report regarding the assault. Gradually, they began to settle in.
One day Dasha noticed a furniture van at the house, and Zhenya was sitting on a bench.
«Dash, where have you been? I’ve been sitting here for two hours, the movers will start drinking soon from idleness,» he jumped up, seeing her. «Guys, bring it in!» he commanded when the movers began unloading a huge mattress and some boxes.
«Zhenya, what have you thought up?» Daria was stunned, seeing what was happening.
«And how were you planning to live without a bed?» he laughed. «A new life starts with a new bed.»
«With you?» Dasha laughed at her own joke and immediately blushed.
«With me.» Zhenya became very serious. «Or do you have another candidate?»
«No.» Dasha couldn’t tell if he was joking or serious.
«Well then, let’s consider that settled.» Zhenya directed the movers, helping them drag the huge mattress into the building.
A few months later, they got married, to the joy of Lyudmila Lvovna, who, it turned out, had been rewarded for capturing the escaped convicts. And nine months later, they had a daughter.
Zhenya literally pampered Dasha until the birth. Everything went well, and often afterward in their family, they fondly remembered grandma’s skillet, Zhenya in a kitchen apron, and much more, always with a smile.
