«Ludmila Lvovna, did you see the notice on the store door?»
Zoyka, the local grocery store clerk, was arranging products on the counter for an elderly woman who had come shopping, packing them into the shopper’s backpack.
«Be careful around your outlying areas, you can expect anything from those scoundrels,» Zoyka warned.
«Which scoundrels?» Ludmila Lvovna didn’t understand, noticing the notice because she stumbled on the porch.
«Some convicts escaped from the colony,» Zoyka replied, ringing up the sale. «Two of them, with such brutal faces.»
«Wow! Zoy, then you be more careful here. What can they take from me? But you have a cash register, products in a full store. And you’re a good-looking girl yourself. They should have sent someone to guard you,» the shopper shook her head.
«Oh, exactly! And I hadn’t thought about that,» Zoyka exclaimed, her eyes widening. «Though this is the center of the village, maybe they’ll be afraid to come here. But I’ll call Kolya. Let him walk by from time to time.»
«That’s better,» agreed the woman. «Zoyenka, I’d also like a good cast-iron skillet, I’ve wanted one for a long time.»
«And how are you going to carry all this?» Zoya suddenly realized, placing a skillet on the counter. «It’s heavy.»
«Ah, one’s own burden doesn’t weigh,» Ludmila Lvovna laughed, deciding to carry it by hand. «Well, thank you, dear. Goodbye.»
Zoya shook her head as she watched the departing backpack. On the porch, Ludmila Lvovna stopped to examine the flyer. Indeed, the faces of the fugitives in the photo were unpleasant: two convicts had escaped from robbery two days ago. The flyer called on everyone to be vigilant and to call the number provided in the announcement if anything was seen.
«They can’t sit still,» the elderly woman shook her head and headed home to her cottage on the edge of the village.
Before moving here, Ludmila Lvovna Vorobyova lived in the city, working as a teacher. She still remembered all her students despite her age. Having retired, she decided to swap 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 have bought a one-bedroom here, nearby. I shouldn’t have to travel so far to see you,» she scolded.
«What distance are you talking about?» Ludmila Lvovna laughed. «It’s a half-hour by bus, once a month you can manage it, get away from the city hustle. — You’re being unfair,» she added.
«Especially since my husband doesn’t want to go there,» her daughter persisted.
«Nobody is asking him to,» the mother shrugged. «You can’t force affection.»
She did not like her son-in-law; he had not made a good impression on her from their first meeting. Arrogant, haughty Anatoly treated Dasha like she was a clueless child.
«What were you thinking?» Ludmila Lvovna tried to open her daughter’s eyes. «He’s suppressing you, treating you like you’re foolish…»
«Mom, please,» she scoffed. «Don’t say later that I didn’t warn you.»
That’s how they lived: the daughter with her husband in the city, the mother in the village.
Returning from the store, Ludmila Lvovna heard some noise in her yard.
«Who has the devil brought here?» she wondered and cautiously peeked out from behind a pile of firewood.
On the porch stood an unfamiliar young man, looking like a vagrant, and in front of him were 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 strip.
«Don’t be so gentle with him,» the second one spat. «Just finish him off and be done with it.»
Not expecting such agility from herself, the elderly woman dropped her backpack, gripped the handle of the frying pan with both hands, and quietly emerged from her hiding spot, sneaking up on the criminals.
Something crunched underfoot when she had already reached an arm’s length away. The fugitives turned around, none of them expecting someone to appear here—the house was quite remote. The frying pan came down with a heavy thud on the head of the convict with the knife, who groaned and started to fall to the ground. At that moment, the vagrant knocked the second one off his feet with a punch.
«Grab him!» shouted Ludmila Lvovna, rushing into the house for a rope. «Tie them up quickly!» she emerged with a bundle of laundry rope and handed it to the man.
He was straddling one of the convicts. The second one was beginning to come to and stirred. The man tied the wrists of one, then started on the other. Ludmila Lvovna hurried inside for her phone.
«Kolya, it’s… I have your fugitives near my house. They’re tied up already. Come quickly, I beg you, take these wretches away,» she shouted into the phone.
Driven by emotion, Kolya, the local police officer, arrived in his UAZ at the former teacher’s house in five minutes.
«Lucky you, Ludmila Lvovna,» he said, astonished and impressed as he stared at two cursing bodies lying on the ground. Nearby lay a frying pan with a broken handle. Ludmila Lvovna modestly lowered her eyes.
«And the young man also did well.» She nodded towards the vagrant, sitting on the porch and not taking his eyes off the criminals.
The convicts were loaded into the car, and Kolya drove them away.
«Thank you,» finally spoke the stranger. «If it weren’t for you, I’d have been done for. Some real scum attacked me.»
«Ah, don’t mention it. I didn’t even think it would turn out like this. It was all quite spontaneous. Just a shame about the frying pan,» sighed the woman. «I only bought it today and already broke the handle on his thick head.»
«I can fix it if you don’t mind, Ludmila Lvovna,» offered the man. «That is your name, right?»
«Exactly, 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 got hit by something. Was it your frying pan?» he joked, smiling.
«You’re quite the comedian,» Ludmila Lvovna also smiled. «Let me see your head.»
He leaned over, and dried blood was visible in his hair, showing that the injury was recent.
«Do you remember anything at all?» Ludmila Lvovna inquired.
The vagrant shook his head.
«Well… let’s go inside, I’ll call you Vanya for now.»
«We’ll treat the wound, then fire up the bathhouse. I don’t have any men’s clothes, but I can offer a warm robe. My daughter gave it to me, and I never wore it,» Ludmila Lvovna said, preparing hydrogen peroxide and a bandage.
She seated the guest on a chair and treated the wound.
«How does it feel?» asked the man.
«Like in a fairy tale.»
«Exactly, there was Ivan who remembered no kin,» the hostess smiled, putting away the medicines. She then fed the guest and showed him to a room.
«The guy doesn’t seem poor,» she thought, «fashionable haircut, although grown out. Hands definitely not those of a laborer, well-manicured nails. Good quality clothes, not cheap. Maybe he was robbed on the way? Well, nothing, maybe his memory will return, he’ll tell everything himself.»
«Ludmila Lvovna, did you see the notice on the store door?»
The clerk at the local grocery store, Zoyka, was laying out products for an elderly woman who had come shopping, and she was packing them into the woman’s backpack.
«Be careful around the outskirts, you can expect anything from those scoundrels,» Zoyka warned.
«Which scoundrels?» Ludmila Lvovna didn’t understand, noticing the notice because she stumbled on the porch.
«Some inmates escaped from the colony,» Zoyka replied, printing the receipt. «Two of them, such brutal faces.»
«Oh! Zoy, then you be more careful. What would they take from me? But you have the cash register, a store full of products. And you’re a noticeable young woman. They should have sent someone to guard you,» the customer shook her head.
«Oh, right! And I hadn’t thought about that,» Zoyka exclaimed, her eyes widening. «Though this is the center of the village, maybe they’ll be afraid to come here. But I’ll call Kolya. Let him walk by from time to time.»
«That’s the spirit,» the woman agreed. «Zoyenka, I’d like a good cast iron skillet, I’ve been wanting one for a long time.»
«And how will you carry all this?» Zoyka realized suddenly, placing the skillet on the counter. «It’s heavy.»
«Ah, one’s own burden doesn’t weigh heavy, you know,» Ludmila Lvovna laughed, deciding to carry it by hand. «Well, thank you, dear. Goodbye.»
Zoyka shook her head as she watched the departing backpack. On the porch, Ludmila Lvovna stopped to look at the flyer. Indeed, the faces of the fugitives in the photo were unpleasant: two convicts had escaped from a robbery two days ago. The flyer called on everyone to be vigilant and to call the number provided in the notice if they saw anything.
«They can’t sit still,» the elderly woman shook her head and headed home, to a cottage on the edge of the village.
Before moving here, Ludmila Lvovna Vorobyova lived in the city, working as a teacher. She still remembered all her students despite her age. Having retired, she decided to swap 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 have bought a one-bedroom here, nearby. I shouldn’t have to travel so far to see you,» she scolded.
«What distance are you talking about?» Ludmila Lvovna laughed. «It’s a half-hour by bus, once a month you can manage it, get away from the city hustle. — You’re being unfair,» she added.
«Especially since my husband doesn’t want to go there,» her daughter persisted.
«Nobody is asking him to,» the mother shrugged. «You can’t force affection.»
She did not like her son-in-law; he had not made a good impression on her from their first meeting. Arrogant, haughty Anatoly treated Dasha like she was a clueless child.
«What were you thinking?» Ludmila Lvovna tried to open her daughter’s eyes. «He’s suppressing you, treating you like you’re foolish…»
«Mom, please,» she scoffed. «Don’t say later that I didn’t warn you.»
That’s how they lived: the daughter with her husband in the city, the mother in the village.
Returning from the store, Ludmila Lvovna heard some noise in her yard.
«Who has the devil brought here?» she wondered and cautiously peeked out from behind a pile of firewood.
On the porch stood an unfamiliar young man, looking like a vagrant, and in front of him were 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 strip.
Darya was 33 when she met her future husband. Tolya was five years older. Before him, Dasha had several failed attempts to create a family, so when he showed interest in her, she decided to do whatever it took to keep him. She literally hung on his every word, fulfilling his every whim and command.
Her mother tried to reason with her daughter multiple times, but to no avail.
«Mom, I definitely don’t want to live alone. There are no more men like my father left in the world,» the daughter justified herself. «Don’t judge by your own standards.»
Ludmila Lvovna mourned her prematurely deceased husband and never looked at any man as a potential life partner.
She couldn’t persuade her daughter, and she married Anatoly. Ludmila Lvovna had just retired and moved to a village, while Dasha and her husband stayed in their two-bedroom apartment. Today, five years later, Darya was walking out of the city court after a difficult divorce.
«I married you thinking you would give me an heir. And what’s the outcome?» her ex-husband argued loudly. «Five years of life down the drain. You will never have children.»
«Tolya, I am perfectly healthy,» Dasha defended herself. «I’ve seen all the doctors, everything is fine with me. Why didn’t you do the same?» she almost cried from the unfair accusations and claims.
«How dare you even suspect me?» exploded Tolya. «Unlike you, Raya gave birth to my son.»
He did not expect to slip up, and immediately bit his tongue, but it was too late. Dasha was dumbfounded by such a statement, then she locked herself in one of the rooms and cried all night. She didn’t hear the front door slam, and in the morning, she found no sign of her husband. She took a leave from work and went to file for divorce. Tolya divided everything they had accumulated over the years, even the smallest items.
Unable to stay in the apartment alone, Darya went to her mother’s in the village, already imagining what she would say. The house was lit, and silhouettes of a man and a woman could be seen through the windows.
«Interesting,» Darya thought aloud as she approached the house. «Oh mother, you sly thing.»
Dasha even forgot her sorrow over such news. Now the question was whether she would be intruding. Surprisingly, the door was open.
«Did I really travel all this way for nothing?» she thought as she entered.
With a snort, she entered the house. Her mother was bustling around the stove, and at the table, with his back to the door, sat a man, crafting something. He turned around at the sound of the door opening.
«Genya?» Dasha exclaimed in surprise. «What are you doing here?»
Before her sat Genka Zharov, the dream of all the girls from the institute, a year senior to Dasha. She had also been secretly in love with him, but he had chosen her classmate Sveta, bright and uninhibited.
Genya’s face showed a concentrated effort to recognize and remember the newcomer.
«Don’t bother,» Dasha smiled. «You hardly noticed me in the institute, so my name won’t mean anything to you.»
«You studied at the same institute?» her mother was delighted. «And what else do you know about him?»
«What, mom? Couldn’t he have told you himself?» Dasha’s questions seemed strange to her.
«Yes, he was hit on the head, lost his memory,» she informed her.
«Wow, I thought that only happened in movies,» Dasha was amazed. «This is Genka Zharov, the object of adoration of all the girls at the institute. I remember he chose Sveta, she always wore huge earrings. It seemed even her ears might fall off.»
«We didn’t date long,» Genya suddenly remembered. «She found herself a wealthy ‘daddy.'»
«Really? I didn’t know. I remember she dropped out of the institute. We thought she married you and that you had kids by then,» Dasha was surprised.
«She did marry, but not me.» Genya’s memory started returning before the spectators. «She married her ‘daddy.’ I wasn’t good enough for her, but it really motivated me.»
«So, didn’t waste your time polishing the university benches?» Dasha joked.
«I started something, failed, then learned from my mistakes and tried again. The business took off, I became no worse than Sveta’s ‘daddy.’ Met her once, she looked faded, her eyes haunted. Didn’t ask. Thought she wouldn’t say anything anyway, too proud…»
«And do you remember who hit you on the head?» Dasha listened to Genya, unconsciously observing him. He had matured, become serious.
«I was driving on the highway, saw a red car on the side, and a girl crying next to it. Well, I stopped to help, such an idiot. The road was empty, bent over the hood and that’s all. Sparks from my eyes, woke up in a ditch. They took my car, documents, money, even my leather jacket. Sitting there, my head empty, who am I, where am I. Wandered aimlessly, saw a village, a house in the outskirts. Wanted to knock, but these two decided to strip me: one wanted my pants, the other my jacket. Good thing Ludmila Lvovna came with her weapon…,» he joked.
