Vira Kuzmivna stood in the kitchen doorway, looking at her own husband. Grandpa Hryts was sitting in his armchair with a mug of linden tea, while a fluffy cat dozed on his lap. He was quietly telling her something—not giving commands, not saying “kitty-kitty,” but truly talking to her. And she listened, narrowing her large […]
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Maksymko was drawing a house. Not the one they lived in, but one that did not exist yet: with a chimney, a tree by the porch, and a dog almost half the size of the roof. “Mom, this will be my room,” he said, pointing his pencil at the upstairs window. “The one where I […]
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Nastya walked slowly from the bus stop, swinging her empty bag. An hour earlier, she had dropped Pavlik off at her mother’s place, and now she had a free evening and an entire weekend ahead of her. She was almost confused by such luxury—what was she supposed to do with herself? One thing was certain: […]
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The kettle clicked off, and in the sudden silence Dasha’s phone screamed as if someone were cutting it open. The screen showed “Tamara Viktorovna.” Kristina, sitting opposite her with a cup in her hand, raised an eyebrow and slowly set it down on the saucer. “Your mother-in-law?” she asked. “My mother-in-law,” Dasha said, rubbing her […]
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The furnace in the workshop breathed heat like an angry beast, and Yaroslava squinted out of habit as she lifted the glowing plate with a pair of tweezers. The enamel on the copper brooch was turning glassy, deepening into that rich blue for which she had endured this workshop for nine years. Her hands were […]
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Olga Vasylivna counted the money in the envelope marked “Electricity, Gas” for the third time. The numbers still did not add up. She smoothed each banknote with her palm, as though that might somehow make the money multiply, and put it back into the envelope. Four hundred hryvnias. There were still nine days until her […]
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— Veronika, why are you sitting there like a stranger? — Tamara Igorevna set a plate of aspic in front of her. — Eat. We’re not going to poison you. — Thank you, I’m eating, — Veronika smiled gently, the way people smile in someone else’s home when they want everyone to be comfortable. — […]
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Alyona was tightening the last screw on the joint when her phone vibrated on the workbench. The veterinary orthopedics workshop hummed steadily with the sound of machinery, and she hated being interrupted in the middle of an assembly. The prosthetic leg for a German shepherd named Bublik was almost finished; all that remained was to […]
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The long table was divided by wooden slats like a sheet of music by bar lines. Veronika pressed the silk down with her palm so the fabric wouldn’t shift and guided a thin piece of chalk along the edge. The work was going well—smoothly, steadily, without interruptions—and that didn’t happen every day. The door opened […]
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Part One. Nine Days The house smelled like her father. Not of dust, not of dampness, not of old wood — specifically of her father: shag tobacco, machine oil, and the apples he used to stack in crates beneath the stairs. Ksenia stood in the hallway without taking off her shoes and listened to the […]
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