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In the village of Omutovo, outsiders were not welcome. The moment a stranger appeared on the horizon, curious eyes would peek out from behind curtains, and a silent council of grandmothers would gather on the bench by the gate, keeping sharp watch on the newcomer’s every move. So it was this time too. Down the […]

That day—the very one, the last day of their life together—splintered into Karina’s memory like shards of glass. The air in the entryway was thick and stale, smelling of old resentments and the sour tang of dashed hopes. “Who’s going to want you, huh?” Artyom’s words hung in the air—heavy, poisonous, each one like a […]

Elena had just turned twenty-three—a milestone which, in their small provincial town, was considered the boundary between carefree youth and a settled, orderly life. Friends, neighbors, and the aunts at the market all felt obliged to inquire about suitors and, with sighs, hint that it was high time to think seriously about such things, or […]

A country lout—uncouth and crude—whose idea of good manners seemed to begin and end with not smacking too loudly. His life was laughably primitive: by day he hauled some kind of goods around in his battered car, and night after night he sat glued to his computer, from which came explosions and the clatter of […]

The crisp autumn air was thick and prickly. Alina, wrapped in a light coat, walked out of the office center she had considered her second home just an hour earlier. Now it was just a glass monster that had spat her out onto the roadside of life. In her ears still rang Arkady Petrovich’s nasty, […]

In that little town, tucked away at the edge of geography like the last speck of dust on the map, time flowed not by the clock, but by the seasons. It froze in harsh winters, thawed with the slush of spring, drowsed in the scorching summer heat, and mourned with the damp rains of autumn. […]

In the farthest, darkest corner of the municipal animal shelter—where even the light from the fluorescent lamps seemed to fall grudgingly and thin—there lay, curled up on a thin, worn blanket, a dog. A German Shepherd—once, no doubt, strong and stately, and now a ghost of former might. His thick coat, once the pride of […]

It happened in August of last year. A warm, salty breeze from the sea caressed the fishermen’s faces, and the sun, still unwearied by summer, played with shimmering reflections on the water. The pier in the bay was ordinary—old planks, the creak of ropes, the smell of seaweed and brine. Every day began and ended […]