For the May holidays, the entire family prepared to leave with the air of people who were leaving behind not a son with an injured leg, but an old refrigerator that simply needed to be left untouched until they returned. The hallway was crowded with bags, packages of food for the road, folding chairs, and […]
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“You’ll sign the consent for my registration at the MFC tomorrow, and we won’t embarrass ourselves in front of people,” my mother-in-law said, placing her cup on the edge of my kitchen table. “Seryozha has already decided. The study suits me, and you don’t need an entire house all to yourself anyway.” On the table […]
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“Your beets, Veronika, are kind of… from the supermarket or something? They’ve got no flavor of their own. Bland,” Tamara Pavlovna’s voice, thick and sluggish like cooled jelly, filled the entire small kitchen. She held a spoonful of borscht suspended in the air like an expert taster delivering a verdict on a defendant. Under the […]
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“Nastya, when I die, bury me next to Grandpa. And after you’ve held the memorial service on the fortieth day, sell the house and move to the city. There’s no reason for someone as young and beautiful as you to live in a village. Maybe you’ll meet someone in the city, get married, have children… […]
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Marina lay on the sofa, wrapped in a scratchy woolen blanket, staring blankly at the ceiling. Her head throbbed, her throat burned, and her whole body ached as though she had been run over by a truck. For the third day in a row, she could barely get to her feet. An ordinary autumn cold, […]
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“Well, since you have plenty of money now, you’ll buy me an apartment,” Tamara Sergeyevna said without the slightest hint of embarrassment, pushing her cup of tea aside. Olga froze with a folder of documents in her hands. Just a few minutes earlier, she had simply shown Maxim a bank statement—they had been discussing their […]
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