«Take the dog and don’t come back here again,» Aunt Zoya said, bracing the gate with her knee. «Your grandfather left her to you, so you should be happy.» She set my suitcase down on the wet gravel. Next to it, she put a metal bowl, which clinked against a stone. Tuman, the old German […]
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Lidiya Stepanovna was standing by the door with a bucket when she heard a voice coming from the office: «Just two more weeks, and she’ll do everything I say.» The voice belonged to her daughter’s fiancé. She put the bucket down against the wall—the next conversation made her completely forget about cleaning. «The most important […]
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The third number nine bus passed by the stop in an hour, and Iryna Hryhoriyivna thought she now knew this route better than the drivers themselves. «If I sit here much longer, they’ll hire me as a dispatcher,» she muttered and hugged her bag even tighter to her lap. Inside her bag were three dozen […]
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— Valya, this is the third time you’ve shown me a photo of your youngest grandson. But have you even once in the past month asked how I’m doing? Valentina froze with her phone in hand. The screen showed a round-faced boy in a bright blue cap, smiling. — Luda, what’s wrong? I’m just telling […]
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«Lesia, we’ll bring the kids to your place on Saturday morning. They’ll stay until Sunday evening, is that alright?» «Andrii, don’t you want to ask if I’m available first?» «Are you busy?» her brother sounded surprised. «Olena and I have already planned everything. We’ve booked the hotel, even started packing our things.» Lesia pushed away […]
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At half past ten at night, Liza was hemming a stranger’s dress—a dress for a woman she’d only met forty minutes earlier. It was dark blue with tiny white polka dots, size forty-eight. Liza laid it out on a stool under the kitchen lamp, pinned the hem, and carefully pulled the thread, as if every […]
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The doorbell rang at six o’clock. Two hours earlier than expected. Tetiana had just finished cutting up the herring for her ‘shuba’ salad when she thought that Maksym just couldn’t wait again. That was just like him: he’d say, «I’ll be there at eight,» and then show up outside her building with bags in hand, […]
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— You? A director? Iryna, are you sure you haven’t mixed something up? Oleh even set down his fork and looked at his wife intently. The genuine surprise on his face made Iryna stop smiling without even realizing it. — I haven’t mixed anything up. The order was signed today. Starting from the first, I’ll […]
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The phone rang at half past seven just as Ira was carrying two bags back from the store, one of which already had a suspiciously cracking handle. The number was unfamiliar, and she wedged the phone between her shoulder and ear because both hands were full of discounted potatoes and milk. «Ira? It’s Kira. I’m […]
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— Where are the dessert spoons? Klavdia Semyonovna held a teaspoon in front of her as if she had just found a rusty nail in her bowl. I was just setting the cake on the table. Homemade honey cake, with nuts on the sides. My daughter had written in chocolate on the frosting: «Mom — […]
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