“Well, finally. I was starting to think you wouldn’t make it home at all today,” Vera Mikhailovna’s voice called out from the kitchen. “The employee of the year is back. Should I give you a bonus or just a wreath right away?” I was still standing in the hallway with grocery bags in both hands, … Read more
On the first Saturday of December, Ekaterina found a strange car parked in front of her gate. The woman sitting inside was touching up her lipstick and clearly had no intention of moving to let her in. Ekaterina gave two quick honks. The woman lowered her window. “Are you here for Marina, too? I have … Read more
Shoes You Can’t Dance In Three weeks before the wedding, my younger sister sent me a photo of her feet. There was a band-aid on her right heel and two more on her left. Under the picture, she wrote: “Stas says to put up with it. At least we’ll look like a perfect couple in … Read more
“Oh, you’re with the cake? Then you’ll be at table seven, by the service entrance. That’s where the photographer, DJ, and videographer are.” The administrator, a girl with a tablet and an earpiece, didn’t even look up. She nodded toward the corner of the veranda, where a small round table stood by the kitchen door … Read more
On Thursday evening, Nina sent me a list of containers. We needed six large ones, and as many small ones as I could find. Soon after, she asked if I could clear out the bottom shelf of the fridge—or even two shelves, to keep things organized later. Nina is my husband’s cousin-aunt. On Saturday, her … Read more
“Larisa, please don’t be upset, but I’ve given the apartment to Stasik. On the seventeenth, actually. I just didn’t want you to hear it from someone else.” She said this without taking her eyes off her plate of buckwheat. She held the spoon in her left hand. Her right, still weak after the cast, lay … Read more
“Sign the apartment over to me.” Gennady said it without even looking away from the TV, like he was just asking me to pass the salt. I was standing in the kitchen doorway, holding my mom’s folder of documents. My mother passed away two months ago. She was seventy-eight. Her heart stopped quietly during the … Read more
“Let’s make things clear right away so there are no surprises later,” Oleg said, taking a sip from his paper cup, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, and looking at Vera with narrowed eyes like he was sizing up something on the used market. “I’m fifty-four. I’m a man with established habits. … Read more
“Larisa, open up right now! Have you completely lost your mind? Why doesn’t my key work? What did you change?” The pounding on the door sounded like they were about to break in. I stood barefoot in the hallway, leaning my shoulder against the wall, watching through the peephole. Oleg was outside, face red with … Read more
Zhenya, grab a pen. The realtor has been waiting downstairs for half an hour already. “What realtor?” I asked. “For the apartment,” Lidiya Petrovna answered calmly. “We need to sell before prices near the MCD drop.” She was sitting in my kitchen in her coat, back straight, like I was the one called in for … Read more