Natalya slammed the door with a loud bang.
Since early morning, she’d had a feeling this day was going to go badly. Lyusya, her 19-year-old daughter, had recently brought home a kitten named Muska, and the cat had already made a mess right on the bathroom rug. It was hard for Natalya to scold her daughter about it, because Lyusya was doing her best to be responsible and had done everything correctly.
Muska usually behaved well, and her litter box was always cleaned in time and left out to dry. But today’s incident made Natalya furious.
Her daughter was studying Chinese in her room. When Natalya called her, Lyusya stuck her head out from behind the door and took off her headphones.
“Mom, please, would you clean it up?” she wheedled. “You know it makes me sick. Please, just this once!”
“I don’t have time, I’m late for work!” Natalya replied.
“But Mom, you know I’m really busy too, finals are coming up!” Lyusya burst out, her eyes going wide.
Natalya sighed, and her daughter, hugging her, added:
“Mommy, you’re the most beautiful and wonderful mom! Please, just this last time.”
Natalya forced a smile.
“Oh, you little flatterer, Lyusya. Alright, but this is the last time.”
“And Mom, you know…” her daughter hesitated. “Tomorrow Igor wanted to—”
“Igor again?” Natalya barked. “Enough fooling around with this boyfriend business, you need to finish your studies properly! Find a job, get on your feet. I don’t want to hear another word about Igor!”
“But Mom, he just wanted—”
“That’s enough, hush!”
Lyusya rolled her eyes and pouted. She put on her headphones, gave a dramatic flick of her hair, and disappeared into her room.
Natalya rushed out of the house and hurried to the bus stop. If she missed her minibus, she’d have to listen to more reprimands from the train’s head conductor. Nikolai was not a bad man, but he always had time to scold Natalya. Her colleagues often joked he was in love with her. To which she invariably replied:
“You’re all making it up! He can’t stand me, that’s obvious.”
Natalya couldn’t figure out why Nikolai was so judgmental of her. She tried to avoid him as much as possible. Luckily, she caught the minibus and even got a seat by the window. But when she got off, she tripped on the curb and fell, so hard it made her vision go dark. Limping toward the carriage, she hoped no one would notice. Her tights were torn in several places, her skirt was dirty, and the sleeve of her shirt was ripped.
Suddenly she heard a familiar voice.
“Hello, Natalya. What happened? Out early after a night of partying?”
It was Nikolai Sergeevich. Natalya felt a surge of indignation rising inside her.
When will this ever end? Her husband had left when Lyusya was three. Since then, she’d had no personal life. Now her daughter was nineteen and thinking about marriage.
She wasn’t thrilled about her job anymore. She used to be able to rest at least sometimes, but with Nikolai Sergeevich around, nothing brought her joy. On top of that, she’d scraped her knee and torn her expensive tights.
And to top it all off—like the cherry on the cake—she spotted a terrifying old man among the passengers. She and her girlfriends used to call him “the hermit.” He took the train once a month to a neighboring city and always looked sullen, never spoke to anyone. His expression was like an evil sorcerer’s, and his gaze sent chills down your spine, making you uneasy.
Other passengers usually avoided this old man; they often asked to be moved to another compartment if he happened to be nearby. From the moment she woke up, Natalya had sensed that since the day had begun so badly, this “hermit” would surely end up in her carriage.
She folded her arms angrily, glaring at Nikolai Sergeevich.
“Well, Nikolai Sergeevich, you clearly have nothing better to do than make up nonsense. If you don’t have a personal life, don’t interfere with other people’s. Let me say this: it’s none of your business where I’ve come from or why. I do my job, and as you see, I wear my uniform. So my appearance outside of work shouldn’t concern you.”
Natalya saw the head conductor’s jaw drop. It even amused her, though she didn’t let it show. She turned around and made her way to the carriage, trying not to limp too obviously.
“He’ll probably fire me,” she thought. “Fine, let him. There’s not much work here anyway, and they’re always short on trains. I can go work at the factory and be at home more often.”
Before the trip started, Natalya calmed down. Her anger subsided. The passengers weren’t to blame for her bad day. She was about to start checking tickets when she noticed “the hermit” standing by her compartment.
“Hello,” Natalya said, but the man only silently handed her his ticket and walked past without a word.
“Well then, same as always,” she thought with a sigh. She closed her eyes for a moment to collect herself and silently counted to ten. There weren’t many people in the carriage, so she could check them all at once.
The train set off. As usual, Natalya walked down the carriage, making sure everything was in order. Ticketless passengers often sneaked on from neighboring cars. She looked into each compartment, asked the passengers if everything was alright.
Reaching the hermit’s compartment, Natalya cracked the door open.
“Everything okay? Need anything? Would you like some tea?”
To her surprise, the man raised his head and looked at her. His eyes were bright and keen, nothing like she had imagined.
“Yes, if possible, some tea,” he answered quietly.
Natalya nearly dropped her tray when she heard his voice. This person, always so silent and grim, had suddenly spoken.
“Alright, I’ll bring it in about ten minutes,” she replied, closing the door.
When she brought him the tea, she heard him say an unexpected “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” she answered, pulling the door closed behind her. She paused for a moment in the corridor.
“What’s gotten into him?” Natalya wondered. “He suddenly spoke, like a normal person!” She shrugged and moved on.
Reaching the end of the carriage, Natalya noticed a strange sack in the corner of one of the empty compartments.
“What if it’s something dangerous? That’s all I need right now,” she thought.
She approached carefully and nudged the bag with her foot. Suddenly she heard a thin voice:
“Please, don’t kick me out. I just want to get as far away as possible.”
Natalya gasped. The bag moved, and upon closer inspection, she realized it was no bag at all, but a very pregnant young woman.
The stranger burst into tears at once.
“I beg you, don’t throw me off. I need to leave, I have nowhere else to go. I ran away from my fiancé and his mother. They wanted to kick me out and take my baby. But I won’t give my child to anyone!”
Natalya realized she had to act quickly.
“Alright, hush, calm down. Come with me. I’ll get you some tea, and you can tell me everything calmly.”
The girl stopped crying, but her eyes were still filled with fear. Natalya guessed she was even younger than her own daughter Lyusya. Kira—that was the stranger’s name—ate her sandwich hungrily, washing it down with tea.
“A typical story,” she said a little later. “I fell in love, he seemed to love me too, but his mother was against it. And then the pregnancy… They didn’t like that the baby’s bloodline would be ‘wrong.’ But they never told me that. I’m an orphan. I have an apartment from the state, all legal. They quickly had it transferred to their name, supposedly to buy a new place. Then I overheard that after I gave birth, they wanted to strip me of my parental rights, claim I was mentally ill. That would be easy for them—my fiancé’s mother is influential. They’d keep the baby and throw me out on the street. Best case scenario.”
Natalya poured her more tea, thinking grimly about the best course of action.
“I’m not lazy, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Kira added, looking up at Natalya. “I can do anything—cook, clean. I just need somewhere to settle down, and from there I can manage. I won’t give my baby to anyone.”
“Alright, alright, calm down. You shouldn’t be so nervous. Where exactly are you heading, alone and with no money?”
Kira shrugged.
“I don’t know yet. Just anywhere far away from them.”
Natalya sighed.
“What am I going to do with you… Fine, I’ll have you share a compartment with someone. He’s strange, but don’t be afraid of him—he’s always like that.”
Kira grabbed Natalya’s hands.
“Thank you, thank you so much!”
Natalya took her to the compartment where the terrifying hermit was sitting.
“This is your new neighbor,” she said, nodding toward the girl.
The man glanced at her, frowned when he saw the pregnant belly, but said nothing and turned back to the window. Natalya went back to her own compartment, sat down heavily on a seat, and exhaled:
“What a day. What a trip! I just want to go home.”
She checked the time. It was already late, and soon everyone in the carriage would be asleep. At least no one was drunk tonight—that was one small mercy. A quiet knock sounded at the door.
“Yes?” she responded.
Nikolai Sergeevich stood in the doorway.
“May I come in?”
Inside, Natalya braced herself. Had he found out about Kira, the ticketless passenger? Now he’d definitely fire her.
“Natalya…” he began.
“Antonovna,” she prompted.
“Natalya Antonovna, I came to apologize. I was wrong to say those things to you. I behaved rudely. Instead of helping you, I started blaming you.”
Natalya, taken aback, struggled for words.
“Well… alright. Apology accepted. I should have explained everything calmly, but I yelled at you…”
Nikolai raised an eyebrow.
“Were you hurt?”
“Yeah, a little,” she answered with a smile. “My knee, my elbow… It’ll heal.”
He suddenly laughed.
“You really put me in my place earlier! Made me think straight.”
She joined his laughter and suddenly offered:
“Want some coffee? I have this amazing instant kind.”
They sat and talked like real friends. Nikolai stopped acting like he was her boss and turned out to be an interesting conversationalist. To her surprise, Natalya realized she even found him likable. That realization embarrassed her so much that she blushed and turned away. Nikolai just managed to catch her expression, but they were interrupted by a loud pounding on the door.
“Go deal with it!” an annoyed passenger’s voice rang out. “It’s impossible to sleep because of some noise!”
Natalya suddenly went pale. She had a hunch which compartment the passenger meant. She rushed toward Kira and the strange stranger. A puzzled Nikolai ran after her. Coming down the corridor was the scary old man.
“What did you do to her?” Natalya cried out.
The old man looked at her like she was an insignificant bug:
“The passenger’s gone into labor. Is there a doctor on board?”
Natalya hurried on, her mind racing. In the compartment, Kira tossed restlessly.
“Help me, please!” she pleaded tearfully. “Something’s not right.”
Natalya turned to Nikolai.
“Well, boss? It’s our second week without a doctor!”
“What about the nearest station?” he asked.
“The first stop is in three and a half hours, but there might not be a doctor there, either,” Nikolai answered, looking sheepish.
While they were wondering what to do, the scary old man approached Kira.
“Easy now, no need to panic,” he said gently. “You’ll scare the baby if you’re too upset. Breathe steadily.”
He lightly touched her belly, pressed his ear to it, then turned to them.
“She’s already in labor. The baby is in the wrong position, and a lot can happen in three hours. She needs help.”
Natalya’s eyes went wide, and Nikolai nodded:
“All right, go ahead, do what you have to do.”
Natalya wanted to shout in protest, unable to understand how they could trust a complete stranger. But she decided to follow his instructions. She ran for boiled water and towels. Nikolai stood in the passageway, calming the other passengers who spilled out of their compartments to see what was going on.
After a little over three hours, close to dawn, just as they were pulling into the station, a strong, healthy baby boy was born. The scary old man stood up and handed the bundle to Natalya.
“Here you go. Let his mother rest now.”
At the sound of the newborn’s cry, the people in the corridor applauded, and one of the women exclaimed excitedly:
“Roman Romanovich Savitsky! It’s you! You saved me and my son twenty years ago!”
The old man bowed and quickly left the compartment to wash his hands in the restroom.
“I knew it,” the woman whispered. “When his daughter died in childbirth, he vanished from town.”
An ambulance arrived at the station for Kira and her baby. The hermit gathered his things as well.
“Where are you going?” Natalya asked in surprise.
“I’m going with Kira to the maternity hospital,” he said, smiling at her. “She looks so much like my daughter. I have a big house, there’s a school nearby in the city. I’ll look after them. I’ll even help Kira get married to a good man if she wants. Today, I realized that helping people is more important than drowning in your own sorrow.”
He left, and Natalya stood there for a long while, watching him go, tears streaming down her cheeks, not quite understanding why all this affected her so deeply.
After that trip, she came home feeling utterly drained.
But there was a surprise waiting for her at home—Lyusya’s fiancé Igor had come to meet her. Natalya glanced at the table they had set and at a nervous Lyusya.
Igor also looked at Natalya anxiously.
“So, do you study or work?” she asked sternly.
“I both work and study,” he replied. “I’m working at a car service. I know my way around cars—my father taught me. I study engineering by correspondence.”
“And how’s your salary?” Natalya inquired.
“It’s at least as much as your salary, Mom,” Lyusya said. “He rents an apartment near the factory.”
Natalya raised her eyebrows in surprise and asked wearily:
“And you love Lyusya? She’s quite a handful.”
“Of course I love her. How could I not adore her?”
He beamed at Lyusya, and Natalya thought that young people had their heads in the clouds. They run away from home when they can’t find understanding, then end up giving birth on trains.
She smiled and said:
“Well, alright. If you want to get married, go ahead and get married.”
Lyusya squealed with delight and threw herself into her mother’s arms, scaring the cat Muska, who leapt onto the curtain. Her fiancé smiled happily, trying to hug everyone at once.
At her daughter’s wedding, Natalya wasn’t alone. Next to her, gently holding her arm, stood Nikolai Sergeevich, who now often visited their home. Lyusya joked that she was leaving her mom in safe, dependable hands.