Taxi driver Sergey sat behind the wheel of his old car, frowning at the blizzard raging outside the window.
“What a weather!” he muttered, wiping the fogged glass with his hand. “You wouldn’t even kick a dog out on a night like this…”
Outside, the wind howled, shaking the car so much that it seemed about to be overturned and buried in snow. Sergey drove slowly, carefully trying to see anything through the dense veil of snowflakes. Occasionally, he encountered other cars whose drivers, like him, were forced to venture out in this foul weather.
Sergey dreamed of only one thing – to finish his shift and be home. He longed for hot tea, a warm blanket, and his favorite couch. The workday had been particularly hard.
His last passenger was a man standing on the highway next to a stalled car.
“Where to?” Sergey asked, cracking the window open.
The wind burst into the cabin, forcing the passenger to speak louder.
“Out of town,” the man said apologetically, spreading his hands and clearly feeling uncomfortable.
Sergey sized him up. The stranger was not dressed for the weather – a light coat, no hat, and polished shoes with thin soles. All this was complemented by round glasses, already gathering snow.
“Get in, I’ll take you,” said Sergey, shouting over the howl of the blizzard.
The man immediately got into the car and apologized all the way for the trouble. When they arrived, he paid generously, which was very timely.
Sergey became a taxi driver not out of a good life. Everything piled up at once: his mother, Lydia Petrovna, fell seriously ill and needed urgent surgery. And he himself lost his job due to layoffs. Upon learning this, his wife Vasilisa soon declared:
“Sorry, Sergey, but I can’t do this. Living in poverty and saving up for surgery – that’s not for me.”
She left, and, strangely enough, Sergey was grateful to her. Lies and pretense would have been worse.
He thought of his wife as he drove back to the city. Outside, the blizzard still raged. Sergey was lost in thought, but something distracted him.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed movement to the right. Something large and dark, resembling a dog, ran onto the road. Sergey hit the brakes. When the car stopped, he got out to check what had happened. But it wasn’t a dog on the road. It was a young woman. And she was pregnant.
Sergey rushed to her. Fortunately, she was conscious but looked exhausted.
“Are you okay? What happened? What are you doing here at all?”
She said something, but he barely heard anything. Her clothes were ill-fitting and not suited for the weather.
“I’ll take you to the hospital now,” said Sergey, helping her into the car and draping his scarf over her shoulders.
He closed the door and sat behind the wheel.
The girl wore an old downy scarf, from under which dark strands of hair poked out. She looked bewildered and miserable.
“What are you doing? Jumping under the wheels as if you don’t value your life! What if I hadn’t managed to stop?” Sergey exclaimed sharply, trying to calm his shivering from the cold and stress.
“Sorry… I only wanted to catch a car, but I slipped,” she whispered, pointing to the snowbanks by the roadside.
“How are you? Not planning to give birth there, are you?” he asked, trying to speak more softly. “Just a little longer, and we’ll be at the hospital.”
The girl suddenly shook her head in terror. Her eyes widened as if in panic.
“No, not the hospital! Please! They are looking for me. They will find me in the hospital. Please help me hide somewhere. I’m very scared!”
“Well… if you don’t mind, I can take you to my place. I live nearby, in a private house,” he finally offered.
“And your family? They won’t mind?” she asked cautiously, wiping her tear-stained cheeks.
“They won’t,” Sergey confidently replied. “I live with my mother, but she’s currently in the hospital. My wife… She left. And I’m always at work, so the house is completely at your disposal. By the way, what’s your name?”
“Katya,” the girl said quietly, lowering her gaze.
“And I’m Sergey. Well, Katya, shall we go?”
She nodded.
On the way, Katya began to share her story. Her voice trembled, and tears streamed from her eyes again. Sergey listened silently, his heart breaking with pity.
“My childhood… It was terrible,” she began. “I was born into a family where both parents drank. I was taken away from them when I was three years old and sent to an orphanage.”
Katya sobbed, recalling the past.
“The orphanage was a scary place. As soon as I was released, I immediately married the first man who was kind to me. He seemed kind, well-off. But it turned out, he was a monster.”
Katya suddenly fell silent, her lips trembling. She covered her face with her hands and cried.
“There, there, everything will be alright,” Sergey said softly, trying to comfort her.
Katya looked at him, her eyes filled with gratitude. She managed a faint smile and nodded.
“Here we are,” said Sergey, opening the door to his house.
Katya crossed the threshold and looked around. The house was simple, without frills, but cozy. The furniture was old but sturdy and substantial.
“It’s cozy here,” she said with a barely noticeable smile.
Sergey walked into the room. He took a small box out of the dresser and placed some money inside it. Then he turned to Katya and pointed to the couch.
“Make yourself at home here. I’ll stay in my mother’s room, and we’ll see from there,” he said.
Katya nodded gratefully, her gaze dropping again.
Sergey paused for a moment, then approached the cupboard, took out a clean robe and a towel.
“Here, take these. Warm up, have a shower. Morning is wiser than the evening, we’ll figure out what to do next tomorrow.”
Katya took the items, smiled wearily at him, and headed to the bathroom. Sergey sat down, exhausted, in a chair and pondered.
The stranger had appeared in his life unexpectedly, and he still didn’t know how to handle the situation. But one thing he was sure of – he needed to protect her.
A few minutes later, Katya emerged from the bathroom. Her face was flushed from the hot water, and her expression was calmer. On the kitchen table, a kettle with aromatic tea waited for her, alongside several slices of bread generously spread with butter.
“Make do with what we have,” Sergey said, smiling as he gestured at the table. “Tomorrow we’ll come up with something better.”
Katya sat down at the table and began to eat. She eagerly bit into the sandwiches and washed them down with hot tea.
“Katya, listen…” Sergey began cautiously, leaning forward. “Do you have any documents at all? You’ll need to go to both the clinic and the hospital. And generally, you can’t get anywhere without documents.”
Katya suddenly turned pale. Her lips trembled, and her chin started to quiver. She was about to cry again.
“I don’t have anything,” she whispered, lowering her gaze.
“Hey, don’t worry. It’s not the end of the world. We’ll figure something out, really,” he said, trying to reassure her.
At that moment, the phone rang. Sergey took it out of his pocket and looked at the screen. It was Valya, the dispatcher from the taxi park.
“Sergey, are you home?” her voice came through.
“Yes, at home. What’s up?”
“Help out! A client urgently needs a car, and you’re the only one nearby. Svetlaya Street, right near you. Can you take it?”
“Of course, Val,” Sergey sighed heavily. “You know I really need the money.”
After ending the call, he turned to Katya.
“Sorry, I have to go. Make yourself at home, okay? I’ll try to come back as soon as possible.”
Katya nodded silently, her eyes showing worry.
Sergey left the house and got into the car. However, the night turned out to be unusually tough. One order followed another, and he couldn’t return. Valya kept calling, announcing new addresses one after another. The blizzard intensified, the roads got worse, but there was plenty of work.
Only by morning, exhausted and worn out, did Sergey return home. All this time, his thoughts were occupied with Katya. She was alone, without documents, without help, preparing to become a mother.
“Alright, I’ll call Igor tomorrow. He’s in the police, maybe he can advise something,” Sergey thought, remembering his school friend.
But he was met with a shocking discovery. When he opened the door of the house, he saw that everything was turned upside down. Katya had disappeared. Along with her, all the valuable things were gone – even the old broken TV and the curtains from the windows.
“Can you believe it?!” Sergey said indignantly on the phone to Igor. “She took everything! Even the money I was saving for my mother’s surgery. I don’t know what to do now…”
Igor arrived within a few minutes.
“So, tell me what happened,” he said, sitting opposite Sergey.
Sergey described Katya in detail, her appearance, and everything that had happened. Igor took some photographs out of his folder.
“Look. Is this her?” he asked, pointing to one of the images.
Sergey looked closely at the photo and recognized her immediately.
“Yes, that’s her!”
“Understood. This woman has been in our records for a long time,” Igor frowned. “She’s the leader of a gang of con artists who operate by a scheme. She pretends to be a poor pregnant woman, either throwing herself in front of cars or hitchhiking on deserted highways. She tells heartbreaking stories, and then, seizing the moment, either cleans out the house or the car.”
Sergey listened in complete shock.
“They have many victims,” continued Igor. “And even murders. We’ve been searching for them, but they are too cautious. We haven’t been able to track them down yet.”
Sergey sighed heavily, looking down. He covered his face with his hands, trying to suppress the growing wave of despair.
“Good afternoon,” a soft voice suddenly said at the doorstep.
In the doorway stood the man whom Sergey had driven during the blizzard the night before.
“I don’t even know what to say…” Sergey muttered, stunned by his sudden appearance.
Noticing his confusion, the man stepped forward and spoke calmly:
“I stopped by your taxi park today, wanting to leave a thank you for your help. And I accidentally heard… Well, don’t think anything of it, but I decided I couldn’t just stand by.” He took an envelope from the inner pocket of his jacket and handed it to Sergey. “Here, take this, it’s for you.”
Sergey shook his head, trying to refuse.
“What is this? Money? No, I can’t accept it.”
“It’s not for you, it’s for your mother,” the man replied calmly, smiling. “I think she deserves a bit of peace. You are an amazing person, and your kindness deserves gratitude. And you know, I have a proposal for you. I need an assistant. Someone exactly like you. Come by, you won’t regret it.”
He handed Sergey a business card. Sergey took it and read aloud:
“Kravchenko Fyodor Ilyich…”
He was standing before one of the city’s most renowned businessmen.
“Think it over,” added Fyodor Ilyich, smiling. “See you.”
Sergey sat for a long time, holding the business card and watching him leave.
Time flew by. Sergey started a new job with Fyodor Ilyich. He began to earn good money, and soon they performed surgery on Lydia Petrovna. Her health noticeably improved. She came home, and Sergey kept suggesting she go to a sanatorium.
“Sergey, it’s so good to be home again. You can’t imagine how much I missed it while I was in the hospital,” Lydia Petrovna said with a smile.
Sergey often visited Fyodor Ilyich, and a strong friendship developed between them. Fyodor turned out to be as kind and responsive as Sergey himself.
One spring evening, Sergey was driving home in his new SUV. As he approached a turn, he noticed a woman on the roadside. She was hitchhiking, bent over and holding her stomach as if she was in severe discomfort.
Sergey stopped, got out of the car, and approached her.
“What’s wrong? Are you ill? Should I take you to the hospital?” he asked quickly.
The woman looked up, and Sergey immediately recognized her eyes.
“No! Not the hospital! Please, don’t! They are chasing me, and if I end up there, they will find me! I beg you, hide me somewhere!” she said with a trembling voice.
Sergey silently looked at her. It all became clear. This was Katya – the same woman who had once deceived him and robbed him. But now everything had changed. He looked different: expensive car, stylish clothes, confident gaze. It was almost impossible to recognize him.
“Alright,” he finally said, concealing a smile. “Let’s go to my place. You can rest there.”
Katya breathed a sigh of relief and got into the car. On the way, she began to tell the same heartbreaking story: about the orphanage, her tough fate, and her tyrannical husband. Sergey nodded occasionally, but inside, none of her tears touched him. Now, this “drama” seemed to him an empty spectacle.
When they arrived, Sergey stopped the car and opened the door.
“Well, here we are. Let’s get out,” he said calmly.
Katya looked around and noticed that they were in front of a building with large letters on the facade.
“What is this? Where have you brought me?” her voice trembled.
“To the police, of course,” Sergey coldly replied.
At that moment, two police officers and an investigator approached the car. Leading the group was Igor, Sergey’s school friend.
“Well, meet your officers,” Sergey said calmly, stepping out of the car.
Katya shrieked and tried to open the door, but the police were already beside her.
“It’s all over,” Igor stated sternly, nodding to his men.
“Thanks for your help, Sergey,” he said, shaking his friend’s hand.
Sergey looked up at the clear spring sky. He took a deep breath, enjoying the fresh air.
“Now it really does feel lighter,” he thought, getting back into his car and watching as Katya was taken away.