Natalya slammed the door loudly.
From early morning, she had a premonition that the day would go wrong. Lusya, her 19-year-old daughter, had recently brought home a kitten named Musya, who had already managed to make a mess right on the bathroom mat. It was hard for Natalya to scold her daughter for this since Lusya tried to take care and did everything right.
Musya usually behaved well, and her litter box was always washed and set out to dry on time. However, today’s incident upset Natalya.
Her daughter was studying Chinese in her room. At her mother’s call, Lusya peeked out from behind the door, removing her headphones:
“Mom, please clean it up!” she pleaded. “You know it makes me sick. Please, just this last time!”
“I don’t have time, I’m late for work!” Natalya responded.
“Mom, you know I don’t have time either, the exams are coming up!” Lusya exclaimed, her eyes widening.
Natalya sighed, and her daughter, hugging her, added:
“Mommy, you’re the most beautiful and beloved! Please, just this last time.”
Natalya smiled with difficulty:
“You’re such a flatterer, Luska. Alright, but this is the last time.”
“And mom, you know what…” the daughter hesitated. “Tomorrow Igor wanted to…”
“Again Igor?” Natalya snapped. “Stop getting engaged, finish your studies! Find a job, stand on your own feet. I don’t want to hear about Igor anymore!”
“But mom, he wanted to tomorrow…”
“That’s enough, quiet!”
Lusya rolled her eyes and sulked. Putting her headphones back on, she demonstratively flicked her tail and disappeared into her room.
Natalya rushed out of the house and hurried to the bus stop. If she missed this van, she would again have to endure reproaches from the foreman of the train. Nikolai was a decent man, but he always found time to reprimand Natalya. Colleagues often joked that he was in love with her. To which she invariably replied:
“You’re making it up! He can’t stand me, and it’s obvious.”
Natalya couldn’t understand why Nikolai judged her so harshly, trying to avoid him whenever possible. She caught the van and even managed to get a window seat. But when getting off, she tripped over the curb and fell, so that stars flashed before her eyes. Approaching the car, she limped, hoping no one would notice her. Her stockings were torn in several places, her skirt was dirty, and one shirt sleeve was torn.
Then a familiar voice rang out:
“Hello, Natalya. What happened to you? Coming from a party early in the morning?”
It was Nikolai Sergeyevich. Natalya felt everything inside boil with indignation.
When will this end! Her husband left when Lusya was three. Since then, she had no personal life. Now her daughter was nineteen, and she was thinking about marriage.
Natalya was not happy at her job. Before, she could at least relax sometimes, but since the arrival of Nikolai Sergeyevich, nothing brought her joy. Moreover, she had bruised her knee and torn expensive tights.
And to top it off – she saw among the passengers the creepy old man, as she and her friends called him. He traveled to the neighboring city once a month and always looked grim, never speaking to anyone. His facial expression reminded her of an evil sorcerer, and his gaze sent shivers down her spine.
Other passengers usually avoided this old man, often asking to be moved to another compartment if the old man was nearby. Natalya had felt from the morning that since the day had started badly, this “hermit” would definitely be in her car.
She crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at Nikolai Sergeyevich.
“And you, Nikolai Sergeyevich, apparently have nothing better to do than to make up nonsense. If you don’t have a personal life, you shouldn’t interfere in someone else’s. Let me put it this way: it’s none of your business where I come from and why. I do my job, and as you can see, I’m in uniform. So my appearance outside of work shouldn’t concern you.”
Natalya saw the foreman’s jaw drop. This even amused her, but she did not show it. She turned around and headed for the car, trying not to limp too much.
“She’ll probably fire me,” she thought. “Well, let her. There’s little work here, there are not enough trains anyway. I’ll go to the factory, at least I’ll be home more often.”
Before the trip started, Natalya calmed down. Her irritation subsided. The passengers were not to blame for her troubles. She was about to check the wagons when she noticed the “hermit” standing at her compartment.
“Hello,” said Natalya, but the man just silently handed her his ticket and walked past, saying nothing.
“Well, as usual,” she thought and sighed. She closed her eyes for a moment to calm down and mentally counted to ten. There were few people in the car, so she could check everyone in their places right away.
The train started moving. Natalya routinely walked through the car, making sure everything was in order. Stowaways, as often happens, could have snuck through the neighboring cars. She looked into each compartment, asked the passengers if everything was alright.
When she reached the “hermit’s” compartment, Natalya cracked open the door.
“Everything okay? Need anything? Maybe some tea?”
To her surprise, the man looked up at her. His eyes were clear and intelligent, not at all like she had imagined.
“Yes, if possible, some tea,” he replied quietly.
Natalya almost dropped the tray, hearing his voice. This person, always silent and grim, suddenly spoke.
“Alright, I’ll bring it in about ten minutes,” she replied, closing the door.
As she set the tea in front of the man, she heard an unexpected “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” she replied, closed the door behind her, and paused in the corridor for a moment.
“What’s with him? He suddenly started talking like a normal person!” She shrugged and moved on.
Reaching the end of the car, Natalya noticed a strange bag in the corner of one of the empty compartments.
“What if it’s dangerous? I don’t need this,” she thought.
She approached and cautiously nudged the bag with her foot. Suddenly, a thin voice came from it:
“Please, don’t kick me out. I just want to get as far away as possible.”
Natalya gasped. The bag stirred, and upon closer inspection, she realized that it was not a bag at all, but a very pregnant young woman. The stranger immediately burst into tears.
“Please don’t kick me out. I need to get away, 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 needed to act fast.
“Alright, quiet down. Come with me. I’ll give you some tea, and you can tell me everything calmly.”
The girl stopped crying, but her eyes were still full of fear. Natalya thought she was very young, younger than her daughter Luska. Kira, that was the stranger’s name, eagerly ate a sandwich and washed it down with tea.
“A typical story,” she said a bit later. “I fell in love, he seemed to as well, but his mother was against it. And then the pregnancy… They didn’t like that the blood would be ‘not right.’ Only they didn’t tell me. I’m an orphan. I have an apartment from the state, all legal. They quickly transferred it to themselves, supposedly to buy a new one. Then I heard that after giving birth they want to deprive me of my rights to the child, declare me insane. For them, it would be easy – the groom’s mother is influential. They would keep the baby for themselves, and I would be thrown out on the street. At best.”
Natalya poured her more tea and thought gloomily about what to do next.
“I’m not a lazy person, if you thought that,” Kira added, looking up at Natalya. “I can do everything: cook, clean. I just need somewhere to settle down, and I’ll manage. I won’t give my child to anyone.”
“Alright, just calm down. You shouldn’t be so nervous. Where are you going, alone and without money?”
Kira shrugged.
“I don’t know yet. The main thing is to get away from them.”
Natalya sighed.
“Well, what am I going to do with you… Alright, I’ll put you up with one passenger for now. 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 led her to the compartment where the creepy hermit sat.
“This is your roommate,” she said, nodding at the girl.
The man glanced at her, frowned when he saw her stomach, but remained silent and turned to the window. Natalya returned to her own compartment, heavily sat down on the chair, and exhaled:
“What a day. What a trip! I wish it was over already.”
She looked at the clock. It was already late, and soon everyone in the car would be asleep. Today there were no drunks – at least she was lucky there. A quiet knock sounded at the door.
“Yes?” she responded.
Nikolai Sergeyevich stood at the threshold.
“May I come in?”
Natalya tensed internally. Did he find out about Kira, the stowaway? Now he would 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 badly. Instead of helping, I started accusing you.”
Natalya, surprised, struggled to find words:
“Well… okay, apologies accepted. I should have calmly explained everything too, but I yelled at you…”
Nikolai raised his eyebrows.
“Did you get hurt?”
“Yes, a little,” she replied with a smile. “Knee, elbow… It’ll heal.”
He unexpectedly laughed.
“Great scolding you gave me then! Really put my brains back in place.”
She joined in his laughter and suddenly offered:
“Do you want coffee? I have some really tasty stuff, in packets.”
They sat, talking like real friends. Nikolai no longer tried to act like a boss and turned out to be an interesting conversationalist. Natalya unexpectedly caught herself thinking that he was even attractive. This realization so embarrassed her that she suddenly blushed and turned away. Nikolai only managed to glance at her, but was interrupted by a loud knock on the door.
“Sort it out in there!” a passenger’s annoyed voice rang out. “Can’t sleep because of some noise!”
Natalya suddenly went pale. She intuitively knew exactly which compartment the passenger was talking about. She ran there, where Kira and the strange stranger were located. A puzzled Nikolai rushed after her. They met the creepy old man walking down the aisle.
“What have you done to her?” Natalya panicked.
The old man looked down on her, disdainfully:
“The passenger has gone into labor. Is there a doctor on the train?” Natalya hurried further, her thoughts jumbled. In the compartment, Kira was restlessly pacing.
“Please help! Something’s wrong,” she pleaded, barely holding back tears.
Natalya turned to Nikolai:
“Well, boss? It’s been two weeks since we had a doctor!”
“And the nearest station?”
“In three and a half hours, we’ll stop at the first village, but there might not be a doctor there either,” Nikolai said, looking guilty.
As they pondered what to do, the creepy old man approached Kira.
“Quiet, quiet, don’t worry,” he said softly. “The baby might get scared if you panic. Breathe more evenly.”
He lightly touched her stomach, put his ear to it, then turned to them:
“Labor has started. The baby is positioned incorrectly, anything could happen in three hours. We need to help.”
Natalya’s eyes widened, and Nikolai nodded:
“Let’s do it.”
Natalya wanted to scream, not understanding how they could trust a complete stranger, but decided to follow his instructions. She ran for boiled water, for towels. Nikolai stood in the aisle, calming passengers who had poured out of their compartments to find out what the commotion was about.
More than three hours later, closer to morning, as they approached the station, a healthy strong boy was born. The creepy old man stood up and handed Natalya the bundle:
“Let the mother rest.”
Hearing the baby’s cry, people in the aisle applauded, and one woman joyfully exclaimed:
“Roman Romanovich Savitskiy! That’s you! You saved me along with my son twenty years ago!”
The old man bowed and quickly left the compartment towards the toilet to wash his hands.
“I wasn’t mistaken, it’s him… When his daughter died during childbirth, he disappeared from the city,” the woman whispered.
An ambulance met Kira and the baby at the station. The hermit also prepared to leave.
“Where are you headed?” Natalya asked in surprise.
“I’ll go with Kira to the maternity hospital,” he said with a smile, looking at her. “She looks so much like my daughter. I have a big house, a school nearby in the town, I’ll look after them. I’ll find Kira a good man to marry if she wants. I realized today that helping people is still more important than suffering from my own grief.”
He left, and Natalya watched him for a long time, sobbing from tears, and couldn’t understand why all this had moved her so much.
After that trip, she returned completely drained.
And at home, a surprise awaited her – Lusya’s fiancé Igor had come to meet her. Natalya glanced at the set table, the excited Lusya.
Igor also looked anxiously at Natalya.
“Are you studying or working?” she asked sternly.
“I work and study. I work in an auto service, I understand cars, my father taught me. I’m studying part-time as an engineer.”
“And how, do you earn well?” Natalya inquired.
“No less than your salary, mom,” Lusya answered. “He rents an apartment near the factory.”
Natalya raised an eyebrow in surprise and tiredly asked:
“And you love Lusya? She’s quite a character.”
“Of course, I love her. How could you not adore her?”
The boy beamed, looking at Lusya, and Natalya thought that young people’s heads are full of wind. They run out of the house, lacking understanding, and give birth on trains. She smiled and said:
“Well then. If you want to get married – get married.”
Lusya joyfully hugged her, and the cat Musya got scared and climbed up the curtain. The fiancé also smiled happily and tried to hug everyone.
At her daughter’s wedding, Natalya was not alone. Next to her, tenderly holding her hand, stood Nikolai Sergeyevich, who now often visited their home. Lusya joked that she was leaving her mom in reliable and serious hands.