Dina shook her housecoat, jumped into her slippers on bare feet, and dashed out of the building, trying to catch up with her husband.
“Pasha, come back! Where are you going?” she cried out, almost in tears.
Pavel irritably responded over his shoulder:
“I can’t stand being around you right now, I’m going fishing!”
“You run off to this fishing every day! Tell me, what’s her name, your ‘fishing’?” Dina yelled through tears.
“Foolish,” Pavel snapped, loudly slammed his car door, and quickly drove away, intending to hide far away.
Ignoring the autumn chill and the neighbors peeking out of their windows hoping for more drama, Dina burst into tears.
“Din, why are you sitting on the ground? You’ll freeze! What happened?” asked her school friend Lucy, who had stopped by on her way back from the store with heavy bags.
“Pasha wants to leave me,” Dina sobbed.
“Why would you think that?” Lucy asked, wide-eyed.
“We often argue for no reason, and then he immediately goes fishing,” Dina complained. “Today I just suggested going with me to see a healer, Marfa. I found her contact online. They say she’s a hereditary witch, and many celebrities turn to her for help. The reviews about her work are positive.
“Dear, you’re not a child. Believing in internet reviews? They can be bought for pennies! Be offended if you want, but you’re harming yourself. Why create scenes?” Lucy scolded her.
Dina sobbed again:
“It’s easy for you to say, you have children, two of them, and I have none and maybe never will.”
“Is Pavel pressuring you because of this?”
“No, he says that we can live just fine, that he loves me…”
“Well, see, he has accepted it long ago, why cause hysterics every day?”
“You just don’t understand, Lyud. Today he says this, but what about in a year or two? You should see how he interacts with his nephews. And now he’s run off to fish again, I sense something’s wrong.”
“Din, think of the good, don’t attract trouble. Come on, warm up and calm down. Winter is coming, you’ll catch a cold,” Lucy gently nudged her shivering friend.
“Let me catch a cold, then. I’ll die, and it’ll be easier for Pasha without me,” Dina continued her plaintive song through tears, without stopping her crying.
“Din, you’re acting like a foolish child. It’s like ‘to spite mom, I’ll freeze my ears off’. Let’s go home, stop playing the victim. Even a saint couldn’t stand such scenes,” said Lyuda, pushing Dina a bit more forcefully.
“Understand, Lyudochka, I’m sure I’m right. Pasha has found someone else and he runs to her,” Dina said reluctantly, getting up from the bench. She knew what she was saying.
Suspecting Pavel of deception after his constant “fishing trips,” Dina decided to expose his attempts to evade. Like a true detective, she bought a recorder. This time, while her husband was busy in the storeroom looking for his fishing rod, she secretly placed the device in his backpack, managing to turn it on.
“Thinks I’ll keep believing in this ‘fishing’ after every quarrel? I’m not planning to be deceived,” she decided.
What to do if the unpleasant truth comes out, Dina did not yet know, but she could no longer tolerate the constant feeling of being deceived. Sitting at home and sipping tea, she began to torment herself with doubts.
“Maybe I’m exaggerating? Or, on the contrary, am I not mistaken?” she thought, dipping a spoon into cherry jam.
That summer, she and Pavel went to the village, to his parental home, and picked a whole bucket of cherries. It was there, in the summer kitchen, that she made this jam.
The aroma of the jam reminded her of summer, the green fields, and something elusive—perhaps the scent of happiness. Dina remembered how nice it was for them together. But later, back in the city, she learned from doctors that she could not become a mother. Her world collapsed.
“Now it’s over, Pasha will leave me, find a young and beautiful one to be happy with,” was the first thing that came to her mind.
However, Pavel hugged her and assured her that it didn’t matter, that they could be happy without children, and that there were many orphans who needed parents. He also said that she was very dear to him.
Although Pavel spoke encouraging words, she almost didn’t hear them, as the thought constantly pounded in her head: “He will leave you.” Love for her husband and fear of losing him pushed her to do foolish things. In any domestic situation, Dina felt that she could now be treated with disdain, as she was “an empty shell.”
At the beginning of her whims, Pavel tried to pacify her, made excuses. This began to please Dina—she got a taste for it. Now any shortcoming—a forgotten loaf of bread, an unmade call, a slight delay—required Pavel’s apologies, which didn’t always help. As a result, after such things, there were trips to fish.
Eventually, Pavel got tired of it all, and, hearing another tantrum, he just gathered his gear and left. After Pasha disappeared all night, Dina met him in the morning with a slightly guilty smile. Without extra words, she accepted his catch and avoided mentioning yesterday’s quarrels. Pavel realized he had found a weak spot in his wife’s character. So, after a new emotional conflict, Dina exclaimed in desperation:
“You don’t understand me anymore, Pasha! I’m trying to change things, not just go with the flow, like you. If you really love me, you should go with me to Marfa!”
Dina lost control of herself, and her scream was so loud that the neighbors heard it. Pavel, hoping for a quiet dinner, threw his spoon on the plate and literally flew out of the kitchen.
This time he returned only by morning—covered in scales, but without any fish. Without explaining anything, he handed Dina the wet backpack and headed for the bathroom.
“I’ll take a shower and then go to work,” he muttered, settling on the couch, and instantly fell asleep.
Dina slowly unpacked his backpack. It seemed Pavel got caught in the rain, and the recorder stopped working. Rewinding the recording to the beginning, she heard her own voice: “Pasha, come back!” Her own squeaky tone made her embarrassed. Scrolling further, Dina continued to listen to what happened in the car—but besides music, nothing was heard: no calls, no conversations, no other voices.
Finally, after about twenty minutes, Pavel’s voice was heard on the recording:
“Hello, Aunt Galya. How is Dimka feeling? Do you need anything?”
“Hello, Pashenka. Thank you, dear, but no, nothing will help my boy now, only prayers are left,” a woman replied.
Suddenly Dina realized that Pavel went to the village to visit his Aunt Galya, whose life had been difficult. She had met this woman when she first came there with her husband. Galina Viktorovna was the sister of Pavel’s late mother.
Her husband often drank and wandered, and she endured it for the sake of their son. Dina learned that Galina sometimes took Dimka to hide from beatings at relatives’ places.
Later that morning, Dina met Pavel’s cousin Oleg and his children, Vika and Anton. They were adorable blond children.
With what tenderness Pasha communicated with his nephews, thought Dina. It turns out his “fishing” was a trip to the village.
Suddenly, a child’s voice came from the recorder’s speakers:
“Uncle Pasha, will you take me fishing? I really know how to fish!”
“I want to go too!” Vika cheerfully exclaimed.
Pavel laughed and said:
“Look how many helpers I’ve gathered! But unfortunately, I can’t take you because we’ll scare away all the fish, and there will be none left. And it’s already too late, time to sleep.”
“Uncle, you always come alone. Don’t you have a wife?” Vika inquired.
“Of course, there is, Aunt Dina. You saw her, remember? We came in the summer,” Pavel confirmed.
“Yes, we remember, we remember,” the children chorused. “She is so beautiful and kind. And do you love her?”
Dina froze, expecting Pavel to either remain silent or evade the question. But he simply said:
“Of course, I love her very much.” His voice had a sigh in it. “Only she somehow doesn’t believe it.”
Tears rolled down Dina’s cheeks at these words. She cried from joy, embarrassment, and repentance all at once.
“How can I be so foolish, destroying my own happiness,” she whispered, hastily hiding the recorder.
At that moment, she heard steps behind her. A second later, Pavel entered.
“Din, why are you crying?” he inquired, looking into her eyes.
Dina was glad she had managed to hide the recording and had not provoked another quarrel. She turned to him, hugged him, and whispered:
“Forgive me, I’ve really been acting irrationally lately.”
“And I should have been more tolerant, but everything was falling apart so fast,” Pavel said, soothing her with gentle touches to her hair. “Did something happen?” he continued.
“Yes, but I didn’t want to bother you. Oleg, my cousin, is now in hospice with cancer. There are no more hopes, and no treatments left,” Pavel explained.
“So all this time you were visiting him and hiding it from me?” Dina said with some reproach.
“No, not like that. I just didn’t want to add to your worries,” he explained. “Oleg’s family—his mother and children. I was visiting them, and I wanted to talk to you about this. If the worst happens with my brother, Vika and Anton will end up in an orphanage. Aunt Galya is ill, and she can’t cope with the children.”
“And where is their mother?” Dina inquired.
“Well, it’s complicated. Their mom, Kira, ran off to Spain with a lover,” Pavel replied with a sad voice. “I tried to call her, wrote to her, but all I heard was ‘no,’ she made it clear the children are not needed.”
“How is it that those who dream of children get nothing, and those who have them throw them away like an old toy? It’s stupid, unfair. Why is that, Pash?”
“I thought you would understand,” Pavel began, but Dina interrupted him.
“I know what you mean, and I agree. If things go bad with Oleg, let’s become a family for Vika and Antosha.”
Pavel, smiling, replied:
“I knew you would react like this. You are the most wonderful.”
Dina, looking up at her husband with tearful eyes, said:
“Do you really think so?”
“I never doubted it,” he answered. “Let’s go together next time to visit Aunt Galya and the kids. They asked about you.”
Dina was about to say that she knew, but caught herself in time, realizing that she needed to keep her suspicions to herself.
“Of course, we’ll go next weekend.”
But the trip happened sooner. That same evening, Aunt Galya called, crying, and delivered the sad news that Oleg had passed away.
Over time, Pavel and Dina became caring parents to Vika and Anton. Now they had a strong, united family. Galina Viktorovna remained firm in her decision and refused the sensible suggestion. Despite frequent visits by Dina and Pavel, who offered her to move in with them so she wouldn’t live alone, she was adamant and stayed in her home.
“As long as I have the strength to stand, I will stay here. This is my home, and it is full of memories of my son,” she firmly explained her reason for refusal.
Dina and Pavel, along with the children, often visited Oleg’s grave. Pavel, standing by the monument, usually said:
“Well, brother, look at your family. Our children are growing up so wonderful.