My husband had already told his sister the amount she was counting on, even though I had never promised anything. On Sunday, they sat me down at the table so we could “decide as a family” how much of my father’s money I should be allowed to keep for myself. “You’re going to account to … Read more
Pavel and I had been married for eight years. We lived separately from his parents, both of us worked, and we visited his parents quite peacefully, without any particular tension. Their country house was nothing special: a small house, a veranda, a few garden beds, and a greenhouse. In summer, practically every weekend the whole … Read more
Marina knew perfectly well how much her mother had been looking forward to her sixtieth birthday. Lyudmila Pavlovna had started making a list back in winter of everyone she absolutely wanted to see at the celebration: her sister and brother-in-law, several former colleagues, her neighbor Tamara, and two old university friends. In the end, the … Read more
Olga found out about everything in April, when, as usual, she called her mother to coordinate the dates of their summer visit. It happened the same way every year: in spring, she would ask when it would be better for the family to come—June or the first days of July. But this time, her mother … Read more
Sveta, just don’t get angry right away, okay?” Andrei said over the phone in a tone that immediately told Svetlana something had gone wrong at home again. She was walking down the stairs of the business center, handbag in one hand and phone in the other. Her workday had ended almost two hours earlier than … Read more
Ksenia placed the phone on her desk with the same precision she used when putting away a work tool. Her office fan hummed beside the monitor, where an unfinished safety inspection report for the Ferris wheel in Zarechye was still open. Aunt Zoya had spoken so quickly that most of her words blurred together, but … Read more
Roman had been rehearsing the sentence for three days. He would stand in the hallway fastening his airport-service jacket, silently moving his lips as if memorizing instructions for scaring birds away from the runway. “Ksyusha, we need to separate. I’ve made up my mind.” Short. Mature. No tears. Unfortunately, when he finally tried to say … Read more
Veronika hung up the phone right in the middle of a sentence, and she enjoyed it. Rimma Lvovna’s voice cut off halfway through a word, like a fishing line sliced clean through. Refrigerators hummed throughout the shopping center, someone pushed a cart nearby with an awful metallic squeak, and even that sounded more pleasant than … Read more
The courtyard hummed with the sound of warmed-up engines. Near the second entrance, someone was scraping ice off an old windshield with a plastic ruler. Ilya stood beside his car, staring at the dashboard as though it had personally let him down. The fuel gauge rested on zero like a cat sprawled across a windowsill … Read more
— This is for Stasik, this is for me, — Tamara Ilyinichna tore off a strip of masking tape and slapped it onto the vegetable drawer. — And this one is for you, Ulyana. My name was written on the strip in black marker. In neat block letters, careful and precise, like a label on … Read more