When Oksana Ryabchikova’s husband left her for her more interesting and beautiful friend, the woman lost her will to live.
«What did I do wrong?» she pondered, sitting on the porch of her own house. «I fed him breakfasts, lunches, dinners, look how fat Petechka got when he left me. And to think, when I invited him to live with me, he was as thin as a teenager, his hands trembling when nervous. Did I not give him enough love, care, and tenderness?»
Tears welled up in the woman’s eyes when she heard a loud chorus of voices coming from the neighboring yard: «Bitter! Bitter!»
They were celebrating a wedding there.
Petechka married today Oksana’s best friend, Rozochka.
Of course, Oksana was not on the guest list, nor would she have gone.
To see how her beloved ex-husband married Oksana’s former best friend.
Traitors!
For two years, Oksana lived as if in a fog, with only a shadow of her former self remaining, her eyes dimmed by bitter sorrow.
Often, this woman-shadow encountered on her path the laughing and happy neighbors living full lives, Petra and Rosa.
Perhaps this predetermined her further fate: when the mischievous mechanic Adrian arrived in the village of Klyuchiki and, having looked over all the local residents, chose the loneliest Oksana, not burdened with children, announcing himself in the evening at her gate with a guitar in hand, the woman did not resist the acquaintance.
And she gave in to the suitor’s persistence.
«Shall we make it official?» he inquired business-like, surveying the walls and decoration of Oksana’s sturdy good house.
The woman nodded her head.
Not out of love, of course, but rather to spite her cunning neighbor-Rozochka and the soul-killer Petra.
Let them bite their elbows.
Mechanic Adrian was incredibly handsome, and he exuded charisma.
And how housewifely he turned out to be!
Gradually, living with him, Oksana thawed in soul and dismissed the traitor Petra from her mind.
Thus began a new chapter in Ryabchikova’s life.
The woman dissolved in her second husband. She pampered him with tasty food and care.
«Dear,» she would usually stand with a tray in her hands early in the morning when he woke up. «I squeezed some carrot juice for you and fried eggs just the way you like.»
Adrian blinked:
«I’ve just woken up. I haven’t even washed yet. How can I eat?»
«First, eat your breakfast, then I’ll pour you some warm water from the kettle, and bring you an ironed shirt,» smiled the wife.
Adrian walked around the village like a peacock: his shirt always crisp, starched, the collar stiff as a board. Trousers with creases, always perfect, shoes polished to a shine under the sun.
And himself all shaved, squinting and laughing, became even more handsome and interesting.
Neighbor Rosa noticed him thus.
Oksana had no idea that the second husband had fallen under the neighbor’s spell.
She kept herself busy running from work to home, either standing at the stove or with an iron in hand, pressing her husband’s clothes.
She had no time to notice how Adrian’s feelings for her changed and cooled.
Housework never ended; there was no time for insinuations.
And Rosa, yes, Rosa was so beautiful that she had the right to live daringly, boldly stealing other women’s husbands.
Perhaps it was her eyes, fox-like and enticing from under a thick fringe.
Or maybe the mole above her pouted lip.
Or the voluptuous bust, barely covered by a daring dress.
In short, Rosa was a striking, slim woman, exuding passion and allure.
Poor simple Oksana couldn’t compete.
And just then, Rosa filed for divorce after Petra was knocked off his feet by a heart attack.
«Are you leaving me, Adrian?» gasped Oksana, glancing at Rosa, looming by the fence.
Adrian avoided looking into his wife’s eyes and muttered:
«Well, yes, in general. It’s your own fault, look at yourself. You didn’t bear me a son, your figure is unappealing, there’s nothing eye-catching about you. I look at you and wonder, what did I ever see in you? You must have bewitched me. But you picked the wrong target! My grandmother, of Romanian blood, has protected me.»
«What are you saying, Adrian,» Oksana was frightened. «You were the one who started courting me!»
«I couldn’t have!» he exclaimed, throwing his hands up, his eyes making Oksana radiate happiness.
«I couldn’t have been in my right mind to make such a fool of myself! I’m telling you, you’re a witch. Good thing I came to my senses in time!»
The man threw into a fashionable new suitcase, which Oksana had recently bought him, the shirts and trousers in which he loved to strut, and which his loving wife had bought him.
He packed everything and dragged the suitcase quickly to the gates.
Oksana cried over what was happening.
«Adrian! Adrianushka, don’t leave me, for Christ’s sake!»
She ran after him, spread her arms, then grabbed them around the suitcase, squeezed her eyes shut, and yelled:
«Stay!»
Adrian tried to shake the woman off the suitcase.
«Oksana!»
Adrian jerked the luggage handle, and it came off, causing Oksana to fall directly into a puddle, but still stubbornly clutching the suitcase in her hands.
Adrian stopped and stood, thoughtfully scratching his head, tilting his fashionable hat askew.
He thought and raised his leg to kick the curled-up fingers on the suitcase, but noticed that his shoe got muddy and decided against it.
He didn’t want to soil the suitcase.
Rozochka, standing by the gate, smirked and shrugged her shoulder, walking away to her house.
Adrian watched her go.
Then he sat down next to the lying Oksana, sighed, and began to unclasp his wife’s fingers.
«Oksanochka. Let me go, I’m very grateful to you for a year of life, but understand. I’ve been married five times! So for me, marriage means nothing! Sorry, but I never felt love for you. You were just a stopover for me, dear. I ate my fill at your place, rested after my previous divorce… And matured for feelings. How many women I can still make happy! And you behave like a dog in the manger.»
«Adrian!» Oksana pleaded, peering from under the suitcase, which she finally released from her hands. «I love you!»
Adrian smiled at her one last time, flashed his pearly whites, winked, and, picking up the suitcase, fled.
Oksana cried for a long time, lying on the ground right in the puddle that had spread after yesterday’s storm.
«Mother Earth,» she cried, «how am I to live?..»
Oksana was such a kind woman that she did not hinder the lovers.
She didn’t even bother with neighbor Rosa.
«What does Rosa have to do with it, if I keep getting lousy men,» she sighed. «I won’t marry again, I don’t believe in it anymore.»
Life went on, colored in gray for Oksana.
Deciding, the woman went to the city, found an orphanage, and began to process papers for guardianship over one of the orphan girls.
Not a year passed when the second husband of neighbor Rozochka fell severely ill.
Adrian suddenly felt unwell, began to undergo examinations, and the doctors’ verdict was bleak for him.
It turned out that his joints, which occasionally bothered him in his youth, gave out.
Rheumatic disease gradually crippled the man, preventing him from working and even performing household tasks.
He was prescribed pills, rubs; the ailment progressed quickly, and at some point, it became clear that Adrian’s further life would involve constant treatment and hospitals.
Beautiful Rosa didn’t tolerate having a perpetually sick husband in the house for long and quickly showed him the door.
Alas, Adrian realized too late that he had tied his life to a woman for whom moral standards were an empty sound.
Oksana went shopping with her daughter, styled her hair, dressed her in a beautiful dress that she had carefully ironed.
«You are my beauty, Polinochka,» she smiled, pleased with the girl’s appearance.
Eight-year-old Polina smiled back at her.
When Oksana took the girl from the orphanage, she could barely walk, her legs didn’t obey the little one well.
But Oksana believed in her so much, surrounded her with such care and love, that she literally put her on her feet.
Now Polinka was hardly distinguishable from her peers. Except that she was overly tense when very nervous.
«I love you, mommy,» she whispered.
«And I love you very much.»
Mother and daughter stepped out onto the porch. While Oksana was locking the door, Polina tugged at her sleeve.
«Mom, there’s some man coming.»
Oksana turned around and saw Petra at the gate.
He stood, smiling at her, looking at her with sad eyes.
«So we meet, Oksanochka.»
Oksana averted her eyes.
She had long lost any feelings for her first husband; she had nothing to talk to him about.
«Hello, Petr. I heard they discharged you from the hospital.»
«That’s right,» he nodded wearily. «Barely crawled out after the second heart attack. And I see you’re still living alone.»
«Not alone, but with my daughter,» Oksana corrected him. «I was glad to see you, but we need to go.»
As Oksana walked past Petr, he grabbed her hand and pulled her toward him:
«Oksanochka forgive me for being a fool. I foolishly fell for the charms of the neighbor and lost you. I really want everything back. I will wait for you here until you forgive.»
Oksana pulled her hand away and looked at him coldly:
«Wait all you want, you’ve long been indifferent to me, Petr. I will never accept you, so don’t waste time, go away.»
Petr smiled, watching the woman leave, and shouted:
«Well, we’ll see about that!»
He sat on the bench outside Oksana’s house and began to sit, swinging his foot.
He sat like that for five minutes until a voice scolded him:
«Hey you, get lost!»
Limping and groaning, Adrian approached.
He had changed a lot lately, become gloomier, aged, looked unwell.
Limping and groaning, he approached the bench and sat down too.
«Oksana is my woman,» he declared, catching his breath. «I’ll beat you with this cane if you don’t leave!»
Petr looked wolfishly at the man:
«Just touch me. I’m very sick, you can’t upset me.»
«And so you ran to Oksana, remembered her ironed sheets and borscht?» Adrian grumbled. «I know, you were her first husband, and I was the second. How much suffering you brought her! But now it’s over, I won’t let her be insulted! I’ll fight tooth and nail for my happiness next to Oksana, so back off!»
«There you go!» suddenly Petr showed his defiance. Managing to get up on his feet, he snatched the cane from Adrian and ran along the fence with it.
«Hey, return that!» Adrian croaked.
He tried to get up from the bench but couldn’t. His joints responded with sharp pain.
Adrian sadly looked at the house where he once lived with Oksana. She used to bring him food to bed, took care of him better than any nurse, oh how good it was for him.
And how he wanted to return to that haven of warmth and love.
Returning home, Oksana looked out the window.
Noticing the two men clinging to her bench outside the house, she shook her head and angrily closed the curtains.
«Mom, why are they sitting here?» asked Polina.
The girl held a cup with washed ripe cherries and was eating them.
«Ah, they want to get into the house,» Oksana casually replied.
«Like the gray wolf?»
«Well, yes. They want to lie on my bed and eat sweetly. But I won’t let them. They should have appreciated the good when I asked. What are they to me now? Sick, in need of care?..»
