— Take off your boots and go straight to the bathroom. Don’t bring that street dirt into my kitchen. Irina’s voice was even and cold, like the tile underfoot, meeting Andrey right at the door. He had just finished a twelve-hour night shift, his body aching from exhaustion, and in his head, the monotonous drone […]
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“Mom is moving in tomorrow,” Kirill said, eagerly putting a piece of roasted chicken into his mouth. He said it as casually as if reporting the weather forecast for the next day. There was not a hint of doubt or question in his voice, only the statement of a fact wrapped in the self-satisfied complacency […]
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— Oh Lord, empty again! Olga slammed the refrigerator door shut and sighed heavily. Her husband’s salary had vanished in less than a week. How much longer could they keep saving? Sergey didn’t seem like a spendthrift, they had no big loans, yet money was always tight. — What’s going on, Ol? — her mother-in-law’s […]
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Svetlana stood by the stove, silently stirring the soup. Steam from the pot hit her face, and her eyes stung not only from the onions. She no longer heard exactly what her husband was saying — the usual tone, the usual intonation: irritation, dissatisfaction, reproach. Lately, Vadim seemed to be looking for any excuse to […]
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The Crocodile Bag Saturday turned out quiet. Outside the window, a fine drizzle ran down the glass in uneven trails, and inside the apartment, the air smelled of freshly brewed tea and that special Saturday silence when you can finally relax after a hard-working week. Nika settled into the old armchair—the very one they had […]
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The road home stretched out like an old film reel stuck in a projector—slowly, with crackling sounds, with the feeling that every kilometer demanded something new from her: trembling fingers, pain in her chest, tears she did not allow herself to shed. Svetlana was rushing along UDO Street—a street that led to the past, to […]
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