Day: September 10, 2025

— Mom, please, just for an hour, — Andrey was saying it for the third time, and with each repetition his voice grew thinner and more pleading. He stood in the middle of their small living room, feeling like an awkward teenager caught off guard. Galina Borisovna didn’t even turn her head. She sat in […]

“Drinking plain tea, Ksyusha? Nervous?” Tamara Pavlovna’s voice was sweet like an overripe fruit whose skin already hides rot. She sat at the table in her daughter-in-law’s impeccably clean kitchen and methodically stirred the spoon in her porcelain cup, though the sugar had long since dissolved. That monotonous, scraping sound—scritch, scritch, scritch across the bottom—frayed […]

— And what is this? Igor carelessly tossed a pitiful, crumpled scrap of paper onto the kitchen table in front of Sveta. A receipt from a cosmetics store. He held it between two fingers, as if he were disgusted to touch the evidence of a monstrous crime. His voice was calm, even tired, which infuriated […]

Olga Sergeyevna straightened the tablecloth and looked over the table. A milestone. A round number—fifty-five. A vase of carnations, warm salad, “herring under a fur coat,” her signature eggplant rolls. Borscht was simmering on the stove; Timur would always grimace—said anything without meat “isn’t food,” though there was meat in it. Like a schoolgirl, she […]

Elena woke first, as always. Maxim was asleep beside her, his arms stretched out over the blanket. Sunlight filtered through the heavy curtains, illuminating the familiar contours of the room. Three years ago she had brought her husband into her home. Now, she sometimes felt like she was the guest. Getting up, Elena went to […]