“I’m so sick of seeing the same thing every day! I’ve had enough. Maybe you should go visit your friends or go somewhere—anywhere—so I can get a break from you.” Marina wiped her tears away. “What friends? Kolya, you were always upset when I talked to anyone. You were the one who wanted me to […]
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“I refuse to let that little parasite ruin my evening!” Kira Stanislavovna’s voice rolled through the foyer of the Imperial restaurant with such force that the waiters in the lobby froze, trays suspended in their hands. “Turning sixty is an occasion! Not some pathetic family supper with beggars!” Her son stood opposite her, gripping his […]
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Inga Petrovna stirred the borscht with the solemn concentration of someone not making an ordinary vegetable soup with chicken broth, but brewing a charm to lure good fortune into her life. The kitchen was filled with that dense, sleepy heat found only in Soviet-style apartment blocks in winter—radiators blazing as if they were personally fighting […]
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He dramatically hurled a bundle of socks into his gym bag, nearly knocking my favorite vase off the shelf. “I’m leaving so you finally understand what you’ve lost! Spend a week alone, howl at the moon without a man in the house, and maybe then you’ll learn to appreciate being cared for!” I stood in […]
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I froze with a tray in my hands, a cold shiver of impending disaster sliding down my spine. In the doorway of Panorama, the restaurant where I worked as shift supervisor, appeared a procession that looked less like a family visit and more like a travelling caravan — except instead of bears, they had brought […]
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“Where does it say the air belongs to you? The stairwell is shared space. If I want to smoke, I’ll smoke. If I want to spit, I’ll spit. Learn the law, lady.” Vika, the twenty-year-old daughter of Elena Sergeyevna’s neighbor Galina, blew a thick stream of sickly sweet vapor straight into Elena’s face. Two boys […]
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